TechInvestment
About TechInvestment Data Centers Energy Quantum 🎶

About TechInvestment.com

What We See Ourselves As, and What We Do

TechInvestment.com [Bunting Pty Ltd: ABN 64 096 255 668] is a long equity global investor in technology stocks. TechInvestment was founded in March 2001. As at 17 Aug 2026 its portfolio was valued at USD 21.22 million (AUD 29.86 million, based on FX rate of 0.710).

We invest our own funds into technologies and technology companies that develop the foundations of the future. These include NASDAQ, NYSE and ASX listed technology companies. Our current investment interests include data centers and their supporting terrestrial and space compute infrastructure, energy, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and other applications of these technologies (eg solar energy, storage and electric vehicles).

😇 TechInvestment.com does not offer investment management, wealth management or advisory services.

Lloyd Bunting has been involved in computer technology and other advanced technologies since he left the Army in 1969 at which time he was programming some of the first electronic digital computers in Australia (CDC3200, ICL1904), General Electric (via service bureaux), Prime minicomputers, and ✅ Apple (Motorola: 6502) and other microcomputers (Zilog Z-80), and demonstrated them to RAAF officers and the Naval Staff College at Balmoral). He also worked on radar projects for the Department of Civil Aviation (RASPP) and Defence/Telstra (JORN: Jindalee Over the Horizon Radar tender) and the Defence Supply Systems Redevelopment Project (SSRP) - a capacity planning and costing model for the whole of Australia's Defence supply system, including central, base and depot requirements.

In 2005 Lloyd founded eGrants.com, a SaaS company which was the Australian Federal Government's first SaaS contract. eGrants.com handled a total of around AUD 1 billion in government grant funded projects during a period of extended drought and two rounds of local government infrastructure projects during the Global Financial Crisis.

The drought relief program received a Minister's Achievement Award.

Our Investment Portfolio

Our current focus is on advanced technologies, including:

  • User Access via:
    • ✅ Apple: AAPL
    • ✅ Tesla: TSLA (Solar, Batteries, Cars, Trucks)
  • Robotics via:
    • ✅ Tesla: TSLA
  • Space, communications (Starlink) via:
    • ✅ Spacex: SPCX
  • Data Centers and Infrastructure via:
    • ✅ Amazon, AWS: AMZN
    • ✅ Constellation Energy: CEG
    • ✅ Google: GOOG/L
    • ✅ Intel: INTC
    • ✅ Meta: META
    • ✅ Nvidia: NVDA
    • ✅ NextDC: NXT.ASX
    • ✅ SharonAI: SHAZ
    • ✅ Spacex, Starlink: SPCX
    • ✅ Taiwan Semiconductor: TSM
  • Quantum Computing via:
    • ✅ D:Wave: QBTS
    • ✅ IonQ: IONQ
    • ✅ Rigetti: RGTI
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) via:
    • ✅ Google: GOOG/L
    • ✅ Meta: META
    • ✅ Microsoft: MSFT
    • ✅ Palantir: PLTR
  • General Purpose chips, including:
    • AI6: Hardware 6: ✅ Tesla + Samsung
  • Specialised chips, including:
    • AI6: Hardware 6: ✅ Tesla + Samsung
    • ASIC: Application-Specific Integrated Circuit: One dedicated task: Bitcoin miners, AI accelerators
    • CPU: Central Processing Unit (General-purpose computing): ✅ Intel Core, AMD Ryzen, ✅ Apple M-series
    • DPU: Data Processing Unit: Networking, storage, cloud infrastructure: ✅ NVIDIA BlueField
    • FPGA: Field-Programmable Gate Array: Reconfigurable hardware acceleration: AMD/Xilinx, ✅ Intel Agilex
    • GPU: Graphics Processing Unit: ✅ NVIDIA H100, AMD, Instinct
    • IPU: Intelligence Processing Unit: AI computation: Graphcore IPU
    • LPU: Language Processing Unit: Large language model inference: Groq LPU
    • NPU: Neural Processing Unit: AI on phones and PCs: ✅ Apple Neural Engine, ✅ Intel AI Boost
    • TPU: Tensor Processing Unit: AI training and inference: ✅ Google TPU v6
    • VPU: Vision Processing Unit: Computer vision: Intel Movidius System-on-Chip (SoC)

The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) is launching a new program to provide researchers with a sequestered testbed environment for the evaluation of AI model performance in a variety of meaningful tasks across diverse datasets, modalities, and domains (NIST's Artificial Intelligence Technology Evaluation [AITE]) provides volunteer testing of AI models on blind data and its sequestered environment mitigates the risk of train/test data contamination to ensure rigorous, objective assessment. The 3 initial tasks focus on image analysis using large vision language models (VLMs) in the context of:

  1. quantum science
  2. genomics
  3. public safety

Additional tasks will be added over time. The infrastructure provided by NIST will provide common data, metrics and scoring to help developers understand the performance of their models.

Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic IPO: Anthropic's upcoming IPO is expected to value the company at USD 2 trillion (AUD 2.8 trillion)

Robotics

Chinese humanoid-robot maker Unitree Robotics is among the world's biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots-based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military.

Unitree surged in its trading debut as investors snapped up shares of a company seen as a champion of Beijing’s push to dominate robotics. Unitree began trading on the STAR Market (Sci-Tech Innovation Board) of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 19 Aug 2026, raising about USD 900 million at an IPO price of CNY 150.80/share. [WSJ: 19 Aug 2026]

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Communications Networks

A satellite in LEO completes around 16 orbits every day, or for every complete rotation of the Earth itself. However GEO is at an altitude of around 22,000 miles (36,000 km), at which point the orbital speed has slowed, so a single orbit corresponds to precisely one rotation of the Earth.

Globalstar (NASDAQ: GSAT), a next-generation telecommunications infrastructure and technology provider, today announced the successful launch and deployment of its latest satellites via a ✅ Spacex Falcon 9 rocket, marking another significant milestone in the continued expansion of the Company's LEO satellite constellation.

Following a successful launch, all satellites were successfully dispensed from the launch vehicle and have reached their intended orbital planes. Globalstar's Satellite Operations Command Center team has established communications with each satellite, and all are currently under the Company's command and control. Initial health assessments indicate the satellites are performing as expected, and engineers are actively monitoring their status as they progress through early orbit operations. [Globalstar: 16 Aug 2026]

Current LEO Communication Systems

  • ✅ Starlink: Current: 10,000 Proposed: 1,000,000
  • EuTelSat OneWeb: Current: About 650
  • ✅ Amazon LEO: Current: 200+ Proposed: 3,236
  • GlobalStar: Current: 24 Proposed: About 32

About Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

✅ Amazon intends to buy Globalstar in a USD 11.57 billion deal to take on Elon Musk's Starlink [ target = x> Report: 14 Apr 2026

Chinese humanoid-robot

Portfolio Companies Earnings Reports

  • ✅ D-Wave, one of our first investments in quantum, earnings report:
    • First Half bookings of $35.5 Million Up over 1,120% Year over Year
    • First Half QCaaS Production Revenue Comprised 37.3% of Total QCaaS Revenue
    • First Half Remaining Performance Obligations of $40.7 Million Up 668% Year Over Year
    • Overview: With earnings season gathering pace, tensions rising in the Middle East and oil prices surging, financial markets have endured a particularly turbulent week. A slight respite appears to be taking shape on 24 Jul 2026, but the outlook has darkened somewhat, with US megacaps punished and expectations of September rate hikes returning on both sides of the Atlantic. Unless diplomatic tensions between the United States and Iran ease, volatility is likely to persist throughout the summer. [Market Screener Email: 24 Jul 2026]
    • ✅ IonQ [5 Aug 2026], one of our first investments in quantum, reported GAAP revenues of USD 801 million, a 287% increase year on year. Earnings Report

    Other quantum computing companies in the finance news:

    Reporting Dates (note: dates may change)

    Robotics: Physical AI

    Noetra Corp, along with its core member companies and investors: Sony Group Corporation, SoftBank Corp, NEC Corporation, and Honda Motor Co — launched full-scale R&D for a Japan-developed multimodal foundation model that will serve as the foundation for AI-enabled robots and physical AI, in collaboration with a broad range of partners engaged in the development and application of sovereign AI in Japan. Noetra is backed by over 44 domestic companies, including giants like Sony, SoftBank, NEC, and Honda.

