Author: josh

Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors — too complicated, capital-intensive and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do. Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry. Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or…

13 housing trends that defined another slow year, including record-high house prices, falling mortgage rates, and a gridlocked market  2025 was a difficult year for the housing market. The affordability crisis continued. The spring and summer homebuying seasons hardly happened. The homeowner population dropped. Buyers remained out of reach, pushing sellers to offer concessions or price cuts. Add in political issues, including tariffs and a government shutdown, and consumers were dealt a difficult hand. Still, there were some positives. Wages increased faster than housing costs for the first time since 2016, and buyers grew more comfortable with 6% mortgage rates,…

In This Article From May through October 2025, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased their mortgage-backed securities (MBS) holdings by nearly one-third, reaching their highest level of holdings in nearly four years. The move renews the discussion around the future of the government-sponsored entities (GSEs) under the Trump administration. Why Expansion Matters Fannie and Freddie play a central role in the U.S. mortgage market, purchasing residential loans from lenders and either holding them or packaging them into mortgage-backed securities for sale to investors. Their retained portfolios represent the mortgages and MBSs they keep on their own balance sheets, rather than…

Louis Gerstner, who took over International Business Machines Corp. when it was on its deathbed and resuscitated it as a technology industry leader, died Saturday. He was 83. IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna announced Gerstner’s death in an email sent Sunday to its employees, but didn’t provide a cause of death. Gerstner’s nine-year tenure as chairman and CEO of the company known as “Big Blue” is often used as a case study in corporate leadership. On April Fool’s Day, 1993, he became the first outsider to run IBM, which was facing a choice of bankruptcy or dismemberment after a period when it had…

Tech billionaires are making plans to bail on California ahead a possible ballot measure that would tax their assets to help pay for healthcare. Sources told the New York Times that venture capitalist Peter Thiel has explored spending more time outside California and opening an office for his Los Angeles-based personal investment firm, Thiel Capital, in another state. Meanwhile, Google cofounder Larry Page has discussed leaving the state by year’s end, sources told the Times, while three limited liability companies associated with him have filed documents to incorporate in Florida. The Thiel Foundation and Google parent Alphabet didn’t immediately respond to…

As markets reopened Friday after the Christmas holiday, U.S. stocks were little changed, but precious metals saw plenty of action. Silver prices jumped 9.6% to top $78 per ounce for the first time ever. Gold rose 1.3% to a fresh record of $4,561 per ounce, and platinum surged 10.5% to its own high, while palladium leapt 13%. So far this year, silver has spiked 169%, platinum has shot up 172%, and palladium has soared 124%—all easily beating gold’s year-to-date gain of 73% as well as Nvidia’s 42% pop and the S&P 500’s 18% advance. The latest rally came after the…

In This Article Starter homes have become nonstarter homes for many Americans. Three-quarters of the homes currently listed for sale are out of reach for median-income earners, according to a recent analysis from Bankrate.  The lack of buyers, however, is reshaping the investment landscape for small investors, who are buying up single-family homes in record numbers. Affordability Is Slipping Away Using the metric that standard housing costs should not exceed 30% of gross income (before taxes), according to Bankrate, the typical U.S. household earns around $80,000 per year, but would need to make around $113,000 to afford a median-priced house.…

So, you want to invest in real estate…but where should you start? What’s the best type of rental property for a beginner? It’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the options, but in this episode, we’ll provide the four-step framework you need to make the right choice!Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! First, we’ll share four steps that will help you pin down the right investing strategy for your budget, lifestyle, and long-term goals. Then, we’ll introduce you to a few of the most beginner-friendly types of rental properties. Are you light on cash? House hacking could help…

The housing market correction is well underway, but the story looks very different depending on where you invest. Some markets are cooling gently, others are slipping faster, and a few affordability outliers are still holding up. With new Zillow data in hand, Dave breaks down the major regional patterns, why price growth is slowing almost everywhere, and what today’s shifts actually mean for investors buying at the end of 2025 and into 2026.He also looks at markets that may be “oversold” despite strong fundamentals, the places where buyers suddenly have serious leverage, and how rents are diverging sharply from home…

We’ve all heard the traditional advice that the best investments are those made in the stock market, saving in a 401(k), and buying a house. But younger generations have started touting nontraditional investments like buying a Birkin bag or other collectibles as a surefire way to bring in extra bucks.  Influencer and WWE wrestler Logan Paul recently said going beyond normal investments can be worth it. “If you’re young, there are ways to spend and invest your money in ways that might mean more to you than in a traditional conservative environment like the stock market,” he said on Fox…