money

Warren Buffett has built a reputation for studying the landscape and spotting financial issues before others realize there’s a problem. Twenty years ago, at a 2005 Berkshire Hathaway meeting, Buffett was blunt: “I basically believe that anything that would take Social Security payments below their present guaranteed level is a mistake.”

Image source: Getty Images.

The problem has been brewing

Based on any retirement planning you’ve done, you’ll probably not be surprised that the Social Security trust is in serious danger of running dry. The program collects payroll taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Both employees and employers contribute 6.2% of the employees’ wages, up to the annual wage base limit of $176,100.

The money collected today goes toward paying Social Security benefits to current beneficiaries. When the Social Security Administration (SSA) collects more than it pays out, the remaining money goes into the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI) and is invested in Treasury securities. When the SSA collects less in Social Security payroll taxes than it pays out, the SSA must dip into the trust fund for the money it needs to pay the benefits earned.

According to the SSA’s 2024 Trustees Report, the OASI trust fund is projected to become depleted in 2033, unless Congress intervenes to shore up the program. While several factors have played a role in draining the fund, demographics may be the most critical. In 1960, there were 5.1 workers for every Social Security recipient. Today, that number is just 2.8 and expected to continue falling.

The SSA cannot pay full Social Security benefits once the money invested in Treasury securities is gone. At that point, the Trustees say that Social Security benefits would be reduced by 23%.

Buffett’s proposals to get Social Security back on solid ground

Buffett has been consistent about recommending moderate changes to the program, including:

Remove the taxable earnings cap

As of 2025, Social Security taxes only apply to incomes up to $176,100. For example, a person who earns $400,000 annually only pays Social Security taxes on the first $176,100. No Social Security taxes are collected on the remaining $223,900.

Buffett believes that the U.S. should eliminate this cap so that higher earners can contribute more to the program. This approach would boost Social Security revenue significantly and is unlikely to affect the financial stability of wealthier taxpayers.

Slightly increase payroll taxes

No one enjoys a tax hike, which may help explain why politicians have been so hesitant to suggest them. Politicians want to be seen as the people who cut taxes. There’s only one problem with that: Cutting taxes isn’t always good for the long term. For example, President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill“ expanded the standard deduction for seniors and lowered how much can be collected in taxes on benefits.

Add that to the Social Security Fairness Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in early January 2025. The Social Security Fairness Act eliminated the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) rules. These two programs decreased the amount that over 3.2 million people — including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and federal employees — were eligible to receive in Social Security benefits.

While each tax break may have come as welcome news to most, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) found that they shaved a full year off the expected solvency timeline, meaning money is being drained from the Social Security trust fund at a faster rate than believed just last year.

Buffett suggests a slight boost in Social Security payroll taxes, saying even a modest hike would generate additional funds over time. In addition, a small tax hike would help secure the program’s financial stability without unfairly burdening workers or employers.

Raise the full retirement age (FRA)

In 1960, American men could expect to live to age 66.6 on average, and American women to age 73.1. Today, American men can expect to live to 77.2 on average, and American women to age 82.1. This increase in life expectancy means more years in retirement, and more Social Security benefits paid out. The SSA could stretch the Social Security trust fund further by raising the FRA.

Reduce Social Security benefits for wealthy retirees

Buffett, who once famously pointed out that his secretary paid a “far higher tax rate“ than Buffett himself, believes that the wealthiest retirees will do fine if their benefits are scaled back. According to Buffett, adjusting payments for high earners allows the SSA to direct more resources to those retirees who depend on their monthly benefits the most.

Given the number of Americans who collect Social Security, it’s fair to assume that many have done everything they can to maximize benefits and don’t want to see their benefits slashed. Warren Buffett has spent the past two decades offering potential fixes to the issue. Now, if Congress can get on board, a solution may be found.

Sometimes old dog meme coins can learn new tricks, and for Dogecoin, (DOGE 2.38%) that process may finally be underway. After years of little in the way of protocol changes, the coin’s developers are now circulating a few proposals that could expand Dogecoin’s capabilities in ways that actually matter.

Two ideas are on the table right now. If either gets developed and sees use, Dogecoin’s appeal might widen beyond memes and momentum. Here’s what’s being considered and how it could change things.

Image source: Getty Images.

This would be quite the new trick

Presently, Dogecoin does not natively support smart contracts, which is why decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and complex decentralized apps (dApps) never had a chance to grow on its base layer.

What’s new is a concrete proposal to add a feature to the coin’s protocol that would let Dogecoin nodes verify a type of cryptographic proof called zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs as part of a transaction. That would enable Dogecoin to host Layer-2 (L2) chains for faster and more efficient transactions, and also provide virtual machines that execute off-chain. This means it would create a separate but closely linked system for quickly running certain complex calculations.

But why should investors care?

Because this route could bring Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible smart contract execution to Dogecoin, thereby enabling Ethereum’s huge corps of developers to easily create applications for the chain if they choose to do so. In other words, this is the shortest bridge between Dogecoin’s powerful brand and the programmable crypto economy, the area where most of the value lies.

This proposal lives in Dogecoin Core’s developer forum. If it’s agreed on, it would still need to be implemented, and it’s unclear how much time a major addition like this one would take. Plus, there is still community debate about the complexity of the proposal and also its scope.

So don’t hold your breath waiting for this new feature because it might not ever come to fruition, even if it would be enormous for the coin’s odds of gaining value over time.

There’s a potential revenue flywheel here

The second idea that investors need to know is more subtle, but potentially even more powerful for holders.

If Dogecoin can verify cryptographic proofs on-chain as the proposal calls for, submitting those transactions will require network fees, which are paid in Dogecoin’s native coin, DOGE. So each proof-verified action on the L2 chain would create more marginal demand for the coin than transactions on the main chain currently do.

Today, fee revenue on Dogecoin is modest, a byproduct of transfers; so far in Q3 2025, it generated just $281,557 in fees. Fees are paid to miners, and no portion of the fees are burned, taking coins out of circulation. If proof verification becomes a new transaction class, a flywheel could potentially form, with more useful apps, more proofs, more fees, more miner incentives, and more reasons for users and platforms to hold some DOGE to interact with the network. And there’s some early evidence that the team behind the proposal is building with those goals in mind.

As positive as these proposals could be, investors should keep three caveats front and center. First, as stated before, proposals are not products, and Dogecoin’s culture is conservative about base-layer changes. Don’t expect anything to move forward without the developer community spending at least a bit more time deliberating publicly.

Second, the coin’s supply is expansionary by design. Roughly 5 billion new coins are issued each year, so any utility that it develops needs to create economics that grow faster than that to meaningfully move the value needle over time.

Finally, there still isn’t an investment thesis for buying this coin yet. While that could change in the future, given what’s being considered, you should wait for some strong evidence of actual progress before even considering whether it would be smart to make a small investment.