    [NEC: 16 Jul 2026] [TechCrunch: 19 Jul 2026]

    The robotics coalition: Japan’s industrial giants line up behind Cosmos. ✅ Nvidia is targeting Japan’s factory floor, and many of the country’s top robotics and manufacturing players are signing on. Fanuc, Yaskawa, Kawasaki Heavy, Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Sony, SoftBank, Kubota, and robotics group AIRoA say they plan to build on Cosmos, an open-model effort ✅ Nvidia started in May with a handful of global AI labs.

    In Tokyo, ✅ Nvidia gave them a reason to commit, unveiling Cosmos 3 Edge, a version of the model that runs on its Jetson Thor chips inside the machines themselves. Some are already testing a shared control system; others, like Honda R&D and Omron, are building on the tools now. "The next frontier of AI is in the physical world, and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Japan," Huang said in the company’s statement. 'Japan invented modern manufacturing. Now, it has the opportunity to reinvent it for the age of intelligent industries.'”

    ✅ TSMC plans to raise chipmaking prices by up to 10% from 2027 to offset rising costs for materials, manufacturing equipment and overseas plant construction. [Nikkei: 21 Jul 2026]

    ✅ Apple has overtaken ✅ Nvidia as the world's most valuable company. [Reuters: 18 Jul 2026]

    ✅ Nvidia has agreed to supply 27,500 Vera Rubin GPUs and 13,750 Vera Rubin GPUs to Japan’s newly formed Noetra Corporation, which has JPY 387.3b (about AUD 2.4b) in government backing to build the Nvidia Vera Rubin GPU factory data center by March 2027 as part of Japan’s FRONTia AI & Robotics Project. [TechWire: 17 Jul 2026]

    The partnership ties ✅ Nvidia into Japan’s push to develop domestic AI and robotics capabilities, spanning sectors such as intelligent manufacturing, industrial automation, smart cities, healthcare, and automotive, and links it with major Japanese tech groups including Sony, SoftBank, Toyota, Fanuc, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

    ✅ Nvidia chips are set to power Japan’s artificial-intelligence push, with the government planning to buy thousands of the company’s next-generation semiconductors to build an AI ecosystem on its own soil. Backed by massive government funding, Japan’s purchase of 27,500 ✅ Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs will fuel a computing hub slated to launch in Jun 2028, according to an announcement made during Jensen Huang’s visit to Tokyo. [WSJ: 16 Jul 2026] ✅ Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform is the company’s next step beyond its current Blackwell architecture. Each NVL72 rack packs 72 Rubin GPUs alongside Vera CPUs and NVLink 6 interconnects. Volume shipments for the Vera Rubin platform are scheduled to begin in fall 2026. [Crypto Briefing: 16 Jul 2026]

    ✅ NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 connects 36 Grace CPUs and 72 Blackwell GPUs in a rack-scale, liquid-cooled design. It boasts a 72-GPU NVIDIA NVLink™ domain that acts as a single, massive GPU and delivers 30x faster real-time trillion-parameter large language model (LLM) inference, with 10x greater performance for mixture-of-experts (MoE) architectures.

    The Grace Blackwell GPU is a key component of the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, connecting two high-performance NVIDIA Blackwell Tensor Core GPUs and an Grace CPUs using the NVLink-C2C interconnect to the two Blackwell GPUs. [✅ Nvidia]

    Southern Cross AI IPO:

    Southern Cross AI (SCX.ai), an AI infrastructure and inferencing service provider backed by Ellerston Capital, is moving swiftly towards an Aug 2026 public float. Sale materials in front of listed equities investors in Jul 2026 seeking to raise AUD 40 million for the Southern Cross AI (SCX.ai) debut at AUD 0.30. This would give the company an AUD 75 million market capitalisation upon listing on 11 Aug 2026. [AFR: 6 Jul 2026]

    ✅ NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform entered full production on 1 Jun 2026, and production shipments are scheduled for this fall to 8 cloud partners: ✅ AWS, ✅ Google Cloud, ✅ Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, CoreWeave, Lambda, Nebius, and Nscale. The platform's HBM4 memory delivers approximately 22 TB/s bandwidth per GPU, triple the HBM3e bandwidth found in the Blackwell generation, giving hyperscalers a meaningful performance-per-token improvement. [TechTimes: 1 Jul 2026]

    Jensen Huang confirmed at the ⏯️ GTC Taipei 2026 keynote on 1 Jun 2026 that Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron all supply sixth-generation HBM4 memory for Vera Rubin.

    Industry supply-chain analysts estimated before the keynote that SK Hynix holds the largest share of the allocation at roughly 60% to 70%, with Samsung at approximately 25% to 30% and Micron providing the remainder. [TechTimes: 2 Jun 2026] SK Hynix said it would invest KRW 100 trillion (USD 64.38 billion) to build new chip plants, including one for NAND flash memory, as part of a massive South Korean investment drive aimed at spreading returns from the AI boom beyond Seoul.

    Alongside the Vera Rubin platform, Jensen Huang highlighted Vera — ✅ NVIDIA's first in-house data center CPU, designed specifically for agentic AI workloads. The chip uses LPDDR5X memory, an unusual choice for a data center processor that delivers 1.2 terabytes per second of memory bandwidth and positions it for the orchestration, tool-calling, and long-context retrieval tasks that sit on the CPU side of agentic AI pipelines. The Vera CPU is already in customers' hands: ✅ NVIDIA hand-delivered the first systems to Anthropic, OpenAI, ✅ Spacex, and Oracle in mid-May 2026. The LPDDR5X memory inside Vera is believed by Korean industry observers to be supplied by Samsung and SK hynix, though Nvidia has not publicly confirmed individual component sourcing for the CPU. [TechTimes: 1 Jul 2026]

    Graphics Processing Units (GPU) via ✅ Nvidia and AMD (MI455X):

    • Massive parallel computation, AI training, graphics
    • Nvidia's quarterly profit hit USD 43 billion on AI chip sales.
    • Total sales for the fiscal year were USD 130 billion [✅ Nvidia]

    Tensor Processing Units (TPU) via ✅ Google.

  • A tensor processing unit (TPU) is a custom-developed, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed by ✅ Google specifically to accelerate tensor flow machine learning (ML) workloads. Unlike general-purpose CPUs or graphics-focused GPUs, tensor core GPUs are engineered for the high-volume matrix and tensor operations fundamental to neural networks.
  • TPUs are available via ✅ Google Cloud. ✅ Nvidia TPU models include A100, H100, H200, B200 and B300 (where the codes are A: Ampere, H: Hopper, B: Blackwell).

    • Language Processing Units (LPU) [developed by Groq],

    Quantum Computing via:

    • ✅ D-Wave
    • ✅ Rigetti, and
    • ✅ Amazon via AWS Braket,

    AI Infrastructure via:

    Data Centers in USA, Australia and Earth orbit, and Energy Production for terrestrial data centers: nuclear, coal, gas, wind, solar, renewables, eg: ✅ Constellation Energy.

    Humanoid social robotics via: ✅ Tesla's Optimus Gen 3 robots, Boston Dynamics [Hyundai] and Linkerbot.

    ⏯️ Manufacturing ✅ Tesla Optimus humanoid robots. More on social robotics.

    ✅ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts that the shift to 'Physical AI' and robotics represents a staggering USD 50 trillion total addressable market for labor automation. Physical AI extends current generative AI with an understanding of spatial relationships and the physical behavior of the 3D world we all live in. It takes multimodal inputs such as images, videos, text, speech, or real-world sensor data and converts them into insights or actions that an autonomous machine can execute. [Fortune: 6 May 2026]

    TechInvestment's focus is on advanced technologies, including:

    In 2025 sovereign wealth and public pension fund investors poured USD 132 billion, roughly half of their total investments for the year, into USA. Sovereign wealth funds (SWF) managed USD 66 billion in AI and digitisation in 2025, according to the "Global SWF Year in Review 2025: The Ideas, Power Shifts and Structures That Defined Sovereign Capital", 30 Dec 2025.

