anankkml/iStock via Getty Images I have been investing in equities for just over four decades now. The markets have seen a series of huge changes over that time. First, stock valuations are night and day from where they were in the mid-1980s. The P/E ratio of the S&P 500 in 1985 was a bit over 10, and the dividend yield on the S&P 500 was near 5% to boot. GuruFocus Of course, the country had recen...
anankkml/iStock via Getty Images I have been investing in equities for just over four decades now. The markets have seen a series of huge changes over that time. First, stock valuations are night and day from where they were in the mid-1980s. The P/E ratio of the S&P 500 in 1985 was a bit over 10, and the dividend yield on the S&P 500 was near 5% to boot. GuruFocus Of course, the country had recently put a brutal double-dip recession in the rearview mirror. The Fed Funds rate was just above 10%, and a good portion of the CIA was convinced the U.S. was losing the Cold War as well. Historical Fed Funds rate (Macrotrends) How one researched stocks and executed trades was entirely different as well. You executed trades via phone with your broker; broker commissions were obscene by today's standards and have continued to decline drastically since the Internet Bust. You also did your research (or at least I did) via the Wall Street Journal and going to the local library to peruse the latest versions of the Value Line. Robonomics Now trades execute with a couple of keystrokes from your laptop. One can sell $1 million worth of shares for less than the price of a good Manhattan and execute the trade faster than you can take a sip from that cocktail. Most of the money in the market when I started investing was 'actively managed,' and mutual fund managers like Peter Lynch were lionized. They appeared regularly on Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week , which was must-watch TV if you were an investment nerd. CNBC wouldn't come on the air until the spring of 1989. Morningstar - 2020 Now roughly 60% of the money in the market is passively managed via stock index funds and on what I call "autopilot." With current market caps, that means almost 15 cents of every dollar going into these huge index funds gets funneled into only two stocks: NVIDIA Corp. ( NVDA ) and Alphabet ( GOOG ). This is great as long as the top 10 largest stocks in the market, which now account for approximately 40%...
Canadian Silver Hunter ( AGH.H:CA ) intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 7.14M units at a price of $0.07 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $500,000. Each unit shall be comprised of one common share in the capital of the company and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one common share at a price ...
Canadian Silver Hunter ( AGH.H:CA ) intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 7.14M units at a price of $0.07 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $500,000. Each unit shall be comprised of one common share in the capital of the company and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one common share at a price of $0.10 for a period of twelve (12) months from the closing date of the offering. Source: Press Release More on Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. Financial information for Canadian Silver Hunter Inc.
Microsoft fell after reporting earnings despite record results. Last year, I predicted that Microsoft (MSFT 1.52%) would hit an all-time high even after a brutal tariff-induced sell-off in April 2025. Microsoft reached an all-time high of $555.45 per share in late October. But Microsoft is now hovering around an eight-month low, with the stock falling 10.5% after reporting its second-quarter fisca...
Microsoft fell after reporting earnings despite record results. Last year, I predicted that Microsoft (MSFT 1.52%) would hit an all-time high even after a brutal tariff-induced sell-off in April 2025. Microsoft reached an all-time high of $555.45 per share in late October. But Microsoft is now hovering around an eight-month low, with the stock falling 10.5% after reporting its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on Jan. 28. Here's why Microsoft has been under pressure even as the S&P 500 continues to make new all-time highs, and whether the stock can recover in 2026. AI spending is overshadowing Microsoft's record results Microsoft's cloud business is booming -- raking in over $50 billion in revenue in its latest quarter. In total, Microsoft's revenue soared 17%, operating income was up 21%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 24%. It was a blowout quarter for Microsoft, but investors may be concerned about the path to profitability of Microsoft's artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Microsoft spent a mind-numbing $37.5 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in the quarter -- two-thirds of which was on short-lived assets like graphics processing units (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs). For context, Microsoft's fiscal 2025 capex was $64.6 billion, fiscal 2024 was $44.5 billion, and fiscal 2023 was $28.1 billion. That means Microsoft's present-day quarterly capex is higher than its annual capex from less than four years ago. Part of the reason for the spending increase is that Microsoft is rapidly investing in AI infrastructure and its own custom AI chip -- called Maia 200. "At the silicon layer, we have Nvidia and AMD and our own Maia chips delivering the best all-up fleet performance, cost, and supply across multiple generations of hardware," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on the company's January earnings call. Microsoft added 1 gigawatt of data center capacity in its latest quarter and plans to scale Maia for AI workloads -- which...
