Today’s issue in preview:

• This new catalyst could send Bitcoin much higher from here

• An important new development for “the world’s most important trend”

• How to invest in AI and robotics… with one great company

• Learn our Top Themes to buy now

This new catalyst could send Bitcoin much higher from here

Credit: Vertigo3d

We drew a line in the sand for Bitcoin. And it didn’t take long to cross it.

Now, the world’s leading form of “digital gold” is in a bull market by our reckoning.

Back in March, we wrote a bullish research note on how we believed Bitcoin had reached an important bottom.

And earlier this month, we noted that if Bitcoin cleared the $82,500 level and reached a new six-month high, it would signal that Bitcoin is back in a bull market… which could attract billions in new buying and send it north of $100,000 per coin. This would, in turn, help drive adjacent bull markets in blockchain-based stablecoin and tokenization trends.

It didn’t take long for Bitcoin to challenge our key $82,500 level and leave it in the dust. On Monday, Bitcoin rallied past that level to reach $86,000, a new 10-month high. This is a huge change in market climate compared to earlier this year.

After reaching an all-time high of around $125,000 last October, Bitcoin entered a brutal bear market, declining by about 48% to the mid-$60,000 range.

Crypto specialists attributed this decline to the U.S. government withdrawing liquidity from financial markets, as well as to gold and AI trades drawing money flows that could have been directed toward Bitcoin.

Most long-term Bitcoin believers see it as a “store of value” that should maintain its purchasing power like gold and beachfront homes do. It should be a digital form of “hard money.” Sounds great.

However, from October 2025 to February 2026, Bitcoin traded more like a failing technology company than anything you’d call strong and stable.

In March, Bitcoin’s trading behavior changed significantly. It formed a bottom and gained 9.5% in one month, while technology stocks dropped and gold gained just 3.2%.

Importantly, Bitcoin outperformed stocks and gold as Operation Epic Fury created tremendous market volatility and hammered many sectors of the stock market. It was a “port in the storm.”

Importantly, Bitcoin recently rallied above its long-term 200-day moving average. This is a good sign of an improving health trend.

Remember what we say about the 200-day moving average around here: Securities below their 200-day moving average are on the wrong side of the tracks. It’s the ugly part of town. All the really bad things happen below the 200-day moving average. Bitcoin has broken above it.

Bitcoin has not only rallied over the past month but has also done so while the CLARITY Act failed to pass Congress. Many industry specialists believed a “pass” of this bill was bullish and a “fail” was bearish. Well, it failed to pass. And yet, bitcoin kept rising.

So, after a year of disappointing believers, has Bitcoin regained its place as a “store of value”?

Is it ready to be a “port in the storm” and a stabilizing component of serious portfolios?

I believe that is the case.

As you can see in the chart below, Bitcoin recently cleared the $82,5000 level and reached a new 10-month high.

As noted above, I believe this break is a signal to the market that Bitcoin is back in a bull market… which will draw in billions of dollars in new buying and send it north of $100,000 per coin. This will be bullish for the bull markets in blockchain-based stablecoins and tokenization. Let the money flow begin!

An important new development for “the world’s most important trend”

Credit: KanawatTH

In yesterday’s issue, we looked at the fresh all-time highs reached by the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) and noted the move was a bullish new development for the AI infrastructure trade, which we’ve labeled “the world’s most important trend.”

MAGS is the largest ETF designed to give investors exposure to the “Magnificent 7,” a group of dominant technology firms comprised of Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Meta (META).

Together, these firms are worth about $25 trillion and make up roughly 31% of the benchmark S&P 500. This group includes nearly all the “hyperscalers” leading the AI revolution. It plays a central role in the AI infrastructure trend. And much to the disappointment of AI bears, the group just reached a new all-time high.

But this move wasn’t the only hugely positive development for AI infrastructure this week. On Monday, the giant of AI memory – Micron (MU) – broke out of a sideways consolidation pattern and reached its highest point since early July. This is a big deal.

