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The Trump administration’s recent flirtation with mineral equity stakes has become as predictable as a summer storm in the Mojave Desert. On Tuesday, whispers emerged about potential government interest in lithium miner Lithium America (LAC), followed by Thursday’s revelation that officials are now casting nets across multiple critical material producers. It’s as if the White House has suddenly decided to play venture capitalist with Uncle Sam’s checkbook.

Utah-based Adams Wealth, bound by the ritual of quarterly SEC filings, revealed its liquidation of CLOA shares during the second quarter. From 258,224 shares valued at $13.41 million, the firm now clutches a smaller fragment of a sinking vessel. The transaction, recorded with bureaucratic precision, masks deeper tremors: a portfolio manager’s reluctant concession to arithmetic that defies alchemy.

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While Elon Musk’s attention seems to be more about promoting robotaxis and futuristic robots (let’s call them his ‘shiny things’), investors might be side-eyeing those glowing dreams. Why? Because the electric vehicle (EV) sales, particularly in Europe, aren’t exactly doing the Macarena anymore.

A most persuasive demonstration of its capabilities, if one may so describe it, stirred the hearts of investors, who, in a fit of collective enthusiasm, elevated the company’s shares by over 5% that day. Such a triumph, one might suppose, outshone the S&P 500 (^GSPC), which, in contrast, declined by 0.5%-a modest setback, to be sure.

Intel’s fortunes, it seems, have been buoyed by whispers of capital from entities both mortal and mythical-Nvidia, SoftBank, and the U.S. government’s spectral hand. Yet the true alchemy lies in the rumor mill’s latest offering: a potential investment from Apple. Bloomberg’s report, a parchment in the Library of Babel, suggests Lip-Bu Tan has approached the Cupertino oracle, seeking to weave their fates together in a tapestry of silicon and silicon.

Now, I know a thing or two about the thrill of a stock that seems like it’s going places, only to skid out of control. Analysts were optimistic-perhaps a little too optimistic-before the report. The used car market was supposed to be booming, with strong demand for everything from hatchbacks to SUVs. But, much like my last attempt at making a soufflé, things just didn’t rise as expected.

But hold your horses! Just when you thought Nvidia had the market all sewn up, along comes Alphabet (you know, the folks behind that little engine of mass distraction, Google, and the time-sink that is YouTube). The Silicon Valley giant has quietly been playing its hand, and wouldn’t you know it, they’re starting to give Nvidia a run for its money, all thanks to their custom-built AI chips- Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).

The plot thickens thus: two industry titans have signed a “landmark strategic partnership” to construct 10 gigawatts of AI data centers-enough computational muscle to power between 4 million and 5 million GPUs. One might reasonably ask whether the world requires yet another declaration of AI supremacy, but such pedestrian concerns are beneath the drama unfolding here.