AI is real. But the LLM-token economy still looks like a bubble. The money flow is simple: Enterprise → LLM → GPU → Memory Investors are moving upstream in search of certainty. No one knows which AI app will win, so they buy the LLM labs. No one knows whether OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, or xAI will win, so they buy NVIDIA. No one knows how durable GPU demand is, so they buy memory. Every layer looks safer than the one below it. But that certainty is an illusion. The entire chain is still funded by the layer closest to real ROI. Enterprises pay for tokens because they are trying to prove LLM adoption works. But so far, LLM productivity gains have not clearly translated into revenue growth. Consumers are not obviously buying more. Expenses are not obviously falling either. Most AI-related layoffs look more like companies using LLMs to rationalize previous overhiring. The layoffs truly driven by “AI efficiency” often create backlash, operational problems, or quality issues. When hallucination is still unsolved, critical work still needs human supervision. So the economics are awkward: no obvious revenue lift, no obvious expense reduction, and a new token bill on top. Meanwhile, customers are not receiving much of the surplus. They are not getting better products at lower prices. They are getting higher prices, worse content, and weaker job security. Personally, I hate this most when I see gaming consoles getting more expensive, PCs getting more expensive, Macs getting more expensive, and the internet filling up with lower-quality AI slop. If consumers do not spend more, the companies selling to them cannot justify ever-growing LLM expenses. And enterprises do not need to abandon LLMs for the chain to break. They only need to slow the growth of LLM spending.

Less than a year after Mark Walter paid $10 billion for the Los Angeles Lakers’, he flipped it like a piece of real estate. But if there is a bubble for professional sports team ownership, it hasn’t shown any signs of popping yet. Read more about how the Lakers' record $12.5 billion sale resets the market for sports teams:

Less than a year after Mark Walter paid $10 billion for the Los Angeles Lakers’, he flipped it like a piece of real estate. But if there is a bubble for professional sports team ownership, it hasn’t shown any signs of popping yet. Read more about how the Lakers' record $12.5 billion sale resets the market for sports teams:

$200,000 will look insane. Then obvious. $500,000 will look irresponsible. Then inevitable. $1,000,000 will look like a bubble. Then people will quietly stop quoting Bitcoin in dollars and start asking how many sats they can still afford. The funniest part is that the entire opportunity is sitting in public, in real time, with a giant flashing sign that says: FIXED SUPPLY. UNLIMITED FIAT. And somehow most people are still debating whether they should wait for a better entry.

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TLDRs of things I found interesting this week: - $INTC CEO says some memory prices have risen 5-7× and warns the shortage will worsen in 2027. $SNDK / $MU / Samsung bros will be happy to hear this... (from the AI Infra Summit 2026 in Santa Clara) - $GFS + $MRVL sign extended SiGe capacity agreement for pluggable/NPO/CPO. "Expected to add significant capacity to support Marvell’s growing requirements." I like to keep an eye out on Globalfoundries related updates given $SIVE is their reference laser for SCALE. - $CIEN expects roughly 30% annual revenue growth, 50% adj. gross margin, 20% FCF margin, through FY2029. The company says component availability, not demand, is limiting growth... Seems common across $NVDA to upstream suppliers that supply is the limiting factor for revenue growth. - Winbond acquires Infineon's NOR Flash and F-RAM business for $1.12 billion. Very surprised Infineon sold considering NOR Flash ASP + importance just keep going up and up and up, but good for Winbond consolidation. - Samsung reportedly expands outsourcing of DDR5-module and SSD assembly. I think some local Taiwan reports flag Transcend and Apacer as possible beneficiaries. The report specifically identifies Dreamtech, Hanyang Digitech and SFA Semicon. I've noticed other Korean firms entering new Samsung Electronics contracts for likely legacy memory modules maybe like ~1-2m ago.. So think some media commentary probably missed this too. Maybe too small for them to notice? - $NBIS raises AI cloud prices for the 2nd time in three months (~17-21%), bullish read through for other Neoclouds like $CRWV to $IREN earnings. - $AMZN signs $2.4B agreement with $GNRC for generator deliveries throughout 2027-2028... and received warrants tied to as much as $8B of aggregate purchases Good to keep an eye out on who Amazon signs these warrant agreements with (eg. Alchip, $AAOI, $QCOM, $MRVL, etc) and what type of infra procurement they want. - $TSEM and NewPhotonics begin volume shipments of laser integrated optical engines. Not familiar with newphotonics, so not going to leave much commentary here. But will do some research today. - Goldman Sachs reportedly sees the ABF deficit expanding from 14% to 51%. Forecast shortages are 14% in 2H26, 34% in 2027 and 51% in 2028... More substrate bottleneck stuff, not surprising regarding demand imbalances. - Crusoe raises $3.9B at a $30.9B valuation. Okay this valuation is better than Instinct raising at a bubble $10B valuation off 100k users... - Japan and the U.S. reportedly discuss a $12.9–19.3B $GFS run fab. That's like half of Globalfoundries marketcap lol. Not much details here. - $ARM CEO Rene Haas said he is confident that they can secure enough supply to meet $2B in customer demand (for their AGI CPU). There's probably a lot more demand, probably supply constrained growth as usual so good $ARM signaled confidence in securing allocations. - Supply chain sources said Kioxia has about 50% of its LTA capacity tied up, while SK Hynix/Samsung reserve about 70% of capacity for LTAs for 3-5 years. Not sure how people are bearish on memory.... I don't like posting updates one-by-one like a news reporter, so hope this saves some time of stuff I like looking at. On a side note was surprised markets from $AMD to $INTC rallied today after rate hikes. Think high-beta overshot the selloff the most.

