To the moon and back! Stories you may have missed

It’s been over 57 years since we took that “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (And, in all fairness to the Soviet Union, 67 years since humans made mechanical contact with the moon.)

While the U.S. remains the only country to have actually stepped foot there, maybe a dozen other countries and organizations have attempted robotic landings – some even successfully. And it looks like there’s much more of that to come within the foreseeable future.

NASA announced last weekend that it will be giving up to $10 billion worth of contracts to up to eight aerospace companies, including SpaceX (SPCX) and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The purpose: to begin a permanent moon base there.

There are several reasons behind this push, all of which deserve equal weight. And, yes, the possibility of one day establishing data centers there is one of them.

In fact, there’s the possibility of establishing an extensive overall power and communications system on the moon that we can then draw from here on Earth. That’s a pretty big deal, especially considering this year’s strong backlash against terrestrial-only efforts.

On top of that, there’s an entire world (or at least a celestial orb) of scientific possibilities to explore on the moon. There are soil samples to evaluate, the galaxy to observe from new angles, and human capabilities to investigate.

There’s actually so much potential involved that NASA also gave a separate $94 million contract to Blue Origin for a nuclear-powered PROMISE rover project. And another $1.3 billion was awarded to a collection of aerospace companies, including Blue Origin.

America is clearly running the space race – with every intention of coming out ahead.

After World War II, many American companies like Ford (F) and IBM (IBM) provided long-term, career-advancing employment opportunities for returning vets and the resulting Baby Boomer generation.

Workers started with these businesses as early in their lives as possible, then worked their way up the ladder into positions of sustainability and even significant profit. Moreover, they were proud of being part of those teams, turning out quality products they knew customers could use for years.

But then Jack Welch took over at General Electric in 1981; and that corporate appeal started shifting. Fast.

Welch was known as an economic genius as he grew the company by leaps and bounds. And in many ways, he was.

Problem is, he applied that genius by terrorizing employees and promoting profit above all else. And since he was the one to beat, an overwhelming tide of businesses shifted their focus as well.

That, right there, is American fast-food restaurants’ biggest problem, according to celebrity chef Robert Irvine. He didn’t mention Jack Welch either directly or indirectly, for the record.

But he did attack the “profits-first, profits-only” mindset when he told Yahoo Finance’s Power Players With Brian Sozzi:

Specifically, he seems to think the human touch is needed instead of all the automation we’re seeing that makes ordering more efficient… but not necessarily more enjoyable.

It’s an interesting thought, and one I wonder if Wendy’s (WEN) – which I wrote about last week – has considered as it seeks to regain its once significant relevance.

Everyone’s talking about Nvidia (NVDA) right now for all the wrong reasons.

You’ve no doubt seen all the headlines about CEO Jensen Huang and his affair with Alice Huang, a suspected Chinese intelligence asset. There’s already one shareholder-driven lawsuit and an FBI investigation as well.

But again, I would be shocked if you haven’t seen that news, making it absolutely unqualifiable for a “Stories you may have missed” entry. So here’s a tech-specific headline that may have escaped your notice instead…

Yahoo Finance published a piece on Monday titled, “Intel took 25 years to get back to its dot-come peak – and lost it in 6 months.” And it added that:

At least that was true at the beginning of the week – despite gains made (or made back) on both Friday and Monday.

The article goes on to quote TraderMindset.com founder Michael Martin, who pointed out to the platform that Intel peaked at around $75 in August 2000, then lost half of that by October. And it kept dropping from there in drips and drabs until 2002, when it finally bottomed out just above $13.

Twenty-four years later, it finally beat out its 2000 high, climbing and climbing until it seemed reasonable to think it might actually double that millennial best…

Only to plummet once again from about $141 in June to around $59. That’s still up significantly for the year, mind you, but any long-time loyalists still have to be wondering if they should remain loyalists from here.

Happy SWAN investing,

Brad Thomas
Editor, The Wide Moat Daily