A Modest Investment in Uncertainty

The filing, a document that exists primarily to justify the existence of filing cabinets (and now, digital storage), revealed that Matisse Capital now holds approximately 2.52% of FSCO’s reportable assets. This is, statistically speaking, a non-trivial amount. It’s enough to warrant a footnote, which we are, of course, providing. (Footnote: The universe is vast and mostly empty. This fact has no bearing on the investment, but it’s good to keep in mind.)

Nvidia’s Big Bet & CoreWeave’s Curious Case

CoreWeave, you see, isn’t building toys or chocolates. Oh no. They’re building… “neoclouds.” A rather silly name, if you ask me, but apparently it means they construct enormous sheds filled with blinking lights and whirring machines – data centers, the grown-ups call them – for the purpose of… well, thinking. Artificial thinking, to be exact. They rent these thinking sheds to the big boys – Microsoft, Meta, and even Nvidia itself, which is a bit like a fox renting a chicken coop. The shares, naturally, did a little jig when Nvidia coughed up the cash.

Akre’s Gamble: Affiance’s $43 Million Stake

The papers report it as a simple transaction. Affiance bought shares. But behind the numbers lies a story. A shift in strategy, perhaps? A quiet acknowledgement that the broad strokes of index funds, while safe, rarely deliver the kind of returns that truly shake the foundations. They came into this position cold, holding nothing before. A bold move, or a desperate one? Time, as always, will tell.

Microsoft’s Algorithm of Loss

The quarterly report, a document of considerable weight and bureaucratic precision, detailed an increase in revenue for Azure and other cloud services—a 39% increment. Yet this increase, while numerically verifiable, fell short of the anticipated projections, a discrepancy that initiated a chain of inquiries and reassessments. It is as if the very act of measuring success reveals a fundamental inadequacy within the system itself.

A Most Promising Little Fintech

And amongst this general kerfuffle, one particular fintech concern has found itself in a bit of a pickle. It’s currently trading a good 77% below its peak from August 2021 – a state of affairs that, frankly, seems a bit dashedly uncalled for. Continue reading, and we shall delve into the reasons why this business might just be poised for a rather splendid recovery, before the Wall Street chaps take notice.

Oscar Health: A Modest Proposal

Oscar (OSCR 3.88%) is betting on the idea that health insurance can be… less awful. They’re using those artificial intelligence doodads – chatbots, mostly – to keep things moving. It’s like replacing a tired bureaucrat with a slightly less tired algorithm. The theory is, it saves money. And maybe a little bit of human dignity.

AMD: A Calculated Gamble in the Silicon Wasteland

For years, AMD has been playing second fiddle to Nvidia, a glittering, overhyped behemoth. Then there’s Broadcom, quietly building an empire of custom chips while the rest of us are blinded by GPU flash. AMD management keeps muttering about a “comeback.” A comeback? In this market? That’s cute. But they’ve been tinkering, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and now they claim 2026 is the year they finally break free. I need more than promises. I need a goddamn reason.

SJS & VBIL: A Very Short Story

They already had $9.07 million in the thing. Which, let’s be real, is a lot of short-term government debt. It brings their total stake to 1.15% of their reportable assets. A tiny sliver of the pie, sure, but a sliver that’s suddenly looking awfully…safe. And in my experience, ‘safe’ is usually code for ‘expecting something to go wrong.’

NuScale Power: A Speculative Bloom

The conventional nuclear edifice, a creation of decades, often stretches into a decade or more of construction. NuScale, however, promises a swiftness born of factory assembly and modular deployment. A pragmatic elegance, one might say. This approach, if realized, would circumvent the logistical complexities that often stifle progress, opening the possibility of power generation in locales previously deemed unsuitable. One imagines the potential—a quiet hum of energy in the heart of industrial parks, feeding the insatiable appetite of data centers, or sustaining the burgeoning demands of artificial intelligence. A pleasing prospect, though not without its shadows.