Enlightenment - A Herold & Lantern Investments Podcast
Enlightenment - A Herold & Lantern Investments Podcast
What Makes Ordinary Investors More Like Buffett Than You Think
May 5, 2025 | Season 7 | Episode 17
The investment world witnessed a seismic shift as Warren Buffett announced his plan to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, effective January 1, 2026. While maintaining his chairman role and 14% ownership stake worth $164 billion, Buffett will pass operational control to Greg Abel after an unparalleled career generating a 5,502,000% return over six decades – compared to the S&P 500's 39,000% with dividends.
What made Buffett irreplaceable wasn't just his brilliance, but his extraordinary dedication and pattern recognition abilities developed through reading over 100,000 financial statements. Unlike modern investors relying on technology, Buffett built what one journalist called "a form of artificial intelligence" through his obsessive study and near-photographic memory. His success benefited from perfect timing – beginning his career before institutional investors dominated markets – and a unique structure that avoided management fees and market-timing pressures.
Though none of us will match Buffett's performance, individual investors share key advantages with him. We can think long-term without pressure for quick returns, invest with minimal fees, and maintain positions through market turbulence. These structural benefits give patient investors a surprising edge in today's fast-moving markets.
Meanwhile, markets completed their longest winning streak since 2004, with the S&P rising nine consecutive days. Yet professional investors are remarkably pessimistic – Barron's latest poll shows 32% bearish, higher than during the dot-com crash, 9/11, financial crisis, or pandemic. This extreme sentiment might actually signal opportunity ahead.
Artificial intelligence continues driving tech investment, with Microsoft reporting being "capacity constrained" for Azure AI servers and Meta increasing capital expenditure forecasts. As one executive put it, "We're not even at the second strike of the first batter in the first inning" of AI development, suggesting the revolution is just beginning.
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And now introducing Mr Keith Lanton.
Keith Lanton:Good morning. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Today is Monday, May 5th, cinco de Mayo, first Monday in the month of May, also a week where we have Federal Reserve going to revisiting interest rates, as has been the case throughout the year. We have a lot to talk about this morning. We saw a really strong week in equity markets Last week on the heels of some earnings reports, as well as some economic data, as well as some optimism with respect to US economic policy and tariff policy. We'll see if that optimism is well placed. We'll talk a little bit about that and we'll look forward to this week and we'll talk about A the news event over the weekend, which is Warren Buffett stepping down as chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Actually, he's going to remain chairman, so stepping down as CEO, but that's not effective until January 1, 2026.
Keith Lanton:We'll talk about what's going on this morning lots of news over the weekend and then we'll talk about what professional money managers have to say about the markets for the remainder of 2025, how optimistic or pessimistic are they feeling? What does Barron's think about the financial markets? Pessimistic are they feeling? What does Barron's think about the financial markets? You may remember, last week Barron's was getting increasingly queasy, with markets having levitated almost back to where they were before Liberation Day with respect to tariffs, and last week we closed the gap in the markets pretty much where they were before President Trump announced those tariffs on Liberation Day. So we'll revisit what Barron's is thinking about. We'll talk about the tech earnings last week, we'll talk about AI and what the future of AI and AI stocks may look like, and then we'll talk a little bit about, of course, what else is going on this week and how to position our portfolios appropriately given all that's going on the gyrations, the volatility and be able to intelligently structure our own portfolios. So we'll talk about the person who was able to navigate every financial market that was thrown at him and has demonstrated incredible ability to succeed when it comes to financial investing, and that, of course, is Warren Buffett.
Keith Lanton:New York Times article saying that there will never be another Warren Buffett, and we'll talk about why they say that, and I agree with a lot of the premises of that article. So over the weekend, the Berkshire annual meeting Berkshire announced the financial results, which were weaker than they were previous year, largely due to some of the insurance costs, especially costs associated with things like wildfires. But the main event was that Mr Buffett said that he wanted to turn the reins over to Greg Abel at the end of the year, saying that Mr Abel would have the final word when it comes to the company's operations, how it invests and more. Mr Buffett added that he would still hang around and conceivably be useful in a few cases. He will remain chairman of Berkshire, turning that role over to his son. Howard Buffett, upon his death, remains the company's biggest shareholder with roughly 14% stake. That is worth about $164 billion. Saying he has no plans to sell a single share. Now, keep in mind over the next 10 years that many Berkshire shares will be donated to charity and those charities may or may not hold on to the stock that they are given.
