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- [00:01]
Robert Kroke
This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability. Various 18/4th of July savings are happening now at the Home Depot with select appliances starting at $398 plus get free delivery on appliance purchases of $398 or more. No membership required. Upgrade your kitchen with a modern and sleek GE profile refrigerator featuring hands free autofill for the perfect pour every time and make laundry day easier with 2 in 1 washer dryer combo innovation that completes laundry in about 90 minutes. Shop Top brand appliances now at the Home Depot offer valid June 17th July at the US only C store online
- [00:55]
Austin Hankwitz
for details welcome back to the Rich Habits Radar, our Friday episode of the Rich Habits podcast, where every Friday morning we're coming at you with the biggest headlines impacting you and your money. This episode is brought to you by vcx, the public ticker for private tech. My name is Austin Hankwitz and I'm joined by my co host Robert Kroke. And the three things sitting at the top of our Rich Habits radar this week include Meta turning into a NEO cloud company, the disappointing June job report, and SpaceX's new iPhone competitor. Yes, I just said those words. Very interesting. Be sure to stick around to the end where we talk about Amazon launching more satellites in space to also now compete with Starlink. Robert, let's dig into our first story.
- [01:36]
Robert Kroke
Definitely. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Meta Platforms is developing plans for a cloud infrastructure business that will sell access to both AI computing power and AI models to outside customers. The company is debating whether to offer hosted models or raw compute or both.
- [01:53]
Austin Hankwitz
So Meta told their investors back in April that it plans to spend as much as $145 billion in capital expenditures this year building out these AI data centers and purchasing GPUs, the most aggressive AI infrastructure build out of any company on the planet. $145 billion. That's so much money. And investors were pretty uneasy about all this spending. Meta stock was down in the month of June when reports started to surface that the company might need to raise tens of billions for more AI spending, if that was by diluting shareholders or increasing their debts. Like investors weren't happy about this Yeah,
- [02:28]
Robert Kroke
I feel like Meta was late to the party. I think we talked about this a few months back, but this announcement, this cloud business announcement, flips that narrative entirely. Instead of a cost center, all that infrastructure becomes a potential revenue generator for Meta. And Mark Zuckerberg first signaled this move during Meta's Q3 2025 earnings call and addressed it again at the company's annual shareholder meeting in May. It's definitely on the table. Zuckerberg told investors. If we get to a point where we have overbuilt AI infrastructure that is an option that we have and exercising that option as we speak.
- [03:02]
Austin Hankwitz
Meta has been one of the biggest GPU buyers on the planet, specifically from Nvidia. I'm sure you guys remember when Mark Zuckerberg got on stage with Jensen Wong and like put on his jacket and like posted it on online. It was a whole thing. So if Meta starts selling that compute from those gpus to the same startups and enterprises that core weave and SpaceX's Xai are also trying to serve. Remember, Xai's colossus is doing, what is it? Google, Gemini, Anthropic, a couple others. Like, they're making billions of dollars a month by selling Compute. So now Meta's like, yo, I want to sell some compute. I would make a couple. Billy, how do I get in the game? So once they jump in, that, that competitive dynamic that's going on is just really going to ripple through this AI infrastructure market overnight.
- [03:46]
Robert Kroke
And Austin, Meta entering this market means the hyperscalers are no longer just buying AI infrastructure, they're also selling it. So let's dig in. What does this mean for you and your money?
- [03:55]
Austin Hankwitz
So for the past two years, the investment thesis for the AI infrastructure trade has been very simple. Big Tech spends hundreds of billions of DOL on AI infrastructure. That is a expense item for them, but it's a revenue item for the picks and shovels companies that are selling that infrastructure, the NEO clouds, the GPU suppliers, the data center, real estate investment trusts, right? They all capture that as revenue. So Meta saying, instead of spending a bunch of money, how about I take all of the capacity that I've built here with my infrastructure, my data, AI center infrastructure, and then I turn it to a revenue generating machine like what XAI is doing. So for your portfolio, this changes how you should think about the AI infrastructure stack. Nvidia does remain the safest play in my opinion, because they sell to everybody. Meta's cloud business still needs those Nvidia GPUs. Robert, I'm about to pull up Nvidia on Wall Street Favorites.com which is the easiest way to see what Wall street thinks about your portfolio and of course other stocks in the S&P 500 and in the NASDAQ 100. And I'm seeing an average price target of $317 a share right now for Nvidia, 61% upside from current price. Stock is trading at a discount right now to where Wall street thinks it should be.
