The biggest, bulkiest of these stablecoins is called Tether (USDT 0.07%). Launched back in 2014, it’s got a mountain of the stuff – around $187 billion worth. But it’s not alone. A smaller, sneakier one, called Dai (DAI +0.06%), popped up in 2017, worth a mere $5 billion. It’s like a little mouse trying to nibble at the heels of a very large elephant.
Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +0.04%) has been… elsewhere. Observing, perhaps. Contemplating the existential implications of increasingly intelligent toasters. (It’s a valid concern, really.) The point is, they haven’t exactly been at the forefront of the AI revolution. Their share price has reflected this, shall we say, relative obscurity.
Chewy. Yes, the purveyor of comestibles for furry companions. One assumes most pet owners are aware of its existence. It doesn’t quite rival Amazon in the sheer volume of kibble shifted, but it holds its own, which is more than can be said for many enterprises. They’re anticipating a turnover of $12.6 billion this year – a perfectly respectable sum, and a modest improvement on last year’s figures. Slow, but steady. Like a particularly well-bred tortoise.
The numbers are…interesting. Ninety percent of AI investors plan to hold or buy more. More! As if the first time wasn’t quite enough risk. Sixty percent are “confident” in long-term returns. Confident. That’s a strong word. I’m confident I can finish this article without accidentally deleting the entire thing, but even that feels optimistic at this point.
Dividends, you see, are essentially a share of a company’s profits, paid out to shareholders. It’s a surprisingly old concept, dating back to the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, and it’s rather comforting to think that people have been receiving regular payouts from companies for centuries. Now, a thousand dollars yielding 5% produces a mere fifty dollars a year. Not exactly a life-altering sum. But scale that up to a million dollars, and suddenly you’re looking at fifty thousand – more than the median income in the United States. That’s a rather startling thought, isn’t it? Let’s consider two companies – Realty Income and Alpine Income – that exemplify this strategy, though it’s worth noting that the world of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or REITs, is a bit like a particularly well-organized garage sale – lots of interesting stuff, but you have to know where to look.
They sell this idea of embedding themselves with clients, sending in these “Forward Deployed Engineers” – or “Deltas,” as they apparently call them. It’s a bit much, honestly. It conjures images of guys in cargo pants whispering tactical jargon over server racks. My own experience with on-site IT support involved a teenager in a stained t-shirt and a lot of frustrated sighs. But Palantir isn’t fixing printer jams; they’re building custom AI solutions, and that requires a different level of hand-holding. The appeal, I gather, is that they don’t just sell you software; they sell you the assurance that someone will actually help you use it. Which, in the world of enterprise tech, is a revolutionary concept.
And within this unfolding landscape, a single name appears, a fragile bloom pushing through the frozen ground: Coinbase Global (COIN 6.03%). It is not a titan yet, but a conduit, a place where the digital and the real momentarily converge. To consider its potential is not to chase hype, but to observe a delicate ecosystem taking root.
The source of this contrarian spirit? News of a mineral refining facility planned for Lacq, France. It seems even governments, in their perpetual search for strategic advantage, are susceptible to a little flattery – or, in this case, the promise of domestically sourced rare earth minerals. The U.S.’s whimsical ambition regarding Greenland, though currently stalled, merely underscores the growing desperation for alternatives. It’s a lesson in geopolitics, and a rather amusing one at that: desire, when frustrated, often seeks a different, equally improbable, outlet.
Palihapitiya, you might recall, spent some quality time at AOL and Facebook (now Meta Platforms, because branding is everything, apparently). He’s basically a professional networker who figured out how to monetize other people’s good ideas. Now he runs Social Capital and co-hosts a podcast, which is basically like a digital water cooler for people who think disruption is a personality trait. And on that podcast, he dropped a prediction: 2026 will be the year of copper. Not AI stocks, not crypto, copper.
The company is small. Painfully so. I’ve lost more money on impulse purchases of artisanal cheeses. But last year, something shifted. Everyone’s chasing the next AI breakthrough, and apparently, autonomous drones fit the bill. It’s a bit like everyone deciding, simultaneously, that macramé is cool again. The stock finished the year up 281%. Looking at the chart, it was mostly flat for six months. Six months of me quietly worrying, then suddenly – whoosh. It’s the kind of volatility that makes you question your life choices, and whether you really needed that third cup of coffee.