Amazon is on the verge of joining the $2 Trillion Club, driven by a 4-percentage point accelerating in AWS to 17% YoY growth combined with strong 25% growth in advertising revenue.

Ad spending growth is widely forecast to accelerate in 2024, after a challenging macro environment significantly dented budgets and growth in 2023. The US advertising market is already showing positive signs of growth, starting off 2024 with a 4.3% YoY increase in January

The Magnificent 7 of 2023 have now become 2024’s Magnificent 3: Nvidia, Meta and Amazon. Of these, Nvidia’s saw a stellar start to the year as shares have gained nearly 60% YTD due to the GPU leader’s beat-and-raise quarters.

Social media stocks Meta (META), Pinterest (PINS), and Snapchat (SNAP) enjoyed strong gains in 2023 as the broader ad market stabilized and fundamentals improved. Social media ad spend is expected to remain robust in 2024, with one of the fastest projected growth rates in the ad industry at +13.8% to reach $227.2 billion, less than 1% shy of search ad spend.

Ad-tech stocks have generally enjoyed strong returns in 2023, buoyed by a rather fierce tech rally. Ad spending growth showing initial signs of stabilizing in the back half of the year, with ad spend growing YoY in each month from July to October.

The mega-cap stocks that are known as FAAMG reported earnings recently. These names are driving the market higher, especially Microsoft and Apple. In fact, the percentage of Microsoft and Apple’s combined weighting in the S&P 500 has never been higher.

Earlier this month, Google’s stock (Alphabet) tumbled 7% when chatbot Bard was unable to complete a search with 100% accuracy. During a demonstration, Bard returned incorrect information about which telescope was the first to take pictures of a planet outside the Earth’s solar system. This was a minor mistake given how far large language models and generative AI has come, rather it was the timing that was a bit flawed as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the chatbot powering competitor Microsoft Bing, had been dominating headlines since its November 30th launch.

Ad-tech stocks across the board had a tough year last year. Investors are hoping that 2023 will be a better year, yet according to the projected ad spend for 2023, this may not be the case.

Amazon is on the verge of joining the $2 Trillion Club, driven by a 4-percentage point accelerating in AWS to 17% YoY growth combined with strong 25% growth in advertising revenue.

Earnings season has officially kicked off, with Big Tech headlining a busy week next week: Microsoft and Google report on Tuesday, followed by Meta on Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. Big Tech stocks have seen their dominance over the broader indexes soar this year, with the Magnificent 7 reaching nearly 30% of the S&P 500’s weighting, higher now than at its peak in 2022 and up from 20.0% at the beginning of this year.

The market evolves quickly, and nowhere is that more apparent than in AI stocks, which continue to lead in both innovation and returns. At the I/O Fund, our deep coverage of AI stocks, combined with active management of crypto positions, gives us a unique vantage point. As we move into the second half of the year, we want to highlight key insights every investor should understand about where AI stocks and crypto could go next.

Data center power demand is forecast to surge over the next decade, with some estimates seeing demand increasing 3x by 2030. Inference is expected to be a primary driver with power demand growth projected at a 122% CAGR through 2028 as providers work to serve billions of requests and process hundreds of trillions of tokens. Combined with a 5x increase in GPU power consumption over the next two to three years with Nvidia’s Rubin Ultra, power is quickly becoming a major bottleneck for the industry. As a result of this expected demand growth, nuclear is re-emerging as a preferred clean energy source for AI data centers. Below, we discuss nuclear energy’s potential to address AI data center demand, its advantages and drawbacks, plus Big Tech’s increased interest in nuclear with a record-setting deal, and more.

Last week, AMD offered more details on the release of their groundbreaking GPUs with little fanfare in the markets – which is par for the course as AMD has a history of being forgotten about until the company can no longer be ignored. At Advancing AI 2025, AMD introduced its Instinct MI350 series GPUs, including MI355X with up to 4X performance over the previous MI300X generation and up to 40% more tokens per dollar compared to Nvidia’s B200 accelerators.

Up until now, the AI conversation has been dominated by training and compute, yet inference is showing signs of exploding growth. Microsoft and Google recently highlighted 5x to 9x YoY growth in AI tokens processed, while OpenAI and Anthropic are adding billions in ARR in a matter of months to $10 billion and $3 billion, respectively. While Nvidia takes center stage for many investors as AI training powered its immense data center growth over the past two years, this AI semiconductor stock is solidifying itself as the clear second place, with AI revenue expected to rise at 60% YoY this year and hints of a possible acceleration next year. Below, we break down what you need to know as the industry shifts to inference at scale, if this stock’s valuation is justified or lofty, plus the one thing the CEO said that all AI investors must hear to help position for 2025-2026.

Late in 2024, Oracle outlined an ambitious plan to nearly double its revenue by fiscal 2029, hinging on long-term growth in enterprise AI and cloud spending. Oracle sets itself apart from its hyperscale peers with its ability to provide low-cost, ultrafast AI compute, winning a key role in the massive Stargate AI infrastructure project over the next four years. Despite surging RPO and billions of potential revenue from Stargate, Oracle's AI story has not inspired confidence. Cloud revenue is already on track to miss its FY25 target provided just one quarter ago, and analysts are wary of management's growth acceleration targets.

NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell Ultra GPU, unveiled at NVIDIA GTC 2025, is transforming AI acceleration and high-performance computing (HPC). Designed for the “Age of Reasoning,” these cutting-edge GPUs deliver unprecedented computational power for AI training and inference through advanced parallel processing. As AI workloads grow, accelerated computing is becoming essential — rising from 30% to 80% adoption among the world’s Top 500 supercomputers. The Green 500 energy-efficient supercomputers further highlight this shift, as demand for powerful, efficient AI hardware surges.

Supercomputers and advanced AI data centers are driving the AI revolution, enabling breakthroughs in deep learning and large-scale model training. As AI workloads become increasingly complex, next-generation infrastructure must offer both massive computational power and energy efficiency. NVIDIA’s GB200 is engineered to meet these demands, providing scalable, high-performance solutions for AI superclusters, accelerating AI training, inference, and large-scale data processing.

Alibaba’s AI-driven cloud revenue is surging with six consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth. However, its AI earnings remain a fraction of what U.S. tech giants report, with Microsoft leading at 13X higher AI revenue. The competitive pricing war in China’s AI sector may be limiting its growth potential. Explore Alibaba’s AI advancements, market challenges, and future prospects in our latest analysis.

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The average cloud software company reported 10% growth during the 2008-2009 recession. Meanwhile, we’ve seen the market react harshly towards companies guiding for 25% ...

In an interview with Darius Dale, Beth Kindig stated: “We ultimately think you can get Nvidia lower than where it is trading now. We are likely to take gains between $120 and $150 based on technical levels. The valuation has finally caught up to the fundamentals, and we have about six to nine months before Blackwell arrives.” Beth stresses the importance of using technical analysis, as tech investing is sentiment-driven and has proven to have stellar returns in the past. I/O Fund has a history of buying Nvidia at low prices. The first entry was $3.15 in December 2018 and provided 9 buy alerts below $20 for Nvidia.

Apple’s Services segment was one of the brightest spots in a relatively in-line earnings report at the beginning of November, topping an $85 billion run rate as growth jumped back to the high double-digits after a string of single-digit growth.

The smartphone market continues to be hit hard in q1, with prices down 20% and shipments down 13%, according to Canalys. Despite double digit decline across the industry, Apple delivered marginal growth on its iPhone sales at +1.5%.