Over the past two months, we’ve published a special series of research notes analyzing the AI infrastructure megatrend.

The status of this critical trend has become one of the great sagas of the business and investment world… a source of intense disagreement among industry bulls and bears. It’s a trend whose outcome could have large effects on your portfolio.

Given AI’s enormous promise, the firms above have invested over $1 trillion in AI infrastructure. They are on pace to invest over $700 billion this year alone and more than $4 trillion after that.

Both the scale and the velocity of this investment boom are unprecedented. It is the largest collective investment effort in history.

Big Tech’s historic investment boom has made the entire “AI infrastructure” trend responsible for a large share of America’s GDP growth and stock market returns over the past two years. It has also drawn the skeptical scrutiny of many widely followed investment analysts who claim the trend is a bubble… one that will soon explode and cause tremendous damage to stock prices and the global economy.

If this hugely consequential trend isn’t the most important trend in the stock market, then it is certainly in the top three.

I believe the AI infrastructure trend has years to run. I believe the world’s smartest, most connected tech insiders who know the true state of bleeding-edge AI development and have real-time stats on AI investment ROI, such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Satya Nadella (Microsoft) and Andy Jassy (Amazon), could possibly… perhaps maybe… just might… know far more about AI and their businesses than outsiders know about it.

As much press as AI gets, let’s remember that less than 1% of the global population pays for top-tier AI programs. And I estimate less than 10% of large companies believe AI has made a meaningful impact on their businesses.

This revolutionary technology hasn’t yet proliferated, achieved mass adoption, or had mass impact.

Over the past few months, we have analyzed price action in critical areas of the AI infrastructure trade – including the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and optical networking stocks such as Lumentum (LITE) – to guide our trading. The trend in computer memory stocks such as Micron is another key aspect of AI infrastructure we must analyze.

Memory chips are a critical part of AI data centers because AI systems constantly require large amounts of data to perform their tasks. Think of memory as the information sitting within easy reach of an AI chip. The faster the memory, the faster powerful AI chips can get the data they need. As AI models get bigger and smarter, they need more and faster memory to keep up.

Micron is America’s largest memory chip maker. Along with South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix, it is one of the “big three” global memory chip makers. The state of Micron is essentially the state of the memory business.

The massive AI infrastructure buildout has been a boon to Micron’s business. Micron revenue grew 49% in fiscal 2025, and the stock soared over 950% from June 1, 2025, to June 1, 2026.

Since reaching a high in June, Micron’s stock has moved in line with the semiconductor sector, which we’ve been tracking closely.

As you can see in the one-year chart below, Micron declined from its June high and entered a directionless sideways consolidation. On Monday, the stock surged 2.77% and broke out of this sideways pattern to reach its highest point since June. Importantly, another AI infrastructure giant – Marvell Technology (MRVL) – did the same.

These new short-term highs by themselves are not “all clear, full speed ahead” signals for the world’s most important trend. But when you pair them with new all-time highs for MAGS, you see the weight of the evidence is tilting bullish for the AI infrastructure trade.

How to invest in AI and robotics… with one great company

Credit: OGULCAN AKSOY

If you look under the hood of the Magnificent 7’s rally to new all-time highs (detailed above), you see a large portion of it is attributable to a large upside move in Meta (META). The stock has gained 22% over the past two weeks, a phenomenal move for a megacap stock.

This move makes our bullish July 31 call on the stock a big winner. In that research note, we detailed how Meta was badly oversold, represented growth at a reasonable price, and would draw large amounts of buying from institutional money managers.

It didn’t take long for this thesis to deliver value. Meta stock is up 39% in less than two months, which is a tremendous 268% annualized pace.

“Great Hunt, but that’s in the past. What’s the next good big tech trade?”

I believe the answer to that question is a stock I’ve called “the best way to invest in AI and robotics at the same time” – Amazon (AMZN).

