Author: Surbhi Jain

  • Meta’s AI Arms Race Is Killing Sentiment—And That May Be Just What Bulls Want

    Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) just suffered its fourth straight losing month, slipping 1.6% in November and leaving investors wondering if the AI trade has run out of steam. But beneath the red ink sits a narrative the bulls won’t shut up about: Meta’s stock is falling because its AI ambition is exploding.

    • Track META stock here.

    META’s Losing Streak Tests Wall Street’s Nerves

    Meta is still up more than 9% over the past year, but the stock remains well below its 52-week high of $796 after months of relentless selling pressure.

    Sentiment is strained as Meta pushes capital spending to a massive $70 billion to $72 billion for 2025, an almost surreal jump from its 2024 outlay. Bears say the AI bill is spiraling. Bulls say the selloff is a temporary tantrum — the future is being built under everyone’s nose.

    Chart created using Benzinga Pro

    Even from a chart perspective, Meta just printed a massive hammer-style monthly candle after dropping to November lows — historically a reversal setup that signals aggressive dip-buying. And with META never having logged five straight red months in its 13.5-year history, bulls say the technical backdrop is quietly setting the stage for a sentiment snapback.

    Read Also: Meta’s AI Isn’t Just Smart — It’s Paying The Bills

    Meta’s Pivot Puts Nvidia’s Fortress At Risk

    The most interesting pressure point in the AI market isn’t performance — it’s supply.

    Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) controls as much as 80% to 95% of the global AI accelerator market, but Meta is openly exploring a multiyear deal that would see it rent Alphabet Inc‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google TPUs in 2026 and run them inside Meta data centers in 2027.

    Even a partial migration matters when a single hyperscaler can account for a mid-teens share of Nvidia’s demand, and reports suggest the shift could shave up to 10% off Nvidia’s annual sales. Wall Street is already reacting: Nvidia has shed more than $700 billion in value from its peak, while Alphabet climbs closer to a $4 trillion market cap as investors start pricing TPU revenue like a real business.

    Why META Bulls Don’t Mind The Pain

    Yes, Meta is bleeding stock price momentum — but its business is strengthening its AI spine while competitors argue about margins. If Meta succeeds in broadening the chip supply chain, it won’t just lower dependency risk — it may fundamentally reshape power inside the AI economy.

    The stock chart looks rough. But the strategy looks like a setup. If Meta’s AI engine hits full stride in 2026-2027, this stretch of red may age like the 2022 panic bottom — painful in real time, legendary in hindsight.

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    Photo: Poetra.RH on Shutterstock.com

  • Goodbye Nvidia, Hello Microsoft: Halvorsen’s Big Q3 Hedge Fund Pivot

    Goodbye Nvidia, Hello Microsoft: Halvorsen’s Big Q3 Hedge Fund Pivot

    Andreas Halvorsen just reminded Wall Street why Viking Global Investors is one of the hedge fund world’s most-watched portfolios: he doesn’t trim, he swings. Viking’s third quarter 13F filing shows a $38.5 billion book that looks like it’s been through a full reboot — complete with shock exits, oversized new wagers and a decisive tilt toward financials.

    • Track Viking’s top holding PNC here.

    The Quarter Halvorsen Broke Up With Big Tech

    The headline-grabber is impossible to miss: Viking dumped Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) entirely. All out. Zero shares. For a fund that once thrived on mega-cap tech, that’s not a pivot — that’s a controlled detonation.

    Nvidia’s complete removal — 3.68 million shares wiped out — lands the biggest shock. But Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT), Flutter Entertainment PLC (NYSE:FLUT), Trade Desk Inc (NASDAQ:TTD) and a long list of growth favorites also vanished, signaling Halvorsen is done paying premium multiples for crowded trades.

    Read Also: Novo, Pfizer Battling Over Future Of Weight-Loss Drugs

    A Portfolio That Suddenly Looks… Very Financial

    If you want to see where the money went, follow the banks. Viking’s new top holding is PNC Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:PNC), now sitting at 4.15% of the portfolio after Halvorsen boosted the stake by a massive 234%. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW) and Capital One Financial Corp (NYSE:COF) also climbed the ranks with double-digit share increases.

