Nearly half of the fastest-growing business investment since 2021 is tied to AI.
But inflation has not meaningfully improved.
AI investment is booming. Rates may stay high. Expensive technology stocks still have to justify their prices.
AI Investment Is Booming While Rates Stay High
The economy remains strong. Spending is healthy, jobs are stable, and unemployment is low.
Business investment is growing at its fastest pace since 2021. Nearly half of that investment is tied to the AI buildout.
That strength supports growth. But stubborn inflation gives the Fed more reason to keep rates high.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said more work is needed unless underlying inflation moves quickly toward the Fed’s fixed 2% target.
Kalshi put the chance of a rate hike next month at 53%. Watcher.Guru reported 49%.
Those estimates are disputed.
Gurgavin said, “NO WAY WE SEE A HIKE NEXT MONTH.” SG said Treasury bond buying alongside higher rates would be “extremely contradictory.”
Higher rates are a real concern. A hike next month is far less clear.
Electricity Is Becoming an AI Advantage
President Trump declared a national emergency and signed Executive Order 14420, banning foreign-made equipment from the US power grid.
The Department of Energy has 120 days to identify foreign transformers, inverters, and control systems for removal.
That puts replacement equipment in focus.
GE Vernova was described as the leading North American power transformer supplier. Eaton is investing $1,500,000,000 to expand US capacity. Powell Industries sources more than 90% of its materials from North America. Hubbell supplies transmission hardware and grid protection equipment.
AI needs electricity, so grid policy is now part of the AI buildout.
Anthropic reportedly beat Google and Microsoft for Nscale’s West Virginia campus in a $45 billion deal.
The price is only part of the story. Bidding is moving from chips to interconnection queues, and existing grid capacity can be worth more than better fiber.
A campus with available power offers something money cannot quickly create. Access to electricity is becoming an infrastructure advantage.
Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon Show Technology’s Scale
Microsoft has risen 35% since closing below its 200-week moving average in late March. That was its first close below the measure in 13 years.
The shares remain 7% below their all-time high.
Shay Boloor reported that Cathie Wood bought about $53M of Nvidia.
Amazon reported Q2 2026 revenue of $201 billion, above Walmart’s $188 billion.
In Q2 1996, Walmart had $26 billion in revenue. Amazon had $2 million.
The comparison shows how dramatically their relative scale has changed.
Palo Alto Expands Its Security Platform
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora reportedly explored acquiring Datadog and Okta as part of the company’s push into AI-era security.
Arora reportedly raised a possible deal with Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel in 2025, when Datadog was worth more than $40B. Pomel was not receptive, and no formal offer followed.
Talks with Okta reached product integration discussions, but the companies could not agree on price.
Palo Alto later acquired CyberArk for $25B and Chronosphere for $3.35B. It continues evaluating businesses including ClickHouse and Cribl.
The company has also developed an unannounced AI security product using Chronosphere data. More than 600 customers already use it, including FedEx, Home Depot, and DHL.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also discussed the software sell-off described as the “SaaSpocalypse.”
Amodei said, “We’re not interested in destroying anyone.”
Great Security Businesses Can Still Be Expensive Stocks
LongGameEquity called cybersecurity a strong AI opportunity. It also called the valuations “absolutely ridiculous.”
The listed valuations were high:
- CrowdStrike: 186 times forward earnings and 40 times sales
- Cloudflare: 209 times and 43 times
- Palo Alto: 87 times and 21 times
- Rubrik: 327 times and 11.5 times
- Zscaler: 38 times and 8 times
Investing Visuals separately called CrowdStrike an amazing company, but cited 110 times next-12-month EV/EBITDA against 26% revenue growth.
The business can be excellent while the stock price already assumes a lot.
Arora gave a related warning about neoclouds:
“In 2 years from now you will be able to buy a neocloud for less than they raise at today.”
He described them as capital-spending and return businesses whose equity will normalize when supply and demand balance.
Arora put Nebius in a different tier, describing it as a neoscaler capable of reaching scale.
Smaller Signals Across Cars, Hair Loss, and Government Stakes
MyWheels is starting a Dutch Tesla FSD car-sharing program with one Model 3 in Den Bosch. It expects to expand to 50 vehicles this year.
The cars are not fully autonomous. Drivers must remain ready to take control.
MyWheels will study usage and whether the technology reduces costly damage claims.
Bloomberg News reported growing investor interest in pattern hair-loss treatments. The condition affects an estimated 50 million men and 30 million women in the US, and no new drugs have been approved since the late 1990s.
Veradermics has risen nearly 500% since its February public debut. Absci has more than doubled in 2026.
Bloomberg News also reported that government stakes in publicly traded companies could face scrutiny in Washington and the courts before the midterm elections.
Trades and Price Levels Do Not Explain Business Value
Marcos Milla listed Tom Lee purchases in Intel, Micron, Lockheed Martin, Vertiv, SpaceX, and Freeport-McMoRan.
Milla separately listed sales of Broadcom, American Express, Meta, Northrop Grumman, Air Products and Chemicals, PNC Financial Services Group, and Texas Pacific Land.
Capitol Markets claimed Trump had bought up to $530,000 of Micron since March.
Copying trades from social media posts is a trap. A fund may sell for taxes or portfolio management, not because it expects the company to struggle.
StocksToBuyNow.ai also supplied Fibonacci levels across nuclear, critical materials, space, drones, AI utilities, AI power, AI hardware, AI security, AI applications, and robotics.
These are technical price levels. They do not explain the value of the underlying businesses.
Debt, Yields, and the Price You Pay
The 10-year yield reached 4.7 as the 30-year yield rose.
The US deficit is approaching two trillion per year. Net interest payments are one trillion, more than half of the deficit.
Ray Dalio estimated that a reckoning could come in three years, give or take two. The speaker stressed that the timing cannot be known precisely.
Stocks were described as yielding 1% and trading at 30 times earnings, compared with a historical average of 15-16. The speaker said returning to that average would mean a 50% decline.
He prefers productive assets, but said their ability to survive inflation may already be reflected in current valuations.
His approach starts with risk. Wait, research the business, and buy only at a margin-of-safety value.
AI, cybersecurity, and productive businesses may offer growth. But great companies are not great stocks at any price.