Podcasts about evs

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1270: Ford floats ideas to counter China's EV push, Detroit rethinks sedans as affordability pressures rise and Amazon proves even tech giants can't crack physical retail that easily.As Chinese automakers creep closer to U.S. soil, Ford CEO Jim Farley reportedly discussed a framework that would allow Chinese brands to build cars in America—through U.S.-controlled joint ventures. The idea? Compete without getting steamrolled.Farley discussed U.S.-majority joint ventures with Trump cabinet officials at the Detroit Auto Show.The structure would allow Chinese automakers to build in the U.S., sharing profits and tech with American partners.Trump recently said he'd be open to Chinese companies building plants and hiring Americans.GM opposes any Chinese entry, warning of lost market share and supplier disruption.New polling from the north shows that Canadian sentiment toward Chinese-built EVs has shifted sharply: 53% now say it wouldn't affect their purchase decision and 15% say they'd be more likely to buy—compared to 2024 when 61% said they were less likely to consider one.After years of betting big on SUVs and trucks, Detroit may be eyeing a return to sedans as affordability pressures mount.GM, Ford and Stellantis are all exploring affordable sedan options, including hybrids priced under $30,000.Passenger cars now make up just 18% of U.S. sales, down from 50% fifteen years agoAs Detroit exited sedans, Toyota's share of the U.S. sedan market jumped from 12% to 22%Dealers say losing sedans cost them entry-level buyers who later would've traded up to higher-margin SUVs and trucks.“If somebody could build an affordable sedan, it would sell,” said dealer Adam Lee. “We have made these cars so expensive that nobody can afford them.”Amazon is shutting down its Amazon Go and Fresh stores, admitting it couldn't crack the economics of brick-and-mortar grocery. Despite world-class logistics and tech, the company discovered what operators already know: physical retail is a grind.Amazon will close Go and Fresh locations after failing to build a scalable, profitable grocery model.Grocery is attractive because it's high-frequency and data-rich—fuel for Amazon's $21B ad business, but shoppers prioritize price, value, and location over tech like “Just Walk Out.”“Physical grocery is just brutally operational,” said Professor Andy Tsay, calling the margins “thin and unforgiving.”Today's show is brought to you by ESi-Q. ESi-Q measures employee satisfaction and provides actionable insight into what's driving employee Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

We would love to hear your feedback!News Links for Ep 289A tipping point is here for the gig economy, and we felt it the moment two verdicts landed: Uber facing an $858.5M judgment in a sexual assault case under “apparent authority,” and Instacart ordered to pay nearly $16M after a fatal crash. We unpack what these rulings actually mean—where platform liability starts, where driver accountability remains, and how this could finally force safety to become a real product priority instead of a press release.From there, we widen the lens. A delivery drone fails midair near an apartment window, sending parts and smoke to the ground. Waymo confirms that when its robotaxis get stumped, human “fleet response” agents—including teams abroad—provide guidance while the software “stays in control.” Meanwhile, Tennessee considers doubling sidewalk delivery robot speeds to 20 mph, raising obvious questions about risk to pedestrians. We talk about what responsible autonomy should look like, how to design failure modes that don't maim people, and why public trust depends on clear logs, not vague assurances.On the ground, the work gets messy too. One driver finds illegal pills tucked in a hollowed-out bun for a motel drop, a perfect snapshot of how courier features can be exploited. We share the right playbook—screenshots, immediate police contact, and no returns to sender—and outline the policies platforms should adopt to stop turning drivers into mules. There's levity as well—a parakeet “driving” a Waymo earns a TOS warning—but the point stands: when tech meets everyday chaos, design has to assume mischief.We close with a practical angle: sustainability for high-mileage drivers. If you really live on the road, EVs can beat gas on total cost of ownership—no oil changes, fewer brake jobs, and predictable energy costs—despite pricier out-of-warranty fixes. With real safety investment, better insurance architecture, and smarter autonomy rollouts, gig work can be safer and more sustainable for the people carrying the load.If this resonated, tap follow, share with a friePlease fill out the survey for a chance for a 25.00 Gift Card!   Support the showEverything Gig Economy Podcast Related: Download the audio podcast Newsletter Octopus is a mobile entertainment tablet for your riders. Earn 100.00 per month for having the tablet in your car! No cost for the driver! Want to earn more and stay safe? Download Maxymo Love the show? You now have the opportunity to support the show with some great rewards by becoming a Patron. Tier #2 we offer free merch, an Extra in-depth podcast per month, and an NSFW pre-show https://www.patreon.com/thegigeconpodcast The Gig Economy Podcast Group. Download Telegram 1st, then click on the link to join. TikTok Subscribe on Youtube

We talk about cars all the time, but we're not out there test driving them very often so we don't really consider ourselves “car reviewers”. Reporting in general has changed significantly over the years, and the latest “review” on the F250 by Dan Neil in the WSJ shows how even car reviews aren't safe from bad taste and political soap boxes. In better car review news, the real car reviews on the new Rivian R2 have started to drop and we all seem to think it's a great step in the right direction EVs as a whole, but we would love to hear your thoughts on it. Dan is more excited for the Scout and Rivian R3, and we both think the new Slate is unfortunately doomed due to increasing costs. Who do you think was the biggest brand loser of 2025? We give our vote to Ford for having more recalls than we didn't think possible and the huge failure of the Lightning, which should have been an easy win. In really good consumer news, the Michelin and BF Goodrich discount is renewed for 2026 and you can save more than ever by buying from our partners at Discount Tire! Considering how warm it has been in the PNW, it's getting close to time to get those new summer tires anyway! The Avants Podcast is brought to you by our friends at STEK USA and Carter Seattle! Not an Avants member? https://www.avants.com/member-plans Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!  Leave us a voicemail or send us a text any time at 425-298-7873! We're doing give aways! Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and we'll pick a random name every 25th review!

Environmental law has shifted dramatically over the last few decades. What started as a battle against pollution and hazardous waste has evolved into a massive sector focused on the energy transition and infrastructure development. Michael Gerrard shares stories from his 30-year career in private practice, including his work on the environmental permitting for the World Trade Center redevelopment after 9/11.Key Takeaways:Rebuilding History: The unique challenges of managing environmental review for the World Trade Center site.The Energy Transition: How the field is moving from "anti-pollution" lawsuits to facilitating the construction of renewable energy and transmission.Collaborative Practice: The intellectual reward of working alongside engineers, hydrologists, and biologists to solve complex problems.The "Adjacent" Fields: Why students should look into Water Law (especially in the West) and Toxic Torts.(00:00) - Introduction: Why Environmental Law is the Most Tangible Field (02:45) - From West Virginia to Big Law: Michael Gerrard's Career Path (05:45) - Case Study: Permitting the World Trade Center Redevelopment After 9/11 (07:23) - Myth Buster: Do You Need a Science Degree to Practice Environmental Law? (08:56) - The Shift: Moving from Pollution Control to the Energy Transition (12:15) - Shared Values: Working in NGOs vs. Large Law Firms (14:24) - Specialization: Clean Air Act, Water Law, and Toxic Torts (18:58) - 1L Advice: Why You Should Take "Tax" and "Corporations" (22:42) - Best Resources: Legal Planet, Grist, and Student Journals (24:02) - Current Landscape: Navigating Regulatory Changes and Political Shifts (25:37) - Finding Hope: Solar Prices, EVs, and the Role of Law in the Climate Crisis (28:08) - Host Debrief: Why Environmental Law Touches Every Practice Area (32:59) - Curriculum Chat: Water Law and Renewable Energy Courses Click here to view the episode transcript.

Yet another new research study is casting serious doubt on the idea that driving electric vehicles (EVs) has any positive effect on the environment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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In this episode of the podcast, Gary addresses common misconceptions and criticisms surrounding electric vehicles. He discusses various issues such as charging time, environmental impact, running costs, long-distance travel capabilities, charging infrastructure, grid capacity, vehicle pricing, and perceptions of EVs as 'real cars'. Throughout the conversation, he provides insights and counterarguments to these concerns, aiming to clarify the realities of owning and operating an electric vehicle.TakeawaysCharging an EV can be done while doing other activities.The environmental impact of EVs is less significant over time.Running costs of EVs can be lower than petrol cars in many cases.Long-distance travel is feasible with proper planning and infrastructure.Charging infrastructure has improved significantly in recent years.Grid capacity is being planned for the transition to electric vehicles.The price of electric vehicles has decreased over time.Perceptions of EVs as not being 'real cars' are outdated.Public charging costs vary widely and can be managed effectively.EVs offer a quieter and more efficient driving experience. Chapters00:00 Introduction to EV Problems01:02 Charging Time Concerns01:31 They take too long to charge03:48 Environmental Impact of EVs04:53 Cost of Running EVs vs Petrol Cars08:02 They can't do the distance10:17 Charging Infrastructure Issues15:15 Grid Capacity and Power Supply16:11 Cars are too expensive16:27 Cost of EVs17:46 Perceptions of EVs as 'Real Cars'The EV Musings Podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence.Links in the show notes:Living Without a Home EV Charger: Real-World Costs and Strategies - The EV Musings PodcastRapid Charging pricesLeccy.net Charging PricesEpisode produced by Arran Sheppard at Urban Podcasts: https://www.urbanpodcasts.co.uk(C) 2019-2026 Gary ComerfordSupport me: Patreon Link: http://www.patreon.com/evmusingsKo-fi Link: http://www.ko-fi.com/evmusingsThe Books:'So, you've gone electric?' on Amazon : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07Q5JVF1X'So, you've gone renewable?' on Amazon : https://amzn.to/3LXvIckSocial Media:EVMusings: Twitter https://twitter.com/MusingsEvInstagram: @EVmusingsOctopus Energy referral code (Click this link to get started) https://share.octopus.energy/neat-star-460Upgrade to smarter EV driving with a free week's trial of Zapmap Premium, find out more here https://evmusings.com/zapmap-premium

FIRST WITH YESTERDAY'S NEWS (highlights from the weekend on Newstalk ZB) Details Please/That About Wraps it Up for EVs/Niche Sports Are Still Cool/Except Sailing/Six60 Keep Being the GreatestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The federal government’s history indicates billions more could be squandered on EVs. Rick Rule warns that there’s little assurance our money will go far. Meanwhile, startling new data reveals the significant costs asylum seekers are imposing on the healthcare system.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send a textPrice shocks don't happen in a vacuum. When silver sprints to $115 and slides back to the 70s, there's a story under the chart—one that starts with spot and premiums at your local coin shop and stretches through rate signals, dollar strength, tariffs, and geopolitics. We walk through a real purchase at the counter, why $2 to $5 over spot can be fair, and how online “deals” can disappear once taxes, high premiums, and weeks-long delivery windows hit the cart.From there, we connect the macro dots. A potential shift at the Fed can loosen credit, push more dollars into the system, and nudge hard assets higher—unless hot jobs data props up the dollar and cools the move. Tariffs add friction to trade and can fuel inflation fears, yet they also trigger defensive buying from nations that want insurance outside the banking system. Meanwhile, industrial demand is no sideshow: EVs, solar, and electronics quietly soak up silver, tying today's price to tomorrow's manufacturing cycle.We also tackle the difference between exposure and ownership. Paper metals and unallocated accounts can track price until too many hands ask for bars at once. Physical rounds, bought locally, settle the question in seconds: you can sell back for cash, even on a volatile day. For preppers, that same round carries barter utility—fuel, staples, or generator time—priced by what neighbors value, not what a screen says. If you're abroad, VAT and import rules change the break-even math, making patience and a wider target range essential.If you're weighing a hedge against policy mistakes, a store of value outside the rails, or a practical trade on macro trends, this walkthrough gives you a clear, grounded map. Subscribe, share with a friend who's eyeing their first ounce, and leave a review to tell us where you think silver goes next.https://augasonfarms.com?sca_ref=9315862.VpHzogdDNuAugason FarmsSupport the podcast. Click on my affiliate link and use coupon code PODCASTPREP for 10% discount!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showHave a question, suggestion or comment? Please email me at practicalpreppodcast@gmail.com. I will not sell your email address and I will personally respond to you.

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week's episode, we discuss the Tesla Semi, Toyota Highlander EV, Rivian R2, Ferrari Luce, and more. The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek's YouTube channel. As a reminder, we'll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: Tesla (TSLA) US sales estimated to have dropped 17% in January Tesla (TSLA) sales in China crash 45% to lowest level in over three years Tesla is quoting $290,000 for its 500-miles electric semi truck Tesla launches Cybertruck V2G program in Texas, earning money with your truck's battery pack Tesla announces Powerwall 3P with native three-phase inverter Toyota reveals the Highlander EV as first 3-row electric SUV with 320 miles range [Images] Rivian (RIVN) Q4 and full 2025 earnings report: Tremendous YoY growth led by software Rivian R2 prototypes hit the media and revealed new performance specs as a Tesla Model Y competitor Ferrari reveals name of first electric car, ‘Luce,' shows off Jony Ive-designed interior EPA finalizes illegal dirty air plan to hike fuel costs 76c/gal, despite public outcry Here's the live stream for today's episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET: https://www.youtube.com/live/t2mWV6bi2fw

Simon's live update for Ben Kentish's late night programme on the UK's LBC, as President Trump takes fresh steps to eviscerate U.S. efforts to combat climate change.#climate #Trump #cars #EVs #oil #midterms #Congress

Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon and RCP White House Correspondent Phil Wegmann discuss President Donald Trump's media habits and whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is cooked. Then, Tom and Carl interview guest Steve Cortes about his new short documentary on the influx of Chinese nationals at U.S. universities. Next, they discuss news that Detroit automakers lost $60 on EVs, and Disney lost $170 million on Snow White. And, the guys give up their "You Cannot Be Serious" stories for this week. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The people of Tumbler Ridge will be joined by local, provincial and federal leaders as they hold a vigil tonight to mourn those lost in Tuesday's shooting.Also: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says the U.S. and Europe need to repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust. Merz says a deep rift has opened up, driven by tariffs and U.S. president Donald Trump's efforts to take over Greenland and to get out of NATO.And: An LA-based company that makes personalized AI avatars has signed a deal with MLB's Players Inc — the business arm of the players' association. They're creating stylized, cartoonish avatars of baseball players that fans will be able to chat with one-on-one.Plus: Federal election annulled in Quebec riding, whether rebates on EVs will make a difference to car buyers, dual citizens of the United Kingdom and Canada are caught up in new travel rules, and more.