Investors looking for the “next big thing” will point toward companies like Stripe, Sofi or Square as the leading fintech stocks. Meanwhile, the next big thing to disrupt the financial sector may be sitting in plain sight. Apple grew its cash trove through legendary design and hardware, yet how Apple chooses to leverage its enormous reserve of cash may be what writes the next chapter for the world’s most valuable company.

In April of 2022, Netflix surprised the markets by reporting its first subscriber loss in nearly 10 years. The stock tumbled 35% the following day, as investors panicked. Famed hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, immediately sold his entire stake in Netflix for a $400 million loss, only after holding it for just over three months.

Netflix lost it’s status as a FAANG when the stock fell from a $300 billion market cap to a $100 billion market cap this year. My firm entered Netflix in August as we fully expect the stock to become a FAANG again due to its revenue potential from ads and improving cash profile.

Netflix is trading at a 10-year historic low valuation, which means this is an opportune time to discuss the pros and cons of this stock should there be upside potential.

Netflix’s stock is down a staggering 71% year-to-date. The stock’s fall from grace includes dropping its FAANG-status as the company’s market cap has decreased from $300 billion to $75 billion. This was partly due to the company reporting it lost subscribers for the first time since 2011, with a loss of 200,000 subscribers in the most recent quarter. The company also forecast a decline of 2 million paid subscribers for the second quarter.

Robinhood’s fundamental transformation over the past two years has been nothing short of remarkable. Crypto is driving strong revenue growth at 50% YoY in Q1, while TTM operating margin is approaching 40% after being at (72%) at the start of 2023. Robinhood was an initial trailblazer in zero-commission trading, yet the company arguably made one of its most significant moves at the end of June with the launch of Stock Tokens. The tokenization of assets marks an entry into a market that will reach multi-trillions over the next decade. With that said, Robinhood remains heavily reliant on crypto as one of its three main revenue drivers. While crypto was instrumental in Robinhood’s first $1 billion quarter in Q4, this elevated reliance presents a headwind for Q2 as spot volumes declined significantly in June.

Since calling the Bitcoin bottom near $16,000 in late 2022, the I/O Fund has maintained a disciplined, contrarian approach — issuing 13 buy alerts before Bitcoin surged above $100,000. Now, signs suggest the current bull cycle may be nearing its final stage. Despite pro-crypto news headlines and ETF momentum, our technical and on-chain indicators point to rising risk and the possibility of a major top. In this article, we explore why it may be time to reduce exposure and how disciplined risk management can protect gains before the next volatile phase begins.

Ethereum has long been the frontrunner in decentralized apps (dApps) and blockchain innovation, but its scalability challenges have left the door open for competitors like Solana. Launched in March 2020, Solana has surged over +28,000% since its debut, compared to Ethereum’s +1,500%, offering a faster, more efficient alternative through its unique Proof of History (PoH) protocol. This protocol enables Solana to process up to 65,000 transactions per second without sidechains, making it a superior layer 1 solution in terms of speed and security. With Ethereum’s shift from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) addressing some scalability issues but raising concerns about centralization, Solana continues to push ahead, supported by innovations like the upcoming Firedancer upgrade, which promises to boost transaction speeds to over 1,000,000 per second. While the broader adoption of blockchain remains in its early stages, Solana’s advancements position it as a compelling contender for long-term layer 1 dominance.

In December 2022, we boldly stated that “Bitcoin is a buy” when it was trading around $17,000. We were positioning for a new bull cycle and projected a target between $75,000 - $132,000. Despite Bitcoin being down nearly 80% from the 2021 highs and the FTX scandal, by March 2024, Bitcoin hit $73,757, close to our lower target. We rely on technical and on-chain analysis for Bitcoin, which helped us call the 2022 low and predict upper targets. We now adjust our targets to $82,000 - $106,000 for risk management and plan to reduce our crypto exposure by ~50% on the next push to all-time highs.

Bitcoin is the best performing asset in market history. There is no stock or asset that has come close to delivering the returns of this digital currency --- it has greatly outperformed all FAANGs, and all outliers in the history of the markets. Yet, Bitcoin is also unusual in that its volatility is equally as historic, capable of regular +70% drawdowns that inevitably push to new highs within an average of 2.5 years.

Bitcoin and the spot BTC ETFs have clearly seen strong investor appetite since the approval in the beginning of the year. Alongside strong initial adoption of the new ETF class, we’re also seeing major crypto exchanges and platforms benefit, with Coinbase and Robinhood both seeing crypto trading volumes and transaction revenues surge. This may cause investors to believe that Coinbase and Robinhood are clear beneficiaries, yet we foresee trouble for HOOD specifically.

Bitcoin is an asset where the bulls pound the table to “buy, buy, buy,” and the bears relentlessly and stubbornly call it a scam. In reality, both are the wrong approach. This is because although Bitcoin is the highest performing asset in the past ten years, it’s also the one of the most volatile. Consider that it was trading at $58,000 in March of 2022, and by December of 2022 had lost 72% of its value. That year, the loud and proud Bitcoin bulls were not your friends. Timing is everything.

The SEC approved nearly a dozen spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10 in what was heralded as a “watershed” moment for the crypto industry, opening the door for investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without directly holding it. It’s widely expected that this approval and subsequent widespread access for institutions and retail investors will shape up to be one of the most bullish fundamental moments in Bitcoin’s history.

Tesla’s stock is now facing a recalibration of expectations after Q1’s delivery report missed by a wide margin. Q1’s analyst consensus has gone from $25.98B at the start of the year to $23.97B in early March, to now $21.54B following Tesla’s delivery report. These sharp revisions beg the question - is this enough? This analysis drills deeper into the current analyst expectations for Tesla and what to expect in Q1’s report below.

Tesla’s growth faces major hurdles in 2025 after its first annual decline in deliveries. Sales are plunging in key markets like China and Europe, while margins remain under pressure. Optimism around robotaxis and Optimus robots is rising, but neither is expected to drive significant growth next year. Tesla’s push for an affordable model also raises profitability concerns. Stay ahead with I/O Fund’s expert analysis—our high-performing tech portfolio outperformed the Nasdaq-100 in 2024. Take advantage of our limited-time 20% off Pro membership and access exclusive research, webinars, and real-time trade alerts.

Below, I review five of the top stocks of 2024, selected based on their price action, fundamentals and presence withing leading tech themes. Choosing a top 5 means many great stocks were left off this list, yet this sample helps to form conclusions around how 2024 shaped up versus years past, centered around leading, core thematic opportunities.

Tesla is arguably one of the most advanced AI companies in the world, yet its stock is dictated by margins. Over the past three years, Tesla’s average gross profit per vehicle has declined by 60%, falling from more than $14,400 in Q3 2021 to less than $6,000 in Q2 2024, highlighting the difficulty Tesla has faced in a high-interest rate environment.

After months of being the lowest performing Mag 7 stocks, Tesla saw rapid gains — up 42% in a one month rally, with 37% of those gains in eight sessions — after it reported Q2 deliveries ahead of expectations and a surge in energy storage deployments.

The Magnificent 7 of 2023 have now become 2024’s Magnificent 3: Nvidia, Meta and Amazon. Of these, Nvidia’s saw a stellar start to the year as shares have gained nearly 60% YTD due to the GPU leader’s beat-and-raise quarters.

Tesla’s Q4 earnings are on tap after the market close on January 24, closing up a year in which aggressive price cuts helped the automaker top Q4 delivery estimates reach a new record and narrowly beat its 1.8 million volume target.

Tesla’s China struggles are persisting, as the American OEM saw its monthly sales decline substantially year-over-year in November, continuing a string of weak growth that began in August.

IoT medical devices may be our scariest security threat yet. Implanted devices such as pacemakers draw big headlines for security threats. However, there are 36,000 oth...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has enjoyed a lot of attention from analysts and researchers who expect the number of IoT connections to surpass the human population this ...

