The Infinite Money Loop

We did it again!

Pete and I went live again last night to bring you important details about a MAJOR move that’s about to happen in the crypto space this coming Monday.

There’s still time for you to rewatch last night’s urgent Zoom briefing here 👇.

The last time we did this bitcoin (BTC) rocketed up nearly 10% in only one week.

And I believe an even bigger move move could happen as soon as next week…

So I thought I’d use today’s issue to prepare you for what’s coming.

Let’s start with MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) a business-intelligence software company that’s been around for over three decades.

You might have seen MicroStrategy in the news recently, but it’s not for anything the company is doing in the software sector.

That’s because MicroStrategy is barely a software company anymore.

Remember how big a deal it was last week when Microsoft shareholders voted on whether the company should buy bitcoin as an asset class?

Well, MicroStrategy has been buying bitcoin for nearly five years.

Back in 2020 MicroStrategy’s then-CEO Michael Saylor made the bold decision to start acquiring bitcoin as a potential hedge against inflation.

And the company kept buying bitcoin — even as its price fluctuated.

It was a risky move. But so far the decision has paid off in spades for MicroStrategy.

As chairman, Saylor has overseen a massive surge in the company’s stock price over the past five years.

This year alone the company’s shares are up as high as 521%.

Of course, this incredible stock story has nothing to do with the company’s software business.

By one estimate, MicroStrategy’s value per share of its software business represents only 0.3% of the stock price.

But the company’s bitcoin business is booming!

It’s so important to MicroStrategy’s business that the company had to come up with a new performance indicator.

It’s called “bitcoin yield.”

And it tracks the percentage change over time in the ratio of the company’s bitcoin holdings to its assumed diluted shares outstanding.

But you don’t need to understand how “bitcoin yield” works to understand why I urged Pete to join me for another live briefing last night.

All you need to know is that MicroStrategy now owns more than 2% of bitcoin’s total supply…

A supply that’s capped at 21 million coins.

And that brings me to Monday’s big move…

What’s Happening On Monday?

On December 23, MicroStrategy will enter the Nasdaq-100.

It’s a stock market index reserved for the largest 100 nonfinancial companies in the full Nasdaq Composite Index by market capitalization.

And it’s a big deal.

You see, MicroStrategy became eligible to join the Nasdaq-100 because it’s technically a software company.

But as I just showed you, it owes most of its market cap to the company’s bitcoin investment strategy.

MicroStrategy’s market cap is up from around $1.4 billion on August 11, 2020 when the company first bought bitcoin to around $93.9 billion as of Monday.

That’s a gain of over 6,600%.

Obviously, one of the main factors behind this huge gain is bitcoin’s recent surge to over $107,000.

MicroStrategy’s impending Nasdaq-100 Index membership announcement also lifted the stock.

But it’s HOW the company acquired bitcoin that we should focus on.

Because MicroStrategy was able to make all those bitcoin purchases by leveraging debt.

It sold stock and other convertible-debt offerings to help finance its bitcoin purchases.

In other words, the company has created a kind of infinite money loop.

As its stock price goes up… it’s able to buy more bitcoin.

As bitcoin’s price goes up… it’s able to buy more bitcoin.

And now that the company is joining the Nasdaq-100 a lot of institutions with ETFs that mirror the Nasdaq-100 will start buying MicroStrategy…

And that will cause its stock price to go up.

As its stock price goes up…  it’s able to buy more bitcoin.

Do you see what’s going on here?

It’s like an infinite money loop.

Here’s My Take

MicroStrategy has the biggest corporate portfolio of digital assets in the world.

Its explosive growth shows how a cryptocurrency-driven corporate strategy can work…

And its entry in the Nasdaq-100 proves that its high-risk bitcoin approach can gain market acceptance.

Like I told you last week about Microsoft’s vote…

It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when buying bitcoin as an asset appeals to a major corporation.

Maybe it’s Amazon or Apple. Maybe Microsoft’s shareholders eventually relent.