On my route home from work is a big arterial road with a whole line of different car dealerships. There's a Toyota yard, a Ford dealership, a Mazda and a Volkswagon. A series of uber-fancy ones selling everything from Audis to McLarens to Lamborghinis. And as I made my one home one night a couple of weeks ago, a new sign caught my eye. What the hell is Zeekr? I wondered. Actually, truth be told I already had a pretty good hunch and a quick Google that evening confirmed my suspicion. Zeekr is the latest premium Chinese EV company to hit the New Zealand market. You can add it to Geely and Farizon, EV brands owned by the same Chinese conglomerate. Add to those Xpeng, which has its first dealerships and sells a pretty smart-looking coupe SUV. Add to it Leapmotor, Dongfeng and old mate BYD, and if you've spent any time on the road in New Zealand of late, you've surely noticed we are in the midst of a bit of a revolution with Chinese Evs. It's not just us, of course. It's everywhere. Last year, China exported $115B worth of electric vehicles. That was a 43% increase on 2024. And they're not only relying on a single export market for their sales. Chinese EV sales are booming almost everywhere. 66 countries last year spent more than $US 100m on Chinese EVs. Why am I telling you this? Well I reckon there's good reason to think that Donald Trump's decision to scrap emissions standards and environmental regulations this week, is the equivalent of laying down your king and resigning the chess board. It might make combustion engine vehicles a bit cheaper for U.S consumers in the short term, but as the World slowly shifts to cleaner technology, it hands the Chinese EV makers an even greater advantage. Where is the incentive for U.S carmakers to make good EVs? Where is the incentive to push consumers towards electric vehicles? There's a reason Tesla has opposed scrapping the vehicle standards. And what will it mean for U.S carmakers trying to sell into markets where emissions standards are still in place? China's used some pretty extraordinary methods to propel its clean tech industries. They've subsidised and propped up EV makers in a way that foreign manufacturers say is anti-competitive and unfair. But look at BYD's extraordinary vertical integration. They own mining rights. They revolutionised battery technology. They have purpose-built ships, designed to the perfect specifications to maximise the number of vehicles they can export. And look at the quality, the features, and price point of Chinese EVs. There is a reason they are poving so popular. I don't think for a moment that EVs are the solution to everything. But I do think that on balance they'll play a huge part in domestic transport in the near future. If you agree, then in my view Donald Trump and the United States has just thrown in the towel and more or less guaranteed that China will dominate that EV future. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1267: CarMax taps a hospitality CEO to sharpen its digital edge, Toyota makes a disciplined move into three-row EVs with the Highlander name, and AI-generated resumes are creating new hiring headaches for retailers and operators. Show Notes with links: CarMax brings in a hospitality heavyweight to steer its turnaround. The nation's largest used-car retailer has tapped former InterContinental Hotels Group CEO Keith Barr to lead the charge as sales stall and Carvana gains ground. His mission: sharpen digital retail and squeeze costs.Barr takes over in March, replacing Bill Nash amid stagnant sales and rising competition from Carvana.CarMax operates 250+ stores covering 85% of the U.S., but retail volumes fell 8% last quarter.The focus: improve online conversion, streamline vehicle acquisition and reconditioning costs.Analysts say CarMax's omnichannel model may be confusing buyers and hurting digital sales.Barr is confident: “All those foundational pieces are there… we're going to sell more cars and continue to create more value for shareholders.”Toyota is making a calculated move into EVs with the Highlander EV—on its own terms. By putting the Highlander name on a three-row electric SUV, the company signals a strategic shift rooted in discipline, profitability, and market timing rather than rapid expansion.Toyota preserved margins while competitors absorbed heavy EV losses, maintaining flexibility as demand cooled.It's entering the most profitable U.S. segment—three-row midsize SUVs—with a name buyers already trust.Domestic production in Kentucky reduces tariff exposure and political risk while strengthening its U.S. footprint.Leadership under CEO Koji Sato appears focused on controlled scale and sustainable growth.AI may be speeding up hiring—but it's also muddying the truth. New survey data shows a growing disconnect between what candidates claim on resumes and what they can actually do on the job, with AI tools making embellishment easier than ever.80% of hiring managers say resumes often don't match real-world skills; 34% say it happens “all the time” or “often.”Retail examples include POS “experts” who couldn't navigate the system and candidates who folded instantly in negotiation role-play.86% of hiring leaders believe AI makes it too easy to exaggerate skills; 42% see it as a serious hiring risk.Meanwhile, 80% of hiring managers dislike AI-generated resumes, and over half are less likely to hire obvious AI users.As Express CEO Bob Funk Jr. put it: “Integrity is still a competitive advantage.”Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

If you're trying to decide which car to buy or want to learn more about the latest EVs on the market, Motortorque can help.   

