Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome - Charlie Munger
💡 Did you know?
The "Wonder Material" Economy
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, is over 200 times stronger than steel by weight while maintaining superior electrical conductivity. As industries race to integrate this material into semiconductors and renewable energy storage, the global graphene market is projected to grow from $380 million in 2022 to nearly $1.5 billion by 2030.
Tech Talk
If you thought the first week of 2026 was quiet, CES in Las Vegas just proved that "quiet" isn’t in Big Tech’s vocabulary. The show floor was crawling with the fruits of the new Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind marriage, showing off Atlas robots that now have Gemini-powered "brains", which basically means they can reason through industrial tasks instead of just doing backflips for likes. Not to be outdone in the "tech that lives on your body" category, Meta debuted a neural wristband that lets you "handwrite" text on any flat surface using muscle signals. It’s perfect for those of us who want to look like we’re conducting an invisible orchestra while actually just responding to an email about brunch. Meanwhile, Amazon is aggressively shoving "Alexa+" into everything from BMWs to Bosch coffee machines and Oura rings, clearly hoping that if we hear her voice in enough places, we’ll eventually stop asking her to "stop" and just surrender to the smart-home hive mind.
Science Scoop
Humanity’s quest to find an "Earth 2.0" just got a massive upgrade, as NASA announced a slew of tech proposals to move forward with the Habitable Worlds Observatory. This is the first mission specifically designed to snap direct photos of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars, essentially a cosmic selfie stick for our neighbors. In more immediate space news, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope reached a major assembly milestone, preparing for its mission to unmask the secrets of dark energy and map the universe’s expansion. For a bit of "doing okay" energy, Portugal officially became the 60th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, pledging to keep space exploration peaceful and cooperative. It’s nice to know that while we’re still figuring things out on the ground, we’re at least trying to be on our best behavior among the stars.
The Rest of the World
It’s been a week of high-stakes geopolitical drama and heavy headlines. In Washington, the U.S. administration sent shockwaves through the international community by announcing a withdrawal from dozens of U.N. entities, including a cornerstone climate treaty and bodies focused on gender equality. Over in South America, tensions reached a boiling point with "Operation Southern Spear," as U.S. strikes in Venezuela and naval blockades dominated the news cycle, leading to a state of emergency in Caracas and the release of over 100 political prisoners. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, widespread protests in Iran continue to face a brutal crackdown, with activists reporting staggering casualty numbers and total internet blackouts. On a slightly more hopeful note, the UN World Court has officially opened landmark hearings on the Rohingya genocide case, signaling a long-awaited push for legal accountability on the global stage.
Our Money, Our Risk, Real Investment, No Advice
We pledged approx. €2000 for you to see the ups 😀 and downs 👎 Defence stocks are up ( I wonder why?) and Bitcoin is on the rise again - slowly but steadily.
MARKET PULSE: Jan 7, 2026 – Jan 13, 2026
The Global Seesaw and the Bitcoin Bounce
It has been a week where the map of the financial world looked like someone was playing a very expensive game of Whac-A-Mole. While some regions were busy popping champagne at record highs, others were essentially trying to find where they parked their car in a fog of geopolitical uncertainty and trade talk jitters.
A $1000 bet on a global basket a week ago would have grown by about $8 overall, leaving you with a cool $1008. Your American and European stocks provided the heavy lifting, with the S&P 500 and the Stoxx 600 both flirting with all-time highs and adding about 0.5% and 0.9% respectively to your pile. Meanwhile, your Indian stocks acted as the party pooper, dragging the Nifty 50 down about 2.2% as foreign investors fled the scene amid tariff fears. Your Bitcoin slice acted like a caffeinated squirrel in a maze; it dipped hard toward $77,000 early on before pulling a dramatic U-turn to end the week up nearly 1% at $81,000. It was not a jackpot, but the combined resilience of the West and the crypto comeback kept your head above water.
Fund Summary
The global market is currently like a family road trip: the kids in the back are fighting over the radio and one tire is slightly flat, but the driver is determined to reach the beach before sunset.
