Elon’s rocket ship company SpaceX and AI company xAI had just merged in February…

And Musk didn’t flinch. He fired back: “For a few years, then SpaceX will far exceed everyone combined.”

Not everyone. Everyone combined.

And when the prediction market platform Kalshi later quoted Musk as saying SpaceX would “far exceed” everyone in AI, he corrected them too. We believe Kalshi’s response is appropriate…

It’s hard to make a bigger claim. Valuations of the most prominent AI companies are incredibly rich. Just looking at the four main AI models…

• ChatGPT maker OpenAI is valued at more than $800 billion and is looking to raise another $100 billion this year.
• Gemini is owned by Alphabet (GOOGL), which boasts a $3.7 trillion market cap.
• Anthropic’s Claude AI is valued at $380 billion after a $30 billion capital raise last month.
• And Meta Platforms (META), which is reportedly in the early stages of laying off 1 in 5 employees thanks to massive AI spending, comes in at a $1.5 trillion market cap with its Llama AI model.

Those are big, big numbers across the board.

And it should tell you something about the man soon taking a $1.5 trillion rocket company public, as I wrote earlier this month in a detailed breakdown of the SpaceX IPO… including how regular Main Street investors could get “early access.”

Elon Musk Is Playing for Keeps

Musk is building an empire… and playing to win everything.

We suspect the only thing keeping him restrained from even bigger, more specific predictions right now is that he’s currently in the quiet period before what could be the largest initial public offering (“IPO”) in history. That’s how he answered futurist and 2025 Stansberry Research conference speaker Peter Diamandis when he asked Musk about the timeline for orbital data centers at a tech summit on March 11.

And at our conference last October, Diamandis predicted that we would see as much innovation in the next decade as we did in the prior 100 years.

To put that in context, the year 1926 marked the launch of the first liquid-fueled rocket… the first year television images were broadcast over the air… and Henry Ford introduced the 40-hour workweek.

So far in 2026, Elon has launched more than 30 SpaceX rockets… his social media platform X boasts more billions of daily video views… and he’s built an AI that may soon replace millions of white-collar jobs.

That’s what has changed over the past 100 years. Are you ready for the next 10?

And SpaceX sits at the center of it all…

SpaceX and xAI Will Be the Biggest IPO in History

SpaceX is reportedly preparing to go public as early as June 2026, targeting a valuation somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $1.75 trillion.

If SpaceX raises $50 billion at that price, it would crush the previous record. Saudi Aramco’s 2019 debut raised $29 billion. China’s Alibaba (BABA) brought in $25 billion in 2014.

And the promise of SpaceX has grown far beyond its early space-monopoly ambitions.

In February, SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with xAI, Musk’s AI company. The deal valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, creating a combined entity worth $1.25 trillion.

The companies will remain “operationally separate” for regulatory reasons, with xAI functioning as a subsidiary. But the deal stitches together two very different businesses under one roof: SpaceX’s rocket fleet, Starlink satellite network, and government contracts on one side… and xAI’s Grok chatbot, AI research labs, and data centers on the other.

Musk justified the merger with a blunt argument… Earth isn’t enough for AI’s appetite for electricity. He told employees that space-based computing, powered by solar energy, could eventually provide 100 gigawatts of AI compute capacity per year.

As I covered in a piece about SpaceX’s FCC filing for up to one million satellites, an internal SpaceX memo obtained by the New York Times called the combined company “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth.”

The memo went on to describe the merger as combining “A.I., rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.”

That’s SpaceX. That’s Starlink. That’s X, the social media platform. That’s Grok. All under one corporate umbrella… and likely just months away from going public.

There are plenty of questions that remain about whether Elon will be able to realize his ambitions. But he’s playing to win everything.

How to Get Early Access to the SpaceX IPO

There are a few ways that regular Main Street investors can get access to SpaceX before its IPO.

For example, Alphabet owns around a 7.5% stake in SpaceX… worth some $130 billion today. But that’s only a small fraction of Alphabet’s $3.7 trillion market cap.

So even if SpaceX doubles in the coming months, it would only move Alphabet stock by about 3.5%.

You could also buy EchoStar (SATS). It will ultimately own about $11 billion worth of SpaceX after its sale of wireless spectrum licenses goes through final regulatory approval – but it doesn’t have those shares yet. The company’s CEO said as much on its earnings call early this month:

Until the closing, we don’t have actually that SpaceX’s equity. That is not something that we can make any plans on till we actually get the equity. We have a right to it, but we don’t have that equity yet. We’ll see how that plays out.

We think the best way to get access to the SpaceX IPO is via the special investment vehicle personally vetted by my colleague Jeff Brown at Brownstone Research, which he explains in an exclusive interview here.

Out of respect for his paid-up Near Future Report subscribers, I can’t share the details here.

But Jeff has put together a full special report explaining exactly what is going on and step-by-step instructions on how to buy. It’s about as easy as buying any other stock… Go to a specific website, fill out a form, fund your account, and get access to SpaceX pre-IPO shares.

In fact, if you’d rather skip his video interview, you can get access to his Near Future letter and SpaceX pre-IPO report immediately by clicking here to go directly to a subscription order form. (This link does not go to a long video.)

The post Elon Musk Wants SpaceX to Beat ‘Everyone Else Combined’ in AI appeared first on MarketWise.

• Investing in the coming missile restocking boom, Part 2
• The safe way to invest in soaring AI power demand
• It’s practically raining money here. How to get your share of Big Tech’s giant AI spending spree

Investing in the coming missile restocking boom, Part 2

Credit: vadimrysev

On March 18, we detailed how Operation Epic Fury has caused significant stock market losses and left many unanswered questions. However, at least one thing is certain: Missile stockpiles must be rebuilt.

This is bullish for missile makers and their downstream component and material suppliers. It’s also another facet of the Defense Tech theme we’ve been bullish on for more than two years.

In January, National Defense magazine reported that global defense spending is on pace to reach a colossal $2.6 trillion in 2026. This total would represent an 8.1% increase over 2025. Operation Epic Fury is showing us how this tidal wave of money will be spent on bleeding-edge technology.

Unlike the “boots on the ground” wars of the past, Operation Epic Fury is being fought by the U.S. almost completely with drones, missiles, and satellites. Numerous sources have reported that the U.S. fired over 400 Tomahawk missiles in the first three days of the conflict. Iran has fired thousands of drones and missiles in return. The Pentagon recently told Congress that the first six days of the war cost $11.3 billion.

In this high-tech version of war, the foot soldier is growing less and less relevant… and having more and better high-tech drones, missiles, and satellites than your enemy is critical.

As a result, the U.S. and the Gulf States are using huge stores of both offensive and defensive missiles during Epic Fury. Rebuilding these stores will add even more demand to already strained global missile supply chains, which should provide a tailwind to producers of missiles and missile components. In our ABC issue, we detailed three producers poised to benefit from a big restocking.

However, a missile supply chain isn’t worth much if it lacks the critical raw materials needed to produce its very high-tech products.

Every precision missile, interceptor, drone, and radar system relies on a small set of critical minerals that can withstand extreme heat, remain very strong, and be light enough to fly.

When missile stockpiles are massively drawn down, you’re not just pressuring the manufacturers; you’re pressuring the entire supply chain of rare earths and exotic alloys, which are already strained and geopolitically sensitive.

The most overlooked critical metal is scandium. When combined with other metals like aluminum, it creates a very lightweight, but high-strength structure. This is why securing critical minerals like scandium has become a national security imperative. Without scandium, the US doesn’t have the most advanced missiles and drones.

By definition, increased missile manufacturing equals increased critical metals demand. Companies poised to benefit include:

Doubleview Gold Corp (DBLVF): DBLVF is a small-cap mine development firm that owns a project in British Columbia that is mostly copper. This has it positioned to benefit from soaring copper demand. But Doubleview is also a play on scandium, as its deposit has significant scandium content as well. DBLVF is a risky play, though, as it is still in development rather than an operating mine. This makes this a very leveraged, speculative way to play the scandium and copper thesis, but with clear risks of dilution, permissions, commodity prices, and execution.

Sunrise Energy Metals (SRL): SRL is another small-cap mine developer. Its Syerston project in Australia is one of the largest scandium resources in the world and contains nickel and cobalt as well. Sunrise is slightly less risky than Doubleview because its project is development-ready with key permits in place. Sunrise has also signed a five-year scandium option with Lockheed Martin (LMT), giving LMT the right to purchase up to 25% of Sunrise’s scandium. The company is backed by mining powerhouse Robert Friedland.

MP Materials (MP): MP is a $10 billion critical metals mining and processing company with lower risk. MP controls the Mountain Pass in California, which is one of the richest rare-earth deposits in the world and the only large-scale rare-earth mine in the US. MP doesn’t have scandium, but it does have neodymium and praseodymium, which are used in high-strength magnets for missiles, drones, motors, and EVs.

In the wake of Epic Fury, depleted missile arsenals must be restocked. This is bullish for missile makers, missile component makers, and well-positioned critical metal suppliers.

The safe way to invest in soaring AI power demand passes a key test

Credit: Ron and Patty Thomas

During the chaotic trading week of March 9–13, industries such as airlines, homebuilding, financials, and industrials suffered large declines. It’s no wonder investors sold these industries with enthusiasm. Every morning that week, we could have woken up to news that an oil tanker had been sunk in the Strait of Hormuz and oil was trading for $142 a barrel.

Yet during that chaotic week in the markets, major utility stocks Exelon (EXC), Duke Energy (DUK), FirstEnergy (FE), and Southern Co (SO) reached new all-time highs. These firms displayed tremendous “relative strength” during a time when most industries and themes traded lower.