Avid Money & Megatrends readers know that we believe AI and robotics are two of the biggest business and investment trends of the 21st century. They will revolutionize the way we live as much as electricity or the automobile did…. while creating huge stock market winners along the way.

Tech giant Amazon is uniquely positioned to benefit from both technologies.

Although everyone knows about Amazon, the online retailer, and almost everyone is a customer, most people don’t know about Amazon, the giant employer of robots.

Last June, Amazon announced it had deployed its 1 millionth robot across its business. It describes itself as the world’s largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics.

Amazon operates more than 1,000 warehouses in the U.S. It ships millions of packages across millions of miles every month. This blizzard of activity can become more efficient and profitable with AI-enhanced logistics and robots that don’t complain, don’t take coffee breaks, and don’t ask for raises.

In other words, Amazon is uniquely well-suited to benefit from a megatrend in which robots will become cheaper, faster, more dexterous, more durable, and smarter soon.

Amazon is also heavily involved in AI. It owns equity stakes in AI leaders OpenAI and Anthropic. Plus, its huge AWS cloud computing division is benefiting from skyrocketing demand for AI compute. In Q2 2026, AWS generated $42 billion in quarterly revenue and 37% year-over-year growth.

AWS profit growth is also incredible. AWS’s operating income rose 64% YoY to $16.6 billion, with its operating margin reaching 39.4%, versus 32.9% a year earlier. AWS is now running at roughly a $169 billion annualized revenue rate

Add these robotics and AI assets to the world’s largest online retail business, and you get a pretty good bet on the future of technology in one stock.

Plus, a “back of the envelope” valuation analysis says you get all the growth and potential detailed above for a reasonable price.

Our conservative estimate of AWS value is around $1.5 trillion. Bank of America analysts recently estimated its value at roughly $1.9 trillion. From what we can decipher from Goldman Sach’s research, it has a roughly similar estimate of AWS value.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Let’s break down Amazon’s E-commerce and Amazon’s Digital Ads business separately:

E-Commerce: Amazon’s annual revenue run rate in retail is currently $547 billion. Comparable retail businesses often trade at 1x–1.8x sales, which implies an approximate valuation of around $800 billion.

Digital Advertising: FY26 revenue is north of $80 billion, with operating margins likely above 50%, resulting in an operating income of $40 billion. At a conservative 20x EBIT multiple, we have an $800 billion business there alone.

Between AWS, E-Commerce, and Digital Advertising, you get to $3.1 trillion in value… which is more than Amazon’s current market cap of $2.7 trillion.

Also consider that Amazon’s combined stake in OpenAI and Anthropic is worth around $240 billion right now. Then there’s…

• Amazon Prime Video

• Zoox: Amazon’s autonomous vehicle bet.

• Project Kuiper: Amazon’s satellite internet initiative taking on Starlink.

• One Medical: Amazon’s primary care business

• And then add on the fact that Amazon is “still in the early stages of how we’ll leverage robotics” as per CEO Andy Jassy.

With approximately 800,000 warehouse and delivery employees, even a modest improvement in operating efficiency from automation can produce billions of dollars of extra free cash flow at Amazon’s scale.

In other words, there’s a lot to like about Amazon’s growth prospects. And as we’ve detailed above, the current valuation is not excessive. It leaves plenty of upside should Amazon build on its momentum and execute on its plans. History shows that’s a bet worth making.

Market Notes

• Our recommendation to invest in the genomics megatrend continues to pay off. Sector leaders Twist Bioscience (TWST), Natera (NTRA), and 10X Genomics (TXG) reached new all-time highs today. Twist is up 415% since our bullish note. 10X is up 578%. Natera is up 123%.

• The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) advanced to a new three-month high today.

• The widely followed and aggressive technology ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) reached a new 10-month high today.

