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Look, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is ramping up capital expenditures. Huge deal, apparently. It means they actually believe this AI thing isn’t just a fleeting fancy. Which, honestly, is a relief. I was starting to feel like I was buying into a particularly elaborate tulip bubble. The point is, if TSMC is spending, it’s because someone’s actually building things. And Nvidia, bless their silicon hearts, is right at the center of it. They make the GPUs, the little brains that actually do the AI stuff. About 90% of the market, they say. Which, let’s be honest, feels a bit…monopolistic. But hey, I’m not here to solve ethical dilemmas, I’m here to profit from them. The data center construction is booming, and Nvidia’s basically printing money. It’s almost… boringly predictable.

Bitcoin, the first bloom of this strange garden, and XRP, a later, more calculated cultivar, both feel the chill. Twenty-five percent, the price has retreated for Bitcoin; XRP, more exposed, has surrendered nearly half its summer gains. These are not mere numbers, but the fading echoes of hope, the whispered anxieties of those who sought a new order of wealth.

Alphabet, formerly Google, stumbled initially in the race for AI dominance. This is often glossed over in the current narratives. Their early attempts were clumsy, overshadowed by competitors. However, they possess a crucial advantage: scale. Their Gemini model, integrated into Google Search, now quietly gathers data from millions of users daily. This is not merely innovation; it is the leveraging of an existing monopoly. The argument that this will organically convert users is… convenient. The real value lies in the data collected, a resource unavailable to most challengers. The promise of a personalized AI, tailored to your Google account history, is less a breakthrough and more a sophisticated method of surveillance, presented as convenience.

The core complaint? These companies are prioritizing stock buybacks and dividends over, and I quote, “Plants and Equipment.” It’s the kind of statement that makes you wonder if someone accidentally left a 1950s industrial policy pamphlet on his desk. He’s threatening to cap executive pay at $5 million – which, let’s be real, is still enough to buy a small island – and ban dividends and buybacks until everyone behaves. It’s a bold move, like trying to negotiate with a toddler over a Lego castle.

For those of us not fluent in SEC filings (and let’s be honest, that’s most of us), Systelligence bought 72,824 shares of VTWG at quarter-end. It’s a new position, representing 3.27% of their U.S. equity assets. Which means, for every dollar they have invested in US stocks, about 3 cents is now riding on companies that probably have fewer employees than your local Starbucks.

Alphabet, the behemoth formerly known as Google, is slated to reveal its secrets on the fourth of February. Analysts, those diligent scribes of financial prophecy, will pore over the numbers, seeking omens in the growth of Gemini, its latest AI creation, and the ever-expanding cloud of digital infrastructure that supports it. A cloud, mind you, that threatens to engulf us all, a misty realm of data and calculation where reality itself becomes… pliable.

I ventured, some time ago, to proclaim 3M a stock of particular value, a judgment founded on the assumption that its new Chief Executive, Monsieur Brown, possessed the acumen to remedy its ailing fortunes. The argument, you see, was a simple one: a judicious restructuring, a tightening of belts, and a renewed focus on innovation would, in time, restore the company to its former glory. A most reasonable proposition, one might think, akin to prescribing a tonic for a patient afflicted with a surfeit of complacency. The hope, naturally, was that a favorable economic wind would fill its sails, but alas, the heavens have proven less obliging.

We considered, briefly, the ephemeral allure of Nintendo, the predictable comforts of Mondelez, even the audacious gamble of Rocket Lab. But these felt…distant. Too removed from the everyday, the tangible. My daughter, at ten years, possesses a clarity of purpose that many seasoned investors lack. She desires connection, a resonance with the objects of her affection. And so, Chewy emerged, not as a calculation, but as a…fitting companion.