These moves were yet more evidence that the “AI Power Consumption” theme is alive and well… and that utility stocks are a great way to play it.

On July 8, I highlighted the emerging uptrend in the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) and said AI power demand was poised to drive it higher.

Regular readers know one of the largest and most profitable facets of the AI megatrend is power consumption. Thanks to AI’s enormous promise, giants like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI are spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on data centers, AI chips, and other infrastructure components.

All that AI infrastructure is poised to consume huge amounts of electricity. Goldman Sachs forecasts global power demand from data centers will climb 50% by 2027 and as much as 165% by the end of the decade. This demand is driving a big bull market in virtually every form of electric power production.

One of my recommended ways to invest in this megatrend is via electric power producers… aka “electric utilities.” When you invest in utilities, you are not risking your money by trying to pick the company that creates the best AI-powered software application or the best AI-powered travel site.

Instead, you’re making the safe bet that every company and every individual using AI ends up buying some electricity to power it. It’s the old “selling picks and shovels to Gold Rush miners” strategy applied to the AI boom.

Our advice to own utilities is paying off. XLU – a diversified basket of utility stocks – is up 14.7% since our recommendation (vs. 5.3% for the S&P)… and the individual names mentioned above are regularly registering new all-time highs.

The gigantic business, technological, demographic, and political trends that shape our world play out over years, not months. This means the financial market trends they manifest tend to persist for years, not months. With all this in mind, I remain bullish on utilities.

It’s practically raining money here. How to get your share of Big Tech’s giant AI spending spree

Credit: Alexander Sikov

On March 13 we highlighted how incredibly well “AI infrastructure builder” stocks Bloom Energy (BE), GE Vernova (GEV), and Vertiv (VRT) performed during the market chaos of early March.

These companies are on the receiving end of the biggest investment boom in all recorded history. Given AI’s enormous promise, large tech firms such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and Meta have invested over $1 trillion in specialized semiconductors, data centers, and other infrastructure components. They are on pace to invest around $700 billion this year alone and trillions after that.

The scale and velocity of investment is awesome and unprecedented.

That’s why Bloom, GE Vernova, and Vertiv performed so well during the Epic Fury chaos… and it’s why each has gained hundreds of percent over the past two years.

Given how well AI infrastructure builder stocks can do during the good times and how well they can hold up during bad times, it’s worth discussing the “AI semiconductor equipment” industry, which is also on the receiving end of big tech’s historic spending spree.

Semiconductor equipment makers play a special role in the AI megatrend. They do not build semiconductors themselves. Instead, they provide a wide range of services and equipment that support semiconductor production. They sell fabrication machines, chip components, perform testing services, and many other vital things that make the semiconductor industry go.

No semiconductor equipment industry, no AI boom.

The three U.S. leaders in semiconductor equipment are Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), and KLA (KLA). Each firm enjoys a dominant role in the AI semiconductor equipment industry, each is enjoying terrific revenue growth, and each is enjoying a strong stock uptrend. They are all up more than 100% over the past year.

I often say you want to work and invest in booming industries that are enjoying such strong revenue growth… such huge investment flows… and have so much future demand… that financially, you’re essentially running downhill. Given big tech’s historic trillion-dollar-plus AI infrastructure spending spree, we can say one such industry is semiconductor equipment. Bullish!

Market Notes

• Our Sept. 29 recommendation to own oil stocks is paying off like a broken slot machine. Energy giants ConocoPhillips (COP), Halliburton (HAL), and Chevron Corp (CVX) all reached all-time highs today. US Brent Oil ETF (BNO) also just hit a new one-year high
• Our January 12^threcommendation to own AXT (AXTI) has paid big. The optics bottleneck play is now up 160% since our initial recommendation.
• Our September recommendation to own space stocks is in the green. Satellite operator Planet Labs (PL) just hit a new one-year high, jumping 31% today. It’s now up 733% in the last year alone.
• Our January 21^st recommendation to own solar stocks is winning. Solar technology company Solar Edge (SEDG) is up 10% today and 192% over the last year as it hits a new one-year high.
• The AI lawnmower is still in full effect. Adobe Systems (ADBE) just hit a new one-year low.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

An urgent message from our colleagues:

‘The Worst Losses We’ve Suffered in Years Could Be Dead Ahead’

He accurately predicted the brutal 2022 bear market weeks before it struck. He predicted the COVID-19 crash, too… and even the tariff sell-off in April 2025. Now, legendary analyst Marc Chaikin is sounding the alarm again – and on March 25, he will reveal the money move he says everyone should make immediately.

Learn how to protect yourself now – before it’s too late.

The post Investing in the coming missile restocking boom, Part 2 appeared first on MarketWise.

That’s now the most important question for financial markets right now.

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow 21-mile-wide waterway between Iran and Oman connecting the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Roughly 20 million barrels of oil and 290 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) pass through the strait each day.

That’s nearly all the crude from OPEC giants like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”), Kuwait, and Iraq. Plus, a significant amount of liquefied natural gas “LNG” from Qatar.

Let me say from the start that I (Bill McGilton) have no idea how long the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed.

What I can offer in this article are some thoughts on how the closure could affect financial markets and some observations on how to best prepare your portfolio.

For starters, the Strait of Hormuz can stay closed for far longer than most people expect.

On Drones, AI, and Asymmetric Warfare

Military technology has changed significantly since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. As former U.S. Navy SEAL officer and Blackwater founder Erik Prince put it during a Hillsdale College seminar on “Artificial Intelligence” on February 2, 2025, the Russia-Ukraine war “has massively accelerated warfare in a way that I think it’s the greatest advancement, or it’s the greatest swing in the pendulum, really since Genghis Khan put stirrups on horses” back in the 1200s.

What Prince is referring to is the combination of drones and electronic warfare, used in conjunction with real-time surveillance and artificial intelligence.

Drones have changed the nature of conflict – allowing for cheap precision technology to stand up against far more powerful and expensive legacy technologies – like tanks and ships.

Ukraine has used these technologies effectively for the past four years to limit Russia’s advances and to bottle up the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiysk – while under consistent heavy bombardment from missiles and Shahed-type drones from Russia.

These same technological advances create the potential for a long conflict in Iran… especially given Iran’s huge territory, at about one-sixth the size of the U.S., its rugged terrain, and a population of 93 million people.

So maybe the U.S. and Israel bomb Iran into submission, or the country fragments under the pressure… Maybe the parties figure out a way to negotiate and find an off-ramp… Or maybe the conflict continues and the Strait of Hormuz stays closed or partially closed for an extended period. I have no way to know.

But what I do know is if the conflict continues, we’re looking at serious repercussions across financial markets.

What a Closed Strait Means for Energy Markets

Not all 20 million barrels of oil crossing the strait are set to be lost to markets. There are some alternative pipeline routes. And the Paris-based International Energy Agency (“IEA”) announced on March 11 that it is prepared to release 400 million barrels of oil into the market as an emergency measure – including 172 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (“SPR”).

That may sound like a lot, but it’s a proverbial drop in the bucket. By the IEA’s own estimate, global oil consumption was approximately 104 million barrels per day in 2025. Put another way, that historic release wouldn’t even sustain a week’s worth of global demand.

Coupled with demand destruction from higher prices and limited crossings, the IEA expects oil supply to drop by a net 8 million barrels per day (around 8% of world oil demand).

That’s an enormous figure. It means, for instance, that Australia will completely run out of fuel by June 1 – as it’s heavily dependent on refined fuel from Singapore, South Korea, and Japan – which in turn get their crude oil from the Middle East via the Strait of Hormuz.

About three weeks into the war, we’re now looking at Brent crude (the international standard) trading at $111 per barrel. Brent was trading at around $72.50 on February 27 – the day before the conflict started. The longer the war continues… the higher oil prices will soar.

Keep in mind, the current oil price is after the IEA already said it would release 400 million barrels of oil – which represents one-third of the 1.2 million total governmental reserves of all IEA countries. It’s the largest release in history, yet it has only been a speedbump for higher oil prices.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs warned that Brent crude could exceed the 2008 peak of $148 a barrel if the strait stays mostly closed through March.

Already, we’re looking at higher oil prices pushing inflation higher and pressuring growth. That’s because oil is the lifeblood of the global economy. Higher oil prices act like a tax on consumers and ripple through the entire economy.

And I’m not just talking about higher fuel prices raising transportation costs – which is a huge factor. Crude oil is a raw ingredient in things like plastics, fertilizers, and even some medicines. And it’s often used for electricity generation.

Higher fuel prices raise the cost of everything – causing everything from food to airplane tickets to get more expensive. Consumers end up with less disposable income – hurting the economy.

With all that said, what should investors be thinking about right now?

A Few Assets to Keep on Your Radar

Now’s the time to hold onto your energy investments. You’ll have time to take profits once the war is over – when there’s more clarity. You surely won’t sell at the top with this strategy. But it’s likely to be more profitable overall to wait and let things play out.

For now, investors are rushing into the U.S. dollar. The U.S. Dollar Index (“DXY”), which tracks the dollar against a basket of currencies like the euro and yen, is up 2% since the start of the war. Two percent might not sound like much. But for currencies – which are typically measured in “bips” – it’s a massive move in such a short period of time.

The U.S. dollar has also outperformed gold and silver – which are down 13% and 26% respectively since the start of the war.

In the near term, the dollar is likely to continue to outperform. Gold and silver are signaling that the economy will likely slow – and thus the stock market will likely sell off – if oil through the Strait of Hormuz continues to be choked off.

