AI has entered a full-scale infrastructure build-out phase. We expect annual AI-related infrastructure spending to exceed US$400–500 billion by 2026, driven by accelerated data-centre construction, higher-density compute requirements, and rising power and cooling needs. At this level, AI infrastructure investment approaches ~2% of US GDP, placing it alongside past general-purpose technology cycles such as cloud computing and telecommunications. However, this remains a front-loaded capital cycle. Cash outflows precede revenue, and monetisation remains uneven across sectors. For current equity valuations to be sustained, the AI ecosystem must ultimately generate US$1.7–2.5 trillion in incremental annual revenue by the end of the decade. As infrastructure spending accelerates into 2026, balan

Can the market still go up in 2026?” pushes us to look at the wrong things. It makes us focus on forecasts, on headlines and on timing.If a company keeps moving forward, the share price eventually tends to follow. That said, it doesn’t mean we should rush in blindly either. Investing still requires thought and discipline. A simple way to avoid emotional decisions is to pace yourself by investing steadily over time, especially if you are unsure. Another is to take the time to understand the business you are buying so you know exactly why it deserves a place in your portfolio. These habits keep you consistent without reacting to every price movement. In my earlier investing years, I spent a lot of time waiting. I waited for dips that never came. I waited for more confidence. I waited for the

If you only want AI exposure, china stock like Ping An’s version is cleaner. Take Cambricon, for example—it’s an important AI player in China and an AI stock that shouldn’t be missed.AI is hot—not just in the West but also in China. It’s a race to be first, and China has an additional task: building world-class AI capabilities using its own supply chain. That’s a tall order, but we’ve seen companies stepping up and showing sparks of brilliance. The potential is there. If you prefer to focus on chips and equipment players, then the Global X China Semiconductor ETF would be more suitable. The Ping An CSI AI ETF is less heavy on chips and instead captures the wider AI value chain. In terms of performance, the Ping An CSI AI ETF trounces the Global X China Robotics and AI ETF over the past yea

Alphabet’s capex in 4Q2025 was up 95% from a year ago to US$27.9 billion, with capex for the whole year of 2025 reaching US$91.4 billion. As GCP’s backlog grows – it was up 55% sequentially to US$240 billion in 4Q2025 – Alphabet’s capex in 2026 is projected to be US$175 billion to US$185 billion, around double from 2025’s level. Alphabet is seeing broad-based demand for its AI offerings such as its latest Gemini models and Ironwood TPUs. Despite the sharp increase in capex, Alphabet is driving efficiencies through the proliferation of AI across its business's  Overall, among Alphabet’s AI-powered products and services, 14 products were observed to have annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion, reflecting material adoption of the company’s AI offerings.

UnitedHealth was already making headlines in 2025. The blue chip—and largest US health insurer, accounting for roughly 30% of Medicare Advantage enrollments—has been seeing higher medical claims. Investors started worrying about thinning margins and the potential need to raise insurance premiums. But here’s the problem: recent 2027 Medicare Advantage plans will rise by just 0.09%, far lower than the expected 6%. This means premiums (i.e., revenue) can’t rise while costs keep climbing. The business simply isn’t as lucrative as before. It dragged many health insurer stocks down. Finally the  stock  looks undervalued based on our estimated fair price of $372. But our concern is that with meek revenue growth outlook, declining profitability, and restructuring adding uncertainties, we

Since the 2020s, Jensen’s strategy has been to make Nvidia the AI factory—selling the whole stack of AI compute: GPU + interconnect + systems + software. The rest is history. Jensen was the boss from day one and has led the key strategic pivots that made Nvidia what it is today. Going forward, his strategy is to make Nvidia the default industrial standard for building, running, and scaling AI—hardware + networking + software + delivery model—so competitors don’t just have to beat a chip; they have to beat an ecosystem and an upgrade rhythm. Jensen was born in Taipei, Taiwan. At age 9, his parents sent him to the U.S. for education and long-term opportunity, seeing America as a better place to build a future. trained as an electrical engineer and worked at LSI Logic and AMD before co-foundi

