Capstone Investments – Jan. 7, 2026

January 7, 2026 hebronjournal

By Bryce Pease CFP® Accredited Investment Fiduciary® Casey Morris CFP® Capstone Pacific Investment Strategies, Inc. California, Colorado, Nebraska

In my last two articles, I talked about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it was one of the reasons for the success of last years’ stock markets. Excitement about AI is just one of the drivers behind last year’s market performance. There are other factors, like lower inflation, easing interest rates, and a growing economy. AI is certainly popular as there are now over 1,300 AI startups with valuations over $100 million, with nearly 500 valued at $1 billion or more⁴ and the top eight of them together are valued at over $1 trillion.^³

So many investors are wanting to board the AI train that they are willing to pay a hefty premium to buy tickets. For example, NVIDIA, the largest of the AI companies, has a share price over 50 times its earnings.^² What does that mean in plain English? It means that, for every dollar of NVIDIA’s earnings that investors hope to receive, they are willing to pay fifty times more. In other words, many AI companies are valued at levels far above what they earn in revenue. This could also mean investors are hoping for stock prices to increase enough to help offset the costs.

We have a stock market being partially driven by only a handful of companies all focused on one specific type of technology, AI. The question you’re maybe thinking is, “So what?” So what if it’s just a few companies versus a few hundred? It may seem odd, but doesn’t it just show how great those companies are? So what if that much money is being invested in one area? Doesn’t that show how important AI is? These are all good questions, which leads us to: our next article.

Casey and Bryce 402-207-5383 info@capstonepacificinc.com

Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk and there can be no assurance of future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product made reference to in this commentary. Any mention of a particular security or type of security is not a recommendation to buy or sell that security. Investing involves risks including the possible loss of capital.