One of the many big geopolitical stories in the world today is the changing tariff regime in the United States. Key trading partner China is retaliating in a way that only China can, by limiting access to rare-earth metals, which are vital in the technology sector.

And that has led to a huge boon for MP Materials (MP -10.99%), which produces rare-earth metals in the United States. Does this make MP Materials a smart buy?

Image source: Getty Images.

What’s going on in the tariff world?

The new administration in Washington D.C. is raising tariffs on foreign countries that export products to the U.S. market. Given that U.S. consumers represent a valuable customer group, the tariffs are a very big deal. Impacted countries are attempting to negotiate and/or retaliate in an effort to limit the impact that tariff changes will have on their economies. China is one of the largest exporters to the United States and negotiations have been tense.

China’s wild card is the fact that it is the world’s largest producer of rare earth metals. These metals are used in electronics, including in highly sensitive high-tech gear that might be used for defense purposes. In the face of U.S. tariffs, China has been more than willing to limit access to rare-earth metals. And that is potentially a large problem for the United States.

This is where MP Materials comes in, since it is a U.S.-based supplier of rare earth metals. It didn’t just appear overnight, the company went public a few years ago. The whole idea of the business is to produce rare earth metals from within a politically and economically stable country, giving technology-driven customers what might be seen as a more reliable supply option for these vital materials. In hindsight, MP Materials’ timing could hardly have been any better.

There have been big investments in MP Materials

The importance of MP Materials is highlighted by two big events. First, on July 10, the U.S. government made a $400 million investment in the business, which included convertible securities. Second, and just five days later, Apple announced a $500 million partnership with MP Materials around rare-earth metals.

Not surprisingly, MP Materials’ stock price rose dramatically on the news. That, in turn, allowed MP Materials to sell $650 million worth of stock at attractive prices for the company. Demand for the shares was so high that the sale was upsized from $500 million, showing that investor appetite for MP Materials’ story is large. And why not? The story is quite compelling.

There’s just one problem. MP Materials is still building out its business. It likely has ample cash to do that today, but there is still material execution risk. If building the business, which has both mining and processing aspects to it, doesn’t go smoothly, investors could quickly turn negative on the stock. Similarly, if tariff tensions ease, the excitement around MP Materials could also wane. Notably, the bottom of the company’s income statement is in the red.

MP data by YCharts

The fact that MP Materials is losing money as it makes the large capital investments needed to build out its business is hardly surprising. The problem is that investors are likely buying the short-term rare earth metals story, not the upstart business story. The second story, which is fundamental to the business right now, could require years to play out. And yet MP Materials’ stock price has risen more than 140% since July 9, the day before the government investment was announced.

Thinking long term will be key

At this point, it looks like a lot of good news has been priced into MP Materials’ stock. That has diminished the opportunity here for investors, even though the opportunity for the business looks very attractive. If you buy MP Materials today, it would be a smart move to think long term because in the short term, any negative news could lead to a swift drawdown in what has become a story stock.

That said, conservative investors will probably want to watch from the sidelines for a little bit to see how well MP Materials executes on its investment plans. The company has plenty of cash to work with at this point, but it still needs to make good use of that money for the quick stock price advance to make financial sense for investors.

You don’t need to be ultra-wealthy to start building wealth in the stock market. With just $1,000, investors can buy into promising growth stories and put their money to work in businesses shaping the future. The key is choosing companies with strong tailwinds, clear expansion potential, and the ability to multiply in value over time. Even a modest sum split between the right names can grow meaningfully over the years.

Two stocks that stand out right now are American Resources (AREC 0.72%) and Freshworks (FRSH 0.32%). By allocating roughly $500 to each, investors gain exposure to two very different but compelling growth opportunities: one in the critical minerals powering the clean-energy transition, and the other in software that helps businesses connect with customers more effectively.

Image source: Getty Images.

The critical minerals moonshot

American Resources exemplifies how quickly narratives can transform stock prices. The company spent years as a struggling coal producer before pivoting toward rare earth elements and critical minerals essential for clean energy infrastructure. That strategic shift coincided perfectly with Washington’s push to reduce dependence on Chinese mineral supply chains. The stock has responded accordingly, surging 173% in 2025 as investors price in a future where American Resources supplies the lithium, graphite, and rare earths needed for the energy transition.

The opportunity is massive. The U.S. imports nearly 100% of its rare earth elements despite their critical importance in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and defense applications. Government support for domestic production has never been stronger, with billions in federal funding flowing toward securing supply chains. American Resources is in a position to capture this spending through both its existing operations and development projects. The company’s ReElement Technologies subsidiary focuses on battery material recycling and purification, adding another revenue stream tied to the circular economy.

But small-cap stocks with market values under $500 million carry outsized risks. American Resources remains pre-revenue on many initiatives, burning cash while building out capabilities. Commodity prices swing wildly — what looks like a secular growth story today could become a cyclical disaster tomorrow if rare earth prices collapse. Ultimately, this is a high-risk bet on management execution and Washington’s support for critical minerals — not a play on today’s numbers.

The software discount special

Freshworks tells the opposite story — a profitable growth software company punished for sins it’s already addressing. The customer engagement platform posted over $200 million in revenue last quarter, representing low-teens growth year over year. That’s not hypergrowth, but it’s steady expansion in a market where Salesforce and ServiceNow leave plenty of room for competitors targeting small and mid-sized businesses. Yet the stock has shed 23% of its value this year.

The numbers suggest Freshworks deserves better. Gross margins exceed 84%, typical for quality SaaS businesses. Operating losses are narrowing each quarter as the company balances growth investments with cost discipline. The product suite keeps expanding with AI-powered features for customer support, IT service management, and customer relationship management — capabilities that smaller businesses need but can’t afford from enterprise vendors. With over 68,000 customers globally, Freshworks has proven product-market fit.

The bearish case centers on competition and profitability timing. Salesforce and ServiceNow dominate enterprise accounts with deeper functionality and stronger ecosystems. Reaching profitability might take several more quarters, and the market has shown little patience for companies still burning cash. If the economy weakens, small business customers could churn faster than larger enterprises. But at just 18.5 times forward earnings, much of this pessimism appears priced in.

The $1,000 portfolio

Splitting $1,000 between American Resources and Freshworks creates an intriguing barbell strategy. American Resources offers lottery-ticket exposure to the critical minerals boom — if the company executes and government support continues, the stock could multiply from here. Freshworks provides a more traditional growth story with improving fundamentals, trading at a discount to both the S&P 500 and its closest peers.

Have you ever seen a puzzle that asks you to identify what doesn’t seem to belong in the picture? That comes to mind when I look at the list of stocks with market caps of $1 trillion or more.

Only 10 companies (and 12 stocks, because two have multiple share classes) are members of the trillion-dollar club. All of them have artificial intelligence (AI) pedigrees except one: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.55%) (BRK.B 1.06%).