CES 2026 - Here’s the "Best in Show" breakdown for your inner tech geek:
Samsung Galaxy XR: This was the "Apple Vision Pro killer" everyone whispered about. It’s lighter, plastic-heavy (in a good, weight-saving way), and runs on Google’s Android XR. The real flex? It has Gemini built-in, allowing you to ask your glasses to find the nearest coffee shop on Google Maps in real-time.
Roborock Saros Rover: The "final boss" of robot vacuums has arrived. This thing has extendable legs that allow it to literally climb and vacuum individual stairs. It can even "jump" and "glide," which is either impressive or the start of a very specific horror movie.
LG Wallpaper OLED (Evo W6): At just 9mm thick, this TV is basically a high-tech sticker for your wall. It’s completely wireless, using a "Zero Connect" box to beam 4K video from across the room, making your living room look like a minimalist museum.
The "Why Didn't We Think of This?" Tech
iPolish Smart Nails: For about $100, you get digital press-on nails. Using e-ink tech (like a Kindle), you can change your nail color or pattern via an app in seconds. No drying, no chemicals, just a fresh "screen" on your fingertips.
Lego Smart Brick: Lego just leveled up childhood. These new bricks have sensors and speakers; if you move a Darth Vader minifig near one, it plays the Imperial March. It’s the kind of nostalgia-bait that works every single time.
TDM Neo Headphones: These are regular wireless headphones that twist and magnetically snap together to become a portable Bluetooth speaker. Perfect for the person who wants to share their music (whether the rest of the bus wants to hear it or not).
Weird & Wonderful Honors
Lollipop Star: A candy that uses bone induction technology to play music through your teeth while you eat it. Yes, you read that right. You can literally "hear" Akon by biting down on a sucker. Question is: What do you do after you finish eating the lolly ?
Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable: A gaming laptop with a screen that rolls upward like a scroll, expanding from 16 inches to a 24-inch ultrawide display. It’s a prototype for now, but it’s the ultimate "just one more game" enabler.
Boston Dynamics, the company famous for making robots do backflips and parkour better than most Olympians, is officially putting its toys to work. CEO Robert Playter just confirmed that the "Atlas" humanoid robot is fully committed to production for 2026 and work on shop floors in 2028.
They’re spinning up a dedicated factory with the capacity to churn out 30,000 robots a year. The first batch wil be cutting its teeth at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, doing the unglamorous stuff like sorting parts and moving heavy boxes. Playter was very clear: these bots are built to be "superhuman", stronger, more heat-tolerant, and safer in dangerous spots than you or I could ever be…but in the end they are tools.
My Take: It’s about time. For years, we’ve watched these robots dance to "Do You Love Me" and thought, "Cool, but can it help pay the rent?" Now we know the answer: Yes, by working in a car factory.
The jump to 30,000 units is the real jaw-dropper here. That’s not a pilot program; that’s an invasion (the helpful kind, supposedly). Playter also had to do the obligatory "don't worry, it's not Skynet" press tour, promising that these things are too busy struggling with basic tasks to plot a coup. I’m mostly just relieved they’re finally doing the boring, backbreaking work instead of training for Ninja Warrior. If a robot wants to lift 50-pound brake pads in a 100-degree warehouse so I don’t have to? Be my guest.
Why It Matters: This is the moment humanoid robots graduate from "tech demo" to "GDP contributor." If Boston Dynamics can actually hit that 30,000 figure, it changes the economics of manufacturing overnight, especially for countries with shrinking labor forces. It also heats up the tech cold war with China, which is racing to dominate this exact space. We’re moving from "robots are coming" to "robots are here, and they have a shift schedule."
This video gives you a look at the latest Atlas updates discussed at CES 2026, showing exactly how much more "human" the movement has become compared to previous versions.
OpenAI just launched "ChatGPT Health”, a dedicated hub where you can securely upload your medical records and sync wellness apps like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and Peloton. The idea isn’t for the AI to diagnose you (they explicitly say it won’t replace your doctor), but to help you decipher confusing lab results, prep questions for your actual GP, or figure out why your insurance denied that claim. It’s rolling out via a waitlist in the US first, with promises of "layered protections" that keep your health data separate from the stuff used to train their models.