But it will happen.

In the short term, I see Microstrategy’s big move to the Nasdaq-100 doing two things.

One is that it could cause a massive spike in bitcoin like we saw last week.

Second — and more important over the long term — is that it proves that bitcoin is a legitimate form of collateral.

We entered 2004 with a new bitcoin ETF that showed folks it’s OK to invest in bitcoin now.

We’re ending the year by showing folks it’s not just something you can invest in…

But something that you can borrow against.

Either way, I see bitcoin going up and to the right.

And as we’ve seen before…

When bitcoin goes up smaller coins tend to make even bigger moves.

My concern is that if you wait until Monday you might miss out on the four altcoins I’ve identified that could make the biggest moves.

So if you haven’t seen it… make sure to click on this link to watch last night’s urgent Zoom briefing.

Regards,

Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing

AI Faces a Surprising New Challenge in 2025

I still remember the day I heard about a crazy new website called “Amazon”…

This was back in 1999. A close friend was raising two young kids, and he’d just started shopping on the internet to save some time.

He was ecstatic about how much time he was saving. And he was blown away that he could tap a few keys on his computer … then have his purchases delivered to his doorstep about a week later.

Of course, Amazon was little more than a glorified bookstore back then.

This was a decade before Apple released its first smartphone.

About a third of Americans had a cell phone at the time.

And only 12% of Americans had internet access.

These were the early days of the Internet Revolution.

Even though folks like my friend could tell there was some value to the new technology — no one would’ve guessed how much it would ultimately transform our lives.

Amazon is now a retail juggernaut, second only to Walmart, with $1.6 billion in daily sales revenue.

Tech juggernauts like Google, Facebook and Netflix emerged to create trillions of dollars in market capitalization and make unprecedented fortunes for faithful investors.

But back in 1999 or 2000, it was impossible to know just how diverse and profitable this new technology would become.

Fast forward to 2024 — and we’re right back in that same position…

We’ve just been through the exciting first phase of the AI revolution.

And it’s only a matter of time before this radical new technology transforms our everyday lives.

Before that can happen, there are THREE critical factors AI innovators will need to master.

(The third one might surprise you…)

3 Critical Factors for the Next Stage of the AI Revolution

With the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, the first phase of the AI revolution was off to the races.

ChatGPT was the first “killer app” of the AI revolution.

It put the power of large language models (LLM) into the hands of everyday internet users, and people loved it.

The site reached 100 million users in just two months, proving there was a market for AI-powered tools.

A handful of mega-cap tech companies were clear frontrunners in this race since they already had a head start. These stocks are the “Magnificent Seven” that saw their shares soar steadily through 2023.

And while a few of these Magnificent Seven stocks are soaring, others aren’t.

So, in some ways, it seems the initial “hype” phase of the AI boom is cooling off.

Much like the internet boom of the early 2000s, consumers and investors are getting over their initial sense of awe and excitement and are now trying to find real value in AI.

Some investors are finding that value in the hardware that will power the AI revolution.

Nvidia has a clear advantage in this area because it is the world’s leading manufacturer of graphics processing units (GPUs).

As the name implies, these GPUs are crucial for creating graphics, video, and images — rendering the visual effects we see in Hollywood blockbusters and our favorite streaming shows. They’re also critical for 3D modeling, architectural design and dozens of other real-world applications.

GPUs use a process called “parallel computing” to make the magic happen. It involves thousands of individual cores working in sync to complete massive computations simultaneously.

Where your computer’s CPU might have four or eight processor cores, the latest Nvidia card has 16,384 cores all working in tandem.

That’s precisely the kind of next-level processing power AI programs will need.

But the hardware is nothing without good software. And that’s where Microsoft is in the lead.

Microsoft famously inked a $10 billion deal with OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. And it has already started integrating AI assistants into platforms like Bing and Skype.

With Windows still installed on 72% of all computers worldwide, Microsoft has a massive advantage in dominating the AI copilot market.