- [05:12]
Robert Kroke
I agree with you totally. We've talked about this for quite some time now about Amazon and Nvidia, but the companies most at risk are the Pure Play Neo Clouds. Core Weave derives a massive chunk of their revenue from concentrated hyperscaler contracts. And if Meta, SpaceX and eventually others all start selling excess Compute the pricing power of the Neo Clouds erodes quickly
- [05:32]
Austin Hankwitz
Robert let's now jump to our second story, which is the June jobs report we heard from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on day that non farm payrolls increased by just 57,000 in the month of June, less than half of the 115,000 economists were expecting. And a dramatic slowdown from Mays already revised downward lower now to 129,000 jobs. What is going on?
- [05:59]
Robert Kroke
Robert I just feel this is the big gut punch of the week and why the markets are all over the place. And speaking of revisions, May was originally reported at 172,000 and got cut by 40. April was also revised down by 31,000 to 148,000 jobs. So the labor market has definitely seen significantly weaker than we thought. For the last three months the unemployment
- [06:24]
Austin Hankwitz
rate did drop from 4.3 to 4.2, which is like, okay, that's great, but not really because labor force participation also dropped half a percentage point to 61.5%, which is the lowest it's been since March of 2021. Think about that. All the out there that could be working, they're saying, I don't want to work, I can't find a job, I can't do this anymore, I can't keep applying. Don't even, I'm out. I'm not doing this right. So that now means 507,000 fewer people are reported being at work in the household survey. People aren't finding jobs, so they're leaving. That's half a million people that just left the workforce entirely over the last four or five years.
- [07:06]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, it's crazy to me because you think of Taylor, my chef partner from the sushi place. He just moved to St. Petersburg last week and in three days he has four. Four job offers, four good job offers. And I feel like it's just crazy, especially when you think about leisure and hospitality shed 61,000 jobs. The BLS said this reflected slower than usual seasonal hiring, which is remarkable considering the FIFA World cup was expected to boost hospitality employment. So, I don't know, it's confusing to me. It feels like everyone's hiring, we're hiring, restaurants are hiring, everyone's hiring, yet there's so much job loss. It's definitely confusing for me.
- [07:43]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah. And the experts are, you know, you look at like a Goldman Sachs, for example, who estimated that the World cup would add about 40,000 jobs, but instead the sector went deeply negative that you were talking about, right? 61,000 jobs lost. Professional and business services, though, added 36,000 jobs. Healthcare added 22,000 jobs. Slower than its usual pace, but definitely in the positive. Government added about 8,000 jobs. Like, we're seeing some positive momentum in specific little sectors here, but certainly not as fast as we saw in 2025, 2024 in the. And again, that labor participation rate has just fallen off a cliff.
- [08:18]
Robert Kroke
Yes, an average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month and 3.5% year over year, both in line with expectations. So wage growth is holding, but with core PCE inflation running at 3.4% as of the May reading, real wage gains are razor thin.
- [08:34]
Austin Hankwitz
Thomas Simons, who's the senior economist at Jefferies, said, and I quote, for the Fed, this number's fine. The pace of job growth is plenty strong enough to maintain a steady unemployment rate, and average hourly earnings are solid, but they're not accelerating. There's no imperative on their part to do anything with rates immediately. And the softening in the pace of job growth suggests that rate hikes are very unlikely to be necessary this year, which is music to my ears. I don't know if you remember this, Robert. We Talked about, like, two weeks ago, bank of America was saying three rate hikes in 2026, which, like, dude, get out of here. No way. But, Robert, what does this mean for you and your money?