While Berkshire is an outlier in this elite club, I think the huge conglomerate deserves its spot. Most investors can’t afford the Class A shares, which trade at close to $745,000. But should you buy Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock while it’s hovering around $500?

Image source: Getty Images.

Playing devil’s advocate

I’ll start off answering the question by playing devil’s advocate. There are several arguments against buying Berkshire Hathaway right now.

Perhaps the top reason for hesitation in many investors’ minds is the impending departure of Warren Buffett as the company’s CEO. Buffett and Berkshire have become synonymous through the years. However, he is handing over the reins as top executive to Greg Abel as of Jan. 1, 2026. Some may worry that Berkshire Hathaway’s allure will be diminished without Buffett at the helm.

Another argument against buying Berkshire stock is its valuation. Shares currently trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22.8. The stock is only around 8% below its all-time high. Even Buffett seems to think the valuation isn’t compelling, considering that he hasn’t authorized any stock buybacks since last year.

Economic uncertainty is another factor that could prevent some investors from buying Berkshire. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell recently stated that rising inflation and unemployment present a “challenging situation” for the Fed. Some of Berkshire’s businesses could be negatively impacted by these macroeconomic concerns.

Arguments in favor of buying Berkshire Hathaway

While those might be compelling arguments against buying Berkshire Hathaway stock, there are also some reasonable counterpoints. For example, Buffett isn’t leaving Berkshire altogether; he will stay on as chairman. Importantly, he doesn’t think the company will miss a beat without him as CEO. Buffett even said at the annual shareholder meeting in May 2025 that he expects Berkshire will be in better shape with Abel running the business.

What about the valuation concerns? They shouldn’t be dismissed. However, Berkshire has had higher earnings multiples in the past but delivered enough growth to drive its share price higher. I think history will repeat itself over the long run. If you’re a long-term buy-and-hold investor, Berkshire’s current valuation (which is much lower than the S&P 500‘s, by the way) shouldn’t keep you from buying the stock.

As for economic uncertainty, it’s a legitimate issue as well. The Fed’s rate cuts could prop up the economy, though. Even if not, Berkshire Hathaway could be widely viewed as a safe haven if the economy stumbles. I suspect its stock would hold up better than most in the event of an economic pullback.

Importantly, Berkshire offers diversification that’s almost at an exchange-traded fund (ETF) level. The company owns over 60 subsidiaries representing a wide range of industries. It also has equity holdings in around 40 other publicly traded companies across multiple sectors.

Final verdict

So should you buy Berkshire Hathaway Cass B shares while they’re trading around $500? I think answer is yes — if you have a long-term investing time horizon.

The case against buying Berkshire is mainly focused on near-term concerns. It’s entirely possible that the stock could decline over the next year because of the issues discussed earlier. However, the long-term case for Berkshire is persuasive, in my view.

When people in the U.S. think about flying, Delta Air Lines (DAL 0.74%) and United Airlines (UAL -1.01%) might be the first companies that come to mind. They both have large market capitalizations and many travelers have flown with one or the other, but they employ very different strategies. Because of this difference, investors can tell which airline is truly first-class.

Different tracks

United CEO Scott Kirby is betting on initiatives such as adding planes and making upgrades like better in-flight Wi-Fi. I like this plan, but it also has risks. Operational mistakes, rising labor costs, and headwinds in other countries are cutting into United’s profits.

Image source: Getty Images.

Delta, led by CEO Ed Bastian, is acting differently. Instead of rushing to get more planes, Delta is focusing on making customers happier and being careful with money. The airline is investing in things like Delta Concierge AI, which is supposed to make travel feel more personal and smooth. Its business model counts on premium seats and loyalty programs. Almost 60% of Delta’s money now comes from these sought-after seats and perks.

Delta is often ranked high in customer surveys and for being on time. This good reputation helps it avoid the price wars that can quickly hurt profits in the airline business.

A cleaner balance sheet

Airlines traditionally carry a lot of debt, but Delta is different here, too. In the most recent quarter, Delta had about $16 billion in net debt, equating to a 30 net-debt-to-enterprise-value ratio (which shows how much of the business’s value has been financed with debt). This is quite a lot, but it is less than United’s $18 billion, which gives it a 36 net-debt-to-enterprise-value ratio.

This difference is important. Delta has its best credit rating in years, and leaders have said that controlling debt is a main goal. United, on the other hand, has more debt, which makes it riskier if fuel prices go up, travel decreases, or international expansion plans run into hiccups and the business is pressured.

Hubs vs. horizons

The two airlines also use their networks differently. Delta has strong hubs in cities such as Atlanta, which allow it to group flights together and run its operations smoothly. United is more focused on international growth, which could be beneficial if everything goes well, but it is more complex and risky. Recent global issues, including tariffs and travel restrictions have revealed how fragile this type of growth can be.

By the numbers

The financial results confirm the story. Delta regularly has higher operating and profit margins than United, and it still manages to increase revenue at a steady rate. It also makes more free cash flow, which is needed for a company to pay down debt and give money back to shareholders. Delta’s stock yields about 1.3% at current prices, while United does not pay a dividend.

Even with its stronger financial base, Delta’s stock is slightly cheaper than United’s. Delta’s valuation is about 6.9 based on enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), compared to 10.6 for United. Investors are paying less for a company that makes more reliable profits and is better managed.

What matters for investors

United’s growth plan sounds exciting, and it might work if international markets do well and its operations run smoothly. But there are a lot of risky ifs. For investors who want more reliable returns, Delta’s mix of reliability, profits, and a strong financial base makes it a safer choice.

Delta could be harmed by rising fuel prices, labor disputes, or a decrease in travel. But compared to United’s game plan, the company seems better prepared to handle potential complications without causing trouble for shareholders.

If you had to pay more for a dollar of earnings from either of these airlines, which would it be: The one pursuing growth with a lot of debt, or the one quietly producing higher margins, happier customers, and a stronger financial base?

For me, the choice is clear. Delta isn’t just another airline stock — it’s the first-class option in the sector.

Ken Griffin, the billionaire hedge fund manager and CEO of Citadel, recently turned heads after making a striking observation about Alphabet (GOOG 0.21%) (GOOGL 0.28%). During an interview at Stanford Business School, Griffin proclaimed that Alphabet wields comparable levels of computational power as the fifth-largest country in the world.

This is not mere hyperbole. Griffin’s remark underscores the vast scale of Alphabet’s technological infrastructure and its dominance in shaping the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

For investors, this comment is more significant than a memorable sound bite. It highlights Alphabet’s role at the center of AI’s growth, where demand for compute power and data processing is only accelerating.

Ken Griffin just made a bold statement about Google

When most people think of Alphabet, Google Search and YouTube are usually the first properties that come to mind. But the company’s influence stretches far beyond the internet.