Infrastructure was passé…uncool. Difficult to get dollars from Private Equity and Growth funds, and almost impossible to get a VC fund interested. Now?! Now, it's cool. Infrastructure seems to be having a Renaissance, a full on Rebirth, not just fueled by commercial interests (e.g. advent of AI), but also by industrial policy and geopolitical considerations. In this episode of Tech Deciphered, we explore what's cool in the infrastructure spaces, including mega trends in semiconductors, energy, networking & connectivity, manufacturing Navigation: Intro We're back to building things Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Introduction Welcome to episode 73 of Tech Deciphered, Infrastructure, the Rebirth or Renaissance. Infrastructure was passé, it wasn’t cool, but all of a sudden now everyone’s talking about network, talking about compute and semiconductors, talking about logistics, talking about energy. What gives? What’s happened? It was impossible in the past to get any funds, venture capital, even, to be honest, some private equity funds or growth funds interested in some of these areas, but now all of a sudden everyone thinks it’s cool. The infrastructure seems to be having a renaissance, a full-on rebirth. In this episode, we will explore in which cool ways the infrastructure spaces are moving and what’s leading to it. We will deep dive into the forces that are leading us to this. We will deep dive into semiconductors, networking and connectivity, energy, manufacturing, and then we’ll wrap up. Bertrand, so infrastructure is cool now. Bertrand Schmitt We're back to building things Yes. I thought software was going to eat the world. I cannot believe it was then, maybe even 15 years ago, from Andreessen, that quote about software eating the world. I guess it’s an eternal balance. Sometimes you go ahead of yourself, you build a lot of software stack, and at some point, you need the hardware to run this software stack, and there is only so much the bits can do in a world of atoms. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Obviously, we’ve gone through some of this before. I think what we’re going through right now is AI is eating the world, and because AI is eating the world, it’s driving a lot of this infrastructure building that we need. We don’t have enough energy to be consumed by all these big data centers and hyperscalers. We need to be innovative around network as well because of the consumption in terms of network bandwidth that is linked to that consumption as well. In some ways, it’s not software eating the world, AI is eating the world. Because AI is eating the world, we need to rethink everything around infrastructure and infrastructure becoming cool again. Bertrand Schmitt There is something deeper in this. It’s that the past 10, even 15 years were all about SaaS before AI. SaaS, interestingly enough, was very energy-efficient. When I say SaaS, I mean cloud computing at large. What I mean by energy-efficient is that actually cloud computing help make energy use more efficient because instead of companies having their own separate data centers in many locations, sometimes poorly run from an industrial perspective, replace their own privately run data center with data center run by the super scalers, the hyperscalers of the world. These data centers were run much better in terms of how you manage the coolings, the energy efficiency, the rack density, all of this stuff. Actually, the cloud revolution didn’t increase the use of electricity. The cloud revolution was actually a replacement from your private data center to the hyperscaler data center, which was energy efficient. That’s why we didn’t, even if we are always talking about that growth of cloud computing, we were never feeling the pinch in term of electricity. As you say, we say it all changed because with AI, it was not a simple “Replacement” of locally run infrastructure to a hyperscaler run infrastructure. It was truly adding on top of an existing infrastructure, a new computing infrastructure in a way out of nowhere. Not just any computing infrastructure, an energy infrastructure that was really, really voracious in term of energy use. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro There was one other effect. Obviously, we’ve discussed before, we are in a bubble. We won’t go too much into that today. But the previous big bubble in tech, which is in the late ’90s, there was a lot of infrastructure built. We thought the internet was going to take over back then. It didn’t take over immediately, but there was a lot of network connectivity, bandwidth built back in the day. Companies imploded because of that as well, or had to restructure and go in their chapter 11. A lot of the big telco companies had their own issues back then, etc., but a lot of infrastructure was built back then for this advent of the internet, which would then take a long time to come. In some ways, to your point, there was a lot of latent supply that was built that was around that for a while wasn’t used, but then it was. Now it’s been used, and now we need new stuff. That’s why I feel now we’re having the new moment of infrastructure, new moment of moving forward, aligned a little bit with what you just said around cloud computing and the advent of SaaS, but also around the fact that we had a lot of buildup back in the late ’90s, early ’90s, which we’re now still reaping the benefits on in today’s world. Bertrand Schmitt Yeah, that’s actually a great point because what was built in the late ’90s, there was a lot of fibre that was built. Laying out the fibre either across countries, inside countries. This fibre, interestingly enough, you could just change the computing on both sides of the fibre, the routing, the modems, and upgrade the capacity of the fibre. But the fibre was the same in between. The big investment, CapEx investment, was really lying down that fibre, but then you could really upgrade easily. Even if both ends of the fibre were either using very old infrastructure from the ’90s or were actually dark and not being put to use, step by step, it was being put to use, equipment was replaced, and step by step, you could keep using more and more of this fibre. It was a very interesting development, as you say, because it could be expanded over the years, where if we talk about GPUs, use for AI, GPUs, the interesting part is actually it’s totally the opposite. After a few years, it’s useless. Some like Google, will argue that they can depreciate over 5, 6 years, even some GPUs. But at the end of the day, the difference in perf and energy efficiency of the GPUs means that if you are energy constrained, you just want to replace the old one even as young as three-year-old. You have to look at Nvidia increasing spec, generation after generation. It’s pretty insane. It’s usually at least 3X year over year in term of performance. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At this moment in time, it’s very clear that it’s happening. Why now: the 5 forces behind the renaissance Maybe let’s deep dive into why it’s happening now. What are the key forces around this? We’ve identified, I think, five forces that are particularly vital that lead to the world we’re in right now. One we’ve already talked about, which is AI, the demand shock and everything that’s happened because of AI. Data centers drive power demand, drive grid upgrades, drive innovative ways of getting energy, drive chips, drive networking, drive cooling, drive manufacturing, drive all the things that we’re going to talk in just a bit. One second element that we could probably highlight in terms of the forces that are behind this is obviously where we are in terms of cost curves around technology. Obviously, a lot of things are becoming much cheaper. The simulation of physical behaviours has become a lot more cheap, which in itself, this becomes almost a vicious cycle in of itself, then drives the adoption of more and more AI and stuff. But anyway, the simulation is becoming more and more accessible, so you can do a lot of simulation with digital twins and other things off the real world before you go into the real world. Robotics itself is becoming, obviously, cheaper. Hardware, a lot of the hardware is becoming cheaper. Computer has become cheaper as well. Obviously, there’s a lot of cost curves that have aligned that, and that’s maybe the second force that I would highlight. Obviously, funds are catching up. We’ll leave that a little bit to the end. We’ll do a wrap-up and talk a little bit about the implications to investors. But there’s a lot of capital out there, some capital related to industrial policy, other capital related to private initiative, private equity, growth funds, even venture capital, to be honest, and a few other elements on that. That would be a third force that I would highlight. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, in terms of capital use, and we’ll talk more about this, but some firms, if we are talking about energy investment, it was very difficult to invest if you are not investing in green energy. Now I think more and more firms and banks are willing to invest or support different type of energy infrastructure, not just, “Green energy.” That’s an interesting development because at some point it became near impossible to invest more in gas development, in oil development in the US or in most Western countries. At least in the US, this is dramatically changing the framework. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Maybe to add the two last forces that I think we see behind the renaissance of what’s happening in infrastructure. They go hand in hand. One is the geopolitics of the world right now. Obviously, the world was global flat, and now it’s becoming increasingly siloed, so people are playing it to their own interests. There’s a lot of replication of infrastructure as well because people want to be autonomous, and they want to drive their own ability to serve end consumers, businesses, etc., in terms of data centers and everything else. That ability has led to things like, for example, chips shortage. The fact that there are semiconductors, there are shortages across the board, like memory shortages, where everything is packed up until 2027 of 2028. A lot of the memory that was being produced is already spoken for, which is shocking. There’s obviously generation of supply chain fragilities, obviously, some of it because of policies, for example, in the US with tariffs, etc, security of energy, etc. Then the last force directly linked to the geopolitics is the opposite of it, which is the policy as an accelerant, so to speak, as something that is accelerating development, where because of those silos, individual countries, as part their industrial policy, then want to put capital behind their local ecosystems, their local companies, so that their local companies and their local systems are for sure the winners, or at least, at the very least, serve their own local markets. I think that’s true of a lot of the things we’re seeing, for example, in the US with the Chips Act, for semiconductors, with IGA, IRA, and other elements of what we’ve seen in terms of practices, policies that have been implemented even in Europe, China, and other parts of the world. Bertrand Schmitt Talking about chips shortages, it’s pretty insane what has been happening with memory. Just the past few weeks, I have seen a close to 3X increase in price in memory prices in a matter of weeks. Apparently, it started with a huge order from OpenAI. Apparently, they have tried to corner the memory market. Interestingly enough, it has flat-footed the entire industry, and that includes Google, that includes Microsoft. There are rumours of their teams now having moved to South Korea, so they are closer to the action in terms of memory factories and memory decision-making. There are rumours of execs who got fired because they didn’t prepare for this type of eventuality or didn’t lock in some of the supply chain because that memory was initially for AI, but obviously, it impacts everything because factories making memories, you have to plan years in advance to build memories. You cannot open new lines of manufacturing like this. All factories that are going to open, we know when they are going to open because they’ve been built up for years. There is no extra capacity suddenly. At the very best, you can change a bit your line of production from one type of memory to another type. But that’s probably about it. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just to be clear, all these transformations we’re seeing isn’t to say just hardware is back, right? It’s not just hardware. There’s physicality. The buildings are coming back, right? It’s full stack. Software is here. That’s why everything is happening. Policy is here. Finance is here. It’s a little bit like the name of the movie, right? Everything everywhere all at once. Everything’s happening. It was in some ways driven by the upper stacks, by the app layers, by the platform layers. But now we need new infrastructure. We need more infrastructure. We need it very, very quickly. We need it today. We’re already lacking in it. Semiconductors: compute is the new oil Maybe that’s a good segue into the first piece of the whole infrastructure thing that’s driving now the most valuable company in the world, NVIDIA, which is semiconductors. Semiconductors are driving compute. Semis are the foundation of infrastructure as a compute. Everyone needs it for every thing, for every activity, not just for compute, but even for sensors, for actuators, everything else. That’s the beginning of it all. Semiconductor is one of the key pieces around the infrastructure stack that’s being built at scale at this moment in time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. What’s interesting is that if we look at the market gap of Semis versus software as a service, cloud companies, there has been a widening gap the past year. I forgot the exact numbers, but we were talking about plus 20, 25% for Semis in term of market gap and minus 5, minus 10 for SaaS companies. That’s another trend that’s happening. Why is this happening? One, because semiconductors are core to the AI build-up, you cannot go around without them. But two, it’s also raising a lot of questions about the durability of the SaaS, a software-as-a-service business model. Because if suddenly we have better AI, and that’s all everyone is talking about to justify the investment in AI, that it keeps getting better, and it keeps improving, and it’s going to replace your engineers, your software engineers. Then maybe all of this moat that software companies built up over the years or decades, sometimes, might unravel under the pressure of newly coded, newly built, cheaper alternatives built from the ground up with AI support. It’s not just that, yes, semiconductors are doing great. It’s also as a result of that AI underlying trend that software is doing worse right now. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro At the end of the day, this foundational piece of infrastructure, semiconductor, is obviously getting manifest to many things, fabrication, manufacturing, packaging, materials, equipment. Everything’s being driven, ASML, etc. There are all these different players around the world that are having skyrocket valuations now, it’s because they’re all part of the value chain. Just to be very, very clear, there’s two elements of this that I think are very important for us to remember at this point in time. One, it’s the entire value chains are being shifted. It’s not just the chips that basically lead to computing in the strict sense of it. It’s like chips, for example, that drive, for example, network switching. We’re going to talk about networking a bit, but you need chips to drive better network switching. That’s getting revolutionised as well. For example, we have an investment in that space, a company called the eridu.ai, and they’re revolutionising one of the pieces around that stack. Second part of the puzzle, so obviously, besides the holistic view of the world that’s changing in terms of value change, the second piece of the puzzle is, as we discussed before, there’s industrial policy. We already mentioned the CHIPS Act, which is something, for example, that has been done in the US, which I think is 52 billion in incentives across a variety of things, grants, loans, and other mechanisms to incentivise players to scale capacity quick and to scale capacity locally in the US. One of the effects of that now is obviously we had the TSMC, US expansion with a factory here in the US. We have other levels of expansion going on with Intel, Samsung, and others that are happening as we speak. Again, it’s this two by two. It’s market forces that drive the need for fundamental shifts in the value chain. On the other industrial policy and actual money put forward by states, by governments, by entities that want to revolutionise their own local markets. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. When you talk about networking, it makes me think about what NVIDIA did more than six years ago when they acquired Mellanox. At the time, it was largest acquisition for NVIDIA in 2019, and it was networking for the data center. Not networking across data center, but inside the data center, and basically making sure that your GPUs, the different computers, can talk as fast as possible between each of them. I think that’s one piece of the puzzle that a lot of companies are missing, by the way, about NVIDIA is that they are truly providing full systems. They are not just providing a GPU. Some of their competitors are just providing GPUs. But NVIDIA can provide you the full rack. Now, they move to liquid-cool computing as well. They design their systems with liquid cooling in mind. They have a very different approach in the industry. It’s a systematic system-level approach to how do you optimize your data center. Quite frankly, that’s a bit hard to beat. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro For those listening, you’d be like, this is all very different. Semiconductors, networking, energy, manufacturing, this is all different. Then all of a sudden, as Bertrand is saying, well, there are some players that are acting across the stack. Then you see in the same sentence, you’re talking about nuclear power in Microsoft or nuclear power in Google, and you’re like, what happened? Why are these guys in the same sentence? It’s like they’re tech companies. Why are they talking about energy? It’s the nature of that. These ecosystems need to go hand in hand. The value chains are very deep. For you to actually reap the benefits of more and more, for example, semiconductor availability, you have to have better and better networking connectivity, and you have to have more and more energy at lower and lower costs, and all of that. All these things are intrinsically linked. That’s why you see all these big tech companies working across stack, NVIDIA being a great example of that in trying to create truly a systems approach to the world, as Bertrand was mentioning. Networking & connectivity: digital highways get rebuilt On the networking and connectivity side, as we said, we had a lot of fibre that was put down, etc, but there’s still more build-out needs to be done. 5G in terms of its densification is still happening. We’re now starting to talk, obviously, about 6G. I’m not sure most telcos are very happy about that because they just have been doing all this CapEx and all this deployment into 5G, and now people already started talking about 6G and what’s next. Obviously, data center interconnect is quite important, and all the hubbing that needs to happen around data centers is very, very important. We are seeing a lot movements around connectivity that are particularly important. Network gear and the emergence of players like Broadcom in terms of the semiconductor side of the fence, obviously, Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and others that are very much present in this space. As I said, we made an investment on the semiconductor side of networking as well, realizing that there’s still a lot of bottlenecks happening there. But obviously, the networking and connectivity stack still needs to be built at all levels within the data centers, outside of the data centers in terms of last mile, across the board in terms of fibre. We’re seeing a lot of movements still around the space. It’s what connects everything. At the end of the day, if there’s too much latency in these systems, if the bandwidths are not high enough, then we’re going to have huge bottlenecks that are going to be put at the table by a networking providers. Obviously, that doesn’t help anyone. If there’s a button like anywhere, it doesn’t work. All of this doesn’t work. Bertrand Schmitt Yes. Interestingly enough, I know we said for this episode, we not talk too much about space, but when you talk about 6G, it make me think about, of course, Starlink. That’s really your last mile delivery that’s being built as well. It’s a massive investment. We’re talking about thousands of satellites that are interconnected between each other through laser system. This is changing dramatically how companies can operate, how individuals can operate. For companies, you can have great connectivity from anywhere in the world. For military, it’s the same. For individuals, suddenly, you won’t have dead space, wide zones. This is also a part of changing how we could do things. It’s quite important even in the development of AI because, yes, you can have AI at the edge, but that interconnect to the rest of the system is quite critical. Having that availability of a network link, high-quality network link from anywhere is a great combo. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then you start seeing regions of the world that want to differentiate to attract digital nomads by saying, “We have submarine cables that come and hub through us, and therefore, our connectivity is amazing.” I was just in Madeira, and they were talking about that in Portugal. One of the islands of Portugal. We have some Marine cables. You have great connectivity. We’re getting into that discussion where people are like, I don’t care. I mean, I don’t know. I assume I have decent connectivity. People actually care about decent connectivity. This discussion is not just happening at corporate level, at enterprise level? Etc. Even consumers, even people that want to work remotely or be based somewhere else in the world. It’s like, This is important Where is there a great connectivity for me so that I can have access to the services I need? Etc. Everyone becomes aware of everything. We had a cloud flare mishap more recently that the CEO had to jump online and explain deeply, technically and deeply, what happened. Because we’re in their heads. If Cloudflare goes down, there’s a lot of websites that don’t work. All of this, I think, is now becoming du jour rather than just an afterthought. Maybe we’ll think about that in the future. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. I think your life is being changed for network connectivity, so life of individuals, companies. I mean, everything. Look at airlines and ships and cruise ships. Now is the advent of satellite connectivity. It’s dramatically changing our experience. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Indeed. Energy: rebuilding the power stack (not just renewables) Moving maybe to energy. We’ve talked about energy quite a bit in the past. Maybe we start with the one that we didn’t talk as much, although we did mention it, which was, let’s call it the fossil infrastructure, what’s happening around there. Everyone was saying, it’s all going to be renewables and green. We’ve had a shift of power, geopolitics. Honestly, I the writing was on the wall that we needed a lot more energy creation. It wasn’t either or. We needed other sources to be as efficient as possible. Obviously, we see a lot of work happening around there that many would have thought, Well, all this infrastructure doesn’t matter anymore. Now we’re seeing LNG terminals, pipelines, petrochemical capacity being pushed up, a lot of stuff happening around markets in terms of export, and not only around export, but also around overall distribution and increases and improvements so that there’s less leakage, distribution of energy, etc. In some ways, people say, it’s controversial, but it’s like we don’t have enough energy to spare. We’re already behind, so we need as much as we can. We need to figure out the way to really extract as much as we can from even natural resources, which In many people’s mind, it’s almost like blasphemous to talk about, but it is where we are. Obviously, there’s a lot of renaissance also happening on the fossil infrastructure basis, so to speak. Bertrand Schmitt Personally, I’m ecstatic that there is a renaissance going regarding what is called fossil infrastructure. Oil and gas, it’s critical to humanity well-being. You never had growth of countries without energy growth and nothing else can come close. Nuclear could come close, but it takes decades to deploy. I think it’s great. It’s great for developed economies so that they do better, they can expand faster. It’s great for third-world countries who have no realistic other choice. I really don’t know what happened the past 10, 15 years and why this was suddenly blasphemous. But I’m glad that, strangely, thanks to AI, we are back to a more rational mindset about energy and making sure we get efficient energy where we can. Obviously, nuclear is getting a second act. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro I know you would be. We’ve been talking about for a long time, and you’ve been talking about it in particular for a very long time. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, definitely. It’s been one area of interest of mine for 25 years. I don’t know. I’ve been shocked about what happened in Europe, that willingness destruction of energy infrastructure, especially in Germany. Just a few months ago, they keep destroying on live TV some nuclear station in perfect working condition and replacing them with coal. I’m not sure there is a better definition of insanity at this stage. It looks like it’s only the Germans going that hardcore for some reason, but at least the French have stopped their program of decommissioning. America, it seems to be doing the same, so it’s great. On top of it, there are new generations that could be put to use. The Chinese are building up a very large nuclear reactor program, more than 100 reactors in construction for the next 10 years. I think everybody has to catch up because at some point, this is the most efficient energy solution. Especially if you don’t build crazy constraints around the construction of these nuclear reactors. If we are rational about permits, about energy, about safety, there are great things we could be doing with nuclear. That might be one of the only solution if we want to be competitive, because when energy prices go down like crazy, like in China, they will do once they have reach delivery of their significant build-up of nuclear reactors, we better be ready to have similar options from a cost perspective. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro From the outside, at the very least, nuclear seems to be probably in the energy one of the areas that’s more being innovated at this moment in time. You have startups in the space, you have a lot really money going into it, not just your classic industrial development. That’s very exciting. Moving maybe to the carbonization and what’s happening. The CCUS, and for those who don’t know what it is, carbon capture, utilization, and storage. There’s a lot of stuff happening around that space. That’s the area that deals with the ability to capture CO₂ emissions from industrial sources and/or the atmosphere and preventing their release. There’s a lot of things happening in that space. There’s also a lot of things happening around hydrogen and geothermal and really creating the ability to storage or to store, rather, energy that then can be put back into the grids at the right time. There’s a lot of interesting pieces happening around this. There’s some startup movement in the space. It’s been a long time coming, the reuse of a lot of these industrial sources. Not sure it’s as much on the news as nuclear, and oil and gas, but certainly there’s a lot of exciting things happening there. Bertrand Schmitt I’m a bit more dubious here, but I think geothermal makes sense if it’s available at reasonable price. I don’t think hydrogen technology has proven its value. Concerning carbon capture, I’m not sure how much it’s really going to provide in terms of energy needs, but why not? Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Fuels niche, again, from the outside, we’re not energy experts, but certainly, there are movements in the space. We’ll see what’s happening. One area where there’s definitely a lot of movement is this notion of grid and storage. On the one hand, that transmission needs to be built out. It needs to be better. We’ve had issues of blackouts in the US. We’ve had issues of blackouts all around the world, almost. Portugal as well, for a significant part of the time. The ability to work around transmission lines, transformers, substations, the modernization of some of this infrastructure, and the move forward of it is pretty critical. But at the other end, there’s the edge. Then, on the edge, you have the ability to store. We should have, better mechanisms to store energy that are less leaky in terms of energy storage. Obviously, there’s a lot of movement around that. Some of it driven just by commercial stuff, like Tesla a lot with their storage stuff, etc. Some of it really driven at scale by energy players that have the interest that, for example, some of the storage starts happening closer to the consumption as well. But there’s a lot of exciting things happening in that space, and that is a transformative space. In some ways, the bottleneck of energy is also around transmission and then ultimately the access to energy by homes, by businesses, by industries, etc. Bertrand Schmitt I would say some of the blackout are truly man-made. If I pick on California, for instance. That’s the logical conclusion of the regulatory system in place in California. On one side, you limit price that energy supplier can sell. The utility company can sell, too. On the other side, you force them to decommission the most energy-efficient and least expensive energy source. That means you cap the revenues, you make the cost increase. What is the result? The result is you cannot invest anymore to support a grid and to support transmission. That’s 100% obvious. That’s what happened, at least in many places. The solution is stop crazy regulations that makes no economic sense whatsoever. Then, strangely enough, you can invest again in transmission, in maintenance, and all I love this stuff. Maybe another piece, if we pick in California, if you authorize building construction in areas where fires are easy, that’s also a very costly to support from utility perspective, because then you are creating more risk. You are forced buy the state to connect these new constructions to the grid. You have more maintenance. If it fails, you can create fire. If you create fire, you have to pay billions of fees. I just want to highlight that some of this is not a technological issue, is not per se an investment issue, but it’s simply the result of very bad regulations. I hope that some will learn, and some change will be made so that utilities can do their job better. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Then last, but not the least, on the energy side, energy is becoming more and more digitally defined in some ways. It’s like the analogy to networks that they’ve become more, and more software defined, where you have, at the edge is things like smart meters. There’s a lot of things you can do around the key elements of the business model, like dynamic pricing and other elements. Demand response, one of the areas that I invested in, I invest in a company called Omconnect that’s now merged with what used to be Google Nest. Where to deploy that ability to do demand response and also pass it to consumers so that consumers can reduce their consumption at times where is the least price effective or the less green or the less good for the energy companies to produce energy. We have other things that are happening, which are interesting. Obviously, we have a lot more electric vehicles in cars, etc. These are also elements of storage. They don’t look like elements of storage, but the car has electricity in it once you charge it. Once it’s charged, what do you do with it? Could you do something else? Like the whole reverse charging piece that we also see now today in mobile devices and other edge devices, so to speak. That also changes the architecture of what we’re seeing around the space. With AI, there’s a lot of elements that change around the value chain. The ability to do forecasting, the ability to have, for example, virtual power plans because of just designated storage out there, etc. Interesting times happening. Not sure all utilities around the world, all energy providers around the world are innovating at the same pace and in the same way. But certainly just looking at the industry and talking to a lot of players that are CEOs of some of these companies. That are leading innovation for some of these companies, there’s definitely a lot more happening now in the last few years than maybe over the last few decades. Very exciting times. Bertrand Schmitt I think there are two interesting points in what you say. Talking about EVs, for instance, a Cybertruck is able to send electricity back to your home if your home is able to receive electricity from that source. Usually, you have some changes to make to the meter system, to your panel. That’s one great way to potentially use your car battery. Another piece of the puzzle is that, strangely enough, most strangely enough, there has been a big push to EV, but at the same time, there has not been a push to provide more electricity. But if you replace cars that use gasoline by electric vehicles that use electricity, you need to deliver more electricity. It doesn’t require a PhD to get that. But, strangely enough, nothing was done. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Apparently, it does. Bertrand Schmitt I remember that study in France where they say that, if people were all to switch to EV, we will need 10 more nuclear reactors just on the way from Paris to Nice to the Côte d’Azur, the French Rivière, in order to provide electricity to the cars going there during the summer vacation. But I mean, guess what? No nuclear plant is being built along the way. Good luck charging your vehicles. I think that’s another limit that has been happening to the grid is more electric vehicles that require charging when the related infrastructure has not been upgraded to support more. Actually, it has quite the opposite. In many cases, we had situation of nuclear reactors closing down, so other facilities closing down. Obviously, the end result is an increase in price of electricity, at least in some states and countries that have not sold that fully out. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Manufacturing: the return of “atoms + bits” Moving to manufacturing and what’s happening around manufacturing, manufacturing technology. There’s maybe the case to be made that manufacturing is getting replatformed, right? It’s getting redefined. Some of it is very obvious, and it’s already been ongoing for a couple of decades, which is the advent of and more and more either robotic augmented factories or just fully roboticized factories, where there’s very little presence of human beings. There’s elements of that. There’s the element of software definition on top of it, like simulation. A lot of automation is going on. A lot of AI has been applied to some lines in terms of vision, safety. We have an investment in a company called Sauter Analytics that is very focused on that from the perspective of employees and when they’re still humans in the loop, so to speak, and the ability to really figure out when people are at risk and other elements of what’s happening occurring from that. But there’s more than that. There’s a little bit of a renaissance in and of itself. Factories are, initially, if we go back a couple of decades ago, factories were, and manufacturing was very much defined from the setup. Now it’s difficult to innovate, it’s difficult to shift the line, it’s difficult to change how things are done in the line. With the advent of new factories that have less legacy, that have more flexible systems, not only in terms of software, but also in terms of hardware and robotics, it allows us to, for example, change and shift lines much more easily to different functions, which will hopefully, over time, not only reduce dramatically the cost of production. But also increase dramatically the yield, it increases dramatically the production itself. A lot of cool stuff happening in that space. Bertrand Schmitt It’s exciting to see that. One thing this current administration in the US has been betting on is not just hoping for construction renaissance. Especially on the factory side, up of factories, but their mindset was two things. One, should I force more companies to build locally because it would be cheaper? Two, increase output and supply of energy so that running factories here in the US would be cheaper than anywhere else. Maybe not cheaper than China, but certainly we get is cheaper than Europe. But three, it’s also the belief that thanks to AI, we will be able to have more efficient factories. There is always that question, do Americans to still keep making clothes, for instance, in factories. That used to be the case maybe 50 years ago, but this move to China, this move to Bangladesh, this move to different places. That’s not the goal. But it can make sense that indeed there is ability, thanks to robots and AI, to have more automated factories, and these factories could be run more efficiently, and as a result, it would be priced-competitive, even if run in the US. When you want to think about it, that has been, for instance, the South Korean playbook. More automated factories, robotics, all of this, because that was the only way to compete against China, which has a near infinite or used to have a near infinite supply of cheaper labour. I think that all of this combined can make a lot of sense. In a way, it’s probably creating a perfect storm. Maybe another piece of the puzzle this administration has been working on pretty hard is simplifying all the permitting process. Because a big chunk of the problem is that if your permitting is very complex, very expensive, what take two years to build become four years, five years, 10 years. The investment mass is not the same in that situation. I think that’s a very important part of the puzzle. It’s use this opportunity to reduce regulatory state, make sure that things are more efficient. Also, things are less at risk of bribery and fraud because all these regulations, there might be ways around. I think it’s quite critical to really be careful about this. Maybe last piece of the puzzle is the way accounting works. There are new rules now in 2026 in the US where you can fully depreciate your CapEx much faster than before. That’s a big win for manufacturing in the US. Suddenly, you can depreciate much faster some of your CapEx investment in manufacturing. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Just going back to a point you made and then moving it forward, even China, with being now probably the country in the world with the highest rate of innovation and take up of industrial robots. Because of demographic issues a little bit what led Japan the first place to be one of the real big innovators around robots in general. The fact that demographics, you’re having an aging population, less and less children. How are you going to replace all these people? Moving that into big winners, who becomes a big winner in a space where manufacturing is fundamentally changing? Obviously, there’s the big four of robots, which is ABB, FANUC, KUKA, and Yaskawa. Epson, I think, is now in there, although it’s not considered one of the big four. Kawasaki, Denso, Universal Robots. There’s a really big robotics, industrial robotic companies in the space from different origins, FANUC and Yaskawa, and Epson from Japan, KUKA from Germany, ABB from Switzerland, Sweden. A lot of now emerging companies from China, and what’s happening in that space is quite interesting. On the other hand, also, other winners will include players that will be integrators that will build some of the rest of the infrastructure that goes into manufacturing, the Siemens of the world, the Schneider’s, the Rockwell’s that will lead to fundamental industrial automation. Some big winners in there that whose names are well known, so probably not a huge amount of surprises there. There’s movements. As I said, we’re still going to see the big Chinese players emerging in the world. There are startups that are innovating around a lot of the edges that are significant in this space. We’ll see if this is a space that will just be continued to be dominated by the big foreign robotics and by a couple of others and by the big integrators or not. Bertrand Schmitt I think you are right to remind about China because China has been moving very fast in robotics. Some Chinese companies are world-class in their use of robotics. You have this strange mix of some older industries where robotics might not be so much put to use and typically state-owned, versus some private companies, typically some tech companies that are reconverting into hardware in some situation. That went all in terms of robotics use and their demonstrations, an example of what’s happening in China. Definitely, the Chinese are not resting. Everyone smart enough is playing that game from the Americans, the Chinese, Japanese, the South Koreans. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exciting things are manufacturing, and maybe to bring it all together, what does it mean for all the big players out there? If we talk with startups and talk about startups, we didn’t mention a ton of startups today, right? Maybe incumbent wind across the board. But on a more serious note, we did mention a few. For example, in nuclear energy, there’s a lot of startups that have been, some of them, incredibly well-funded at this moment in time. Wrap: what it means for startups, incumbents, and investors There might be some big disruptions that will come out of startups, for example, in that space. On the chipset side, we talked about the big gorillas, the NVIDIAs, AMDs, Intel, etc., of the world. But we didn’t quite talk about the fact that there’s a lot of innovation, again, happening on the edges with new players going after very large niches, be it in networking and switching. Be it in compute and other areas that will need different, more specialized solutions. Potentially in terms of compute or in terms of semiconductor deployments. I think there’s still some opportunities there, maybe not to be the winner takes all thing, but certainly around a lot of very significant niches that might grow very fast. Manufacturing, we mentioned the same. Some of the incumbents seem to be in the driving seat. We’ll see what happens if some startups will come in and take some of the momentum there, probably less likely. There are spaces where the value chains are very tightly built around the OEMs and then the suppliers overall, classically the tier one suppliers across value chains. Maybe there is some startup investment play. We certainly have played in the couple of the spaces. I mentioned already some of them today, but this is maybe where the incumbents have it all to lose. It’s more for them to lose rather than for the startups to win just because of the scale of what needs to be done and what needs to be deployed. Bertrand Schmitt I know. That’s interesting point. I think some players in energy production, for instance, are moving very fast and behaving not only like startups. Usually, it’s independent energy suppliers who are not kept by too much regulations that get moved faster. Utility companies, as we just discussed, have more constraints. I would like to say that if you take semiconductor space, there has been quite a lot of startup activities way more than usual, and there have been some incredible success. Just a few weeks ago, Rock got more or less acquired. Now, you have to play games. It’s not an outright acquisition, but $20 billion for an IP licensing agreement that’s close to an acquisition. That’s an incredible success for a company. Started maybe 10 years ago. You have another Cerebras, one of the competitor valued, I believe, quite a lot in similar range. I think there is definitely some activity. It’s definitely a different game compared to your software startup in terms of investment. But as we have seen with AI in general, the need for investment might be larger these days. Yes, it might be either traditional players if they can move fast enough, to be frank, because some of them, when you have decades of being run as a slow-moving company, it’s hard to change things. At the same time, it looks like VCs are getting bigger. Wall Street is getting more ready to finance some of these companies. I think there will be opportunities for startups, but definitely different types of startups in terms of profile. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Exactly. From an investor standpoint, I think on the VC side, at least our core belief is that it’s more niche. It’s more around big niches that need to be fundamentally disrupted or solutions that require fundamental interoperability and integration where the incumbents have no motivation to do it. Things that are a little bit more either packaging on the semiconductor side or other elements of actual interoperability. Even at the software layer side that feeds into infrastructure. If you’re a growth investor, a private equity investor, there’s other plays that are available to you. A lot of these projects need to be funded and need to be scaled. Now we’re seeing projects being funded even for a very large, we mentioned it in one of the previous episodes, for a very large tech companies. When Meta, for example, is going to the market to get funding for data centers, etc. There’s projects to be funded there because just the quantum and scale of some of these projects, either because of financial interest for specifically the tech companies or for other reasons, but they need to be funded by the market. There’s other place right now, certainly if you’re a larger private equity growth investor, and you want to come into the market and do projects. Even public-private financing is now available for a lot of things. Definitely, there’s a lot of things emanating that require a lot of funding, even for large-scale projects. Which means the advent of some of these projects and where realization is hopefully more of a given than in other circumstances, because there’s actual commercial capital behind it and private capital behind it to fuel it as well, not just industrial policy and money from governments. Bertrand Schmitt There was this quite incredible stat. I guess everyone heard about that incredible growth in GDP in Q3 in the US at 4.4%. Apparently, half of that growth, so around 2.2% point, has been coming from AI and related infrastructure investment. That’s pretty massive. Half of your GDP growth coming from something that was not there three years ago or there, but not at this intensity of investment. That’s the numbers we are talking about. I’m hearing that there is a good chance that in 2026, we’re talking about five, even potentially 6% GDP growth. Again, half of it potentially coming from AI and all the related infrastructure growth that’s coming with AI. As a conclusion for this episode on infrastructure, as we just said, it’s not just AI, it’s a whole stack, and it’s manufacturing in general as well. Definitely in the US, in China, there is a lot going on. As we have seen, computing needs connectivity, networks, need power, energy and grid, and all of this needs production capacity and manufacturing. Manufacturing can benefit from AI as well. That way the loop is fully going back on itself. Infrastructure is the next big thing. It’s an opportunity, probably more for incumbents, but certainly, as usual, with such big growth opportunities for startups as well. Thank you, Nuno. Nuno Gonçalves Pedro Thank you, Bertrand.

