Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome - Charlie Munger
💡 Did you know?
Efficiency Gains via AI Drug Discovery
AI-enabled drug discovery platforms are expected to hit a market value of $8.18 billion in 2026, significantly reducing the standard $2 billion development cost per therapy. These systems currently predict molecular interactions with over 90% accuracy, effectively cutting the time required to identify viable drug candidates by approximately 50%
📜Today…but some years ago!
April 22, 1970: The Birth of the Modern Environmental Movement
On this day in 1970, the first Earth Day was observed across the United States, mobilizing an estimated 20 million people, roughly 10% of the U.S. population at the time, to take to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment.
Tech Talk
In a move that feels like the ultimate "end of an era" software update, Apple has announced that Tim Cook will step down as CEO on September 1, 2026, handing the keys to the kingdom to hardware veteran John Ternus. While Cook retreats to the boardroom as Executive Chairman, the tech world is busy watching India, where a massive €15 billion deal was just signed to build a 1.4 GW AI-focused data center powered by green hydrogen. It’s a classic 2026 pivot: while the pioneers of the mobile age prepare their succession plans, the new guard is busy figuring out how to keep the insatiable AI beast fed without melting the ice caps.
Science Scoop
Physics just got a little weirder and a lot more prestigious this week. The pioneers behind the Muon g-2 experiments were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their work on subatomic wobbles that hint at a universe far more complex than our textbooks suggest. On a more practical, and hopeful- note, researchers at NIST have successfully shrunk "any color" lasers onto tiny photonic chips, a breakthrough that could make everything from quantum computers to earthquake-detecting sensors portable and affordable. Meanwhile, biologists are cheering over a 550-million-year-old sponge fossil that finally explains a massive gap in our evolutionary history, proving that even the most "missing" links eventually turn up if you wait long enough.
The Rest of the World
The world turned its attention to sustainability this week as Earth Day 2026 kicked off with a global push for "nature-based solutions," highlighted by UNIDO joining a major coalition to bridge the gap between heavy industry and environmental restoration. While high-level diplomacy saw the Presidents of Russia and the Seychelles meeting in Moscow to discuss maritime cooperation, a more grassroots victory emerged in the soil: a landmark report on soil species preservation has triggered new international protections for the "underground frontier." It’s a week that reminds us that while geopolitics often feels like a chess match, the board itself, our planet, is finally getting some long-overdue maintenance.
Our Money, Our Risk, Real Investment, No Advice
We pledged approx. €2000 for you to see the ups 😀 and downs 👎. Bitcoin and Defense!
Market Pulse: April 15 to April 21 2026, the bulls and bears have been dancing a cautious tango.
Today I bought the S&P 500 Index! Lets Track it together
Bought on - 14.04.2026
S&P 500 Heat Map
Past week was a classic case of the market trying to find its footing amidst a swirl of geopolitical whispers and earnings drama. We saw everything from the S&P 500 inching up from its April 15 start to the Nifty 50 finding a burst of optimism on the final day as peace talk rumors began to circulate. It is the kind of week that keeps an analyst on their toes and makes a hobbyist reach for the aspirin.
A $1000 bet on a global basket a week ago would have grown to roughly $1012 by today. Your American stocks provided a steady if unexciting climb as the S&P 500 rose about 0.6% from its mid month level, while European stocks in the DAX stayed relatively flat after some early gains were erased. Your Indian stocks provided a late week sprint that really carried the team, with the Nifty 50 closing up nearly 1.3% over the period. Meanwhile, your Bitcoin slice acted like a jittery squirrel in a coffee shop, swinging wildly through the week before settling just slightly higher than where it started. It was not a jackpot, but it was a solid win for anyone who values a little progress over a total washout.
Lower Saxony’s Economic Minister, Olaf Lies, is suggesting something that would have been heresy five years ago: letting Chinese carmakers build their vehicles in underused German Volkswagen plants. Following a trip to China, Lies argued that instead of walling off the market, VW should consider "cooperation at eye level." The goal is to save German jobs and keep factories humming as VW struggles with massive overcapacity and the looming threat of plant closures in places like Osnabrück and Dresden. It’s a "if you can't beat 'em, let 'em pay rent" approach to the EV transition.