But don’t expect the sell-off in gold and silver to last…

War is known to have a scissors effect… It typically increases the money supply – while constricting the supply of goods (like oil).

We’re seeing this starting to play out already. Estimates suggest that the Iran war costs on average $1.4 billion per day. The longer the war goes on, the more that cost matters. It suggests a cost of around $40 billion per month or almost $500 billion over the course of a year. The Department of War just asked for an additional $200 billion to fund the war effort.

The large spending packages come while the world economy is slowing due to higher energy prices and U.S. debt is rising rapidly.

The U.S. national debt just crossed $39 trillion – after hitting the $38 trillion threshold in late October. U.S. debt is now sitting at 122% of gross domestic product (“GDP”). An extended war will only accelerate the debt growth – which is already on autopilot higher.

The problem is that if economic growth slows (because of higher oil prices), tax receipts will fall, and the debt-to-GDP ratio will rise – making the fiscal situation even worse.

The last time we saw a similar situation was just after World War II – when debt peaked at 121% of GDP in 1946. Back then, the Federal Reserve helped keep short-term Treasury yields at 0.375% for five years and long-term bond yields at 2.5% for nine years.

This allowed the government to issue bonds at artificially low rates, reducing large interest expenses. It was done on the backs of bondholders who were paid everything they were entitled to on a nominal basis… except when the bonds matured, they were paid back with dollars with less purchasing power.

Today will be no different…

Expect a variation of the same playbook this time around: soft yield-curve control (policies to cap interest rates) – combined with quantitative easing (“QE”) – when the Fed grows its balance sheet and injects liquidity into the economy. Or we’ll see some form of “not QE” under a different name but with the same effect.

No one in government is interested in austerity. So, the only answer is to inject more liquidity into the financial system. And foreign central banks no longer have the capacity to soak up the massive amounts of debt issuance.

It’s not that foreign central banks have stopped buying U.S. Treasurys… It’s that they can’t keep up with the pace of supply that has flooded the market since QE began in 2008.

Take a look…

And the yield on U.S. Treasurys isn’t high enough to entice central banks to buy them at the same levels as in the past. They know high U.S. debt levels are set to metastasize into higher rates of inflation – which eats into real returns.

Instead, central banks around the world are responding by buying gold…

They’ve been net buyers of gold for 15 consecutive years, purchasing more than 1,000 metric tons (“MT”) in 2022, 2023, and 2024. According to the World Gold Council (“WGC”), they purchased 863 MT last year. Take a look…

A WGC survey last June found that roughly 95% of global central banks expect to increase gold reserves over the next 12 months. None of the respondents anticipated a decline in their gold reserves.

Altogether, most central banks remain in gold “buy mode.” That will drive prices higher in the coming years.

Of course, it’s not just central banks turning to gold as a store of value. Investors are joining in, too. Investment demand exploded to 2,175 MT last year, 84% higher than in 2024.

Gold prices today are nowhere near high enough to unlock new production or recycling…

Despite higher gold prices in 2025, mine production was up less than 1% to 3,672 MT. And recycling was only up 3% to 1,404 MT.

It’s going to take much higher prices to bring new mines on line. And even if the commodity price does rise high enough to justify new supply, it won’t happen overnight. These are huge commitments that take decades to build. And people aren’t incentivized to recycle enough gold today to keep a lid on prices.

As for silver, the market has been out of balance since 2019, with persistent annual supply shortfalls. According to precious metals consulting firm Metals Focus, demand exceeded supply by 211 million ounces in 2024 and by an estimated 188 million ounces in 2025.

Min production has been stuck at an average of 830 million ounces per year since 2017, with recycling averaging around 190 million ounces per year since 2021.

Silver is mostly used in industry (which means a lot of it disappears off the market because it’s uneconomic to recycle). It’s typically a byproduct of mining other metals like gold and copper, meaning it’s rarely mined on its own. Yet, demand is picking up…

We need more silver for high-tech industries and renewables. That’s why the U.S. Geological Survey (“USGS”) designated silver as a critical mineral in November 2025.

Bottom line – wait for the Strait of Hormuz to reopen before offloading any quality oil positions. Trim back on stocks dependent on discretionary consumer spending. And use this opportunity to buy gold and silver… Both are going a lot higher.

Regards,

William McGilton

Editor’s Note: This year, one of the world’s biggest oil producers poured $1 billion into a startup that could KILL the oil industry.

This obscure startup is the front-runner in a technology that could generate virtually limitless energy.

Bill Gates says that it “could be as transformative as the invention of the steam engine before the Industrial Revolution.” (Details here.)

No wonder Microsoft recently inked a massive deal to generate electricity from this breakthrough power source.

Even the firms that are most vulnerable to its disruptive potential are piling into it… Oil supermajors ExxonMobil, Chevron, Eni, and Shell are staking billions of dollars in a technology that – according to Live Science – could “make oil obsolete.”

And now – thanks to a little-known “backdoor” into this technology – it’s your turn.

Click here to get its name and ticker symbol FREE.

The post The Strait of Hormuz Is Shut – What Investors Need to Prepare for Right Now appeared first on MarketWise.

MarketWise surveyed 1,000 American investors to understand the most common investing mistakes, how they differ across generations, and where bad advice is doing the most damage.

Key Takeaways

• Nearly 2 in 3 American investors (65%) said they started investing too late, estimating they missed an average of 11 years of compounding growth.

• Half of Gen Z investors panic-sold during a market downturn, the highest rate of any generation.

• The top 3 most common investing mistakes: waiting too long to start investing (42%), holding onto a losing investment for too long (24%), and chasing a trending asset (15%).

• The top 3 investing regrets: not starting early enough (52%), not learning about investing sooner (42%), and not investing more aggressively when able (31%).

• 31% of investors lost money acting on social media financial advice, averaging $1,335 per person.

• 44% of investors made an investment decision based on something they saw on social media. Among Gen Z, that figure rose to 54%.

The Investing Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes (and Their Biggest Regrets)

Investors across all age groups tend to face many of the same problems. However, once the data is broken down by generation, clear differences begin to appear.

The top two investing mistakes were consistent across all four generations. Overall, 42% of American investors said waiting too long to start investing was their biggest mistake, while 24% said they held onto a losing investment for too long. 

The differences among generations appeared in the third-ranked mistake, where each group revealed its own pattern:

• Gen Z: trying to time the market (18%)
• Millennials: chasing trending assets (17%)
• Gen X: early retirement account withdrawals (16%)
• Baby boomers: following bad advice (16%)

Among all respondents, 15% said they made a mistake by chasing a trending asset, such as meme stocks or crypto. Men were nearly twice as likely as women to say this was their biggest investing mistake (19% vs. 10%). Among millennial investors, 40% said they had invested heavily in a trending asset without fully understanding the risks.

Where are investors finding these trends? In many cases, social media. Nearly half of all investors (44%) said they made an investment decision based on something they saw on social media, and among Gen Z that figure rose to 54%. The line between a common investing mistake and acting on bad advice from an online source is getting thinner, especially for younger investors.

Across all respondents, the top 3 investing regrets were:

• Not starting early enough (52%)
• Not educating themselves on investing sooner (42%)
• Not investing more aggressively when they had the chance (31%)

Gen Z was the only generation in which not educating themselves (45%) outranked not starting sooner (39%).

Half of female investors said not investing sooner was their biggest mistake, compared to 36% of male investors.

Among the 65% of American investors who said they started investing too late in life, the average estimate was 11 years of missed compounding growth. That estimate varied by generation:

• Gen Z: 5 years
• Millennials: 11 years
• Gen X: 16 years
• Baby boomers: 18 years

Gen X investors were the most likely to say they started too late (70%), followed by millennials (69%), baby boomers (62%), and Gen Z (50%).

More than half of Gen X investors (54%) said their investing mistakes delayed their retirement timeline. Half of millennials, 30% of baby boomers, and 29% of Gen Z said the same.

Income also played a role. Investors earning $50,000 to $74,000 were the most likely to say their mistakes delayed their retirement timeline, at 54%, compared with 33% of those earning $150,000 or more. Mistakes happen across the income ladder, but they’re harder to recover from when the margin for error is thin.

A Closer Look at Gen Z Investor Behavior

Younger investors clearly recognize the importance of time in the market. Only 7% of Gen Z investors said waiting too long ranked among their top investing mistakes when compared with other options. Still, 39% listed not starting early enough as their biggest regret.

Gen Z investors were also the most reactive to market volatility over the past 12 months: 25% said they became more conservative, 14% became more aggressive, and 11% temporarily exited positions.

Baby boomers were far less likely to change course. Seventy percent said they made no changes at all during the same period, compared with 41% of Gen Z investors.

Half of Gen Z investors said they panic-sold during a market downturn, the highest rate among all generations. That compares with 39% among Gen X, 39% among millennials, and 29% among baby boomers. Moves like that often lock in losses instead of giving investments time to recover.

That reactivity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Gen Z is also the generation most influenced by social media when making investment decisions, and the data suggests those two patterns are connected.

Social Media Influences Investors and Costs Them

Confidence can be helpful in investing. Problems start when confidence in the wrong advice begins to replace careful judgment.

Alt text: Infographic on trusting financial advice online and social media investing losses.

A full 67% of investors rated themselves as confident or very confident in spotting misleading financial advice. However, 44% said they had made an investment decision based on social media content. That gap between confidence and behavior helps explain why 31% of investors said they lost money after acting on social media financial advice, to the tune of $1,335 per person, on average.

The generational divide was clear:

• Gen Z investors were the most likely to make investment decisions based on social media (54%), followed by millennials (48%), Gen X (33%), and baby boomers (14%).