Palantir proved again in Q3 that it’s undeniably one of the stronger AI software stocks in the market outside of the cloud hyperscalers. The company reported visible AI-driven growth and persisting business momentum for AIP, strong revenue acceleration to 30% YoY, combined with strong profitability – a rare combination for growth stocks.

Heading into 2024, Palantir was exhibiting “multiple signs of acceleration” stemming from strong growth in its US commercial segment, driven by AIP, Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform that lets customers lever Palantir’s AI and ML tools and harness the power of the latest large language models (LLMs) within Foundry and Gotham.

Palantir’s Q4 earnings confirmed an acceleration in its US commercial business as it closed out its first GAAP profitable year. Shares are reflecting the optimism surrounding Palantir’s commercial segment and bottom line expansion, with shares up more than 47% YTD and nearly 280% since the start of 2023.

Big Tech’s participation in the market’s push to all-time highs is becoming increasingly narrow, with Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon serving as the primary contributors to 2024’s rally.

Cloud stocks have been a mixed bag for investors heading into the end of the year, as a handful of names — Confluent, Sprinklr, HashiCorp, Bill, Paycom — plunged following their earnings reports with growth set to slow, while others — Datadog, Elastic, Salesforce – soared on renewed optimism about AI prospects.

Although many AI stocks will not report enough AI revenue to survive the fierce, competitive battle the tech industry faces due to AI/ML, Wall Street investors can reasonably assume that Microsoft will be a leader in this space.

In our latest Forbes report, we discuss why Google (Alphabet) may have missed a critical window this year for the infrastructure piece. We also analyze how Microsoft d...

Paul Tudor Jones is one of many money managers who believes that protecting your money is more important than making it. In my latest article, I discussed this very con...

The lead we see from Microsoft today on AI revenue streams is critical enough and predictive enough that it points toward Azure surpassing $200 billion by 2028, catalyzed by the OpenAI investment.

Big Tech’s participation in the market’s push to all-time highs is becoming increasingly narrow, with Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon serving as the primary contributors to 2024’s rally.

Cloud stocks have been a mixed bag for investors heading into the end of the year, as a handful of names — Confluent, Sprinklr, HashiCorp, Bill, Paycom — plunged following their earnings reports with growth set to slow, while others — Datadog, Elastic, Salesforce – soared on renewed optimism about AI prospects.

Following last quarter’s earnings, we published an analysis on cloud that showed hyperscalers were slowing (5%) sequentially and best-of-breed was slowing (12%) sequentially, based on Q4 guides.

Nearly all cloud companies are reporting a notable, sequential slowdown between Q3 to Q4. Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure services slowed from mid-30 percent growth in prior years to 24 percent growth and 30% growth. Only a quarter ago – in Q2 – the growth was at 29 percent and 35%. This quarter marks a 5 percent decline sequentially, which is considered a rapid decline for these two companies.

Most investors agree that cloud is a critical trend to have in a portfolio as the category’s growth has been resilient due to increasing productivity while reducing costs. This is especially true for software-as-a-service whereas cloud infrastructure as-a-service does not always result in lower costs compared to on-premise servers.

Big Tech earnings were off to a solid start last week when Microsoft and Google reported stable revenue growth and margins that are unchanged from recent macro conditions. The strong margins were especially welcomed as many companies have been missing on operating margins and cash flow.

For Cloudflare, revenue growth is not an issue at this time. Yet, revenue growth is less meaningful in the current macro environment if the growth does not translate to a healthier bottom line.

Despite their leadership, AI stocks like Taiwan Semiconductor and Nvidia are flat year-to-date and trading at similar levels as June 2024. Clearly, the AI trade is not as straightforward as it might seem. Taiwan Semiconductor, in particular, sits at the center of geopolitical tensions — yet those tensions tend to surround companies with deep IP in the AI economy. What makes this economy so distinct is not just the extraordinary commercial demand, but also its rare, historical role in shaping global alliances (and adversaries). Investors are confronted almost daily with friction between the U.S. and China — and at the center of it all is one stock: Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC). While enthusiasm around AI demand remains strong, assuming it will simply override geopolitical headwinds is overly optimistic. Onshoring a supply chain like TSMC’s takes years, yet markets can react to a negative headline in seconds.

Nvidia’s streak of blockbuster earnings has turned investor expectations into a high-stakes game— anything short of perfection risks disappointment. As the company gears up to report fiscal Q1 results, markets remain fixated on the fallout from China’s H20 export ban, which could shave $15 billion off annual revenue and includes a $5.5 billion inventory write-down. Q1 strength will likely reflect a surge in stockpiled orders from China, but Q2 poses the choppiest outlook in years as demand for Hopper GPUs slows and Blackwell ramps more gradually than expected. Despite these headwinds, Nvidia’s fiscal H2 may shine, with Blackwell NVL72 rack shipments set to surge. With over seven years of coverage and a 53% gain on our latest Nvidia trade, I/O Fund offers critical insights and buy targets as Wall Street heads into Nvidia Week.

Nvidia has traversed choppy waters so far in 2025 as concerns have mounted about how the company plans to sustain its historic levels of demand. At GTC, Huang threw cold water on many of the Street’s assumptions, explaining why Nvidia’s GPUs will continue to dominate the AI accelerator market moving forward. I appeared on Fox News live during the keynote to discuss why valuation is the great equalizer for this stock – along with my prediction for which quarter this year Nvidia will likely explode higher.

Key Nvidia suppliers are providing mixed guidance on the timing of Nvidia’s Blackwell GB200 systems. The commentary is subtle, and it would require knowing this stock thoroughly to identify the change in tone. To put it simply, if Blackwell GB200s were ramping, we would see strong sequential growth for Q1. At the very least, there would be some indication Q2 is setting up for strong growth, and yet the commentary is shifting toward a second half discussion.

Broadcom’s stock surged 35% in two days despite a mediocre Q4, as management offered investors a picturesque addressable market forecast for 2027. Q4 was not the blowout report the market made it out to be, as Broadcom fell just short of revenue estimates while guiding Q1 barely above consensus. Despite this, the market did solidify that momentum continues to build for AI stocks entering 2025.

Semiconductor stocks will come into focus in 2025 as geopolitical tensions rise. China is likely to retaliate following Trump’s most recent threats of 10% additional tariffs to all Chinese goods. This escalation in tariffs and retaliation is expected to have an impact on semiconductor sales in China, particularly affecting chipmakers with higher exposure to China.

Chipmakers Qualcomm, Intel and AMD are working to bring AI-capable PCs to the “mainstream”, delivering powerful neural processing units to PCs for on-computer AI operations. AI PCs are not only a consumer market, rather will also be driven forward by enterprises and developers seeking to upgrade their employee PCs.

Direct liquid cooling doesn’t lie as it’s intricately linked to the Blackwell launch, implying that Blackwell would indeed ship by Q4 – and Nvidia just confirmed that (multiple times) in Q2’s release.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – (BUSINESS WIRE) – I/O Fund, an actively managed tech portfolio that provides in-depth stock investing research and real-time trade alerts for retail investors, announces a 11.4% return for 2021 and 141% cumulative return from its inception through December 31, 2021. ​​Both figures do not include dividends.

I/O Fund boasts 236% 1-Year and 28% 2021 YTD returns which only prove how dedicated I/O Fund is to its mission– making institutional-level stock analysis, particularly in the tech sector, accessible to all. The I/O Fund credits its acheivement of being the #1 top-performing tech portfolio to the growing, passionate base of stock newsletter and premium subscribers. The team is dedicated every day to continue outperforming the large corporations I/O Fund competes with.