    US economic, trade, political and international issues (especially USA's military actions in the Middle East in 2026) create a great deal of uncertainty (risk) in US investment. This also increases AUD:USD currency risk - which may represent an additional cost to our AUD-denominated portfolio.

    🌎 Where we invest

    Most of our strategic investments are in NASDAQ and NYSE listed companies. Our portfolio includes six of the "Magnificent Seven" companies: ✅ Apple, ✅ Alphabet, ✅ Amazon, IBM, ✅ Meta, ✅ NVIDIA and ✅ NextDC, ✅ Tesla (replacing ✅ Microsoft). We also invest in data centers and their infrastructure in USA and Australia.

    🌎 Portfolio Valuation

    The portfolio is currently valued at around USD 21.2 million = AUD 29.6 million, based on closing balances of the portfolio's stocks.

    That valuation usually moves around in a range of AUD 29-35 million (also influenced by USD:AUD FX = 0.71479653 as at 24 Aug 2026).

    The chart above does not include small share (marker) holdings in SpaceX, SharonAI and Tesla.

    Portfolio performance

    Ticker Company Weight Market Cap *ProfitAUD **12 Month News
    AAPL 🍎 Apple, Inc 68.94% USD 4.53 tn +2,507.56% +36.62% News
    AMZN 🏢 Amazon.com, Inc 6.18% USD 2.83 tn +1,211.87% +14.97% News
    CEG ⚡️ Constellation Energy 0.13% USD 96.88 bn -1.84% -11.99% News
    GOOG 🏢 Alphabet, Inc Class C 4.07% USD 4.24 tn +1,400.01% +64.75% News
    GOOGL 🏢 Alphabet, Inc Class A 5.26% USD 4.24 tn +399.26% +66.94% News
    INTC 🏢 Intel 0.01% USD 461.18 bn -10.51% +255.44% News
    IONQ ⚛ IonQ 0.01% USD 16.31 bn -6.10% +6.15% News
    META 🏢 Meta (Facebook) 2.64% USD 1.42 tn +3,765.26% -25.79% News
    MSFT 🏢 Microsoft 0.02% USD 3.62 tn +19.83% -3.36% News
    NVDA 🏢 Nvidia 1.87% USD 5.05 tn +52.30% +48.47% News
    NXT.AX 🏢 NextDC 0.01% AUD 10.15 bn +5.02% -6.38% News
    PLTR 🏢 Palantir 0.75% USD 422.67 bn +78.06% +11.91% News
    QBTS ⚛ D-Wave Quantum 8.42% USD 6.96 bn +317.52% +24.37% News
    RGTI ⚛ Rigetti Computing 1.51% USD 5.46 bn +28.06% +13.13% News
    SHAZ 🏢 SharonAI 0.01% USD 2.09 bn -19.06% +16.76% News
    SPCX 🚀 Spacex 0.01% USD 1.86 tn -5.72% -21.91% News
    TSLA 🚗 Tesla 0.10% USD 1.09 tn -23.02% +0.68% News
    TSM 🏢 Taiwan Semiconductor 0.04% USD 1.92 tn -2.35% +174.53% News


    🇦🇺 Companies flagged with this symbol are also (coincidentally) held by Australia's Future Fund.

    *Profit = Profit since acquisition, as calculated and reported by CMC Markets.

    Total portfolio profit since establishment: +940.66%.

    **12 Month = Price increase over the past 12 months, as calculated and reported by Google Finance.

    Stocks we have in common with other high growth funds include:

    • ✅ Apple [iShares, SPDR]
    • ✅ Nvidia [iShares, SPDR, Ziller]
    • ✅ Tesla [ Tesla and xAI]: "Elon Musk has unmasked a joint project between ✅ Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and his artificial intelligence startup xAI, which he called “ Macrohard” or “Digital Optimus”. Musk stated that it was a system capable of emulating the functions of software companies, and said in a post on his social media platform X that the project pairs xAI ’s Grok large language model with a ✅ Tesla-developed AI agent that processes real-time computer screen video and keyboard and mouse actions." Tesla+AI [Reuters]
    • ✅ Palantir [ iShares, SPDR, Ziller Funds Management]

    The sum of market capitalisations of the 17 stocks in our portfolio at 30 Jul 2026 was about USD 22.900 trillion, about AUD 34.124 trillion. However those values have declined during 2026.

    Portfolio Stocks: Earnings Reports

    ✅ Alphabet (Google): Q2/2026: 22 Jul 2026 Investor Relations 📩

    ✅ Apple: Q3/2026: 30 Jul 2026 News

    ✅ Amazon: Q1/2026: 30 Jul 2026 Investor Relations.

    ✅ Constellation Energy: Q2/2026: 6 Aug 2026 Investor Relations

    ✅ D:Wave: D-Wave Quantum Inc has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Quantum Computing 2026 Vendor Assessment, one of only two companies to receive that distinction. The IDC MarketScape evaluated quantum computing vendors based on their current capabilities and future strategies across the global market. Congress.net: 7 Jul 2026

    ✅ Meta (Facebook): Q1/2026: 29 Jul 2026 Investor Relations

    ✅ Nvidia: Q1/2027, 20 May 2026

    ✅ Palantir: Q2/2026: 3 Aug 2026

    ✅ Rigetti: Q2/2026

    ✅ Spacex: Q2 2026: 4 Aug 2026

    ✅ Tesla: Q2/2026: 22 Jul 2026

    📩 = Subscribed to corporate reports

    Upcoming Filings Search

    🇺🇸 Securities and Exchange Commission

    🇦🇺 Australian Stock Exchange

    Anthropic is currently preparing a pre-IPO credit facility of more than USD 10 billion. It has filed a draft S-1 confidentially. In one of its agreements with data center owners, Anthropic agreed to a deal with ✅ SpaceX for computing resources that could be worth tens of billions of dollars over the next 3 years.

    Government Interference

    🇦🇺 Budget Management and Taxation: Instability and Uncertainty

    Apparently unable or unwilling to manage its spending and budget deficit, Australia's Federal government has chosen to increase company (and other) taxes. Even then there is a change to some area of taxation policy almost every day.

    🏢 Data Centers

    Australia's Federal Government is planning new data center rules [AFR 22 Apr 2026] relating to the "credentials and nationality of company directors and investors, including - for example - security clearance. The proposals may include new foreign ownership, control or influence tests, requiring their infrastructure to be majority-owned and controlled by a low-risk entity."

    Data center providers currently accredited include:

    Other data center providers not currently approved include:

    🪐 Space

    🚀 Donald Trump has signed a memo to help drastically increase the number of U.S. commercial space launches, including directing government agencies to look at federal land for new launch and re-entry sites. The White House wants to enable at least 1,000 launches and re-entries annually by 2030, up from 178 launches in 2025 - a figure that is already 10 times higher than in 2013 and dominated by Elon Musk's ✅ SpaceX. [Reuters: 21 Aug 2026

    "The Trump administration’s new space policy would put the U.S. on a much faster pace for deploying satellites that support GPS, weather forecasts, internet access and military communications as Washington races to stay ahead of China in space. A White House policy released 21 Aug 2026] directs federal agencies to expand U.S. launch and reentry infrastructure to support more than 1,000 rocket launches and spacecraft returns each year by 2030. The plan would expand launchpads, military ranges, airspace corridors and regulatory systems, with the government explicitly leaning on commercial companies to help carry the load. [Fox News: 21 Aug 2026]

    ✅ SpaceX [SPCX] stock closed down for the week ended 21 Aug 2026 falling back to its IPO price as another share unlock hit and new rocket-competition headlines hit the public float. SpaceX shares did rise on 20 Aug 2026, though the stock was down over 2% for the week and had dropped below its USD 135 IPO price. On Thursday 20 Aug 2026, around 319 million shares held by early employees and investors became eligible to trade, part of a staggered lockup that will release about 88% of SpaceX's 13 billion shares through 2027. [Yahoo Finance: 22 Aug 2026]

    Quantum Computing

    Donald Trump has signed a memo that "establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS) Effort, which shall be coordinated by the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST). This national effort shall pursue development of a quantum computer at a scale intended to initiate the era of quantum-enabled scientific discovery, with the intent to deliver at least one such computer to a Department of Energy facility and, to the extent possible, make it available to the scientific community." [White House: 22 Jun 2026]

    Our Research "To Do" List

    Companies, products, technologies we've heard of but need to investigate and understand, and maybe invest in:

    Australian Economy: Taxation

    The Australian Federal Government Budget was presented to the public on 12 May 2026. It includes new taxes and increases to existing taxes, but doesn't seem to offer any benefit to the economy or families or businesses within the economy. Worse, the increase in taxation of Australia's AUD 12 trillion investment in rental properties has resulted in selloffs creating housing shortages. [Changes to the Capital Gains Tax].