• For Gen Z, social media was the second most common source of investment guidance, ahead of licensed financial advisors (34% vs. 20%).

• For baby boomers, the pattern flipped: 43% used a licensed financial advisor, while only 3% relied on social media.

Losses followed the same trend line. About 2 in 5 Gen Z investors (39%) had lost money from social media advice, compared to 34% of millennials, 23% of Gen X, and just 8% of baby boomers.

Among all investors, 31% reported losing money after following social media financial advice, with an average loss of $1,335 per person. Men were more likely than women to report this type of loss (35% vs. 25%).

Experience helped boost confidence among investors. Just 34% of beginner investors said they were confident in distinguishing credible from misleading advice. This rose to 65% among intermediate investors and 91% among advanced investors.

Another pressure point sat in the background: 70% of investors said the rising cost of living had made investing harder, with millennials reporting the highest rate (75%) and baby boomers the lowest (46%). That matters because bad advice may look more appealing when investors are already financially stretched.

Where Investor Education Falls Short

Many investing mistakes do not begin with a bad trade. They begin much earlier, with unclear explanations, missing context, and the persistent belief that investing requires a large amount of money to start.

A striking 85% of millennial investors said investing was not clearly explained to them growing up. This was higher than baby boomers (81%), Gen X (81%), and Gen Z (73%). Women were slightly more likely than men to say their investing education was lacking (83% vs. 80%).

The top topic investors most wished they had learned earlier was how to start investing with a small amount of money, selected by 65% of respondents. Baby boomers were the most likely to wish they had learned this (71%). When people don’t know they can start small, they often delay until they think they can do it perfectly (which usually leads to not doing it at all).

Gen X investors were the most likely to say they wished they had learned more about tax implications (31%). Just 7% of Gen X investors said they learned what they needed when they needed it, the lowest share of any generation.

Gen Z was the most likely generation to have received investing education growing up, at 27%. They were also the only generation where the risks of emotional investing ranked among the top 5 topics they wished they had learned, at 31%. That’s worth noting alongside Gen Z’s high rate of social media-driven decisions: knowing the terms is one thing, but keeping your cool when a trending stock blows up your feed is something else entirely.

What These Investing Mistakes Reveal

Every generation makes investing mistakes, but the patterns are surprisingly consistent. Many investors wait too long to start, react emotionally during market swings, or follow advice that turns out to be unreliable. What’s changed is where that unreliable advice comes from. With nearly half of investors making decisions based on social media content, and close to a third losing money because of it, the source of influence matters as much as the mistake itself.

When investors understand these pitfalls and where they originate, they’re better positioned to avoid them. Starting early, learning the basics, and being skeptical of financial advice on social media can go a long way toward building confidence and better outcomes over time.

Methodology

For this study, we surveyed 1,000 American investors about the most common investing mistakes across generations, how those mistakes affected their financial timelines, and where they turned for financial guidance. Among them, 57% identified as male, 41% identified as female, and 1% identified as non-binary. Generationally, 7% reported as baby boomers, 21% as Gen X, 51% as millennials, and 22% as Gen Z. The survey was conducted on Connect Cloud Research between February 24 and March 2, 2026.

About MarketWise

MarketWise is a leading financial research and education platform serving self-directed investors. Through a network of independent brands, including Stansberry Research, Altimetry, Chaikin Analytics, TradeSmith, InvestorPlace, Brownstone Research, and Wide Moat Research, MarketWise delivers independent insights, tools, and software to help individuals navigate complex markets with confidence. Whether you’re exploring emerging opportunities or seeking stability, MarketWise supports every investor with credible research and actionable strategies.

Fair Use Statement

We welcome the use of this study for noncommercial purposes. If you share or reference any part of this content, please include a link back to this page to credit MarketWise appropriately.

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• AI is poised to drive a revolution in money and banking. Three stocks for the coming transformation.

• How to partner with the U.S. government and make hundreds of percent returns

AI is poised to drive a revolution in money and banking. Three stocks for the coming transformation.

Credit: jroballo

On March 16, we detailed how society is on the cusp of an “Agent Supernova.”

AI has progressed to the point that tech-savvy businesses and individuals are using AI programs as workers that can write, program software, build websites, send emails, create marketing, create videos, and dozens of other things.

I’m confident in saying that two years from now, there will be at least 100 million AI workers (aka “agents”) in our economy… and possibly billions.

Soon, we will have agents doing business with other agents… negotiating with other agents… managing other agents… and so on.

Very soon, there may be more AI agents than humans transferring money and making payments in our economy.

That’s not our claim. That’s what the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, said on March 9:

“Very soon, there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions. They can’t open a bank account, but they can own a crypto wallet. Think about it.”

And then on March 10, Meta bought Moltbook, a social network where AI agents (bots) talk, trade, and “live” together online. A social media for AI agents. It sounds otherworldly, but it’s real and happening today.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a very smart guy. His bet on Moltbook is a bet that bots will do far more over time than just chat or post. They’ll be economically valuable. They’ll spend money, earn money, and pay each other like real humans.

Put these two headlines together, and you get this idea:

Money is about to have far more machine use than human use. And once you understand that machines and AI agents can’t use bank accounts as we know them… the only logical use case will be stablecoins… aka “dollars that computers use without having bank accounts.”

It might all sound far-fetched, but the market value of key stablecoin player Circle Internet Group (CRCL) has risen by 100% in the last month alone.

Why does more AI agents mean more stablecoins?

Currently, AI agents can do the following:

• Talk to other APIs (services)

• Rent computer power

• Buy and sell data

• Send lots of small payments every day.

That is all programmed in advance and easy for an agent to do.

However, an agent cannot go to a bank, show an ID, sign forms, or open an account. That’s why the traditional banking system as we know it today isn’t agent-friendly.

But an agent can manage a digital wallet protected by a key or code. Stablecoins are simply dollars that live inside these keyed, or coded, wallets that can move dollars instantly, anytime, anywhere. This makes them a natural fit for how agents spend and receive money.

Stablecoins are already a large industry, and we’re only just getting started. In 2025, stablecoin transaction volume reached $33 trillion, up 70% from the previous year. This puts stablecoins in the same ballpark as some of the world’s largest card networks.

Given the coming Agent Supernova, it makes sense to know the key players in this space. Companies poised to benefit include:

Coinbase (COIN) is the clearest stablecoin infrastructure play. It’s the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and a major provider of stablecoin infrastructure.

COIN’s stock price used to move in step with the crypto markets. This made it a volatile stock. However, today it generates about 20% of revenue from stablecoins alone, which will not vary with crypto prices. It is transitioning from a “crypto exchange” play to the tollbooth on stablecoin volume. The stock is completely flat over the last year but has shown some nice strength YTD.

SoFi Technologies (SOFI): SOFI is a $22 billion digital banking and payments company. It is also going after the stablecoin market, but from the traditional bank side. Its own bank created a dollar-backed stablecoin called SoFiUSD. SOFI and Mastercard (MA) have now partnered, meaning that SoFiUSD can be used behind the scenes to settle payments on Mastercard’s network, rather than traditional bank transfers, which are more expensive and can take days to settle. If the king of payments, Mastercard, is going after stablecoins, then you know you’re on the right track with this trend.

Circle (CRCL): CRCL is a $30 billion digital payments company. It has already moved 100% over the last month as the market begins to price in this AI-plus-stablecoin play. CRCL is a bet on USD Coin (USDC) winning the stablecoin race. USDC is a “digital dollar.” For every one real US dollar, there is one USDC on the blockchain. This means USDC moves like crypto, but it is priced like a real dollar bill. CRCL is the company behind USDC, and it’s where the majority of stablecoin payments have happened so far. If agents keep using USDC, CRCL could be a high-reward play to ride that trend.

If Brian Armstrong and Mark Zuckerberg are even half right, the next big user of money won’t be humans. It’ll be agents. If that’s true, stablecoins become the default money for machines, and COIN, SOFI, and CRCL all could enjoy huge tailwinds.

How to partner with the U.S. government and make hundreds of percent returns

Credit: Sunshine Seeds

In June 2025, I wrote a research piece on how the U.S. government has become a powerful partner for investors in the critical resource industry. It’s a development with huge financial implications.

My megatrend thesis goes like this: President Donald Trump has staked his legacy and reputation on massively expanding U.S. manufacturing capacity. The Trump administration is working with business leaders to invest trillions to pursue this goal.

However, any plan to increase domestic manufacturing capacity has a big problem: we lack the critical resources to build the required infrastructure.

We don’t have the copper, iron ore, rare earths, lithium, antimony, nickel, and other vital building blocks required to build all those data centers… all those factories… all those robots… all those electric grids… all those power plants… and so on.

To make matters worse, we also lack the refining, smelting, and processing facilities needed to turn the raw forms of those resources into ready-to-use end products. We rely on China for a lot of that.

It’s like we very much want to build a big house… but we don’t have the lumber, the screws, or the nails we need to make it happen. It’s a major hindrance to Trump achieving one of his ultimate goals.

Solving this problem is possible…and it is an enormous financial opportunity.

To ensure we have the critical resources to build trillions of dollars in infrastructure, the U.S. government will change any law, kill any regulation, and write any check that will lead to more production.

This means that after more than 30 years of the U.S. government being hostile to domestic mines and mineral processing facilities, it is now supporting them. Trump can’t have his big manufacturing dream without them.

Mining investors and entrepreneurs are now operating in an incredible new era… one where the U.S. government is their best friend. It means the critical resource industry is a rewarding place for investment capital… helped massively by its powerful, big-spending partner.

