Three companies warrant consideration, not because they are guaranteed successes – such a thing does not exist – but because they appear, at this juncture, to be positioned for growth. These are Nebius Group, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. Each operates in a different sphere of this burgeoning technology, and each carries its own particular risks, which a sensible investor will acknowledge.
Texas Pacific, a company that essentially rents out bits of Texas to chaps who dig for the black stuff, is now valued at a rather robust $639 per share, according to the estimable Tim Rezvan at KeyBanc. Quite a jump from the previous valuation of $350, wouldn’t you agree? Mr. Rezvan, a fellow of sound judgment, continues to recommend a “buy” – or, as the moderns put it, “overweight” – position in the company’s equity. One suspects a good deal of optimism is at play.
The promise, you see, is that these agents – these tireless workers – will need to pay their way. Transaction fees, a share of the harvest, if you will. They’ll need to fuel their operations with Ethereum, boosting demand, lifting the price. It’s a simple story, easily told, and easily believed, especially when hope is a scarce commodity. But the land doesn’t give up its bounty without a fight.
The trouble, you see, started with a fellow named Curtis Nagle at Bank of America Securities. A rather large, important man, no doubt, with a nose for trouble and a habit of wielding financial forecasts like a rusty cleaver. He decided, quite decisively, that Alight wasn’t worth nearly as much as he previously thought. He lopped a whopping $0.90 off his ‘fair value’ assessment – down to a measly 50 cents a share. A price that wouldn’t even buy you a decent lollipop these days. And he firmly, rather sternly, told everyone to ‘underperform’ it – which is a polite way of saying ‘sell, sell, SELL!’
They’ve reported 14 crashes involving their robotaxi fleet in Austin, Texas, since last June. Now, 14 doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? It’s roughly the number of times I’ve mislaid my keys this month. But consider this: that works out to about one crash every 57,000 miles. For context, and this is where it gets interesting, human drivers, according to Tesla’s own data, manage a collision roughly every 229,000 miles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration puts it even higher, at 500,000 miles. So, Tesla’s robotaxis are crashing, shall we say, with a frequency that’s… notable. Four to eight times more often than us fallible humans. And, crucially, all these incidents have involved a human “safety monitor” in the driver’s seat. Which rather begs the question, doesn’t it?
Remember when Jito was the Beyoncé of Solana, slaying with its TVL? Well, now it’s more like the Bridget of the blockchain-lovable but a bit of a mess. For the first time since Feb 2024, it’s dipped below $1B. That’s right, it’s officially in “where did all my money go?” territory.
The Financial Times (FT)-yes, those fancy pants-first spilled the beans on this shiny new idea from Trump’s U.S.-led Board of Peace, which sounds like a superhero squad, right? They’re pondering creating a dollar-backed stablecoin to help ease cash shortages and modernize payments in a place where even the ATMs are hiding under their beds from all that war drama.
They’ve been makin’ a bit of a comeback, these Opendoor folks, and there were several bright spots in their report. But one thing stood out, a little glimmer of sense in a world gone mad with algorithms and “disruptive innovation.”
Currently, the shares are experiencing a period of… shall we say, thoughtful contemplation. The AI sector, it seems, is afflicted by a touch of the jitters – anxieties about interest rates, whispers of overblown expectations. It’s the same story, really. Everyone wants a miracle, but nobody wants to pay for the magician. The concern, naturally, is that these AI dreams might prove to be as substantial as a puff of smoke.
Turning, with a degree of trepidation, to the leisure industry, we find Six Flags Entertainment (FUN 9.07%) in a state best described as advanced disrepair. The share price, one observes, has suffered a decline commensurate with a minor geopolitical catastrophe. The question, therefore, is not whether this represents a ‘value opportunity’ – a phrase which should always be uttered with a distinct air of desperation – but rather, whether a determined plunge into the abyss might, at least, be briefly diverting.