AI in the Web and at the White House, Shoppers Up Against Inflation and More Investing News

Amid the stock market volatility, we continue to see news that supports our Portfolio’s strategies and positions. This week alone we have multiple findings on AI and cybersecurity as well as headlines that support our decision to side-step the housing market. Also, let's see what's up with consumers and what Anthropic, Authorium, Albertsons ACI, Opera, Meta META, SymphonyAI, and others had to say.

Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic is nearing the launch of a new voice assistant product for its Claude chatbot, nearly a year after rival OpenAI began rolling out a similar option for ChatGPT users. The new feature, called “voice mode,” could be released as soon this month and will initially roll out on a limited basis… Read more here

Anthropic launched major upgrades to its Claude AI assistant today, introducing an autonomous research capability and Google Workspace integration that transform the AI into what the company calls a “true virtual collaborator” for enterprise users. The expansion directly challenges OpenAI and Microsoft in the increasingly competitive market for AI productivity tools. Read more here

Authorium, a cloud-based platform built for government administrative operations, announced the release of AuthorAI, a product that uses generative AI to streamline the procurement process. AuthorAI generates statements of work when a user prompts it with a description of the product or service a government team is looking to procure. Authorium says it trained the AI tool on 15 million government procurement documents. Read more here

The White House said on Monday it is ordering federal agencies to name chief AI officers and develop strategies for an expansion of the government's use of artificial intelligence, rescinding Biden-era orders intended to place safeguards on the technology. Read more here

Unlike rival AI systems, which are built into apps like ChatGPT or embedded into workplace productivity tools like Microsoft’s Copilot, Opera’s Operator AI is built into the web browser itself. And when it was time for Henrik Lexow, Opera’s director of product marketing technologies and AI lead, to take his hands off his PC and let Operator take control, it was clear that idea makes sense. The goal: to demonstrate how Operator can magically handle some quite complex web browsing tasks. Read more here

Position: Alphabet GOOGL, Amazon AMZN, Elastic ESTC, Meta Platforms META, Microsoft MSFT, ServiceNow NOW

Cash-Strapped Consumer

Grocery giant Albertsons says inflationary pressures continue to push its shoppers to seek value… the consumer is also saying that they will do what they’ve been doing, which is seek value and find ways to tighten their pocket books, you know, food away from home versus food at home is always a decision for those customers who need value. So at this point, we have not seen a major change. Read more here

Amid whiplash tariff and market index swings, shoppers are cutting spending in many sectors, but a new study shows that trend does not apply to the global grocery industry. Data from more than 64 million households and 627 million grocery transactions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia shows that shoppers are holding steady or even increasing grocery spending, according to California-based enterprise software vendor SymphonyAI. That conclusion shows that consumers under economic stress may cut back on discretionary spending like dining out and traveling, but they often find refuge in the comfort of grocery visits and enjoying meals at home, much as they did during the Covid pandemic, the study found. Read more here

Position: Amazon, Costco COST

Cybersecurity

Despite years of investment in firewalls, endpoint protection, SIEMs, and other layered defenses, most organizations still face a disturbing truth: according to recent research by Picus Security, only 59% of threats are stopped by their security controls. That means 41% of attacks successfully bypass defenses. Read more here

DaVita has been hit with a ransomware attack that has affected some of the kidney-care company’s operations. DaVita on Monday said the incident, which it became aware of Saturday, has encrypted some elements of its network, and that while it has implemented interim measures to allow for the restoration of some functions, it can’t currently estimate the duration or extent of the disruption. Read more here

Sensata, a major US sensor maker, has suffered a ransomware attack that crippled parts of its operations. In a new 8-K form filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Sensata said it experienced a “ransomware incident that has encrypted certain devices” in its network. The attack “temporarily impacted” the company’s operations, the filing further states, including shipping, receiving, manufacturing production, and “various other support functions.” Read more here

AI is changing cybersecurity faster than many defenders realize. Attackers are already using AI to automate reconnaissance, generate sophisticated phishing lures, and exploit vulnerabilities before security teams can react. Meanwhile, defenders are overwhelmed by massive amounts of data and alerts, struggling to process information quickly enough to identify real threats. AI offers a way to level the playing field, but only if security professionals learn to apply it effectively. Read more here

Cyber threats targeting supply chains have become a growing concern for businesses across industries. As companies continue to expand their reliance on third-party vendors, cloud-based services, and global logistics networks, cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities within these interconnected systems to launch attacks. By first infiltrating a third-party vendor with undetected security gaps, attackers can establish a foothold, leveraging these weaknesses to penetrate the primary business partners' network. From there, they move laterally through critical systems, ultimately gaining access to sensitive data, financial assets, intellectual property, or even operational controls. Read more here

A ransomware group claims to have stolen a significant amount of files from a regulatory agency in Oregon after the organization said it had no evidence of a data breach. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the regulatory agency in charge of the quality of air, land and water in the state. The organization revealed on April 9 that it had launched an investigation into a cyberattack that forced it to shut down networks as part of containment efforts. Read more here

