⚡️🚗 Apple STOPS Decade-Long Electric Vehicle Project
Happy Wednesday all,
If you haven’t checked your crypto portfolio in a while, I’d definitely give it a glance. I honestly kind of forgot about my crypto holdings for a while after the market tanked. Glad to see it’s making back some ground — with Bitcoin now over $60K.
In other news, I posted a new kind of video - something I’ve never done before on my channel on Monday. The video is titled “Why I’m Single…” and in it, I talk about dating, finances, and what it all means to me. I was super amazed by the response from everyone. All the comments have been so nice and definitely made me feel grateful and made me less nervous about sharing my thoughts.
I’m hoping to make slightly more personal content in the future, but I’ll still stick with finance most of the time :) Video is linked at the bottom of the newsletter in case you want to watch.
Enjoy this week’s Hump Days!
- Humphrey, Rickie & Tim
👀 Eye-Catching Headlines
💳 Flawed Valuations Threaten $1.7 Trillion Private Credit Boom (Bloomberg)
📈 Stripe Valuation Jumps to $65 Billion in Employee Share-Sale Deal (WSJ)
📺 Disney, Reliance Sign $8.5 Billion Deal to Merge India Media Operations (Bloomberg)
👨🏼💼 Investing Platform Webull to Go Public Through SPAC Deal (WSJ)
🤡 The Errors Tour: How the Pros Bungled the End of Zero Interest Rates (Bloomberg)
🥽 One Month With Apple Vision Pro: In the Air, on a Train and…in a Drawer (WSJ)
📆 Mitch McConnell to step down as Republican Senate leader in November (CNBC)
The Weekly Brief
Apple to Wind Down Electric Car Project After Decade-Long Effort
Apple has decided to halt its decade-long project to develop an electric car, known as Project Titan, which aimed to introduce a fully autonomous electric vehicle with advanced features.
The project's termination was communicated internally by COO Jeff Williams and VP Kevin Lynch, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees involved. Many from the car team will transition to Apple's AI division to work on generative AI projects.
Apple faced numerous challenges that led to the project's cancellation, including the complexities of car manufacturing, evolving technologies like autonomous driving, and the competitive, low-margin nature of the auto industry.
Top Investors Share the Toughest Lessons They Had to Learn
“We’ve learned to be wary of unrealistic claims of rapid market penetration or adoption and to champion businesses that are ‘must haves’ and solve urgent problems versus ‘nice to haves.’” - Abby Levy
“Investing is a team sport, and not the solo work of some mad, lone genius. It matters who you partner with. Every Buffett needs a Munger, every Horowitz needs an Andreessen.” - Alex Pack
“What appears to be a positive for a stock does not mean the stock has to go up. It is critical to understand if the good news is already priced in.” - Thomas Lee
“It’s impossible to be too aggressive early on, since the investment portfolio is a tiny portion of overall wealth—investment capital plus human capital. Had I understood that, I’d be a lot wealthier today, though likely not much happier.” - William Bernstein
Bitcoin Surges Past $60,000 Nearing Record Highs
Bitcoin surpassed the $60,000 mark for the first time in over two years, driven by growing optimism and wider acceptance. Bitcoin is up ~45% year-to-date.
This surge is attributed partly to the successful launch of US ETFs holding Bitcoin, which have attracted over $6 billion since mid-January.
Factors such as the upcoming Bitcoin supply halving and substantial inflows into Bitcoin ETFs have contributed to the rally, with some industry experts cautioning about a potential supply-demand imbalance that could further drive up prices.