• Tech supergiant Apple (AAPL) reached a new all-time high today.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

An urgent message from our colleagues:

Buy this off-the-radar AI stock Sept. 29th

You won’t hear about this from CNBC, Forbes or the Wall Street Journal. But Donald Trump has committed $1 billion in support for an obscure AI stock… A company helping to unleash a whole new category of Artificial Intelligence. Louis Navellier and his team have spent months researching this opportunity. He even traveled to Mar-a-Lago several times, personally. And he anticipates a potential announcement from this company on or before Sept. 29th. That’s why he’s encouraging his readers to buy the stock now – before that date.

Watch his brand-new presentation detailing everything you need to know, including the name and ticker of the company behind the coming revolution.

The post This new catalyst could send Bitcoin much higher from here appeared first on MarketWise.

Today’s issue in preview:

• Six stocks to play inflation defense and the AI boom at the same time

• A major reason why you should be bullish on stocks right now

• This stock is the best way to invest in AI and robotics at the same time

• Learn our Top Themes to buy now

Six stocks to play inflation defense and the AI boom at the same time

Credit: Ron and Patty Thomas

It’s ugly. It’s volatile.

But it’s a bull market in U.S. natural gas stocks.

And if you’d like to make money from the AI boom or protect your financial life from the harmful effects of inflation, or both, you should look into what’s happening and why.

Over the past six months, I’ve written a special series of research notes on publicly traded assets such as timberland giant Weyerhaeuser (WY) and construction aggregates firm Vulcan Materials (VMC) that can add a robust “inflation defense” component to your financial life.

You probably know why being vigilant against inflation is important: governments in most Western nations have promised far too many things to far too many people. They are spending far more on taxpayer benefits and wars than they collect in tax revenues.

The related debts and obligations governments have taken on cannot possibly be paid back with sound money. They can only be paid back with debased, devalued money… much of which is created out of thin air. This is driving inflation and significant currency debasement.

Measured against a basket of commonly traded raw materials, the dollar has lost 55% of its value over the past seven years. That’s an annualized loss of purchasing power of about 10%.

Prices are going up because the value of our money is going down.

Everyone should consider which assets can help them preserve their wealth during periods of inflation.

When I provide people recommendations on how to approach this challenge, I urge them to keep my number one rule in mind: You want to own in-demand, useful assets that cannot be easily replaced or replicated. You want to own businesses and real estate properties that produce in-demand, scarce resources, products, and services.

This group of assets includes quality farmland, beachfront real estate, timberland, great businesses, and oil and gas pipelines.

When a very difficult or impossible-to-replicate business or piece of real estate produces in-demand, scarce resources, products, and services, it tends to hold its value no matter what the dollar is doing. Its price will constantly “recalibrate” to accommodate an increase in currency units.

It’s like the difference between slicing a pizza into 6 or 8 pieces. The number of slices changed, but the amount of pizza is the same.

In addition to the assets listed above, I’ve added “enormous proven reserves of in-demand natural gas” to our list of inflation defense vehicles this year.

Avid Money & Megatrends readers know that AI Power Consumption and the Power Grid Upgrade are two of our highest-conviction long-term themes.

Given AI’s enormous promise, big tech firms like Meta (META), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) are racing to build the world’s best AI models and infrastructure. They’ve already spent more than a trillion dollars. This year, they are on pace to spend over $700 billion on AI infrastructure, with more than $3 trillion expected to follow.

All that AI infrastructure is poised to consume vast amounts of electricity. S&P Global estimates that global electricity demand will increase by nearly 50% by 2040.

I’ve frequently mentioned that AI’s growing power demands are a major driver of natural gas demand, as it is the preferred clean-burning fuel for power plants that support AI data centers. Growing demand for U.S. natural gas from Europe and Asia is another powerful demand driver.

