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Jeff Brown

Big News for the Next Generation of Electric Vehicle Batteries

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It’s been a while since we had a look at the backlog of container ships waiting to unload their cargo at the Port of Los Angeles. The Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles, and San Francisco for that matter, looked like a parking lot during the pandemic… I saw it with my own eyes flying overhead to/from the West Coast.

I thought it might be interesting for us to check in and see what things are like today…

Not surprisingly, there has been a long decline in the queue of container ships since February of this year. The pandemic is clearly over, and logistics teams got back to work clearing out containers on the dock and returning to more normal operations.

August was still busy, with a queue of about 25 ships, but what happened in the last few weeks has been striking. At the start of this month, the queue had dropped to just eight ships, an all-time record low.

That might sound like a good thing. After all, the queue was a symptom of the lack of labor to both unload containers from ships, clear those containers through customs, and haul them out of the port via trucks to distribution centers. Finally, it appears that this backlog has cleared… which means that lead times for goods coming from Asia should quickly return back to pre-pandemic levels.

But the busy August masked what’s really going on. Container imports to the U.S. have collapsed 36% year-over-year. The rapid decline began in May, and it’s really starting to show in the numbers.

What does it mean? There’s an excess in inventories in consumer goods in the U.S., which make up more than 75% of all imports. With “real” inflation much higher than the consumer price index (CPI), discretionary spending has collapsed… and with it, demand.

Imports are suffering as a result. And it’s easy to see the weakening economy now that the Port of Los Angeles has cleared out its container backlog. There’s no hiding it now.

Sadly, even with excess inventories and rapidly declining freight costs, prices for goods and services will remain at elevated levels well into 2023. But on the bright side, the days of 6-month lead times, or not being able to find that PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, should be well behind us.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

A new player enters the fray to power EVs…

A very interesting company in Utah just came out of stealth mode – Ionic Mineral Technologies. This one caught my eye because it could be big news for the next generation of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Ionic Mineral Technologies mines halloysite – a mineral it uses to produce “nano-silicon.”

That’s possible because halloysite is an aluminum-silicate clay that naturally occurs with a nano-tubular structure. This quality makes it a great resource for producing high-quality nano-silicon as a material input for EV batteries.

We’ve written a lot in The Bleeding Edge about solid-state batteries. There is an extensive list of companies working on that technology. And most design their batteries with silicon anodes instead of graphite ones (the typical approach for lithium-ion batteries).

This is important for two big reasons…

First, compared to graphite, silicon anodes provide greater energy density (i.e., charge capacity).

This is key for solving a major issue holding back EV ownership – limited range. Silicon anodes enable people to travel further with these batteries before needing to recharge.

And second, a big EV owner complaint is the 30-45 minutes it takes for their cars to charge. The reality is that most EV owners don’t have access to a 240-volt charger at their home or apartment.

With silicon anode batteries, it’s possible to charge an EV to 80% capacity in about five minutes… a fraction of the time.

But these silicon anodes aren’t perfect. They suffer one major challenge. Silicon swells and contracts during the charge and discharge stages. And dendrites are formed during this process which can, in the worst case, lead to fires.

That’s where Ionic comes into play. It believes its nano-silicon will be a game changer with solid-state batteries. This nano-silicon material has the potential to address this swelling problem.

That’s why I’m going to be keeping an eye on Ionic. I’ll be watching in particular to see if any of the leading-edge EV battery companies begin to adopt the nano-silicon material.

Ionic is unique in that it owns the resource for producing nano-silicon. The company controls 2.4 million tons of halloysite resources in Utah. This is the world’s largest deposit of high-purity halloysite.

The company expects its Utah-based manufacturing plant will be up and running by the end of Q2 next year. Then it will have the capacity to produce tens of thousands of tons of nano-silicon a year that it can sell to battery makers.

And since Ionic is building its plant on U.S. soil, this will help domestic supply chains secure materials. It’s yet another piece in the Great Recalibration I’ve been writing about in these pages, and it’s potentially great news for domestic EV makers.

So this company could be revolutionary for solid-state EV batteries, especially if designs start incorporating its nano-silicon material.

[Breakthrough Tech: New Vehicle Shocks EV Market]

eVTOL technology continues gaining momentum…

We’ll continue with another frequent topic in these pages – electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs).

