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I've spent two decades tracking the forces that move gold...
For 20 years I've lived inside the data, the cycles, the macro shifts...
And what's happening right now between Saudi Arabia and the Chinese is a turning point that will move the price of gold in a way we haven't seen in generations.
Because the Saudis have quietly walked away from a pact it struck with the U.S. in 1974...
A pact that quietly ran the global financial system for the past half-century.
The arrangement was simple: Saudi Arabia would price its oil only in U.S. dollars — which meant every nation on the planet had to stockpile U.S. Treasuries just to buy energy.
That single agreement is the bedrock American financial supremacy has rested on for fifty years.
And now, it's gone.
The mainstream press barely covered the unwinding of this deal...
And in the beginning, the surface looked calm.
But the cracks are now impossible to ignore...
Saudi Arabia inked a $7 billion currency swap with Beijing… Started clearing oil transactions in digital yuan… And plugged itself into mBridge, China's cross-border settlement network.
Conflict with Iran is pushing Gulf states toward yuan-denominated oil contracts...
And vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz are now paying tolls in yuan, in crypto, in anything other than the greenback...
On both shores of the Persian Gulf, the dollar's grip is loosening... and something else is taking its place.
The collapse of this enormous, built-in global demand for dollars will rewrite how money works.
Because if crude no longer requires dollars, then the world has no reason to warehouse U.S. currency.
And when dollar demand softens… Treasury demand softens right alongside it.
Ten-year yields are already creeping toward 4.4% — the level where the machinery starts to seize up.
Weaker Treasury demand → climbing yields → Fed steps in → the printers fire up → and the dollars in your account quietly lose their muscle.
That's the chain reaction unfolding in front of us.
As the dollar weakens and foreign buyers walk away from American debt, gold has nowhere to go but up.
A sinking dollar is the most powerful tailwind gold has ever known.
But the smartest way to position for the dollar's decline isn't to load up on bullion…
There's a different vehicle for capturing gold's next leg higher...
An asset that's still priced at a dramatic discount to where gold itself is trading today.
It's gold exposure at a fraction of the cost...
Click here to see how it works.
Best,
Garrett Goggin, CFA, CMT
Chief Analyst and Founder, Golden Portfolio
Alphabet Is Planning a New AI Chip. Here's Why It Matters Ahead of Earnings
By Ryan Hasson. Article Published: 7/21/2026.
Key Points
- Alphabet is reportedly developing a new AI chip, Frozen v2, designed to run Gemini models more efficiently.
- The report highlights why investors will be watching Google Cloud capacity, revenue growth and AI infrastructure spending closely in Q2 earnings.
- Alphabet’s custom silicon strategy could strengthen its AI position if management shows that demand is converting into revenue.
- Special Report: SpaceX is offering you shares. Don't take them.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is in the midst of one of its most consequential weeks of the year, and it started with a bang. On Monday, July 20, reports emerged that the company is developing a new AI chip, internally dubbed Frozen v2, designed to run its Gemini models far more efficiently. The stock closed more than 1% higher on the news and is now up nearly 13% year to date. With Q2 earnings due Wednesday, July 22, after the close, the timing of the report could hardly be more relevant.
What Alphabet’s Frozen v2 AI Chip Could Mean for Gemini
The chip represents a genuinely different approach to AI silicon. Rather than building general-purpose processors that load models into memory and shuffle data back and forth, Frozen v2 would permanently embed parts of Gemini's architecture directly into the silicon. That would reduce the number of calculations and the amount of data movement required to answer a query. Google engineers reportedly estimate that the chip could serve six to 10 times as many tokens per unit of power as the company's newest TPUs, with deployment targeted as soon as 2028.
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BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Fidelity are reportedly accumulating a scarce blockchain asset - one that gets burned with every transaction on what analysts are calling America's new financial grid.
The Nasdaq has received SEC approval to move stocks onto blockchain rails, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink dedicated his entire 2026 annual letter to this infrastructure shift. Blockchain analyst Andy Howard is calling this asset 'Digital Oil' - and says institutional buyers are already positioned.