My Take: We’ve officially reached the "stage five grief" part of the German automotive crisis: acceptance. For decades, VW went to China to teach them how to build cars; now, the German government is basically asking Chinese brands to come over and show them how to keep the lights on. It’s peak irony. Lies is framing this as a win for workers, but it’s a massive admission that German EVs aren't moving the needle fast enough to fill their own factories. We’re trading the "Made in Germany" prestige for "Assembled in Germany by a Chinese Tech Giant." It's pragmatic, sure, but it also feels like watching a once-proud chef lease out his kitchen to a microwave-dinner startup because he can’t sell enough soufflés.
Why It Matters: This is a massive geopolitical pivot. By inviting Chinese firms into German plants, VW could help them bypass EU import tariffs while securing its own survival. If this goes through, it signals the end of the European car industry's attempt at isolationism. For the workers, it’s a paycheck. For the industry, it’s a sign that the power balance has permanently shifted East. Expect other struggling European manufacturers to start looking at their empty floor space with the same "for rent" sparkle in their eyes.
CATL just launched TECTRANS, a new battery brand specifically engineered for the heavy-duty commercial vehicle market. They aren't just releasing one generic battery; they’ve rolled out a "Superfast Charging Edition" for trucks that hits 70% charge in 15 minutes and a "Long Life Edition" that boasts a 15-year, 2.8-million-kilometer lifespan. CATL is banking on these to solve the two biggest headaches in commercial EVs: downtime and depreciation. They’ve also integrated a smart management system to monitor health in real-time, aiming to make electric fleets actually viable for long-haul logistics.
My Take: CATL is essentially telling the trucking industry that the "range anxiety" excuse is officially expired. A 15-year lifespan is a bold claim, especially considering most trucks are retired or sold off well before they hit nearly 3 million kilometers. It’s a smart play to own the infrastructure of the logistics world before competitors can blink. By creating a dedicated brand for "workhorse" batteries, they are moving away from being just a supplier to becoming the literal backbone of global shipping. It’s efficient, aggressive, and perfectly timed as diesel regulations get tighter. While everyone else is fighting over sedan batteries, CATL is trying to own the highway.
Why It Matters: This is the tipping point for heavy-duty electrification. If these specs hold up in the real world, the total cost of ownership for electric trucks just plummeted. It’s a direct threat to the internal combustion engine’s last stronghold. Logistics companies that have been hesitant to switch due to battery degradation now have a 15-year insurance policy. This doesn't just change how trucks are built; it changes how global supply chains are financed and maintained. If your fleet lasts twice as long, the economic ripple effects on the shipping industry are massive.
PODCASTKeith Rabois was an early executive at PayPal (part of the famous PayPal Mafia), COO at Square, VP of Corporate Development at LinkedIn, and an early investor in Stripe, DoorDash, Airbnb, YouTube, Ramp, and Palantir. Currently he’s managing director at Khosla Ventures. Also, he hasn’t touched a computer since September 2010 (he does everything from an iPad).
IN OTHER NEWS
Jensen interrupts him three times to say "your premise is wrong" and completely loses his cool on whether we should be selling top-shelf chips to China.
OpenAI rolled out GPT Image 2 on 21st April, its next-generation image generation model and the most substantial upgrade to ChatGPT's visual creation tools since the original GPT-4o image feature launched in March 2025. The company teased the announcement earlier in the day with what appeared to be a screenshot of ChatGP, but was itself an AI-generated image — before confirming the release at noon Pacific time.
Scientists just captured trees glowing with electricity during storms. A phenomenon, known as corona discharge, involves tiny bursts of electricity forming at the tips of leaves. These faint electrical pulses can cause treetops to emit a subtle glow in the ultraviolet (UV) range. Scientists have suspected for more than 70 years that forests might produce these effects during storms due to unusual electric field activity, but direct evidence in nature had remained elusive.
Wishing you a productive week ahead!
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