United Airlines just stepped up and made a firm commitment for purchasing more electric air taxis.

Last year, we covered its $1 billion order for eVTOLs from Archer Aviation. This August, United paid out $10 million of that payment for the first 100 eVTOLs from Archer Aviation.

Well, now United is upping the ante for its electric air taxi fleet. The airline just ordered another 200 taxis from Eve Air Mobility, with an option to buy 200 more.

This order came as United invested $15 million into Eve Air. So it clearly sees something it likes… and is hedging its bets.

Now, keep in mind that this is not a recommendation for Eve Air (EVEX). Currently, it has an enterprise value of $2.9 billion, yet it’s years away from any kind of material revenue. It’s currently trading at a valuation that reflects about 63 times forward 2025 annual revenue estimates. And it’s going to be bleeding cash until that time. It will most certainly require additional financing that will further dilute shareholders.

So while this isn’t an interesting investment opportunity right now, it is still a company to watch. Major airlines are pairing up with their eVTOL partners in preparation for what they believe is coming.

The future of transportation includes how air transportation is changing. It’s not just about supersonic aircraft like the kind of technology that Boom Supersonic is pursuing. It’s also about the kinds of short hops that eVTOLs can support.

These air taxis can carry three or four passengers about 150 miles. This could enable people to commute to work from a rural area into a city.

Or people could use them to travel from one part of a city to another. Los Angeles or New York City are perfect examples. They have so much traffic, it can be miserable and inefficient getting around.

So people could opt for eVTOLs for convenience in congested cities. We could take an eVTOL right to JFK airport, bypassing all the traffic.

And these electric vehicles are emission-free, which will make them attractive to some. Once we have clean energy generation to power them, these aircraft could be a “green” option for transportation.

Regardless, this is yet another example of the gaining momentum in eVTOL technology. We’ve come a long way in a few short years…

And it won’t be long until we could start seeing more of these aircraft in the skies where we live. I doubt we’ll have to wait much longer than 2025-2026 before there is widespread use of this technology.

[Don't Miss: Enrique Abeyta Prediction – My #1 EV Stock for 2022]

A couple weeks ago, we had another look at Starlink – a division of SpaceX – partnering with T-Mobile in enabling remote cell phone coverage.

Now, Starlink has launched service availability in all seven continents.

That’s because its service just arrived at McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica, delivering high-speed broadband to the outpost.

That’s huge because McMurdo historically hasn’t had enough bandwidth to run all its scientific programs. Internet bandwidth has been rationed and in high demand at such a remote location.

What’s interesting about the deployment in Antarctica isn’t just Starlink’s availability. It’s actually how SpaceX is making it happen.

The issue at hand is that there aren’t any ground stations connected to fiber optic networks in Antarctica. So SpaceX is accomplishing this high speed broadband internet connection using space lasers. Cool, right? The lasers allow for high-speed connections between satellites.

So rather than beaming up from a ground station to a Starlink satellite and back down to Antarctica, Starlink uses space lasers to send data back and forth between other Starlink satellites until it is in range of a ground station (for example in Australia).

While the world sees Starlink has a satellite-based internet provider, I believe that the endgame is to create a space-based, interplanetary, body backhaul network. That’s the big play.

The backhaul network is only possible with a laser-enabled communication system from satellite to satellite. That way, Starlink will need fewer ground stations and be able to provide coverage to places where ground stations aren’t an option or simply don’t make any sense.

Is this the beginning of interstellar broadband infrastructure? Musk is crazy enough, and smart enough, to put something like that together.

This will be a vast improvement for people who live in rural areas and developing countries – as well as remote locations like Antarctica… or even the Moon. And needless to say, it will put Starlink and SpaceX in an enviable position.

Regards,

Jeff Brown
Editor, The Bleeding Edge.

[Exclusive: 1st Gas Station In America To No-Longer Offer Gas]

Read more from Jeff Brown at BrownstoneResearch.com

Critical Electric Vehicle Battery Bottleneck in China?

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A large chunk of the $369 billion to be spent for “energy security and climate change,” as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, is allocated towards electric vehicle (EV) subsidies.