Today, Alphabet operates across a diverse set of industries — ranging from cybersecurity through its investment in Wiz, to cloud computing with Google Cloud Platform, consumer electronics with Android, autonomous driving via Waymo, and even custom AI hardware with its tensor processing units (TPUs). In effect, Alphabet has quietly engineered one of the most powerful computing backbones in the world.

By comparing Alphabet’s resources to those of a nation, Griffin underscores the staggering scale of its capabilities in processing, storage, and advanced data workloads. For perspective, the world’s fifth-largest country in terms of electricity consumption falls between Japan and Russia — industrialized economies that power hundreds of millions of people.

If a single company like Alphabet commands that level of computational power, it signals just how central the company has become to the global digital economy.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet is purpose-built for the AI infrastructure era

At the heart of Alphabet’s AI strategy is TensorFlow, its open-source framework for machine learning. TensorFlow is more than a toolkit — it’s an ecosystem powering advanced applications in natural language processing (NLP), robotics, computer vision, and more.

Griffin’s observation ties directly to this computational muscle: Alphabet’s vast infrastructure is the foundation for training and deploying AI models, at a scale few rivals can match. This isn’t simply about producing isolated AI-powered products — it’s about providing the tools, frameworks, and cloud infrastructure that enable developers, enterprises, and entire global communities to innovate.

That network effect is what strengthens Alphabet’s competitive moat. Just as Google Search became the default gateway to the internet two decades ago, Alphabet’s AI backbone is positioning the company as an enduring platform on which the next era of computing is built.

The impact on investors

Griffin’s comment underscores why Alphabet should no longer be seen merely as a cyclical play on digital advertising. Viewed through the lens of AI, Alphabet emerges as a long-term compounder — an essential force powering the AI economy. For investors, the takeaway is clear. Griffin’s perspective shines light on Alphabet’s deeply entrenched position across various corners of the AI landscape.

The company’s ability to marshal computational power on par with a nation highlights not only the durability of its entire business, but stresses the importance of its competitive advantages across both hardware and software — domains with enormous capital requirements and high barriers to entry.

GOOGL PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

Yet despite its technological leadership, the stock continues to trade at a steep discount relative to other megacap tech peers based on forward earnings multiples.

This disconnect suggests that the broader market has yet to fully price in Griffin’s astute insight — leaving long-term investors with meaningful upside potential as Alphabet’s position in the high ground becomes even more pronounced, while rivals scramble to keep pace.

Supporters of the November ballot measure to reconfigure California’s congressional districts — an effort led by Gov. Gavin Newsom to help Democrats win control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year — have far out-raised the opposition campaigns, according to fundraising disclosures filed with the state.

The primary group backing Proposition 50 raked in $77.5 million and spent $28.1 million through Sept. 20, according to a campaign finance report that was filed with the secretary of state’s office on Thursday.

The committee has $54.4 million in the bank for the final weeks of the campaign, so Californian should expect a blizzard of television ads, mailers, phone calls and other efforts to sway voters before the Nov. 4 special election.

The two main groups opposing the ballot measure have raised $35.3 million, spent $27.4 million and have roughly $8.8 million in the bank combined, campaign finance reports show.

Despite having an overwhelming financial advantage, the campaign supporting Proposition 50 has tried to portray itself as the underdog in a fight to raise money against opposition campaigns with ties to President Trump and his supporters.

“MAGA donors keep pouring millions into the campaign to stop Prop. 50 in the hopes of pleasing their ‘Dear Leader,’” said Hannah Milgrom, a spokesperson for the Yes on 50, the Election Rigging Response Act campaign. “We will not take our foot off the gas — Prop. 50 is America’s best chance to stop this reckless and dangerous president, and we will keep doing everything we can to ensure every Californian knows the stakes and is ready to vote yes on 50 this Nov. 4th.”

A spokesperson for one of the anti-Proposition 50 campaigns, which was sending mailers to voters even before the Democratic-led California Legislature placed Proposition 50 on the November ballot, said their priority was to help Californians understand the inappropriateness of redrawing congressional boundaries that had been created by a voter-approved, state independent commission.

“We started communicating with voters early about the consequences of having politicians draw their own lines,” said Amy Thoma, a spokesperson for a coalition that opposes the ballot measure. “We are confident we’ll have the resources necessary to continue through election day.”

A spokesperson for the other main anti-Proposition 50 group agreed.

“When you’re selling a lemon, no amount of cash can change the taste. We’re confident in raising more than sufficient resources to expose Prop. 50 for the blatant political power grab that it is,” said Ellie Hockenbury, an advisor to the No on 50 – Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab campaign. Newsom “can’t change the fact that Prop. 50 is nothing more than a ploy for politicians to take the power of redistricting away from the voters and charge them for the privilege at a massive cost to taxpayers.”

The special election is expected to cost the state and the counties $282 million, according to the secretary of state’s office and the state department of finance.

If approved, Proposition 50 would have a major impact on California’s 2026 congressional elections, which will play a major role in determining whether Trump is able to continue enacting his agenda in the final two years of his tenure. The party that wins the White House frequently loses congressional seats two years later, and Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House.

After Trump urged GOP-led states, notably Texas, to redraw their congressional districts to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress in next year’s midterm election, Newsom and other California Democrats responded by proposing a counter-effort to boost the ranks of their party in the legislative body.

California’s congressional districts are drawn once every decade after the U.S. Census by a voter-approved independent redistricting commission. So Democrats’ proposal to replace the districts with new boundaries proposed by state lawmakers must be approved by voters. The state Legislature voted in August to put the measure before voters in a special election on Nov. 4.

Polling about the proposition is not definitive. It’s an off-year election, which means turnout is likely to be low and the electorate is unpredictable. And relatively few Californians pay attention to redistricting, the esoteric process of redrawing congressional districts.

There are more than 30 campaign committees associated with Proposition 50 registered with the secretary of state’s office, but only three have raised large amounts of money.

Newsom’s pro-Proposition 50 effort has received several large donations since its launch, including $10 million from billionaire financier George Soros, $7.6 million from House Majority PAC (the Democrats’ congressional political arm) and $4.5 million from various Service Employees International Union groups. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife have contributed $1 million to a separate committee supporting the proposition.

The opposition groups had few small-dollar donors and were largely funded by two sources — $30 million in loans from Charles Munger Jr., who for years has been a major Republican donor in California, and a $5-million donation from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the GOP political arm of House Republicans.

Is Six Flags Entertainment (FUN 4.27%) about to undergo a radical transformation in its business?

If an activist investor in the amusement park operator gets its way, Six Flags could morph into a new type of company entirely. After said investor published a letter detailing such a plan, market players traded the stock up by 4% on Friday. That performance compared very well to the 0.6% increase of the S&P 500 index across that session.