This isn’t some wild forecast. It’s a trend that is playing out right now. As I detailed recently, Operation Epic Fury is demonstrating that in a deglobalizing world where individual countries and regional economic blocs hoard and nationalize scarce, desperately needed critical resources, the price of those resources will rise and often spark armed conflict.

For example, the share price of US Antimony (UAMY) is up 13% over the past month and up 384% over the past year.

Antimony is a critical resource used to make batteries, acting as a hardener to improve their performance and durability. It is also used as a flame retardant and in the defense industry for items such as explosives, munitions, and night-vision gear. US Antimony is an antimony processor working with the U.S. government to increase supplies.

Then there’s the uptrend in Almonty Industries (ALM). Almonty is a major miner and processor of tungsten. Tungsten is a critical metal used in munitions, armor, cutting tools, drill bits, electronics, and welding. Almonty shares are up 577% over the past year and reached a new all-time high during Epic Fury.

Given this incredible price action, I stand by my original thesis: Partnering with the U.S. government to increase domestic and friendly-country supplies of critical resources will prove to be one of the most lucrative financial activities of this decade.More gains in stocks like the ones mentioned above lie ahead.

Market Notes

• Our March 6 recommendation to own the chemicals niche is paying well. LyondellBasell Industries (LYB) just hit a new yearly high, now up 71% YTD alone.

• Our Sept. 29 recommendation to own oil stocks is paying off like a broken slot machine. Energy giants BP (BP), Cheniere (LNG), Devon Energy (DVN), Woodside Energy (WDS) and Coterra Energy (CTRA) all reached all-time highs today. US Brent Oil ETF (BNO) also just hit a new one-year high.

• Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) just hit a new one-month low today.

• Payment giant Visa (V) just hit a new one-year low today while rival Mastercard (MA) hit a new six-month low.

• Alcohol giant Diageo (DEO) reached a new one-year low today. The booze industry is suffering from a decline in drinking rates.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

An urgent message from our colleagues:

BEWARE: ‘The “Bear Market Window” Is About to Open’

For more than 75 years, one powerful market cycle has accurately signaled the arrival of extraordinary losses in the U.S. stock market: the Bear Market Window. Now, the man who accurately predicted the 2020 and 2022 crashes warns that we’re just days away from this Bear Market Window opening again. On March 25, he’ll explain why it could usher in the greatest potential losses we’ve seen in years… and the ONE critical move you should make with your money now.

Find the full details here.

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On March 16, the memory chip giant announced that it had completed its $1.8 billion acquisition of a chipmaking plant in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing, which I covered back in January.

But with that news came the announcement that Micron is planning to build another chipmaking facility on the same site. According to research firm TrendForce, this will increase Micron’s global capacity by roughly 10% starting around the second half of 2027.

But Micron isn’t the only AI memory stock worth watching right now – and the reason why has everything to do with demand.

The ability to increase memory production is critical, as the artificial intelligence (“AI”) industry’s massive boom has led to a drastic demand for – and shortage of – memory… especially for consumer electronic devices like smartphones, gaming consoles, and laptops.

Not just AI memory chips either. Other types of memory and storage are needed – like hard disk drives (“HDDs”) and flash memory – to keep up with demand.

And that demand is fantastic news for memory tech manufacturers like SanDisk (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC), and Seagate Technology (STX).

Why AI Is Driving Memory and Storage Demand

The rise of AI has flipped technology on its head. As more businesses continue to adopt AI and fold it into their daily operations, the demand for AI increases.

And when that demand increases, so does the need for more expansive AI infrastructure.

That infrastructure primarily comes in the form of data centers, which are popping up across the globe in record numbers. Between 2026 and 2030, the worldwide data center sector is projected to expand at a 14% compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”).

All those data centers require tons of memory to operate. Not only the high-bandwidth memory (“HBM”) that delivers faster data transfer rates, consumes less power, and takes up less space than traditional double data rate (“DDR”) dynamic random-access memory (“DRAM”), however.

But also that very DRAM, which data centers’ CPU-based servers need in mass quantities. In fact, the Wall Street Journal estimates that data centers will use more than 70% of all high-end DRAM production in 2026.

That’s great news for data center operators. Not so much for manufacturers and retailers of phones, tablets, laptops, and other consumer electronics that literally can’t operate without DRAM.

The AI-Driven Memory Shortage Is Raising Prices

With major memory tech companies focusing their capacity on HBM and higher-end DRAM, the production of consumer DRAM used for everyday electronics has decreased.

The combined demand for high-end DRAM for data centers and the limited supply of consumer DRAM are driving overall DRAM prices sky high… which points to the start of a new memory supercycle.

And this supercycle will raise consumer electronics prices and impact sales.

In January, TrendForce predicted that smartphone production would drop 7% for 2026… and that prices would rise for both Android and Apple phones.

As for laptop shipments, TrendForce forecasts point to a decrease of more than 5%. And that could reach roughly 10% if memory prices don’t settle by the second quarter of 2026. Similarly, gaming console shipments could drop by more than 4% year over year.

Unfortunately, for consumers, retailers, and makers of electronics, memory’s huge demand and lack of supply mean DRAM price increases of more than 70% in 2026.

That will be passed down to shoppers, who can expect smartphone prices to rise an estimated 14% to a record high of $523… as well as the extinction of the sub-$100 phone. This could cause smartphone sales to decline by nearly 13% this year.

Computer vendors are facing a similar scenario. Major computer makers like Dell Technologies (DELL), HP (HPQ), Lenovo, Acer, and Asus are predicting price increases of up to 20% during the second half of the year. (Research firm International Data Corporation projects lower, yet still significant, computer price hikes of up to 8%.)

These developments will undoubtedly impact consumers, who must decide whether to pay more for new devices or opt to avoid the sticker shock altogether. As a result, the consumer electronics industry is likely to watch its margins and order volumes shrink.

It’s also pushing tech companies and data-center operators to explore other types of memory solutions.

Why Flash Memory, SSDs, and Hard Disk Drives Are Critical to AI Infrastructure

NAND flash memory, a non-volatile storage technology that retains data without power, is poised to explode in 2026. The technology – which has been primarily used in solid-state drives (“SSDs”), USB drives, and smartphones – has recently become a critical component of AI infrastructure.

Once used for general data storage, NAND flash memory and its high-capacity, high-speed storage capabilities are now coveted by AI data-center operators for the memory’s performance alongside AI graphics processing units (“GPUs”) related to AI inference (running AI models).

NAND flash memory is also a space-saving solution for data centers. With 3D NAND technology, hundreds of layers of cells can be stacked vertically. This substantially increases storage density while consuming minimal space.

It also offers efficiency, as NAND flash memory uses less power than typical mechanical drives. This lowers energy consumption while improving heat dissipation, which is critical in data centers.

SSDs equipped with NAND technology are also proving their worth in AI data centers thanks to their fast read/write speeds, low latency, and quicker caching. That all adds up to faster and improved AI inference and training.

So, it’s not surprising that the NAND flash memory market is looking at significant growth. The market is projected to reach roughly $59 billion in 2026, a nearly $3 billion year-over-year increase. By 2031, projections show the NAND market hitting more than $76 billion, with a CAGR of 5.32% during that span.

The same sentiment applies to hard disk drives, of all things. A technology that was recently bordering on obsolescence within the consumer PC market has experienced an astounding resurgence.

The global HDD market is booming, riding the wave of demand for high-capacity, nearline drives for AI, cloud, and data-center storage. In fact, the market is projected to grow from roughly $51.8 billion in 2026 to around $69.7 billion by 2031… a 6.12% CAGR.

Needless to say, this is music to the memory industry’s – and its investors’ – ears.

3 AI Memory Stocks to Watch in 2026 (Not Micron)

SanDisk (SNDK): An AI Memory Stock Riding the NAND Wave

As my colleague John Kilhefner perfectly summarized memory’s importance to AI back in February… “If there’s no memory, there’s no AI.”

With the memory chip shortage not expected to improve anytime soon, SanDisk is capitalizing on its position as an AI infrastructure supplier.

John captured the reasons why in his February article:

“The longer version tells the tale of a “perfect storm” forming in the memory market:

• AI demand surged, especially from hyperscale data centers that require massive pools of fast storage for model training and, increasingly, inference workloads.

• NAND flash supply tightened after years of industry belt-tightening and cautious capacity expansion, creating meaningful pricing power for suppliers.

Put those together and you get what markets love most: scarcity plus necessity with pricing power as the result.”

It’s borderline ridiculous how well SanDisk stock has performed since its February 2025 spinoff. SNDK’s beginning price then was roughly $35. Today? Around $754 That’s an increase of roughly 2,054%. In just over one year!

SanDisk’s second-quarter 2026 revenue increased 31% sequentially, to $3.03 billion. This surge was fueled by the company’s 64% sequential increase in data center revenue, driven by strong adoption of SanDisk’s products by AI infrastructure builders, including its Stargate SSD product line.

It also reported operating cash flow of just over $1 billion and free cash flow of $843 million.

The company is expecting even bigger things in Q3, with projected revenue in the $4.4 billion to $4.8 billion range.

SanDisk’s Stansberry Score, which monitors and measures stocks and their long-term potential, rates as middle of the pack, despite its impressive gains.

There are a few reasons why…

• The stock’s huge surge points to signs that investors have already priced in ideal growth scenarios, resulting in extreme valuation. That gives SanDisk very little margin for error.

• Historically, SanDisk’s earnings have been inconsistent. Look no further than last year, when the company spun off from its previous owner, Western Digital. Though SanDisk’s revenue increased by roughly 10.4% in 2025, the company reported a $1.64 billion loss caused by significant transitional expenses and impairment from the spinoff.

