Earn Your Leisure Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Title: EYL’s 2026 Stock Picks
Date: January 6, 2026
Hosts: Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings
Podcast: Earn Your Leisure (iHeartPodcasts)

Main Theme/Purpose

In this episode, the Earn Your Leisure hosts deliver a comprehensive breakdown of their top stock picks for 2026. They analyze key tech, finance, and health companies, focusing on recent developments, acquisitions, and revenue drivers. The conversation blends detailed business insights with pop culture references, mirroring the show’s signature mix of education and entertainment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Portfolio Mainstays and 2026 Standout Stocks

[01:57]

• The analysts reaffirm several familiar names will stay in their portfolio:
  • TSMC (TSM)
  • AMD
  • Meta
  • Gev
  • Eli Lilly (Lily)
  • Hood
  • Visa
  • Micron
  • Western Digital

2. Meta’s Strategic Shift & The Manus Acquisition

[02:13]

• Meta’s $2B Acquisition of Manus:
  • “Meta has spent a lot of money… the problem and why we’ve seen the stock pull back is that the spend hasn’t equated to actually making money. Right. Like you have to yet. Yeah, keyword yet.”
  • Manus develops AI agents that deliver real-time, revenue-generating services.
  • Manus reached a $100M annual revenue run rate—the fastest company to do so, per the hosts.
  • The acquisition marks a “huge deal,” bringing instant revenue to Meta, unlike some previous speculative investments.
  • “That’s like when Durant went to the Warriors, bro.” (Financial Analyst, [02:49])

3. The Memory Sector: Micron & Beyond

[04:19]

• Micron’s Longevity:
  • Despite a 200% run, the analyst believes its growth isn’t finished.
  • “Micron is a company I’ve been talking about for probably… three years. But you know, a lot of people are like, well, Micron’s run, is it over? …My answer is no.” (Financial Analyst, [04:40])
  • Manufacturing Demand: Ties to TSM, Broadcom, Google, Meta, Nvidia, AMD—GPTs/CPUs need memory; Samsung and SK Hynix also in play.
  • Tech CEOs make regular trips to South Korea for memory sourcing (“once a year they make a trip and they go to South Korea…” [05:11]).
  • Projected Growth: 93% top-line growth for FY2026.
  • Western Digital, a “sandisky” play, also remains on the list.

4. Nvidia’s Moves: Physical AI and Game-Changing Acquisitions

[08:55]

• Physical AI Emergence:
  • “Physical AI is a real thing and he [Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang] went over it in detail… Autonomous vehicles are a real thing and they've been working on that…”
• Gronk Acquisition:
  • Nvidia bought Gronk (an AI language processing unit company) for $20B, nearly triple its $6.9B valuation.
  • “They were finding mastery in an area that Nvidia wasn’t… that is language processing units. LPUs.”
• Product Ecosystem Expansion: CPUs, GPUs, XPUs, and now LPUs.

5. Google as the 2026 Top Pick

[09:52]

• TPU & Gemini Breakthroughs:
  • “TPU performance we’ve seen with Gemini—Gemini has now rivaled, if not passed, OpenAI for the time being in terms of GPTs.”
• SpaceX Investment Payoff:
  • “The SpaceX investment comes into play this year… Sundar [Pichai] has vision... the vision is coming to life.”
  • Infrastructure investment, energy, and cooling challenges addressed by leveraging outer space environments.
  • “If we are not in this atmosphere, where do we get our energy from? Yeah, the sun, Right? So you got infinite energy, you got infrastructure. The next thing is cooling… outer space… it’s cool.” ([10:47])
• Samsung Partnership & Device Penetration:
  • Gemini to double from 400M to 800M devices in 2026.
  • “You got Apple already on your books… Now you got Samsung, which is the other competitor, 800 million devices that are going to be using your Gemini product.”
• Strategic Wins Over Apple:
  • “You add all those things up, I'm taking you. And they took away everything Apple should have done. Yeah. Well played.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Meta’s Big Acquisition:

  • “Manus was the fastest company in history to have a hundred million dollars of annual rate of return. 100 million. Fastest ever…” (Financial Analyst, [03:08])
  • “That’s like when Durant went to the Warriors, bro.” (Financial Analyst, [03:22])

• On the Irreplaceable Role of Memory in AI:

  • “All I don’t care if Google says they're doing TPUs, you still need a memory component.” (Financial Analyst, [04:50])
  • “Once a year [tech CEOs] make a trip and they go to South Korea to sit down and figure out how they're going to get memory components.” ([05:11])

• Nvidia’s Risk & Reward:

  • “They weren’t even for sale, right? Nvidia offered them and they actually took it—20 billion. So almost three times what the company was actually valued at.” (Financial Analyst, [09:03])
  • “Why say, let's try to create when we have a cash load of money? Let's go acquire.” (Financial Analyst, [09:22])

• On Google’s 2026 Dominance:

  • “Gemini has now rivaled, if not passed, OpenAI for the time being…” ([09:57])
  • “You got Apple already on your books… Now you got Samsung, which is the other competitor, 800 million devices that are going to be using your Gemini product. You add that into it, it's like, okay, I see what they've done here, right?” ([11:09])
  • “They took away everything Apple should have done. Yeah. Well played. There you go, fellas.” (Financial Analyst, [11:23])

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Meta & Manus Acquisition: [02:13] – [03:30]
• Micron & the Memory Market: [04:19] – [05:25]
• Nvidia & Gronk Acquisition: [08:55] – [09:29]
• Google’s Strategic Moves & 2026 Prediction: [09:52] – [11:23]

Conclusion

This episode provides actionable insight into why major tech players like Meta, Nvidia, and Google remain on the EYL team’s hot list for 2026. The hosts dissect landmark acquisitions—like Meta’s Manus deal and Nvidia’s Gronk buy—as well as the expanding dominance of Google’s AI ecosystem, powered by ambitious partnerships (Samsung, SpaceX). The commentary marries high-level analysis with relatable references, offering listeners both financial strategy and cultural context.
Standout stock for 2026: Google.