    Australian Government spending as a share of the economy is at a near-40-year high, excluding the pandemic, and the personal income tax take is set to hit an all-time high of AUD 364 billion in FY 2025/2026. [AFR: 1 Jun 2026]

    USA's Economy: Public Debt Exceeds GDP

    Aug 2026: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the United Nations faced "imminent financial collapse" due to unpaid contributions from member states, and the global body has brought in large budget cuts. The Trump administration has informed Congress of its intention to pay USD 725 million to the U.N., a move aid experts said was a welcome step towards paying billions in dues owed. The administration has criticized the U.N. for not living up to its potential and slashed funding to many U.N. agencies. When asked about the planned payment, a U.S. official said any payments will be contingent on continued reforms of the organization and added that the U.S. has not transferred any funds as of 21 Aug 2026. [Reuters: 21 Aug 2026]

    ChatGPT estimates that USA's arrears in contributions to the U.N. is about USD 5 billion. The proposed payment of USD 725 million would reduce that level of arrears to about USD 4.2 billion.

    16 May 2026: United States public debt has officially surpassed the size of the entire American economy, with the debt-to-GDP ratio sitting at roughly 125%. This marks the first time the U.S. debt load has exceeded its 12-month GDP since the aftermath of World War II. The core metrics and economic implications outline a stark fiscal reality. [New York Times: 16 May 2026] [Other sources: CBO: GDP, Treasury: Debt]

    18 Aug 2026: Total US public debt as at 17 Aug 2026 = USD 39,986,657,878,071.92 (USD 40 trillion) [US Treasury: 17 Aug 2026]. The fiscal deficit also remains large. Persistently higher yields at U.S. Treasury auctions are increasing the cost of refinancing debt and funding future deficits, as investors demand greater compensation to absorb Washington's borrowing needs, raising questions about their appetite to continue buying U.S. debt. Investors are concerned about the sheer volume of borrowing that must be financed in the years ahead. [Reuters: 18 Aug 2026]

    19 Aug 2026: The USD weakened against major currencies after the U.S. Treasury Department announced it plans to double liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated bonds. The EUR rose 0.78% against the USD to USD 1.16640, hitting its highest level against the USD in more than 2.5 months. [Reuters: 19 Aug 2026]

    In Jun 2016 Donald Trump referred to himself as "the King of Debt".
    When this statement was made, Trump said that USA was USD 19 trillion in debt.
    10 years later, the US Treasury reports that the debt is USD 40 trillion.
    USA is projected to hit its USD 41.1 trillion statutory debt ceiling by mid-2027.
    Problem: USA has to pay interest on that ballooning debt.

    Trump has said that he will reduce the national debt primarily by:

    • Economic growth: pro-growth policies—such as tax relief, deregulation, and boosting domestic manufacturing—will expand the overall size of the U.S. economy, naturally lowering the debt relative to GDP and generating higher tax receipts."
    • Sweeping tariffs on foreign imports to bring trillions of dollars into the federal treasury, framing it as an external revenue source to replace domestic taxes and pay down the debt.
    • Government spending cuts: cutting wasteful federal spending, downsizing the civil service, and pursuing structural reforms through cost-cutting initiatives and departments aimed at eliminating government fraud and redundancies.

    Dividend Expectations

    As at 22 May 2026 we expect the following dividends from those companies in our portfolio that do pay dividends during the next quarter. DPS = 0 means no dividend. [Market Chameleon ✅ means confirmed]

    Ticker Company Ex-Div DPS (USD) Payment Date
    AAPL 🇺🇸 Apple, Inc 11 Aug 2026 0.27 13 Aug 2026
    AMZN 🇺🇸 Amazon.com, Inc 0.00 ❌
    CEG 🇺🇸 Constellation Energy 17 Aug 2026 0.4265 4 Sep 2026
    GOOGL 🇺🇸 Alphabet, Inc Class A 4 Sep 2026 0.22 ✅ 14 Sep 2026
    GOOG 🇺🇸 Alphabet, Inc Class C 4 Sep 2026 0.22 ✅ 14 Sep 2026
    META 🇺🇸 Meta (Facebook) 21 Jun 2026 0.525 28 Sep 2026
    NVDA 🇺🇸 Nvidia   0.25 Early Oct 2026
    NXT.AX 🇦🇺 NextDC 0.00 ❌
    PLTR 🇺🇸 Palantir 0.00 ❌
    QBTS 🇺🇸 D-Wave Quantum 0.00 ❌
    RGTI 🇺🇸 Rigetti Computing 0.00 ❌
    TSLA 🇺🇸 Tesla 0.00 ❌

    Global Election Calendar 2026

    The most significant elections in 2026 (with potential impacts on economic or investment environments) are:

    • 13 Sep 2026: 🇪🇺 Europe (🇸🇪 Sweden)
    • Sep 2026: 🇷🇺 Russia
    • 3 Nov 2026: 🇺🇸 USA Mid Term Election
    • Before 19 Dec 2026: 🇳🇿 New Zealand

    🚀 Space

    US President Donald Trump has supported ✅ Spacex with a commitment for tens of billions of dollars of revenue from increased launch activity.

    🌎 Portfolio Performance Issues and News

    Palantir

    France's primary domestic intelligence agency Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (DGSI) will replace tools from ✅ Palantir in favour of ChapsVision. The process is likely to take several years. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said ChapsVision had on 11 Jun 2026 "been retained by the DGSI to substitute ✅ Palantir". [Reuters: 16 Jun 2026]

    IPO: OpenAI

    OpenAI is laying the groundwork for an IPO in Oct 2026 ahead of Anthropic's IPO. [More]

    OpenAI is expected to announce its IPO in Oct 2026 ahead of Anthropic's. OpenAI is holding informal talks with Wall Street banks about a potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said, and is growing its finance team. That includes the hire of a new chief accounting officer, Ajmere Dale, and a new corporate business finance officer, Cynthia Gaylor, who will oversee investor relations. [More]

    By the end of 2023, OpenAI commanded 50% of the enterprise LLM market, but its early lead has eroded. Today, it captures just 25% of enterprise usage, half of what it held 2 years ago.

    IPO: Anthropic (Claude)

    Anthropic is projecting 2028 revenue of roughly USD 190 billion to $200 billion. The projection dwarfs the USD 47 billion revenue "run rate," reflecting the firm's current pace of business, that the company suggested as recently as May 2026, and shows the scale of growth investors are being asked to underwrite. [ Reuters: 15 Aug 2026]

    Anthropic, recently valued at record USD 965 billion after a USD 65 billion funding round, is expected to IPO in Oct 2026. [ WSJ: 29 Jan 2026]

    Anthropic is the new top player in enterprise AI markets with 32%, ahead of OpenAI and Google (20%), which has shown strong growth in recent months. Meta’s Llama holds 9%, while DeepSeek, despite its high-profile launch at the beginning of the year, accounts for just 1%.

    Artificial Intelligence

    "Code generation has become AI’s first breakout use case. Beyond pre-training, foundation models are now scaling along a second axis: reinforcement learning with verifiers. And while open-source continues to advance, the slowdown in frontier breakthroughs from Western labs has tempered what had previously been a rise in enterprise adoption. As a result, enterprise dollars are now consolidating around a few high performing, closed-source models, giving us a new market leader in Anthropic." [Menlo Ventures: 2025]

    ✅ Amazon is building an AI datacenter on 1,200 acres in Northern Indiana. It will support 500,000 AWS Trainium 3 chips. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and will create 1,100 new jobs. The AWS Indiana data center under construction, is powered by Amazon's EC2 Nitro System which will support 500,000 AWS Trainium2 or ✅ NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and is supported by a ✅ Constellation Energy power station.