The I/O Fund specializes in tech microtrends and has outperformed other popular tech focused innovation funds on the market. I/O Fund competes at the highest level and offers full transparency for individual retail investors.

In 2024, I/O Fund posted a 35% return, significantly outperforming popular tech ETFs, which recorded an 8% return over the same period. On a cumulative basis, the results translate to a remarkable 219% outperformance compared to competing tech portfolios. The I/O Fund outperformed the S&P 500 by 109% and outperformed the Nasdaq-100 by 82%. In 2024, the I/O Fund returned 35%, outperforming the S&P 500 by 11% and the Nasdaq-100 by 10%. Since inception, the I/O Fund has maintained a lead of up to 219% over institutional technology portfolios.

I/O Fund, a tech research site that actively manages a real-time portfolio, announces returns of 57% in 2023 with a cumulative return of 131% since inception. This compares to popular tech ETFs that have cumulative returns of (-10%) in the same time period for an outperformance of 141% in less than four years.

Actively managed portfolio and research site announces its largest cumulative lead over institutional all-tech portfolios. The I/O Fund defies a challenging market, outperforming peers and providing innovative tools to level the playing field for retail investors.

CEO and Lead Tech Analyst Beth Kindig of I/O Fund discusses the current hybrid and work from home trend in relation to cloud companies, specifically Asana. As working from home becomes more commonplace, key cloud-based tools like Asana reap profits.

This week we’ve got big news to share. First off, my team has released audited performance results that outperformed $ARKK since the Fund was founded on May 9th, 2020 and we are currently beating the Nasdaq across roughly 34 positions.

The I/O Fund specializes in tech microtrends and has outperformed other popular tech focused innovation funds on the market. I/O Fund competes at the highest level and offers full transparency for individual retail investors.

This is the inaugural momentum list report written by David Marlin. We will release this report on a monthly basis.

The Magnificent 7 of 2023 have now become 2024’s Magnificent 3: Nvidia, Meta and Amazon. Of these, Nvidia’s saw a stellar start to the year as shares have gained nearly 60% YTD due to the GPU leader’s beat-and-raise quarters.

Social media stocks Meta (META), Pinterest (PINS), and Snapchat (SNAP) enjoyed strong gains in 2023 as the broader ad market stabilized and fundamentals improved. Social media ad spend is expected to remain robust in 2024, with one of the fastest projected growth rates in the ad industry at +13.8% to reach $227.2 billion, less than 1% shy of search ad spend.

The mega-cap stocks that are known as FAAMG reported earnings recently. These names are driving the market higher, especially Microsoft and Apple. In fact, the percentage of Microsoft and Apple’s combined weighting in the S&P 500 has never been higher.

Meta shares nosedived 25% after the company's recent Q3 results. Meta's expenses are rising and the company is seeing softer revenue growth and softer margins. The slowing advertisement revenue has forced the company to look for new investments and the market is doubting when or if these investments will pay off.

I/O Fund’s Portfolio Manager Knox Ridley spoke to Nicole Petallides from the TD Ameritrade Network. He rightly predicted that Meta Platforms (Facebook) would be under significant pressure and Snap would be a winner. Here’s an overview of the discussion.

Watch I/O Fund analyst Bradley Cipriano give a brief overview of Eventbrite as the company recovers from the headwinds caused by Covid-19 pandemic.

In this short video, Bradley comments on Bumble's low valuation but faster growth rate relative to Tinder!

This report covers the 3rd Quarter Earnings of Pinterest, Snap, Microsoft, Twilio and Shopify

AI data centers are at the heart of the AI revolution, but their massive energy demands raise critical questions. With power consumption expected to grow 160% by 2030, data centers are turning to a mix of brown, clean, and renewable energy sources to balance sustainability and reliability. Goldman Sachs estimates 40% of new data center capacity will come from renewables, but can solar, wind, and nuclear meet AI’s 24/7 power needs? Discover how hyperscalers are adapting their energy strategies in the race to power AI.

Natural gas is emerging as the backbone of AI data center expansion, with demand expected to reach up to 6 billion cubic feet per day by 2030. As AI-driven infrastructure surges, data centers are turning to the U.S. electrical grid, primarily powered by natural gas, to meet their energy needs. With Texas and Louisiana leading in dense gas pipeline networks, major AI data center projects are strategically positioning themselves near these energy hubs. Discover why natural gas pipelines are the unsung heroes fueling the AI revolution.

Solar is arguably one of the market’s most sold-off industries at the moment, with the Invesco Solar ETF falling more than 42% YTD as the industry struggles to find growth in a high-rate environment. With implied Fed funds futures suggesting interest rates will remain above 5% through Q2 2024 before slowly dropping to the 3.75% range by year-end 2025, the industry is still facing a high-rate environment with more possible adverse demand effects for multiple quarters ahead.

After the strong rally, it appears the market is taking profits on commentary around the outlook for margins. It’s not only that they were lower quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), but also Tesla provided zero insight as to how much lower margins can go. The market does not like uncertainty. It’s somewhat ironic that during the call Musk can wax poetic about the complexities of AI, neural net training, the 6-million dollar man, and robotic taxis yet when it comes to basic profitability drivers, he can’t say anything. The former drove the price post Q123 and the latter is driving the price today.

This analysis looks at First Solar, Enphase and Tesla as beneficiaries of the Inflation Reduction Act. IRA’s primary objective is to spur investments in clean energy, transport and manufacturing.

Solar energy stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 Index YTD with the most noticeable divergence June-August. The S&P 500 index is down 17% YTD and Nasdaq-100 index is down 26%, yet solar stocks are leading the tech industry as Enphase Energy is up 72%, Maxeon Solar Technologies is up 62%, and First Solar is up 56% YTD.

Watch I/O Fund analyst Bradley Cipriano give a brief overview of Enphase's Q3 2021 results and what to expect going forward in this short video presentation.

Watch I/O Fund analyst Bradley Cipriano give a brief overview of Tesla's strong Q3 2021 results in this short video presentation.

Microsoft stock jumped after Q3 2025 earnings as Azure emerged as the only major cloud platform to accelerate growth this quarter — a rare feat amid macro pressures. Azure’s 35% constant currency growth crushed estimates and far outpaced AWS at 17% and Google Cloud at 28%. This momentum reaffirms Microsoft’s dominant position in the Azure vs AWS vs Google Cloud battle. With deeper enterprise penetration, exclusive OpenAI integration, and a strong AI-driven roadmap, Microsoft’s cloud and AI edge continues to widen. Our full breakdown explores Azure’s acceleration, Microsoft’s 49% stake in OpenAI, rising token usage, and a major upcoming AI catalyst few are talking about.

Cloudflare shares spiked last week following Q4 earnings despite an underwhelming Q1 and 2025 guide that came in slightly below expectations, as multiple key metrics supported management’s commentary for a revenue reacceleration in 2025. Below, I break down the most important metrics from the report and what it means for growth for Cloudflare as AI inference takes the stage. The I/O Fund recently entered five new small and mid-cap positions that we believe will be beneficiaries of increased AI spending after Big Tech projected capex of $320B+ for 2025. Advanced members received real-time trade alerts for each trade. Take advantage of our limited-time promotion for $50 off monthly Advanced plans – learn more here.

Cloud stocks have been a mixed bag for investors heading into the end of the year, as a handful of names — Confluent, Sprinklr, HashiCorp, Bill, Paycom — plunged following their earnings reports with growth set to slow, while others — Datadog, Elastic, Salesforce – soared on renewed optimism about AI prospects.

