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The prevailing narrative centers on Artificial Intelligence, a force treated with the reverence (and fear) once reserved for the alchemists’ stone. The market, it seems, believes this new intelligence will unravel established business models, and Intuit, a purveyor of financial order, is deemed particularly vulnerable. Yet, the company’s reported results betray no immediate crisis. Indeed, a certain prosperity clings to its ledgers. One might almost suspect a deliberate misdirection, a phantom limb twitching in the face of true peril.

Broadcom. A name that whispers of silicon and circuits, not of human endeavor. They are the toolmakers now, crafting the very brains of this new age. For years, Nvidia held sway, their graphics processors the favored instruments of this digital frenzy. But the machine demands alternatives, and Broadcom, with a cold pragmatism, has begun to supply them. They partner with the giants – Alphabet’s Google among them – designing chips tailored to their insatiable hunger for processing power.

The trouble is this: Oracle has a backlog. A truly monstrous backlog. A pile of promises, orders, and ‘we’ll get to it’ notes stretching as high as a beanstalk. They’re boasting about $553 billion worth, which sounds impressive, until you realise they need to actually build the things people are ordering. And that, my friends, requires money. Lots and lots of it.

Unusual Machines, like so many of its contemporaries in this era of rapid technological flux, has embraced the practice of capital acquisition through multiple stock offerings. In 2025, a year already receding into the mists of recent history, the company diligently replenished its coffers, accumulating $142 million in cash and investments, and notably, remaining unburdened by debt. A prudent course, one might observe, though it does raise the question of what grand designs necessitate such meticulous preparation. The company now directs its energies towards the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities, a necessary undertaking given the escalating demand for domestically produced drones. A demand, it must be said, fuelled by both strategic imperatives and a growing unease regarding the provenance of such technology.

It’s easy, of course, to say the price of oil rises and falls with the news from distant lands. To believe the connection is a direct one, a simple cause and effect. And there’s truth in that, a kernel of reality. But before this present trouble, there were whispers from Venezuela, shadows of uncertainty that came and went, barely leaving a ripple. The truth is, the price of oil doesn’t respond to events so much as it responds to fear. And fear, like water, always finds the cracks in a man’s resolve.

The narrative, as it were, is not entirely accurate. While some of the more fanciful electric projects have been, shall we say, shelved – indefinitely postponed is the polite phrasing – Ford is pressing ahead with a five-billion-dollar undertaking. This involves a new architecture, dubbed the “Universal EV Platform,” intended to produce affordable electric vehicles. A touch ambitious, perhaps, but one must admire the audacity.

You see, Nvidia isn’t just making money; it’s making money from money. It’s like a particularly clever badger digging up truffles, but instead of truffles, it’s cold, hard cash. And this cash, instead of being spent on sensible things like inventing self-folding laundry, is being used to buy back its own shares. A bit like a dog chasing its tail, really, but with potentially enormous consequences.

Palo Alto Networks, a name redolent of Californian ambition, has been quietly assembling a portfolio of digital fortifications. For years, they’ve been attempting the admirable, if rather prosaic, feat of becoming a one-stop shop for digital anxieties. The recent acquisition of CyberArk, a sum bordering on the immoderate at $25 billion, addresses the critical matter of access – determining, in essence, who is permitted to pilfer what. It is, one might observe, a rather modern version of castle keep maintenance.

The whispers are that investors are getting the jitters about these ‘Artificial Intelligences’ – these clever machines that threaten to gobble up all the good jobs. But both Salesforce and ServiceNow are insisting that these AI whatsits are actually a splendid thing, a boost to their coffers. They’re selling little bits of AI magic, you see, and making a pretty penny doing so.