Key Points Capital expenditures are growing far faster than revenue and earnings. Microsoft's AI bets are bold, but calculated. Microsoft can afford to ramp up AI spending without compromising its financial health. 10 stocks we like better than Microsoft › Last year, I predicted that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) would hit an all-time high even after a brutal tariff-induced sell-off in April 2025. Micr...
Key Points Capital expenditures are growing far faster than revenue and earnings. Microsoft's AI bets are bold, but calculated. Microsoft can afford to ramp up AI spending without compromising its financial health. 10 stocks we like better than Microsoft › Last year, I predicted that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) would hit an all-time high even after a brutal tariff-induced sell-off in April 2025. Microsoft reached an all-time high of $555.45 per share in late October. But Microsoft is now hovering around an eight-month low, with the stock falling 10.5% after reporting its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on Jan. 28. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Here's why Microsoft has been under pressure even as the S&P 500 continues to make new all-time highs, and whether the stock can recover in 2026. AI spending is overshadowing Microsoft's record results Microsoft's cloud business is booming -- raking in over $50 billion in revenue in its latest quarter. In total, Microsoft's revenue soared 17%, operating income was up 21%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) jumped 24%. It was a blowout quarter for Microsoft, but investors may be concerned about the path to profitability of Microsoft's artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Microsoft spent a mind-numbing $37.5 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in the quarter -- two-thirds of which was on short-lived assets like graphics processing units (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs). For context, Microsoft's fiscal 2025 capex was $64.6 billion, fiscal 2024 was $44.5 billion, and fiscal 2023 was $28.1 billion. That means Microsoft's present-day quarterly capex is higher than its annual capex from less than four years ago. Part of the reason for the spending increase is that Microsoft is rapidly investing in AI infrastructure and its own custom AI chip -- called Maia 200. "At the silicon layer, we have Nvidia a...
Palantir $PLTR has spent the better part of a decade being argued about. Is it a government contractor with great marketing, or is it a software company that happens to sell to governments? Is it early, or is it already priced like the ending? Monday, Palantir showed up to earnings looking like a company that knows it’s being priced like a prophecy — and then decided to act accordingly. Growth was...
Palantir $PLTR has spent the better part of a decade being argued about. Is it a government contractor with great marketing, or is it a software company that happens to sell to governments? Is it early, or is it already priced like the ending? Monday, Palantir showed up to earnings looking like a company that knows it’s being priced like a prophecy — and then decided to act accordingly. Growth was fast. Profits were real. And the story the company told about where its momentum is coming from lined up neatly with the results. The stock has spent the last year training the market to expect a sturdy drumbeat of “AI, AI, AI — but in production,” and this quarter’s release leaned into the same premise: customers are signing, deployments are expanding, and the business is throwing off real cash. Fourth-quarter revenue came in at $1.4 billion, up 70% year over year and 19% quarter over quarter, with GAAP EPS of $0.24 and adjusted EPS of $0.25. GAAP operating income was $575 million for a 41% margin, and GAAP net income was $609 million for a 43% margin — the kind of profitability that tends to quiet the nice-demo crowd for at least a few hours. Investors treated it like a clean beat-and-raise, with shares jumping about 7% in extended trading. The outlook is above what Wall Street had penciled in (consensus revenue around $1.33 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.23), and the stock moved like the forecast did more work than the quarter itself. The topline beat is straightforward, but the more interesting part is where the strength is coming from. Palantir put the U.S. front and center, with commercial adoption called out as the headline driver — the section of the company that has historically been treated as “nice if it happens." U.S. revenue rose 93% to $1.1 billion, with U.S. commercial revenue up 137% to $507 million and U.S. government revenue up 66% to $570 million. The market has been waiting to see whether Palantir ’s commercial push can keep compounding, and not merely ...
In this article GOOGL Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Waymo vehicle exits a charging lot on Jan. 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images Alphabet 's self-driving car unit Waymo on Monday said it raised a $16 billion funding round that values the company at $126 billion "post-money." The new valuation is more than double from Waymo's last funding . That was a series...