    ✅ Amazon is planning to invest up to USD 50 billion in OpenAI [WSJ: 29 Jan 2026].

    ✅ Amazon is planning to raise USD 25 billion as Anthropic's valuation soars. Anthropic went public through an IPO later in 2026 after a big capital raise. More ✅ Anthropic's floated valuation is expected to be USD 350 billion. [New York Times]

    Chips

    Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has started shipping samples of its latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip to customers globally. The 12-layer HBM4E chip can reach speeds of up to 16 Gigabits/second with improved energy efficiency and thermal performance. The HBM4E is more than 20% faster than its previous-generation HBM4 products. [CNBC 29 May 2026] [⏯️ Reuters]

    USA has cleared sales of ✅ Nvidia's https://www.nvidia.com/en-au/data-center/h200/>H200 GPU to 10 China firms [Reuters 15 May 2026]

    ✅ Nvidia's position as the critical provider of compute equipment doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon, DA Davidson analysts say in a research note. ✅ Nvidia’s solutions are far more flexible and established than those of its competitors, and the company is adapting to memory shortages and planning ahead to meet demand, the analysts add. They expect another strong quarter even without any sales to China, as ✅ Nvidia reported 2027/Q1 on 20 May 2026. Davidson reiterated its buy rating and raises its price target to USD300 from USD250. [WSJ 16 May 2026].

    Artificial Intelligence

    Anthropic IPO

    "Anthropic PBC confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the SEC for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock. This gives Anthropic the option to go public after the SEC completes its review. The proposed IPO will depend on market conditions and other factors. The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set." [Anthropic: 1 Jun 2026].

    Suspends Access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5

    In 2026 ✅ Alphabet, ✅ Amazon, ✅ Meta and ✅ Microsoft are expected to spend, between them, more than a trillion expanding their AI capabilities (having already spent some USD 200 billion in the first 3 months of this year), which in practical terms means a lot more data centers will be built … somewhere.

    "The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance. Access to all other Anthropic models will not be affected." [Anthropic: 12 Jun 2026] [TechPolicy Press]

    Mythos, announced on 7 Apr 2026, was being deployed as part of Anthropic's "Project Glasswing," a controlled initiative under which select organizations, including major tech firms such as ✅ Amazon, ✅ Microsoft, ✅ Nvidia and ✅ Apple were permitted to use the unreleased Claude Mythos Preview model for defensive cybersecurity purposes. Mythos' capabilities to code at a high level have given it a potentially unprecedented ability to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities and devise ways to exploit them. [Reuters: 18 May 2026]

    HOWEVER Early users of Anthropic's Mythos still have access after US order [Reuters: 19 Jun 2026]

    ✅ Space Exploration Technologies [NasdaqGS:SPCX] has secured the option to acquire Cursor (AnySphere) later in 2026 for USD 60 billion. If ✅ Spacex decides not to proceed with the full purchase, the companies struck a USD 10 billion compute partnership deal instead. [Reuters: 16 Jun 2026]

    • Cursor is one of several Silicon Valley startups that have drawn waves of developers by using AI to automate coding, making it a key rival to market leaders Anthropic and OpenAI. Cursor is a developer platform and code editor business, but a lack of access to computing power has hampered Cursor's growth. Cursor was founded in 2022 by a group of MIT graduates. It became one of the fastest-growing AI software companies because it focused on helping software developers write code with AI. The company has attracted major venture-capital backing and has grown rapidly among professional engineering teams. Other associated companies include DataBricks.

    ✅ Palantir has reported record profit in Q1/2026:

    • Revenue grew 85% year-over-year and 16% quarter-over-quarter to USD 1.633 billion:
      • U.S. revenue grew 104% year-over-year and 19% quarter-over-quarter to $1.282 billion
      • U.S. commercial revenue grew 133% year-over-year and 18% quarter-over-quarter to $595 million
    • U.S. government revenue grew 84% year-over-year and 21% quarter-over-quarter to $687 million

    20 Mar 2026: "✅ Palantir's Maven artificial intelligence system will become an official program of record, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg said in a letter to Pentagon leaders, a move that locks in long-term use of ✅ Palantir's weapons-targeting technology across the U.S. military. In the 9 Mar 2026 letter to senior Pentagon leaders and U.S. military commanders, Feinberg said embedding Palantir’s Maven Smart System would provide warfighters “with the latest tools necessary to detect, deter, and dominate our adversaries in all domains”. [Reuters 20 Mar 2026]. Pentagon to adopt ✅ Palantir AI as its core US military system.

    ✅ Palantir's Maven will be hosted out of ✅ Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s Stockholm region [Medium]. Feinberg is the cofounder of Cerberus Capital Management, a major private equity firm that manages about USD 65 billion in asset holdings. Those include defense sector outfits like Navistar Defense, which paid USD 50 million to settle allegations of fraudulently inducing the U.S. Marine Corps into contracting for an armored vehicle suspension system at inflated prices, and TransDigm, which reportedly turned in excess profits of USD 20.8 million on spare parts contracts with the Department of Defense due to price gouging. Revolving Door Project

    16 Jan 2026: Anthropic (Claude AI) to open an office in 🇦🇺 Australia

    13 Jan 2026: ✅ Meta cuts 10% of employees in its Reality Labs (VR Metaverse) division.

    13 Jan 2026: ✅ Meta unveils '✅ Meta Compute' initiative to build AI infrastructure

    10 Jan 2026: ✅ Meta signs multi-gigawatt nuclear deals to power AI

    12 Jan 2026: Bloomberg: ✅ Apple and ✅ Google confirm a multi-year deal for Gemini to run AI-powered Siri later in 2026.. Barron's reports that ✅ Google is now the top AI company as ✅ Alphabet stocks rise past USD 4 trillion.

    14 Apr 2025: The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) and ✅ Palantir Technologies finalized the acquisition of the ✅ Palantir Maven Smart System NATO (MSS NATO) for employment within NATO’s Allied Command Operations (ACO), marking a significant advancement in the modernization of NATO’s warfighting capabilities." [NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE): 14 Apr 2025]

    26 Jun 2025: AI’s Consumer Tipping Point Has Arrived: "More than half of American adults (61%) have used AI in the past six months, and nearly one in five rely on it every day. Scaled globally, that translates to 1.7–1.8 billion people who have used AI tools, with 500–600 million engaging daily. This is no longer experimentation; it’s habit formation at an unprecedented scale." [MenloVC]

    23 Jul 2025: 🇺🇸 White House AI Action Plan

    13 Jan 2026: ✅ Meta pivots from Metaverse to AI devices such as RayBan Meta AI glasses.

    Quantum Computing

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    ChatGPT comment: "The strange part isn’t that quantum computing is hard. It’s that we ever expected it to be otherwise."

    News

    The DOE has announced USD 7.3 million in funding for 8 projects that will explore the application of quantum information science and technology to new experiments and simulations in high energy physics, broadening the reach of new techniques and unlocking new potential for scientific breakthroughs. [DOE]

    ✅ D-Wave Quantum [QBTS] announced it has been awarded up to CAD 300,000 in funding from the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) Applied Quantum Computing Challenge program to advance annealing quantum computing software for commercial applications. [D-Wave: 12 Aug 2026]

    Quantum computing methods [ChatGPT]

    Strategy Companies View
    Pure gate-modelIBM, ✅ Google, ✅ IonQ, ✅ Rigetti, QuantinuumUniversal computing first
    Pure annealingHistorically ✅ D-WaveOptimization first
    Hybrid✅ D-Wave (current strategy)Commercial annealing and gate-model.

    Recent technological breakthroughs have deepened investor interest in the potential of quantum computing to speed up tasks ranging from drug discovery to financial modelling and cryptography.

    ✅ D-Wave Inc (NYSE: QBTS), the first and only dual-rail platform quantum computing company providing both annealing and gate-model systems, software and services, has announced it has been selected to receive a USD 1,566,250 grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) through the agency's National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) program. The funding will support D-Wave’s role as a key industry partner in ERASE (Erasure Qubits and Dynamic Circuits for Quantum Advantage) – a project focused on developing foundational technologies for fault-tolerant quantum computing and strengthening U.S. leadership in quantum innovation.