Ben Reitzes from Melius Research argued that Microsoft might already “own the most valuable AI real estate” and that the company’s advantage “currently isn’t quantifiable.”

There are already clear frontrunners in both the hardware and software of the AI revolution.

But that still leaves out one critical part of the formula. Something absolutely crucial for every single computer program, platform and online business…

The Key to Unlocking Next-Level AI

Think about it…

Before you browse a single webpage or download a single email, you have to hit your computer’s “power” button and wait patiently as it boots up.

If you’re reading this article on a tablet or a smartphone, then you’ll have to remember to recharge your device at the end of the day.

Power is something that most of us take for granted … because it’s always there.

Flip on a light switch or plug in a charger, and you’re good to go.

We rarely stop to think about the impact of our daily browsing and scrolling.

The simple reality is that it takes massive amounts of power to keep the internet up and running on a day-to-day basis.

According to Thunder Said Energy, internet activity soaked up 800 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022.

By 2025, the IT industry is projected to use up to 20% of all electricity produced worldwide.

Compare that to China — the most populous country in the world, with 1.4 billion residents — which only consumes slightly more power (26% of the total global market).

That’s right … your favorite websites, apps and streaming services collectively consume nearly as much power as the entire country of China!

But as stunning as these numbers are, they still don’t hold a candle to the unprecedented, power-hungry AI platforms that are right around the next corner.

That’s why Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all recently made commitments to landmark nuclear power projects, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and even restarting the dormant reactor at Three Mile Island.

Each of these Big Tech companies has realized that dominating the AI Revolution in 2025 won’t just be about having the best hardware or software … but also about having access to as much power as possible to drive their colossal research efforts…

To good profits,

Adam O’Dell

Chief Investment Strategist,

Money & Markets

AI Money Map: Stocks to Buy for 2025

Right now, millions of fans are piling into Madison Square Garden in NYC to watch the NBA Cup semifinals.

Look at the full stadium:

Now, picture this.

AI has the potential to generate enough wealth — right here in the United States — to mint 22,000 new millionaires every 30 days, from now until the end of the decade.

22,000 millionaires a month … that’s more than enough to fill Madison Square Garden.

I don’t make predictions, claims or forecasts. But I have research showing me where this is heading…

In 2023, the AI industry’s revenue was $208 billion.

By 2030, it’s projected to reach $1.85 trillion.

That’s roughly a 9X increase in seven years:

So, all the money we made in AI last year … all the huge stock run-ups … all the big returns … they are just a mere drop in the bucket of what’s coming…

How We Got NVIDIA Early

Let me be clear … you are not too late.

In fact, you are right there in the early innings.

Because while everyone is focusing on the AI market of the past few years…

I’ve created an “AI Money Map” that shows what’s set to happen next.

This Map helped investors get into the 800-pound gorilla of AI NVIDIA early.

In December 2020, I told my readers to “back up the truck” and buy.

Since then, it’s up roughly 900%.

Now, my Money Map is making a huge pivot.

It’s saying chip stocks, data centers and most of the other hot AI stocks are going to catch investors off guard…

The time to get into those stocks was three or four years ago.

But business, like nature, is never static.

Right now, every Big Tech company and their mother are nipping at their heels.

They all want a piece of NVIDIA’s 80% market share, and they are working like the devil to get it.

My point is, most investors have their eyes fixed on the rearview mirror when the real opportunity is right in front of them.

They are going to miss out on making as much money as they should from this mega boom.

Because if you make the right investments now, you could walk away wealthier than you ever thought possible.

So, the $64,000 question is: what should you be investing in right now for the chance to make the biggest returns over the next few years?

That’s where my AI Money Map comes in. The answer is in the Map.

AI Stocks to Buy

For this holiday season, I want to share a gift with you.

Here’s a sneak peek at one of the AI stocks from my American Prosperity Report portfolio that has the potential to soar with AI in 2025 and beyond.

Now, if you want more information and updates on this stock, please click here and subscribe so you don’t miss out.