In this article GOOGL Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Waymo vehicle exits a charging lot on Jan. 15, 2026 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images Alphabet 's self-driving car unit Waymo on Monday said it raised a $16 billion funding round that values the company at $126 billion "post-money." The new valuation is more than double from Waymo's last funding . That was a series C round of $5.6 billion at a $45 billion valuation, which closed in October 2024. Alphabet committed $5 billion in a multiyear investment to Waymo at the time. "This milestone is built on a foundation of safety that is now statistically superior to human driving," Waymo co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov wrote in a blog post . "We are no longer proving a concept; we are scaling a commercial reality." CNBC previously reported that the Google sister company was set to raise at least $15 billion at a valuation of $110 billion. The latest funding round was led by Alphabet alongside previous backers, including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price. The new round includes additional investors such as Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Alphabet-owned investment firm GV. Alphabet itself is the "majority investor," according to the blog. The new capital will help the company move "with unprecedented velocity, while maintaining our industry-leading safety standards," Waymo said. "Our focus is now on global scale, bringing the safety and magic of the Waymo Driver to even more cities this year across the United States and international." WATCH: 2025: The year that the robotaxi went mainstream with Waymo leading the pack watch now VIDEO 8:30 08:30 2025: The year that the robotaxi went mainstream with Waymo leading the pack Tech
leezsnow/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc.'s ( BBBY ) ramp-up of its common shares threatens to pile pressure on a stock price that has dipped 53.28% from its 52-week-high. The bears could have some legs here as the company continues to meander from strategy to plan to address what's challenged financials that are suffering from a sustained lag in demand, pushing revenues ...
leezsnow/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc.'s ( BBBY ) ramp-up of its common shares threatens to pile pressure on a stock price that has dipped 53.28% from its 52-week-high. The bears could have some legs here as the company continues to meander from strategy to plan to address what's challenged financials that are suffering from a sustained lag in demand, pushing revenues ever lower. I've been bearish on BBBY, but rated the ticker as a Hold when I last covered it on what seemed like progress on efforts to be profitable. Ahead of BBBY's fiscal 2025 fourth-quarter earnings, typically released on the last week of February, the company's third-quarter earnings highlight a revenue dip, a reversal of free cash flow profitability, and a 31.8% year-over-year increase in its weighted average shares outstanding to 60,333,000 . The overall ramp in this outstanding float has broadly moved inversely to the company's stock price, with the company requiring this to plug its liquidity needs. Data by YCharts Data by YCharts Critically, BBBY recorded third-quarter revenue of $257.19 million , down a material 17.4% over its year-ago quarter following the company's push to revive the brick-and-mortar stores of Bed Bath & Beyond. BBBY is pushing a new " three-pillar strategy " in order to steady financials, with Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis also set to become the CEO. This new three-pillar plan isn't entirely different from the company's ongoing strategy, with BBBY pushing to chase what it calls asset-light growth from an expansion of its footprint. The company has been converting Kirkland's locations ( TBHC ) into Bed Bath & Beyond stores and wants to boost this footprint through more franchising and partnerships outside of California , where Lemonis has stated that the company will not be opening any stores. Overall, the new plan is buzzword-heavy, mentioning "AI, data, digital asset infrastructure" among other terms to try to begin to reinvent the image ...
The company signed a key contract with a defense agency. Shares of AST SpaceMobile (ASTS 6.13%) were among the winners last month as the satellite stock benefited from bullish sentiment toward the sector to start the new year, and news that it was awarded a SHIELD contract from the Missile Defense Agency. The bullish momentum was enough to overcome a new competitive threat from Jeff Bezos's Blue O...
The company signed a key contract with a defense agency. Shares of AST SpaceMobile (ASTS 6.13%) were among the winners last month as the satellite stock benefited from bullish sentiment toward the sector to start the new year, and news that it was awarded a SHIELD contract from the Missile Defense Agency. The bullish momentum was enough to overcome a new competitive threat from Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, and the company also announced a launch date for its new BlueBird 7 satellite. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the stock finished January up 53%. As you can see, it was nonetheless a volatile month for AST. AST signs a big contract The biggest news in the month for the satellite stock, which specializes in broadband service, was awarded a contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense initiative, better known as SHIELD. According to the press release, "The contract encompasses a broad range of work areas that allows for the rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter with increased speed and agility." It also shows AST tapping into a new revenue stream from the defense sector, which could become significant as the company grows. The stock rose 14.5% on Jan. 16 after the news came out. The other major news out on AST was the announcement that its BlueBird 7 launch is scheduled for late February, and it's tracking for 45-60 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. The BlueBird 7 is identical to the BlueBird 6. Finally, the stock pulled back briefly on Jan. 21 on news that Blue Origin was launching its own competing satellite, which it said was designed to deliver symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth. What's next for AST SpaceMobile AST's market cap is now hovering around $40 billion, though the company is only just starting to generate meaningful revenue, making it a high-risk stock. AST's SpaceMobile's fourth-quarter earnings aren't due out for anoth...