• Lastly, SanDisk pays no dividend right now (hence its “D” grade in Capital Efficiency). This takes some of the luster off SNDK stock, especially for income-focused investors.

All that said, SanDisk is expected to become profitable in 2026, at which point its Stansberry Score should improve.

Western Digital (WDC): An AI Memory Stock Dominating HDD Storage

Yes, SanDisk’s previous owner is now one of its primary competitors. And though its trajectory hasn’t reached SanDisk-like heights, Western Digital – which focuses more on storage memory – is still demonstrating consistent growth as it serves as the dominant hard disk drive supplier and a major enterprise-grade SSD provider for AI data centers.

In fact, its HDD production capacity is already sold out for 2026. And the company is signing long-term purchase agreements into 2027 and 2028.

Over roughly the same period since SanDisk’s spinoff from its parent, Western Digital’s stock price soared from $54.43 on February 18, 2025 to $286.21 on March 16, 2026 (with a few peaks and valleys along the way).

That’s an increase of roughly 426%. It may not be SanDisk’s 2,054%, but it’s obviously quite impressive.

Western Digital’s Q2 2026 revenue of $3.02 billion was nearly identical to SanDisk’s, a year-over-year increase of 25%. And its Q3 revenue is projected to be up 40% year over year.

The company also reported $745 million in operating cash flow and $653 million in free cash flow.

WDC’s Stansberry Score is solid, with an overall “B” grade. That’s driven by its outstanding Financial score (“A”).

While the company does pay shareholders dividends, its current dividend yield of 0.18% is nothing to write home about. In fact, it went nearly five years without increasing its dividend payout before finally doing so in September 2025.

This helps explain its mediocre Capital Efficiency grade (“C”).

Seagate Technology (STX): An AI Memory Stock Built Around High-Capacity Storage

Like Western Digital, Seagate is benefiting from the need for storage memory in AI data centers. The company, which has been a leading hard drive manufacturer for years, even rebranded itself as a critical provider of AI infrastructure.

And it worked.

The key has been Seagate’s Mozaic platform and Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (“HAMR”) drives. This technology allows for vastly higher storage density than traditional drives. That density allows data centers to store more data without adding physical space. And that saves money.

Seagate CEO Dr. Dave Mosley’s vision of rebuilding the company around Mozaic and HAMR technology was risky. But it’s paying off in a big way.

As a highly effective solution for storing the massive amounts of data needed for AI training and inference, Seagate’s Mozaic HAMR drives have attracted the attention of hyperscale cloud providers as well as large-scale enterprises.

In fact, Seagate’s mass capacity/data center segment now accounts for roughly 80% of its total revenue.

And that revenue continues to grow. Seagate reported $2.83 billion in revenue for fiscal Q2 2026, a nearly 7.5% increase from Q1 and a $500 million year-over-year jump.

That momentum is likely to continue following the recent news of Seagate’s Mozaic 4+ HAMR platform – which offers roughly 8 TB more storage capacity than its Mozaic 3+ platform – moving into mass production for hyperscale cloud providers.

In fact, Seagate’s 2026 hard drive capacity is completely sold out. And the company is already securing long-term order agreements into 2027.

Seagate’s stock performance – and its Stansberry Score – reflect the demand for its products.

Overall, Seagate gets a rock-solid “B” grade, driven by excellent Financial and Capital Efficiency scores (“A”). These marks are in line with fiscal second-quarter 2026 highlights that include:

• A record-breaking 42.2% non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) gross margin, a 19% year-over-year increase over fiscal Q2 2025.

• $593 million GAAP net income, up $257 million year over year.

• Operating cash flow of $723 million and free cash flow of $607 million.

• Cash dividend of $0.74 per share.

STX has been on a roll for a year, with shares soaring roughly 359% from $88.64 to $398.78. And that’s no surprise, considering the demand for its storage drives from hyperscalers and large enterprises.

Memory Is a Strong AI Infrastructure “Pick and Shovel” Play

For investors looking to hitch a ride on the AI freight train, memory stocks are one of the many tickets that’ll get you on board.

Sure, the hyperscalers like Meta Platforms (META), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) grab the headlines. But it’s behind the scenes – or rather, within the data center walls – where money can be made.

It’s the companies generating the energy that literally power data centers… like NextEra Energy (NEE) and Vertiv (VRT).

And the data center real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) that own, develop, and manage the facilities that house AI infrastructure, like Digital Realty (DLR) and Equinix (EQIX).

It’s the semiconductor makers like Nvidia (NVDA) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM). And the nanotechnology used to make advanced chips.

Now, it’s also the memory that supplies AI models with the data they need to process information and make instant, intelligent, and autonomous decisions. As well as the storage that holds all that data.

Regards,

David Engle

Editor’s note: Forbes calls $1 billion fund manager Louis Navellier “the king of quants.” Today, he’s stepping forward to reveal why he’s investing $358 million of his own firm’s money in the next stage of Artificial Intelligence… a technological sea-change that could erase millions of jobs, solve humanity’s biggest mysteries, and spark a wave of moneymaking opportunities — both in and outside the stock market. Click here for the details… 

The post 3 AI Memory Stocks to Watch as Demand Booms (Besides Micron) appeared first on MarketWise.

Bitcoin ETFs offer another huge advantage for traders: It’s often easier and cheaper to buy bitcoin through your existing, established, and secure brokerage account than through a separate cryptocurrency exchange or different crypto-focused brokerage account. With traders thinking that it may be time to buy bitcoin, ETFs are an easy way to get in and out.

Plus, with a bitcoin ETF, you can leave the coin’s security to the fund company. You don’t need to take custody of the coin yourself and assume all the risk of keeping it safe.

Here are some of the best bitcoin ETFs, including their one-year returns and expense ratios.

How MarketWise Selected These Funds

Marketwise chose its top funds based on the following factors:

• Spot bitcoin ETFs that track bitcoin’s price movement

• A low expense ratio

• No leveraged funds

Since these funds all track the same thing, it’s wise to focus on costs.

Top Bitcoin ETFs: Overview

As you can see, the returns are effectively the same across the one-year period, even though the share price of each fund may differ, since these funds are all tracking the same asset.

As bitcoin rises 1%, each fund should rise 1% – exactly what you see here, with small differences. So you get bitcoin’s price moves in an easy-to-buy fund.

Is there one fund that’s better than another? They all provide the same exposure to spot bitcoin prices, so the real differentiator here is the fund’s expense ratio. The expense ratio is the fund’s annual fee expressed as a percentage of your investment in the fund.

SEE MORE: Flash Crash or Crypto Winter? – How to Trade Bitcoin

For example, the lowest-cost fund is the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust at 0.15%. That would cost $15 annually for every $10,000 invested in the fund. For the two funds that charge 0.25%, the annual cost would amount to $25 per year for that same $10,000.

The difference is not that stark, but it does add up if you’re investing millions of dollars.

In any case, the funds here all charge low expense ratios, so they can be great ways to get bitcoin exposure without paying the often-high fees of buying the crypto through an exchange.

Plus, as mentioned above, you don’t have the responsibility of safeguarding your bitcoin stash. The fund company is paid to maintain the holdings. That may sound negligible, but investors have lost literally billions in bitcoins because they didn’t properly secure their holdings.

What Are the Advantages of Bitcoin ETFs?

Buying bitcoins through ETFs is a smart way to trade the cryptocurrency and eliminates many of the downsides of buying it directly.

• Closely tracks bitcoin’s movements:These spot ETFs track the price of bitcoin with high accuracy, so you really are getting the same percentage movements.

• Low fund cost:These funds all charge low expense ratios, so you’re not paying that much for the advantages you bring to the table. The expense ratio is deducted seamlessly from the fund’s net asset value each day. You won’t even notice it’s gone.

• No need to secure your bitcoins:Bitcoin proponents may say that you need to secure your bitcoins yourself. If you do this, you have the potential to lose access to them or a drive they may be saved on. With ETFs, the fund company takes care of all securities.

• Easy to trade with a well-regarded broker: You likely already have an account with an existing online broker, so trading ETFs is just an extension of your existing account. You needn’t open an account with a potentially dubious crypto exchange to get in the game.

• No-commission trading:You can trade ETFs for no commission at virtually all discount brokers, unlike many crypto exchanges, which can charge expensive fees to buy coins.

• Options trading on bitcoin funds:Many bitcoin ETFs have options trading on them. With options, you can leverage your wager on the crypto or even profit when it declines. (That’s one of a few high-risk, high-reward ways to play a bitcoin rebound.)

Of course, these funds are simply tracking bitcoin. They’re not an argument to buy or sell bitcoin. Whether bitcoin itself will do well or poorly is a completely different question, with many investors thinking it’s a great way to hedge the risk of the U.S. dollar’s long-term decline.

But if bitcoin is your goal, these funds are a great way to trade it.

Regards,

James Royal

Editor’s Note: Elon Musk reinvented the auto industry, sparked a new era of space exploration, and built the world’s largest satellite network. But his new initiative – “Project Apex” – could become the crown jewel of his career. And, like Tesla, it could make early investors incredibly wealthy. Click here for the details…

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• Three stocks for investing in the post-Epic Fury missile restocking boom

• Operation Epic Fury sent this ETF lower. It’s poised to bounce back and reach new all-time highs

• How to invest in the booming Power Grid Upgrade theme

Three stocks for investing in the post-Epic Fury missile restocking boom

Credit: NickolayV

Operation Epic Fury has upended Middle Eastern politics and created dozens of unanswered questions. However, at least one thing is certain regardless of the outcome: Missile stockpiles must be rebuilt.

