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While other chaps are fiddling about with the bits and bobs of AI infrastructure, Nebius offers the whole shebang – the power and the clever software to make the machines think. This has caught the attention of a rather large and important fellow, one Microsoft (MSFT 0.65%), who’s signed a deal worth up to $19.4 billion. That’s a lot of sherbet, even for them. A full 300 megawatts, enough to power a small country, or at least a very enthusiastic collection of computers.

The company’s true business, it’s said, isn’t the devices themselves—mere conduits for the endless stream of content—but the advertising that clings to it like barnacles. A clever strategy, certainly. To profit not from providing amusement, but from interrupting it. It’s a commentary on our age, wouldn’t you agree?

Rigetti Computing, a name now familiar to those who follow the currents of speculative finance, embodies this paradox. It is a company built on anticipation, on the belief that a technological breakthrough will inevitably translate into market dominance. Such faith, while not uncommon, should always be regarded with a measure of skepticism.

On February 9th, the company offered a glimpse into the darkness – a postponement of filings, a whispered warning of “material weaknesses.” It was an admission of vulnerability, a crack in the facade of order. The market, ever the skittish beast, reacted with a predictable ferocity, halving the stock’s value in a single day. One wonders if the true loss wasn’t measured in dollars, but in faith – faith in the meticulousness of record-keeping, in the very foundations of trust upon which these fortunes are built. To admit imperfection is to invite chaos, and chaos, in the realm of finance, is a sin most unforgivable.

The immediate cause, as always, was deceptively simple. The black blood of the earth, that most capricious of commodities, had grown momentarily reluctant, dipping below $67 a barrel. For a company whose fortunes are so intimately bound to the subterranean currents, this was a minor wound, a pinprick in the hide of a beast. But the wound, as any seasoned observer knows, often masks a deeper malaise. The air hung heavy with the unspoken truth: the wells do not yield forever, and even the most carefully constructed empires are built on shifting sands.

Today, however, a more substantial report has reached the ears of investors, and with it, a surge of optimism. Compass has announced the findings of two Phase 3 trials, trials which, to the astonishment of many, have yielded statistically significant and positive results. They now intend to formally petition the FDA for approval, a step fraught with uncertainty, yet brimming with the potential to alter the lives of countless souls. The stock, predictably, has reacted with a fervor bordering on the irrational, soaring upwards as if to escape the gravity of reality itself.

The sale brings Segall Bryant & Hamill’s stake in Littelfuse down to $70.81 million, a decrease of $6.99 million from the previous quarter. This figure is complicated, naturally, by both the shedding of shares and the fluctuating market price. It is a reminder that reported values are rarely simple, and often conceal a multitude of factors.

The next three years, my friends, will be less about reaping rewards and more about dodging the daggers. This isn’t a question of if things can go wrong, but how spectacularly. And believe me, the possibilities are… imaginative. Consider it a theatrical production, with CoreWeave as the unfortunate protagonist, and the market as a particularly capricious audience.

So, the government, bless its heart, decided we needed a domestic supply. A grand idea, of course. They’ve sunk a considerable sum into USA Rare Earth (USAR 2.19%), a company that, as of yet, hasn’t actually dug anything up. It’s all promise and potential, like a politician’s pledge during election season. They’re aiming to pull 40,000 metric tons of this stuff outta the Texas ground by 2030. A mighty ambition, I say. Mighty.

Gold, that age-old arbiter of value and vanity, recently flirted with a peak of $5,419.80 per ounce on January 28th, a sum that briefly threatened to render mere banknotes utterly ridiculous. It then, with a petulant sigh, retreated toward the $4,500 mark in early February, before engaging in a capricious dance of ascent and decline. As of today, it rests at $4,878, a price point that feels, shall we say, merely adequate. A gold price that inspires neither breathless adoration nor utter despair.