Crunchyroll is one of the most popular streaming platforms for anime viewers. Over the past six years, the service has raised prices for fans, and today, it announced that it's increasing monthly subscription prices by up to 20 percent. Sony bought Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2020. At the time, Crunchyroll had 3 million paid subscribers and an additional 197 million users with free accounts, which le...
Crunchyroll is one of the most popular streaming platforms for anime viewers. Over the past six years, the service has raised prices for fans, and today, it announced that it's increasing monthly subscription prices by up to 20 percent. Sony bought Crunchyroll from AT&T in 2020. At the time, Crunchyroll had 3 million paid subscribers and an additional 197 million users with free accounts, which let people watch a limited number of titles with commercials. At the time, Crunchyroll monthly subscription tiers cost $8, $10, or $15. After its acquisition by Sony, like many large technology companies that buy a smaller, beloved product , the company made controversial changes. The Tokyo-based company folded rival Funimation into Crunchyroll; Sony shut down Funimation, which it bought in 2017, in April 2024. Read full article Comments
Jeremy Jacquet has finalised a £60m move to Liverpool - but the defender will not move to Anfield until the summer. It would not be an understatement to say he was a name most people were unaware of at the start of the winter window. To commit £60m for a 20-year-old is a hefty call but Liverpool view the French centre-back as a long-term investment and someone who will form an integral part of the...
Jeremy Jacquet has finalised a £60m move to Liverpool - but the defender will not move to Anfield until the summer. It would not be an understatement to say he was a name most people were unaware of at the start of the winter window. To commit £60m for a 20-year-old is a hefty call but Liverpool view the French centre-back as a long-term investment and someone who will form an integral part of their backline for years to come. Given the club's defensive problems this season - they have conceded 33 goals from 24 Premier League games - and their ongoing injury crisis, it is also telling Arne Slot's side are prepared to wait until the summer for Jacquet, who will join from Ligue 1 Rennes. The question of whether they could have got him now has a simple answer - Rennes are simply unwilling to sanction a move until the summer. The French side are not in a rush for the money and adamant any fee for Jacquet would have to surpass their previous club record sale of £55.4m when Manchester City signed Jeremy Doku from them in 2023. Meanwhile, Liverpool are happy to wait, signing the player on a five-year contract until 2031, with the option for a further year. They see Jacquet as a young defender with plenty of senior experience for his age and their data analysis has backed the decision to spend so much on a player they believe has immense potential. "It's a lot of money but Jacquet has everything to become one of the best centre-backs in the world in the next few years," says French football expert and ESPN's Julien Laurens. "He is arguably the best centre-back of his generation. "He's quite tall, quick and strong - and he's a machine when it comes to duels in the air and on the ground. He reads the game well and is good on the ball. "He's not a proper ball-playing centre-back yet. Technically, there is a lot to improve on, but he's a smart kid and he can get there and become like a Virgil van Dijk." At Rennes, Jacquet has primarily played in a back three this season. When h...
OpenAI accused Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence company of “systematic and intentional destruction” of evidence in xAI ’s lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of trying to thwart competition in emerging markets. OpenAI said in a court filing Monday that xAI has failed to turn over internal documents to bolster allegations in its suit because it directed employees to use “ephemeral messaging tool...