A compelling way to invest in this theme – and fortify your portfolio against inflation to boot – is to own a basket of America’s leading natural gas producers. This group includes EQT (EQT), Expand Energy (EXE), Antero Resources (AR), Range Resources (RRC), CNX Resources (CNX), and Comstock Resources (CRK).

Buying a basket of these firms makes you the owner of a vast and diversified collection of the highest-quality natural gas fields in the United States.

As you can see in the four-year chart below for natural gas giant Range Resources, the stock has formed a series of higher highs and higher lows since 2023. (Charts of fellow giants EQT and EXE are very similar.) A series of higher highs and higher lows is one of the quintessential features of a long-term bull market.

Mind you, this series of higher highs and higher lows is extremely volatile. You could even call it ugly. Range and its fellow producers have volatile stocks because the natural gas market itself is volatile. Natural gas prices are subject to huge swings.

Natural gas demand is greatly influenced by weather, while supply depends on infrastructure, production capacity, and storage availability. This creates a volatile price environment where sudden changes in the weather can produce huge swings in the natural gas price.

It may be volatile, and it may be ugly, but it’s still a series of higher highs and higher lows for U.S. natural gas producers. If you have a strong stomach and a desire to invest in the AI boom while playing inflation defense, consider adding this theme to your portfolio.

A major reason why you should be bullish on stocks right now

Credit: Art Wager

This week, the stock market sent us a message loud and clear: It’s a bull market in megabanks.

And that’s good for the value of your 401(k).

This week, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), U.S. Bancorp (USB), and Bank of America (BAC) reached new all-time highs. Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG) reached a new high. Spanish banking giants Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Banco Santander (SAN) reached new all-time highs. Canadian banking giants Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) reached new all-time highs.

You know JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America.

You may not know the others, but they are massive, consequential parts of the global financial machine. And they are all registering new highs. This is a big deal.

As a rule, I avoid investing in individual banking stocks. Since I started trading stocks in 1997, I’ve seen too many seemingly strong and safe financial companies look good one day and then be crippled the next day… only for the investment community to later find out they were hiding or mismanaging liabilities.

However, I like to monitor the price action in broad groups of banking stocks. The health of a region’s financial system can serve as a good barometer of its overall economic health… or at least a good gauge of all-important financial liquidity, which has a huge influence on asset price movements. All the good time and all the bad times in a geographical region eventually make their way to the P&L statements of banks.

The stock market is the world’s greatest forecasting mechanism. It tends to look ahead 6-12 months. When an industry is in a recession, its stock prices will rise before the news media announces it is recovering. When an industry seems to be doing well, its stock prices will decline before the news covers its downturn. This is often called “discounting” or “pricing in” the future.

Applied to banking, when a region is about to start doing well, its banks will rise in advance of the good times. When a region is about to struggle, its banks will plummet in advance of the bad times.

A list of banking stocks as large and varied as the one above, all hitting new highs, means there is tremendous liquidity sloshing around the world’s banking systems.

It means there’s plenty of money to loan out to businesses, consumers, real estate developers, and infrastructure builders. It also means there’s plenty of money that can flow into stocks and send them higher. In layman’s terms, it means “Party On.”

Reading about bank stocks isn’t nearly as exciting as explosive sectors, such as AI and space, but this surge across a wide variety of major banks is hugely important.

Will the boom in global financial liquidity and stock markets come to an end someday? Sure. All booms eventually end. But for now, the money spigots are open, and this very important trend is up. Position yourself accordingly!

This stock is the best way to invest in AI and robotics at the same time

Credit: HJBC

Over the past year, I’ve frequently called Amazon (AMZN) “the best way to invest in AI and robotics at the same time.”

To this thesis, the market is saying, “So far, so good.”

Avid Money & Megatrends readers know that we believe AI and robotics are two of the biggest business and investment trends of the 21^st century. They will revolutionize the way we work and play as much as electricity or the automobile did…. while creating huge stock market winners along the way.

Tech giant Amazon is uniquely positioned to benefit from both technologies.

