⚡Mary the Microsoft Millionaire

One decision helped her go from a broke twenty-something living in a bungalow to being set for life. [The Jolt with Stephen McBride] Mary the Microsoft Millionaire Happy Monday! Over the weekend, bitcoin (BTC) shot above $30K for the first time since July. Believe it or not, bitcoin is the best performing major asset this year, up 85%. There’s a good reason for that, which we’ll likely get into on Wednesday. It’s a HUGE week for markets. Six of the world’s 13 largest companies report earnings. That includes Microsoft (MSFT)… Google (GOOG)… Meta (META)… Amazon (AMZN)… Visa (V)... and ExxonMobil (XOM). Their earnings—good or bad—will dictate the direction markets go. We’ll know a lot more by Wednesday. Let’s get after it… - I have changed my mind on robotics. “Wow, are they all robots?” That’s what my daughter blurted out when I showed her a video of the inside of a Walmart distribution center. Walmart is America’s largest employer. But inside its facilities, robotic arms are slinging boxes around and claws are sorting parcels on conveyor belts. Notice anything strange about this forklift? No human driver. Source: Warehouse Automated AI I’ve been watching this megatrend for YEARS but never invested. I’d hear about how robots were taking over the world. But when we dug deeper, something didn’t add up. The top robotics firms were barely growing. Hardly the earth-shattering trend the financial media were talking up. And the largest robotics ETF (BOTZ) has been a disaster. Over five years, it’s returned -1%. Yikes! But when the facts change, I change my mind. And the automation revolution is finally taking off. Today, three-quarters of the cardboard boxes Amazon drops at your front door are handled at some point by one of its 750,000 robots. And now Walmart (WMT) plans to automate its 42 gigantic distribution centers. We want to own the companies enabling this disruptive megatrend. [But remember, the key is investing in great businesses](. I would avoid the BOTZ ETF. It’s packed with companies that either make little money from automation or are poorly run (or both). - Is this the greatest stock in history? My mom’s friend Mary is a “Microsoft Millionaire.” She retired at age 55 and now lives off the many properties she owns in the US, Ireland, and Portugal. Mary didn’t do anything special. She worked for Microsoft for 30 years and, most importantly, invested a chunk of her paycheck in Microsoft stock every month. That one decision helped her go from a broke twenty-something living in a bungalow to being set for life. Because Microsoft’s stock surged 12,000% over the past 30 years. Microsoft gets my vote for the greatest stock ever. Here’s a chart showing the world’s largest companies by decade since 2000. You can see Microsoft is the only constant among the ever-changing list. Microsoft stayed on top by reinventing itself multiple times. It started off selling PC software like Windows. Then it switched to cloud computing, which turbocharged growth. Now it’s starting “Act 3”: artificial intelligence (AI). Mark my words: AI will help Microsoft reclaim the crown as the world’s largest company from Apple. Microsoft owns 49% of ChatGPT creator OpenAI. And it’s integrating OpenAI’s cutting-edge tech into its products. Last year, Microsoft launched “Copilot,” a ChatGPT-like assistant for software engineers. Coders using Copilot finished tasks in 55% less time on average. A new app that lets you do the same amount of work in half the time. Take my money now. Imagine resting your feet on your desk while your personal AI interns scurry around working for you. Microsoft will launch “Copilots” for every job and probably add another $2 trillion to its market cap in the process. I don’t like any of the big five tech stocks. There are better money-making opportunities elsewhere. Microsoft might be the one exception. - A new $2 trillion tailwind for “Made In America” stocks. What’s with all the America haters? Every time I turn on the TV or open a newspaper, “experts” are bashing the country. We’re told the US is falling apart at the seams. These folks are just plain wrong. Having lived on four continents, I (an Irishman) can tell you America is the most innovative, resilient place on Earth. I’ll echo something Ronald Reagan (my favorite president) said 40 years ago: It’s morning in America. It’s clear America will dominate the future of disruptive tech. And that’s the ultimate wealth creator. Last year, Congress approved roughly $2 trillion worth of incentives for companies that commit to producing computer chips and clean energy tech in the U-S-A. One example: Automaker Hyundai is building a $7 billion electric vehicle plant a half-hour west of Savannah… the biggest investment in Georgia’s history. Whoa! Made In America is back, friends. And it’s creating lots of new moneymaking opportunities for us. One of our Disruption Investor holdings sells automation tools to companies in cutting-edge industries like EVs and chips. This will sound crazy given all the foreign wars going on. But we could be on track for the best decade in American history. Seriously. Imagine hundreds of nuclear-powered factories… Churning out cutting-edge AI chips and EV batteries… Which allow us to drive 1,000 miles on a single charge… All right here in America. Yeah, I know it sounds like some techno-utopia pipe dream. But in less than a lifetime, we went from the Wright Brothers’ first flight to landing on the Moon. Dream big or go home. Don’t forget, the story of America is about the triumph of optimists. I’ll leave you with this picture of Taiwan Semiconductor’s (TSM) new $40 billion chip fab down in Arizona. The star-spangled banner draped over heavy machinery. A beautiful sight. Source: Taiwan News Stephen McBride Chief Analyst, RiskHedge Suggested Reading... [General Petraeus talks to us about Israel](  [Meet Hercules and Robin]( If someone forwarded you this email and you would like to be added to our email list to receive the Jolt every week, [simply sign up here.]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} as part of your subscription to The Jolt. To opt-out, please visit the [unsubscribe page](. [READ IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES HERE.]( YOUR USE OF THESE MATERIALS IS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS OF THESE DISCLOSURES. Copyright © 2023 RiskHedge. All Rights Reserved RiskHedge | 1417 Sadler Road, PMB 415 | Fernandina Beach, FL 32034