OpenAI accused Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence company of “systematic and intentional destruction” of evidence in xAI ’s lawsuit accusing the ChatGPT maker of trying to thwart competition in emerging markets. OpenAI said in a court filing Monday that xAI has failed to turn over internal documents to bolster allegations in its suit because it directed employees to use “ephemeral messaging tools” that auto-delete communications after a certain time period. “Communications about every aspect of xAI’s business, including matters highly relevant to this case, have been routed through these message-destruction tools, even as (xAI) knew they were planning to sue and were under a legal duty to preserve,” OpenAI said in the filing. “Destroying evidence was the whole point. And it leaves OpenAI and the other targets of Musk’s litigation at an inequitable disadvantage.” XAI and its lawyer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk’s social media platform X and xAI filed an antitrust lawsuit against OpenAI and Apple Inc. in August, arguing that the iPhone maker’s decision to integrate ChatGPT into its mobile operating system stymies competition for other chatbots — including Musk’s Grok. The lawsuit seeks billions of dollars in damages. Read More: Musk Sues Apple, OpenAI, Saying They Hurt AI Competition OpenAI and Apple have denied the allegations in filings but a judge in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled in November that the case could proceed. OpenAI has accused Musk of “waging a campaign of lawfare” against the company, due in part to his longstanding feud with Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman . Musk and Altman worked together to found OpenAI in 2015, and Musk left the startup’s board in 2018. In Monday’s filing, lawyers for OpenAI said they have sought documents from xAI related to claims by Musk’s startup that it has faced barriers to entering the generative AI market as a result of an agreement between OpenAI and Apple. Musk’s company has “not produced a sing...
Merck could still be a winning stock, despite the pharmaceutical company's recent move to reprice one of its medications, Virtus Investment Partners chief market strategist Joe Terranova told CNBC's " Halftime Report " on Monday. Terranova suggested he is still bullish on the stock, even after the firm agreed last year to reduce the price of diabetes medication Januvia to $100 from $330 for patien...
Merck could still be a winning stock, despite the pharmaceutical company's recent move to reprice one of its medications, Virtus Investment Partners chief market strategist Joe Terranova told CNBC's " Halftime Report " on Monday. Terranova suggested he is still bullish on the stock, even after the firm agreed last year to reduce the price of diabetes medication Januvia to $100 from $330 for patients using the TrumpRx platform. "I believe in Merck," Terranova said Monday. "They report tomorrow morning, along with Pfizer , [so] we're going to hear a lot about how the agreements with the president on lowering the cost ... [of certain drugs is] affecting them." MRK 3M mountain Merck shares are up more than 30% over the past three months. Wall Street analysts predict Merck will earn $2.01 per share on revenue of $16.2 billion in the fourth quarter, according to FactSet data. Merck's stock has had a solid run, popping roughly 32% over the past three months. That's despite the pressure on drug prices, which have raised questions about its valuation. Also talks to acquire biotech firm Revolution Medicines fell apart last month, per The Wall Street Journal . Terranova said he had been adding other biotech and pharmaceutical names to the firm's portfolio, including Gilead Science , Eli Lilly and Regeneron as the sector gains ground. The S & P 500 Health Care index has added 8% over the past three months.
This documentary about four women, victimised as teenagers by the same man, is an instant rebuttal to that most unsympathetic question: why don’t women just leave their abuser? Last year I began a review of the BBC documentary To Catch a Stalker with the words “Welcome to part 86,747,398,464 of the continuing cataloguing via television documentary of the apparently infinite series Ways in Which La...
This documentary about four women, victimised as teenagers by the same man, is an instant rebuttal to that most unsympathetic question: why don’t women just leave their abuser? Last year I began a review of the BBC documentary To Catch a Stalker with the words “Welcome to part 86,747,398,464 of the continuing cataloguing via television documentary of the apparently infinite series Ways in Which Largely Men Terrorise Largely Women and Prevent Countless Millions of Them from Living Their Lives in Freedom and Contentment.” Welcome now to part 86,747,398,465 (providing, that is, we limit ourselves only to products from the BBC. To include Netflix’s contributions could break calculators.) Lover, Liar, Predator tells the stories of several women who were coerced, abused and raped by a man called Aaron Swan over his decades-long career. He was 17 when he approached Natalie at a party. She was 17 too but, as a devout Christian with a very protected upbringing, effectively younger and highly vulnerable to his charms. He put pressure on her to give up her virginity. She got pregnant and they married. He was “demeaning and unkind” to her, insulting her looks, claiming to be in love with his ex and subjecting her to violent, unwanted sex (“I endured whatever was required … I thought that’s what sex was”) for years. Continue reading...