If you want exposure to the AI mega trend, you can buy Alphabet (GOOGL).

Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai says when it comes to AI, “When you go through a curve like this, the risk of underinvesting is dramatically greater than the risk of overinvesting.”

Alphabet has increased its spending (with plans to go even bigger in 2025), focusing on AI tools like Bard and integrating AI into its core search and advertising businesses.

But if you want more, my new AI Money Map lays out all the details on four more under-the-radar AI stocks.

To unlock the Map, just go here and I’ll show you how.

Regards,

Charles Mizrahi
Founder, Alpha Investor

Choosing the Right System for Your Portfolio

The legendary Greek inventor, mathematician and physicist Archimedes once said:

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

Originally referencing the magic of physics, this observation has since taken on a larger meeting.

It’s become a metaphor for how the prepared mind can achieve a seemingly impossible goal, provided you have the right tools, and you know how to use them.

From performing open-heart surgery to piloting a cross-country flight, all the modern miracles we now take for granted are a result of this simple, ancient formula.

And nowhere is this old saying truer than in the world of Systematic Investing…

For most of our lives, investing systems have seemed like the province of the expert.

This is especially true of the last decade-and-a-half — with endless reports of Wall Street recruiting an army of coders and mathematicians to build out the advanced trading systems (“quants”) that now dominate short-term trading.

We see so many headlines about quants and algorithmic traders, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s no use in trying to keep up.

But in reality, investors like us now have a greater technological advantage than ever before. And if you choose the right system to meet your goals — then the sky is truly the limit.

Here, I’ll show you what I mean…

Building Your Portfolio Around a Strong, Systematic Foundation

I’ve been working with investing systems throughout my career, and the vast majority of these different systems all had one nearly-fatal flaw:

Accessibility.

There’s simply no way around it. Most systems were designed by professionals for professionals. These systems come with an assumption that you’ll have plenty of time for endless tweaking and back-testing to optimize your returns.

That simply isn’t a reality for most of the investors I work with. Most of my readers would rather spend their free time traveling, playing a round of golf, or making memories with their family.

The key to success with any system is consistent application. If it’s not a system you can stick to, then it’s not a system that will deliver predictable results … simple as that.

That’s why I built my core Green Zone Power Ratings system around that one key feature; accessibility.

I set out to build the type of system that anyone — even my 95-year-old grandmother — could use to guide their investments.

So instead of having to parse through 75 different factors in six key categories (including both technical and fundamental research), all you have to do is look up a ticker symbol to get a score from 0 (worst) to 100 (best):

Example Green Zone Power Rating for Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA)

The score is even further simplified into bullish, bearish, or neutral (as is the case for Tesla).

As a result, you can essentially “shortcut” long hours of stock research and get a simple signal to show whether a stock is even worth considering.

And if that was all you did, using Green Zone Power Ratings to guide all your investing, my studies show that you’d beat the S&P 500 by 3-to-1.

Believe it or not, beating the market by that kind of margin is relatively conservative for a system (as you’ll see in a moment).

The Green Zone Power Ratings system is exclusively available via the Money & Markets website to subscribers of Green Zone Fortunes, my newsletter where I highlight and recommend one of the market’s top-rated stocks each month.

Aiming Higher … for 10X Gains

What happens when we push our investing system even further?

What are the highest possible gains we can target using only equity (aka stocks)? No options, crypto, NFTs or other dodgy investments?

The answer to that question is 10X Stocks…

10X Stocks uses a streamlined version of my Green Zone Power Ratings System. Except instead of being optimized for accessibility, it’s built to target massive, 10X gains within a one to five year timeline. If Green Zone Fortunes is a reliable family automobile, then 10X Stocks is a Formula One car.

I realize it’s easy to get skeptical at the mere thought of it. Exclusively targeting 10X Stocks? It sounds ambitious to say the least.

Just like driving a Formula One car, this kind of 10X investing takes a little more willpower. Smaller stocks are more volatile, so they’re more prone to sharp up-and-down price swings.