This is bullish for missile makers and their downstream component and material suppliers. It’s also another facet of the Defense Tech theme we’ve been bullish on for more than two years.

In January, National Defense magazine reported that global defense spending is on pace to reach a colossal $2.6 trillion in 2026. This total would represent an 8.1% increase over 2025. Operation Epic Fury is showing us how this tidal wave of money will be spent on bleeding-edge technology.

Unlike the “boots on the ground” wars of the past, Operation Epic Fury is being fought by the U.S. almost completely with drones, missiles, and satellites. It’s estimated that the U.S. fired over 400 Tomahawk missiles in the first three days of the conflict. Iran has fired thousands of drones and missiles in return. The Pentagon recently told Congress that the first six days of the war cost $11.3 billion.

In this high-tech version of war, the foot soldier is growing less and less relevant… and having more and better high-tech drones, missiles, and satellites than your enemy is critical.

As a result, the U.S. and the Gulf States are using huge stores of both offensive and defensive missiles during Epic Fury. Rebuilding these stores will add even more demand to already strained global missile supply chains, which should provide a tailwind to the following producers of missiles and missile components:

L3Harris (LHX): LHX is a stable large-cap play on missiles. It’s a $67 billion company that is central to the missile maker story because it makes the engines for America’s missile defense systems. Through its Aerojet Rocketdyne business, it builds the rocket motors that push interceptors into the sky to take down missiles before they reach their targets. This makes LHX one of the very first places money goes to in a world where defense spending surges.

Leonardo (DRS): DRS is a $12 billion European pure-play in missiles and air defense. In a world where Epic Fury-style conflicts are burning through interceptors, DRS becomes the direct beneficiary of any sustained warfare. DRS is also investing heavily in increased R&D to accelerate advanced defense technologies, which gives investors confidence that DRS is building a long-term, structurally sound business, rather than one that just moves during warfare.

Karman Holdings (KRMN): KRMN is a pure-play $13 billion missile manufacturer. It designs and manufactures missile launch systems and other defense components. On March 10, 2026, KRMN announced it is quadrupling capacity for missile and counter launch systems to meet customer demand. KRMN is growing revenues at 52% in 2026, which is massive for a $13B defense company.

As war goes increasingly high-tech and more missile arsenals are built or rebuilt, these companies stand to benefit.

Operation Epic Fury sent this ETF lower. It’s poised to bounce back and reach new all-time highs

Credit: tifonimages

Many critical resources trends, hit by Operation Epic Fury selling, are now poised to resume long-term uptrends.

Yesterday, we highlighted that nuclear power and uranium have strong, long-term fundamental tailwinds. However, market-wide selling amid Operation Epic Fury triggered a sharp selloff in the sector. Now that the end of Epic Fury is likely near, uranium miners are back in shape and poised to resume their long-term uptrend.

The copper mining uptrend looks much the same.

For over two years, I’ve been long the copper mining theme, and I’ve urged others to go long as well. The bull case here is simple: Over the past 30 years, the copper mining industry has discovered or developed few meaningful copper deposits. Meanwhile, the collective buildout related to AI, power grids, renewable energy, and EVs is turbocharging copper demand. S&P Global expects global annual copper demand to increase roughly 50% by 2040.

My call is proving to be a big winner. The copper market’s giant, long-term bullish dynamics are creating a glacier-like megatrend of gradually rising prices… which is driving copper mining firms higher and higher.

The Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX) is the world’s largest copper mining-focused ETF. In August 2025, COPX broke out to a new 52-week high and bolted 35% in less than two months.

After digesting this large gain and moving sideways for a few months, COPX resumed its uptrend. Since December, COPX has climbed relentlessly… reaching new all-time highs week after week after week. COPX climbed 15% in December 2025 and 29% in January.

As you can see in the chart below, COPX suffered a sharp selloff during the height of Operation Epic Fury. Given the strong demand drivers behind copper, I expect it to recover and reach new highs soon.

How to invest in the booming Power Grid Upgrade theme

On March 10, I highlighted Quanta Services’ (PWR) new all-time highs as evidence that the Power Grid Upgrade theme is a rewarding place for investment capital.

Quanta is America’s largest electrical grid contractor. It performs a wide range of work to build and maintain electric transmission lines, substations, and grid connections. It’s a big beneficiary of AI’s soaring power demand.

On October 7, 2025, we detailed how the world’s largest companies are making the biggest business “bet” in history. Giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI are spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year on data centers, AI chips, and other infrastructure components. Their total investment in this space will run into the trillions.

All that AI infrastructure is poised to consume huge amounts of electricity. Goldman Sachs forecasts global data center power demand will climb 50% by 2027 and as much as 165% by the end of the decade.

This is creating a big investment opportunity.

The U.S. power grid is often called the world’s largest machine. It’s a giant network of power stations, transmission lines, substations, and underground wires. Most people barely know it’s there or how it works, but without this big machine, your lights don’t turn on, there’s no Netflix, and your iPhone doesn’t charge.

Industry experts say the power grid is aging and creaking under the strain of increased electricity demand. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the energy sector a D+ in its 2025 report, citing concerns about rising energy demand, aging infrastructure, and a lack of transmission capacity.

All in all, soaring electricity demand… a grid badly in need of an upgrade… AI supremacy on the line… trillions of dollars of economic output on the line…

This is a recipe for a bull market in the companies that build, repair, and upgrade our power grid.

It’s why stocks such as Quanta (PWR) gained 140% in the last year, and Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) gained 82%.

One company operating inside this theme that has not enjoyed a big run yet – but could soon – is Itron (ITRI).

Itron is a $4 billion “smart grid infrastructure” firm. It makes smart meters, grid-edge devices, and software that give utilities real-time visibility into their networks. It’s one of the largest players in this niche of the electric power industry.

What Itron does is important because power grids need to be upgraded in two ways:

1. New power plants, new transmission lines, and new distribution infrastructure. This is where companies like Quanta come in.

2. More and better monitoring and management technology that allows power providers to squeeze more capacity out of what they already have. This is where Itron comes in.

In addition to selling specialized hardware, Itron is now layering AI on top of its current offering through partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft, Snowflake, and Amazon. Through its software and analytics alone, Itron’s solutions can cut power outages by 10% and lift effective capacity by 20%, according to some estimates.

Building new power plants and transmission lines is important, but it will take years. Smarter grid management can help now. This is why Itron’s business is picking up to the point that its Quantum Fundamental rating in our corporate partner TradeSmith’s system is an outstanding 90 out of 100. This indicates market-leading revenue and earnings growth.

Big Tech is spending over $600 billion this year on AI infrastructure. More than a trillion is coming after that. This means the Power Grid Upgrade theme is poised to generate winners for years. Itron will likely be one of them.

Market Notes

• The semiconductor supply chain remains strong. Leading memory players Micron (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) reached new all-time highs again while optics leaders Lumentum (LITE) and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) are up 12% and 8% today.

• Our September 29th recommendation to own oil stocks is paying off like a broken slot machine. Oil giant Devon Energy (DVN) reached another all-time high today. It’s already up 26% YTD. US Brent Oil ETF (BNO) also just hit a new one-year high.

• South Korean e-commerce leader Coupang (CPNG) just hit a new one-month high.

• Premium athletic apparel leader Lululemon (LULU) just hit a new one-year low. It ’s now down 49% in the last year.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

An urgent message from our colleagues:

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The man who invented one of the most popular buying and selling indicators on Wall Street says this stock could soon benefit from a big surge in Wall Street “smart money.” But BEFORE you act on this information, we strongly urge you to view his full briefing.

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It’s the second meeting in a row that the Fed decided to hold rates steady. The nation’s central bank last lowered rates at its December 2025 meeting, the last of a string of three sessions in which it dropped the benchmark rate. 

Before those moves, the Fed had last lowered rates in December 2024. So, policymakers are taking a measured approach to providing monetary stimulus to the economy over the past couple of years.

The latest decision comes as policymakers wrestle with how to balance the competing demands of rising unemployment and sticky inflation. Inflation hasn’t yet declined to the Fed’s long-term target of 2%, after soaring to multi-decade highs in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Projections have been that the 2% inflation target would either already be at that lower level, or that the progress towards the Fed’s 2% goal is going in the right direction. That is not the case,” says Steven Conners, founder and president of Conners Wealth Management in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

“To reduce borrowing costs at this level of inflation would be premature,” says Conners.

The Fed’s dual mandate has become more difficult in light of recent events, too. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have been putting upward pressure on inflation. Soaring oil prices due to the conflict with Iran also have investors and consumers worried about higher prices.

“With the recent spike in gas and oil prices due to the Iran war, an extended period of higher energy prices can reignite inflation,” says Bruce Maginn, advisor at Solomon Financial in Carmel, Indiana.

So, the Fed opted to keep rates flat for now while it assesses these economic impacts.

The Fed Rate Decision: What’s Keeping Rates Steady

Tariffs and oil prices aren’t the only factors keeping the Fed on the sidelines.  The current “low-hire, low-fire” economy is playing a role, too. 

Unemployment has crept up from 4.2% in February 2025 to 4.4% in February 2026. While that’s a small uptick, the unemployment rate was last under 4.0% nearly two years ago, in May 2024. 

Inflation has also remained above the Fed’s long-term target. In January, it reached 2.4% year over year, a downturn from December’s 2.7%. But it hasn’t been close to the Fed’s target since the pandemic, though it has been trending lower over the past couple of years.