    Led by Yale University, the ERASE project brings together researchers from leading academic institutions and industry organizations to advance dual-rail gate-model quantum computing hardware, software, error correction, and applications. ✅ D-Wave, through its New-Haven, Connecticut-based subsidiary Quantum Circuits, LLC, will give ERASE researchers access to its superconducting dual-rail gate-model quantum computing resources. The award moves ERASE into the second phase of the NQVL program and underscores the NSF's continued support for the project's approach to scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing. [D-Wave: 30 jun 2026]

    The US Department of Commerce said on 21 May 2026 that IBM would receive USD 1 billion to set up Anderon to manufacture quantum chips, while contract chipmaker GlobalFoundries will get USD 375 million to build a US factory producing components for different types of quantum machines. Other companies, including ✅ D-Wave, ✅ Rigetti and Infleqtion will each get around USD 100 million. ✅ D-Wave]. The funding comes from the CHIPS and Science Act signed by former President Joe Biden. [Reuters: 21 May 2026]

    22 Jan 2026: 🇦🇺 Australia – 🇯🇵 Japan Quantum Computing Partnership launches on international stage. The agreement focuses on integrating quantum computing with supercomputing to accelerate scientific breakthroughs at the annual supercomputing conference in the region. Australia’s CSIRO, on behalf of the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, has signed a Letter of Intent with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) to strengthen scientific cooperation in quantum computing.

    ✅ D-Wave completed its USD 550 million acquisition of ✅ Quantum Circuits Inc. (QCI), a Yale spin-off specializing in error-corrected, superconducting gate-model quantum computers. The deal firmly establishes ✅ D-Wave as the first company to unite quantum annealing with gate-model technologies under a single ecosystem. [Business Wire: 7 Jan 2026]

    In 2024 ✅ IBM and PsiQuantum were awarded DARPA US2QC grants to develop a fully fault-tolerant quantum computer with logical qubits protected by quantum error correction (primarily surface-code-style schemes) for its Validation and Co-Design stage of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program , one of two programs that make up DARPA’s larger Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). The goal of the QBI is to see if an industrially useful quantum computer can be built by 2033.

    Companies selected for Stage B include:

    Quantum News

    ✅ D-Wave Media Releases

    "Quantum computers could unscramble the encryption that protects computers from hacking, raising fears of aggressive cyberattacks. U.S. President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders, one of which seeks to protect government computers against quantum computer-fueled cyberattacks by setting a goal of migrating key government computing systems to post-quantum cryptography by 2030 or 2031. Trump has ordered a push to build a powerful quantum computer for scientific research and speed efforts to protect government systems from related cyber threats, bolstering U.S. efforts in its race with China for a technology that could upend science and cybersecurity." [Reuters: 22 Jun 2026]

    SideBar: "Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) means replacing today's vulnerable public-key cryptography with new mathematical encryption and digital-signature algorithms that are believed to remain secure even if an attacker has a powerful quantum computer. Importantly, PQC runs on ordinary computers.

    Much of today's internet and government security depends on asymmetric (public-key) cryptography, particularly:

    • the 4096-bit asymmetric cryptographic key length using the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman algorithm RSA 4096 that uses a foundational public-key (asymmetric) cryptographic system published in 1977 by Ron [Ronald Rivest|Rivest], Adi [Adi Shamir|Shamir], and Leonard [Leonard Adleman|Adleman]. It relies on a mathematically linked pair of keys — a public key to encrypt data and a private key to decrypt it. [⏯️ RSA explained]
    • Diffie–Hellman key exchange — used for securely establishing encryption keys.
    • Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC/ECDH/ECDSA) — widely used for key exchange and digital signatures.

    For conventional computers, the underlying mathematical problems are extraordinarily difficult. But a sufficiently large, error-corrected quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could solve the factoring and discrete-logarithm problems on which these systems depend vastly more efficiently. In practical terms, RSA and today's commonly used elliptic-curve systems would cease to provide adequate security. This does not mean that a quantum computer simply "tries passwords faster". It means that the mathematics underpinning the security of these cryptographic systems becomes tractable.

    ✅ D-Wave has completed its previously announced acquisition of Quantum Circuits Inc, a leading developer of error-corrected superconducting gate-model quantum computing systems.


    🔺 ✅ D-Wave Advantage 2 1,200+ qubit annealing quantum computer

    ✅ D-Wave expects the acquisition to significantly accelerate the time to a scaled, error-corrected gate-model quantum computer alongside and complementary to its commercial annealing quantum computing systems. “The acquisition of Quantum Circuits marks a watershed moment that firmly establishes ✅ D-Wave as the world’s leading quantum computing company,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of ✅ D-Wave. “By uniquely delivering both best-in-class annealing and gate-model technologies, we are setting the pace for the entire industry. This dual-platform approach will significantly expand the addressable use cases for our customers, with the potential to deliver profound impact across businesses, the scientific community, and governments worldwide.” [D-Wave 20 Jan 2026]

    ✅ D-Wave earnings 2025/Q4

    12 May 2026 ✅ D-Wave has announced its financial results for 2026/Q1 ended 31 Mar 2026. [D-Wave]

    ✅ D-Wave has announced its forthcoming gate-model quantum computing simulator, which is expected to be the first of its kind designed for error-aware programming. This announcement marks the next step in D-Wave’s gate-model roadmap and comes just weeks after the Company outlined its differentiated approach to fault-tolerant quantum computing. Built around D-Wave’s dual-rail technology, the simulator is expected to enable error-aware programming, giving developers visibility into errors so they can design applications and workflows that respond to real processor behavior. By combining error detection and real-time control, the simulator will give developers new tools and data to better understand quantum behavior, prototype quantum applications and error-correction routines and explore advanced workflows. [D-Wave]

    ✅ Rigetti Computing India PL, a wholly owned subsidiary of ✅ Rigetti Computing, announced on 20 Jan 2026 that it has received a USD 8.4 million purchase order to deliver a 108-qubit quantum computer to the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), India’s premier R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. [News]

    ✅ IBM has committed more than USD 10 billion to quantum computing, funding its roadmap to the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computers by 2029 using its Willow chip developed by Google (Quantum AI) for error correction.

    ✅ Microsoft Quantum is also working toward the same objective with its Majorana 2 next-generation topological quantum scalable quantum processor developed with the help of Microsoft Discovery's agentic AI. [⏯️ IBM: 1 Aug 2026] [Microsoft Majorana 2]

    US Government National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) Government Funding For 9 Quantum Companies

    The Department of Commerce is proposing to provide incentives for two quantum foundries (GlobalFoundries and IBM) to help establish and accelerate foundational domestic manufacturing capacity for the quantum sector.

    GlobalFoundries will receive USD 375 million in planned funding to establish a secure, domestic quantum foundry for leading architectures and multiple modalities (superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, topological, and silicon spin) used in large-scale quantum computers.

    IBM will receive USD 1 billion in planned funding to establish a new quantum foundry subsidiary for quantum-grade superconducting wafers by building on its U.S. leadership in superconducting quantum wafer fabrication technology.

    As at June 2026 the top quantum computer companies are:

    • ✅ Amazon,
    • ✅ D-Wave Systems,
    • ✅ Google Quantum AI,
    • IBM,
    • Infleqtion,
    • ✅ Microsoft Corporation (Azure Quantum),
    • QuEra
    • ✅ Rigetti Computing,
    • Strangeworks, and
    • Xanadu

    Some will share USD 2 billion investment funding from the US Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce Announces Letters of Intent With 9 Companies for USD 2 Billion to Accelerate U.S. Leadership in Quantum Computing: [NIST: 21 May 2026].

    "The companies listed below receiving CHIPS incentives will address multiple modalities including:

    • neutral atom,
    • silicon-spin,
    • superconducting,
    • photonic, and
    • trapped ion
    and accelerate R&D for the most consequential unresolved engineering problems including device reproducibility, optical complexity, error rates, cryogenic systems integration, control hardware, ultra-fast readout electronics, photonic loss, and interconnects."