To account for this, I always recommend selling the first half of a position as it crosses the first 100% gain threshold.

So when one of your 10X Stocks positions grows from $10,000 to $20,000, you’ll sell off half and recover the entirety of your initial investment. From there you’re “playing with house money,” as the saying goes, so it becomes far easier to whether a few years of sharp ups and downs.

This year alone, we closed out four different positions for 100%+ gains, and we’re already on the verge of our next 1,000% gain.

Taking Systematic Investing Further Than Ever Before

As you can see, systematic investing is all about choosing the right tool for the job (and knowing how to use it) …

If you’ve got a stock portfolio that’s in need of a little updating, then Green Zone Fortunes can streamline that process — with instant ratings for each of your holdings and new recommendations to help you beat the market year in and year out, even if you’re not an active investor.

For more active and advanced investors who want to target even bigger gains, there’s 10X Stocks.

We’re investing at an earlier stage in the company’s lifecycle — which can lead to higher returns at the expense of slightly higher volatility. It’s a trade-off, but one we can manage (as we have in 2024).

It’s also possible to take this approach even further, using the same systematic approach to target top investments before they’re even available to the public — and multiplying your gains in turn. Get the full story on this breakout new system here.

To good profits,

Adam O’Dell

Chief Investment Strategist,

Money & Markets

From Michelin Star Recipes to Trading Systems: The Secret Behind Our 104% Return

In the restaurant world, few honors are as prestigious as a Michelin star.

These stars are given to restaurants with exceptional food. Out of over 15 million restaurants worldwide, fewer than 16,000 have earned a Michelin star — just 0.10%.

Michelin-star chefs like Alain Ducasse, Gordon Ramsay and Massimo Bottura are not just cooks. They are global celebrities who have transformed fine dining.

What fascinates me is how these chefs take simple, everyday ingredients and turn them into masterpieces. Even if you had their recipes, recreating the same dishes would be extremely difficult.

Why?

Because great chefs don’t just follow recipes — they adapt as they cook.

They tweak flavors, adjust techniques and make decisions based on years of experience. Many of these steps come naturally to professionals but are unknown to most home cooks.

The same idea applies to system trading.

Build Systems That Adapt

When I started building rules-based trading systems in the early 1980s, I was lucky to meet Bruce Kovner (net worth $7.7 billion), a hedge fund manager.

Kovner founded Caxton Associates in 1983 and grew to manage over $14 billion at its peak. Since 1992, the firm has been closed to new investors.

I met him through his brother Richard, who I worked with. When Richard introduced us, I had no idea who Bruce was. He seemed like a college professor — calm and unassuming.

But after just a few minutes of talking, I realized he was a market wizard.

I asked him if he had any advice for a young man in his 20s who was trying to build trading systems.

He smiled and said, “A great system is one that constantly adapts.”

At the time, I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but I never forgot it.

Over the years, his advice proved to be brilliant. Financial markets are always changing and trading systems must evolve to keep up.

Beating the Market

When I built my newest system, Profit Accelerator, I tested its rules on 20 years of historical data.

It performed incredibly well in the lab, but the real challenge was determining how it would perform in real-world conditions.

Now, it’s approaching its one-year anniversary. And the system is outperforming expectations. It’s up more than 104%, beating the S&P 500 by 3.5X.

Profit Accelerator was built using publicly available research.

The idea that momentum outperforms in markets is well-known, as is the fact that smoother momentum (rather than jumpy momentum) tends to be more predictive.

These concepts are backed by Nobel Prize-winning research and are available to anyone willing to dig into them.

But just as a home cook can’t perfectly replicate a Michelin-star chef’s recipe, the same is true for building and executing trading systems.

The difference lies in the small details and expert tweaks that only come with years of experience.

It’s not just about following the rules — it’s about knowing when to adjust them to maximize performance. Those fine-tuned decisions make all the difference.

If you want a chance to look over my shoulder while you try out my newest trading system, go here and I’ll show you how to get started.  

