Two years ago my son got a job offer from Anthropic
$320k base salary, $200k in stock options at the time
While my family was celebrating, I pulled my son aside
“Son, you need to decline this offer. Those stock options aren't real, it's fake money American companies print so they don't have to pay real salaries”
“But dad, this can be one of the biggest companies in the world, I can be worth millions” he argued with me
I burst out laughing
“Biggest in the world? It's an overhyped AI company that nobody knows in Europe” I said
He went silent
“Siemens, Allianz, Lidl. Those are companies you need to work at, if you want to build a real career” I added
Two years later, my son works at Siemens in Munich making €58,000 a year, real cash
I don't know what happened with that Anthropic business, but in Germany nobody has heard of them yet
It will probably be bankrupt soon like most American startups
I'm glad I saved my son from the biggest career mistake of his life
Virgin Galactic stock is currently +165% over the past month because Redditors on WallStreetBets are confusing the ticker $SPCE with Space X ticker $SPCX
Thats how dumb the market is right now
What the public needs to know about the pancreatic cancer treatment advance that has been in the news. With Dr. Mark Goldsmith - CEO of @RevMedicines, the company behind it. #ASCO26
In the 1990s, passengers flying coach from Hong Kong to New York sometimes noticed an older man in wrinkled clothes carrying papers in a plastic grocery bag.
Cheap watch.
No luxury luggage.
No first-class seat.
Most people assumed he was struggling financially.
In reality, he was a billionaire.
And he had already secretly given most of his fortune away.
His name was Chuck Feeney.
He co-founded Duty Free Shoppers in 1960 and helped build it into one of the most successful luxury retail businesses in the world.
By the 1980s, he was worth billions.
But unlike most billionaires, Chuck lived almost like an ordinary middle-class traveler.
He flew economy.
Rented modest apartments.
Owned no mansion.
Wore a $15 Casio watch.
Carried reading papers in plastic bags.
Even some business associates thought he might secretly be broke.
What nobody realized was that Chuck had quietly transferred nearly all of his wealth into a private foundation years earlier.
Then he began giving it away anonymously.
Hospitals.
Universities.
AIDS treatment programs.
Human rights groups.
Medical research.
Peace initiatives in Northern Ireland.
For years, institutions received enormous donations without knowing who funded them.
Chuck wanted it that way.
He believed philanthropy should focus on the work not the ego of the donor.
And he didn’t want to spend his life attending galas and rejecting endless requests for money.
So he disappeared behind the scenes while billions quietly changed lives around the world.
The truth only became public in 1997 after a major business sale exposed financial documents revealing what he had done.
By then, he had already given away hundreds of millions.
Eventually it became billions.
In total, Chuck Feeney donated roughly $8 billion during his lifetime.
Warren Buffett called him:
“My hero.”
Bill Gates studied his approach.
When Buffett and Gates launched the Giving Pledge encouraging billionaires to donate their fortunes, Chuck had already done it decades earlier.
But what made Chuck different was not just how much he gave away.
It was when.
He didn’t wait until death.
He didn’t build a foundation designed to exist forever.
He believed wealth should be used while the giver was still alive to see the impact.
“Dead people don’t give money,” he often said.
In 2020, at age 89, Chuck officially closed his foundation after successfully giving away virtually everything.
Then he said something simple:
“Try giving while living. You’ll like it.”
Chuck Feeney died in 2023 at age 92.
No giant estate.
No palace.
No massive inheritance battle.
Just hospitals built.
Students educated.
Lives saved.
And billions of dollars already out in the world doing what he believed money was meant to do.
The paradox of biotech protectionism: Why walling off China biotech weakens America
US ban on Chinese biotech/trials would return pharma leadership to Europe, slow US patient access to new meds, & lead to US dependency protectionism claims to prevent.
https://t.co/DJAkWQfd5X
🚨 THIS IS IT.
The most concentrated S&P 500 $SPX in history.
• Top 10 holdings: 41% of the index. An all-time high
• Magnificent 7: 35% of the index
• Semis: from 3% of the index a decade ago to 22% today
• 41 AI-linked stocks now represent 61% of the entire S&P 500
The "diversified" American benchmark has quietly become a thematic bet on artificial intelligence, with the other 459 stocks along for the ride.
When one theme drives 60% of the largest index in the world, you don't own a portfolio. You own a high-conviction trade you didn't choose to put on.
How does this end?
History only knows one answer. The concentration breaks first. The index follows.
Is a LOST DECADE ahead of us?
17 of the world’s largest public companies either design, build or deploy semiconductor chips.
The 26th largest company sells comically large party-size bags of potato chips.