- [09:07]
Robert Kroke
Oh, on one hand, this is bullish for markets in the short term because it kills the rate hike narrative. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh spent this week at the ECB forum in Sintra saying inflation is too high and vowing to get it to 2%. And markets were nervous he was laying the groundwork for a hike. A 57,000 print makes that nearly impossible to justify in July or September, so we'll wait and see. But on the other hand, this is the kind of data, if it continues, shifts the conversation from higher for longer to are we heading into a recession? And we're already seeing those headlines. Labor force participation is at a four year low, so that's important to understand as well. And a half a million fewer people reporting work in a household survey. Three consecutive months of downward revisions in is definitely not good. So if you're an investor, the question you need to be asking isn't just will the Fed hike, it's what's happening to earnings if the consumer starts pulling back. I think that's the key narrative here.
- [10:05]
Austin Hankwitz
And again, the companies that do well in a softening labor market are the ones with recurring revenue, pricing power and low sensitivity to discretionary spending. As we head over To Wall Street Favorites.com, you can go pull up Costco and see that of the 36 analysts that are covering Costco stock, they are implying an upside of over 21 with their price targets. So in a world where consumers are trading down and consolidating purchases, companies like Costco's membership and their pricing power make that company a fortress. So maybe Costco continues to do well as consumer spending reels back. The bigger takeaway is the labor market isn't exactly falling apart, but it's definitely cooling and the direction matters more than the level itself. So, Robert, round us off with our third story here about SpaceX secretly building an iPhone competitor.
- [10:53]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, this is crazy. We watched that interview and I was like, this makes sense for Starlink. And according to the Wall Street Journal, SpaceX recently showed select investors and stakeholders a prototype for a handset like device designed to reshape how people interact with artificial intelligence. This device is slimmer than an iPhone, runs on a proprietary operating system, integrates Xai's technology directly, and is built on Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. So wow, what an update.
- [11:23]
Austin Hankwitz
SpaceX told their investors the project is still early stage and the design could change. But the fact that a physical prototype ex exists and is being shown during the company's IPO window tells you that this is more than just a brainstorm. This is where the company could be headed. As recently as February, though, Musk denied SpaceX was developing a phone. Pushing back on a Reuters report about a Starlink connected device last October, he said, and I quote, the idea of making a phone makes me want to die. But if we had to make a phone, we will. And that framing of if we have to, we will certainly seems like they are trying to.
- [11:56]
Robert Kroke
I mean, in the interview he alluded to the fact that he believes within two years this could all be at scale and happening. And he talked about how there would be no need for AT&T and Verizon and all this, which is crazy. But if you think about it, for people that travel a lot, especially international travel, if you had one phone, one service with no droppage, that would be game changing for millions and millions of people. So we'll see. But Musk isn't just building a phone. He wants to compete with Apple in hardware as well. He's building a platform because he doesn't want to depend on Apple and Google to distribute the xai X and Starlink and whatever else comes next.
- [12:33]
Austin Hankwitz
And a lot of this is drawing from Elon's Everything app vision, a super app concept that he championed back when he acquired Twitter, you know, changed it to X X the Everything app in Asia. This model already dominates China's WeChat and Alipay, owned by Tencent and the Ant group function as this all in one platform where you can transfer money, you could order food, you could book, travel, you can play games, all without ever leaving the app. So Chinese companies are now layering AI agents on top of these super apps. And maybe that's what Elon wants to build.
- [13:02]
Robert Kroke
Build, yeah. And ByteDance already released a smartphone powered by its Dubao AI model designed to help users shop and book across platforms, though competitors have restricted its access to their services. The US has never truly had a super app and Musk may be betting that that is the way to build one isn't through software alone. It's by controlling the hardware, the os, the AI layer and the connectivity. Which he'll get through starlink.
- [13:27]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, they've already sell those Starlink dishes they already offer direct to cell service through T Mobile. XAI has Grok, X has payment infrastructure and development. They're offering 6% APY right now. Like proprietary device can really tie all this together into a single ecosystem that doesn't have to depend on an Apple or a Google. So we'll see what happens.