The subsidies provide a $7,500 tax credit at the point of sale for a new EV. The idea, of course, is that it will act as an incentive for us all to transition to EVs and CO2 emissions will be reduced.

As we’ve reviewed before, if the majority of our electricity is produced by fossil fuels – as it is, almost everywhere on the planet – carbon emissions won’t be reduced by shifting to EVs. Some have even argued that emissions will increase, as typically 7–15% of electricity is lost in transmission from the power plant to the end user. That’s just the nature of the inefficiency of the distribution of power over our current infrastructure.

But let’s set those inconvenient truths aside for a moment. Is it even possible for the automotive industry to produce enough new EVs to hit the targets set aside for 2030? I recognize that it’s a moot point, given the nature of how electricity is produced, but the exercise will reveal something quite interesting.

It is possible to produce enough of the new vehicles, the cars themselves, but – and this is a big but – it won’t be possible to manufacture enough EV batteries to “fuel” them. The fundamental problem is with the EV battery supply chains.

And at the very beginning of the supply chains are the metals that need to be mined and extracted from the earth, and ultimately processed for use. It’s a destructive and very dirty process that leaves massive “scars” on Earth’s surface – and produces immense amounts of carbon emissions. And yet without these metals, we don’t have EV batteries…

[MAJOR BUY ALERT: EVs/Wall Street/Gains]

The problem is that with these massive targets for EV production set by countries around the world, the politicians and policymakers (especially those in the U.S.) didn’t think much about the details of whether or not the targets were possible. Or for that matter, whether or not the process would be “clean” and actually result in lower emissions.

In order to meet these grand goals of EVs everywhere by 2030, the world will need to mine and extract critical metals from the ground. The need is no small task either, as seen in the above chart… 50 new lithium mines will have to be built, 60 new nickel mines will have to be built, and 17 new cobalt mines need to be built.

The automotive industry is already struggling with shortages of these metals, as well as with securing future supply, yet the policy targets established within require more than a 5X increase in kilotons (kt) in lithium production, 2X in nickel, and almost double in cobalt.

Making matters worse, on average it takes 7–10 years to get permitted to build a mine in the U.S. And that’s right… in just eight years it will be 2030. How’s that going to work? 

Some other countries, particularly in developing markets, are able to permit in shorter periods of time, but it is still a multi-year process. Further, what about the practicalities of the “where” and “how” to extract and process these metals?

[Enrique Abeyta Prediction: My #1 EV Stock for 2022]

Cobalt is almost entirely mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not exactly an anti-fragile location for a key material in a supply chain.  More than half of nickel production comes from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia. 

The majority of the rare earth metals are all mined in China… critical metals used not just in EVs, but most forms of advanced electronics like our smartphones.

And the majority of the world’s lithium is mined in Australia and Chile. While these locations are politically stable, it’s the required step up in production – more than 5X – that’s the problem.

But even if we assume that somehow the permitting of new mines magically happens within the next two years, and the metals can be found at the scale that is necessary to meet demand, there is one more sticky problem…

The majority of the processing of these metals takes place in China, not exactly the location that I’d choose for a secure supply chain right now. The reality is that extraction and processing of these metals is a very dirty and fossil fuel-intensive business, which is why the western world was happy to offshore these tasks to developing markets.

And now, the implications of those decisions are being felt across supply chains. These metals are not only important in the context of battery production, but in many cases, are considered to be matters of national security. 

The reality is that China has a chokehold over these metals and can control how much of each are exported to the world. And of course, its own country’s needs will be prioritized over others.

It’s great to have aspirational goals and objectives with regard to clean energy. My sincere wish is that we transition the entire power production infrastructure to clean energy produced from technology like nuclear fusion.

Sadly, these tax and spend stimulus packages have no chance of achieving their targets. “They” neglected the most basic and fundamental inputs required to meet stated targets. 

Even worse, all of this spending will enrich a small number of vested interests, very wealthy individuals, and politicians… at the expense of normal taxpayers.

[Nomi Prins: 10x Gains on a Small Firm Disrupting a Critical American Industry]

Read more from Jeff Brown at BrownstoneResearch.com

How the Apple Self-Driving Car Will Take VR on the Road…

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Dear Reader,

Markets have been like riding a rollercoaster lately. And some of us may feel sick to our stomachs as a result. I’ve certainly felt that as well.

