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This Oracle, it’s become one of them essential infrastructure providers, like the railroad was back in my day. Servin’ up cloud computin’ and data to all these newfangled tech companies. They’ve got contracts, mind you, for all this future business. But a contract ain’t a gold nugget in yer pocket; it’s just a piece of paper with fancy writin’. Still, it is a sign, if you squint at it just right, that somebody believes they’ll be around to collect when the bill comes due. Though, let me tell ya, fulfillin’ promises is harder than wranglin’ a stubborn mule.

The stock, as these things do, has been on a journey. A rather enthusiastic parabolic arc, rising some 2,300% over the last three years. Which, let’s be honest, is the sort of number that usually precedes a stern talking-to from the Department of Common Sense. But here we are. And now, in the early days of 2026, a wobble. A dip. A chance, perhaps, to acquire a small piece of the future at a slightly less astronomical price.

Three months? Nearly doubled. Since my September prediction – a prediction I’m now legally obligated to remind everyone about – we’re up 165%. Which, frankly, is embarrassing for all the other chip companies. It’s like watching a rom-com where the underdog actually gets the girl. And the stock? Scorching hot into 2026. I’m starting to think I should quit my day job and just become a stock whisperer.

During the last quarter, Atwater Malick acquired 42,862 shares of ACWX. The figure, as best as anyone can calculate given the inherent imprecision of financial reporting (it’s all approximations, really, based on assumptions about the speed of light and the migratory patterns of accountants), equates to roughly $2.84 million. And, rather delightfully, the value of the fund itself increased by $3.27 million – a figure that accounts for both the purchase and the general upward tendency of things that people decide are worth more. It’s a curious phenomenon, this “value,” isn’t it? (One might spend a lifetime pondering it, and still end up with a slightly dented teapot.)

Yet, even in the most assured of ascensions, a counter-current begins to form. The disparity between the grand estates of the S&P 500 and the more modest holdings of the Russell 2000 – the smaller concerns, the nimble ventures – has been, of late, quite striking. As one observes the charts – these pale imitations of life, these attempts to impose order on chaos – the gulf between the two becomes almost… melancholic. The larger firms have doubled the returns of their smaller counterparts, a circumstance that speaks not necessarily of inherent superiority, but perhaps of a certain… inertia. They are the established landowners, content to reap what is sown, while the smaller tenants strive to cultivate new fields.

The first, MGK, is a concentration of power. A handful of companies, already immense, are offered as the engines of prosperity. It’s a simple wager: that the strong will grow stronger, and a trickle will fall to those below. The cost of entry is low – a mere 0.07% – but the reliance on so few is a weight on the spirit. The second, IWO, spreads its hope more thinly. Over a thousand smaller companies, each a flicker in the darkness. It demands a steeper toll – 0.24% – but offers the illusion of broader participation.

They speak of a rally, a “disastrous swoon.” Such dramatic language for a game played with numbers on a screen. But beneath the surface, a current stirs. I predict four dollars by 2026. Not because of any inherent virtue in this XRP, but because the appetite for illusion is boundless, especially amongst those with little else to feed on.

Planet Labs, you see, is not merely a purveyor of satellite imagery; it is a chronicler of our age, a silent witness to the slow unraveling and occasional blossoming of human endeavor. It offers, in essence, a daily accounting of the Earth’s surface, a granular record of change that is becoming increasingly valuable in a world obsessed with prediction and control. The company operates on a subscription basis, a peculiar modern alchemy where access to the heavens is traded for earthly currency. And recently, the whispers of success have grown louder, fueled by a nine-figure contract with Sweden’s military—a deal sealed not in boardrooms, but in the shared anxieties of a continent bracing for uncertainty. The stock, predictably, has danced accordingly, a 28% ascent year-to-date, a staggering 468% leap over the past year – numbers that, to a seasoned eye, suggest a momentum that is, if not entirely sustainable, at least worthy of careful consideration.