Valuable property

That morning, the activist, Land & Buildings Investment Management, published the letter it sent Six Flags. True to its name, the activist pushed the company to consider monetizing its sprawling land portfolio, suggesting means such as a spin-out of such assets into a real estate investment trust (REIT), or outright sales.

Image source: Getty Images.

This isn’t the first time Land & Buildings has prodded Six Flags to exploit the value of its properties. In the letter, it said that one of its presentations illustrated how the company’s stock could rocket 50% higher after pulling one of those moves.

The stakes are even higher now, at least according to the activist.

Referring to the beaten-down Six Flags equity, it wrote that “Today, with the Company’s valuation near all-time lows, we see an even more compelling rerating opportunity from separating the real estate, with over 75% immediate upside based on 2026 consensus estimates.”

Land & Buildings wrote that “Upside could be as much as 130% if 2026 EBITDA recovers to $1.1 billion (FUN’s original 2025 guidance).”

Small stake, big voice

As is standard with activist investors, Land & Buildings has a small (roughly 2%) stake in Six Flags, so it probably can’t effect such a change on its own. Effective activists are good at shaking up the people who can make big moves, and at getting shareholders behind their ideas. So far, the company’s ideas for “unlocking” the value of the real estate seem to be resonating. We’ll see if they result in real change.

It’s been just six months since CoreWeave (CRWV -4.96%) went public, and the stock has more than tripled in its short life as a public company, despite witnessing bouts of volatility during this period. The stock’s rapid rise has been fueled by its fast-improving revenue pipeline, but at the same time, investors have been worried about certain factors.

From CoreWeave’s rapidly rising debt to stock dilution on account of its $9 billion Core Scientific deal, shares of the company have slipped significantly since hitting a high nearly three months ago. However, the company’s latest deal with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) could help assuage investors’ concerns to some extent and set CoreWeave up for more upside.

Image source: Getty Images

Nvidia’s guarantee is great news for CoreWeave investors

CoreWeave has built its business by offering dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) data centers powered by graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia. It rents out its cloud computing capacity to the likes of Meta Platforms and Microsoft, which account for the majority of its top line. It has also added a third big customer in the form of OpenAI.

The ChatGPT maker offered an initial contract worth $11.9 billion to CoreWeave in March this year, before enhancing the size of the deal by another $4 billion. And now, Nvidia has signed a $6.3 billion contract with CoreWeave that will guarantee the latter’s revenue growth in the long run. Under this agreement, Nvidia will be purchasing any unsold data center capacity from CoreWeave through April 2032.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), CoreWeave pointed out that “Nvidia is obligated to purchase the residual unsold capacity” of its data centers in case its “data center capacity is not fully utilized by its own customers.” CoreWeave’s existing data center capacity is falling short of demand.

CFO Nitin Agrawal remarked on the August earnings conference call that CoreWeave’s “growth continues to be capacity-constrained, with demand outstripping supply.” This is evident from the fact that its contractual backlog increased by close to $14 billion year over year in Q2, driven by the multibillion-dollar contracts the company signed in the quarter.

For comparison, CoreWeave’s Q2 revenue increased to $1.2 billion from $395 million in the year-ago period. Not surprisingly, the company is laser-focused on bringing online more data center capacity so that it can fulfill its massive revenue backlog worth $30 billion. It currently operates 33 dedicated AI data centers in the U.S. and Europe, with active power capacity of 470 megawatts (MW).

However, it has been increasing its contracted data center power capacity at a nice clip so that it can bring more active capacity online. Specifically, CoreWeave’s contracted data center power capacity increased by 600 MW in the previous quarter to 2.2 gigawatts (GW). But even that might not be enough in the long run, as according to McKinsey, data center capacity demand could grow by 4x between 2023 and 2030.

The firm estimates that global data center capacity demand could hit 220 GW in 2030 from 55 GW in 2023 in a midrange scenario. So there is a good chance that CoreWeave could remain capacity-constrained in the long run thanks to the AI-powered data center boom. For instance, McKinsey is expecting a deficit of more than 15 GW in data center power capacity in the U.S. itself by 2030.

As such, CoreWeave may not be left with any residual capacity to sell to Nvidia going forward, as there is a good chance that data center demand will continue to be stronger than supply on account of AI. And now, Nvidia’s guarantee gives CoreWeave investors an extra cushion that should ensure healthy long-term growth for the company, even if there’s a drop in AI computing capacity requirements.

What should investors do?

Nvidia’s guarantee suggests that the demand for AI computing is likely to remain robust in the long run. This should ideally translate into a bigger backlog and stronger growth for CoreWeave, which is just what analysts are expecting from the company through 2028.

CRWV Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts

The massive opportunity in the cloud AI infrastructure market should help CoreWeave sustain impressive growth rates beyond 2028. For instance, even if it clocks 20% annual top-line growth in 2029 and 2030, its revenue could hit $25.6 billion. If the stock is trading at even 5 times sales at that time, in line with the Nasdaq Composite‘s average sales multiple, its market cap could get close to $130 billion. That would be more than double CoreWeave’s current market cap.

Importantly, CoreWeave can now be bought at 16 times sales, which isn’t all that expensive when we consider its remarkable growth.

So investors looking to capitalize on the AI cloud infrastructure market’s long-term growth potential can consider buying this AI stock right away, especially considering that the Nvidia deal is a vote of confidence in CoreWeave’s — and the AI data center market’s — prospects.

MP Materials (MP -10.99%) stock tumbled 9% through 3 p.m. ET Friday after London’s Financial Times reported on a potential competitive threat to MP’s vast investments (already made) in reviving the American rare earth mining industry, and capacity to produce rare earth magnets domestically.

Image source: Getty Images.

Could Niron replace MP?

Automotive giants Stellantis and General Motors, along with Volvo and Samsung, are investing $150 million in a start-up called Niron Magnetics, which aims to make magnets from common elements such as iron and nitrogen — rather than rare earth elements (which aren’t exactly rare, but can be hard to refine). Various U.S. government agencies have granted the company nearly $70 million more in tax credits and other subsidies.

Niron is building an iron nitride magnetics factory in Minnesota, capable of producing 1,500 tons of magnets annually, and says its magnets will be 18% more powerful than certain — much more expensive — rare earth magnets.

Is MP Materials stock a sell?

I wouldn’t panic just yet, however. While Niron’s magnets have been reported to be better than some of the best rare earth magnets, this appears based on lab reports at present, and the company hasn’t yet proven it can produce magnets of the reported superiority, at scale, and at affordable prices.

It’s also worth noting that while Niron has attracted substantial support from government and industry, so too has MP Materials — up to and including the U.S. government taking an equity stake in the company. And MP Materials has a huge lead in building out mining and manufacturing operations to support production of its own magnets.

True, if all of Niron’s claims prove out, there could be risk to MP here. But it’s a big “if,” and too soon to tell just how big of a risk.

