Weekend Reading #366

This is the three-hundredth-and-sixty-sixth weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 30th May 2026.

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What we're thinking.

Not all that much to comment on this week to be honest as the bull market simply rolls on. Most sovereign bond yields have come down a bit from the precipice but believe us when we say that this is not over. Every time we see a spike it is a hint of what will eventually come when the real pressure arrives. That could be imminent or it could take some time, but it is coming. The theme of the week was definitely Space, headlined by some details on the SpaceX IPO. It is worth bearing in mind, how with the size of this IPO (and some monster ones to come) it will be funded. Given SpaceX alone will move straight into the top few companies on earth by market capitalisation, space (sorry) will need to be made for investors to allocate to it. That likely means some pressure elsewhere as there isn't quite a bottomless pit of capital to allocate. Also worth bearing in mind is that the likely marginal buyer of this IPO will be retail investors. We are in for some real fireworks. We have written for years already about the space economy and what can unfold and it seems the market zeitgeist is now on the same page. The entire ecosystem is on fire with new highs in many names this week. Of particular mention is a rocket company started from scratch by an enigmatic founder. No, we aren't talking about SpaceX anymore, we are talking about Rocket Lab. If it wasn't for Elon and SpaceX taking all the kudos, this company would be all over the media given its unlikely success story. Incredible really. And at 140 dollars a share it has gone up 20x in 2 years. And why not. There are so many names in this space (sorry again) that are going to become meaningful and household names it's very exciting. Sounds like the ingredients for a bubble!

 
What we're reading.

This is by far the best thing I read all week. As readers may know one of my pet new hates is AI writing. This guy's blogpost (gleaned from Tom Morgan's Leading Edge group) is an absolute banger. It's entitled "If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you". I was howling with laughter. And it highlights what is becoming increasingly obvious to me. That for enterprising, stimulated people AI will be a superpower. For everybody else it is a death sentence. Let's call it the AI coefficient. The ratio of productivity gain for the former divided by the latter. It is going to be the biggest theme on earth. There is about to be an existential threat to laziness - physical and mental. Maybe that is why everybody is protesting about AI. DC
 
In another case of the old ceteris paribus assumption not only rarely holding, but almost never holding, this short tweet by Tech Buzz China highlights how the race for AI dominance is in truth still in its early stages – its endpoint is far from determined. In short, Deepseek is looking have a second Deepseek moment, as they once again push the technical boundaries of optimising LLMs to optimise for what the Chinese semiconductor industry can produce, rather than try to match the architecture of where the US has a technical edge through Nvidia. The result is another structural reconfiguration in the making: Deepseek tokens are 19x cheaper than Claude 4.7, and in contrast with the news from Axios about AI sticker shock in the US (with one unnamed company reportedly racking up a half billion USD bill from unfettered Claude token use) and the ROI of using AI coming into question in the West, China seems to once again have found a way to leverage their shortcomings into strength.
 
This comes at the same time as Huawei’s recent announcement that they’ve found a route to catching up on transistor density, despite their (albeit shrinking) technological handicap on chip lithography. I can’t validate the veracity or technical fundamentals of their claims, but what is often true is that necessity is the mother of all innovation, and there’s often more than one way to an end goal, and given China’s track record, it’s probably not wise to bet against their technical capabilities.
 
In other news, the White House dropped a new website, Aliens.gov, announced with a tweet saying “They walk among us”. Sadly, this isn’t X-files material, but it does make for a good weekend chuckle for those who share that particular strand of humour. Sting, perhaps, though he was a legal one. EL

What we're listening to.

Invest Like the Best has been on a bit of a roll of recent. This week I listened to the two latest episodes. First up was a former Pentagon official, Darren Farber opining about war in general but also about this Iran War. In particular his comments on how to win against an ideological opponent were relevant. He noted that Japan was a similar adversary to many of the Islamic fundamentalist ones and that to win against such an opponent often requires total victory. The Americans had to drop TWO atomic bombs on Japan because even after the millions of lives were gone from the first one, Japan still did not surrender. In fact it took an intervention from the Emperor himself to finally get the regime to surrender. His comments about simple survival being considered a win also has modern parallels with Hamas and the Iranian regime. They don't mind how many people die or how much destruction is brought onto their cities and population as long as they are still standing at the end. In fact it is considered as victory. So much more good stuff in here too.
 
Next up was renowned hedge fund manager, Dan Loeb who gave a wide-ranging interview on his business, history and today's AI opportunities. He compared what a great analyst today does compared to 20 years ago. Back then it was about building a model quickly and interpreting complex information. Today according to him it's somebody who understands the nuances of a company or industry. And guess what, he is bullish on AI. To be honest this was nowhere near as much fun as Druckenmiller or Tudor Jones. But a clear giant of the game with an exceptional long term track record is an absolute must-listen. DC

What we're watching.

After struggling to watch anything in recent times I decided to dedicate a block of time to try Slow Horses on Apple TV. With Gary Oldman in the main role how could I go wrong. It is PROPER fun. 6 episodes each season so not too hectic and I went through 2 seasons in a week. The second in particular is some of the best spy thriller stuff I've watched in years. And Oldman is brilliant. Highly recommend. DC