They’re not screaming about disruption. They’re quietly hoovering up users, squeezing pennies from advertising, and actually, actually making a profit. A profit! Can you believe it? It’s like finding a sane person at a tech conference. A goddamn anomaly. I’ve been watching this thing for a while, and the numbers, they’re… unsettlingly consistent. Which, in this business, is enough to make a man question his own sanity.
And this year? Well, let’s just say the market’s mood isn’t exactly sunshine and lollipops. The S&P 500 hasn’t exactly been sprinting towards prosperity. As of last week, it was down around 2.7% – a figure achieved amidst concerns about geopolitical kerfuffles, the price of magically-extracted liquid fuel, and an uptick in the number of people politely requesting employment. This is all happening while the market seems to be convinced everything is worth more than it actually is, particularly amongst the larger, more established businesses. It’s a bit like a dragon hoarding gold, only the gold is shares and the dragon is…well, everyone.
It is fashionable, of course, to declare all things new as superior. The siren song of disruption, amplified by the zealous chorus of technological evangelists, has led many to believe that the humble remittance—the sending of funds across borders—is destined for extinction. That stablecoins and algorithmic efficiency will render it a quaint anachronism. But the world, dear reader, is rarely so neat. It is a landscape littered with the wreckage of prematurely celebrated revolutions.
It is not a household name, of course. Few fortunes are built on household recognition. Equinix operates, as it were, in the shadows, maintaining the infrastructure of our collective forgetfulness. Over two hundred and seventy data centers, scattered across the globe, housing the ephemera of modern life. A rather depressing thought, when one considers the contents. Last year’s revenues of $9.2 billion, and a net income of $1.35 billion, suggest a thriving business, but one wonders at what cost. Nearly three decades of single-digit growth; a testament, perhaps, to the enduring power of boredom.
Nebius, you see, positions itself as a purveyor of premium GPU time. They rent out the processing power, the very brains of the operation, to those willing to pay the piper. Nvidia, having presumably run the numbers – and who knows more about GPUs than Nvidia? – has sunk over $100 million into this venture. A sum, one notes, that could purchase a rather substantial collection of samovars. But then, one doesn’t build empires on tea alone.
Following Buffett’s investment philosophy—which, let’s be honest, is a bit like trying to decipher the instructions for assembling a particularly complex flat-pack furniture item—can often illuminate companies with robust fundamentals. He amassed his wealth by focusing on value and avoiding the siren song of speculative trends. This framework guided him to a few long-term picks, and we’ve taken a look at three stocks in the Berkshire portfolio that, barring unforeseen cosmological events, should continue to gain market share for years to come.
Indeed, it is in these moments of public panic that true value reveals itself. For the patient investor, a falling market is merely a sale—a rather dramatic one, to be sure. Let us consider, then, two companies currently offered at prices that, while not exactly insulting, are certainly… amenable. Carnival and Target, both possessing their particular charms, and both currently undervalued by a public too easily swayed by the latest headline.
But which one deserves your humble $500? Let’s unpack this, because adulting is hard enough without making questionable investment choices.
The R2, priced to entice (starting at a mere $45,000 – a sum that, in these inflationary times, buys you approximately three decent used sofas), aims to infiltrate the fiercely competitive mid-sized SUV market. Rivian promises a full unveiling of specifications on March 12th, which will undoubtedly involve a blizzard of technical jargon designed to confuse and impress in equal measure. One suspects the true specifications will be revealed only after a sufficient number of vehicles have rolled off the assembly line, and any…minor imperfections…have been addressed.
GE Vernova, born of an older lineage, carries the weight of industry in its bones. 2025 was a good year, a harvest of $59.3 billion in orders, $38.1 billion reaped in revenue. The demand for power, for the very electricity that hums in our homes and drives our machines, is a relentless tide. And Vernova, with its hand in so many things – power generation, electrification – is well-positioned to ride that wave. They see the future in artificial intelligence, in the need to electrify everything. A sound strategy, if a man can believe in such things.