The menu on the pier said Clam Chowder. My tongue, numb from a bitter Boston rain, said Calm Chowder. In my homeland, inventing your own dish in front of the master of the house is an offense that requires formal exile. The waitress, a terrifying woman named Brenda whose apron had survived forty years of haddock, did not blink. She wheeled around and bellowed into the steam: ONE CALM CHOWDER! HOLD THE WAVES! KEEP THE HARBOR FLAT! Deep in the kitchen, a spatula slammed the counter like a naval gun. ZERO TURBULENCE COMING UP, BRENDA! NOT A RIPPLE ON MY WATCH! What arrived at my table was a ceramic bowl so thick, so still, so completely unbothered by the storms of the Atlantic, that two hexagonal crackers rested upon the surface like sleeping turtles. Not a single bubble rose. The sea had been pacified by heavy cream. I did not eat it. I communed with it. I have returned eighteen times. Yesterday Brenda did not even hand me the menu. She saw my wet cloak at the door, turned to the kitchen, and roared: BRING OUT THE PEACEFUL OCEAN FOR THE SAMURAI! AND PUT EXTRA BUTTER ON THE CALM!

Bill Ackman literally gave a 44-minute masterclass that explains money better than any business school. 1. Starting early is the single biggest advantage you have. If you save $10,000 at age 22, never add another penny, and earn 10% a year, you have $600,000 by retirement. wait until 32 to start, and the same money only grows to $232,000. The decade you lose at the beginning costs you more than any decade later because compounding does its heaviest lifting at the end. 2. The return rate matters even more than most people grasp. That same $10,000 at 22 earning 10% becomes $600,000. At 15% it becomes over 4 million. At 20%, the rate Warren Buffett has achieved, it becomes 25 million. Einstein called compound interest the most powerful force in the universe. Ackman's lecture is essentially a demonstration of why. 3. Avoiding losses matters as much as chasing returns. if you reach for a 20% return but lose half your money every 12 years from bad decisions or a rough patch, your 25 million collapses to 1.8 million. Buffett's rule one is never lose money. Rule two is never forget rule one. the math of recovery is brutal, so protecting the downside is not caution, it is strategy. 4. Debt is safer, but the upside is capped. Equity is riskier, but the upside is unlimited. In the lemonade stand example, the lender who put up $250 earns a steady 10% and gets paid back first if the business fails. the equity investor who put up $500 earns over 100% if it succeeds but gets wiped out if it fails. The equity holder earns more precisely because they took the risk the lender refused. 5. The risk that matters is permanent loss, not price movement. most people think risk is the stock price bouncing up and down every day. Ackman says ignore that. the real risk is whether you will permanently lose your money. Short-term volatility is noise. the question that matters is whether you get your capital back with a return over the long run. 6. Avoid startups and complicated businesses. You do not need 100% a year to build a fortune. you need 10 to 15% over a long period. so skip the lemonade stands and unknown ventures. Invest in public companies that are established, liquid, and have to clear real hurdles before going public. If you cannot understand how a business makes money, avoid it no matter how good its track record. Ackman cites Enron, a business almost nobody actually understood. 7. Invest in a business you could own forever. if the stock market closed for 10 years, you should not be unhappy holding it. Coca-Cola is his example. easy to understand, sells a syrup and earns a profit on every drink, the population keeps growing, and it is nearly impossible to disrupt with new technology. McDonald's is another. People have to eat, the food is cheap, and they keep growing. find a business you would be comfortable holding through anything. 8. You want products people are loyal to and will pay a premium for. People buy generic flour and sugar without caring about the brand. but they want the Hershey bar, the Cadbury bar, the see's candy specifically. you do not want to sell a commodity that anyone can sell cheaper. You want something unique that customers refuse to substitute even at a 20% discount. 9. Low debt is a safety feature. In the lemonade stand example, $250 of debt was manageable. But if it had been $1,000 and the business hit a rough patch, it could have gone under and wiped out the shareholders. Find companies with little debt or so much profit relative to their interest payments that a bad year cannot sink them. 10. Barriers to entry protect your returns. You want a business that is hard for someone to compete with tomorrow. Coca-Cola's market presence is so strong that you expect to get a Coke at any restaurant. Pepsi has coexisted with it for decades, but neither can put the other out of business. If a competitor can show up next year with a better version and steal the customers, the business is not worth owning long term. 11. The best businesses are immune to outside factors you cannot control. Coca-Cola has survived 120 years through world wars, nuclear weapons, and every kind of crisis, and each year it makes slightly more money. You want companies that do not depend on commodity prices, interest rates, or currency moves. A business that keeps earning regardless of what is happening in the world is the kind you hold forever. 12. Low capital intensity is one of the most underrated qualities. The worst businesses require massive reinvestment to grow. The auto industry has to build enormous factories and buy machine tools before selling a single car, and those tools wear out. GM's stock barely moved over 40 to 50 years for exactly this reason. Coca-Cola, by contrast, sells a formula and collects a royalty. American Express takes a few percent of every dollar spent on its card. a business that earns a royalty on other people's capital is one of the best things you can own. 13. Pay down debt and build a cushion before you invest. If you have high-interest credit card debt, paying it off is a guaranteed return equal to the interest rate. same logic, to a lesser degree, with student loans at 6 or 7%. and you want 6 to 12 months of expenses in the bank so that losing your job tomorrow does not force you to sell. You can only handle market volatility if you do not need the money. 14. Be a buyer when everyone is selling and a seller when everyone is buying. The natural human tendency is the opposite, a lemming-like instinct to sell in a crash and buy in a bubble. people sold into the 1987 crash when they should have been buying. The only way to resist this is to be financially secure enough that the money at risk does not affect your life, so you can withstand the swings without panicking. 15. The stock market is a voting machine in the short term and a weighing machine in the long term. Ben Graham's idea, which Ackman repeats. short-term prices reflect the whims and emotions of investors. long term, prices reflect the actual value of the underlying businesses. If you buy good businesses at reasonable prices and hold them while they grow, you make money over time as long as you are never forced to sell at the wrong moment. 16. A stock is just a bond where you do not know the coupon. Flip a price-to-earnings ratio over, and you get an earnings yield. A stock at 10 times earnings is a 10% earnings yield, which you can compare directly to a 3% treasury. the difference is the bond's coupon is fixed and the stock's coupon, its earnings, moves up and down. Ackman wants an earnings yield higher than a treasury that will also grow over time, so he does not need to be right about explosive growth to earn a good return.

