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Weekend Investor's Corner. Stephen opens a periodic investing deep dive: AI shovels versus AI loans, gold miners that finally keep the cash, uranium against oil, a word on copper, and how AI changed the homework. Personal view, not investment advice. Prices as of Friday 23 October 2026.
In this episode, Stephen Forte covers:
- Investor's Corner. A new periodic feature. Not every Saturday. When the markets give something worth a deep dive. Track record from YPO and CEO investing talks: whole portfolios about twice the S&P 500. Leaders include Nvidia from 2017, gold miners from October 2024, and copper from that same Los Angeles CEO talk, up about fifty-one percent.
- Shovels or loans. The AI build-out runs on borrowed money. TSMC and Micron sell for cash. Nvidia now co-signs some of the loans, with large guarantees and stakes in customers, including OpenAI. Stephen wants to sell the shovels, not lend the money to buy them.
- Give away the recipe. Sell the oven. Nvidia is releasing open models (Nemotron, Groot, Cosmos) so customers run AI on Nvidia gear. Software is a moat, not a new profit engine. New AI money goes one step back, to suppliers whose customers pay cash: ASML, GE Vernova, Applied Materials, Lam Research.
- Gold miners, not the metal. Costs around fourteen hundred fifty dollars an ounce, gold near four thousand. Newmont and Agnico Eagle with net cash and buybacks. Sector trades cheap versus history. Leverage cuts both ways. Core: Newmont and Agnico; royalties; small trades only.
- Hated versus loved. Uranium stocks down hard while the term price rises: producers over promises. Oil at records with futures already pricing lower: hold and trim, do not chase.
- Copper. Quiet momentum near London Metal Exchange highs. Freeport-McMoRan core; BHP defensive; Teck a trade.
- AI homework. Research that used to take days now takes hours. Still check every number. Judgment did not get cheap.
- Next week. Brazil runoff, Fed decision, big tech and miner results that test spending and cash discipline.
Sources:
- Yahoo Finance quotes and charts, close of Friday 23 October 2026
- Nvidia Q2 fiscal 2027 10-Q; Nvidia Research Nemotron 3 Ultra (June 2026); TechCrunch, 19 October 2026: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/19/nvidia-launches-new-open-models-to-run-agents-in-the-enterprise-and-on-pcs/
- Reuters on Nvidia stake in OpenAI; OpenAI / Broadcom Jalapeño notes
- TSMC Q3 2026 results; Micron fiscal 2026 10-K
- Newmont Q3 2026 release, 22 October 2026; Agnico Eagle Q2 2026; Sprott gold-miner commentary, 7 October 2026
- World Gold Council fund-flow data; London Metal Exchange copper; NYMEX/CME oil futures
The AI Brief from the YPO Technology Network is a daily executive briefing on the AI developments that matter to business leaders. Hosted by Stephen Forte.