Markets may be nudging slightly higher today, offering investors the hope of ending the week on a positive note, but the same can’t be said for rare earth stock USA Rare Earth (USAR -3.85%). While the company hasn’t reported anything negative, news related to a rare earth peer has USA Rare Earth investors heading for the exits.

As of 2:44 p.m. ET, shares of USA Rare Earth are down 3.5%, recovering from their earlier decline of 10%.

Image source: Getty Images.

Rare earth businesses in the U.S. are growing, and USA Rare Earth investors aren’t happy

Thanks to its holding in ReElement Technologies, American Resources (AREC) announced a 141% expansion of its critical mineral refining facility located in Indiana. With the expansion, the company now has near-term annual refining capacity of over 200 metric tons of ultrapure separated defense elements and rare earth oxides of 99.9% to 99.999% purity.

Nearing completion of its rare earth magnet production facility, USA Rare Earth has emerged as one of the key players among those involved in rare earth elements production. The company has drawn considerable interest from investors over the past year as President Trump has issued executive orders addressing a commitment to shoring up the domestic supply of rare earths.

Is now as good time to dig into USA Rare Earth stock?

Instead of digging deeply into the news from American Resources, investors in USA Rare Earth likely responded to the news with a knee-jerk reaction and trimmed their positions, surmising that the growth prospects of USA Rare Earth is now impeded. For USA Rare Earth shareholders, though, today’s announcement shouldn’t do much to sway them that the bull case is broken.

Of course, there are plenty of risks that remain for USA Rare Earth with the construction of its magnet production facility, and the company’s success is far from guaranteed. But if you were optimistic about the prospects of USA Rare Earth yesterday, nothing has changed. In fact, today’s pullback provides a great chance to build your position even further.

Paccar (PCAR 4.84%) stock jumped 5% through 12:40 p.m. ET Friday, one day after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “In order to protect our Great Heavy Truck Manufacturers from unfair outside competition, I will be imposing, as of October 1st, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all ‘Heavy (Big!) Trucks’ made in other parts of the World.”

President Trump’s truck tariffs

The president went on to explain his intention is to protect “manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others” from “outside interruptions,” which seems to refer to competition from truck manufacturers based abroad.

Image source: Getty Images.

Paccar itself manufactures half the truck brands named — Peterbilt and Kenworth, and DAF as well. Freightliner, however, is actually owned by Germany’s Daimler, while the Mack Trucks brand is owned by Sweden’s Volvo. Complicating matters further, Freightliners are built both domestically, in North Carolina, and abroad, in Mexico. Mack Trucks meanwhile are built in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, with a headquarters in North Carolina… and also in Mexico.

Even Paccar’s Peterbilt has both domestic and foreign manufacturing operations, in Canada and Mexico; Kenworth is built in Ohio and Washington — and also Canada; and DAF is built all around the world — but not the U.S.

Is Paccar stock a buy?

As a result, it’s possible President Trump’s truck tariffs will affect many of the brands he’s trying to protect.

What this means for Paccar stock is hard to say. Still, at a valuation of only 16.2x trailing earnings, paying a strong 4.5% dividend, and with earnings expected to nearly double over the next four years, Paccar looks to me like a solid stock to invest in — which or without protection from tariffs.

Shares of Intel (INTC 5.62%) are moving higher on Friday, up 5.5% as of 12:50 p.m. ET. The jump comes as the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.56%) was up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.34%) was flat.

The chipmaker’s stock is gaining after The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump is considering a tariff on semiconductor companies that rely too heavily on foreign manufacturers.

New tariffs could be coming soon

The Journal reported this morning that President Trump is considering a tariff on chipmakers that manufacture more chips overseas than in the U.S. If companies don’t maintain at least a 1-to-1 ratio of chips fabricated domestically to internationally, they could soon face a stiff tariff.

The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to boost domestic chip manufacturing, a cornerstone of the administration’s national security strategy, as well as its broader efforts to reshore American manufacturing.

Image source: Getty Images.

The news comes just a month after the administration reached an agreement that makes the federal government a significant shareholder in Intel, with a roughly 10% stake in the ailing chipmaker.

Intel has its work cut out for it

The federal government isn’t the only one investing in Intel. Just last week, Nvidia announced it would invest $5 billion and partner with Intel to enhance some of its artificial intelligence (AI) data center products. These are good partners to have, but Intel has much further to go in its turnaround efforts.

The dominant U.S. chipmaker for years, the company fell behind in the age of generative AI. Its top and bottom lines have taken a severe beating, and the company has gone through significant restructuring and major layoffs in an attempt to stabilize its balance sheet.

I do think that Intel is on the right track, however. For investors comfortable with risk, Intel is a good pick.

Over the past few years, investors have witnessed in real time how breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) have sparked a new revolution in the technology sector. The next frontier — quantum computing — promises an even greater leap forward, unlocking efficiency and solving problems that strain the limits of today’s classical machines.

Together, the fusion of AI and quantum computing is expected to create trillions of dollars in economic value over the coming decades. While many companies are dabbling in quantum systems at the margins, two of the industry’s most influential players are already weaving this emerging capability into their broader strategies.

Let’s explore how Nvidia (NVDA -0.62%) and Alphabet (GOOG 0.55%) (GOOGL 0.61%) are positioning themselves to remain leaders at the cutting edge of AI’s next transformation.

Nvidia: GPUs, CUDA, and infrastructure

Nvidia’s rise throughout the AI revolution is deeply rooted in its dominance of the GPU market, where its chips have become the backbone of generative AI development. What investors may not fully realize yet is that the company’s ambitions extend beyond supplying accelerators to train large language models (LLMs). Quietly, Nvidia has been laying the groundwork for a prominent role in the quantum era.

A key part of this strategy is Nvidia’s software architecture, CUDA. CUDA includes tools designed to bridge classical computing systems with quantum-inspired research. At the moment, Nvidia’s CUDA quantum (CUDA-Q) platform is used by a number of academic institutions, as well as integrated with existing developers such as IonQ and Rigetti Computing.

This is a savvy move, as Nvidia is doing all of this without committing massive capital expenditures (capex) to build quantum machines from scratch. Instead, the company is positioning itself as the connective backbone across both hardware and software supporting the next wave of advanced computing applications.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet: Willow, Cirq, and DeepMind

Alphabet has carved more direct inroads into quantum computing through its Google Quantum division.

A central focus is Willow, a processor built to scale quantum workloads more efficiently. To drive adoption, Alphabet introduced Cirq — an open-source software framework that enables developers to design quantum algorithms and run them directly on Google’s infrastructure. The company’s internal research lab, DeepMind, adds another dimension that gives Alphabet the unique advantage to test quantum technologies in-house and refine them at a faster pace.

