Quick Peek:

1. Trump’s Economic Vision: Tackling inflation, immigration, and energy challenges with bold policy proposals.

2. Pelosi’s Trades: Controversial stock moves reveal big bets on AI and tech.

3. Uber and Nvidia’s AV Alliance: A powerful collaboration reshaping autonomous driving.

4. GLP-1 Drugs & Alzheimer’s: New research highlights potential health benefits of popular diabetes medications.

5. DeepSeek R1 AI Model: Open-source AI is leveling the playing field for innovation.

Trump’s Economic Vision

Trump’s inaugural address outlined a bold economic plan designed to prioritize "America First". These are the key points:

• Inflation Reduction: Trump aims to address inflation, currently at 2.9%, higher than the Federal Reserve's 2% target but much lower than the 2022 peak of 9.1%. His strategy hinges on reducing energy costs, identified as a significant inflation driver. By ramping up domestic oil production, he seeks to stabilize energy prices and lessen reliance on volatile global markets.

• Energy Emergency (“Drill, baby, drill”): To counter Biden’s green energy policies, Trump plans to declare a National Energy Emergency. This move would prioritize traditional energy sources like oil and gas, allowing expanded drilling. Such policies aim to make energy more affordable but could reignite debates over climate change and environmental impact.

• Tariffs Explained: Introducing an “External Revenue Service,” Trump proposes imposing tariffs on imports from key trading partners like Mexico, Canada, and China. While this might incentivize domestic production, economists caution that tariffs often lead to higher consumer prices, as companies pass increased costs down the supply chain.

• Immigration and Industry: With a national emergency declaration at the southern border, military deployments, and expedited deportations, Trump aims to curb unauthorized immigration. This could have ripple effects, especially in industries like construction, where immigrant labor makes up a significant portion of the workforce.[Read the full article here.]

From economic challenges, let’s shift focus to personal finance and the intriguing stock moves of a political heavyweight…

Nancy Pelosi’s Trades

Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, disclosed notable stock trades that have reignited debates about ethics in congressional trading:

• Sell-Offs: Pelosi sold 31,600 shares of Apple Inc., valued between $5 million and $25 million, and 10,000 shares of NVIDIA, valued between $1 million and $5 million. This marks a significant shift in her portfolio’s tech exposure.

• Strategic Buys: Simultaneously, Pelosi acquired 50 call options each in Alphabet (Google) and Amazon, expiring in 2026. Palo Alto Networks, acquired call options valued between $1 million and $5 million. These options suggest confidence in long-term growth, particularly in AI, cybersecurity and cloud computing sectors.

• Impressive Gains: Pelosi’s portfolio outperformed the market, growing by 70.9% in 2024 compared to the S&P 500’s 25% rise. While the gains are notable, they’ve sparked criticism over the perceived conflict of interest between legislative responsibilities and personal investments.

• Ethical Concerns: Critics point out that while trades are disclosed under the STOCK Act—a law requiring lawmakers to report transactions—there are growing calls to ban congressional stock trading outright. Such bans aim to address concerns about potential insider trading and conflicts of interest.

[Read the full article here.]

Next, we move from investments to a partnership reshaping the future of transportation…

Uber and Nvidia: A Leap Forward for Autonomous Vehicles

Uber’s partnership with Nvidia signals a commitment to advancing autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, a move that could significantly reshape the future of mobility.:

• Key Collaboration: 

  • Cosmos: This platform is like a virtual driving range for self-driving cars. It creates highly realistic digital simulations of road scenarios—traffic, weather, pedestrian behavior, etc. These virtual worlds allow autonomous vehicles to “practice” and learn without the risks or costs of real-world testing.

  • DGX Cloud: Think of this as a supercomputer in the cloud. It provides the heavy-duty computing power Uber needs to train its self-driving algorithms. By using DGX Cloud, Uber can develop and update its AV models much faster and more efficiently.

• Market Reaction: The announcement led to a 3.5% rise in Uber’s stock, reflecting investor optimism about the partnership’s potential to revolutionize ride-sharing.

• Strategic Focus: Despite selling its AV division to Aurora in 2020, Uber’s partnerships with industry leaders like Nvidia and Waymo allows it to leverage cutting-edge technology while minimizing costs and risks. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi emphasized that this collaboration could "supercharge" the timeline for safe and scalable autonomous driving solutions

• Industry Implications: Autonomous mobility is poised to intensify competition, especially as AV technology promises to lower costs and improve safety. Nvidia’s contribution of physics-based simulations will expedite testing, making autonomous solutions more reliable.

[Read the full article here.]

Now, let’s discuss a healthcare breakthrough that could redefine Alzheimer’s treatment…

GLP-1 Drugs: A New Frontier for Alzheimer’s Treatment?

New research suggests that GLP-1 receptor agonists, found in popular diabetes medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, may reduce Alzheimer’s disease risk by 40%-70% in type 2 diabetes patients.

• Study Scope: Nearly 1 million U.S. patient records over three years revealed a strong association between semaglutide (the active ingredient) and reduced Alzheimer’s risk. While causation isn’t confirmed, these findings are promising.

• Beyond Diabetes: Initially designed for blood sugar control, GLP-1 drugs have shown potential benefits for weight loss, cardiovascular health, and now neurological conditions.

• How It Works: These drugs may combat Alzheimer’s by reducing inflammation and improving brain metabolism, though further randomized trials are necessary to validate the results.

• Side Effects and Risks: While effective, these medications are not without drawbacks, such as rapid weight loss leading to facial changes (“Ozempic face”) and rare but severe side effects like pancreatitis.

[Read the full article here.]

Finally, let’s delve into an innovation revolutionizing AI accessibility…

DeepSeek R1 Surpassing OpenAI's O1 at Fraction of the Cost

DeepSeek represents a game-changer in the AI landscape. They recently launched DeepSeek-R1, an open-source reasoning model that claims to outperform OpenAI's o1 model on several benchmarks, at a fraction of the cost:

• What It Offers: With 671 billion parameters, for the full version and 1.5 billion to 70 billion parameters for the smaller versions, allowing for broader accessibility, including operation on standard laptops, the model rivals proprietary systems like OpenAI’s o1.

• Cost Advantage: Prices are up to 95% lower than competitors, starting at just $0.14 per million input tokens.

DeepSeek-R1 is available under the MIT license on platforms like Hugging Face, allowing developers and researchers to use it without restrictions.

Fill the French Press