- [13:45]
Robert Kroke
Yeah. And OpenAI is also developing a family of AI first devices. The race to define what the post smartphone AI interface looks like is accelerating. And the companies building it aren't the traditional hardware players. They're the AI companies that want to own the relationship with the user from end to end. This is an exciting one, Austin. I think it's huge, huge news for SpaceX and Starlink and everything that's happening. So break it down. What does this mean for you and your Money.
- [14:11]
Austin Hankwitz
I think this is less about whether SpaceX can go sell 200 million a billion of these like handset devices. I think it's more about what this signals for the competitive landscape of the AI ecosystem. Right now. Right now, every AI company, if it's XAI, if it's OpenAI, if it's anthropic, if it's Google, they deliver their products through Apple or Android and that could be a choke point depending on your perspective. Apple takes 30% of in app revenue control goals what apps can and can't do. So if Elon is building a device that can bypass that entirely, it could change the economics of AI distribution for everybody. And also important Qualcomm, since they're the ones powering this device. That could just be pure upside in the stock. Another major customer for the Snapdragon chips new device category. Sign me up. For Apple, it could be a long tail threat. Not because SpaceX going to outsell the iPhone, but because of, you know, AI first devices is kind of like a category and all of its own. And if this category takes off, it validates a future where the iPhone isn't the default platform for AI interactions. Again, SpaceX's AI device, OpenAI's AI hardware device. Like if more and more of these are there, people are going to say, wait a second, why isn't Apple having an AI device? Should I make a switch? Like what's going on there?
- [15:23]
Robert Kroke
Yeah. As we discuss this, I'm actually shocked to think of how long this bottleneck has occurred with Apple and them taking 30% of the revenue from everybody. It's just crazy to think. And the most important tech battle of the next five years isn't who builds the best AI model. It's who controls the device, the distribution and the plat that the AI lives on. And Musk is trying to own all three. And this prototype is the first physical evidence that he's serious about it. And we'll see how he pulls it off.
- [15:50]
Austin Hankwitz
Those are our top three stories. Now, Robert, it's time to jump to our radar points which are kind of like a little show and tell action. I've got three headlines. You've got three headlines. And they caught our attention this week and we got to share with the audience. But before we do that, let's take a moment to hear from this episode sponsor.
- [16:06]
Robert Kroke
That's right, support for this show comes from vcx, the public ticker for private tech. For generations, Americans have moved the world forward through their ingenuity and determination. And for generations, everyday Americans could be part of that journey through perhaps the greatest innovation of all, the US Stock market.
- [16:21]
Austin Hankwitz
It didn't matter whether you were a factory worker in Detroit or a farmer in Omaha. Anyone can own a piece of the great American companies. But now that's changed. Today, our most innovative companies are staying private rather than going public. And the result is that everyday Americans are excluded from investing and getting left further and further behind, while a select few reap all of the benefits. Until now.
- [16:42]
Robert Kroke
Introducing vcx, the public ticker for private tech, VCX by Fundrise gives everyone the opportunity to invest in the next generation of innovation, including the companies leading the AI revolution, space exploration, defense tech, and so much more.
- [16:56]
Austin Hankwitz
So visit get VCX.com for more information. That is get VC X com carefully consider the investment material before investing, including objectives, risk charges and expenses. This and other information can be found in the fund's prospectus at Get VC xcom. This is a paid sponsorship. Robert, why don't you kick us off with your radar points and then we'll get into mine.