Earnings season has officially kicked off, with Big Tech headlining a busy week next week: Microsoft and Google report on Tuesday, followed by Meta on Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. Big Tech stocks have seen their dominance over the broader indexes soar this year, with the Magnificent 7 reaching nearly 30% of the S&P 500’s weighting, higher now than at its peak in 2022 and up from 20.0% at the beginning of this year.

Going into this year, we were positioned for bottom-line focused investment themes that we felt would be able to deliver earnings growth due to secular demand for its products, and in some cases, be able to reduce costs to maintain profitability.

CrowdStrike has one of the better fundamental profiles out of the cloud category. This is due to its 50%+ revenue growth rate, GAAP operating margin of (7%) and free cash flow margin of 31%. The company also has one of the best Rule of 40 numbers in the cloud category at 89%.

Nearly all cloud companies are reporting a notable, sequential slowdown between Q3 to Q4. Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure services slowed from mid-30 percent growth in prior years to 24 percent growth and 30% growth. Only a quarter ago – in Q2 – the growth was at 29 percent and 35%. This quarter marks a 5 percent decline sequentially, which is considered a rapid decline for these two companies.

In October, we talked with Jeremy Owens of MarketWatch on a Barron's podcast about the consumption model versus the subscription model. With Snowflake reporting this week, it's a good time to revisit the differences. Across cloud reports, Snowflake reported one of the highest rates of variability between Q3 and Q4 from 67% growth to an estimated 50% growth in Q4. This is likely due to the lumpiness of the consumption model. After reading through the report

We are seeing mounting evidence that this bounce may be the start of a new push to all-time highs, such as improved breadth, better than expected earnings plus the size of this bounce. However, one can’t ignore the unprecedented levels of uncertainty shown in key indexes, coupled with a growing problem in the U.S. bond market. In this report, we’ll lay out the unbiased case for each scenario for our 2025 stock market outlook.

As the S&P 500 reaches a key bounce target, troubling signs in bonds and consumer behavior suggest this market rally may be on thin ice. I/O Fund’s Knox Ridley explains why volatility may intensify and how the correlation between stocks and bonds is breaking in a way we haven’t seen in decades.

Rising tariffs are injecting significant uncertainty into the stock market, triggering daily volatility and forcing analysts to revise earnings estimates. Our Q1 preview dives into the potential impact on key sectors like consumer electronics (especially Apple), autos, and Big Tech, revealing how supply chain disruptions and potential price hikes could reshape the market landscape.

In early 2025, as markets rallied to new highs, we warned that divergence across key sectors signaled a looming correction. Now, with all major indexes in a technical bear market and bond market dysfunction escalating, we explore why the Fed may not be able to prevent deeper losses — and how investors should position for what’s next.

Retail investors face significant disadvantages in the stock market, often underperforming institutional investors by a wide margin. Studies show that high-frequency trading firms dominate market activity, creating extreme volatility that disproportionately impacts individual traders. As the I/O Fund prepares to release its 2024 returns—proving our firm has outperformed both indexes and top Wall Street funds—we examine the critical need for verified returns and risk management strategies to help retail investors succeed.

The digital world is overloaded with noise—millions of posts, comments, and messages flood the internet every minute. For investors, this creates a challenge: filtering out distractions to focus on high-quality stock analysis. I/O Fund delivers institutional-grade research on tech stocks, AI, and crypto, offering both free and premium insights with real-time trade transparency. From Nvidia’s AI call at $3.15 to identifying top AI and semiconductor stocks, our analysis provides a competitive edge. Stay ahead of the market—sign up for our free newsletter today.

In a world flooded with information, investors face an overwhelming amount of noise. Quality stock analysis is the key to cutting through the clutter. At I/O Fund, we provide in-depth, free investment research—focused on the high-risk, high-reward tech sector, including AI, crypto, fintech, and semiconductors. Our expert insights help investors navigate market volatility with confidence. Stay ahead with our best analysis, designed for those who seek real value in a fast-moving market.

In our mid-October 2024 broad market report, we highlighted that a breakout above 5825 on the S&P 500 could push the index into the 6000–6185 range—contingent on holding support at 5675, which it did. Since then, the market peaked at 6147 and remains near its October levels. However, key sectors and stocks have failed to participate in the rally, and bond market reactions to the Fed’s aggressive rate-cut plans remain concerning. Legendary investors like Stanley Druckenmiller and Peter Lynch emphasize analyzing markets over economic forecasts to anticipate major market moves. Our intermarket analysis, which helped us identify the end of the 2022 bear market, now signals a potential market top. Additionally, semiconductor stocks—historically a leading indicator of volatility—remain well below their highs, suggesting broader market weakness ahead.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday e-commerce sales broke records again this year, with Adobe pointing out that US sales increased 10.2% YoY to $10.8 billion on Black Friday while Cyber Monday sales rose 7.3% YoY to ~$13.3 billion. Peak sales hit $15.8 million per minute on Monday evening.

Amazon is on the verge of joining the $2 Trillion Club, driven by a 4-percentage point accelerating in AWS to 17% YoY growth combined with strong 25% growth in advertising revenue.

The Magnificent 7 of 2023 have now become 2024’s Magnificent 3: Nvidia, Meta and Amazon. Of these, Nvidia’s saw a stellar start to the year as shares have gained nearly 60% YTD due to the GPU leader’s beat-and-raise quarters.

With Shopify’s stock in the gutter, is now a good time to buy the company? The answer is that it depends on your time horizon. The long-term story is intact but there are also opportunity costs to holding a stock that must be considered.

Poshmark sits at the intersection of three key trends: non-new, sustainability, and social e-commerce. A consumer-to-consumer online marketplace for pre-owned items, Poshmark is a fashion-oriented platform that offers apparel, accessories, beauty and wellness, footwear, home goods, toys and games, and a new pets category.

This report covers the 3rd Quarter Earnings of Pinterest, Snap, Microsoft, Twilio and Shopify

Fintech companies are disrupting the global economy with new and innovative products. Technological advancements have led to considerable investments in this sector and traditional finance companies have not been able to efficiently cater to changing business needs. Of the recent fintech quarterly earnings, D-Local stood out for its strong bottom line.

Fintech companies aim to disrupt traditional finance and with our worlds increasingly going digital, it makes sense that traditional finance is also moving online. There are multiple different innovations that have taken place, from digital payments to using A.I. to better price credit risk.

Fintech companies are disrupting the global economy with their innovative products. The global growth is expected to continue despite medium-term challenges due to higher interest rates and Covid-19. We believe that the recent sell-off once again provides opportunities to pick stocks for the long term.

Voyager Digital is a smaller cap that gives investors exposure to the Bitcoin and crypto trading trend at a reasonable valuation.

The O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) is an annual convention for the discussion of free and open source software. Open source has seen tremendous support over th...

We live in a digital world where almost everything we touch is being stored on servers, the cloud or in mobile applications. Technologists push for the adoption of digi...

Last year was a stellar year for investors – in 2023, the Nasdaq 100 rose 54% for its best annual return since 1999, while the S&P 500 gained 24%. The Magnificent 7 were the de facto leaders of this market rally, with the group’s returns averaging 111% for 2023 and accounting for more than 60% of the S&P 500’s annual gain.

Amidst the growing skepticism in our banking sector, we thought it would be helpful to introduce an alternative way to both protect and diversify one’s assets. The information below discusses a method the I/O Fund uses to hold its cash, which is safer than banks, and yields 5% or higher.

Last year, the I/O Fund encouraged our readers to let go of the idea that picking good stocks could save a portfolio in the tech industry and to instead fully embrace risk management tools. We pivoted to playing defense rather than offense. Those who watch team sports will understand this transition well, as the strategy changes from attempting to make money (or make a goal) to a strategy that prevents losses (or prevents a goal).