My Take: Finally, a way to spiral about my symptoms with precision. Instead of doom-scrolling WebMD and deciding I have three days to live, I can now have a sophisticated AI look at my actual blood work and… probably still tell me to drink more water. But seriously, the convenience here is wild. We all have that one PDF from a doctor’s visit we never read because it looked like gibberish, now you can just ask, "Am I dying, yes or no?" The privacy aspect is the big elephant in the room, obviously. OpenAI swears they aren't peeking, but handing over your entire biological history to the same company that writes your emails requires a level of trust I’m not sure we’ve all agreed to yet.
Why It Matters: This is the pivot from "Googling symptoms" to hyper-personalized AI healthcare. By bridging the gap between raw data (your Apple Watch, your blood tests) and actionable advice, OpenAI is trying to make itself indispensable in the one sector Big Tech has struggled to crack. If they pull this off without a massive privacy scandal, it forces every other healthcare provider and tech giant to upgrade their dusty, fax-machine-era systems or get left behind.
Info: Iran has reportedly pulled off something most tech experts thought was incredibly difficult: they’ve successfully jammed Starlink. In the midst of massive nationwide protests, the regime didn't just cut the usual fiber cables; they deployed military-grade electronic warfare systems to neutralize Elon Musk’s satellite internet. The tech works by flooding GPS frequencies with high-power noise. Since Starlink terminals rely on GPS to calculate their exact position and "lock on" to fast-moving satellites, this effectively blinds them. Traffic dropped by over 80% in a matter of hours, turning the ultimate "Plan B" for activists into expensive paperweights.
My Take: We all kind of assumed Starlink was the magic bullet against censorship. The narrative was: "Dictators can cut the wires, but they can't block the sky!" Well, turns out if you blast enough radio noise at the sky, you actually can. It’s a grimly impressive pivot from Tehran. They’ve essentially taken technology designed to confusing military drones and repurposed it to confuse WiFi routers. It’s no longer just a firewall; it’s full-blown electronic warfare against their own citizens’ Instagram feeds. You almost have to respect the commitment to silence, even if it is terrifying.
Why It Matters: This shatters the myth that satellite internet is unblockable. Authoritarian regimes are watching this closely, if Iran can suffocate Starlink with Russian or Chinese-style jamming tech, other countries will buy the same kit tomorrow. This forces SpaceX and other providers back to the drawing board. If they want to be the true "uncensorable" internet, they now need to figure out how to make their terminals work without relying on easily jammed GPS signals. The digital Iron Curtain just got a lot higher.
🌎 January 14 - 1784: The Ratification of the Treaty of Paris
On this day in 1784, the Congress of the Confederation officially ratified the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing the sovereignty of the United States.
PODCAST OF THE WEEKHe was the strangest titan America ever produced: a whisper-quiet banker who turned systematic thinking into a superpower, building an industrial empire while barely raising his voice above a murmur. Andrew Mellon's story isn't just about money, it's about how patience, observation, and positioning can create more wealth than charisma ever could. But when the Great Depression hit, the very qualities that made him rich made him the perfect villain for a nation demanding change.
IN OTHER NEWS
VW Just Built a Giant SUV with a Gas Engine That Isn't a Gas Engine. Volkswagen is essentially building a "best of both worlds" tank because they’ve realized pure EVs aren’t winning over everyone just yet. It’s hilarious that the biggest VW in history is technically a hybrid, even if they want to call it an "electric vehicle with a helper." It’s being built in China for China, but given how US loves oversized SUVs, I wouldn't be shocked if this "range extender" tech starts migrating west. It’s basically a massive battery with a security blanket in the form of a gas tank.
VW ID. Era 9X Specs and Range Overview This video provides a deep dive into the battery technology and the 1,000 km range capability of the new SUV.
“After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users,” Apple and Google said in a statement.
German Corporate Bankruptcies Hit 20-Year High. In November, the increase had stood at 5.7 percent. The full year 2025 recorded 17,604 insolvencies of partnerships and corporations, the highest level in two decades.
Harvard Triples Bitcoin Holdings to $443M While Retail Investors Panic Sell. Harvard Management Company nearly tripled its Bitcoin exposure to $443 million in Q3 2025, accumulating 6.8 million shares of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF while retail traders panic-sold through a 17% November crash.
Wishing you a productive week ahead!
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