Keith Lanton:Okay, let's talk about Warren Buffett and what he accomplished over the last roughly 60 years. He did this with his former partner, who is now a deceased, charlie Munger. Six-decade run and total return percentage over six decades 5,502,000. Sorry, 5,502,000. That is the overall gain from 1964 to 2024, 5,502,000. If you were comparing that to the S&P 500 with dividends included over that time period, 39,000 versus 5,502,000. Quite a difference. The number of times that Berkshire Hathaway paid a dividend between 1965 and 2024, that number is one, and Warren Buffett, in his most recent letter to shareholders, said that paying that dividend in 1967 seems like a bad dream.
Keith Lanton:Now why there will never be another Warren Buffett? There's only one. Three reasons, new York Times says One he has no equal and never will. Two the person, the period and the package. Let's start with the person.
Keith Lanton:Buffett is not only brilliant, but he spent nearly his entire long lifetime obsessed with the stock market, especially in his early years as an investor. His unparalleled success depended on an unbearable sacrifice, foregoing a normal social and family life. So don't think for one second that this level of greatness was achieved by some random act or someone acting on a whim or a gut. By some random act or someone acting on a whim or a gut. This is someone who busted their behind in order to study markets and companies, and he did it because he not only found it to be fun and profitable, but he loved it. Ever since 1942, when he bought his first stock at the age of 11, he has devoured information about companies, reading corporate reports the way most teenagers would listen to music. As a young investment manager, buffett would wander through his house with his nose in a corporate annual report. While his kids played at amusement parks, he would sit on the bench and read financial statements. So imagine being that obsessed. Imagine enjoying it Now. Imagine enjoying it almost every waking minute, ever since Harry Truman is in the White House. That's how unusual Warren Buffett is.
Keith Lanton:This attributed to an article again by Jason Zweig in the New York Times. Expertise is rooted in pattern recognition and Buffett has seen every conceivable pattern, mr Zweig says. Given what he knows about Mr Buffett has seen every conceivable pattern, mr Zweig says, given what he knows about Mr Buffett's work habits, he estimates that Buffett has read more than 100,000 financial statements in his more than 70-year investing career. He also says that in his experience that Mr Buffett's memory is almost supernatural. He said many years ago, when he was winding up a phone interview with Buffett's memory is almost supernatural. He said many years ago, when he was winding up a phone interview with Warren Buffett, he mentioned the book he was reading. He exclaimed that he. Buffett exclaimed that he had also read it more than a half a century earlier, 50 years ago, and he began describing a passage to Mr Zweig and he said that he grabbed the book and found the page and realized to his astonishment that Buffett had recalled almost every sentence verbatim.
Keith Lanton:His unparalleled exposure to financial information, combined with his incredible memory, made Buffett into a form of artificial intelligence. He can almost answer any query out of his own internal database. Now that AI is universally available, a person with Buffett's massive command of data won't have nearly the same advantage that Buffett had all those years ago. Then there's the period, the time over which Buffett has exercised his investing prowess. As he said many times, he won the ovarian lottery by being born when he was. Had Buffett been born, say, in 1880 instead of 1830, he would have probably been investing in livestock instead of stocks. And Mrs Weick says Buffett happened to come of age just in time to study under Benjamin Graham, the pioneer of securities analysis and one of the greatest investors of the past century.
Keith Lanton:Buffett also began his career before trillions of dollars had poured into the stock market from index funds and other institutional investors. He built his phenomenal record by fishing where no one else was looking to catch. What many don't recognize is that before, buffett and Berkshire were so huge and colossal that he made his big success on small investments, the small fries, and sometimes back in the 60s and 50s. It took him years to build a position in a stock that almost never traded. So from 1957 to 1968, through these obscure bets, his average return was over 25%, compared to just over 10% for the S&P 500. Now Buffett didn't only succeed, he succeeded over one of the longest careers any investor has ever had. He took Berkshire, which was a manufacturer of textiles, in 1965. And by the end of last year he had racked up average annual returns of 19.9% compared to 10.4% for the S&P 500.
Keith Lanton:Now you may say, well, he's possibly one of the luckiest guys who ever lived. But statistically, an anomaly of that extent is so astronomically improbable that a reasonable amount of luck couldn't have beaten the market by as many years and by as much as Warren Buffett did through his Berkshire Hathaway investment. And this is because Buffett combined his extraordinary investment skill with his extraordinary longevity. And what Buffett did that's also super unique is he placed his investments in a package like none other. He didn't run a hedge fund, he didn't run a mutual fund, he didn't run an exchange traded fund or any other conventional investment vehicle by design. Berkshire Hathaway charges no management fees that would subtract from its returns, no performance incentive fees that would encourage excessive risk-taking.
