Yet, when this number is tethered to the projections of an industry poised to burgeon into a $4.8 trillion colossus over the next decade, it garners one’s attention, if not outright alarm.
Since its debut on the stock exchange in 2004, Alphabet has been a lighthouse guiding investor ships through stormy seas. Now, the enterprise stands as a titan of technology, yet it remains on a trajectory that hints at an even more auspicious dawn. The adventurers who possess the patience to navigate this expansive landscape may find golden treasures awaiting them.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Verizon (VZ), those paragons of dividend aristocracy, are akin to two old foxes who know every trick in the book—and then some. They don’t just pay dividends; they cultivate them like rare orchids, ensuring their fragrance lingers year after year. Let us, dear reader, examine how these cunning beasts operate, for there is much to learn from their methods.
Against this reawakening, one name consistently surfaces in the conversations of those who possess a longer view, a name whispered with a mixture of anticipation and, perhaps, a touch of skepticism: Stripe. Since the enthusiastic, yet ultimately ephemeral, spectacle of Coinbase‘s debut in 2021, no potential offering has commanded quite the same degree of attention. It is a curious thing, the manner in which the financial world seems to crave these new arrivals, these bold assertions of innovation.
CoreWeave’s pitch deck, which I read out of professional obligation and low-level masochism, is all about AI—data centers dense with GPUs humming away like anxious bees, rented out by companies with more ambition than infrastructure. They IPO’d in March, and already the stock’s up 200%, landing them at a $59 billion market cap. As a portfolio manager, I’m professionally delighted. As a human being who remembers Pets.com, I’m slightly nauseous.
Is it a treasure trove for the discerning value investor, or merely a sly trap cloaked in the glitter of growth? Let us peel back its veneer.
The price recently jumped 50% in a month. It now costs about $3,600 per coin – enough to feed a small village for a year, or buy one leather seat on a private jet. Tom Lee, who profits when Ethereum prices rise, says it might hit $15,000 soon. Of course he does.
As of the closing bell on July 25, shares of Palantir have ascended 110% this year, a meteoric rise that has left many investors trembling with both exhilaration and dread. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100, those gaunt specters of market whims, now bow to this singular entity. But what price does such ascension demand? The soul, perhaps, or the patience of the prudent.
Beneath the veneer of financial jargon lies a tale both sordid and sublime. SES AI announced its intent to acquire UZ Energy, a privately held purveyor of energy storage systems (ESS), for approximately $25.5 million—a sum that seems modest until one peers into the abyss of its implications. This transaction is not merely about dollars and cents; no, it speaks to something far greater: humanity’s insatiable hunger for power—literal and metaphorical.