A number of factors are affecting inflation. A red-hot market for artificial intelligence is keeping investment spending up. Meanwhile, President Trump’s recent tax cuts have boosted deficit spending – and therefore inflation. Now the effects of the tariffs and soaring oil prices are clouding the outlook for the Fed, too. 

This data puts the Fed in a tough position. Its dual mandate is to keep inflation at an acceptable level and to keep unemployment low – two goals that are usually at odds.

A resolution to the conflict in Iran may help clear up one of the biggest sources of uncertainty for policymakers right now. 

“The rapid success of the war should mean an end to the fighting in the coming weeks, then, the Fed can assess more accurately where the economy is heading with labor pressures and slowing inflation numbers,” says Maginn.

But during this cycle, the Fed is also dealing with some unusual causes of inflation.

The president’s interference with the Fed has led many analysts to expect an economy that’s allowed to “run hot” with higher-than-target inflation.

For now, cooler heads are prevailing at the Fed, closely balancing unemployment and inflation, amid a fraught climate.

How Interest Rates Affect Stocks, Bonds, and Gold Prices

Generally, lower interest rates are good for financial markets. Low rates make it easier for businesses to borrow and expand. They also induce investors to put their money into the market, particularly in stocks and other riskier kinds of investments, such as cryptocurrency.

Bond prices move inversely to interest rates, so lower prevailing rates generally raise the price of bonds.

And as a defensive play, gold tends to do well with falling rates, too. It may do especially well when the economy hits a rough spot, making it a classic “safe haven” trade.

While the Fed held rates steady at its last two meetings, financial markets have already been looking ahead to the rest of the year. 

The potential for ignited inflation due to rising oil prices has pushed back when investors expect the Fed to lower rates again. As this timeline is extended, investors may become somewhat less bullish.

At the same time, analysts have been reducing their estimates for how many times the Fed may lower rates this year. 

With Wall Street expecting corporate profits to continue to rise in 2026 and modestly lower interest rates on the way later in the year, the S&P 500 Index started the year strong. 

But it’s stumbled since then, as investors weigh the index’s high valuation and the potential for higher – even crippling – inflation due to what may prove to be a sustained conflict in Iran.

Markets will keep an eye on the more extreme scenarios, such as the potential for much higher inflation due to rising oil prices or a dramatic slowdown in the AI build-out or the broader economy.

How Should the Fed Rate Decision Affect Your Investing Strategy?

Analyzing interest rates and unemployment may make for good conversation, but it’s not all that necessary to succeed at investing.

“While it’s important to understand the Fed’s moves within a broader economic context, an investor’s primary focus should remain on whether their portfolio is set up to help them reach their personal financial goals,” says Sarah DerGarabedian, CFA, director of investment strategy at Modera Wealth Management.

For buy-and-hold types, it’s probably best to stick to your long-term investing game plan. That may mean continuing to invest regularly in great individual stocks or even funds based on the S&P 500 Index and simply ignoring the noise.

But even a market decline can be welcome to forward-thinking investors. For example, for dividend investors, a decline means higher forward yields on any new money they add to their portfolio.

Either way, legendary investor Peter Lynch famously advised investors not to worry too much about the macro environment. “Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves,” said Lynch in a 1995 interview with Worth magazine.

The market offers many potentially lucrative investments, and they appear in any environment. While investors may be fearing a downturn, a decline in stock prices can be a great time to find new winners or add to your existing positions at discounted prices.

So, the market’s volatility can offer a lot of advantages for nimble investors, setting up the next profitable run for those who are poised to act – whether that’s in stocks, bonds, or gold.

Regards,

James Royal

Editor’s Note: Elon Musk reinvented the auto industry, sparked a new era of space exploration, and built the world’s largest satellite network. But his new initiative — “Project Apex” — could become the crown jewel of his career. And, like Tesla, it could make early investors incredibly wealthy. See below for the details…   

The post The Fed Rate Decision: What It Means for Stocks, Bonds, and Gold Prices                     appeared first on MarketWise.

For each of their shares, NSA investors will receive 0.14 shares of Public Storage, the largest self-storage REIT, with a reference price of $41.68 per share.

It’s a sizable deal and offers clear advantages for PSA investors. The REIT can improve operating efficiencies and reduce costs across the acquired properties.

Plus, management says the transaction is accretive to funds from operations per share in the year after closing. This suggests the new PSA shares issued for the deal will not dilute value for existing investors.

The Public Storage/NSA acquisition comes just as the REIT is transforming itself under what it calls PS4.0. It’s an initiative aimed at achieving higher total long-term shareholder returns. The initiative is also driving sweeping leadership changes across both its executive team and the board of directors.

The acquisition should be a positive move for a stock that sits where it did five years ago.

Sure, the stock enjoyed a run-up – like many REITs did – during the COVID-19 era when the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to nearly zero. But with the stock flat since then, investors have enjoyed only that (admittedly) meaty dividend over that period.

The low return belies what is a fundamentally strong operational performance, particularly at its individual locations, where Public Storage puts up some industry-leading margins.

With the planned leadership transition, new management incentives, a solid dividend, and a reasonable valuation, Public Storage looks like an interesting buy, though not a slam dunk.

The Benefits of the Public Storage/NSA Acquisition

Public Storage has been a great performer over time, and it’s the market’s largest self-storage REIT. That has pros and cons.

On the positive side, management has shown a strong record of operational performance. It also has one of the most interesting balance sheets you’ll find – reducing its financing risk (more on this below).

The flip side is that its success means it’s large, and it needs needle-moving acquisitions like the NSA deal. It can’t just add a dozen new properties each year and show meaningful growth.

That’s where the Public Storage/NSA acquisition comes in.

The NSA deal quickly expands Public Storage’s footprint, providing it with more than 1,000 properties. Public Storage will wholly own 488 of them, focusing on core markets and higher-growth locations, like those in the Sun Belt. This complements Public Storage’s existing interest in nearly 3,200 locations and management of 362 facilities.

The NSA acquisition also consolidates Public Storage’s position in locations that it views as key to its long-term growth.

A key part of the deal’s value is the potential to increase margins across NSA’s properties. Those properties are currently running at store-level direct operating margins of 69%, in line with publicly traded peers. Management believes it can raise that to Public Storage’s 78%.

Between increased revenue and operating efficiencies, management expects to generate an incremental $110 million to $130 million in synergies.

The company is taking on some secured mortgage debt for the transaction. However, the overall leverage will remain the same if Public Storage cuts costs as management expects.

So, Public Storage’s credit rating – the best among publicly traded U.S. REITs – should remain unaffected. A strong credit rating helps Public Storage in at least a couple of ways:

• More efficient management: Low-cost financing is a key factor in how Public Storage can manage its assets more efficiently than its rivals can.

• More competitive bids: Its cost-of-capital advantage lets the REIT make more competitive bids on acquisitions – which investors should expect to continue.

Public Storage takes this financing advantage further with one of the most unusual financing structures, even for a REIT.

While REITs often issue preferred stock – which acts more like a bond than stock – they typically have up to three series of preferreds. In contrast, Public Storage is in a class by itself.

PSA has 14 separate series of preferreds.

One key advantage of preferred stock is that the dividend can be suspended, if need be. This reduces leverage risk in adverse scenarios, giving PSA added flexibility.

Another advantage is that preferred stock can be issued perpetually, so that it never matures. This lets a company lock in permanent financing – financing that literally never comes due.

Public Storage has taken full advantage of this latter feature to issue preferreds at ultra-low rates. Its coupon rates range from 3.875% on its Series N stock to 5.6% on its Series H stock. Management aggressively refinanced their preferred stock lower as interest rates fell in the past decade.

In total, all but three series of preferreds have coupon rates below 5% – and seven series have rates below 4.125%. That low-cost financing gives PSA a significant long-term cost advantage.

Is PSA Stock a Buy?

Public Storage offers several compelling factors – strong store-level operations, solid financing, a dividend currently at 4.1%, and the NSA acquisition that should add meaningful growth.

Two other factors make PSA worth watching: a more attractive industry environment and increased executive alignment.

Public Storage is looking to capitalize on a wave of potential company sales, as long-tenured founders plan their estates and look to exit the industry. That opens opportunities for PSA investors, given the company’s cost-of-capital edge.

The PS4.0 initiative aims to capitalize on this trend and accelerate portfolio growth generally. Great news for investors in a skilled operator.

Public Storage has also redesigned its incentive system for 2026 to focus more on “our primary objective of shareholder outperformance.” As the company says in its description of the system, “This represents an important cultural shift spurring urgency and execution obsession.”

For investors who have endured so-so returns in the past five years, this redesign is welcome news. It doesn’t hurt that management is using such emphatic words – “execution obsession” – to describe it. It’s a positive sign backed by the NSA acquisition.

So, is PSA stock a buy?

In the recent past, Public Storage may have been a better trade than a buy-and-hold. Wait for the industry fundamentals to brighten, hold for a couple years, and sell as the future looks dimmer.

But now that may be a less attractive approach.

PSA stock trades at about 18 times management’s low-end estimates of $16.35 core funds from operations for 2026. That’s neither cheap nor obviously expensive. But that 4.1% dividend gives investors plenty of reason to wait and see if the newly redesigned incentives work here.

Regards,

James Royal

Editor’s Note: Elon Musk reinvented the auto industry, sparked a new era of space exploration, and built the world’s largest satellite network. But his new initiative – “Project Apex” – could become the crown jewel of his career. And, like Tesla, it could make early investors incredibly wealthy. See below for the details…

The post Public Storage NSA Acquisition: Is Dividend Dynamo PSA Stock a Buy? appeared first on MarketWise.