Mikel Arteta has laughed off a suggestion from Paul Scholes that Arsenal would be the most boring team to win the Premier League, insisting his side are considered “the most exciting in Europe” in other countries. Scholes, the former Manchester United midfielder, pointed to the lack of goals from Arsenal’s front four this season and reliance on set pieces as evidence for his claim. Viktor Gyökeres...
Mikel Arteta has laughed off a suggestion from Paul Scholes that Arsenal would be the most boring team to win the Premier League, insisting his side are considered “the most exciting in Europe” in other countries. Scholes, the former Manchester United midfielder, pointed to the lack of goals from Arsenal’s front four this season and reliance on set pieces as evidence for his claim. Viktor Gyökeres is the club’s top scorer in the league with six, and Arsenal have scored 17 goals from set pieces – three more than any other club. Arteta, whose side head into the second leg of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium with a 3-2 advantage, dismissed the criticism after Arsenal became the first team to win all eight of their games in the league phase of the Champions League. “I hear completely the opposite: all around Europe that we are the most exciting team in Europe – the most goals, the most clean sheets,” the manager said. “Maybe I have different sources.” Asked why there was such a disparity of views at home and abroad, Arteta said: “I don’t know which people. You send me the names, the addresses and the email and maybe we can talk but I can’t give you a massive book of all the people.” Arsenal, who have not lost to Chelsea in their past nine meetings, last won the League Cup under George Graham in 1993. They brushed aside Leeds on Saturday to move six points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League and Arteta emphasised the need for his players to maintain momentum by reaching the final. “The big one is to get the team and players and all of our supporters together to enjoy that moment,” he said. “That is what really drives me. [Winning trophies] is a cycle that you want to repeat constantly, and we still have to do that, and some of them, they’ve never done it, so it’s always a first time. I think the group is really convinced that we have the ability to do it.” View image in fullscreen Mikel Arteta and Viktor Gyöke...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Waymo announced a $16 billion investment round aimed at bringing its robotaxi business to more US cities, as well as some overseas markets...
is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Waymo announced a $16 billion investment round aimed at bringing its robotaxi business to more US cities, as well as some overseas markets. The funding round was led by Dragoneer Investment Group, a “crossover” firm known for investing in late-stage tech companies before they go public. Waymo’s co-CEOs said in a blog post they would use some of the money to buy more vehicles to grow its fleets size, a crucial step as it seeks to launch in at least 20 new cities in 2026. The company currently operates more than 2,500 robotaxis in six US cities. The new funding values Waymo at $126 billion. Waymo’s latest funding round attracted several new investors, including Dragoneer, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global. Returning investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Perry Creek Capital, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, Temasek, and T. Rowe Price. The company last raised a $5.6 billion in 2024, valuing the company at $45 billion. Despite their promise to bring down costs by eliminating driver jobs, autonomous ridehail vehicles are enormously expensive. In addition to vehicle purchases, companies must install expensive sensors and computers into each vehicle. The robotaxis need to be monitored by remote operators during trips. And fleet managers handle EV charging, cleaning, and sensor calibration while the robotaxis are offline. Still, Waymo is one of the few companies to run a paid service with fully driverless vehicles in the US. Amazon’s Zoox is still running free trips in a handful of cities, while Tesla has yet to transition away from using safety monitors in the vehicle. Waymo says it plans to bring its robotaxis to a number of high profile markets, ...
Long-term investing is usually the key to life-changing returns in the stock market -- but not if you bet on the wrong horse. Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is an example of a perennial underperformer. Shares in the automotive giant have grown only 16% over the last decade. And while the total return jumps to 97% when you include cash dividends, that's still far below the S&P 500 index's gain of 325...
Long-term investing is usually the key to life-changing returns in the stock market -- but not if you bet on the wrong horse. Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is an example of a perennial underperformer. Shares in the automotive giant have grown only 16% over the last decade. And while the total return jumps to 97% when you include cash dividends, that's still far below the S&P 500 index's gain of 325% over the same time frame. Can Ford break out of its chronic slump and generate the cash flow needed to maintain or grow the dividend payout that represents the vast majority of its returns? Let's dig deeper to find out what might come next for the company. The administration of President Donald Trump has introduced uncertainty to many aspects of the U.S. economy, but the automotive industry is arguably the most affected by the new policies. Massive tariffs on all of the U.S.'s trading partners have disrupted global automotive supply chains. But more importantly, they make it difficult for companies like Ford to properly plan for the future or build production capacity in the best locations. Continue reading