The FED is fighting inflation but what does this mean for the markets when there is real evidence that inflation is slowing down? In technical analysis from a month ago, we stated that if the market broke below 3920-3900, then odds were high of a continuation of the bear market. Two weeks later, the S&P 500 is trading in the low 3600 range and we have updated our analysis to discuss what comes next in this complicated and frustrating broad market environment.

Fintech companies are disrupting the global economy with new and innovative products. Technological advancements have led to considerable investments in this sector and traditional finance companies have not been able to efficiently cater to changing business needs. Of the recent fintech quarterly earnings, D-Local stood out for its strong bottom line.

Fintech companies aim to disrupt traditional finance and with our worlds increasingly going digital, it makes sense that traditional finance is also moving online. There are multiple different innovations that have taken place, from digital payments to using A.I. to better price credit risk.

Fintech companies are disrupting the global economy with their innovative products. The global growth is expected to continue despite medium-term challenges due to higher interest rates and Covid-19. We believe that the recent sell-off once again provides opportunities to pick stocks for the long term.

Learn three different ways that growth companies can cosmetically juice their topline growth rates! Equity Analyst Bradley Cipriano provides techniques that investors can use to uncover these tricks and also provides an example of how investors can use this information to find high-quality growth companies.

Unity has demonstrated strong price action following the IPO last year due to its unique blend of cash efficient ad-tech monetization and near-monopolistic game development platform. The company is well suited for the Metaverse and industrial 3D worlds due to its history of supporting 3D game development.

Despite mixed reports about Pinterest’s upcoming earnings report, we are seeing similar year-over-year growth in DAUs as Snapchat reported, which is 21.16% and 22% respectively. We are hopeful that with an ad-rebound in many sectors that Pinterest will also have a healthy earnings report, where low ad revenue last year will offset tough comps in usage.

2020 earnings from ad-tech stocks have shown us that digital advertising has rebounded sharply from the pandemic recession lows. 

Snap has seen remarkable volatility in its stock price this year, down 80 percent from its peak in March of 2017 at $29 to a low of $5 in December of 2018. The stock is currently trading in the $15 range, at time of writing.

Social media companies today are using smoke and mirrors to hide an important key metric. I’m going to pick on Pinterest first because the social media company recently...

With audited returns of 131% since inception, compared to the NASDAQ-100’s 82%, portfolio manager, Knox Ridley, lays out how we have successfully maintained an overexposure to the right tech stocks, while navigating the inherent volatility within tech. We also discussed our views on AI and if we view it as a bubble, as well as our views on crypto currencies. The entire presentation can be viewed on Seeking Alpha here. Below are a few highlights of the event. Knox Ridley discusses the importance of a catalyst within proper tech investing, how the investing community is already confusing AI, and how the our team is preparing for a potential weak spot within the economy.

Last week, I joined YCharts for a webinar to answer the question that is on everyone's mind: when will growth stocks be back in favor? The presentation points toward two headwinds that will clear soon that will help the growth trade return. I also discuss the changes we are seeing across FAANGs and the two FAANGs most likely to reach all-time highs again.

Recently I joined Tim Beyers and Brian Feroldi on The Motley Fool podcast. In the hour-long interview we discussed cloud stock valuations, trends I’m bullish on, why I thinkZoom VideoandShopifyare the best cloud stocks, my prediction that EVs would pullback (they later did) and why that’s a buying opportunity, and why I continue to be longFUBOdue to the company being centered between two important microtrends albeit extremely early.

On May 22nd at 4:30 pm Eastern, join four fundamental stock analysts on a webinar where they will discuss stock picks, trends and strategies to help strengthen your per...

Semiconductor stocks have gained prominence due to growth drivers such as artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, 5G, robotics, machine learning, and electric vehicles. Despite semiconductor companies underperforming YTD, there is evidence that more supply will come online by the end of the year that will be met with equal or greater demand.

Despite supply constraints and the challenging macro environment, semiconductor stocks have withstood the tech sell-off better than other sectors. This is due to many semiconductor companies being profitable with strong free cash flows.

Unity has demonstrated strong price action following the IPO last year due to its unique blend of cash efficient ad-tech monetization and near-monopolistic game development platform. The company is well suited for the Metaverse and industrial 3D worlds due to its history of supporting 3D game development.

Palantir proved again in Q3 that it’s undeniably one of the stronger AI software stocks in the market outside of the cloud hyperscalers. The company reported visible AI-driven growth and persisting business momentum for AIP, strong revenue acceleration to 30% YoY, combined with strong profitability – a rare combination for growth stocks.

Below, I look at the demand environment for leading cybersecurity stocks CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Palo Alto, and Fortinet, and which ones have key metrics hinting toward underlying strength.

Heading into 2024, Palantir was exhibiting “multiple signs of acceleration” stemming from strong growth in its US commercial segment, driven by AIP, Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform that lets customers lever Palantir’s AI and ML tools and harness the power of the latest large language models (LLMs) within Foundry and Gotham.

This year has led to a split landscape for cybersecurity stocks, with two of cybersecurity leaders up more than 20% YTD while others are negative YTD. In the past, we’ve discussed the resiliency of the cybersecurity trend being that it’s one of the highest costs that enterprises face at 12% of IT budgets on average.

Palantir’s Q4 earnings confirmed an acceleration in its US commercial business as it closed out its first GAAP profitable year. Shares are reflecting the optimism surrounding Palantir’s commercial segment and bottom line expansion, with shares up more than 47% YTD and nearly 280% since the start of 2023.

Big Tech’s participation in the market’s push to all-time highs is becoming increasingly narrow, with Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon serving as the primary contributors to 2024’s rally.

Cloud stocks have been a mixed bag for investors heading into the end of the year, as a handful of names — Confluent, Sprinklr, HashiCorp, Bill, Paycom — plunged following their earnings reports with growth set to slow, while others — Datadog, Elastic, Salesforce – soared on renewed optimism about AI prospects.

Cybersecurity stocks have performed well in 2023, rising about +26.5% YTD, with the security backdrop boosted by an increase in data breaches and ransomware.

Big Tech’s participation in the market’s push to all-time highs is becoming increasingly narrow, with Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon serving as the primary contributors to 2024’s rally.

Cloud stocks have been a mixed bag for investors heading into the end of the year, as a handful of names — Confluent, Sprinklr, HashiCorp, Bill, Paycom — plunged following their earnings reports with growth set to slow, while others — Datadog, Elastic, Salesforce – soared on renewed optimism about AI prospects.

Earnings season has officially kicked off, with Big Tech headlining a busy week next week: Microsoft and Google report on Tuesday, followed by Meta on Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. Big Tech stocks have seen their dominance over the broader indexes soar this year, with the Magnificent 7 reaching nearly 30% of the S&P 500’s weighting, higher now than at its peak in 2022 and up from 20.0% at the beginning of this year.

Earlier this week, I/O Fund CEO and Lead Tech Analyst Beth Kindig joined Jeremy Owens, Tech Editor, and San Francisco Bureau Chief of MarketWatch, on Barron’s Live. They discussed cloud valuations including those that are trading at 2X above Covid lows, what metrics matter when evaluating cloud companies, and what to watch for in upcoming earnings season --- including a few comments on ad-tech.

Q1 earnings proved that cybersecurity stocks are insulated from supply chain issues and remain a number one priority across corporate budgets. Specifically, cybersecurity-related companies reported top line and bottom line beats plus a handful raised guidance while consumer-related tech and less cash efficient cloud verticals lowered or missed guidance this past quarter.

