usdaed

Analysts thought SoFi would post $0.06 per share on $804.4 million in revenue. Instead, they posted $0.08 and pulled in $858.2 million. Well, technically, $854.9 million, if you want to get picky about it, which I do. But, who’s counting? So, here we are, with the stock soaring. And, let me guess, the people who were holding on to this stock, probably against their better judgment, are now celebrating as if they’ve won the lottery. Calm down, folks. Let’s think this through.

The dirty secret no one’s whispering? This company’s been trading at a P/E ratio that makes Silicon Valley VCs blush—35 times earnings, darling. And for what? A business that’s growing sales slower than my houseplants. Look, I love clean water as much as the next person who doesn’t want dysentery, but should we really be pricing this like the second coming of Tesla?

The root of this disquiet lies in the U.S. administration’s decision to ease export licensing for advanced semiconductors and their manufacturing apparatus to China. Such a move, while perhaps intended to smooth the path of trade negotiations, has cast a shadow over TMC’s grand ambitions. One cannot help but admire the company’s audacious vision—its seabed mining endeavors, so boldly conceived as a means to secure rare earth minerals for a nation eager to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers. Yet, in the shifting tides of geopolitics, even the most steadfast of ventures may find their foundations unsettled.

The cause? A reprieve from the Trump administration’s earlier straitjacket, which once barred AMD’s high-end AI processors from China’s vast markets. A temporary truce, brokered in the shadow of a trade deal, now allows the company to dream of renewed prosperity. Yet, as with all such concessions, the specter of geopolitical tempests lingers, their winds whispering of future storms.

Despite this curious disconnect between the gleeful stock market chatter and the real-world business landscape, AI is undeniably gaining traction—albeit rather patchily across different regions and sectors of the economy.

The company, in a peculiar twist of fate, had delayed its shareholder meeting, a ritual once scheduled for yesterday, now postponed to August 27. The reason? A recent valuation surge, an anomaly that had elevated the share price beyond the $1 threshold, thereby exempting the company from the necessity of a reverse stock split. Yet, this exemption, rather than a reprieve, felt like a further entanglement in the labyrinth of corporate bureaucracy.