But there has been one part of my portfolio that hasn’t felt any of the pain. That’s why I’ve been drawing readers’ attention to one specific kind of investment – private investments. These private shares can offer peace of mind… and help us sleep well at night no matter what the stock market is doing.

That’s because private companies aren’t vulnerable to the whims of public sentiment or Wall Street traders. Their valuations can climb no matter what the markets are doing.

And this Wednesday, I’m going to tell investors all about how to begin investing in the private markets – even if we aren’t accredited investors.

On May 18, at 8 p.m. ET, I’ll explain why these investments are a great hedge against market volatility… and talk about one particular area of private investing I want all my readers to know about. I call these opportunities “crypto placements.” And they have all the benefits of private investing… without all the wild swings of the crypto markets.

Quantum computing is more advanced than we know…

IBM just announced its roadmap for quantum computing development over the next three years. And the company’s projections are nothing short of incredible.

When we last checked in on IBM, the company had plans to release its 127-qubit quantum computer. That was back in February of last year.

As a reminder, qubits are the basic units that enable a quantum computer to function. It’s the quantum equivalent of the “bits” that power our laptops and desktop computers. And the more qubits, the more processing power a quantum computer has.

And IBM is planning on increasing its quantum computing horsepower dramatically over the next few years…

The company now plans to launch its 433-qubit quantum computer later this year. It will follow that up with a 1,121-qubit system next year. And then IBM expects to release a 4,158-qubit quantum computer by 2025.

That represents an 860% increase in qubits in just three years. Yet in terms of quantum processing power, that represents computing systems that are millions of times more powerful.

Most experts thought this pace would be impossible in the quantum space. But IBM has found a way to have multiple quantum processors work in parallel with one another. That’s how the company expects to get to 4,158 qubits by 2025.

Here’s a simple visual:

IBM’s Quantum Computer Processor

Source: IBM

Here we can see three quantum processors linked together to work in tandem. IBM is taking a modular approach to connecting multiple processors that contain qubits, thereby dramatically increasing the capabilities of its quantum computers.

And here’s the most exciting part of the story…

IBM is not a leader in the quantum computing space. I’m sure it lags behind companies like Google, Rigetti Computing, and IonQ in terms of actual performance.

[New Battery Breakthrough: Could Revolutionize the $2 Trillion Automotive Industry]

So if IBM is on track to release such advanced quantum computing systems over the next three years, I suspect these three companies are even further along… except none of them have revealed their detailed product road maps and what they are currently working on in their labs.

They have been intentionally flying under the radar, and I suspect that is to gain what will ultimately be a competitive advantage.

Simply put, the rise of quantum computing changes everything.

As I recently discussed with popular radio host Glenn Beck, advanced quantum computing will force us to completely overhaul our cybersecurity systems. It’s also the technology that will help us develop new materials and molecular compounds for things like energy production, pharmaceuticals, and electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

At the end of last year, I predicted that at least one company would release a 256-qubit quantum computer this year, and that we’d see breakthroughs in the quantum computing industry. 2022 is already proving to be exciting, and I know we’re in for some major announcements in the second half of this year.

Project Titan just got a lot more interesting…

We talked just last week about how Apple’s Project Titan is nearing commercialization.

As a reminder, this is Apple’s secretive electric vehicle (EV)/self-driving car initiative. And it’s more ambitious than we thought…

Apple just received a new patent that envisions building virtual reality (VR) technology right into its self-driving car.

Here’s a sketch from the patent:

Apple VR Patent Tech

Source: USPTO

As we can see, Apple will integrate a VR system directly into its car design.

Passengers will be able to tilt their chairs back and pop on the VR headset. Then they can either enjoy entertainment or do something productive, like taking a work meeting.

I can imagine Apple having a suite of travel-related VR apps where passengers can look outside the window and see different landscapes even though the car is in a dense urban environment.

And Apple takes it a step further than the basic VR experience.

The patent also envisions the VR system working in conjunction with the car’s audio system, heating and air system, and even the seat itself. These systems will perform certain functions autonomously to enhance the passenger’s VR experience.