Position: Elastic, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft

Digital Infrastructure

The heads of Google and Amazon have restated their commitment to investing in AI and the necessary infrastructure. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on Wednesday during the Google Cloud Next 2025 conference that the company was still committed to spending around $75 billion on building out data center capacity to support AI…Shortly after Pichai's statements about investment, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in his 2024 letter to shareholders, expressing a similar sentiment. Jassy noted that with AI, there is a "substantial capital investment required." He notes that while the company only starts monetizing the investment many months after it is spent, "We continue to believe AI is a once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know, the demand is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and our customers, shareholders, and business will be well-served by our investing aggressively now." Read more here

Meta could invest up to $200 billion in a new AI data center campus in the US, it has been reported. Executives from Facebook’s parent company have been visiting potential sites for the campus, according to a report in The Information. They have informed data center developers about the project, with Louisiana, Texas, and Wyoming all under consideration as possible locations. Read more here

Position: Marvell MRVL, Nvidia NVDA

Digital Lifestyle

…all of this is a stepping stone toward Cook’s grand vision, which hasn’t changed in a decade. He wants true augmented reality glasses — lightweight spectacles that a customer could wear all day. The AR element will overlay data and images onto real-world views. Cook has made this idea a top priority for the company and is hell-bent on creating an industry-leading product before Meta can. “Tim cares about nothing else,” says someone with knowledge of the matter. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.” Read more here

On average, streaming video subscribers in the U.S. pay for four services totaling $69 per month, a 13% year-over-year increase, according to Deloitte’s 19th annual Digital Media Trends report, released Tuesday. By comparison, cable or satellite TV customers reported spending $125 per month on average. Almost half (47%) of those surveyed said they pay too much for the streaming services they use, and 41% believe the content available on these services isn’t worth the price (up 5 percentage points from 2024). Read more here

Position: Alphabet, Meta Platforms

Homebuilding & Materials

Mark Zandi and Mark Fleming are among the economists that now have a stark message for homeowners: The outlook is murky at best — and likely getting worse. Neither Zandi at Moody’s Analytics nor Fleming at First American Financial Corp. are projecting outright declines in home prices. But Zandi has cut his forecast for 2025 to a 1.8% increase, which would be the lowest gain since 2011 and would trail US inflation as President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on countries worldwide. Read more here

Unsold inventory of homes on the market has been rising for years and is already at the highest level since 2019 nationally. A new variable this spring is that there are also more sellers coming to market each week than there have been in five years. Total unsold inventory is up, and the weekly pace of new sellers adding to that inventory is up too. Read more here

Safety & Security

As President Trump throws the future of the trans-Atlantic relationship into question, governments across Europe have outlined plans to potentially spend hundreds of billions of euros on weapons, missile-defense programs, satellite systems and other technologies to rebuild their armies. Technologists, entrepreneurs and investors are racing to take advantage of the spending boom by creating new defense start-ups. Read more here

“Common interests.” “Joint priorities.” “Shared prosperity.” “Strong ties.” “Importance of the relationship.” These seemingly empty phrases, common in the summaries of the meetings held so far by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with his counterparts from other countries, attract more attention when they disappear. And they are conspicuously absent from the harsh and cold summary statement of the meeting that Bessent held in Washington with Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo. Instead it describes a “frank” conversation, which sounds like a euphemism, and underscores that Bessent called on Spain to increase its defense spending and eliminate the digital services tax, known popularly as the Google tax. Read more here

Belgium is preparing to borrow more and implement painful cuts to reach Nato’s current defence spending goal, but will struggle to meet an increased target likely to be agreed after pressure from Donald Trump. Read more here

Position: Axon Enterprise, Palantir PLTR

The Strategies Behind Our Thematic Models

Aging of the Population - Capturing the demographic wave of the aging population and the changing demands it brings with it.

Artificial Intelligence – Software, chips, and related companies that facilitate the collection and analysis of large data sets and autonomous generation of solutions given non-machine language prompts.

Cash Strapped Consumer - Companies poised to benefit as consumers stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have.

CHIPs Act – Capturing the reshoring of the US semiconductor industry and the $52.7 billion poised to be spent on semiconductor manufacturing.

Cybersecurity - Companies that focus on protecting against the penetration of digital networks and the theft, ransom, corruption or destruction of data.

Data Privacy & Digital Identity - Companies providing the tools and services that verify authorized users and safeguard personal data privacy.

Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity -The buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment.

Digital Lifestyle - The companies behind our increasingly connected lives.

Digital Payments - This model focuses on companies benefitting from the accelerating structural adoption of digital payments and financial technology (FinTech).

Energy Pain Point - Companies poised to prosper from rising power demand.

EV Transition - Capturing the transition to EVs and related infrastructure from combustion engine vehicles.

Guilty Pleasure – Companies that produce/provide food and drink products that consumers tend to enjoy regardless of the economic environment and potential long-term health hazards associated with excessive consumption.

Homebuilding & Materials – Ranging from homebuilders to key building product companies that serve the housing market, this model looks to capture the rising demand for housing, one that should benefit as the Fed returns monetary policy to more normalized levels.

Luxury Buying Boom - Tapping into aspirational buying and affluent buyers amid rising global wealth.

Rebuilding America - Turning the focused spending on rebuilding US infrastructure into revenue and profits.

Safety & Security – Targeted exposure to companies that provide goods and services primarily to the Defense and security sectors of the economy.