    "Atom Computing will receive USD 100 million in planned funding to address key technical and manufacturing challenges for neutral-atom quantum computing, including hardware development and systems integration needed to manipulate, control, and address tens of thousands of qubits, and validate their performance."

    "Diraq will receive up to USD 38 million in planned funding to develop and scale quantum logic units and accelerate critical manufacturing and integration capabilities for silicon spin quantum computing technologies, including novel designs for large-scale and reliable qubit arrays."

    "✅ D-Wave will receive USD 100 million in planned funding for critical advancements in annealing and gate-model superconducting quantum computing systems, including qubit counts, error rates, and coherence through advanced dielectric material optimization, interface control, and high-density advanced packaging."

    "Infleqtion will receive USD 100 million in planned funding to develop the underlying engineering systems and integration requirements for large-scale neutral-atom-based quantum computers and architectures, including high-powered optical systems, novel readout and error correction systems."

    "PsiQuantum will receive USD 100 million in planned funding to address key photonic quantum computing technical challenges for matured and high-performance electro-optic materials, high-temperature single-photon detectors, and ultra-low-loss photonic packaging."

    "Quantinuum will receive USD100 million in planned funding to address critical technology and manufacturing bottlenecks for scaling of fault-tolerant trapped-ion-based quantum computers, such as low-loss integrated photonics, and reliable optical components at trapped-ion critical wavelengths."

    "✅ Rigetti will receive up to USD 100 million in planned funding to address key technical challenges to develop and scale next generation superconducting quantum computing technologies and architectures, such as miniaturizing and integrating novel readout electronics and next generation cryostat architectures."

    Quantum Ranking

    ChatGPT ranks the top 10 quantum computing companies this way:

    • Tier A: Clear Leaders
      • Quantinuum
      • ✅ Google Quantum AI
      • IBM Quantum
    • Tier B: Serious Contenders:
      • ✅ IonQ
      • ✅ Microsoft Quantum
      • ✅ D-Wave Quantum
    • Tier C: Speculative:
      • ✅ Rigetti Computing
      • Quantum Computing Inc
      • SEALSQ
      • Arqit Quantum

    Semiconductors

    26 Mar 2026: ✅ Tesla [Austin American Statesman].

    25 Jan 2026: ✅ Nvidia has begun building a Tesla Giga semiconductor chip design plant (Terafab) in Austin Texas. Elon Musk has said ✅ Tesla and ✅ Spacex aim to build what could become the world’s largest chip manufacturing facility, potentially spanning tens of millions of square feet and supporting artificial intelligence and space-based data systems. [Austin-American Statesman 26 Mar 2026].

    🔺 Site preparation for ✅ Tesla's Giga semiconductor chip design plant (Terafab) at Austin Texas

    26 Jan 2026: ✅ Microsoft takes aim at ✅ Google, ✅ Amazon, and ✅ Nvidia with new Maia 200 AI chips [Yahoo Finance].

    26 Jan 2026: ✅ Microsoft has announced the launch of its latest chip, the Maia 200, which the company describes as a silicon workhorse designed for scaling AI inference. The Maia 200, which follows the company’s Maia 100 released in 2023, has been technically outfitted to run powerful AI models at faster speeds and with more efficiency. Maia 200 comes equipped with over 100 billion transistors, delivering over 10 petaflops in 4-bit precision and approximately 5 petaflops of 8-bit performance — a substantial increase over its predecessor.

    AI inference. The Maia 200 refers to the computing process of running a model, in contrast with the compute required to train it. As AI companies mature, inference costs have become an increasingly important part of their overall operating cost, leading to renewed interest in ways to optimize the process.[TechCrunch 26 Jan 2026]

    16 Jan 2026: Hardware firms hit by rising memory chip costs. [Bloomberg]

    15 Jan 2026: TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, posted a Q4/2025 record profit: up 35% to USD 16.01 billion [Reuters] TSMC Forecast Lifts Peers on Robust AI Demand [Bloomberg]

    14 Jan 2026: Washington permits ✅ Nvidia to sell its H200 chip to China.

    8 Jan 2026: US Commerce Department approves ✅ Nvidia H200 AI chip sales to China.

    8 Jan 2026: China plans to approve some imports of ✅ Nvidia’s H200 chips as soon as this quarter. [Bloomberg] "This move represents a major win for ✅ Nvidia. China is the world’s largest market for semiconductors, and Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has said that the AI chip segment alone could generate USD 50 billion in the coming years." About the Nvidia H200 chip.

    Energy

    19 Mar 2026: ✅ Constellation Energy (CEG) will sell 4.4GW of PJM assets to LS Power for $5B as part of the Calpine acquisition. [Power Engineering]

    ✅ Constellation Energy has in recent months signed long-term power purchase agreements with ✅ Microsoft, ✅ Meta and CyrusOne, while moving to acquire Calpine LLC and restart nuclear capacity such as Three Mile Island under supportive US federal policies.

    9 Feb 2026: ✅ Constellation Energy announced that Calpine LLC, a business unit of ✅ Constellation, signed a new 380-megawatt (MW) agreement with Dallas-based CyrusOne [CONE], a leading global data center developer and operator, to connect and serve a new data center adjacent to the Freestone Energy Center, in Freestone County,Texas. The agreement provides CyrusOne with access to power, grid connectivity and site infrastructure needed to support development of the new facility, while ensuring electricity continues to flow to the regional grid and ensuring reliability for all customers and communities. Calpine has also entered into an exclusive agreement to provide power, grid connectivity and site infrastructure for Phase 2, which will be an additional 380 MW. These agreements are in addition to the 400 MW agreements announced in the second half of last year between Calpine and CyrusOne for the Thad Hill Energy Center in Bosque County, Texas. [CyrusOne]

    16 Jan 2026: President Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new power plants [Bloomberg].

    Techinvestment.com is an investor in ✅ Constellation Energy (CEG), which has 55 gigawatts of capacity from nuclear, natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind and solar facilities. ✅ Constellation partners with Calpine LLC, America's largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources with operations in competitive power markets. The fleet of 79 energy facilities in operation represents over 27,000 megawatts of generation capacity.

    Data Centers

    2 Feb 2026: More than USD 3 trillion is expected to be spent building the data centers needed for the AI boom, and much of the funding is coming from debt markets [Bloomberg].

    More Tech and Related News

    ✅ Tesla has redeveloped the Plaid car engine and drive system to performance beyond imagination - with potential application to other areas. [⏯️ Video: Apr 2026]

    We are active followers of news in relation to our investments and the technologies and environments in which they operate. These include, but not limited to:

    We also use AI for research, evaluation, explanation, context and insights into technology and other related areas (eg government policies).

    FX: AUD/USD

    Investment in US listed companies involves investment in assets denominated in USD. The AUD/USD currency exchange rate is therefore of short and long term interest.

    👆 USD:AUD Spot Index: 26 Mar 2026

    The Reserve Bank of Australia's board voted to keep the rate steady at 4.35% during its Aug 2026 meeting, marking the second consecutive hold following earlier increases in 2026. [RBA: 11 Aug 2026]

    [RBA Statement on Monetary Policy: Aug 2026]

    On 15 Jun 2026 the Reserve Bank of Australia left its Official Cash Rate (OCR) at 4.35% [RBA 15 Jun 2026]. This where it was from 8 Nov 2023 to 11 Dec 2024. From 4 Nov 2020 to 6 Apr 2022 it was 0.10%. [RBA: History]. For Australian holders of US stocks, a low AUD:USD is preferable. 👍

    The AUD/USD is significantly affected by Australian political and economic policy, as well as policies of influential trading partners. [NAB discussion: 10 Feb 2025, before Hormuz]

    In late Jun 2026, the AUD/USD exchange rate is being driven mainly by five big themes:

    • Interest rate differences (RBA vs Fed)
    • Commodity prices and China
    • Global risk sentiment
    • Relative economic growth/inflation outlooks
    • Unsettled Australian government tax policies

    RBA Monetary Policy Committee Decision: 16 Jun 2026 and Minutes

    Positive (+) for the AUD have included:

    1. Higher Australian interest rates / hawkish RBA driven by its focus on inflation. Higher Australian yields attract foreign capital into AUD-denominated assets. In the 12 months to Apr 2026 Australia's CPI rose 4.2%, down from 4.6% in the 12 months to Mar 2026. The largest contributors to annual inflation were Housing (+6.3%), Transport (+6.6%) and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+2.8%). Trimmed mean inflation was 3.4%, up from 3.3% in the 12 months to March 2026. [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 27 May 2026 Future Releases] In Aug 2026 the cash rate sits at 4.35%, with RBA chair Michele Bullock and the Reserve Bank board hoping three hikes earlier this year will have done enough to keep inflation at bay.
    2. Strong commodity prices. Australia is heavily exposed to: iron ore, LNG, coal, metals. Rises in these prices increase export income. [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 30 Apr 2026]
    3. China stabilisation / stimulus expectations. China buys roughly one-third of Australia’s exports, especially iron ore. Any improvement in Chinese construction, industrial production and infrastructure spending stimulus policy typically supports the AUD
    4. “Risk-on” global market sentiment. Markets often treat the AUD as a cyclical growth currency. The AUD tends to perform well when:
      • equities rise
      • investors feel optimistic
      • volatility falls
      • global growth expectations improve
    5. Softer US dollar: Part of the recent AUD strength has actually been USD weakness rather than purely Australian strength.


    Negative (-) drivers for the AUD have included:

    1. China growth concerns: This is probably the single biggest structural risk to AUD. Weak Chinese property activity or slower Chinese industrial demand reduces demand for Australian exports.
    2. Global recession fears: When markets become defensive (“risk-off”):
      • investors buy USD
      • equities fall
      • commodity prices weaken.

    The AUD typically underperforms in those environments:

    • Falling commodity prices: Iron ore weakness usually hurts the AUD quickly because Australia’s terms of trade deteriorate.
    • Australian household/economic weakness: Australia remains highly leveraged through housing debt. Higher interest rates are slowing consumers and housing activity.
    • If growth weakens materially, markets may expect future RBA rate cuts, which would pressure AUD.
    • Geopolitical shocks: In May 2026 these include Middle East tensions, oil spikes, or broader geopolitical stress tend to create “flight to safety” flows into USD and out of AUD.

    US Economy

    On 29 Jul 2026 the US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5% to 3.75%. [FOMC: 29 Jul 2026]

    Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.1% in Q1/2026. In Q4/2025, real GDP increased 0.5%, driven by higher energy prices amid the war with Iran. [BEA 25 Jun 2026]

    Positive (+) drivers for the USD include:

    1. Safe-haven demand: The USD remains the world’s primary reserve and funding currency during:
      • market stress
      • wars
      • banking fears
      • recessions
      • equity selloffs

      Capital typically flows into USD assets - the USD’s biggest structural advantage.
    2. Higher US interest rates / Fed policy: The Federal Reserve may leave interest rates unchanged in 2027. If the Federal Reserve System keeps rates elevated, global investors continue buying US Treasuries and USD assets. Higher US yields support USD demand.
    3. Relative US economic resilience: The US economy has generally outperformed many developed economies, supporting international capital inflows into USD assets, given USA's:
      • stronger productivity
      • resilient labour market
      • large tech sector
      • stronger consumer spending
    4. US Treasury market dominance: Global institutions still need USD liquidity for:
      • trade settlement
      • debt servicing
      • reserves
      • financial markets
      That creates persistent structural USD demand.
    5. Energy/geopolitical inflation shocks. Oil spikes often support USD because:
      • global trade is largely USD-priced
      • investors seek safety
      • higher inflation can keep Fed policy tighter for longer

    Negative (–) drivers for the USD include:

    1. Expectations of Fed rate cuts: If markets believe the Fed will ease policy faster than the RBA, yield differentials move against the USD.
    2. Improving global risk appetite: When investors become more optimistic globally: money flows into equities, emerging markets, commodities, and cyclical currencies like AUD. That usually weakens USD.

    US fiscal deficits and debt concerns:

    • Longer term, persistent US deficits and rising Treasury issuance create concerns about:
      • debt sustainability
      • inflation risks
      • future USD purchasing power

    This is more of a structural medium/long-term issue.

    4. Slowing US labour market

    If US employment softens materially, markets may price more Fed easing and weaker US growth.

    5. Falling inflation in the US

    A rapid decline in inflation would likely:

    • reduce Treasury yields
    • encourage Fed easing
    • weaken USD support

    6. US Federal Government debt

    As at 30 Jun 2026 the US Federal Government debt was: USD $39.345 trillion, of which USD 31.621 trillion is held by the public. The remainder is in the form of inter-governmental holdings. [US Treasury: Fiscal Data: Debt to the Penny]

    The cost of servicing U.S. federal debt reached an annualized rate of USD 867 billion as of May 2026, which represents roughly 18% of total federal spending. For context, net interest payments account for approximately 15% of all federal expenses, outpacing both Medicare and Defense spending.

    The Current Big Picture (May 2026)

    Right now, the market is roughly balancing:

    • AUD bullish forces and USD bullish forces
    • Higher Australian rates
    • Safe-haven demand
    • Stronger commodity prices
    • Still-high US yields
    • China demand optimism
    • Geopolitical uncertainty
    • Softer USD trend
    • Strong US capital markets
    • Risk-on sentiment Global slowdown fears

    The biggest current swing factors are probably:

    • RBA vs US Fed policy divergence
    • China growth
    • Global risk sentiment
    • Commodity prices (especially iron ore)

    Unemployment also has an influence on the economy, fiscal policy (interest rates and FX) and the sharemarket: The unemployment rate, at 4.2%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in Jun 2026. [BLS Jobs Report: Jun 2026, released 2 Jul 2026]

    At present, the AUD has generally been benefiting from:

    • relatively hawkish RBA expectations,
    • firmer commodities,
    • and a somewhat softer USD backdrop,

    but it remains vulnerable if:

    • China weakens,
    • commodity prices fall, or
    • markets move into risk-off mode.

    ⏯️ Kevin Warsh is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, having succeeded Jerome Powell on 22 May 2026.

    Lloyd Bunting BBus MBA, Founder

    After service in the RAAF and Army, Lloyd completed an education in computer programming from the Control Data Institute - CDC3200 and IBM360, mainly in machine language and assembler (Compass) and compiler languages (Fortran, Cobol) earning a Diploma in Computer Programming Technology. At that time Control Data Corporation was a leading developer of supercomputers (the CDC6600 range).

    Lloyd earned his BBus and MBA degrees from UTS and his diploma in company directorship at University of New England - the first such residential course.

    Lloyd attended the first residential Defence Systems Management Course which focused on development of Defence strategy, logistics, support and capability requirements.

    Lloyd's experience in major projects was developed as Cost Accountant for Garden Island Dockyard's services provided to the Australian Navy and US Navy during maintenance of ships during the Vietnam War, modification of HMAS Melbourne (aircraft carrier), and the introduction into service of Guided Missile destroyers. He also conducted reviews of the Navy's supply and maintenance facilities including the Navy's torpedo and missile maintenance establishments.

    Lloyd was later engaged by the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff to support a team of Naval officers assessing Navy Office's capability to cope with the simultaneous introduction into service of ANZAC frigates and Oberon Class submarines. Lloyd was later a member of the Department of Aviation's Radar Sensor Procurement Project (RASPP), replacing the Australia's primary and secondary radar systems.

    Lloyd developed the application of Monte Carlo simulation to the analysis of very large projects (the demonstration project was the construction of a fleet of Navy minehunters). It was presented to a large public seminar, and to the head of Naval projects and his project managers.

    Lloyd's last assignments in government were to:

    Lloyd developed the risk management plan for the Jindalee Over the Horizon Radar Network (JORN) using Lockheed Missiles and Space methodology). This earned top score in the tender evaluation.

    Lloyd founded eGrants.com, the Federal Government's first software as a service (SaaS) contract handling around $1 billion of government grants, from application to acquittal. eGrants.com earned its client a Minister's achievement award.

    In 2007 Lloyd founded TechInvestment.com: his current interest.

    Retired Professional Memberships