For Cloudflare, revenue growth is not an issue at this time. Yet, revenue growth is less meaningful in the current macro environment if the growth does not translate to a healthier bottom line.

Cloud reports in two waves, with the first wave of Q4 earnings ramping this week. Microsoft was the first to report on January 25th, and strength in cloud sales helped the company beat expectations. Specifically, Azure and other cloud services revenue increased 46% YoY in the quarter, which drove consolidated sales growth of 20% YoY, beating topline estimates by 2%.

IBM released upbeat results recently as the company beat consensus analysts’ revenue estimates by $740 million and adjusted EPS by $0.06. Even though IBM is not a pure-play cloud company, it has increased its focus in the cloud segment to stay in the race.

Semiconductors are the common denominator across the burgeoning technology trends of the next decade. Artificial Intelligence, 5G, high-performance computing, Internet-of-Things, gaming, electric vehicles, and robotics, among others, all require semiconductors to power them. These trends make semiconductor stocks an ideal investment and perhaps the most important space for tech investors to monitor.

Semiconductor stocks have gained prominence due to growth drivers such as artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, 5G, robotics, machine learning, and electric vehicles. Despite semiconductor companies underperforming YTD, there is evidence that more supply will come online by the end of the year that will be met with equal or greater demand.

Despite supply constraints and the challenging macro environment, semiconductor stocks have withstood the tech sell-off better than other sectors. This is due to many semiconductor companies being profitable with strong free cash flows.

Last week at MWC in Barcelona, the session panels focused on the hottest topics in mobile, such as 5G, artificial intelligence and blockchain. The more controversial pa...

The GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry and combines influential companies from Asia, Europe and North America in...

Semiconductor stocks will come into focus in 2025 as geopolitical tensions rise. China is likely to retaliate following Trump’s most recent threats of 10% additional tariffs to all Chinese goods. This escalation in tariffs and retaliation is expected to have an impact on semiconductor sales in China, particularly affecting chipmakers with higher exposure to China.

Tesla’s China struggles are persisting, as the American OEM saw its monthly sales decline substantially year-over-year in November, continuing a string of weak growth that began in August.

BYD more than doubled Tesla’s China sales in October as Tesla’s sales slipped on a month-over-month basis, while NEV startups showed strong sales numbers across the board. China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) industry continues to exhibit solid momentum, with September seeing NEV sales rise about +22% YoY and October estimated to see around +34% YoY growth.

In November, Beth Kindig shared her views on bitcoin miners, Microsoft and other tech stocks on the Fox Business show “Making Money with Charles Payne.” Below are video previews of her discussion and an overview of what the two of them discussed. Beth Kindig is known for her stock-picking skills, focusing primarily on the tech sector. Roku, for example, has given four-digit returns to its readers. Other prominent winners include Nvidia, Zoom, and Bitcoin, which have all provided triple-digit returns from Beth’s free newsletter.

I believe Nvidia can achieve an astonishing $10 trillion market cap by 2030. As you’ll see from the key points to my thesis, there is a bull case where a $10T market cap estimate in a little over six years’ time is not high enough.

Nvidia’s management team will focus on the H200 in the upcoming earnings call, but make no mistake, we will end this year in full-on Blackwell territory. The new architecture is at the forefront of training and inference for trillion+ parameter models.

Last week, I joined Samuel Burke from Real Vision to discuss “3 Ideas.” We discussed why I see Nvidia as the #1 AI stock also why cloud is weaker than it appears.

Zoom Video Communications is a company with a valuation where logic is ignored, and any investor in the stock would need to get comfortable with this. The current valuation of $25 billion comes from a company with $546 million in revenue and EBITDA of $39 million this year.

Snap has seen remarkable volatility in its stock price this year, down 80 percent from its peak in March of 2017 at $29 to a low of $5 in December of 2018. The stock is currently trading in the $15 range, at time of writing.

Apple’s Services segment was one of the brightest spots in a relatively in-line earnings report at the beginning of November, topping an $85 billion run rate as growth jumped back to the high double-digits after a string of single-digit growth.

After Nvidia added $750 billion in value this year on the backs of surging AI chip demand, investors are quickly searching for the next trillion-dollar AI winner. AI is the best investment opportunity of our lifetimes, and although Apple (AAPL) has been relatively overlooked as an AI play, the tech giant could quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the AI space.

The smartphone market continues to be hit hard in q1, with prices down 20% and shipments down 13%, according to Canalys. Despite double digit decline across the industry, Apple delivered marginal growth on its iPhone sales at +1.5%.

Investors looking for the “next big thing” will point toward companies like Stripe, Sofi or Square as the leading fintech stocks. Meanwhile, the next big thing to disrupt the financial sector may be sitting in plain sight. Apple grew its cash trove through legendary design and hardware, yet how Apple chooses to leverage its enormous reserve of cash may be what writes the next chapter for the world’s most valuable company.

Google Cloud certainly has the technical chops and engineering talent to compete with Microsoft Azure and Amazon’s AWS when it comes to cloud infrastructure, edge computing – and especially inferencing/training for machine learning models.

As Apple’s stock price powers to new highs, returning over 60% YTD and touting the highest market cap in history, now might be a good time for investors to reflect as A...

Debuting in 1980, Apple is nearing its 40th anniversary on the stock market. The company has undergone many pivots successfully from computers to improved operating sys...

Summary: According to Q3 earnings calls, Spotify may seek to broker user data in order to keep average revenue per user afloat. Known as programmatic advertising, this m...

In this analysis, rather than prognosticate on the top stocks of 2023, we think it’s more productive to go back and review the stocks that performed well under new macro conditions in 2022. This exercise helps to inform tech portfolios for the upcoming year as investors can reasonably assume 2023 will look more similar to 2022 than the preceding years.

Last week, we discussed why live sports OTT presented a unique opportunity for FuboTV and why we think it is positioned well for free-to-play fantasy games and sports b...

In the second part of my Q3 2020 tech earnings review series, I covered Roku, Square, The Trade Desk, Datadog and JFrog.

Slack Technologies is the fastest-growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) company of all time and a Silicon Valley favorite, yet the direct public offering (DPO) clearly d...

Ride-share earnings this week proved that if you lower the bar to the ground, any earnings performance can leap over it. Both companies reported staggering losses that ...

Crowdstrike is another Silicon Valley startup that recently went public with triple-digits across the board including revenue growth, net retention rate, and annual rev...

Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, is blaming timing and the trade war for the stock’s poor performance in its public market debut rather than focusing on the company’s unp...

June 20th is the official date of the Slack IPO, although the technical term is not an IPO but rather a DPO for Direct Public Offering. Of the cloud software companies ...

Despite Pinterest's stock climbing from its initial public offering last month, analysts are expecting a first-quarter loss of 16 cents a share, adjusted, compared to a...

By now, investors know that Lyft’s ride-sharing IPO didn’t reach $100 per share like many of the media talking heads stated it would, and this will likely weigh on Uber...

Will Roku miss earnings? I believe Roku will miss earnings at times, but for the big picture, Roku is at the center of an important trend in advertising and this will m...

Today, tech stock investors would be remiss to not have cloud in their tech portfolio as the category has proven to be secular and insulated from economic drawdowns.

Throughout the generations, there have been world wars, depressions, recessions and financial market implosions, but this is the first market to be whipsawed by machines. What’s driving the intensity is algorithms which puts wealth preservation at stake as retirement funds compete against quant traders.

I recently discussed Zoom Video and its continued phenomenal rise. In the face of a global pandemic, the company has become the top performing stock on the NASDAQ this ...