Keith Lanton:Most investment funds operate under what many economists call a pro-cyclicality curse. Why is that? Well, what happens when you have really good years and great returns is you get flooded with people wanting to invest with you. And when things turn south and the markets go down and people suddenly lose faith, well, you're met with a massive wave of redemptions. And what does that mean you have to do? Well, when you're inundated with cash, that's usually after a period of outsized returns. Now, what do you got to do with that cash? Well, most people would feel the need to invest that cash. That's the reason, after all, why folks gave you that money, and therefore you're probably investing the bulk of your money at the wrong time. On the flip side, after many down years or a tough market, suddenly folks want their money back. What do many money managers have to do? Well, they've got to give that money back, and in order to do that, they have to sell those positions right at the bottom. So the structure of Berkshire Hathaway, combined with the fact that Warren Buffett took virtually well below average salary $100,000 a year, no performance fee paid in stock truly made him a unique individual, to say the least.
Keith Lanton:Berkshire's cash flows. The way that they invested money in the markets were internal. Money comes in from or goes out to, assets it owns. Cash can't come pouring in from new investors or get yanked out by fleeting investors at the worst possible time, because you can invest in Berkshire only by buying shares from someone else in the marketplace. Now the good news is Wall Street Journal pointing out over the weekend that you, as an individual investors, are more like Warren Buffett than you think.
Keith Lanton:Individual investors have an edge. The issue is that many of us don't use it. So what is that edge? Well, the edge is that we are not compelled, we're not incentivized, to make a quick buck. We, as individual investors, can play the long game, just as Warren Buffett did, and invest funds over the long, long time period versus the short time period. We can invest our money just like he did, with zero or near zero management fee. We can invest our money, like he did, over extremely long periods of time. We don't have to pay incentive fees. We just have to find the appropriate values, stick with them over the long period of time.
Keith Lanton:No one expects individual investors to have the performance or the results that Warren Buffett had individual investors to have the performance or the results that Warren Buffett had. But even if you are half as successful, you will have tremendous long-term success as an individual investor. But you may need the fortitude and the persistence to hold on when things are difficult. You have to have the knowledge in order to determine hey, I may have made a mistake here, I need to back out. Perhaps in many of those instances, even though there is an additional cost, it could be well worth it to choose a financial advisor that is qualified, that knows you, so that you can manage those psychological moments and also have another set of eyes and ears when considering different investments. All right, well, let's back away from the long term and let's move into the here and now and the immediate.
Keith Lanton:Let's take a look at the financial markets this morning. Right now we are seeing futures moving to the negative. They've been pretty much down since last night when futures opened, pretty much settling around the same level, not seeing an acceleration to the upside or downside. Dow futures down a little over 250. Nasdaq futures down about 200 points. S&p futures down about 45 points this morning. This after the significant run-up in the markets last week, perhaps some profit-taking selling into strength Losses being led by the mega-cap stocks.
Keith Lanton:The good news this morning for many of us is that the oil prices are falling. Opec plus countries will implement a production increase of 411,000 barrels effective in June of this year. Oil prices down about a dollar a barrel, west Texas Intermediate down to $57.36 a barrel. Many are suggesting that the Saudis are growing increasingly frustrated by cheats within OPEC and are therefore accelerating their production in order to discourage these cheats from pulling as much oil out of the ground as they are, because they'll make it less profitable. Also talk that perhaps the Saudis are frustrated with producers here in the United States who are not members of OPEC who can produce oil. We are, after all, the largest oil producer in the world. If the Saudis make it a little less attractive for companies here to produce oil, perhaps they'll invest less in doing that. And then the third reason the Saudis may be doing this may be that this is something that will ingratiate themselves to the United States and President Trump. Obviously, lower oil prices help lower inflation here in the United States, something that President Trump has been working very hard towards achieving.
Keith Lanton:A couple of news stories this morning President Trump said in an interview that some tariffs could be permanent to convince businesses to move to production to the United States, but he said at some point he will lower Chinese tariffs. He also said that NBC chairman Powell is being quote a total stiff unquote about interest rates, but he will not fire him. He also said he doesn't know if he has to uphold the Constitution in the context of deportation. All of that according to NBC News. Financial Times is reporting that Chinese exporters are shipping goods to third countries to conceal their origin and avoid US tariffs. Washington Post is saying that small and mid-sized US manufacturers are seeing increased orders following tariffs on imported goods. Reuters reporting the White House expects at least one trade deal in the coming week as President Trump's advisers feel more confident about the economy. New York Times saying that 25% auto part tariffs officially go into effect this morning.
