Research library / 25 articles
This is the full collection of my work on Los Angeles real estate, hotels, triple-net leases, public companies, semiconductors, retail, and interest rates.
Trader Joe’s parking lots have become a running joke, but the congestion follows from a real estate problem. The stores are small enough to receive fewer required spaces and popular enough to bring in the traffic of a much larger supermarket.
In-N-Out can’t enter a new state by signing a franchise agreement and shipping a box of instructions. Before the first restaurant opens, the company needs food production, warehouse space, delivery routes, trained managers, and sites that can handle unusually long drive-through lines.
Costco’s hot dog and soda still cost $1.50 even though food, wages, and nearly everything else in the warehouse have become more expensive. I looked at why the company protects this one price so aggressively and whether the combo has to earn money on its own.
Marriott and Hilton signs appear on thousands of buildings that the companies don’t own. Hotel investors pay for the real estate, renovations, employees, and property debt, while the brand companies collect franchise and management fees from a growing network.
A hotel REIT owns the actual buildings, pays for renovations, carries property debt, and receives the cash left after guests are served and expenses are paid. The dividend is easy to notice, although a high yield may be warning investors about a renovation bill, weak balance sheet, or softer travel demand.
The AI boom is usually discussed through Nvidia’s GPUs, but a working data center needs memory, advanced manufacturing, networking chips, optical links, cooling systems, and enormous amounts of electricity. I mapped the companies behind those less visible parts of the system.
An advanced GPU can’t do much if it spends its time waiting for data. High-bandwidth memory, usually called HBM, sits beside the processor and moves information quickly enough to keep it working, while using much more factory capacity than ordinary DRAM.
Nvidia’s advantage now reaches beyond the GPU into CUDA software, networking, and complete systems. The harder part of studying the stock is deciding how much of that strength investors already expect the company to deliver.
After the split, Sandisk sells NAND flash and solid-state drives while Western Digital concentrates on hard disks. Both store the growing amount of data produced by AI systems, but they do it with different technology, economics, and exposure to pricing cycles.
Marvell doesn’t make the main AI accelerator, yet its custom chips, optical connections, switches, and storage products help thousands of processors operate as one system. Data centers now account for roughly three quarters of the company’s annual revenue.
Intel is trying to repair two businesses at the same time: its own processors and a foundry that manufactures chips for outside designers. The factories could make Intel strategically important again, but they are consuming cash and still report multibillion-dollar operating losses.