For example, imagine the passenger is engaged in a VR experience that simulates sailing. This could trigger the car’s air system to turn on and simulate a breeze blowing over the water. The VR system could also trigger the passenger’s chair to gradually tilt back and forth to simulate the feeling of being in a boat.

What Apple is doing here is patenting the user experience for autonomous transportation.

So it turns out Project Titan isn’t just about a beautiful self-driving car. Apple is very much focused on delivering a unique experience inside the car as well.

[Exclusive: Company Pioneering this New Battery could be the Investment of a Lifetime]

If we think about a world in which there are competing fleets of self-driving cars, each vying for customers – what sets one fleet apart from the others? It has to be the user experience.

And the user experience is what Apple is clearly looking to differentiate its autonomous cars compared to anything else in the market. I can’t wait to go for a ride.

The James Webb Space Telescope is almost fully calibrated…

We have been tracking the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) closely this year. And today we have yet another stunning update…

For the sake of newer readers, the JWST is the most complex telescope ever constructed. What’s more, it was launched to a destination about one million miles from Earth back in February.

We call its destination the LaGrange Point 2 (L2). It’s on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. That makes it incredibly cold, which is great for the telescope’s performance.

JWST is currently going through the calibration process. We expect the first fully calibrated images to come back as early as July.

That said, JWST has sent a few images back already. They aren’t as advanced as what we will get once the telescope is fully calibrated. But they are still incredible.

We can see just how powerful JWST is by comparing a recent image from the JWST of the same spot in a galaxy to images from older infrared telescopes…

The Same Image from Different Telescopes

Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As we can see, these images are of the same objects. We can see the string of four objects from the lower left to the upper right of the image. The only difference is that different telescopes took them over the last two decades.

We are looking at images of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It’s a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

And get this – LMC is about 160,000 light years away from Earth.

The image on the left is from the WISE telescope back in 2003. The one in the middle is from Spitzer in 2008. And on the right is an image just sent back by the JWST.

Here we can see just how advanced the JWST is when compared to previous telescopes. The difference in resolution is dramatic.

And think about this – JWST’s images are only going to get clearer with even higher resolution.

Here’s the most exciting part…

NASA hasn’t yet told us what the JWST’s first scientific target will be. It has been very secretive about what the telescope will focus on first.

So we can look forward to more information from NASA within the next month or two. I’m very excited to see the next images that the telescope reveals…

Regards,

Jeff Brown
Editor, The Bleeding Edge

[Don't Miss: Tim Bohen – Last Call Before Elon’s “Project X” SHOCKS the World (Again)]

Read more from Jeff Brown at BrownstoneResearch.com

Is Decentralized Manufacturing the Key to our Clean Energy Future?

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Dear Reader,

On Monday, we had a look at some of the latest government shenanigans with respect to soaring gasoline prices. I also shared my predictions for even more “stimulus” in the form of gas tax relief to partially offset the spike in gasoline prices primarily caused by inflation.

While the government may continue to try to blame rising oil and gasoline prices on Russia, the prices had already been soaring prior to the war breaking out.

Inflation is a monetary policy phenomenon. It’s the result of grossly irresponsible money printing, and it hurts everyone, especially those in lower income brackets. The Russia/Ukraine crisis simply added some more short-term volatility.

The reality is that, on a global level, Russia provides a relatively small percentage of the world’s oil exports – only 8%. The conflict has resulted in about 3 million barrels of oil a day being removed from the global markets.

It’s not that much, but it does create a short-term supply shock because it happened so suddenly. Countries that were importing Russia’s oil have to look to other oil-producing countries to increase production in order to cover the shortfall.

The impact of the shortfall is obviously felt the most by countries that are heavily dependent upon Russia’s oil (and natural gas). It’s even worse for countries that don’t have the ability to increase any domestic production.

But something interesting has been happening…

While the sanctions by NATO countries have banned the purchase of Russian oil for refinement, there is a loophole.

Trading companies have been purchasing the Russian oil and storing the oil in Europe (of all places) for future refinement. This is possible because purchasing oil for the purpose of storage isn’t prohibited by the sanctions.

In this regard, the supply shock isn’t as bad as it has been made out to be. But there is a far more serious dynamic at play that very few are talking about…

Since the outbreak of conflict, Russia’s oil exports have declined dramatically. Russia as a country is energy-independent. It has far more oil and natural gas than it needs.