Get the name, the ticker, and exactly how to buy itThere are trade-offs, though. Hardwiring the model into the chip means it would only work with future versions of Gemini if Google maintains the underlying architecture. Production volumes are expected to fall well short of TPU levels, and Google reportedly views the project partly as a trial run. But even as an exploratory effort, the ambition is clear.
Why Google’s AI Compute Crunch Matters for GOOGL Stock
The reporting revealed something investors should watch closely. Google is facing an internal AI computing-capacity crunch severe enough to fuel internal discussions and tensions, while prompting Google Cloud to decline deals with outside customers. That’s not a typo. The constraint on Google's cloud growth right now is not demand; it is supply. That is consistent with everything management has said this year, from the $80 billion capital raise to fund infrastructure to the $180 billion to $190 billion capital expenditure (CapEx) guidance. A chip that serves up to 10 times more tokens per watt would directly address that bottleneck and the single largest cost line in the AI era: inference.
How Google’s TPU Strategy Strengthens Alphabet’s AI Advantage
Serving efficiency is where the AI race is heading. Google already processes more than 16 billion tokens per minute through its models, and every improvement in tokens per watt flows directly into Google Cloud's margins and CapEx efficiency. The TPU franchise has also quietly become a strategic asset in its own right, with Meta (NASDAQ: META) signing a multiyear agreement for TPU access, Anthropic pledging to draw on multiple gigawatts of TPU capacity, and all 17 U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories among its users. Frozen v2 extends that silicon advantage into another generation.
The Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) thread makes the story even bigger. In early June, reports indicated that Google would rely on Intel to manufacture more than 3 million TPUs in 2028, reportedly the largest order Intel's foundry business has ever received. Then, on July 16, the two companies announced an expanded partnership that deploys Gemini Enterprise across Intel's workforce and brings agentic AI tools directly into Intel's chip-design process. The agreement builds on an April deal that placed Intel's Xeon 6 processors in Google's cloud. Google's custom-silicon ambitions and Intel's manufacturing comeback are becoming increasingly intertwined, with American-made AI chips serving as the common thread.
Alphabet Earnings Put Google Cloud Growth and AI Spending in Focus
All of this lands two days before the next major catalyst. Alphabet reports Q2 2026 results on Wednesday after the close, with analysts expecting earnings per share (EPS) of approximately $2.86 on revenue of roughly $116.5 billion, up nearly 21% year over year. Google Cloud is the number to watch after growing 63% last quarter and reporting a $462 billion backlog. In light of Monday's report, any management commentary on capacity constraints deserves extra attention. A company turning away cloud customers because it lacks sufficient compute has more demand than it can monetize—a high-quality problem, but one for which investors will want to hear a plan.
The consensus among 55 analysts is Moderate Buy, with a price target of $414.11, implying double-digit upside. Monday's chip report was a reminder of why the bull case continues to thrive: Alphabet remains the only company designing frontier models, custom silicon and hyperscale infrastructure under one roof. Wednesday’s report and commentary will show whether the numbers continue to back it up.
Why Palantir Investors Aren't Panicking While the Rest of AI Sells Off
Submitted by Chris Markoch. Originally Published: 7/25/2026.
Key Points
- CEO Alex Karp's forecast of $15 billion to $18 billion in free cash flow within two years is central to the debate over Palantir's valuation.
- Palantir's Q1 2026 adjusted free cash flow and EPS both grew roughly 150% year over year, far outpacing the 20% to 30% growth bears typically assume.
- Palantir reports Q2 2026 earnings on Aug. 3, and the stock trades well below its 200-day moving average despite recent stabilization after a sharp 2026 decline.
- Special Report: SpaceX is offering you shares. Don't take them.
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is down about 30% in 2026.
Over the last 30 days, however, PLTR is up about 5%, while other AI stocks have moved much more sharply in either direction.
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Marc Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics, is flagging a little-known company that just secured a partnership with Nvidia - one he believes positions it ahead of Tesla in the autonomous vehicle race.
With a market-moving announcement expected on July 31st, Chaikin is urging investors to swap overpriced AI stocks for this under-the-radar name before markets open. He's also releasing a free Hotlist and Hitlist of buy and sell ideas for the second half of 2026.