Although everyone knows about Amazon, the online retailer, and almost everyone is a customer, most people don’t know about Amazon, the giant employer of robots.

Last June, Amazon announced it had deployed its 1 millionth robot across its business. It describes itself as the world’s largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics.

Amazon operates more than 1,000 warehouses in the U.S. It ships millions of packages across millions of miles every month. This blizzard of activity can become more efficient and profitable with AI-enhanced logistics and robots that don’t complain, don’t take coffee breaks, and don’t ask for raises.

In other words, Amazon is uniquely well-suited to benefit from a megatrend in which robots will become cheaper, faster, more dexterous, more durable, and smarter in the near future.

Amazon is also heavily involved in AI. Its huge AWS cloud computing division is benefiting from skyrocketing demand for AI compute. Amazon recently reported that this division generated a huge $42 billion in quarterly revenue and 37% year-over-year growth. Amazon also owns equity stakes in AI leaders OpenAI and Anthropic.

Add these robotics and AI assets to the world’s largest online retail business, and you get a pretty good bet on the future of technology in one stock.

But don’t take our word for it. Take the market’s word.

After reporting fantastic second-quarter business results on July 30, Amazon’s stock surged to a new all-time high. The stock is up 18% over the past year. Given that we are in the early days of the proliferation of AI and robotics, we expect to see this uptrend continue.

Market Notes

• Our recommendation to invest in the Agent Supernova via the communication infrastructure and cybersecurity provider Cloudflare (NET) continues to pay off. The stock jumped to an all-time high this week. It has risen 34% since our recommendation less than two months ago.

• Our unique debasement trade of owning sports franchise firm Madison Square Garden Sports (MSGS) is a big winner. The stock is up 43% since our January research note.

• Our recommendation to invest in the Boomer health care megatrend continues to pay off. Drug giant Merck (MRK) reached a new all-time high this week. The stock has returned 69% over the past year.

• The ophthalmology boom we detailed in June continues to create stock winners. Eye health giant Glaukos (GKOS) reached a new all-time high this week.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

An urgent message from our colleagues:

This AI System identified the stocks positioned to surge

While everyone rushes into Nvidia and SpaceX, one AI insider says the real money will be made elsewhere. Keith Kaplan’s AI system has identified a small group of stocks positioned to surge as the big-name AI trade breaks down.

Watch his free briefing now before August 31st.

The post Six stocks to play inflation defense and the AI boom at the same time appeared first on MarketWise.

Today’s issue in preview:

• AI goes to the farm: How to invest in the agricultural revolution

• Airlines are charging us high prices because they can. That’s a powerful investment message.

• This tech industry is poised to soar in value and adoption. These stocks will benefit.

• Learn our Top Themes to buy now

Airlines are charging us high prices because they can. That’s a powerful investment message.

Credit: CHUYN

If you want to get a lively complaint session going at your next barbecue, just bring up how expensive plane tickets are these days.

Immediately upon mentioning the subject, your friends and family will burst forth with detailed gripes about how much spring break or their trip to see their sister just cost them. Everybody has noticed flight costs are soaring. Airfare in the U.S. in June was up 26.5% compared with a year earlier, according to the latest federal data.

Rising fuel prices are partly to blame, but airlines are also charging high prices just because they can.

Flights cost an arm and a leg, and we continue to buy them. Because the U.S. economy is stronger than almost everyone in the mainstream media gives it credit for… and the airline business is booming.

As evidence, we present the new all-time high in the U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) and its constituents, such as Delta Air Lines (DAL), JetBlue (JBLU), and United Airlines (UAL).

Over the past ten months, I’ve written dozens of research notes that analyzed the soaring share prices of trucking stocks, industrial stocks, diesel engine makers, steelmakers, shopping mall operators, and hotel chains.

