What is this? 🥲 $NKE

Reuters - Exclusive: How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips $ASML.AS Reuters has published an article describing how china has managed to build a prototype EUV machine for producing state of the art semiconductor chips. No chips have been produced yet though. Chinese scientists, backed by a six-year state initiative, have secretly built and begun testing a crude but operational prototype EUV lithography machine in a Shenzhen lab. Apparently they reverse‑engineered technology from ASML and parts salvaged from older Western tools. The machine, described as China’s “Manhattan Project” for semiconductors, can generate EUV light but has not yet produced working chips. Beijing’s goal is chip production by 2028, though people involved see 2030 as more realistic, still years earlier than many analysts expected. The project relies heavily on Chinese‑born former ASML engineers working under aliases, aggressive global recruitment with large bonuses, and a nationwide network of institutes and companies coordinated by Huawei, whose engineers often live on‑site under strict security. China’s main bottleneck is reproducing ultra‑precise optics like those supplied to ASML by Carl Zeiss, so research institutes such as CIOMP and the Shanghai Institute of Optics are racing to develop domestic alternatives while teams of young engineers painstakingly reverse‑engineer EUV and DUV components sourced via secondary markets and intermediaries despite U.S.-led export controls. I'm not worried yet. Source (paywall): https://www.reuters.com/world/china/how-china-built-its-manhattan-project-rival-west-ai-chips-2025-12-17/

Bought $ASML.AS $CCO.TO $META

The Wire Mad Men

WSJ - Meet the Teens Investing in Stocks for Their Future Home and Retirement Interesting article which describes how some U.S. teenagers actively invests in stocks and crypto, often with parental guidance and long-term goals. One of the teenagers in the article is 13 years old. I sure wasn't 13 when I made my first investment which was in an actively managed fund. I was a lot older. Platforms like Greenlight report a sharp rise in trades by minors and note that more kids are setting up automatic weekly contributions, suggesting a focus on steady, goal‑oriented investing rather than day‑trading meme stocks. Pros and cons here. It's good more people take an active approach to saving and investing for sure, at the same time I think children should be able to be children during their childhood. Source (paywall): https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/teens-investing-stocks-crypto-2271c793

Btw, Kazakhstan is a country I want to visit. Haven't been there yet. Hopefully I'll make it happen.

Kazakhstan National Bank is planning to buy Bitcoin and other crypto! Great news! Up to $300 million in total... National Bank chairman Timur Suleimenov clarifies that the potential investments concern the National Bank’s own foreign exchange reserves, not the sovereign National Fund, and that within these reserves a separate portfolio has been set up for high-tech stocks and digital financial instruments, including crypto assets, with a possible allocation of up to 300 million dollars but no obligation to deploy the full amount.​ Suleimenov stresses that, after the recent downturn across the crypto and broader digital asset market, the bank will only act when solid investment opportunities appear, relying on thorough analysis and not “running headlong” into crypto; for now, legal and infrastructure frameworks are prepared, but decisions are deliberately delayed until market conditions stabilize. Source: https://www.zakon.kz/finansy/6499329-nikuda-bezhat-ne-sobiraemsya-glava-natsbanka-o-vkladakh-zolotovalyutnykh-rezervov-v-kriptoaktivy.html