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode In this episode, Carm Capriotto reconnects with industry veteran Peter Rudloff to explore his transition from shop owner to consultant, his “stay in your lane” philosophy, and the future of EV repair. Rudloff shares how a 25-year exit plan allowed him to retire from shop ownership at 47 and transition into his home-based “Pete Cave,” where he continues hands-on work without managing employees. He later founded Rhino Collective LLC, helping manufacturers connect engineering with real-world repair. A central theme is specialization. By focusing on domestic and Asian vehicles and avoiding brands like BMW, Rudloff improved efficiency and profitability. He argues that staying within your strengths leads to “profit by default” and long-term stability. Looking ahead, he predicts EVs will dominate, and repair will shift toward modular, aircraft-style maintenance. He encourages new shop owners to consider EV specialization as a growth path. Rudloff also emphasizes ongoing education, recommending 60 hours of training per year and crediting the Delaware Training Group as a major influence on his career. This episode delivers clear, practical insight on focus, future-proofing, and lifelong learning in today's repair industry. Peter Rudloff, Rhino Collective LLC, petervrudloff@gmail.com Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/ - Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters - Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 - Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto - Follow on LinkedIn:

The federal government recently announced that it is scrapping the zero emissions vehicle mandate – brought in by the Trudeau government in 2022. Zero emissions vehicles such as EVs were supposed to make up 20 per cent of all new car sales this year, increasing to 100 per cent by 2035. This is the latest Trudeau-era climate policy that Prime Minister Mark Carney has rolled back or outright abandoned.Today, we speak with Adam Radwanski, The Globe's policy columnist and feature writer. He'll explain why the electric vehicle mandate was scrapped, what Carney has brought in instead, and what his strategy is towards climate change more broadly.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bitcoin traders "adopted SLV and GLD as their meme stocks," says George Noble. He attributes the rise of retail interest in the metal space to their profound volatility. That said, George tells investors, "don't pay attention to the daily volatility," noting both silver and gold are up double digits so far in 2026. As traders see silver as a play in AI and EVs, George makes the case that if prices go up so much, builders will just turn to other metals. ======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

This week Sam & Natalie are joined by Everton, Manchester United & England legend...WAYNE ROONEY!Wayne Rooney sits down alongside Sam Allardyce and Natalie Pike to discuss all things football from the rapid turn around in form by Michael Carrick & Manchester United to which current Premier League players are WORLD CLASS?They start the pod by briefly discussing their time together at Everton before talking about this weekend's football and why the title race is back on!The trio then discuss in detail why it's important for Arsenal to win a trophy this season even if it's the Carabao Cup, why Mikel Arteta is so impressive & we give our reaction to THAT Liverpool vs Man City game.Wayne & Sam then chat about what Michael Carrick has done to transform Manchester United in such a short turn around, why Bruno Fernandes is invaluable to this United team & would Bruno get into a best Manchester United XI?Wayne, Sam & Natalie then discuss the recent debate of Arsenal 2026 team vs Wayne's Champions League winning 2008 team, why Wayne was so devastated when Tevez left Manchester United and what made Carrick so crucial.Wayne then talks about David Moyes at Everton, the abuse on social media Liam Rosenior has received despite making a bright start to his time in charge of Chelsea & we react to van Dijks comments that pundits need to be more thoughtful of players.Finally we end the pod with Wayne & Sam discussing which players are currently WORLD Class, why Wayne prefers Messi over Ronaldo and would Sam be tempted with the Blackburn job?