    US Bancorp (NYSE:USB), however, didn’t survive the purge — a 24 million-share position dropped to zero in one stroke.

    The New Arrivals: Big, Boring, Beautiful?

    Halvorsen’s third quarter “shopping cart” reads like he’s suddenly embracing high-quality compounders.

    Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX), Aon PLC (NYSE:AON), Chewy Inc (NYSE:CHWY), Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW), Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU), KKR & Co Inc (NYSE:KKR), Deckers Outdoor Corp (NYSE:DECK) and Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB) all appear as fresh positions — many in billion-dollar sizing.

    And some bets weren’t just new — they were loud. Viking opened a massive 15 million-share DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ:DKNG) stake, added 2.7 million shares of KKR, and quietly built a sizeable position in Celestica Inc (NYSE:CLS) right as the stock sits in the AI-supply-chain sweet spot.

    Why It Matters To Investors

    Viking didn’t tweak at the edges — it rewired the whole machine. The third quarter was the quarter Halvorsen exited the most crowded tech trades, rotated heavily into financials, and stocked up on durable blue chips and selective high-growth names.

    If hedge fund positioning is a sentiment tell, Viking just flashed a bright signal: 2025’s winners may look a lot more like PNC and Microsoft — and a lot less like Nvidia and Amazon.

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    Image: Shutterstock

  • Visa Vs. Mastercard: Why One Network’s Winning The Cross-Border Game

    Visa Vs. Mastercard: Why One Network’s Winning The Cross-Border Game

    Visa Inc‘s (NYSE:V) fourth-quarter results have drawn a clear line in the payments sand. JPMorgan analyst Tien-Tsin Huang says the data shows Visa widening its lead. Global travel is rebounding, fueling a surge in high-margin cross-border transactions — a segment Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) may struggle to keep pace with. The two networks’ three-year, 90% KPI correlation is beginning to break.

    • Track Visa stock here.

    Visa’s Global Volumes Stay Hot

    Visa’s fourth quarter print left little doubt about momentum: U.S. payment volumes rose 7.6%, global volumes climbed 8.8%, and cross-border payments surged 12% — all sequential improvements. Revenue came in at $10.7 billion, up 11% FXN and 10% organically, beating both guidance and JPMorgan estimates, while adjusted EPS hit $2.98, up 10% year-on-year.

    Huang sees this as evidence that Visa’s growth engine is still firing smoothly, aided by stable 66.8% margins and a clean commercial volume rebound. Visa may be edging ahead in cross-border and total volume growth as 2025 unfolds.

    Read Also: PayPal’s Quiet AI Comeback — Could It Be Powering OpenAI’s Shopping Push?

    Mastercard Faces Tougher Comps

    While Mastercard is still delivering strong underlying trends, Huang flags that its year-over-year comparisons are turning steeper. After lapping prior pricing gains and large client wins (like Citizens debit and Capital One), Mastercard’s organic growth could start to compress in the second half of 2025.

    The analyst also points to potential portfolio shifts, including a possible Apple Card move to JPMorgan, which could temporarily dent U.S. volume optics.

    Why It Matters

    Huang’s call is clear: stay overweight Visa. Both networks benefit from resilient spending and stable macro trends, but Visa’s “cleaner comps” and steadier execution give it the upper hand as the divergence begins.

    Huang’s base case implies 15–20% upside for Visa stock — and while Mastercard remains a quality hold, this round of the cross-border game goes decisively to Visa.

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    Image created using artificial intelligence via DALL-E.

  • Nvidia’s $0 In China Could Be A Blessing In Disguise

    Nvidia’s $0 In China Could Be A Blessing In Disguise

    Nvidia Corp‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) exit from China has been framed as a policy-driven blow, but AI-focused investors may view it as a chance for the company to double down on high-margin opportunities elsewhere.