- [17:16]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, I'm excited. Excited. We have some really good radar points and my first one today is the Trump administration lifted its export ban on Anthropic's Fable model. The episode created a de facto government approval for Frontier AI models that has the entire industry on edge. OpenAI also restricted access to its newest GPT 5.6 models over similar cybersecurity concerns. And Anthropic is now working with Amazon, Microsoft and Google to build a shared framework for evaluating AI safety risks. While critics warn the US is handing China an advantage by throttling its own labs. I don't know if I agree with that. I think we need to be winning this battle and keep winning. So letting them be able to do some self monitoring and putting it with some of the largest hands in the business. Companies in the business, I think is a great step forward. Number two, Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles globally in Q2. And listen up, up 24.9% year over year. So they really broke through. The company discontinued its 100K Model S and Mod X in May and is now down to just three vehicles, the Model 3, the Model Y and the Cybertruck. Tesla's Robo taxi service is still limited to just dozens of cars in Texas and Musk admitted the autonomous software still gets stuck in literal infinite loops around construction zones. Full earnings drop July 22, so we'll keep an eye on that. And my last one leading into the 4th of July weekend is gas prices are at their highest in the last four years at $3.84 a gallon. And I know that stinks for everybody, but that's where we're prices have dropped 2 cents per day over the past several weeks after Brent crude fell below $72 a barrel following the US Iran agreement to suspend the Middle east conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Gas buddies Patrick DeHaan says we could see low to mid $3 gas by labor Day, which Bank of America notes would be a meaningful tailwind for lower income consumers, half of whom currently describe their finances as poor or terrible. That's the K shaped economy right before our eyes where gas is affecting people
- [19:23]
Austin Hankwitz
that my favorite color on this is the anthropic Fable model. If you have not yet played around with able Fable 5, all that fun stuff going on, go check out Fable. I don't know if you have to have a pro subscription or a Mac subscription or whatever's going on, but definitely go play around with it. Check it out. It is the most capable model yet. I think they even nerfed it from before, which I saw some some posts online about which would be interesting to dig into or not. But it's still very capable. Much more capable than opus 46484 point whatever this is fable 5 so go check it out for sure. But it's interesting to see how the government is sort of looking at this of a hey, this is too capable. You need to go through an approval process before that goes into the hands of the public.
- [20:04]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, I agree and that is a great call out. I just want everyone listening and watching play around with these models, get the free trials, learn and see what works for you because it is important. But the key here that what you just mentioned for me is if we throttle it too much by the government we'll fall behind China and we'll lag in the development of all of these models. And so having some sort of way to move it forward quickly while still keeping control of it I think is super important.
- [20:29]
Austin Hankwitz
Completely agree. Now before we jump to my radar points, got to give a shout out to Aura ETFs and the US Defense ETF trading under the ticker symbol DUT y duty, which I think is just perfect for the fourth of July. As geopolitical tensions rise and governments around the world continue increasing defense spending, many investors are looking for ways to gain exposure to one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy. Military, defense, aerospace and cybersecurity.
- [20:56]
Robert Kroke
Duty is designed to provide targeted exposure to companies supporting a America's national defense infrastructure including advanced military technologies, defense manufacturing, cyber security and space related defense innovation. And what makes Duty different is its mission driven structure. Aura ETFs has committed to donating 10% of the ETF's revenue to charitable organizations supporting American veterans, aligning investor capital with support for those who have served with a minimum commitment of $150,000 during the Fund's first year of operation operations, which
- [21:29]
Austin Hankwitz
I just think is incredible. Now, for investors seeking exposure to the long term growth of America's defense and national security ecosystem, dut y offers a different approach to defense investing. To learn more about the U.S. defense ETF, visit USDefenSETF.com investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. For a prospectus or summary prospectus containing this and other information about the fund, please call 888-824-4467 or visit www.usdefensect. please read the prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing.
- [22:04]
Robert Kroke
Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal and this ETF is distributed by 4 side Fund Services LLC.