But there is a larger problem that concerns the rest of the world. It doesn’t have anywhere to store its production.

The sanctions have resulted in excess production in Russia. The trading companies in Europe can only buy and store so much oil for future refinement. That means that Russia’s storage facilities and pipelines are at full capacity. I don’t think it will be long before wells shut down because there is no place to put the oil.

Some might think, “Great! Serves them right!” But there are other implications…

Once these wells shut down, or freeze, new wells must be drilled. It could take years, or even a decade, before Russia’s production returns to 2021 levels.

And that means much higher prices for oil in many parts of the world for an extended period of time. I believe that Europe will eventually see $200 a barrel.

Only countries that have the capacity for domestic production will be able to keep oil below $100 a barrel. Prices in the $120–150 range will be considered normal.

The U.S., however, is fortunate to have strong domestic production capabilities. And as I predicted on Monday, I believe that the current administration will have to ramp up domestic production and likely ban oil exports in the interest of keeping oil, and thus gasoline prices, down.

It will be entirely political, but it will happen nonetheless. This will, of course, come at the expense of other countries who would like to purchase excess production.

It has never been more obvious that we need energy-producing technology that will meet the world’s energy requirements in a fully decentralized manner, where no one country can have such an outsized – and negative – impact on the global economy.

The three most critical and fundamental needs of the human race are food, potable water, and energy. Yes, love and friendship count, too. But without food, water, and energy, there wouldn’t be a human race.

Limitless, abundant, and clean energy across the planet can bring abundance in both food and water (think desalinization). Imagine a world in which there would be no need for any geopolitical conflict caused by the need for energy. Sources of energy have been the driver of war for centuries.

The answer is, of course, the power of the Sun – the nuclear reactions that literally sustain life on Earth by making the planet habitable. It’s time for the world to step up and make nuclear fusion a reality.

Carbon-free, emission-free, abundant, and limitless power… Some forms of which don’t produce any nuclear waste at all.

If we don’t solve the problem for clean, utility-scale, baseload energy production, we’re going to be suffering decades more of geopolitically-driven pain and suffering largely caused by the puppet masters toying with our own life and liberty.

[Exclusive: The Next Paladin Energy – 2022’s Hottest Uranium Stock]

The all-seeing orb is cashing up…

We talked about Worldcoin and its all-seeing orb back in November. This creepy project is moving forward faster than expected…

For the sake of new readers, Worldcoin envisions creating a global monetary system.

Worldcoin’s plan is to scan everyone’s retina to create a unique biometric identity. That identity then becomes a digital wallet for the project’s cryptocurrency, Worldcoin (WDC).

The device that scans retinas is “the Orb.” It’s a silver orb that looks like the palantir “seeing stones” in The Lord of the Rings movie series.

Worldcoin is aggressively pushing the Orb on consumers. The project’s goal is nothing short of capturing every eyeball on the planet. And Worldcoin is giving away “free” WDC to everyone who scans their retina as an incentive.

“Orb operators” are also incentivized to sign people up by awarding the operators WDC for their services. Worldcoin reports that the “best” orb operators can sign up about 1,000 people a week with a single orb.

Well, Worldcoin just raised $100 million in a WDC token sale… at a $3 billion valuation. That’s steep given the project is still in its early stages.

Among the institutions that purchased WDC tokens were crypto-focused powerhouse venture capital (VC) firm Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Currency Group (DCG). In addition, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman personally invested in Worldcoin’s token sale.

This is a powerhouse of backers. I’m a bit surprised to see them investing in Worldcoin at a $3 billion valuation… especially considering the privacy issues around taking biometric data from people.

Of course, Worldcoin’s mission sounds very altruistic. It’s all about global financial inclusion. And its website is even set up as a ‘.org’.

But to me, this is the same pitch we got from Facebook (now Meta). And we know how poorly Facebook has treated its users’ data.

So I’m very skeptical. And I don’t believe for a moment that our biometric information will be kept “safe.” I absolutely recommend readers stay as far away from Worldcoin’s Orb as possible… Please don’t look “deep into its eye.”

Still, we will need to keep a close eye on this project going forward. Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency, WDC, might just be a good speculation at some stage.

