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Monday’s announcement of a “multiyear” collaboration reads like a fairy tale for venture capitalists. Broadcom, ever the dutiful blacksmith, will hammer out AI accelerators while OpenAI plays Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods. The promised land? Ten gigawatts of power-a figure that sounds mighty until one considers it could electrify a small nation’s worth of server farms, or perhaps a million homes. But such arithmetic is for engineers, not dreamers.

With a market cap now brushing $143 billion, XRP’s days of effortless ascent seem like a tale already told. Still, it glimmers, caught between regulatory winds and the tides of macroeconomics, a vessel of hope for those daring to linger rather than flee.

The company, like a good actor in a dreadful play, performed admirably in its third-quarter earnings release, surpassing expectations in both revenue and earnings per share. A rousing performance, though I suspect the applause may be a bit too generous given the play’s somewhat tepid script.

But here’s the thing about roller coasters: eventually you either scream or throw up. After years of gains that made spreadsheets cry, investors started whispering, “Is this the part where the music stops?” Just as the AI hype train threatened to become a meme stock punchline, along came C.C. Wei, CEO of TSMC, playing the role of a surprise guest star who steals the scene.

First off comes Bank of America’s seers, raisin’ their oracle bones to declare: “Buy!” They’ve got visions of 2026 dancin’ in their heads, where wafer fab machines hum like gospel choirs thanks to memory chipmakers playin’ musical chairs with their cash. Seems these alchemists reckon artificial intelligence – that buzzword brewin’ storm clouds over every boardroom -‘ll demand more DRAM than a Tennessee Williams drama.

Though still in the early stages of its ambitious plans, Standard Lithium has, in its measured and deliberate way, made significant progress. Its most noteworthy projects lie within the Smackover Formation-a rich expanse stretching from the heart of Texas to the warm shores of the Florida Panhandle. In this area, rich with lithium-brine resources, Standard Lithium has set its sights on the South-West Arkansas (SWA) and East Texas regions.

Such declarations, when uttered by men in tailored suits and ink-stained ledgers, often carry the weight of prophecy. JPMorgan’s chairman, Mr. Dimon, spoke of critical minerals and manufacturing, of dependencies that threaten the “very fabric of our security.” One imagines him pacing the corridors of his glass-and-steel temple, muttering to himself about the perils of relying on “unreliable sources” while sipping black coffee from a chipped mug. Yet for all the gravity of his words, the investment itself is a wager on a future that remains, for now, a ghostly silhouette.

The fund dropped a filing on Thursday, a man with a loaded gun named Rio Tinto (RIO) in its sights. They bought 174,700 shares, enough to take 8.2% of the reportable assets under management. The SEC got a letter, the market got a nudge, and the rest of us got another chapter in the long-running saga of capital chasing value like a junkie chases a fix.