Allen, Rosemary, and Yolanda, joined by Matthew Stead, discuss Vestas’ Q4 earnings beating competitors but disappointing investors, and the latest on the Wind Energy O&M Australia 2026 conference in Melbourne. Plus the European Commission opens a subsidy investigation into Goldwind, Texas sues over 3,000 dumped wind turbine blades, and Muehlhan Wind Service acquires Canadian AC883. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by StrikeTape, protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit strike tape.com. And now your hosts.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host Alan Hall, and I’m here with Rosemary Barnes, Yolanda Padron. Matthew Stead down in Australia. So welcome Matthew.  Matthew Stead: Great to be here. Thank you, Alan.  Allen Hall: We have a number of articles and interesting topics this week. Top of the list is Vestus. Vestus announced their Q4 numbers, and although the the revenue is great, uh, they, they had a profit of about 580 million euros. It was below what analysts expected, so the shares dropped about 6% on the news. But the CEO of Vestus is saying, uh, full speed ahead. They’re, they’re willing to make some concessions. Vestus, as it sounds like, in terms [00:01:00] of thinning out the company a little bit, which I, that’s been a, a, a complaint from investors for a little while. But in, in terms of, uh, going forward in renewable energy, Vestus is still going to pursue that. The offshore wind business looks like it’s gonna be profitable in 2027. And as we all know, and we, we see wind turbine prices, uh, quite a bit in each of our positions. Vestas is the most expensive one on the block, but they’re still winning a whole bunch of orders. And, and Matthew, uh, Vestas globally. I would say is the leader right now, if you look at Siemens GAA and GE Vestas is really winning a lot of the orders. Matthew Stead: Yeah, I think a very strong reputation for quality. Um, I have to say, I’ve got some Vestas turbines behind me, so, um, all paid for by myself. They’ve always been well regarded for their, um, you know, quality of [00:02:00] product. And when I first got into wind, um, you know, probably 15 years ago, you know, they were, they were the leaders at that point in time. And so, you know, quality. Reduces future o and m cost. I think  Rosemary Barnes: it’s not just about like the simple o and m, either it’s the risk that something really bad goes wrong and you’re just stuck with, you know, like a, a whole a hundred turbines that can’t be fixed or, you know, at least a large, a large chunk of them. The more that I work in, in o and m, the more you see, like on occasion when you do have those serial issues that mean, you know, like. Sometimes all the blades in the wind farm have to be replaced or sometimes all the generators or you know, even if it’s not replaced, if you’ve gotta take them all out and do something and put ’em back in, it is just such a massive cost. And, um, reducing the chance that that’s gonna happen is actually really valuable for insurance. And yeah, all sorts of other financial reasons.  Yolanda Padron: And even as an FSA customer, I feel like Vestus has a lot more transparency as to what actually is going on, [00:03:00] on site and more able to, to collaborate on, on like a site to site basis, which is very obviously helping them in getting a lot of return customers. Allen Hall: Yeah. One of the key revenues for Vestus has been the FSA, where almost every project I’ve seen over the last couple of years has had a 2030 year FSA attached to it. Rarely do you see. Order without that, and that’s a long-term revenue stream. The, the thing about Vestus and the complaints that are happening, uh, around vestus are odd because if you look at Siemens Cab Mesa, they’re really struggling to be profitable. And then GE Renova, which is really, really struggling to be profitable and they’re losing several hundred millions of dollars a year. Vestas is bringing in a profit, and, and yet the investors are wanting even more. I, I guess, is, is this just a relationship to the. Where you can invest money today. The stock market going up so high, gold and silver prices are at record highs. Rosemary Barnes: Haven’t they just [00:04:00] crushed?  Allen Hall: They have a little bit. They’ve, they’ve rescinded some, but they’re still at really high numbers, right? So Gold Cross, what? $5,000 and ounce and then, uh, it was it 2000 a year ago? So the, the rise in the value of, of, uh, rear metals is crazy. Is there a plan you think Vestas is changing the way they’re gonna operate? ’cause uh, they’re talking about thinning out the ranks and they do seem to be becoming more vertically integrated with the acquisition of the TPI factories down in Mexico. GPI in India  Rosemary Barnes: before we make it sound too much like a paid segment from investors, I have to say I disagree that they’re like just crushing it with the, the FSAs. I think that the full service agreements are across the board. Perform badly in Australia, at least I think it’s different elsewhere. Um, maybe it’s a good segue into, uh, talk about our event that we’ve got coming up to talk [00:05:00] about, um, the difficult operating conditions in Australia. But I, I think that best as, like everybody else has been surprised at how many things can go wrong in an Australia and wind farm. And, um, I don’t, I I would’ve put them up on a pedestal for. Particularly noteworthy, um, brilliant service with the FSAs. I think, yeah, across the board everyone’s doing a little bit less than they should be, and I have no doubt that they’re also making a whole lot less money on those agreements than what they spent or spending a lot more than what they’re expecting. So I don’t wanna be too harsh in my judgment.  Yolanda Padron: That’s fair. The bar is very low.  Rosemary Barnes: But what I do notice when I go to international events, um, and I, you know, I talk to, I’ve got a lot of ex-colleagues that’s still working in the industry and vest. Stands out as still investing a lot in r and d. And that doesn’t mean like crushing out a new platform every single year or every two years. It’s not that. But they are investing in a lot of new technologies that are more incremental. They’re [00:06:00] looking at bigger technology leaps and um, you know, still investigating stuff like that. Like I think if I was to go back working for an OEM, that’s the kind of work I’d like to do. And investors does seem like it’s the main company that’s still doing a whole lot of that. With the exception of, of the Chinese manufacturers, which are obviously doing like tons and tons of new development. But, um, I don’t have the insight into them like I do with the European ones.  Allen Hall: As you’re listening to this podcast, most of the people on this podcast are traveling to Melbourne, Australia for Woma 26. That’s Wind Energy and M Australia. Big event. Matthew, the numbers are impressive. I’m getting a little bit scared. Run out of food and uh, seats because there is a massive influx in the last 24, 48 hours, which is great to see, but wind energy in Australia. Is huge, and the o and m aspect is one of those key pain points. Matthew Stead: Yeah. I think, uh, thanks to Rosie and Alan, your argument, [00:07:00] um, a little while ago, your argument, which spurred the whole, um, the reason for the conference. Um, you know, the, the lack of, uh, Australian content, the lack of, um, poor. Conferences in Australia. I think unless you’d have that argument, um, this event wouldn’t, wouldn’t be there. Allen Hall: Rosie did bring up that she had been to a number of conferences and so had I that were pretty much useless in terms of take home. What could we be able to use in the world and, and make the world just slightly better from our knowledge and. With all the policy talk and uh, discussion about sort of global warming things that it’s not really useful necessarily in making your operations run more efficiently. And this was what Woma is all about is. Sharing information. Not everybody runs their operations the same. And you can learn from that of the way, uh, others do it. And at the same time, we’re bringing in experts from around the world to talk about some of [00:08:00] those really critical issues. One of them being leading edge erosion. And Rosie’s been doing a lot of work in Australia on leading edge erosion and the complexities around that. Rosie, the leading edge erosion discussion and the panel involved in the people are gonna be on the panel are impressive. What are you looking forward to?  Rosemary Barnes: I’m looking forward to, um, getting the international perspective because leading edge erosion, I mean, there’s heaps of aspects of wind turbine operation that I think are just dramatically different in Australia, but I think leading edge erosion is the one that like really, really jumped out at me. When I was, um, when I moved back to Australia and started looking at inspection reports for wind farms that were like one or two years old, and you see 90, 99% of turbines that have significant erosion like within a couple of years. It’s like, this is, this is not. Like, I’ve never, I’ve never seen this before. It’s clear that no one is designing these products that are gonna peel off [00:09:00] within a couple of years. Um, and so that was what kind of got me thinking, you know what, like Australia is really different. Climatically and in terms of the weather. Um, and so we need to start not just getting our information from overseas, but also relating it back to Australia. So I think that that’s what we’re trying really hard with the conference to do, is to like really ground it on Australian problems and solutions that have worked in Australia, but then draw on, you know, we don’t need to invent every single new product ourselves. Although there will also be. I, I’m very confident that, that we do need new products developed specifically for Australia. Um, but you know, there are a lot of things out there we can really accelerate how quickly we can solve our Australian problems if we know what’s worked overseas in, you know, different places and just get ideas about how things work. So I think that’s a really good mix of, of local and international. Matthew Stead: Yeah, as [00:10:00] we were talking before about, um, registrations, so we had. Definitely over 200 now. Um, and, um, I, I think we just need to warn people that we might need to cap it out. Um, so the venue’s told us two 50 maximum, so getting in quick  Allen Hall: and if you haven’t registered, you need to do so today. Go to WMA 2020 six.com. It’s very easy to do. It’s an inexpensive conference and full of great information. And the one thing you wanna register for also when you’re there is the free Lightning workshop. On the Monday, so this, it will be February 16th. It’s a lightning workshop in the afternoon, and then the, the full event begins Tuesday the 17th, and running through Wednesday the 18th. So you have two and a half full days of o and m. Knowledge sharing.  Matthew Stead: Don’t, don’t forget the workshops. There are two sessions of workshops with three, um, parallel sessions. And also don’t forget the chance to catch up with your buddies. So, uh, on the Monday [00:11:00] night, um, after the Lightning Masterclass, there’s, um, an event, you know, food and wine and drinks, et cetera. And then also on the, the Tuesday after the first day, there’s also a chance to catch up  Allen Hall: and you’ll go to Wilma 2026. Com and register. Now.  Speaker: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Pullman on the park for Wind energy o and m Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management and OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site. Register now at WM a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia is created by Wind professionals for wind professionals. Because this industry needs solutions, not speeches,  Allen Hall: the European Commission [00:12:00] has a message for Chinese wind turbine manufacturers. We are watching. Uh, Brussels just opened an in-depth investigation into Goldwind, that’s one of China’s biggest turbine makers. The concern is really straightforward. European regulators believe Goldwin may have received government subsidies that given it unfair advantage. Over European competitors such as Vestus and Siemens, GOMESA, Nordics, and others, grants preferential tax treatment and below market loans are all on the table. And if confirmed, the EU could impose corrective measures under its foreign subsidies regulation, which is a tool designed to keep the playing field level for everyone doing business in Europe. This has led to a number of heated exchanges in the press between China and the eu. China has, uh, said, Hey, eu, calm down. It’s not that big of a deal. We, and we don’t really do this. And if you wanna point [00:13:00] fingers, uh, the EU has given a lot of money and resources to the wind turbine operations in the eu. So it’s a, a, a bunch of back and forth, which is an odd thing at the moment because China is really trying to penetrate the EU market and the UK market for that matter, offshore in particular. Uh, Matthew, when you watch this go on and, and China obviously being the largest player in wind turbines, uh, there is some. Protection isn’t going into this. China has protected themselves from European manufactured turbines for the most part. Uh, it does seem like the EU has a leg to stand on and saying, Hey, if you’re gonna protect your borders, we’re gonna protect our borders. How does this end up? Does this end up with, uh, China making turbines or getting turbines shipped into EU or. There’s just gonna be a prohibition.  Matthew Stead: Uh, actually, I’m a little bit surprised that this hasn’t happened already. [00:14:00] I mean, there’s obviously plenty of European investigations and I’m a little bit surprised it didn’t happen earlier. Um, I, I guess my expectation is that, you know, this will be done and dusted and we can just move, move forward. Um, you know, my, my guesstimate is that it’ll be showing that, you know, this is all fine and, uh, yeah, just continue as per normal. Um, yep. Maybe, maybe critically. Um, I actually think a bit more competition in the industry is a good thing. Um, and so I think the whole, you know, global industry can, can, can benefit.  Allen Hall: And when we’re talking about, uh, the construction of wind farms in the eu, the Chinese manufacturers always come up because they tend to be somewhere between 30 and 40% less expensive than the European counterparts for basically the same turbine. What is the, the real linchpin there, because it does seem like operators and sted uh, evidently had a project going on where they’re looking at Chinese [00:15:00] turbines, but hasn’t made any decisions about it. There’s not a lot of history on the Chinese turbines. You can’t go back and pull, uh, o and m records. You can’t see reliability rates. You can’t see what their insurance rates have been. And Rosie, I think you’ve talked about this quite a bit. It does seem like the manufacturing capability in China is quite good, but then we see things on LinkedIn quite often. We’re uh, there has been some really massive failures there. How is the EU thinking about this? Is it really a competitive issue at this point, or is it a technology issue? What is the real. Uh, linchpin that it, it is, it everybody is trying to get at.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. Well I think Europe would be crazy to not support their wind industry because China is so big and has, um, you know, so many wind turbine manufacturers now that if Europe doesn’t specifically try to, you know, compete and survive, then I can [00:16:00] imagine no. non-Chinese manufacturers in 10 years time, um, or you know, at least 20, which I think would be a shame because there is a huge, long history of really good engineering, um, in Europe. Yes. Uh, every country supports their manufacturers. China do it in many, maybe most of their export industries. Everybody knows that. Chinese solar panels are subsidized most countries and regions, except that steel is heavily subsidized in, um, in China. And so there are in many countries restrictions on Chinese made wind turbine towers or tariffs on them. Because of that reason, it’s like pretty. It is pretty uncontroversial. Like it’s pretty obvious, right? That um, if you don’t fight, then um, you say, yeah, we’ll accept all these cheap products then, um, you know, because that’s beneficial for our economy to have them cheap. That’s like a short term thing. It’s [00:17:00] a lot easier in a country like Australia where we don’t have competing industries for many of these, um, many of these products, it’s a bit easier to say, yes, we would love cheap solar panels and cheap wind turbines and cheap electric vehicles and cheap batteries. But I mean, even Australia is trying to regain some of some of that, um, manufacturing capability.  Matthew Stead: But Rosie to, I guess Rosie to challenge you there. I mean, it won’t, it to improve the world’s, you know, position if we, you know, continue to drive prices down and drive a bit of innovation.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. If we drive prices down, but not if we drive, um, all competition out of business. And then you’re left with just one country that controls the supply chain for absolutely everything, which they’re already very largely. Do in terms of, you know, like, yeah, batteries, EVs, uh, solar panels, um, heaps of the raw materials, you know, like rare earths and a lot of other critical, um, critical [00:18:00] minerals. But I do think it’s a little bit different for Europe with wind because, um, if that, if that dies, it’s a big chunk of, um, just engineering knowledge that will just. Die with it. I would definitely, especially the countries like Denmark, where it is a, a significant industry for them, I have been a little bit surprised that they haven’t been supporting more the industry through some hard patches. But yeah, let’s, um. It’ll be an interesting next few years. Speaker 6: Delamination and bottomline failures and blades are difficult problems to detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. C-I-C-N-D-T are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their non-destructive test technology penetrates deep to blade materials to find voids [00:19:00] and cracks. Traditional inspections completely. Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. Allen Hall: Well, occasionally the wind industry has a recycling problem and down in Texas this has come to a head, uh, an Attorney General Ken Paxton. We as the Attorney General of Texas has sued global fiberglass solutions and affiliated companies for illegally dumping more than 3000 wind turbine blades in Sweetwater, Texas. Uh, the company was hired to break down and recycle the blades many years ago. Instead, it stockpiled them at two unpermitted disposal sites. The attorney General is seeking civil [00:20:00] penalties, complete removal of the waste and full cleanup costs paid to the state. And Yolanda, you have seen this facility, I’ve seen this facility down by Sweetwater. It is not a small site. It is massively large and has been there for a number of years. I, I guess there hasn’t been anybody willing to do it, and Global Fiberglass Solutions hasn’t stepped up to even start from what I understand. To take care of the problem. Is there a happy outcome of this? Does anybody else step into the, the fray and, and try to clean up these 3000 blades? Yolanda Padron: We were talking a little bit about this offline, but Rosie you mentioned there’s so many companies that can recycle in general, right? We know just in Texas, there’s a lot of smaller companies. That could take on at least part of, of what’s going on here. And I think, I mean, it’s, it’s something that is [00:21:00] affecting the people that are living there. It’s not just an eyesore. I mean, it’s just, I mean, nobody wants their home to be just this big dumping ground. It’s like a graveyard for blades. And it’s so sad to see that this is really affecting people and just their, how they view wind in the area because. Texas does really, really well with wind in general and that area gets a lot of money in. It’s very oftentimes rural areas that don’t get a lot of funding that are getting a lot of funding for schools are getting a lot of funding for hospitals are, are making sure that their roads are paved. Just in general, a lot of jobs are coming into town and it’s, it should be a really great win-win and it’s just really sad to know that it’s come to this point after years and years where it just, all of the pros are outweighed by a huge calm that is a [00:22:00] huge dumping site in the middle of people. General homes,  Rosemary Barnes: are they saying that it’s they’re storing the blades or did they just pretend that they recycled them and actually landfill them? What’s the Or? It’s unclear.  Allen Hall: They didn’t landfill them. I mean, in a sense, they didn’t bury them. They’re just sitting on the surface.  Yolanda Padron: Piled up.  Rosemary Barnes: I think a lot of this comes down to what, what does recycling mean? What’s your definition of it? Um, and it, depending on what your definition is, there absolutely are plenty of, um, companies, you know, like all over. And I’m sure that there are many more in Texas than there would be in, um, yeah, in the Australian regions I’ve looked at. But there’ll be companies that. Um, already a shredding waste of, from multiple sources and putting it into products like concrete for non-structural applications like, um, footpaths or sidewalks, stuff like that. Um, asphalt is another one. And then a little bit more high tech. You get, um, plastic products that [00:23:00] again, aren’t super duper structurally, um, demanding. So like, um. Decking materials or outdoor furniture, or even I saw one company who’s using recycled material in, um, rainwater tanks. I just really feel like any decent project manager could actually given enough money, like I’m, I’m not saying it’s an economic thing to do, like it’ll always be cheaper to landfill them, um, than to do something with them. But if you’ve been given money to recycle them enough money. Any decent project manager could make that happen?  Allen Hall: Well, just down the road is ever Point Services. And Rosemary, I don’t know if I’ve introduced you to ever Point Services, Tyler Goodell, Candace Woods, uh, they are recycling blades in a totally different way. They’re, they’re grinding them down, but they’re end use product is totally different than anything you have seen and all, although that is just getting ramped up from what I understand so far. The product they’re delivering has a [00:24:00] decent commercial value. It’s helping out in other industries. So it’s not just getting mixed with asphalt necessarily. Those 3000 turbine blades have value. They really do. And ever point, I think if they were involved, would turn them into something really useful. So there is the opportunity to recycle these blades by grinding them down in different, in different ways. But there are new markets. For this product and I’m, I’m just a little shocked that no one’s really stepped forward to say, Hey, I, I’ll take those blazes, but because it’s in a lawsuit, I assume that’s the problem. No wants to walk into there and say. Take responsibility for this thing that’s been hanging around for several years at this point.  Rosemary Barnes: I don’t know. I think I would disagree when, when you say those blades have value, I would be highly surprised if someone would just take them and make a profit from them. I would expect if I had 3000 blades in my backyard, I would expect to pay somebody to take them off my hands. Um. That should have been covered by the fee that they were paid for this [00:25:00] recycling, right? So if that money’s gone now, then there is gonna be a challenge in, um, doing something with it. Because I just want to you reiterate that like recycling is not the economic thing to do with wind turbine blades. Now it’s not even the best thing to do in terms of an energy or environmental or climate change, um, consideration. But if you are sure that you don’t want, um, to deal with the physicality of 3000 blades, um, then. You know, you and you’re prepared to pay to get rid of them, then there are definitely things that you can do.  Matthew Stead: Uh, I think this makes me like super angry because really if we look at it more from a social perspective, um, this is. These pictures are shown all over the world, and whenever I talk to someone and say, Hey, yeah, I’m in the wind industry, they say, oh yeah, what about all those blades in Yeah, and the, the stockpile, blah, blah, blah. So really this, this incident has really screwed up the whole global industry. So it may have destroyed parts of Texas, but it’s also destroyed part of [00:26:00] the global industry. Rosemary Barnes: I agree and it’s, it’s crazy because wind turbine blade waste is five to 10% of global composite waste. So the boats and cars and airplanes, um, and other composites are. They’re not piled up in a recognizable form. And so nobody is absolutely outraged that people are, you know, um, disposing of fiberglass boats every year. Um, so yeah, I mean, that, that, that es me too. I have, um, I’ve spent a long time being annoyed about that fact, and I’ve kind of come around to the, the fact that universally people absolutely hate. Wind turbine blades to be wasted and it just needs to be solved. For that reason, it’s not, it doesn’t need to be solved because of the economics. It doesn’t need to be solved because of the environment. It doesn’t need to be solved because of climate change, but it does really need to be solved because of the social perception.  Allen Hall: Well, as North American Wind Farms age, the companies that keep them running. Keep getting bigger. [00:27:00] And Mohan Wind Service, which if you haven’t worked with them, is a Danish turbine service provider. Uh, and they’ve acquired the operating assets of Canada based AC 8 83. And our friends at AC 8 83 have been evidently working behind the scenes to make that deal go through, which is. Awesome. Actually, uh, the deal gives Mulan a local platform for blade repair and turbine services across Canada and the United States, uh, with more than three. Thousand certified technicians in over 35 countries. Muhan says it is confident the long-term growth in North American market will, uh, continue to prosper. So Muhan come in and saying to AC 83 and others, uh, that they’re, uh, gonna be a, a real powerhouse in terms of a service provider in Canada and the United States and acquiring AC 83 is, is one of the good moves. And we know Lars Benson, [00:28:00] who’s run that business, and Yannick Benson who operates that business today. This is a big deal for both of them and the company.  Matthew Stead: Yeah, I mean, uh, Lars is a great guy and I, I think this is wonderful that you get more economies of scale by, you know, these companies growing and it has to be, has to be great for the industry. O obviously, you know, it’s a good thing for, for Lars and, um, Yanick. Um, but yeah. Yeah. Good on them for, for doing this. And you, we need more companies that are larger and able to operate across different industries. I know the seasonality might, might play into it. I don’t know. Maybe not. Um, but, and the more that companies can work across different regions, the better. Allen Hall: Well, it just gives a C 83 a lot of operating power. So as a sort of a small, medium sized business, that’s one of the problems that you try to scale is just a lot of detail. Human resources, all the legal aspects, and. Uh, international travel people coming back and forth all the time. It is just a lot to operate. Muhan gives them all that infrastructure support. So, [00:29:00] uh, the brain powers that lie at AC 8 83 to do great work can do that work. And they have the muhan to come underneath and provide the support and the, the financial stability. Matthew, as you point out, the season is pretty short up in Canada, uh, to make this thing go. So this is really great news and we’re, I think we’re gonna see more. Of this type of structure happen where the companies that have grown and have shown value to the wind industry, regardless of where they’re located at, are gonna become prized possessions and, and larger companies are gonna want to come in and, and acquire them to expand their portfolio at the same time. And there’s value there. I, I think a lot of ISPs around the world have shown themselves to be profitable, even in some really tough economic times. Uh, they’ve had. Done a good job. And it does seem like the industry is rewarding. Those companies that have put the effort in and have shown themselves to be the professionals that AC 83 is. So this, [00:30:00] this is a really great development. And do we see this happening, uh, through 26 and 27? Because I think, I think that’s where the industry’s headed. But I talk to a lot of my counterparts who say, oh, there is no. Everything’s gloomy and doomy, and none of this is gonna happen, and these companies are gonna just fade away. Where do you think this is headed at Matthew?  Matthew Stead: I think, um, we, we’ve done a little bit of work and we’ve been looking at the industry and I think, uh, if you compare it to, you know, construction or, you know, automotive or whatever, I, I think the, there is a, a strong opportunity for the industry to have some consolidation amongst companies. So I think, um, you know, the industry is still a bit of a baby. You know, maybe whatever, 30 years there is still opportunity, um, for consolidation. You know, much like a few of the other more mature industries, like I said. Um, so I, I, I think there’ll be more of this, um, going on the next few years.  Allen Hall: That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. If today’s [00:31:00] discussion sparked any questions or ideas. We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show for Rosie, Yolanda and Matthew. I’m Alan Hall, and we’ll see you here next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

