What is this? š„²
$NKE
Reuters - Exclusive: How China built its āManhattan Projectā to rival the West in AI chips
$ASML.AS
Reuters has published an article describing how china has managed to build a prototype EUV machine for producing state of the art semiconductor chips. No chips have been produced yet though.
Chinese scientists, backed by a six-year state initiative, have secretly built and begun testing a crude but operational prototype EUV lithography machine in a Shenzhen lab. Apparently they reverseāengineered technology from ASML and parts salvaged from older Western tools. The machine, described as Chinaās āManhattan Projectā for semiconductors, can generate EUV light but has not yet produced working chips. Beijingās goal is chip production by 2028, though people involved see 2030 as more realistic, still years earlier than many analysts expected.
The project relies heavily on Chineseāborn former ASML engineers working under aliases, aggressive global recruitment with large bonuses, and a nationwide network of institutes and companies coordinated by Huawei, whose engineers often live onāsite under strict security.
Chinaās main bottleneck is reproducing ultraāprecise optics like those supplied to ASML by Carl Zeiss, so research institutes such as CIOMP and the Shanghai Institute of Optics are racing to develop domestic alternatives while teams of young engineers painstakingly reverseāengineer EUV and DUV components sourced via secondary markets and intermediaries despite U.S.-led export controls.
I'm not worried yet.
Source (paywall):
Bought $ASML.AS $CCO.TO $META
You know what show ended right when it should have?
Breaking Bad, of course.
nostr:nevent1qqsg6xzzl5gpdmxp5k3kgmr59086e3vk835tzacdt5llnklt664jrfchg3xzh
The Wire
Mad Men
WSJ - Meet the Teens Investing in Stocks for Their Future Home and Retirement
Interesting article which describes how some U.S. teenagers actively invests in stocks and crypto, often with parental guidance and long-term goals.
One of the teenagers in the article is 13 years old. I sure wasn't 13 when I made my first investment which was in an actively managed fund. I was a lot older.
Platforms like Greenlight report a sharp rise in trades by minors and note that more kids are setting up automatic weekly contributions, suggesting a focus on steady, goalāoriented investing rather than dayātrading meme stocks.
Pros and cons here. It's good more people take an active approach to saving and investing for sure, at the same time I think children should be able to be children during their childhood.
Source (paywall):
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/teens-investing-stocks-crypto-2271c793
Kazakhstan National Bank is planning to buy Bitcoin and other crypto!
Great news! Up to $300 million in total...
National Bank chairman Timur Suleimenov clarifies that the potential investments concern the National Bankās own foreign exchange reserves, not the sovereign National Fund, and that within these reserves a separate portfolio has been set up for high-tech stocks and digital financial instruments, including crypto assets, with a possible allocation of up to 300 million dollars but no obligation to deploy the full amount.ā
Suleimenov stresses that, after the recent downturn across the crypto and broader digital asset market, the bank will only act when solid investment opportunities appear, relying on thorough analysis and not ārunning headlongā into crypto; for now, legal and infrastructure frameworks are prepared, but decisions are deliberately delayed until market conditions stabilize.
Source:
Markets reacting to Tiƫsto playing trance again!
Tiƫsto returning to trance? Please, mother of God let this be true!
I forgive you for every single shitty track you've put out the last 18 years if you give us that magik again. Please Tijs, please! ā„ļø
Lunatic Asylum - The Meltdown
Very fitting choice of track considering the turmoil this week. This trance classic goes hard and fast just like the markets.
Please Jensen wear a awesome leather jacket. The market depends on it.
$NVDA
There's still demand for older GPUs..
$NVDA $TSM $ASML.AS
RosalĆa - Berghain (feat. Bjƶrk & Yves Tumor)
https://blossom.primal.net/744469dc529da139c43b65c3c64ff13429538b097ae483dc043bab6da78c4294.webp
Now this is one piece of incredible music and video. Not sure how I'd describe the music. I guess it contains elements from different styles which are blended in a perfectly seamless way. Add different languages and one of the best videos for years. Pure dynamite!
Alpha Arena - AI trading
Some company called Nof1 has created a benchmark to measure how well different LLMs invest in crypto. Interesting! Big difference between the best and worst performers.
Currently these models are competing
Claude 4.5 Sonnet
DeepSeek V3.1 Chat
Gemini 2.5 Pro
GPT 5
Grok 4
Qwen 3 Max
Site
50 Cent adjusted for inflation
Very funny and sad at the same time.
HermĆØs - SS26 Women's
Rick Owens - SS26 Women's - Temple
Gucci Mane - Episodes
New album from a favourite rapper of mine. Burrr! Burrr! Burrr!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgMPTovU80&list=OLAK5uy_ls0X0z6b6xR2KNe2RUThwCVIGSE2bYKAc
Bitcoin down. Made a small purchase. I mean, it's been a great day in many ways so why not?
Sparrow v2.3.0 released with:
Send to Silent Payments
Pay to DNS address
Min fee rate from server
And more: https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/releases/tag/2.3.0
https://sparrowwallet.com/download/
The best out there for sure! Thanks for all your hard work!
Gamers Nexus - The NVIDIA AI GPU Black Market
GM investigate the black market for Nvidia GPUs by going to China and meeting people who donāt only talk the talk, but also walk the walk.
Looks very interesting. A whopping 3,5 hours! š
Havenāt watched it myself yet due to holiday, but GM are solid!
$NVDA #ai
Georgia š¬šŖ - Wine and crypto (?) country
...and boy is it beautiful!
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Georgia.
Went there for nature, culture and history. Got that and almost some bitcoin too.
Tbilisi, the capital, is a city which has numerous architectural styles. I'm no expert, but some buildings seem to be medieval, some Art Nouveau, classic Stalinist represented of course and modern architecture as well. Quite an interesting mix.
The aspirations to join EU and NATO are seen everywhere, not just people's balconies. Speaking of people I found them very friendly.
Food, I love khinkali and khachapuri and I think you'll love them too! No gourmet restaurants on this trip though.
Unfortunately I didn't visit any museums. Would have loved to see paintings from the likes of Lado Gudiashvili. Oh well, next time.
Nature is nothing short of astonishing. Some of the places visited easily rank among the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Not my words, nor my photos do them justice.
Saw lots and lots of crypto ATMs all over Tbilisi. Not sure though if crypto really is a thing in Georgia because I only ever saw one being used; some youngsters who bought Tron. You go figure.
Even though these ATMs where everywhere stores weren't accepting crypto, or at least not the ones I visited. I should look into this a bit more.
Went to the legendary nightclub Bassiani. Had an amazing time. Great venue located below a football stadium. It's dark, it's dirty and it's amazing. You could probably discover new parts when visiting for the third time. Good crowd. No photo policy. š
Music played was mostly techno. I especially enjoyed Kancheli who dropped progressive trance (!) and techno! God bless him! Will definitely be checking out more from him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5-XJMdpBYo
Tourism seems to be rampant, more so than I thought. You'll see people from all over the world at the popular tourist spots.
I highly recommend a visit to Georgia if you have the chance!