What makes this approach so compelling is that Alphabet weaves these efforts into a vertically integrated stack. The company’s hardware, software, and research converge within a single ecosystem — allowing emerging services like Google Cloud and Gemini to compete from a position of strength against entrenched rivals like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Are Nvidia and Alphabet good buys right now?

Nvidia and Alphabet are each building durable platforms optimized for the next phase of advanced computing.

For Nvidia, the company’s GPUs and CUDA architecture are already indispensable to AI infrastructure. Moreover, the company’s collaborations in quantum computing create additional tailwinds across both hardware and software for the data centers of tomorrow. Meanwhile, Alphabet is stitching quantum into a broader, diversified ecosystem that spans processors, software frameworks, cloud distribution, and research.

For both companies, quantum computing is not the ultimate destination, but rather a strategic layer that reinforces their long-term growth prospects — positioning each as resilient, differentiated platform businesses in an increasingly competitive landscape.

I think that each company’s early bets on quantum computing will look shrewd in hindsight as these applications evolve from research-driven environments into real-world value creation.

For investors with patience, owning shares of both Nvidia and Alphabet today offers exposure to two businesses not just benefiting from the AI boom, but actively writing the narrative of its next chapter. For these reasons, I see both stocks as no-brainer opportunities right now.

The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI 0.21%) is one of the most popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the planet. The fund has net assets of nearly $2 trillion.

With stock indexes hovering near all-time highs, many investors are worried that this historically successful ETF will struggle in the years to come. But there’s one critical piece of data that suggests otherwise.

This ETF remains a data-backed investment

The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF is a classic pick for savvy long-term investors. That’s because the ETF tracks the holdings of the CRSP US Total Market Index, which includes almost every type of company imaginable — everything from small-caps and large-caps to value stocks and growth stocks.

The ETF is incredibly diversified with more than 3,000 holdings, but investors should note that only U.S. companies are included. Many of those U.S. companies, however, have global operations, providing some level of international diversification.

Image source: Getty Images.

With an expense ratio of just 0.03%, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF is one of the cheapest ways investors can get broad access to nearly the entire stock market. But with the indexes already at all-time highs, is this ETF still a smart pick? If your holding period is 20 years or more, the answer is absolutely. That’s because there has never been a 20-year period where the U.S. stock market has posted a negative return.

Of course, returns for any given 20-year period vary widely. But here’s a good example of how buying market indexes like this, even at their peaks, is a wise long-term decision. If you purchased shares of VTI in 2007 at their pre-cash peak, you still would have accumulated a 338% return over the next 18 years. So long-term investors can rejoice: The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF remains a solid pick for the decades ahead.

What a difference a year makes.

Consider this: In late September 2024, investors could pick up one share of Robinhood (HOOD -0.38%) for about the price of a baseball cap — around $23.

As of this writing, that same share now trades for about $123.

So, what gives? Why have Robinhood shares increased fivefold in only 12 months? And, more importantly, where is the stock headed?

Image source: Getty Images.

Robinhood’s recent moves

As of this writing, shares of Robinhood have advanced by 233% year to date. Over the past three years, they’ve increased by a jaw-dropping 1,150%.

The engine behind this stock surge was good old-fashioned execution. Simply put, Robinhood is beating out its competitors, and that is generating investor optimism.

The company operates using a model under which it charges no commissions on trades and only passes unavoidable regulatory fees on to its customers. Instead, the company leverages its platform assets to generate revenue in other ways, including:

• Payment for order flow: It directs its customers’ buy and sell orders to vendors that pay fees for those orders, and which themselves profit on the spread between asking and bid prices.
• Net interest: This is revenue generated via the spread between the interest generated from customers’ cash balances and what Robinhood pays those customers in interest on their accounts’ cash balances.
• Subscriptions: Gold members receive access to certain tools, perks, and benefits.

As the total value of the assets on Robinhood’s platform increases, its ability to generate revenue does as well. As of the end of the second quarter, Robinhood’s total platform assets stood at $279 billion, up from $62 billion at the end of 2022.

Consequently, Robinhood’s trailing 12-month revenue has increased from $1.4 billion three years ago to $3.6 billion today. Similarly, the company has swung from a significant net loss of $1.3 billion in 2022 to a net profit of $1.8 billion over the past four reported quarters.

Lastly, in addition to, and in part because of, the company’s excellent financials, Robinhood was recently added to the S&P 500, which further expands the stock’s appeal within the investment community.

What’s next for Robinhood?

While there’s no way to know for sure where the stock will be in one year, the stock looks appealing to me for several reasons.

First, its business model lends itself to natural growth. If the company can continue attracting new customers, it is likely to continue growing its top and bottom lines thanks to how it leverages customer assets.

Second, it continues to innovate, which opens up new revenue opportunities and helps drive new customer acquisition. Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev is one of my favorite CEOs because he thinks big and isn’t afraid to boldly experiment. The company has announced initiatives aimed at social media investing (Robinhood Social) and allowing retail investors access to private markets (through Robinhood Ventures Fund), among other innovative ideas.

Finally, Robinhood appeals to a younger investing demographic, one that will undoubtedly grow wealthier as the effects of the great wealth transfer begin to kick in. That will further increase its total platform assets, driving a virtuous cycle of greater revenue and profits.

In summary, Robinhood stock has surged over the past year thanks to its business model, solid execution, visionary leadership, and demographic tailwinds. In my opinion, those catalysts will continue for many years to come.

It is true, though, that there are risks to Robinhood’s stock price. Most notably, an economic downturn or a recession could dampen financial markets, resulting in decreased activity by retail investors — the traders who sit at the core of Robinhood’s business model.

However, over the long term — by which I mean five years or longer — I’m confident in Robinhood’s ability to deliver on its goals. Those seeking a long-term investment in the brokerage sector may want to consider Robinhood stock.

ASML Holding (ASML 0.10%) is one of the most important players in the global semiconductor industry. The Dutch semiconductor equipment giant manufactures machines that play a critical role in helping chipmakers and foundries print advanced chips.

However, ASML stock has been subdued since hitting an all-time high on July 8 last year. It has shed 11% of its value since then, while the broader PHLX Semiconductor Sector index has gained 10% during this period. ASML’s underperformance since July last year can be attributed to the potential effect of tariffs on the company’s equipment sales, along with its poorer-than-expected guidance for 2025.

The good part is that ASML stock has started gaining some momentum lately. The stock has jumped 27% in the past month, thanks to positive Wall Street commentary and the strength of the semiconductor market owing to the robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It won’t be surprising to see ASML sustaining this momentum and delivering solid gains to investors over the next three years.

Let’s see why this semiconductor stock is primed for more upside by 2028.

Image source: Getty Images.

AI is set to drive stronger growth in semiconductor equipment spending

The proliferation of AI has played a central role in driving robust growth in semiconductor demand over the last three years. The picture for the next three years seems favorable as well, with Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su forecasting that sales of AI accelerator chips such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and custom processors are set to increase at an annual pace of 60% through 2028, generating a massive $500 billion in annual revenue.