We go left-to-right in this episode featuring federal NDP leadership candidate Heather McPherson (3:00) and farmer/YouTuber/comedian Quick Dick McDick (43:00) presented by Mercedes-Benz Edmonton West.  THIS EPISODE IS PRESENTED BY HANSEN DISTILLERY. HANSEN IS WISHING CANADA'S ATHLETES BEST OF LUCK AT THE 2026 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES. RAISE A GLASS TO TEAM CANADA: https://hansendistillery.com/ MBEW: https://www.mercedes-benz-edmontonwest.ca/ CONNECT with HEATHER: https://www.heathermcpherson.ca/ BUY YOUR FULL HOUSE LOTTERY TICKETS TODAY: https://bit.ly/4sWLHOz 40:00 | At the heart of the Royal Alexandra Hospital's legacy is the CK Hui Heart Centre. We highlight the Centre's reach across Western Canada and a February 27 invitation to be part of a legacy of care.  GET TICKETS to HEARTBEAT HIDEAWAY: https://trellis.org/heartbeat-hideaway-2026 43:00 | Jespo welcomes Canada's most-followed Ag YouTuber,  @QuickDickMcDick , on Canada's Agriculture Day. The fellas chat about mental health, the future of farming (including beef and EVs), Alberta separation, Paul Brandt's cancelled speaking gig, and more.  TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: talk@ryanjespersen.com  CONNECT with QDM: https://quickdickmcdick.ca/ FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

Hybrids aren't the backup plan anymore—they're the headline. We break down Consumer Reports' 2026 winners, from the Civic Hybrid's sharp steering and 44 mpg to the Camry's 48 mpg and old-school tactile controls that make daily driving easier. Subaru's Crosstrek and Forester win on ride quality, visibility, and confidence in bad weather, while Toyota's mid-sized SUV pick nails cargo space and comfort with an easygoing 35 mpg hybrid. For luxury shoppers, the Lexus NX balances a calm cabin with intuitive controls and a hybrid that smooths the surge.Trucks and EVs share the spotlight too. The Ford Maverick proves you can get real utility without parking-lot fatigue, pairing a spacious cabin with hybrid efficiency that saves cash every week. The F-150 continues to deliver with a gem of a V6 and smart touches like a tailgate that doubles as a workbench. On the electric side, Tesla's Model Y refresh aims squarely at daily comfort—acoustic glass, a calmer ride, better materials—while keeping the speed, range, and Supercharger access that define its appeal.We also cover the news drivers need now: recalls for windshield bonding, high-voltage battery risks, failing displays, and rearview camera glitches. A quick VIN check at safercar.gov can save a headache later. Then we have some fun with auction shockers: a $710K Ford GT, a six-figure classic Bronco, and attainable icons like a '49 Chevy 3100 and a '73 Super Beetle that prove charm still sells. Along the way, we touch on dealer trust rankings, shifting work policies at major automakers, and a heartwarming dealership story that turned a driver's clapped-out Civic into a fresh start.Hit play to get smart on what to buy, what to avoid, and what might tempt your heart more than your wallet. If you enjoy the show, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who's shopping their next car.Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!The Lupe' Tortilla RestaurantsLupe Tortilla in Katy, Texas Gulf Coast Auto ShieldPaint protection, tint, and more!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.---- ----- Want more In Wheel Time car talk any time? In Wheel Time is now available on Audacy! Just go to Audacy.com/InWheelTime where ever you are.----- -----Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast provider for the next episode of In Wheel Time Podcast and check out our live multiplatform broadcast every Saturday, 10a - 12nCT simulcasting on Audacy, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and InWheelTime.com.In Wheel Time Podcast can be heard on you mobile device from providers such as:Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music Podcast, Spotify, SiriusXM Podcast, iHeartRadio podcast, TuneIn + Alexa, Podcast Addict, Castro, Castbox, YouTube Podcast and more on your mobile device.Follow InWheelTime.com for the latest updates!Twitter: https://twitter.com/InWheelTimeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/inwheeltime/https://www.youtube.com/inwheeltimehttps://www.Facebook.com/InWheelTimeFor more information about In Wheel Time Podcast, email us at info@inwheeltime.com

February 10, 2026 ~ Liam Rappleye, Auto reporter with The Detroit Free Press joins Kevin to discuss his article: ‘Stellantis takes $26B hit, largest of Detroit 3, on shift away from EVs' Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From boom to brake - we look at what went wrong for EVs in New Zealand, and what needs to happen to get the spark backThe EV slowdown: How Government decisions changed the road ahead Find The Detail on Newsroom or RNZ Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

On this episode of Superlative Podcast, host and aBlogtoWatch founder Ariel Adams sits down with automotive journalist and enthusiast Jonny Lieberman for a wide ranging conversation that connects watches, cars, and emerging technology. From mechanical alarms and G-Shocks to Rivian electric trucks and self-driving systems, Jonny shares firsthand experience living with EVs and explains how autonomy is evolving faster than regulations, including what level three and level four driving actually mean for everyday drivers. The discussion moves through car culture and watch collecting, with a focus on why personality matters more than price. They touch on Porsche Design, Rolex fatigue, accessible enthusiast watches, and the growing overlap between Cars and Coffee crowds and horology fans. Ariel and Jonny also explore how AI is reshaping transportation, why human driving may eventually become a hobby like horseback riding, and what the watch industry can learn from automotive marketing. It is an honest and entertaining look at where machines are headed, why enthusiasts still matter, and how passion connects two worlds built on engineering, design, and emotion.Follow Jonny:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jonnylieberman/ SUPERLATIVE IS NOW ON YOUTUBE! To check out Superlative on Youtube as well as other ABTW content:- YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@ablogtowatch To check out the ABTW Shop where you can see our products inspired by our love of Horology:- Shop ABTW - https://store.ablogtowatch.com/To keep updated with everything Superlative, aBlogtoWatch Weekly, and aBlogtoWatch, check us out on:- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ablogtowatch/- Twitter - https://twitter.com/ABLOGTOWATCH- Website - https://www.ablogtowatch.com/If you enjoy the show please Subscribe, Rate, and Review!

The ground just shifted under the auto industry, and we take you straight to the dealer floor to show what's really moving metal. With the $7,500 EV tax credit gone and emissions targets easing, automakers are recalibrating fast—dialing up hybrids, testing extended-range EVs, and even hinting at new life for V8 performance where demand is loudest. We connect policy changes to showroom choices, price pressure, and the practical hurdles that still stall EV adoption: high MSRPs, thin charging networks, and range that doesn't always meet real commutes.We break down why traditional hybrids are winning hearts and wallets right now. No plugs. Fewer compromises. Better fuel economy without changing habits. Then we dig into extended-range EVs, a sleeper category that pairs electric drive with an onboard generator to put range anxiety on ice while trimming complexity versus plug-in hybrids. PHEVs get a critical look too—those 30-ish electric miles sound great until your round trip or charger access says otherwise. Add in dealership intel on what sits, what sells, and how rigid trim bundles can stifle choice, and you've got a candid view of today's buying reality at the $50,000 average price point.Enthusiasts, we didn't forget you. We celebrate muscle car heritage with a tour of wagon-based builds that borrow glory from icons like the GTO, 442, and Chevelle SS, and talk about why sound, torque, and identity still matter in a multi-powertrain future. To round things out, we map a stack of Mardi Gras road trips across Texas—from packed Galveston nights to family-friendly boardwalks—because the best car talk ends with somewhere to go.If you love practical car advice with a pulse, hit play. Subscribe for more smart takes on new tech, real ownership costs, and the culture that keeps us driving. Share the show with a friend and drop a review—what's your next powertrain and why?Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!The Lupe' Tortilla RestaurantsLupe Tortilla in Katy, Texas Gulf Coast Auto ShieldPaint protection, tint, and more!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.---- ----- Want more In Wheel Time car talk any time? In Wheel Time is now available on Audacy! Just go to Audacy.com/InWheelTime where ever you are.----- -----Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast provider for the next episode of In Wheel Time Podcast and check out our live multiplatform broadcast every Saturday, 10a - 12nCT simulcasting on Audacy, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and InWheelTime.com.In Wheel Time Podcast can be heard on you mobile device from providers such as:Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music Podcast, Spotify, SiriusXM Podcast, iHeartRadio podcast, TuneIn + Alexa, Podcast Addict, Castro, Castbox, YouTube Podcast and more on your mobile device.Follow InWheelTime.com for the latest updates!Twitter: https://twitter.com/InWheelTimeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/inwheeltime/https://www.youtube.com/inwheeltimehttps://www.Facebook.com/InWheelTimeFor more information about In Wheel Time Podcast, email us at info@inwheeltime.com

Tickets are officially on sale for the 104th Running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and in this exclusive Race Industry Week interview, Melissa Eickhoff, CEO of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, takes viewers deep inside one of the most legendary and demanding motorsports events on the planet — the iconic Race to the Clouds.Held at 14,115 feet above sea level, Pikes Peak is unlike any other race in the world. Eickhoff explains how the event continues to evolve its fan experience, expand its global reach, and serve as a proving ground for combustion, electric, and hydrogen vehicle technologies.