At the end of each note, I pointed to their soaring stock prices and told readers that the U.S. economy is doing much better than most people think

Each of the above industries is highly sensitive to ups and downs in the U.S. economy. Their fortunes rise and fall with America’s ability to build infrastructure projects, go on vacation, transport goods, spend money at the mall, and generally just “get along.” And most people don’t realize this, but stock prices in those industries are booming.

This exceptional price strength across a broad swath of critical companies, which are highly sensitive to U.S. economic health, suggests the economy is actually doing very well. Industries involved in making things, transporting things, and buying things are enjoying growing revenues and rising stock prices.

And keep in mind: The stock market is one of the world’s greatest forecasting mechanisms. It tends to look ahead 6-12 months. When an industry is in a recession, its stock prices will rise before the news media says it is recovering. When an industry seems to be doing well, its stock prices will decline before the news covers its downturn. This is often called “discounting the future.”

The stock prices of large U.S. airlines are another important “real world” indicator. The fortunes of these firms rise and fall with America’s ability to pay for vacations and travel for business. And their market values just surged to new multi-year highs.

You can read a thousand opinions and forecasts related to the Iran war, the new Fed Chair, or the direction of interest rates. However, there’s only one source of objective truth: Market prices.

Today’s market prices are the sum and current manifestation of all knowledge held by industry insiders, connected investors, government officials, and bankers who quietly control huge swaths of the economy. These people know 50 times as much about their industries of focus as you or I do.

Their knowledge manifests itself through action… and that action that sets market prices. Market prices are not always perfect, but most of the time, they know hell of a lot more than any economist, podcaster, X poster, or investment guru.

If you ever get brain overload from listening to or reading lots of “experts” espousing lots of conflicting opinions about a war, a technology, or the health of the economy, you can easily tune them out and focus on signals that contain more distilled insider knowledge in them than all those experts combined: Market prices.

Sure, the global economy has problems. It always does. But keep in mind: Making money in stocks is never about being in problem-free economic climates. It’s about being in economic climates where the big negatives are overwhelmed by the even bigger positives.

Right now, the big positives are driving the market values of critical and highly economically sensitive firms to new all-time highs. You can believe your opinions, someone else’s opinions, or something far more informed: The market. And the market says, “We’re booming. Trade accordingly!”

AI goes to the farm: How to invest in an agricultural revolution

Credit: Bruce Peter Morin

In late 2022, the revolutionary new AI program ChatGPT was released to the public. Since then, AI has proliferated into every area of the economy and become one of the most powerful financial forces in history.

It’s even making its way to the farm… and could make one of the world’s best manufacturing businesses even better.

As evidence, I present you the long-term uptrend in Deere & Company (DE), aka John Deere.

John Deere is America’s largest manufacturer of agricultural tractors and farm machinery. The company’s unique shade of green is a common sight in fields and farms across the country.

John Deere isn’t your typical 189-year-old stodgy manufacturing company, however. Bulls on the stock say it’s an AI company dressed as a tractor company.

Deere is often cited as one of the best ways to play the boom in big data analytics and AI because it has invested heavily in building its “precision farming” expertise and product suite.

This includes data analytics and machine sensory technology that allow farmers to precisely place seeds, apply fertilizer, and spray crops with pesticides… all of which help reduce farming costs and improve crop yields.

Deere is also rolling out autonomous operating features, which essentially turn tractors into farm robots.

Deere’s investment in technology and its massive manufacturing capacity give it a significant competitive advantage over its competitors.

Importantly, Deere employs a powerful business model we call the “Money Machine” model.

Businesses that produce expensive, complex, and specialized machines like tractors, locomotives, surgical robots, and jet engines make money not only on initial product sales, but they also enjoy recurring, high-margin revenue for years afterward by selling maintenance services, replacement parts, and consumable materials the machines constantly use up, burn up, and wear down.

Owning such firms gets even better: After a customer buys an expensive, specialized machine, he is usually “locked in” or “married” to its manufacturer. You want to stick with the original manufacturer’s specialized parts and service plans.

