Davis Wilson:

The Death of the Trucker

Breaking News: A new trillion dollar industry just launched. This week, Aurora Innovation (AUR) officially launched the first commercial driverless trucking service on public roads in the U.S.

Running routes between Dallas and Houston, these massive, heavy-duty trucks aren’t part of a limited demo. They’re hauling real freight for real customers – completely autonomously.

Trucking in America is a $1 trillion industry, but it’s badly broken. Driver turnover rates top 90% at some companies. Insurance and fuel costs are climbing. Nearly 80,000 driver positions remain unfilled. Trucks sit idle 40% of the time, bleeding value from underutilized assets.

Aurora’s autonomous trucks offer a solution that’s safer, faster, and more efficient – without displacing jobs. And with Uber Freight as its launch partner, the upside is distributed across both companies.

If you're looking to bet on the future of logistics: Aurora Innovation (AUR) is a pure play. If you want broader exposure to mobility, autonomy, and AI-powered logistics: Uber Technologies (UBER) remains a top pick. Together, they’re positioned to dominate a trillion-dollar industry that’s overdue for disruption.

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Chris Guenthner:

Trump Crypto Firm Tapped For $2 Billion Deal; Strategy, Metaplanet To Add Bitcoin

A 30% rally from an April low has sent bitcoin to its highest level since late February. Meanwhile, crypto has seen some massive headlines this week.

First, Eric Trump announced at the Token2049 event in Dubai on Thursday that World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin would be the official stablecoin backing MGX's $2 billion investment in crypto exchange Binance, according to reports.

Elsewhere, Japan-based Metaplanet on Friday revealed in a filing that it issued 3.6 billion yen ($24.8 million) in bonds to buy more bitcoin.

Strategy, another bitcoin treasury company, is also looking to acquire more of the cryptocurrency. Strategy in its Q1 earnings miss late Thursday announced plans to raise $21 billion in an at-the-market stock offering to fund bitcoin purchases.

Bitcoin traded around $97,200 early Friday. The cryptocurrency is climbing back toward its Thursday peak of $97,437. The price of bitcoin has ranged between $93,000 and $95,000 over the past week, and is up about 30% from its early April low of $75,000.

Bitcoin is now up more than 4% for 2025.

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Chris Campbell:

The Real Target of Tariffs: Chinese Robots

Trump's tariffs are about robots. Chinese robots. The real fear in Washington isn’t inflation. It’s not jobs going overseas. It’s not trade deficits. It’s total irrelevance.

At CES this year, NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang said the quiet part out loud: “The next frontier of AI is physical AI.” Translation: AI is dumb without robots.

If you’re not building embodied AI—machines that move, act, build, touch—you’re playing with toys. And China isn’t just ahead. They’re racing solo. 

The world's biggest AI company before OpenAI was SenseTime—a Hong Kong firm focused on computer vision. DJI, also Hong Kong-based, owns 90% of the consumer drone market. 75% of the commercial one.

In 2015, China’s industrial robot count matched the U.S. By 2023, every other robot sold was sold to China. Today, half of the world’s robots live on Chinese soil.

And what’s America’s response? Tariffs. Not as a tax. As a tourniquet. The U.S. isn’t just slapping duties on cheap junk—it’s aiming straight at the lifeblood of China’s rise: the industries that power their future dominance.

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