Regards,

Charles Mizrahi
Founder, Alpha Investor

How Google Cracked the Quantum Code

One of computing’s wildest dreams is becoming a reality.

We techno geeks have probably been thinking about computer capabilities since we first laid eyes on HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Coincidentally, this movie came out only four years after the first supercomputer was developed in 1964.

And just recently our minds are blown once again…

If you caught Netflix’s new movie AfrAId this past weekend, AIA the digital family assistant (a supercomputer) tries to endear itself to the mother of the family by helping with her doctoral dissertation by reading her previous thesis… in .007 seconds.

How? Quantum computing.

The AI was calculating everything in the house using all the tech at its disposal … chores … schedules … even the hostile takeover of a company!

Watching the drama play out from the comfort of my living room, it struck me that even Hollywood was beginning to realize the world-changing potential of quantum computing…

Our Quantum Future Arrived Sooner than Expected

When I told the audience at our Total Wealth Symposium in Orlando this February that quantum computing would be the biggest breakthrough of the second half of this decade, I didn’t think the trend would take off as quickly as it did.

I underestimated the fact that technology comes at us faster than we can think…

During my presentation, I shared this key visual:

Source: IONQ Analyst Day 2023 Presentation

As you can see, human progress moved along at a glacial pace throughout most of our history.

Then it started to pick up during the Industrial Age, thanks to electric power, assembly-line manufacturing and automobiles.

The information age only increased the speed of progress from there — but that still pales in comparison to what’s coming once Quantum becomes a reality.

And tech giant Google just achieved what many thought impossible: a quantum computer that can complete calculations beyond the reach of traditional supercomputers.

Their latest machine, powered by a chip called Willow, performed a calculation in under five minutes that would take today’s most powerful supercomputer 10 septillion years — longer than the age of the universe itself.

This breakthrough ends years of debate over quantum supremacy, a milestone Google first claimed in 2019. Back then, critics questioned their achievement, and advancing classical computers eventually matched their quantum computer’s capabilities.

But this is a whole new kind of breakthrough — and the benefit benefit for investors will be enormous…

Google Turns Quantum Computing into A Reality

At the heart of this achievement lies the mind-bending world of quantum mechanics. While traditional computers process information in bits (1s and 0s), quantum computers use quantum bits, or “qubits.”

These qubits harness quantum mechanics’ strange properties, allowing them to exist in multiple states simultaneously. To make this work, Google chills exotic metals to nearly 460 degrees below zero.

More significant than raw computational power is Google’s mastery of error correction — a challenge that has plagued quantum computing since its conception in the 1980s. They’ve crossed the “error correction threshold,” a milestone scientists have pursued for decades.

In market terms, this is like moving from proof-of-concept to a scalable product.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. As Google pushes forward, other tech giants including Microsoft, Intel and IBM are developing their own quantum systems. There are also smaller startup companies nipping at their heels.

Meanwhile, China has committed over $15.2 billion to quantum research.

This isn’t just a technological race — it’s a battle for market dominance.

Each company takes a different approach. While Google, IBM and Intel work with superconducting qubits, other labs experiment with light particles or trapped ions.

From an investment perspective, this diversity of approaches presents both opportunities and risks.

Despite this breakthrough, we’re not quite there yet.

The calculation Google’s machine performed was designed specifically to test quantum capabilities — not to solve real-world problems. The technology still makes too many errors for practical applications.

Yet as Harvard physics professor and QuEra co-founder Mikhail Lukin stated: “What has happened over the last year shows that it is no longer science fiction.” When quantum computers reach their potential, they’ll revolutionize everything from drug discovery to artificial intelligence.

They might also crack current encryption methods, adding urgency to the global race for quantum supremacy.

As I told my audience in Orlando, quantum computing represents the next great technological frontier.

And the smart money is already positioning for this shift. The quantum future isn’t some distant possibility — it’s unfolding right now, and the market implications are impossible to ignore.