After all, if you buy a $4 million locomotive or a $500,000 tractor, you want to make sure it has quality replacement parts and expert ongoing maintenance. You don’t want to risk switching to a different firm in pursuit of saving a few bucks. So for better or worse, you’re married to the manufacturer… often for 7+ years.

The positives above have helped Deere stock appreciate by 90% in value over the past four years. As you can see in the chart below, the stock is close to breaking out to a new all-time high.

Deere is an excellent demonstration that when you have a megatrend as big and broad as AI or robotics, there are always many ways to benefit from it. Even a 189-year-old manufacturing company can adopt the technology and benefit from it.

Deere’s total addressable market for precision farming around the world is gigantic, so I bet this uptrend continues for a long time.

This tech industry is poised to soar in value and adoption. These stocks will benefit.

Credit: Stefan Aue

In today’s frenetic world, where you can get up-to-the-second market updates, prices, and opinions on your phone, in your car, on an airplane, it’s easy to forget where the powerful, glacier-like long-term trends are… and how they can make you a fortune.

This is where Money & Megatrends comes in. One of our core jobs is to get you on the right side of gigantic, multi-year tech, business, and demographic trends that shape our world and create enormous wealth.

We’re looking to invest in themes and industries with such massive runways for growth… with so much potential to create value for society… that could attract such large money flows… that financially, we are running downhill… and playing the game of wealth-building in “Easy” mode.

This brings us to one of our highest conviction long-term bets: The Robotics Revolution.

Over the past two years, I’ve urged friends and colleagues to become heavily involved in the robotics megatrend. It is one of the biggest financial opportunities of our lives.

At Money & Megatrends, we occasionally trade and track trends that last less than 12 months. The robotics megatrend will last more than 12 years.

It is a massive, multifaceted trend that will transform the world. It will yield greater factory automation, surgical robots, autonomous cars, autonomous air taxis, humanoid worker robots, and much more.

Within two years, Amazon will have more robots working for it than human employees.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, more than 700,000 new industrial robots will be installed annually by 2028, up from 542,000 in 2024. That represents roughly 30% growth in annual installations and about a 7% annual growth rate.

Interact Analysis forecasts the warehouse and factory mobile-robot market to expand at a 19% annual rate through 2030. Revenue is projected to rise from just under $5 billion in 2024 to $14 billion in 2030—nearly tripling in six years.

Like most long-term megatrends, this one has a variety of investment angles. Compelling individual companies include Kratos Defense (KTOS, drones), Tesla (TSLA, autonomous cars, humanoids), Fanuc (FANUY, factory robots), Cognex (CGNX, machine vision) Ambarella (AMBA, machine vision), and Symbotic (SYM, factory robots).

ETF-focused investors can consider the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation ETF (ROBO), the Global X Robotics & AI ETF (BOTZ), and the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ).

Speaking of such ETFs, a four-year chart (below) of ROBO provides a good long-term perspective of this megatrend.

As you can see by taking the “long view,” the robotics industry is in a clear uptrend. This means the industry is enjoying the strong tailwinds I forecasted years ago. An investor in robotics is financially “running downhill” right now and will be for years.

Market Notes

• Our recommendation to invest in the AI boom via Dell Technologies (DELL) continues to pay off. The stock reached a new all-time high this week.

• Our recommendation to invest in the genomics bull market continues to pay off. Leading synthetic DNA firm Twist Biosciences (TWST) reached a new all-time high this week.

• The American consumer lives… and is spending with enthusiasm. Expensive drinkware and cooler maker Yeti Holdings (YETI) reached a new one-year high this week.

• The bull market in biotechnology continues. Biotech giant Amgen (AMGN) reached a new all-time high this week.

• The American consumer is spending plenty on travel. Online travel giant Expedia (EXPE) reached a new all-time high this week.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

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