Keith Lanton:Wall Street Journal saying the Fed is seeking to review the confidential ratings for the health of large banks. This is after the new vice chair Bowman suggesting, perhaps, that the Federal Reserve holding these banks to a standard that is too high. President Trump said he is authorizing the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100 percent tariff on any and all movies coming into the country that are produced in foreign lands. He also is directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, fbi and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged Alcatraz prison, and Bloomberg reported the EU wants to ban Russian gas imports by 2027. Also, this morning reports that Chinese President Xi and President Trump at the moment have no current plans to speak. The Taiwan dollar this morning surging as much as 5% against the US dollar on speculation that the exporters are rushing to convert their holdings of dollars into Taiwanese dollars. Shell is working with advisors to evaluate a potential acquisition of British Petroleum BP, though it is waiting for further stock and oil price declines before deciding whether to pursue a bid for that company whether to pursue a bid for that company.
Keith Lanton:Traders, this is with respect to US interest rates. We're seeing the 10-year at around a 430 and the 2-year at about a 485. Last week, after we got some of the employment data and we got the initial look at the gross domestic product, which we'll talk a little bit, after those reports, many traders reversed course and decided that it didn't look as likely that the Fed was going to be cutting interest rates in June or July. The two-year yield shot up to its highest two-day jump since October. So the two-year yield went from about a 4.60 to about a 4.85. And futures traders now pricing in a more weight and see approach to interest rate cuts in the near term, although they're still expecting three to four cuts over the next year, but in the near term less expectation near term meaning the next month or two that there will be a reduction in interest rates.
Keith Lanton:Some individual stocks in the news this morning, one of which is Netflix. Netflix down about 5% on those reports that the US is going to put tariffs on foreign movies. It's also weighing on Disney but interestingly, we were talking last week about Netflix and their tremendous earnings and how they were one of the few stocks immune from tariff talk and therefore made them a technology company that perhaps you could look at without respect to worrying about tariffs. And you know he are waking up on Monday morning finding that that's not true as well For those of you who shop at Target. They are going to eliminate self-checkout stations at stores due to shoplifting issues. Apple in the news down about two and a half points this morning saying that there are reports that they plan to change their iPhone release schedule over at Apple and that news wing on stocks as well.
Keith Lanton:What's going on this week? Well, so far a little more than 350 companies have reported results this earnings season 75% beating consensus earnings per share estimates, 60% beating sales estimates. Roughly 90 more are on tap for this week, so almost another 20%. Palantir Vertex announcing earnings today, followed by AMD, arista Networks and Duke Energy on Tuesday, uber and Walt Disney on Wednesday, coinbase, conocophillips and McKesson on Thursday. Later today we get the Institute for Supply Management releasing services purchasing manners index for April, looking for that to come in slightly lower than last month at 50.3.
Keith Lanton:And then this week, on Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee announces its monetary policy decision. Fomc is widely expected to keep the Fed-Fed rate unchanged at four and a quarter to four and a half. Focus will be on the Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, and how he addresses the dual mandate that's, full employment and two percent inflation. Is the current mandate, with the labor market still solid and inflation running ahead of the Fed's two percent target, even before any potential tariff related pressure. The central bank has been content to wait and see what happens.
Keith Lanton:Bloomberg this morning talking about the Palantir stock, which has defied the recent sell-off in tech equities and AI-related stock equities Investors, bloomberg saying, have been betting the results coming after the close today will be another blowout. But Bloomberg pointing out that the recent run-up has given the stock a high bar to clear. At a time when other artificial intelligence companies and momentum stocks favorites have stalled out amid tariff-related uncertainty, palantir is built on the 340% surge it saw last year. The stock is the biggest gainer in the S&P 500, this year up 64% and just a hair under its record in February. Bloomberg goes on to say its valuation is, by all accounts, swollen. Shares trade at more than 200 times estimated earnings, making it the priciest in the NASDAQ 100 index. It also trades at more than 70 times sales. So a lot to live up to when it comes to Palantir Certainly has taken on the meme stock mantra and is trading at levels that defy most historical norms when it comes to valuation metrics.