In this episode, our guest is Omar Riahi, an EV influencer, author, and customer experience lead at Percepta. Omar shares his personal journey from skeptic to passionate advocate, revealing how EVs are transforming not just transportation, but the entire energy landscape. We discuss the evolution of customer adoption, the economics of vehicle-to-grid systems, and the global momentum toward electric mobility. From charging myths to the rise of EVs in Asia and Europe, Omar brings frontline insight into how seamless customer experience is the key to mass adoption. This episode is a deep dive into how EVs are becoming energy assets and what the frictionless, electrified future looks like. Connect with Sohail Hasnie: Facebook @sohailhasnie X (Twitter) @shasnie LinkedIn @shasnie ADB Blog Sohail Hasnie YouTube @energypreneurs Instagram @energypreneurs Tiktok @energypreneurs

Nevo reports that the Irish car market has crossed a landmark moment. New figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show that 7,319 (Up 48.67% on 2025) electric vehicles were registered in January 2026, meaning electric cars officially outsold petrol cars (7,245) for the first time in a single month. It marks a significant acceleration in a trend that has been building steadily over the past number of years. While electrification was once viewed as a long-term ambition, the January data confirms it is now a present-day reality. This is not the first time electric vehicles have overtaken a traditional fuel type. Back in April 2023, EVs outsold diesel cars for the first time on a monthly basis. That moment proved to be a tipping point. By 2025, electric vehicles accounted for 18.9% of all new car sales, while diesel fell to 17.1%, meaning EVs surpassed diesel for the full year as a whole. What makes the January 2026 figures particularly striking is the scale and speed of growth. Ireland registered more electric vehicles in the first 28 days of January (6,0?? units) than in the entire 12 months of 2020, when just 4,013 EVs were sold nationwide. In effect, more than a year's worth of progress has been compressed into just four weeks! This surge has been driven by several converging factors. Public charging infrastructure continues to expand, consumer understanding of electric ownership has improved, and real-world experience has helped dispel many early misconceptions around range and usability. Perhaps most importantly, the long-discussed issue of price is rapidly fading. The arrival of electric family cars priced between €20,000 and €30,000 has effectively burst the so-called pricing myth that EV's are more expensive. In many segments, electric and combustion vehicles now sit at or near price parity. With the reduction in tech and battery prices, many brands now offer entry into EV ownership at sub €20k with real-world range and comfort. For buyers, the decision increasingly comes down not to cost, but to individual needs, driving patterns and lifestyle. Competition has also intensified dramatically. The entrance and rapid growth of Chinese manufacturers such as MG, BYD, XPeng, and, most recently, Leapmotor, have reshaped the market, putting pressure on established brands to be competitive and accelerate innovation. January sales figures by manufacturer place Hyundai firmly in the lead, with Volkswagen and Kia close behind, while BYD and Renault complete the top five best-selling electric brands. Looking at the five best-selling electric vehicles puts the Volkswagen ID.4 on top, followed by the Hyundai Inster, Kia EV3, Hyundai Kona Electric, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The year ahead will see the arrival of many more exciting new electric vehicles. This means together, the data points to a clear conclusion that Ireland is no longer approaching an electric future; it is firmly entering one! "Seeing the total numbers of EVs sold for January is hugely encouraging. At Nevo, we all hope our RDS-based Electric Vehicle Show and our nationwide Driving Experience events have played a small part in these numbers by giving people real, hands-on exposure. Once drivers experience EVs properly, the numbers tend to speak for themselves," said Simon Andreucetti, Managing Director at Nevo "This is genuinely excellent news. It shows Irish motorists are confident, informed, and ready for change! EVs outselling combustion power in a single month isn't symbolic anymore, it's fact. Choice, pricing parity and real-world experience have finally aligned, and the market is moving decisively forward. Our Nevo YouTube channel growth reflects this trend with more people consuming and engaging with our content monthly," added Derek Reilly, Content & PR Director at Nevo.

Chris Markowski, the Watchdog on Wall Street, discusses the pervasive issues of political corruption, media accountability, and the manipulation of financial narratives by elites. He expresses disappointment in political representatives and the mainstream media's failure to address critical issues, particularly surrounding the Epstein files and the financial crisis. Markowski emphasizes the need for truth and responsibility in both government and media, urging listeners to recognize the importance of accountability and the dangers of complacency in the face of corruption.

Nearly 100 per cent of Norway's new car sales last year were electric. That was achieved without a ban on gas-powered vehicles. As Canada scraps its EV mandate, it may want to bolster incentives and policy to be more like Norway. Plus, Chinese brand EVs are coming to Canada and potentially shifting the market into a different gear.

This week on America on the Road, co-host Chris Teague joins host Jack Nerad as they dive into the latest automotive news, two compelling road tests, and an insightful engineering-focused interview. Jack reviews the high-performance Maserati Grecale Trofeo, a compact luxury SUV that makes the most of its supercar roots, while Chris drives the all-new 2026 Toyota Crown Signia hybrid, a premium crossover blending efficiency and sophistication. Jack also sits down with Zach Walker, chief engineer of the 2026 Lucid Gravity SUV, to discuss its innovative design, advanced technology, and how it pushes the boundaries of electric mobility.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled the government's new auto strategy – which pulls the plug on the EV sales mandate, but includes measures to encourage Canadians to buy EVs and companies to build and sell those cars here.Host Catherine Cullen asks Industry Minister Mélanie Joly why taxpayers should continue to spend money to help automakers. Then, auto industry expert Greig Mordue explains how auto makers may react, and climate scientist Simon Donner weighs in on whether the policy will result in more EVs on Canadian roads. After that, Kathleen Petty, the host of CBC political podcast West of Centre, explains why Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is demanding more say over judicial appointments as concerns grow over Alberta's separatist movement — and its leaders meeting with Trump Republicans in Washington.Plus, hundreds of politicos gathered in Ottawa this week to commemorate the 20th anniversary of former prime minister Stephen Harper forming government. Harper's official portrait artist Phil Richards, as well as Harper biographer John Ibbitson and Toronto Star bureau chief Tonda MacCharles discuss what the painting tells us about Harper, his legacy and whether he might return to public life as separatism brews in his home province, Alberta.Finally, the federal government has said it is gearing up to revive online harms legislation which could include Australia-like age restrictions on social media use. Josephine Maharaj, a 12th grader who testified at a parliamentary committee on online safety this week, and law professor Suzie Dunn tell host Catherine Cullen what they think the government should do to make the internet safer.This episode features the voices of:Mélanie Joly, Minister of IndustryGreig Mordue, associate professor at W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology at McMaster UniversitySimon Donner, climate scientist and professor at the University of British ColumbiaKathleen Petty, host of CBC political podcast West of CentrePhil Richards, Canadian artistJohn Ibbitson, journalist and author of "Stephen Harper"Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa bureau chief for the Toronto StarJosephine Maharaj, youth rights advocate with Children First Canada.Suzie Dunn, interim director of the Law & Technology Institute at Dalhousie University

This week: Premier David Eby joins us to talk about Surrey's growing extortion problem, how far he's willing to go to keep the Vancouver Whitecaps in the city long-term, and whether the DRIPA amendment could turn into a confidence issue (1:10) Keith Baldrey walks us through what to expect from the upcoming Throne Speech and the tone of the spring legislative session (17:05) Zack Spencer explains Ottawa's shift on electric vehicle mandates and what the arrival of Chinese-made EVs means for Canadian consumers and industry (32:34) Former Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver Grizzlies owner Arthur Griffiths shares a candid look at the realities of owning a modern professional sports franchise in Vancouver (46:09) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plus: Shares in Jeep-maker Stellantis plunge on disappointing demand for its EVs. And markets digest another delayed jobs report. Daniel Bach hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week's episode, we discuss Tesla getting hit hard by the Epstein files, Roadster is still alive, new Chinese EVs, and more. The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek's YouTube channel. As a reminder, we'll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: Two Tesla board members are all over the Epstein files: what happens next? Tesla (TSLA) can't find the bottom in Europe as 2026 starts with another brutal decline Tesla launches new Model Y AWD at $41,990 — just $2,000 more than base Tesla files new Roadster trademark with new silhouette Xpeng reveals first images of GX flagship SUV with Range Rover styling and steer-by-wire Xiaomi reveals 990-horsepower YU7 GT performance SUV with 186 mph top speed The world's first sodium-ion battery EV is here and it could be a game changer Here's the live stream for today's episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET: https://www.youtube.com/live/ADzn1KTTUys

Precious metals had an incredible run in 2025, and early 2026 continued the momentum. But what we've just seen is something very few investors were prepared for: 20–40% pullbacks in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium in a matter of days.In this episode, Gabriel Shahin, CFP®, breaks down what's really happening in the commodities and precious metals markets, why the volatility has been more extreme than equities, and—most importantly—what investors should not be doing right now.What we cover in this episode: • Why gold, silver, platinum, and palladium surged in 2025 • The real reasons behind the recent sharp pullbacks • Why chasing precious metals after massive gains is dangerous • Gold vs silver vs platinum vs palladium—what's actually driving demand • The role of dollar devaluation, central banks, and geopolitics • How AI, solar, hydrogen, and EVs affect metals differently • Why metals move in trends—and why investors keep buying at the wrong time • The truth about “gold to $10,000” narratives • How fear, headlines, and social media fuel bad investment decisionsPrecious metals are not magic investments. They are volatile, cyclical, and often driven by emotion—not fundamentals. Buying after massive run-ups and during hysteria is how long-term wealth gets destroyed.A small allocation can make sense. Betting your future on commodities because of FOMO does not.This episode is a reality check for anyone feeling tempted to chase gold or metals after headline gains. Volatility cuts both ways—and discipline always matters more than excitement.Stay diversified. Stay rational. And don't gamble with decades of hard work.

En este episodio de Wall Street Colada, te traemos las claves que están moviendo los mercados en una jornada marcada por resultados, giros estratégicos y nuevas apuestas en inteligencia artificial:

Let me ask you something.   If the future is electric… why does every new vehicle rolling into dealerships look tougher, bigger, and more ready for adventure than ever?   That contradiction isn't an accident.   In this episode, I walk through the strange reality of today's auto industry — where rugged SUVs and overlanding rigs are actually helping fund the electric future everyone keeps talking about.   We'll talk about:   Why big SUVs make the kind of money EVs still can't How the overlanding trend is more about possibility than actual off-roading Why manufacturers finally stopped letting the aftermarket take all the profit How modern safety tech makes these bigger vehicles work for real families And why driver-assist systems are less about self-driving and more about trust and fatigue     This isn't a tech lecture or an auto show recap. It's a look at how the industry is really surviving the transition — and why the road to electrification looks a lot more rugged than you might expect.   It's a strange time to be a car buyer. And a fascinating time to connect the dots.   Thanks for listening.

(February 05, 2026) Host of ‘How to Money’ Joel Larsgaard joins the show to discuss Americans refusing to reduce their travel budgets, Chinse EVs, and in-car ads incoming. The treaty limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear arms expired… what to know. Why a 2026 World Cup boycott is unlikely to be successful.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Manufacturing Hub, Vlad Romanov and Dave Griffith sit down with David for a practical, operator grounded conversation about industrial data, modernization, and what it actually takes to turn plant floor signals into business decisions. David has spent more than two decades in manufacturing across automotive, solar, and electric vehicles, and his story is a familiar one for a lot of us. He walked into a plant thinking he was there for a project, discovered PLCs in real time, and never left the factory world. From early days wiring up a SQL Server to pull line data instead of sending people out with stopwatches, to leading data and analytics and shaping MES and reporting strategy, this conversation stays focused on the messy middle where most factories live.A big theme here is that collecting data is not the same thing as creating information. As tooling has improved, connectivity, historians, SCADA, cloud storage, MQTT, and the modern ecosystem have made it easier to get signals out of machines. The hard part is deciding what matters, aligning stakeholders, and creating context that survives across teams and projects. David breaks down how real progress often starts with simple visibility, what is ruining your day, what is the biggest safety risk, what is the recurring quality miss, what is the downtime story you do not trust, then builds from there using workshops and iterative delivery instead of giant multi year “boil the ocean” programs.We also get into Unified Namespace, why it resonates with people who have been burned by tightly coupled ISA style integrations, and why change management is the hidden cost. If you are exploring UNS, this episode highlights the difference between drawing the box on a whiteboard and getting a whole organization to actually adopt consistent naming, context, and ownership. Then we finish with a grounded take on industrial AI. No hype, no doom. Just a realistic view of where AI helps today, where it breaks, and why context windows, documentation quality, and domain expertise still decide whether results are useful or dangerous.Timestamps00:00:00 Welcome and the month theme on technology modernization00:02:10 David's background from automotive and the Tesla Fremont NUMMI era to data leadership00:05:10 The moment data became “real” and why proactive visibility drives safety and outcomes00:07:10 How Kaizen and Toyota Production System style problem solving creates demand for data00:11:50 Why modern tooling makes collection easier and why budget and commitment still decide success00:16:10 Starting points that work in the real world and the simplest visibility model that scales00:18:20 Unified Namespace explained through decoupling, context, and why the first attempt often fails00:23:50 Who really uses the data, operators, quality, engineering, and the “next factory” teams00:29:10 Defining KPIs when nobody has answers and using workshops to force prioritization00:34:20 What rollouts actually take, machine states, data structures, controls changes, and iteration00:40:10 Industrial AI reality check, where it helps today and why it is not running your factory00:51:10 Predicting the next few years, consolidation, pricing, and better integration with agentsAbout the hostsVlad Romanov is an industrial automation and manufacturing leader with over a decade of plant floor experience across major manufacturers. He is the founder of Joltek, where he helps teams modernize operations through IT and OT architecture, integration, reliability focused execution, and practical upskilling that actually sticks. Joltek works with manufacturers who need real outcomes, not buzzwords, and the work spans controls, data, networking, and operational performance.Dave Griffith is the co host of Manufacturing Hub and works at the intersection of manufacturing operations, technology modernization, and practical delivery. He focuses on helping teams bridge the gap between “we want data” and “we can run this plant better next quarter.”About the guestDavid has 25 plus years of manufacturing experience spanning automotive, solar manufacturing, and EVs. He started in plant floor automation and conveyance projects, then moved deeper into industrial data, MES, and analytics leadership. His recent work includes leading data and analytics, defining KPI strategy, and building the layers required to turn raw plant signals into usable business information.Links from Joltekhttps://www.joltek.com/blog/mastering-unified-namespace-uns-a-guide-to-data-driven-manufacturing-transformationhttps://www.joltek.com/blog/ultimate-guide-mqtt-manufacturingSubscribe for more conversations on manufacturing modernization, industrial data architecture, MES realities, and what works on the plant floor when the budget, people, and legacy systems are all real.

Bombshell charges against Toronto Police. Seven active members and one retired officer are accused of bribery, drug trafficking, and robbery in a widespread investigation that includes an attempted murder and organized crime. It's one of the worst cases of police corruption in Canadian history.Also: Ottawa sets aside billions of dollars to help Canada's auto sector, hit hard by U.S. tariffs. The plan reintroduces consumer incentives for EVs, and says goodbye to EV mandates. The auto sector is chuffed. Environmentalists are not.And: Mystery disappearance. The frantic Arizona search to find Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of American journalist and popular morning television personality Savannah Guthrie, and the bizarre circumstances surrounding the case.Plus: Key U.S. - Russia nuclear treaty ends, Canadian delegation in Greenland, hockey's biggest rivalry, and more.

Host of ‘How to Money’ Joel Larsgaard joins the show to discuss Americans refusing to reduce their travel budgets, Chinse EVs, and in-car ads incoming.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured  This was always going to be bad—just not this bad. Forced EV mandates turned into one of the most expensive industrial blunders in modern auto history. Since 2022, major U.S. and European automakers have burned through an estimated $114 billion on EV programs, with legacy brands alone losing over $83 billion.When subsidies vanished, demand collapsed. Inventory piled up. Losses exploded. EVs didn't fail because of innovation—they failed because consumers were pushed, not persuaded.EVs have a place, but it's a niche—not a mandate. The lesson is simple: don't force people to buy what they don't want.