After initially threatening the use of force to take control of Greenland, Trump later said he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte “have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.” He did not commit to the specifics of the deal, but in a separate interview with CNBC suggested that it would last “forever” and include mineral rights. Earlier Trump had said he wanted immediate negotiations on Greenland, a place of strategic importance to the U.S. for security purposes. That came after Trump’s Saturday Truth Social post, where he threatened to impose a 10% tariff on goods sent to the U.S. from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, U.K., Netherlands, and Finland starting Feb 1. For the week, the S&P 500 lost 0.4%, while the

So far, Salesforce’s AI business is still strong. During its recent earnings call, management said its Agentforce has completed a total of 18,500 deals in 3QFY2026, up 48% compared to the previous quarter. 51% of them were paid transactions. Over the past decade or so, Salesforce shares have returned over 5,400% to shareholders.Salesforce, which is one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies focused on CRMs, continues to produce growing revenues and gushing plenty of free cash flow. Finally some of these high-quality software companies have been producing strong profitability, reflecting resilience against the march of the AI onslaught.

Europe is still deliberating how to respond, but they’re leaning toward retaliation rather than capitulation. We expect European stocks to take a hit. But this could be an opportune time to buy strong companies—this tariff threat might just time. For example, the recently announced partnership between Apple and Google to bring Gemini into products like Apple Intelligence and Siri is one way to keep investors on board, even at higher valuations.  Alphabet will also want to show progress on its other bets, such as Waymo, so that some can start contributing to operating income.  Trump is playing his tariff game again—this time targeting countries that oppose the US takeover of Greenland. Mostly European nations. He’s threatened a 10% tariff starting February 1st on goods from Britai

As the most powerful and integrated AI company among the Magnificent 7—one that stands to benefit most from the AI era—it’s not outrageous to say Alphabet could claim the top spot. A $5 trillion market cap? Justified. Even beyond. To be clear: this isn’t an invitation to buy Alphabet stock. The stock is overvalued at this point. And even if it does hit a higher market cap, it won’t be a smooth journey—it may take longer than hoped. This is simply my view on why Alphabet should be the largest company in the world.

As the most powerful and integrated AI company among the Magnificent 7—one that stands to benefit most from the AI era—it’s not outrageous to say Alphabet could claim the top spot. A $5 trillion market cap? Justified. Even beyond. To be clear: this isn’t an invitation to buy Alphabet stock. The stock is overvalued at this point. And even if it does hit a higher market cap, it won’t be a smooth journey—it may take longer than hoped. This is simply my view on why Alphabet should be the largest company in the world. Of course, that kind of power invites scrutiny. Antitrust probes will intensify. But for now, everything Google touches is turning into an AI advantage. Gemini models are available on Google Cloud too, where users can pick what fits their needs. Apple recently chose Gemini to powe

AI is clearly a structural trend, and with so much capital and attention concentrated there, it makes sense to keep an eye on it. But here’s the thing: the market doesn’t only move where everyone’s looking.Over the past month, healthcare was the best-performing sector, up 8.39%, while the S&P 500 and Information Technology sector were down 0.53% and 5.21% respectively. Most investors and media headlines have been obsessing over AI stocks—wondering whether we’re in a bubble, debating valuations, and nervously watching every move in the Magnificent Seven. Stretch it to three months, and healthcare still leads with a 15.55% return. Healthcare stocks are gaining serious momentum—and most people didn’t even notice.When Trump appointed Robert Kennedy Jr. as Health Secretary—known for his ant

If Nvidia disappeared tomorrow, Google would be fine. The same can’t be said for others. Google’s built its own parallel universe to Nvidia’s hardware stack. That said, I’m not saying Nvidia is obsolete or in danger. Nvidia is still very much in the AI race, and Google won’t stop buying its chips. Why? Because Google Cloud needs to capture market share. Clients still want torent Nvidia chips for AI compute. If Google Cloud only offered TPUs, clients would leave for AWS or Azure. Google isn’t going to let that happen. Nvidia’s dominance isn’t going anywhere soon. Companies still want Nvidia chips because they’re still the most powerful AI chips on Earth. Google’s TPUs are designed for cost-efficiency, not raw power. Depending on the task—if you need the absolute fastest training time possib

There are different asset classes. Equity and fixed income ETFs, in different varieties, let you construct your core stock-bond portfolio. Stock ETFs can be separated by geography, from New Zealand to Chile, covering many countries and time zones. Or you can pick a particular sector like tech. Or differentiate by styles, from value to growth. Prefer dividend focus? All available. And don’t forget thematic ETFs that reflect trends you’re following, such as clean energy or AI. Bond ETFs cover everything from investment grade to high yield, from short duration to long-term bonds, across various geographies. Other asset classes like crypto and commodities have also made their way into ETFs. For example, some markets now list ETFs that track Bitcoin’s price. Having more options sounds great, bu

Alphabet’s P/E is lower now than it was in 2017. But it was even cheaper in 2022, when U.S. tech stocks tanked. Back then, it traded at just 17x earnings—lower than today. And Buffett didn’t bite. So again, I don’t think this was him. The investment managers are ramping up their influence as Buffett steps back. My fair price estimate for Alphabet was $163 to $209. So Berkshire’s entry was sensible. But at $276 today? Definitely not. There were plenty of chances to buy Alphabet earlier this year when it spent considerable time below $200—and even dropped as low as $146.75.this might explain why Berkshire’s been selling for so long—it could be part of the succession plan. Freeing up capital for the investment managers to deploy. Finally So my guess? This Alphabet buy came from one of them. N

About a month ago, I still saw a balanced mix of AI bulls and bears on social media. But for the last two weeks, it’s been overwhelmingly bearish—calling it an AI bubble, comparing it to the dotcom crash. Perhaps this one-sided bearish tone has affected investor psychology, prompting some to sell their AI-related stocks and exacerbating the decline. I think we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of social media on financial markets today. Just like how digital banking apps can cause bank runs faster—since withdrawals are instant—social media and digital trading apps can drive one-directional moves in a short span of time. So it could be a case where some AI investors were already thinking of selling but wanted to wait for Nvidia’s results. And once the good results pushed the share price hi

I did a rough tabulation (not perfectly apples-to-apples—some foreign stocks, some recent buys and trims) but good enough for an estimate. Below is the table of the stock returns in Berkshire’s portfolio: Buffett famously avoids tech. He sticks to what he understands—consumer brands like Coca-Cola, American Express, and Kraft Heinz. And as we’ve discussed in a previous post, non-AI stocks have had a rough year, so it’s no surprise Berkshire’s portfolio underperformed the tech-dominated S&P 500. I doubt it’s because Buffett is predicting a crash. He’s never cared about timing markets. He’s repeatedly said he doesn’t invest based on forecasts. One possible reason: succession planning. Buffett may be clearing the slate for Greg Abel and the investment managers to build their own portfolio

$Trump Media & Technology(DJT)$  

Earlier this month, Trump once again announced a 100% tariff on Chinese goods. Yet this time, the S&P 500 didn’t flinch as much. Perhaps markets have grown used to the pattern — what many now call the “Trade War Cycle.” Over the weekend, while markets were closed, Trump visited Malaysia as part of his Asia tour ahead of his meeting with Xi in Korea. Although framed as an ASEAN Summit, the real highlight was a quick negotiation between the US and China — a prelude to the APEC Summit. This gave ASEAN countries a moment of prestige, playing host to what may turn out to be a pivotal step in thawing tensions between the two superpowers. Trump’s deputies wasted no time engaging their Chinese counterparts. In a swift turnaround, both sides announced that a preliminary deal had been struck. De

Gold can be useful for diversification. It does reduce drawdowns and improve the Sharpe ratio, as it behaves differently from stocks and bonds. But it’s not a core asset, and it shouldn’t dominate your portfolio. And if you’re thinking, “I should have gone all-in on gold”... that’s not investing—that’s gambling. That’s no different from aping into crypto or meme stocks during their hype cycles. That’s go big or go home, not responsible investing.And then we start seeing bold claims—like this one on Bloomberg saying gold has outperformed stocks this century. Let’s take a step back: This century is 100 years, and we’re only 25 years in. Bloomberg’s already drawing conclusions 75 years too early. From a portfolio construction perspective, gold is not suitable as a core holding. This has been