    Last week, CEO Jensen Huang noted the company went from 95% market share in China to zero — a huge market loss on paper. Nvidia’s financial forecasts no longer assume any revenue from China, he added.

    • Track NVDA stock here.

    Yet the real story lies in where Nvidia is channeling its resources now: into AI data centers, enterprise GPUs, and cloud partnerships that are driving unprecedented demand.

    Read Also: Nvidia’s Silicon Silk Road: From China’s Firewalls To Saudi Arabia’s Data Palaces

    Shifting Focus From Volume To Profitability

    China represented scale, but not necessarily the high-margin growth that powers Nvidia’s AI leadership. Freed from the geopolitical and compliance challenges of the Chinese market, Nvidia can now focus on premium AI chips, enterprise deployments, and U.S.-friendly cloud partnerships.

    Investors should see this as a reallocation of capital from politically constrained volume to sectors where Nvidia can capture pricing power and strong margins, a subtle but meaningful shift in strategy.

    Supply Chains That Align With AI Growth

    The China exit also forces Nvidia to realign its supply chains and production priorities. By focusing on countries and partners aligned with Western technology policies, Nvidia reduces regulatory risk and ensures faster deployment of AI-focused GPUs to hyperscale cloud providers — the very engines of AI revenue growth.

    In other words, what looks like a market loss is actually an operational pivot toward the fastest-growing and most profitable segments of the AI market.

    The Investor Takeaway

    Nvidia’s zero exposure to China is headline-grabbing, but the real implication is about strategic prioritization. By trading geographic scale for profit-focused AI growth, Nvidia is betting on sectors with stronger pricing power, less political risk, and higher margins.

    For investors, the lesson is clear: sometimes policy costs aren’t a loss — they’re a forced lens that sharpens focus on where the money actually is in AI.

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    Image: Shutterstock

  • Larry Ellison Says AI Needs Private Data — Palantir Says ‘Told You So’

    Larry Ellison Says AI Needs Private Data — Palantir Says ‘Told You So’

    When Oracle Corp‘s (NYSE:ORCL) Larry Ellison declared that artificial intelligence will only reach its “peak value” once models train on privately owned data, it sounded like a warning shot to the open-internet AI crowd. But for Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR), it was validation in prime time.

    • Catch the action in PLTR stock here.

    “If you look at ChatGPT, Anthropic, Llama, Grok — they’re all trained on all of the data on the internet,” Ellison said during Oracle’s recent event. “But for these models to reach their peak value, you need to make privately owned data available to those models as well.”

    Palantir’s entire business has been built on that premise — that data locked inside governments and corporations is more valuable than anything scraped off the public web.

    Read Also: Palantir’s Monopoly Is Breaking – It’s No Longer Pentagon’s Only Favorite

    Private Data Is Palantir’s Power Source

    From defense agencies to Fortune 500 clients, Palantir’s Foundry and AIP platforms operate behind the firewall, structuring sensitive operational data for AI-driven decision making. That’s a crucial distinction in an era where generic language models often hallucinate without context or access to verified datasets.

    While ChatGPT and its peers chase scale, Palantir is chasing specificity — running proprietary AI models directly on clients’ secure data pools. Its government roots, spanning defense, intelligence and energy sectors, have given it years of experience managing classified data — precisely the private-data moat Ellison argues the AI industry must cross to mature.

    Ellison’s Thesis, Palantir’s Timing

    Ellison’s call couldn’t come at a better time for Palantir, which has pivoted from pure analytics to becoming the operating system for enterprise AI. Its partnerships with major corporations and U.S. agencies position it to capitalize on the growing recognition that private data, not internet noise, will drive the next leg of AI value creation.

    As investors sift through the next wave of AI winners, Ellison’s words echo a core Palantir advantage: it already sits where the most sensitive — and therefore most valuable — data lives.

    For AI’s second act, Palantir isn’t rewriting the script. It’s just been waiting for the rest of Silicon Valley to catch up.

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    Photo: drserg from Shutterstock