What if the future of clean energy isn't decided in Washington, Brussels, or Beijing, but in Lagos, Nairobi, and Addis Ababa? Are we underestimating how fast the Global South is leapfrogging fossil fuels? And what happens when clean energy becomes the cheapest, fastest path to development, not a climate sacrifice?In this episode of Cleaning Up, Michael Liebreich is joined for a third time by Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and UN Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN Energy. Together, they explore how Africa and the wider Global South are quietly reshaping the global energy transition, from rapid growth in solar, storage, mini-grids, and EVs to bold policy moves that many developed economies haven't dared to make.They dive into why energy access is about dignity, health, and gender equality; why finance, not technology, is the real bottleneck; and how local capital, data, and innovation could determine whether “Most of World” powers its future with clean energy or fossil fuels.Leadership Circle:Cleaning Up is supported by the Leadership Circle, and its founding members: Actis, Alcazar Energy, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schneider Electric, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information on the Leadership Circle, please visit https://www.cleaningup.live.Links and more:Sustainable Energy For All: https://www.seforall.orgDamilola's past appearances on Cleaning Up:https://youtu.be/TbN1Y1C0idohttps://youtu.be/VcpNOmm1pMwBan Ki-moon on Cleaning Up: https://youtu.be/B14_MeRhfBwThe Sierra Leone Documentary: https://youtu.be/z-5QjSfy2SMClemens Calice on Cleaning Up: https://youtu.be/urmP7zN6n04Alain Ebobissé on Cleaning Up: https://youtu.be/ISTvp0BQz3E

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger Picture CA is a disaster, Newsom ran it into the ground follow the great reset and the green new scam. Now people and business are escaping. Walmart is leaving. Energy is the key to a strong manufacturing economy. Poland ramps up on gold. Gold has now overtaken the treasuries, everything is changing. The [DS] is panicking, they don’t have the people behind them like in 2020. Now they are left with their paid agitators. Obama, Clinton and Hollywood are preparing for chaos for the midterms. They have already put out the call. At the same time Trump is exposing Russia hoax, the rigging of the election and the J6 insurrection that the [DS] had against Trump. The D’s are in trouble Trump is putting pressure on the RINOs in the Senate to push the Save Act. Once this is done, it is game over. The D’s will push everything. Message was sent that the plan is in motion. Economy  (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); https://twitter.com/EnergyAbsurdity/status/2016553623270883769?s=20   non-viable alternatives to fossil fuels over the last 30 years: #Wind, #Solar, and #EVs. Despite all those TRILLIONS wasted, fossil fuels now account for an even HIGHER PERCENTAGE – 83% – of primary energy than they did 30 years ago. We must stop throwing away our children’s and grandchildren’s futures on false alternatives that simply do not and cannot work. https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2016793453007339819?s=20    be paying the LOWEST INTEREST RATE OF ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Most of these countries are low interest rate paying cash machines, thought of as elegant, solid, and prime, only because the U.S.A. allows them to be. The Tariffs being charged to them, while bringing in $BILLIONS to us, still allows most of them to have a significant trade surplus, though much smaller, with our beautiful, formerly abused Country. In other words, I have been very nice, kind, and gentle to countries all over the World. With a mere flip of the pen, $BILLIONS more would come into the U.S.A., and these countries would have to go back to making money the old fashioned way, not on the back of America. I hope they all appreciate, although many don't, what our great Country has done for them. The Fed should substantially lower interest rates, NOW! Tariffs have made America strong and powerful again, far stronger and more powerful than any other Nation. Commensurate with this strength, both financial and otherwise, WE SHOULD BE PAYING LOWER INTEREST RATES THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP https://twitter.com/JoeLang51440671/status/2016559031574311138?s=20 https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2016890828925313192?s=20  TRIPLED since Q4 2019, driven by aggressive purchases by central banks and rising prices. Over this period, central banks have added ~4,500 tonnes of gold, including unreported purchases. At the same time, foreign Treasury holdings have remained unchanged. Gold is redefining the global monetary system. Central banks maintain FX reserves—typically a mix of currencies, bonds, and assets like gold—to stabilize their currencies, manage liquidity, and hedge against economic shocks. U.S. Treasuries have long been the go-to asset because they’re considered ultra-safe, highly liquid, and backed by the world’s dominant reserve currency (the U.S. dollar, which still accounts for about 57% of global reserves). Gold, on the other hand, is a “neutral” asset: it’s not tied to any single government’s policies, can’t be printed at will, and serves as a hedge against inflation, currency debasement, and geopolitical risks.This crossover isn’t just a blip—it’s a structural change driven by several factors: Key Driver Explanation Impact Geopolitical Tensions and Sanctions Events like the Russia-Ukraine war (leading to frozen Russian assets) and U.S. actions (e.g., tariffs, interventions in Venezuela) have eroded trust in dollar-denominated assets. Countries fear their reserves could be seized or devalued overnight. theguardian.com Accelerates “de-dollarization” efforts, especially among BRICS nations (e.g., China, Russia, India), which now buy gold at 3–5 times pre-2022 levels, averaging 60 tons per month. finance.yahoo.com Gold’s share in reserves has doubled to over 25% in the past decade. newsmax.com Rising Gold Prices and Diversification Gold’s price surge (up 70% in 2025 alone) mechanically boosts its reserve value, but central banks are actively adding to holdings rather than selling Treasuries outright. mining.com This reflects a pivot away from U.S. debt amid concerns over America’s $35+ trillion national debt, persistent inflation, and fiscal policies under the Trump administration. fundssociety.com Gold is now the second-largest reserve asset after the dollar (overtaking the euro in 2024), signaling a re-regionalization of global finance where gold absorbs outflows from U.S. bonds. lfde.com The gold and U.S. debt markets are similarly sized (~$25–30 trillion each), making this shift feasible without massive disruptions. Central Bank Strategy Emerging market central banks (e.g., People’s Bank of China, Central Bank of Russia) are prioritizing gold for stability in a multipolar world, while developed banks hold steady. americanhartfordgold.com Net purchases hit 1,000+ tonnes in 2025, with forecasts for similar levels in 2026. gold.org Could push gold prices higher—analysts at Goldman Sachs see $5,400/oz by end-2026, while extreme scenarios (full USD reserve loss) speculate $39,000–$184,000/oz if gold backs global money supply. vaneck.com This isn’t about ditching the dollar entirely but reducing over-reliance.   If trends continue, it could lead to sustained gold demand, higher prices, and a more fragmented international financial landscape. Political/Rights  DOGE Geopolitical https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2016915491194057147?s=20  https://twitter.com/MarioBojic/status/2016846881079300384?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2016915405327962562?s=20   of China, Russia and Iran.    EU adds Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to terrorist list The European Union has added Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its terrorist list in response to Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protesters in recent weeks. The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said EU foreign ministers took the “decisive step” because “repression cannot go unanswered”. She said ahead of the decision that the move would put the IRGC – a major military, economic and political force in Iran – on the same level as jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Source: bbc.com   War/Peace https://twitter.com/ianellisjones/status/2015933550822883607?s=20 https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2016654714071285944?s=20 Anti-air warfare (AAW): Defending against aircraft, missiles, and drones using its Aegis Combat System, which integrates radar, sensors, and weapons for tracking and engaging threats. Anti-submarine warfare (ASW): Detecting and neutralizing submarines with sonar systems, torpedoes, and embarked MH-60R Seahawk helicopters. Anti-surface warfare (ASuW): Engaging enemy ships or land targets with guns, missiles, and other weapons. Strike warfare: Launching long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles for precision strikes on ground targets. Ballistic missile defense (BMD): Intercepting ballistic missiles in flight, depending on configuration. Additional support roles: Maritime security, search and rescue, and intelligence gathering. https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2016914233233981950?s=20  right after reports of massive Israeli/US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, this is Moscow quietly confirming the hits while trying to de-escalate. Bushehr is Iran's only operating nuclear power reactor (Russian-built, ironically). If it got damaged or threatened, we’d be looking at Chernobyl-level fallout risks. Putin playing both sides: backing Tehran rhetorically but signaling “don’t go too far” to Washington/Jerusalem.   https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2016697707256025533?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2016934089165853048?s=20      Medical/False Flags [DS] Agenda IT BEGINS: Zohran Mamdani Announces Plans to ‘Tax the Wealthy' to Compensate for NYC Budget Deficit (VIDEO) Well that was fast. Zohran Mamdani has been mayor of New York City for less than a month and he is already talking about raising taxes on the ‘wealthy' to make up the city's budget deficit, which he claims is on par with the Great Recession. Get ready to see a lot of Uhauls leaving the city. CNBC reports: New York Mayor Mamdani says city must hike taxes on wealthy to fill $12 billion deficit New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday said the city's wealthiest must pay more in taxes to help fill the staggering budget deficit of more than $12 billion that he was left by his predecessor. “This is at a scale that's actually greater than what we saw here in New York City during the Great Recession,” Mamdani said of that budget hole during an interview with CNBC “Squawk Box” co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin at City Hall.   Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2016689992932749554?s=20 https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/2016622314306109944?s=20 https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2016825781926662360?s=20   https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/2016863073173114959?s=20   https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/2016855148723593379?s=20 https://twitter.com/christopherrufo/status/2016702846822207663?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricTeetsel/status/2016681981887623280?s=20 https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/2016688511017947273?s=20 benevolent and humble servant of the oppressed. Then when it turns out — as it literally always does — that he was actually a violent unhinged degenerate weirdo, they will immediately pivot and insist that his character and personal life don’t matter actually. We were told Alex Pretti had no criminal record but we now have video of him spitting on and attacking ICE agents Was he charged for this? https://twitter.com/StevenCheung47/status/2016702063334334904?s=20   https://twitter.com/StevenCheung47/status/2016714718430310577?s=20 https://twitter.com/StevenCheung47/status/2016712434606559516?s=20 https://twitter.com/StevenCheung47/status/2016708027559141441?s=20 https://twitter.com/StevenCheung47/status/2016704306401976345?s=20 https://twitter.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/2016734414537990436?s=20 https://twitter.com/Mollyploofkins/status/2016377949121884259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2016377949121884259%7Ctwgr%5Eb6afd1fffe8094942ed0a2c48dbd21175293b47b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fwatch-has-been-actress-molly-ringwald-claims-trump%2F   https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/2016691592619516200?s=20   “But the rest of us would survive… This is the time for a revolution.” Brandon Johnson Says He's Coordinating With Other Democrat Mayors To Thwart ICE Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson admitted Wednesday he was “in regular communication” with other mayors leading so-called “sanctuary cities” in efforts to impede enforcement of federal immigration laws. “To respond to the operation in Chicago, I leaned heavily on other cities' responses, like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass shared her experience governing while the city was in Trump's crosshairs,” Johnson said. “We've been in regular communication both at the executive level and the staff level with cities like Minneapolis and Portland, Oakland, Boston, and Denver and Baltimore to learn from each other's experiences and develop strategies to protect our constituents.” Source: dailycaller.com   https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2016645995606552671?s=20 https://twitter.com/bitchuneedsoap/status/2016520711951564977?s=20   https://twitter.com/StephenM/status/2016662505930584574?s=20   President Trump's Plan BREAKING: ICE and CBP to DRAW-DOWN Number of Forces in Minnesota After Tom Homan Strikes Deal with State Officials – Here Are the Details (VIDEO) https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2016865706126545214?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2016865706126545214%7Ctwgr%5Ef45391945d583495415892fba4a2de7da17713e7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fbreaking-ice-cbp-draw-down-number-forces-minnesota%2F   just 3 days! Tom Homan means business. https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2016867645958529115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2016867645958529115%7Ctwgr%5Ef45391945d583495415892fba4a2de7da17713e7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fbreaking-ice-cbp-draw-down-number-forces-minnesota%2F   Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2016868888491761913?s=20  https://twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/2016584955472838709 https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2016737774288654360?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2016938140326645996?s=20   https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/2016868004798124447?s=20   https://twitter.com/FlipCrypt/status/2016359757557141542?s=20  court” “How do you set the stage” The raid showed pictures of files, one was in a bathroom, and another a stage. Funny because Hilary deleted 600k emails, from a server, kept in her bathroom. What would it look like if we “had it all” How do you set the stage? How do you inject evidence into a Grand Jury conspiracy case for Russiagate? I think a lot of the comms right now, and the actions around the country show preparation for this Grand Jury to conclude. It could take weeks, or even months. But my bet is those boxes set on the stage are Russiagate and beyond. The boxes in the bathroom are Hiliary’s emails, and currently, a grand jury is having a look at it all. https://twitter.com/FultonCo_GA_GOP/status/2016671877297488352?s=20 County Board of Elections literally denied these requests. The Georgia State Election Board has been trying for 4 years to get the records.  Including issuing a subpoena for the ballots and other records.  And ALL of those efforts have failed.  Until today. I applaud Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for finally searching for and retrieving the records from the 2020 election that the U.S. Attorney General under federal law is entitled to receive and review.  It is my hope that the FBI is in the process of getting every box of 2020 election materials in that warehouse to be able to piece together, once and for all, the truth about 2020. I am dedicated to making sure to the best of my ability that elections in Fulton County are accurate.  Let's hope this starts a new chapter in Fulton County for transparency and accountability.” Julie Adams Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections Republican Party Appointee  Why did trump start in a red state.    https://twitter.com/keithedwards/status/2016671823870513436?s=20 Materials Sought in Fulton County FBI Warrant Revealed – A Difficult Road Lies Ahead for Fulton County Officials FBI Agents seized over 700 boxes worth of documents and brought them north to Virginia in two tractor trailers  https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/2016701882576560547?s=20   utilized during the 2020 General Election in Fulton County All ballot images produced during the original ballot count beginning on November 3, 2020, THE RECOUNT, and any other ballot images All voter rolls from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County from absentee, early voting, in person, and any other voter roll that indicates voters: to whom an absentee ballot was issued, from whom an absentee ballot was received, or who participated in advanced voting or election day voting Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/2016665638778143047?s=20   years ago. Fulton County refused. Excerpts from witness affidavits include: Susan Voyles, 20-year election official: “Pristine” ballots “difference in the texture of the paper” with “a different feel” and “no markings” and approximately “98% for Joe Biden.” Georgia Democrat observer: “Hundreds of ballots with no folds or creases. Perfect black bubbles. All for Biden.” Another Georgia Democrat: “All had perfect black bubbles and were all Biden. I heard ‘Biden' over 500 times in a row.” @VoterGa has been fighting in court for six years just to inspect these ballots. Why was Fulton County so determined to keep them hidden?? https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/2016706788351971434?s=20     https://twitter.com/drawandstrike/status/2016705043144003652?s=20   AND INCLUDING THE JACK SMITH SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE. And the first thing that happens when you end up in election related litigation is you are given a PRESERVATION ORDER FROM THE COURT. So NO, Fulton County officials did not destroy these ballots, or tapes or any other federal election records THAT THEY ALREADY ADMITTED TO HAVING IN OFFCIAL COURT RULINGS BEGINNING 5 YEARS AGO.  https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/2016902941836198297?s=20 https://twitter.com/PatriotXV11/status/2016713624061116652?s=20 https://twitter.com/DAGToddBlanche/status/2016663357089001566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2016663357089001566%7Ctwgr%5E18c7aab2309ab32958cb900c1fa5f6df8f16003a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fbreaking-president-trump-announces-first-ever-assistant-attorney%2F     https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2016594714569441286?s=20 https://twitter.com/profstonge/status/2016901410441289982?s=20 https://twitter.com/DoWCTO/status/2016577329393242364?s=20 3800 Q !!Hs1Jq13jV6 ID: e6ce6c No.7943347 Jan 28 2020 14:46:22 (EST) DurhamBoat.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_boat Anons found the subtle hint dropped in the beginning. Think Durham start. Think ‘Q’ start. You have more than you know. Q 1 Anonymous ID: BQ7V3bcW No.147012719 Oct 28 2017 15:44:28 (EST) Anonymous ID: gb953qGI No.147005381 Oct 28 2017 14:33:50 (EST) >>146981635 Hillary Clinton will be arrested between 7:45 AM – 8:30 AM EST on Monday – the morning on Oct 30, 2017. >>147005381 HRC extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M's will conduct the operation while NG activated. Proof check: Locate a NG member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities. 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