- [22:11]
Austin Hankwitz
All right, Robert, My first radar point is Ford recalling over 740,000 of their vehicles. If you're driving an Expedition, a Navigator, a Ford Explorer, a Ford Aviator thing is Lincoln right or any of these F150s from 2018 to 2021, be careful because your transmission might be messed up. They got transmission defect that can engage the park function while the car is still moving, which could cause your car to roll away. This comes after Ford recalled 1.4 million F150s back in April for unexpected downshifting. In 2025, Ford issued more recalls than any other automaker affecting nearly 13 million vehicles. Not a great look for a company already navigating some export import tariff uncertainty and a crazy price to earnings ratio of 30 times. So if you drive a Ford BE, you might have got a recall here. Now here's my next story. Robert Apple's ramping up their foldable iPhone ambitions, asking their suppliers to prepare for 10 million foldable units this year in 2026, up from their earlier forecast of 7 to 8 million. So we all know that, you know, Apple comes out with these new iPhones every year, every two years, every three years, whatever. And they're now making this foldable iPhone, which I don't think is new news. I think people have known that for a while. But Apple's saying, hey, we think more people are going to want this foldable iPhone than we were previously expecting. The is planning to release at least five new iPhone models across the back half of 2026 in the first half of 2027 as they push into the high growth foldable segment that's currently dominated by Samsung and Huawei. So definitely check out that story alongside whatever the heck SpaceX is doing. I think both of those are pretty important right now, especially for Qualcomm. And finally my last radar point is Amazon launching 29 more Project Leo satellites, bringing their total of satellites in low earth orbit here of enough to begin initial broadband services later this year. Starlink competitor coming at you now. They could compete with Starlink, but StarLink does have 10,000 satellites in low Earth orbit serving 160 countries. So 396, 10,000 there. It's a little bit of a lead, right? Amazon plans to scale though, 3200 more satellites and then hundreds of flight ready units standing by at the cape of the dedicated integration facility doing more of these launches. So we'll see if they get thousands more satellites up into low earth orbit. But it's pretty obvious that that star, that entire entire business on lock.
- [24:43]
Robert Kroke
My favorite part of your call outs today, and for everyone listening, we don't see each other's callouts, our radar points before we film my favorite one is that you covered Ford because if you remember in the Rich Habits Network this past Tuesday I covered the fact that Ford announced that they had gone too far with AI and robotics and that they were bringing back, I think it was 550 seasoned engineers because of all the problems affecting so many vehicles. Then I see this headline, 13 million vehicles have had problems just in the last two years, which is crazy. So we're getting to see some cracks in the surface of AI and humanoid robotics and robotics in general because you still need those people in there at this point. And I think that speaks volumes to the fact that having full integration of AI and humanoid robotics and robotics in general is still a ways off to be able to maintain the quality and the pricing that works. And Ford is a prime example of what's wrong with it still to this date.
- [25:41]
Austin Hankwitz
I completely agree Robert. And I think, you know, you mentioned humanoid robots and robotics like that is so important like this, like the, the DEC. The next 10 years will be defined by humanoid robots and robotic companies, in my opinion. We saw Agility Robotics, talked about that last week, last Radar's episode. We've talked about the BOT etf, the H U M N E T F the K O I D etf. We think humanoid robots are here to stay. So if you want to Invest alongside Robert and myself into humanoid robotic companies and a bunch of other really cool startups. Join the Rich Habits Network. We're always investing into incredible things. If you're subscribed the Rich Habits newsletter, you probably read we've got two deals going on right now inside the Rich Habits Network. One of them is for a open source frontier AI model and a company building that, which is really exciting. And the other one is for unmanned AI enabled military vehicles, including drones and vessels and all the other different things that the military need to best keep human beings out of out of harm's way. So both of those deals are live right now inside the Rich Habits Network. We've also invested into Apptronic, which is a humanoid robotics company. Like three or four different times we did figure eight AI a couple times, right? We've, we've done these humanoids a ton and we're super, super bullish on them. So cheers to everyone inside the Rich Habits Network that's invested alongside of us into humanoids. It's been something we've been passionate about for a couple years now.
- [26:59]
Robert Kroke
And last but certainly not least, before we go, make sure you check out the Wall street favorites. Wall Street Favorites.com it is, in my opinion, the coolest, best aggregator stock analysis tool on the Internet today. So make sure you go to wallstreetfavorites.com and check it out.
- [27:15]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think we just crossed 3,000 people that have registered and created an account on Wall Street Favorites. So check out Wall Street Favorites dot com. It's an awesome, awesome website to see what Wall street thinks about your own portfolio. Everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Rich Habits Radar. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a five star review on Spotify. Apple subscribing to YouTube, giving us a thumbs up, just showing us some love. It goes a lot further than you might think. Thanks everyone and we'll see you on Monday. Sam.