And with $100 million in new funding and powerhouse backers, Worldcoin is setting itself up to gain some serious momentum…

[New Energy Tech: The Forever Battery – Ushering in a New Era of Energy Storage]

More evidence that decentralized manufacturing is the future…

Tesla just opened its first European factory in Germany last week.

This is a remarkable development given all the chaos unfolding in Europe right now. And it clearly demonstrates the major shift in manufacturing we have been tracking in The Bleeding Edge…

As we know, people hold the German auto industry in high regard. German-made cars are typically associated with high quality and attention to detail.

However, Germany is also known for high labor costs. Labor unions are very strong in the country. The average workweek for German auto workers is just 35 hours per week. I can’t imagine what that would feel like… A light week for me is 70 hours.

The high costs and relatively low hours make it expensive to manufacture in Germany. Yet Tesla plans to produce half a million vehicles every year in this new factory.

In other words, Tesla’s automation technology has made it economical to produce cars in high-cost markets for the first time in decades.

And this allows Tesla to manufacture much closer to its target markets. This is the decentralized manufacturing trend that has been gaining steam over the last several years.

For the last several decades, nearly all manufacturing has been centralized in China and Southeast Asia. Then companies would ship the finished goods to consumers in the U.S. and Europe. This makes for complex supply chains that, as we discovered, are subject to major disruption.

Tesla is breaking that cycle. We are witnessing a dramatic shift towards decentralized manufacturing and something called reshoring.

And it’s all thanks to automation. Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) can now boost productivity and make manufacturing economical in the West again.

This is a trend that will accelerate for the rest of this decade.

And we’ll continue to find ways to profit as the trend continues.

[Exclusive: Tim Bohen – Last Call Before Elon’s “Project X” SHOCKS the World (Again)]

NVIDIA’s $1 trillion opportunity…

NVIDIA just held its annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC).

To me, this is one of the most important conferences of the year. I always drop in to listen to CEO Jensen Huang’s presentations.

And Huang’s presentation this year was certainly special. He announced NVIDIA’s new AI semiconductor architecture. It’s called the Hopper chip family – named after computer scientist Grace Hopper.

The Hopper chips are designed to replace NVIDIA’s Ampere chips. And get this – the first Hopper-based chip, H100, provides nine times the performance of its predecessor. This is a revolutionary step forward.

The new chip uses 4 nanometer (nm) processing technology. And it consists of 80 billion transistors. That’s 68% more than the Ampere chips.

So the Hopper chips represent almost a magnitude jump in performance. And that opens the door to a massive market opportunity.

With this new product, Huang said the company is targeting industries with $100 trillion in revenue. And he believes NVIDIA can capture 1% of that.

In other words, NVIDIA has a $1 trillion-a-year opportunity.

Here’s the breakdown of where NVIDIA thinks this $1 trillion in revenue will come from:

  • $300 billion – Automotive industry
  • $300 billion – Data center applications
  • $150 billion – AI for enterprise software
  • $150 billion – AI software for the Omniverse (NVIDIA’s word for metaverses)
  • $100 billion – Gaming industry

Incredible.

And what stands out to me most is how far NVIDIA has come since I first recommended the company in February of 2016. That was at a small conference focused on high-net-worth investors and family offices.

At the time, NVIDIA was considered to be just a video game tech company. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) were primarily used almost exclusively for gaming.

But I knew that NVIDIA’s GPUs would ultimately enable AI and machine learning applications at scale, as well as power autonomous vehicles. That was my pitch in 2016. NVDA was trading around $24 per share at the time.

Fast forward to today, and my predictions all came true. NVDA trades around $283 a share. Anyone who bought on my original recommendation in 2016 is now up 4,290%.

And subscribers to The Near Future Report are up 721% on my official recommendation in that publication. (If you’d like to learn more about joining us, go right here for more information.)

This is such an incredible success story. NVIDIA is a textbook example of what’s possible when bleeding-edge technology is applied to explosive growth markets.

What’s more, NVIDIA’s new chip architecture will lead to incredible breakthroughs in the field of AI and machine learning in 2023 when Hopper becomes widely available. I can’t wait to see what comes from this.

Regards,

Jeff Brown
Editor, The Bleeding Edge

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Read more from Jeff Brown at BrownstoneResearch.com