AI Hype & My Aunt Mildred’s Router

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Everyone’s talking about AI. It’s…relentless. Honestly, it reminds me of my Aunt Mildred discovering online shopping. She went from ordering porcelain dolls every Tuesday to insisting the smart fridge was judging her life choices. The market, it seems, is having a similar impulse. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF has tripled in five years, which is…aggressive. And the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF, up 30% this year, apparently because crypto miners are now just really enthusiastic data center managers. It’s all a bit much.

I keep waiting for the inevitable correction, the moment everyone realizes that not every algorithm is going to solve world hunger. But the money keeps flowing. My colleague, Dave – a man who still prints out emails – is convinced we’re on the cusp of another dot-com boom. He’s started referring to server farms as “the new tulips.” I just nod and try to remember if I turned off the coffee maker.

Big Tech & the Gigawatt Question

The big players are throwing money at this thing, naturally. Meta, for example, is planning to build tens of gigawatts of computing power. Tens. It’s hard to wrap your head around that number. It’s like trying to calculate how many porcelain dolls Aunt Mildred has accumulated. They’re talking hundreds of gigawatts eventually. Apparently, they need all this power to…scale AI capabilities. Which sounds vaguely threatening. I asked Dave what that even meant, and he just mumbled something about “synergy” and went back to his spreadsheets.

Microsoft is doing the same thing, investing in AI infrastructure and comparing it to canals and railroads. It’s a charming analogy, if you ignore the fact that canals are mostly used for leisure now. They’re framing it as the next chapter of America’s infrastructure. I’m starting to suspect they just like building things. It’s a reliable business model, I suppose. I’m still waiting for them to build an infrastructure that automatically sorts my laundry.

The Rise of Physical AI

We’ve all played with ChatGPT, marveling at its ability to write mediocre poetry and answer trivia questions. But the real money, apparently, is in “physical AI.” Self-driving cars are trundling around cities, and Tesla is planning to roll out humanoid robots. Robots! I picture them vacuuming floors and judging my interior decorating choices. It’s terrifying and oddly appealing.

This all requires a lot of chips, energy, and raw materials. It’s not just about software; it’s about building things. Actual, physical things. Which means there’s a demand for everything from silicon to copper. It’s a nice change of pace from the intangible promises of the tech world. It’s also a good sign that someone is actually making something you can touch. Unlike Aunt Mildred’s online purchases.

Uber is investing in autonomous vehicles, presumably to avoid being disrupted by a competitor who is. It’s a classic case of “if you don’t innovate, you evaporate.” Or, in Aunt Mildred’s case, “if you don’t buy enough porcelain dolls, the internet will forget you exist.”

The Bottlenecks & the Smaller Players

Nvidia has shown us what’s possible with AI stocks. But everyone’s focusing on the chipmakers, ignoring the bottlenecks. It’s like everyone’s admiring the engine of a car and forgetting about the tires. There are opportunities in areas like memory storage and raw materials. These smaller companies are growing rapidly, and I suspect they won’t stay small for long.

When trillion-dollar companies like Nvidia, Meta, and Microsoft are posting impressive growth numbers, it’s easier to see the potential for these smaller players. It’s also a good reminder that sometimes, the most interesting opportunities are hidden in plain sight. Just like Aunt Mildred’s collection of porcelain dolls. It’s…extensive.

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2026-01-21 04:22