Keith Lanton:All right, let's take a look back. Let's take a look at last week. As of Friday, the S&P had risen nine days in a row. It's longest streak since 2004. It jumped 10.2% over those nine days, 2.9% last week for the S&P 500. A remarkable performance given the cloud of uncertainty hanging over American business from the potential threat of tariffs Market, as I mentioned before, made its way entirely back from the Liberation Day sell-off. Not to be outdone, the Dow rose 3% last week. It's in the midst of a nine-day streak of its own, though it's only its longest rally since 2023. The Nasdaq was up 3.4%, but ended the week with only two consecutive days of gains, barron saying the winning streak in the markets while the best in 21 years. Despite that, they say, the market is still looking fragile. Despite that, they say, the market is still looking fragile, boosting stocks are signals from the White House that the president is willing to lower tariffs on major trade partners.
Keith Lanton:Last week, as I mentioned, we got some clarity and some earnings from big tech stocks. Meta and Microsoft both posted earnings and reaffirmed their commitment to spend heavily on artificial intelligence. What the earnings last week also showed us is that the results from Meta and Microsoft were impressive and strong, but the results from Apple were mildly disappointing and the results from Amazon also had some concerns with respect to the potential trade war, and what that means is that bricks and mortar may be more brittle than digital assets at this point. Another concern that the market has to overcome is concerns about the recession. Around a quarter of the companies that have so far reported earnings have mentioned the recession word in their conference call. This is up from about 2% last quarter. So 25% from 2%, so significant increase in folks worried about the recession.
Keith Lanton:Last week we did get the gross domestic product, which contracted by three-tenths of a percent, but you have to dig into that number and notice that the majority of that decline almost all of it was due to the fact that US companies imported a significant amount in the first quarter in order to get ahead of those tariffs. Us consumers continued to spend and if you were to look at just US consumer spending, you would see that US consumer spending growth was 3% real growth. So that drop in GDP while meaningful and something to keep an eye on not as significant as the headline number, but what is significant is McDonald's last week said that they are noticing consumers pulling back on spending due to concerns about the economic situation, and what that seems to indicate is that there is a even growing wider chasm between the wealthy, who are continuing to spend, and the rich, the folks who are living paycheck to paycheck, who are growing increasingly worried. We also see this when we take a look at airlines and airline stocks, which have also been under lots of pressure. And the airlines are reporting that the consumer that flies first class or an extra leg room, more economy plus, those consumers are continuing to spend. But when it comes to the no-frill seats and especially when you take a look at the airlines that cater more to the customers who are living paycheck to paycheck, those customers are cutting back on travel. So another indication that we are seeing an expansion here of the gulf between those who are living paycheck to paycheck and those who are more financially comfortable.
Keith Lanton:All right, let's talk about what the financial pros are thinking. Barron's had their cover story. Stock market bulls have gone into hiding. Why are money pros are more bearish in nearly 30 years? Barron's latest big money poll of professional investors finds that 32% of respondents bearish on the outlook for stocks over the next 12 months. That is the highest level since 1997. Just think of all the crises that we've weathered since then and we are at the peak of bearishness here, which you can view as a contrarian indicator and actually say to yourself well, maybe that's bullish, but nevertheless it is noteworthy that we are at the highest bearish level.
Keith Lanton:This is among financial pros and this includes a period when they had to contend with the dot-com bubble burst the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Great Recession, the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID pandemic, and yet pros are more anxious now than at any of those painful points for the economy and the country. The bulls also stand at historic levels, historically low. That is Just 26% of respondents call themselves bullish on the market's prospects, also the smallest percentage since 1997. If you look back to just last fall last time Barron did this big money poll, 50% of managers were bullish. Now we're at 26. We are now at 32% bearish. 18% were bearish last fall.
Keith Lanton:The S&P has fallen about 4% this year after two years of double-digit gains and tariff worries. While certainly a component of some of these concerns are only partly to blame, equity valuations were very high at the start of the year and investors concentrated bets on artificial intelligence. And those concerns with respect to artificial intelligence picked up when China's DCEC revealed an AI model built more efficiently at lower cost than US models, and this caused consternation among the AI bulls. 58% of respondents say the market is overvalued. 38% call stocks fairly priced. Only 4% say the market is undervalued. Managers' clients are even more pessimistic than the pros. Managers say that 56% of their clients are bearish. Now what do they expect going forward? What does this all translate into? Well, the optimists expect the S&P and NASDAQ and Dow to be about 4% to 7% above recent levels. Based on their mean forecast, the bears see a 7% decline for the Dow and double digit losses for the S&P and the NASDAQ.