Until next time,

Ian King
Chief Strategist, Strategic Fortunes

Intel’s $3.4 Trillion “Blunder” Actually Saved AI…

“What if?”

What if Benjamin Franklin never experimented with a kite?

What if the United States never imposed an oil embargo on Japan in August 1941?

What if President Dwight Eisenhower never sent military support to Vietnam in 1955?

Questions like this can be associated with just about every major event in history.

Armchair quarterbacking has become an American pastime, from second-guessing the political establishment to questioning the decisions of our favorite sports team’s coaching staff.

We do it all the time.

We fixate on how one simple change can drastically change the course of history.

And that’s precisely what happened 20 years ago, when a singular boardroom decision forever altered the trajectory of one of the most significant technological advances in human history.

Let me explain…

A Radical Idea Falls Flat

In 2005, the CEO of one of America’s largest companies had an idea.

At the time, Intel Inc. (Nasdaq: INTC) was the dominant force in developing the chips that were the electronic brains of most computers.

A few Intel directors had their eye on a small Silicon Valley upstart developing graphics processing chips that could potentially create new jobs in data centers, the massive facilities that now power the artificial intelligence (AI) mega trend.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini liked the idea and approached the company’s board with a proposal to buy Nvidia Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA).

However, Intel’s board had issues.

The company didn’t have a good track record of absorbing other companies. Plus, the price tag — as much as $20 billion — was more than Intel had ever spent on an acquisition … let alone on an upstart company with not much of a track record.

The board dismissed the idea out of hand.

Otellini backed off the takeover, leaving it dead in the water.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Despite its dominant market share, Intel has struggled to innovate and maintain relevance amid a changing tech landscape.

Meanwhile, Nvidia has soared from a buyout price of $20 billion to a total market capitalization of $3.4 trillion. A tidy 16,900% gain for anyone keeping score.

Which leads us back to today’s tempting question…

What if Intel actually bought Nvidia in 2005?

The AI Revolution May Not Have Happened

As Adam O’Dell pointed out recently, Intel has a history of struggling to innovate beyond its core vision.

Back in the 90s, Intel was the gem of the tech world.

The company maintained its dominance in the market but never really innovated past that.

Here’s an example:

In 2011, Intel spent $1.4 billion to purchase Infineon’s wireless solutions division to create the Intel Mobile Communications division.

The division was aimed to research and develop mobile technology.

While the division created 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G internet modems, those products never dented market share.

In 2019, Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) entered into a $1 billion agreement with Intel to buy the Intel Mobile Communications Division, thus ending Intel’s foray into the mobile market.

What if Intel had bought Nvidia? We can deduce a few things:

1. Intel buys Nvidia for $20 billion and continues making the same graphics chips for data centers.
2. Intel never fully expands the development of those chips, and the venture starts to lose money as demand for those chips stalls.
3. The Intel board realizes it’ll never make back its initial $20 billion investment and sells its graphic chips business to Qualcomm for less than it paid.
4. The development of the chips needed to compute large language models used in AI is delayed 10 to 15 years.

Fast forward to today, and instead of being two years into this incredible AI mega trend after ChatGPT’s launch, mass market large language models are still years away — along with every investing opportunity they’ve presented since 2022.

Imagine if Intel had killed the AI revolution 20 years before it began. If it had gone through with the purchase, Nvidia may not have ever fully innovated its AI graphic chips under Intel’s guidance.

Adam called the decision not to buy Nvidia Intel’s “single worst blunder in the history of the company.”

That is true, but it also kept the AI revolution timeline intact.

Until next time…

Safe trading,

Matt Clark, CMSA®

Chief Research Analyst, Money & Markets

Warning Signs Flash for Intel as Stock Rates ZERO

I’ll admit, this is a bit geeky…

But the greatest thrill in the life of a systematic investor comes when you least expect it — when one of your own systems surprises even you.

Because let’s face it, that’s the whole point of all the hard work.

With Green Zone Power Ratings, we’re building a system that can process more data, project more accurately, and come to more balanced conclusions than any individual investor ever could.

If that means the results are surprising? Then so be it.

And right now, my ratings system offers no greater surprise than Intel (Nasdaq: INTC). Titan of the semiconductor world, with 78% market share in the PC world … Intel scores a big, fat, ZERO:

I’ll admit — such a low score for such a dominant tech company surprises even me. And I couldn’t be happier about it!

After all, my Green Zone Power Ratings system isn’t designed around companies. It’s designed around the investor. And time after time, we keep finding that the ‘best’ companies in the world just aren’t the best investments for folks like you and me.

So the score above reflects the company as an investment. It tells you how shares of INTC are likely to perform, and whether you should be buying them.

Obviously, you shouldn’t.

But in Intel’s case, we should zoom out to take a look at the bigger picture with INTC … and see whether share prices are headed as low as the stock’s rating…

Intel’s Tragic Dominance

I really cannot stress enough how Intel was practically the “Golden Boy” of the first big computer boom.

Intel’s founders were a group of defectors from Fairchild Semiconductor — including none other than Gordon Moore, father of “Moore’s Law.” These men were visionaries who could see the future of computing, decades in advance.

Intel delivered the world’s first commercial microprocessor back in 1971, developed a lasting partnership with IBM, and became a shoo-in to dominate early personal computing in the 1990s.

Intel had it all. For decades, they maintained a dominant market share across most sectors.

But at the same time, Intel has never really innovated beyond that core vision of producing cutting-edge CPUs.

Indeed, this is something my Green Zone Power Rating System identified with Intel very early on. INTC’s rating first fell out of bullish territory all the way back in 1999, dropping to 59 out of 100.

Intel’s share price soon followed suit, sinking 83% from Sept. 2000 to Sept 2002.

After the dotcom-era crash, Intel made multiple forays into mobile devices — each time delivering unimpressive results.

After spending $10 billion on a new mobile division back in 2020, Intel ultimately sold its 5G business off to Apple.

More recently, Intel completely missed the bus on artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the company’s unequivocal dominance in the CPU space, it never became a member of the “Magnificent Seven,” and instead INTC’s shares sank 43% over the last year.

Finally, we come to what is arguably the greatest financial disaster in Intel’s long and storied history…

Back in 2005, Intel CEO Paul Otellini pushed the company to buy an upstart competitor named Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) for $20 billion.

At the time Nvidia was still primarily manufacturing graphics cards (GPUs) for video gamers.

And for some reason, the greatest CPU innovator in history didn’t seem to see the value in buying up Nvidia for $20 billion.

It’s one of the great “What If” moments in modern technology.

Because over the last 19 years, Nvidia’s value has shot up from $20 billion to more than $3.36 trillion.

You could argue that Intel’s failure to follow-through on an Nvidia acquisition is the single worst blunder in the company’s history.

But once again, we’re investing in the stock, not just the company.

So just a few years later in 2009, Intel’s rating once again turned bullish — and shares rallied a staggering 475% over the next decade!

A Tale of Two Intels

As you can see, there’s a vast difference between the Intel you read about in the headlines … and the way Intel’s shares perform inside your stock portfolio…

At any given time, mainstream financial media might be heaping praise on Intel’s newest generation of cutting-edge chips. Meanwhile, INTC’s shares are plunging.

This disconnect comes up more often than you might realize. And it can cost unwary investors a fortune.

That’s the whole reason I created my Green Zone Power Rating system in the first place, to help you cut through the hype and discern whether a given stock is actually worth your time and investment.

And right now, Intel is showing our lowest possible rating at 0 out of 100. That’s as clear an indication as we could possibly get to steer clear of INTC.

Headed into 2025, we’re going to keep a close eye on Intel here in Money & Markets Daily.

Partly due to our own morbid curiosity, but also because the company’s rock-bottom score seems to indicate a potential disaster ahead for at least one major tech giant…

To good profits,

Adam O’Dell

Chief Investment Strategist,

Money & Markets