It won’t be surprising to see that happening, given how fast the demand for AI computing in the cloud is increasing. Cloud infrastructure providers such as Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon don’t have enough data center capacity at their disposal to meet customer demand for training and deploying AI models, or for running inference applications in the cloud.

This has led to a massive order backlog at the leading cloud computing companies. For instance, the combined backlog of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google stood at a whopping $669 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Oracle recently reported remaining performance obligations (RPO) worth a whopping $455 billion, up by a massive 359% from the year-ago period.

So, these cloud giants are already sitting on more than $1 trillion in revenue backlog that they need to fulfill. That’s the reason why the spending on chipmaking equipment can be expected to accelerate over the next three years, as these companies are likely to keep spending huge amounts of money on setting up data center infrastructure. That’s going to create demand for more chips, which in turn will lead to an increase in demand for the chipmaking equipment that ASML sells.

What’s worth noting is that the chips used for tackling AI workloads — be it in data centers, personal computers (PCs), or smartphones — are manufactured using advanced process nodes. These advanced nodes help make chips with small transistor sizes, usually below 7-nanometer (nm). Not surprisingly, leading chipmakers are looking to make their chips smaller to increase computing performance and reduce energy consumption simultaneously.

ASML is the only company that can help chipmakers print smaller chips with its high NA (numerical aperture) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, which can be used for making chips that are just 2nm in size. This explains why companies such as SK Hynix, Intel, and Samsung have been lining up to purchase ASML’s high NA machines to further shrink the size of their process nodes in a bid to manufacture cutting-edge chips.

ASML’s monopoly-like position in the EUV lithography market explains why the demand for its equipment is expected to take off. S&P Global estimates that ASML’s EUV sales could rise an impressive 49% this year, followed by further growth in unit volumes and the average selling price (ASP) through the end of the decade.

Industry association SEMI is expecting the spending on equipment capable of producing advanced chips to increase to more than $50 billion by 2028, which would be a big jump from last year’s outlay of $26 billion. This could pave the way for substantial upside over the next three years.

ASML could turn out to be a solid investment for the next three years

The points discussed above make it clear that ASML has the potential to deliver solid growth over the next three years. Its earnings growth is expected to accelerate remarkably in 2028 following an expected single-digit increase next year.

ASML EPS Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts.

What’s worth noting is that ASML’s net income has increased by 67% in the first six months of 2025 from the same period last year. Given that the company is expected to witness a nice jump in the ASP of its EUV machines over the next three years, especially the high-NA machines, there is a solid chance that it could deliver stronger growth than what analysts are forecasting.

Assuming it can clock even $40 per share in earnings in 2028 and trades at 33 times earnings after three years (in line with the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 index), its stock price could hit $1,320. That would be a 38% increase from current levels. But don’t be surprised to see this AI stock delivering much bigger gains. The market could reward it with a premium valuation on account of the potential acceleration in growth.

Domino’s Pizza (DPZ -0.60%) may be best known for late-night delivery, but for investors it represents something bigger. One of the most durable growth stories in the restaurant industry. Over the past two decades, Domino’s has outpaced the S&P 500, delivering close to 3,000% in stock return to investors.

Now, with more than 21,000 stores worldwide, the question is what keeps Domino’s compounding from here. The answer lies in three powerful forces: International expansion, digital leadership, and menu innovation.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. International expansion, and particularly China

One of the biggest issues with Domino’s is the sheer size of its U.S. store count (7,031 as of March 23), which limits its future growth potential. While the bears are not wrong in saying that, they are missing the bigger picture, wherein the real growth engine is from overseas. For perspective, Domino’s now operates more international stores than domestic ones, and global markets (with more than 14,000 stores) are providing both scale and profitability.

The most significant growth opportunity here is China. Domino’s master franchisee there, DPC Dash, ended June 2025 with about 1,198 stores across 48 Chinese cities. Same-store sales have grown for more than 30 straight quarters, and management expects to add about 300 stores in 2025 and 350 more in 2026. It also has 30 million customers on its loyalty program there, up from 19 million a year ago.

Importantly, DPC’s growing scale is translating into profitability. In the first half of 2025,  Domino’s China generated $362.7 million in revenue and a fivefold increase in net profit year over year, with adjusted EBITDA margins climbing to 12.4%. Those numbers highlight a rare combination: Rapid revenue growth alongside improving margins.

While impressive, the growth in China is likely to be in the early days. With a population of 1.4 billion, the country can certainly accommodate many more thousands of stores. For investors, that’s a blueprint that could extend to other emerging markets as Domino’s replicates the model in emerging markets like India or Southeast Asia.

2. Ongoing investment in digital and technology

Domino’s has long differentiated itself through technology. It was one of the first pizza chains to roll out mobile ordering, and today, digital accounts for a large share of its sales base. In the U.S., more than 85% of sales now come through digital channels.

That’s more than just a convenience metric. Digital orders typically carry higher average tickets and lower error rates, and foster customer loyalty through push notifications and rewards. By steering customers to its own app, Domino’s also collects valuable data, enabling upselling and targeted marketing.

The company is also partnering with other tech companies. Its DoorDash deal, announced in May 2025, allows Domino’s stores to appear on DoorDash’s marketplace while still using Domino’s drivers for fulfillment. This hybrid model expands customer reach without compromising the delivery experience for customers.

Looking ahead, Domino’s ongoing investment in the latest technology and innovations could further enhance the customer experience while making its operation leaner and better. Both will add to the bottom line over the long run.

3. Menu and value innovation

People crave variety, even in a category as simple as pizza. Domino’s continually updates its menu with new toppings, sides, and limited-time offers that encourage repeat visits from loyal customers while attracting new demographics.

Internationally, Domino’s adapts to local tastes — paneer pizzas in India, durian pizzas in China — to ensure cultural relevance while still leveraging its global brand. That balance of localization and consistency is a significant strength as it expands into new markets.

Value remains just as crucial as novelty. Domino’s has consistently positioned itself as an affordable option in quick-service dining, offering carryout deals, bundles, and promotional pricing that appeal to price-sensitive consumers. This approach has helped Domino’s not only sustain demand through economic cycles, but also gain market share during more challenging times.

The combination of menu variety and value pricing has cemented Domino’s position as the largest pizza chain in the world, and it gives the company multiple levers to drive growth even when broader consumer spending slows.

What does it mean for investors?

Domino’s isn’t just a restaurant chain anymore — it’s a global platform powered by scale, technology, and relentless customer focus.

International expansion, particularly in China, offers a long runway for store growth. Its digital leadership strengthens customer loyalty and operational efficiency. And menu and value innovation keep the brand relevant and affordable across markets.

That’s why, even after two decades of outperformance, Domino’s story may just be getting started. Investors should keep the company on their radar.