Keith Lanton:20% of money managers indicate they approve of Trump's tariff policies, while about 80% put the odds of a tariff-related recession at 40% or higher. Those are the 80% who do not approve of the tariff policies. What do respondents say that the administration should be focusing on? The number one item they say the administration should be spending their energy on is deregulation. When asked what's the biggest risk the stock market will face over the next six months, 24% say economic slowdown, 19% say recession. 14% say political turmoil in the United States. Economic concerns are a big reason for gold's record breaking rally.
Keith Lanton:We talked about the gold last week. Gold up 27% year to date after pulling back a little bit last week. But money managers remain fans. 58% are bullish on gold. Many big money participants say they are looking beyond the US for better values, with 70% calling themselves bullish on non-US stocks, the other asset class that they are more optimistic about than they've been in a long time are bonds. 75% of survey participants say they're waiting, and fixed income is higher than six months ago. Seventy percent are bullish on bonds, suggesting that it's more likely than not that at least some point over the next year that we could see rate cuts. That could put down pressure on Treasury yields, then be a positive for risk assets, including equities, and therefore that could help some of those tech stocks that typically benefit from lower interest rates.
Keith Lanton:All right, speaking of tech stocks, let's talk a little bit about artificial intelligence and Barron saying that the artificial intelligence trade, or AI, is showing new signs of life. What we learned from last week, when we got lots of information from Meta, microsoft, amazon and Apple? So during a stretch of just 36 hours last week, we learned a lot about the state of tech tariffs and AI, perhaps more than we learned the previous three months, and that's thanks to the quick succession of earnings from those four companies. While all four reported better than expected results, the stock reactions following their results underscore that in a global trade war, digital bits win over atoms. As we mentioned earlier, microsoft and MetaSearch following their results, while Apple and Amazon both underperformed. Apple and Amazon both underperformed. That said, both Apple and Amazon sell many physical products and couldn't give much clarity about potential tariff impact for the rest of the year.
Keith Lanton:Beyond tariffs, the report's offered an update on artificial intelligence. The reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. Heading into earnings season, some on Wall Street worry the companies would reduce their plans to spend hundreds of billions on AI infrastructure this year. In fact, after earnings and the clarity we received, spending looks like it's actually picking up and therefore the fundamental story around AI looks like it has not changed. On Wednesday, microsoft said it was increasing European data center capacity by 40% over the next two years. They also reaffirmed their prior guidance to spend $80 billion on data center capacity through June of this year. In fact, microsoft said it has been capacity constrained for Azure AI servers and services, meaning the company doesn't have enough AI GPUs to meet demand. That's how strong they say demand has been. And the biggest surprise of the week Meta went a step further than Microsoft and boosted its already hefty 2025 capital expenditures forecast to a range of $64 to $72 billion, versus a prior outlook of $60 to $65 billion. And then they went on to say that that still may not be enough. Similarly, amazon sees potential for AI to transform all parts of its operations. They said that they're already using AI to improve productivity and fulfillment.
Keith Lanton:E-commerce and advertising CEO Jassy saying we're not dabbling here. As fast as we could put the capacity in, it is being consumed, he said. Jassy said the company's AI business was growing at more than 100% year F over year. He cited two startups that use agents to code that are suddenly significant Amazon Web Service customers the type of demand that wasn't foreseen even a few months ago, jassy said. I would say we're not even at the second strike of the first batter in the first inning when it comes to respect to artificial intelligence, it's so early right now.
Keith Lanton:Of course, a prolonged trade war could change everything, but even then, behrens goes on to say AI might thrive In times of uncertainty. Smart companies with long-term horizons invest to gain market share. Mark Zuckerberg agrees. He said during downturns, I'm going to do things like build out even more GPU infrastructure to serve businesses and people better. With that, wendy Lantin, our chief compliance officer, this week will be going to Washington to participate in a FINRA meeting. As she is on the FINRA Board of Governors, she's also been invited to speak to a few members. Services and securities business a better place for all investors. So congratulations to Wendy. That's everything I've got.
Alan Eppers:Thank you for listening to Mr. Keith Lanton. This podcast is available on most platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Pandora. For more information, please visit our website at www. heraldlantern. com.
Sophie Cohen:Opinions expressed herein are subject to change and not necessarily the opinion of the firm. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The information presented herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide personal investment advice. It is important that you consider your tolerance for risk and investment goals when making investment decisions. Investing in securities does involve risk and the potential of losing money. The material does not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations.