🗞 Fish In a Barrel

WHILE YOU POUR THE JOE… ☕️
I Hata Paying Da Premiums, I Shoota Da CEO

Ladies and gentleman, we got ‘em.

That’s Luigi Mangione, the guy who shot the UnitedHealth CEO recently for reasons Netflix is probably looking to do a new murder series on. But anyways, it’s gotten a whole wave of memes going.

Subway is making footlongs $5 again, and Walmart is going back to being open 24 hours. At least that’s the effect that this CEO killing spree might have. Either way there have been some unmissable memes lately.

Speaking of unmissable things, let’s get on with today’s email 📧…

CRYSTAL BALL TIME
1984 Won’t be Like 1984

Google is going in all the right directions lately, unlike Zuck and his multi-billion investment into… glasses? 🕶️ 

Amazon tried them before, and they were a flop, but I guess when you have that much money and a good Asian wife, your confidence just goes through the roof. Anyways, the rest of the tech industry seems to be focused on what really will change the world.

And these are the trends that make us think of Apple’s add, where they claimed the MacBook would make 1984 not look like the movie “1984”:

• Quantum Computing

• Social Media as the new marketplace

• Online Education

You might know about these from a surface level, but there are so many layers that go so much deeper into each of these areas. Unlike onions, these actually won’t make you cry, unless you decide not to invest in them and see how high related stocks went.

Quantum Computing

Most, including us, have no idea what quantum computing could be, but here is what it means to us right now as it stands.

If you understand simple computers then this will make a lot more sense to you, quantum computing is like the GPU, or the unified processors that Apple introduced recently. 🖥️ 

Of course these are much better, faster, and more efficient than the classic CPU.

How?

They can process more tasks at lightning speed, without necessarily consuming more energy, and that is exactly the sort of productivity advantage and power that most companies and industries are looking for today. ✅ 

Especially as the global economy becomes more and more digitized, and more jobs are going to the cloud and remote workers, the infrastructure needed to handle all this volume is going to be placed in the hands of quantum computing.

Some say these can even answer more complex, esoteric questions not dealing with data necessarily, unlike today’s average computer which can’t understand the world without a previous model first.

If we’ve spoken one-on-one about this, you know my catchline for AI is this:

• Artificial intelligence is great at explaining the world, but it is incompetent at understanding the world. 🧠 

That changes with quantum computers, which is why you can’t miss investing in it.

Social Media Marketplaces

When you think of social media, don’t just look at it as a place for entertainment, they are businesses just like any other.

While most of their revenue came from advertisers buying space in their platforms, the business model has changed a bit since the old days.

Now there’s a mix between the old model of advertisement, and also selling some - if not all - of our data to businesses in order to create “intelligence”.

While we sign away our right of privacy when we engage in these platforms, some find it invasive and offensive, so laws were made around this new model of doing business.

And that is why all the analytics and data 📒 has become somewhat democratized, but that’s good news for future business.

What this means, at its core, is that platforms like X, Instagram, YouTube and more, will be the marketplaces of tomorrow.

And we’re not just talking about advertising and entertainment, we’re talking about everything.

Hiring talent? Check out social media resumes and hire on platform

Looking for financing solutions? Tap into the fintech aspect that more and more platforms have built into them

Want to self-publish a book/series/movie? Netflix got the point and is letting people do this on a freelance basis through their new California studio

And so much more.

Online Education

The old education system, the Prussian slaving institution, is overdue for some change as well.

The way we go visit the colosseums and ruins in Europe as the pinnacle of what society used to be, I have a feeling we will one day visit the remains of all the universities that today are considered the best of the best institutions.

Why?

More big tech firms, like Google, are investing and expanding partnerships into online education, and it makes all the sense in the world.

Why get into so much debt and spend minimum 4 years of your life to learn something that will be nearly obsolete by the time you graduate and go into the real world? (Engineering, medicine, law excluded). 👀 

Instead, platforms like Google classrooms, Udemy, and Coursera are now gaining not only market share but recognition in the labor market, as certificates are now just as accredited as a university degree, sometimes even more.

As someone who is 90% self-taught, I can see the value in this trend. ✏️ 

TRADE OF THE WEEK
One of a Kind

Intel stock is not one of a kind in the way that it is exposed to the semiconductor industry.

But

It is one of a kind in how it is exposed to the quantum computing race and offering much more upside 📈 than any other peer in the space, so we think after yesterday’s decline toward $20.15 a share, it is a strong buy.

As is routine, let’s break down the comps here for you, and point out some of the things that stood out to us to even consider throwing money at it:

Compared to Nvidia, Taiwan Semi, and even ASML, it is Intel stock that expects to have the biggest swing in earnings per share (EPS). 🔥 

Also, it is the one offering the biggest discount to its 52-week high as it trades at only 39% of it with ASML being in second place at a much better 66%.

More than that, its forward P/E ratio of 21.4x is not too far away from the average valuation in the semiconductor space, meaning markets are willing to pay up for exposure into Intel’s future earnings.

Bingo, but is anyone buying up here?

If you’ve followed us for a little while then you know what this market/volume profile setup means for Intel.

Mot of the year’s volume took place around the $22-$22.50 area 🎯, and given how much time the stock spent in that range, we’re willing to assume that this is a sign of institutional accumulation here.

That also means the stock could be close to making a pop, and there are a few catalysts in mind here:

• Tariffs and blockades with Chinese tech, making American-made chips the priority for the globe.

• A potential Qualcomm takeover, which has been in the works.

• CEO stepping down and a replacement that could make a new path come earnings season.

Now according to the same profile, we are setting our price targets for the next high-volume node of $30-$31 a share 🎯, and Wall Street analysts are thinking just about the same here:

NOW GO AND MAKE IT HAPPEN
Get the Landscape

The so-called “Chip War” is in full swing, especially now that Trump is back in office and hungry to make China beg for our tech curbs to come off.

Today’s book recommendation 📖 will help you understand what is happening in the world of semiconductors currently, and which players are near the top and bottom of the race today.

To your success,

G. 🥃