1. Comcast to Restructure NBCUniversal Hierarchy Ahead of Peacock Launch

Below, I review five of the top stocks of 2024, selected based on their price action, fundamentals and presence withing leading tech themes. Choosing a top 5 means many great stocks were left off this list, yet this sample helps to form conclusions around how 2024 shaped up versus years past, centered around leading, core thematic opportunities.

The Nasdaq 100 capped off 2023 with a return of +53.8%, erasing 2022’s losses and recording its highest annual return since 1999. This year had countless winners, but 5 stocks surprised and shocked the market with significant outperformance relative to the broader indices.

On June 30th, the NASDAQ posted the strongest first six months in the index’s history, dating back to 1971. The 6-month returns of 30.5% in 2023 easily beats the prior record of 25.2% in 2019. The majority of the rally was driven by seven stocks: Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Meta, Google. These 7 stocks are up a collective 98% YTD, while the equal weight S&P 500, which provides an equal weighting to all 500 stocks in the index, is up only 9%.

In this analysis, rather than prognosticate on the top stocks of 2023, we think it’s more productive to go back and review the stocks that performed well under new macro conditions in 2022. This exercise helps to inform tech portfolios for the upcoming year as investors can reasonably assume 2023 will look more similar to 2022 than the preceding years.

Last June, we discussed key reasons that cybersecurity stocks would hold up particularly well compared to other cloud verticals. The analysis pointed to enterprise spending expected to increase in 2022 from the previous year, according to Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) surveys.

Last week, we discussed signs of improvement at key automotive semiconductor suppliers and why this was affecting ad-tech stocks.

The semiconductor bottleneck has had a ripple effect and has impacted industries outside of automotive production, such as ad-tech. Nonetheless, we expect that this is only a temporary concern and that ad-tech will rebound in 2022 as supply chain issues begin to normalize.

I/O Fund Tech Analyst Bradley Cipriano discusses Microsoft, Tesla and Apple's latest results and what they mean for the broader tech market.

This article originally appeared in VentureBeat.By all accounts, mobile advertising is the wave of the future. Mobile ad spend is projected to increase 430 percent betw...

The global market for connected cars will grow by 270% by 2022 with 125 million passenger cars expected to ship worldwide between 2018 and 2022.1 By 2020, it’s estimate...

An Infographic on Key Trends in On-the-Go Entertainment:

Prior to the advent of mobile computing, security was limited to corporate IT assets that were often physically secured in facilities owned and managed by the company. ...

As GM CEO Mary Barra said in a keynote speech, “A cyber incident is a problem for every automaker in the world. It is a matter of public safety.” As Tesla, GM and many ...

Savvy consumers today are aware that marketers and corporate companies mine personal data from mobile phones and computers, sourced primarily from search engines, socia...

IoT medical devices may be our scariest security threat yet. Implanted devices such as pacemakers draw big headlines for security threats. However, there are 36,000 oth...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has enjoyed a lot of attention from analysts and researchers who expect the number of IoT connections to surpass the human population this ...

The Nasdaq 100 capped off 2023 with a return of +53.8%, erasing 2022’s losses and recording its highest annual return since 1999. This year had countless winners, but 5 stocks surprised and shocked the market with significant outperformance relative to the broader indices.

Cloudflare is excelling as a company in website and application security in addition to Zero Trust and R2 Storage products. Doubtlessly, it will deliver. But at its current valuation, Cloudflare as a stock isn't as attractive to us.

Two years ago, the I/O Fund wrote about Apple’s mobile privacy changes and kept our newsletter readers aware of these changes as they rolled out. Going into earnings, we are seeing headlines that Facebook may be affected.

Knox Ridley, the Portfolio Manager for the I/O Fund, has written an overview of the levels he is watching for the Nasdaq 100 and also why the Dow Transportation Index will help confirm if we see the next leg higher.

After reaching a new all-time high of more than $61,200 per coin last weekend, Bitcoin is currently trading around $59,000.

Tesla is arguably one of the most advanced AI companies in the world, yet its stock is dictated by margins. Over the past three years, Tesla’s average gross profit per vehicle has declined by 60%, falling from more than $14,400 in Q3 2021 to less than $6,000 in Q2 2024, highlighting the difficulty Tesla has faced in a high-interest rate environment.

Tesla’s Q4 earnings are on tap after the market close on January 24, closing up a year in which aggressive price cuts helped the automaker top Q4 delivery estimates reach a new record and narrowly beat its 1.8 million volume target.

After the strong rally, it appears the market is taking profits on commentary around the outlook for margins. It’s not only that they were lower quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), but also Tesla provided zero insight as to how much lower margins can go. The market does not like uncertainty. It’s somewhat ironic that during the call Musk can wax poetic about the complexities of AI, neural net training, the 6-million dollar man, and robotic taxis yet when it comes to basic profitability drivers, he can’t say anything. The former drove the price post Q123 and the latter is driving the price today.

 The stakes are high for Tesla's stock because if the margins remain healthy, the stock will do quite well. However, if the margins contract, then the bears will be in control. This is a big moment for Tesla, as high average sales price has been a contentious issue for meeting its addressable market. Wall Street will want to see it's possible to do both --- serve a wider total addressable market (TAM) with more affordable prices while maintaining a healthy bottom line.

Robot dogs from Continental prove that autonomous vehicle hype has gone too far. At CES 2019, Continental announced a way to automate last mile-delivery without requiri...

I recently joined the Motley Fool podcast with Brian Feroldi and Brian Stoffel where we discussed electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and whether growth tech investors should rotate into value. Below, we provide a summary of each video and YouTube clips. 

Earlier this month, I joined Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm on “This Week in Startups.” We discussed the current state of the IPO market, Zoom’s pricing power, top st...

I had the privilege of joining Tim Beyers and Brian Feroldi on The Motley Fool podcast earlier this month.  In the hour-long interview, we cover topics such as big tech...

I had a great time talking with Ryan Henderson and Brett Schafer on the Chit Chat Money podcast last week. They challenged me with questions on the bear case for Roku a...

About a week ago, Dan Shvartsman from Seeking Alpha interviewed Knox Ridley and I about the Zoom call we made last Fall, the trade made In January in the low-$60s, and ...

The average cloud software company reported 10% growth during the 2008-2009 recession. Meanwhile, we’ve seen the market react harshly towards companies guiding for 25% ...

In this article, I break down how Palantir’s AIP is putting it a step above peer Salesforce, MongoDB and Snowflake with visible AI growth, and its undeniable ‘secret sauce’.

Below, I look at the demand environment for leading cybersecurity stocks CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Palo Alto, and Fortinet, and which ones have key metrics hinting toward underlying strength.

This year has led to a split landscape for cybersecurity stocks, with two of cybersecurity leaders up more than 20% YTD while others are negative YTD. In the past, we’ve discussed the resiliency of the cybersecurity trend being that it’s one of the highest costs that enterprises face at 12% of IT budgets on average.

Cybersecurity stocks have performed well in 2023, rising about +26.5% YTD, with the security backdrop boosted by an increase in data breaches and ransomware.

Cybersecurity is one of the highest costs that enterprises face at 12% of IT budgets on average, and this cost is rapidly rising. While a company can lay off staff or reduce marketing and R&D expenses during a period of lower growth, enterprises cannot compromise on cybersecurity.

Two years ago, the I/O Fund wrote about Apple’s mobile privacy changes and kept our newsletter readers aware of these changes as they rolled out. Going into earnings, we are seeing headlines that Facebook may be affected.

Hackers go about achieving their goals with reverse engineering software to find vulnerabilities they can exploit, data they can extract, or ways to modify the software...

As GM CEO Mary Barra said in a keynote speech, “A cyber incident is a problem for every automaker in the world. It is a matter of public safety.” As Tesla, GM and many ...