Get the ticker symbol and full details at no charge todayOne narrative says that Palantir is simply growing into its valuation. Even after the 2026 decline, PLTR still trades at more than 100x forward earnings and has a trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of about 65x.
Although inflation readings and the conflict in the Middle East are causing volatility across the AI sector, Palantir has been less affected. That could be due to its focus on government agencies. The company’s government and critical-infrastructure client base positions it to maintain growth even during economic downturns.
The question on many investors’ minds is what comes next. Palantir reports its Q2 2026 earnings on Aug. 3. If history is any guide, it will be a strong report. But over the last couple of earnings reports, "strong" hasn’t been enough to push the stock price higher.
Palantir’s consistently impressive results are the unstoppable force pushing against a stock price that doesn’t want to move higher. Another strong report could change that equation.
Why Wall Street Keeps Undervaluing Palantir Stock
Palantir bears often rely on conservative discounted cash flow (DCF) models, which typically assume 20% to 30% annual growth in free cash flow and earnings per share (EPS). That may be standard for a maturing software company, but bulls argue it is far below the growth Palantir just reported.
Q1 2026 adjusted free cash flow reached $925 million, up 150% year over year. Adjusted EPS came in at 33 cents, also up roughly 150%. Those growth rates are five to seven times higher than what conservative models assume.
Now consider CEO Alex Karp's own forecast. He told CNBC that Palantir will generate $15 billion to $18 billion in free cash flow within two years. That's not a typo. It's the number driving this entire debate.
Traditional valuation models exist for a reason: They protect against overpaying for hype. But they also assume mean reversion, and Palantir hasn't reverted yet.
A 20% to 30% growth assumption produces a modest fair-value estimate. Skeptics such as Michael Burry have used that logic to argue that Palantir trades far above what its cash flows justify.
The problem is the actual numbers. Fiscal year (FY) 2025 free cash flow was $2.27 billion. Karp's two-year target of $15 billion to $18 billion implies a gain of roughly 560% to 690% over that period.
That's not a modest beat over conservative assumptions. It's an entirely different growth universe. If Karp is even directionally right, every DCF model built on 20% to 30% growth understates fair value significantly.
Palantir's Free Cash Flow Growth Supports the Bull Case
Karp's forecasts have a history of being accurate. In 2022, he targeted $4.5 billion in 2025 revenue. Actual 2025 revenue landed at $4.475 billion, essentially spot on.
That history matters to the current situation. Karp isn't a CEO known for making wild promises that evaporate. His $15 billion to $18 billion free cash flow target deserves scrutiny, not dismissal.
Q1 2026 results support that trajectory. Full-year 2026 revenue guidance now stands at $7.65 billion to $7.66 billion, implying 71% growth. U.S. commercial revenue guidance calls for at least 120% growth.
Full-year adjusted free cash flow guidance was raised to $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion. That's already well above what a 20% to 30% growth model would project for this year alone.
Palantir Stock Tests Key Support Before Earnings
Technically, Palantir looks like a stock in a downtrend. Shares trade in the $120s, well below the 200-day moving average near $154. The stock peaked above $200 last November, then slid through a rough first half of 2026. It has since stabilized, but the July 22 drop shows that PLTR continues to face selling pressure.
That range-bound action reflects the valuation split perfectly. Bulls see a company outgrowing every conservative valuation model. Bears see a stock priced for perfection that hasn't delivered it yet.
Will Palantir Earnings Finally Settle the Valuation Debate?
This isn't really a story about whether Palantir is expensive. By traditional metrics, it clearly is. The forward P/S multiple sits near 40x, and skeptics aren't wrong to flag that.
The real question is which growth assumption to trust. A 20% to 30% model produces one fair value. Actual results running at 150%+ produce something very different.
Karp's $15 billion to $18 billion free cash flow target is the single number that could resolve this argument either way. If Palantir is even close to that path in two years, today's valuation debate looks premature.
If it isn't, the bears' conservative models were right all along. Either way, free cash flow will be one of the key metrics worth tracking every quarter between now and then.
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