July 25, 2026
Google, Tesla Fell. Suppliers Rallied.
Featured: Google, Tesla Fell. Suppliers Rallied.
SpaceX told investors it plans to launch a Starlink mobile service for U.S. consumers.
That’s a direct shot at Big Telecom and would put SpaceX head-to-head with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile in a $1.6T market.
For most investors, that sounds like a telecom shakeup.
For Mode Mobile, it could be much bigger.
Mode built a platform that rewards users for everyday smartphone activity like browsing, listening, using apps, and charging.
If Starlink brings internet access to places cell towers can’t reach, it could significantly expand Mode’s addressable market.
More connected phones.
More active users.
More ways for people to earn from the device already in their pocket.
Mode has already reached 490M+ users, helped users earn and save over $1B, and generated $115M+ in cumulative revenue.
But the bigger story is what happens next.
If global connectivity keeps expanding, that model could reach more people, in more markets, with fewer barriers than ever before.
That’s why 60,000+ shareholders are already watching Mode ahead of a potential IPO.
With their Nasdaq ticker secured and more than $90M invested, Mode’s pre-IPO shares are still available at $0.52 for a limited time.
Click here to see why investors are piling in before Mode’s pre-IPO window closes.
Here’s a value-investor question I keep coming back to: when a great business gets cheaper, did the market find a bargain… or did it spot a real crack in the foundation?
This week, Alphabet and Tesla gave us the cleanest version of that dilemma. Both companies delivered big, headline-friendly numbers. Both stocks got hit anyway. And the companies that sell them the picks and shovels, the ones getting paid for all that spending, were the relative winners.
That divergence matters more than the drama around the tickers.
Chart of the Day idea, without the chart
If you could only look at one chart from this week, I’d make it a simple ratio: “AI spenders” versus “AI suppliers.” The market is voting, right now, for the people collecting the checks.
Alphabet: a great quarter, then the cash line hit
Alphabet reported Q2 2026 results on July 22, 2026. Revenue rose 24% year over year to $119.8 billion. It was the kind of growth quarter that would have been celebrated in almost any other year. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/f914606d842d4c6848019083d667fc3a?utm_source=openai))
But investors were not trading the income statement. They were trading the spending trajectory.
Alphabet raised full-year capital spending guidance to $195 billion to $205 billion, and the stock sold off hard. ([axios.com](https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-closer-b0630fa7-6373-4eab-b198-8ed2501fbf73?utm_source=openai))
Here’s where I’m at on it. Alphabet can afford to spend. The question is whether the market will tolerate a period where free cash generation gets squeezed while the company builds for the next decade. That is not a “broken business” problem. It is a “timing and discipline” problem, and those can still hurt the stock for longer than most people expect.
“Wall Street Tried to Buy My Secret – But I’ll NEVER Sell”
When Wall Street suits got wind of Tim Bohen’s market-crushing algorithm, they were beating down his door for it. But his NEW trading algo is unlike anything that’s come before… and it’s only a matter of time before they come knocking again
Tesla: record deliveries, thin profitability
Tesla reported Q2 2026 deliveries of 480,126 vehicles. That part is real and it is impressive. ([ir.tesla.com](https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-second-quarter-2026-production-deliveries-and-deployments?utm_source=openai))
Then the quarter moved from “growth story” to “economics story.” Tesla posted Q2 revenue of $28.24 billion, but GAAP operating income fell to $398 million, with an operating margin of 1.4%. Free cash flow was negative at $1.09 billion. Capex rose to $5.79 billion. ([qz.com](https://qz.com/tesla-q2-2026-earnings-revenue-profit-072226?utm_source=openai))
And the macro tailwind got weaker. For vehicles placed in service after September 30, 2025, the federal clean vehicle credit is no longer available unless the vehicle was acquired by that date. ([irs.gov](https://www.irs.gov/clean-vehicle-tax-credits?utm_source=openai))
So Tesla is pushing volume while profitability stays under pressure, at the same time it is spending heavily on AI and robotics. That mix can work. It can also become a long, grinding stretch for shareholders if margins do not recover.
The Cheap Test: cheap versus broken
Alphabet looks like a high-quality business in an unusually capital-intensive chapter. That can create mispricing, but only if the market starts extrapolating the spending dip into permanent impairment. I do not think we are there yet.
Tesla is trickier. When operating margins are near 1%, you are not debating quarterly noise. You are debating business economics. The stock can still work, especially if software and autonomy scale, but it is harder to call it “cheap” without a clearer path back to durable, healthy margins.
In other words: Alphabet feels temporarily pressured. Tesla feels like it is in a real earnings quality fight.
One Gold Trade. Less Than an Hour.
A recent gold trade unfolded in under an hour. No overnight holding. No drawn-out waiting. What made it interesting wasn’t just the outcome… But how clearly the setup formed ahead of time. It followed a pattern tied to a specific moment in gold. One that tends to repeat more often than most realize. This report walks through the gold setup, the timing, and what to watch for.
Why suppliers “won” the week
This is the part people skip: when the market punishes the spender and rewards the supplier, it is not saying “AI is dead.” It is saying “prove the returns.”
Slight tangent, but it matters. In periods like this, value can show up in boring places. Landlords with contracted demand. Builders with backlogs. Component suppliers with pricing power. They look less exciting than the platforms, but their cash flows can be easier to underwrite.
What would change my mind
- Alphabet: evidence that incremental AI spending is lifting Cloud profitability and keeping Search resilient, without capex rising faster than the business can fund.
- Tesla: operating margin stabilizing and then rising off the 1% range, alongside credible progress on higher-margin software revenue.
- Both: clearer signals that investment outlays are translating into durable returns, not just bigger expense lines.
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Bottom line
“Half a trillion lost” makes a great headline. The better lesson is quieter: markets are getting less patient with spending that does not show up in near-term cash generation.
If you’re hunting for bargains, this is not the moment to confuse “down a lot” with “mispriced.” Start with business quality, then cash flow durability, then valuation. Only then do you get to the stock chart.
I’m watching the supplier side more closely than the giants for now. Not because it’s more exciting, but because it’s where the checks are clearing.
The Cheap Investor
