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They call it a growth stock. A pretty name for a company that simply refuses to stay still. But growth needs a foundation, and Alphabet has one built of something tougher than hope. It has a moat. A wide, slippery one.

Archer, you see, aspires to many things, though as yet, has truly achieved little beyond attracting the fervent attention – and, more importantly, the capital – of those who fancy themselves visionaries. Regulatory approval, that necessary blessing from the powers that be, remains elusive. Yet, the market, ever prone to flights of fancy, seems convinced that Archer shall soon dominate the heavens. A most optimistic assessment, wouldn’t you agree?

The intent to acquire Warner Bros. from Warner Bros. Discovery has been announced, then amended, then re-announced. The initial offer, a complex arrangement of cash and stock, has now been simplified to an all-cash transaction. The nominal value remains unchanged – $27.75 per share, totaling $72 billion. This adjustment, it is explained, is intended to expedite the approval process, to preempt a competing bid from Paramount Skydance. It feels less like a strategic maneuver and more like an endless bureaucratic process, a form requiring constant revision and re-submission. The shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery are, presumably, expected to cooperate. Their compliance, however, is not guaranteed. The entire undertaking resembles a protracted legal dispute, a labyrinthine negotiation with no discernible endpoint. The market, predictably, remains unconvinced. Since the initial offer on December 5th, Netflix stock has fallen by 12.9%, a stark contrast to the S&P 500’s 1.2% decline. One wonders if the acquisition itself is the objective, or merely a symptom of a more profound organizational malaise.

And that, naturally, brings us to automobiles. Specifically, those ambitious contraptions attempting to navigate the world without the guiding hand of a human. Tesla (TSLA +4.08%) has, for some time, been proclaiming itself the vanguard of this automated revolution. A bold claim, naturally, and one usually accompanied by a significant expenditure of investor capital. However, the road to autonomous driving, it turns out, is less a straight highway and more a labyrinthine track designed by a committee of particularly mischievous gnomes.

So, 2025. They closed the books, did the sums, and apparently, it was a good year. A record year, even. $2.9 billion in adjusted income. Honestly, all those billions start to blur together after a while. It’s like, yes, good job, numbers people. But what does it actually mean? Apparently, it means they’re doing something right. EBITDA hit $8.4 billion. And the natural gas pipeline segment? Up almost 9%. It’s all very…efficient. They generated $5.9 billion in cash flow, covered the bills (over $3 billion in spending and $2.6 billion in dividends – seriously, where does all the money go?), and still had nearly $300 million left over. It’s like finding a tenner in your coat pocket – unexpectedly delightful. Which, frankly, is a rare occurrence these days.

Alphabet, a titan accustomed to the turning of the earth, barely registered the tremor. But IonQ, D-Wave, Rigetti, Quantum Computing Inc. – these smaller vessels, they danced on the waves, inflated by a breath that smelled of hope and, perhaps, a touch of delusion. The chart, a pale map of this brief frenzy, shows a momentary ascent, a reaching for the sun before the inevitable settling.

I’ve had a peek into the crystal ball (it’s a rather dusty thing, frankly) and I reckon four companies have a decent shot at overtaking the Apple cart within the next five years. Microsoft, Amazon, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Broadcom. A rather motley crew, if you ask me, but they have something Apple seems to have misplaced: a spark of actual cleverness.