The amount of negativity on the timeline about AI just reinforces how early and non-consensus we still are There are basically 2 arguments: 1. Enterprises aren’t getting ROI and will stop or slow spending 2. The financing of AI buildout is a bubble that will pop And to give the bears and skeptics credit, there is some evidence that supports these arguments But these arguments mostly miss the forest through the trees Enterprise ROI isn’t immediate and in many cases AI spend will be existential and table stakes (see my pinned article for a detailed breakdown on this) So just because a McKinsey or MIT study that is already dated says that many pilots are failing doesn’t mean enterprises are going to drop AI adoption efforts - all you need to do is look at the Anthropic revenue run rate to see the spend continues to happen at unprecedented rates And on the financial circularity that many think will create a meltdown like the 2008-09 mortgage crisis, you obviously weren’t close to that situation otherwise you would see how very different it is I spent the better part of 2007-2012 right in the middle of that crisis and it’s cleanup - these two things are not the same Are there concerns we should be monitoring on the financing side? Absolutely, and history tells us risk will get pushed as far down the curve as possible until something breaks But the warning signs right now are not even close to flashing red When you see reports of datacenters that are empty, large GPU contracts going unrenewed or being cancelled, and solvency issues among capacity providers - then you can start to compare it to 2008-09 If you think we’re close to that situation, I encourage you to listen to or read the Coreweave and Nebius earnings from the past week - we’re not even close So the base case for me right now is that we remain in the early innings of AI buildout and adoption, and enterprises that lean into AI will be the standouts and their performance will drive all other enterprises to up their adoption game, all of which fuels the already insane demand we see and supports the continued expansion To those that still remain negative and skeptical, I’ll see you on the other side of the trade

I've mapped the entire Wall Street bear playbook on AI names: Have your favorite institution/media insert one of these name down below: 1. < ______ [GPUs, Transcivers, MLCC, Memory...] are a commodity set to crash> 2. < ______ [YMTC, CXMT, Dongshan...] from China will flood the market > 3. < ______ [Micron, Nvidia, ...] from unverifiable channel checks is facing issues > 4. < ______ [Kospi, Sivers, ...] is a bubble like the ____ [2007, 2021] crash> 5. <____ [1,2,3, ...] unexpected rate hikes this year> 6. < _____ [Google, Nvidia, Deepseek ...] optimization removes the need of this!> in a new headline, and it's ready to go!