- This jet could replace Air Force One…
- Say goodbye to your steering wheel…
- What Niantic’s big acquisition tells us…
Dear Reader,
As I shared yesterday, we can’t continue to do things the same way anymore…
The bull run of the last year is over… and market dynamics are shifting. Global events and market turbulence are creating fear and uncertainty among investors.
And readers may be tempted to panic, seeing their brokerages fall into the red day after day.
Yet I’d urge us not to despair.
Just this morning, there is progress towards peace talks in Eastern Europe. And China has stepped up to stabilize its own financial markets. These hints of spring resulted in another market rally. The markets are ready to come roaring back after a bumpy start to the year.
The reality is, as investors, we simply must adapt to changing circumstances. And I plan to carefully guide my readers toward the biggest opportunities that exist in this new landscape.
Because these “bumpier” environments can still provide big wins even now… especially with short-term trades.
As a result, Brownstone Research is making an exciting move…
Like I revealed in yesterday’s e-letter, I’ve built a cutting-edge AI to help us navigate the fast-moving cryptocurrency sphere… and this “neural network” can help us profit from short-term positions in cryptos about to surge.
Even more important, perhaps – it can help us protect our capital by alerting us whenever we need to sell…
I’ll be sharing all the details on how this works tonight at my special event… as well as giving away one of the trades this AI produces to everyone who attends. We’ll all be able to test for ourselves how powerful this system is – even in this volatile moment.
The night starts at 8 p.m. ET, and I’d urge all of my readers to attend… whether you’re a crypto novice or expert.
This AI will enable us to cut through much of the noise in the media… and uncover real returns that can change our lives…
Simply go right here to ensure your name is on the list.
Thank you.
Another big development around hypersonic aircraft…
We are witnessing the rebirth of the aerospace industry right now.
The future of transportation is being built in real time. And that includes hypersonic aircraft, which is one step faster than the kind of supersonic speeds that I’ve mentioned in the past.
We talked about the latest developments at Boom Supersonic back in January. Today, we need to highlight another startup in this space – Hermeus.
Hermeus just raised $100 million in its Series B venture capital (VC) round. And the list of backers quickly caught my eye.
Sam Altman, the founder of Y-Combinator, led the round. Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund was a strong participant. Two venture divisions of the U.S. Air Force also participated in the round, as did In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Here’s what the hype is all about:
Halcyon Supersonic Aircraft
Source: Hermeus
This is the Halcyon supersonic aircraft. It’s capable of hitting a top speed of Mach 5… Five times the speed of sound.
On a practical level, this means the Halcyon could fly from New York to London in just an hour and a half. That’s a flight that takes about seven hours in today’s commercial aircraft.
To start with, Hermeus plans to use the Halcyon to transport important cargo. That will be the first use case.
From there, Hermeus will look to develop a model capable of carrying passengers. Testing could begin as early as 2025.
However, Hermeus didn’t design Halcyon to replace today’s commercial airliners. It’s too small. Current plans estimate that the cabin will support about 20 business-class passengers.
So it would use it exclusively for high-end flights.
That’s why the U.S. Air Force is investing so heavily. In fact, the Air Force is considering the Halcyon as a potential hypersonic equivalent to Air Force One – the jet that famously transports the president of the United States.
As for the development timeline, Hermeus has already performed more than 100 tests on the Halcyon’s engine design. It is gearing up for manufacturing later this year. That’s why the Series B round was so important.
Then we can expect flight testing to start early next year. Presuming that goes well, the Halcyon could begin transporting cargo within the next 18–24 months.
That’s quite an accelerated timeline compared to what used to be the standard in the industry. And that speaks to the efficiency of these next-generation aerospace companies. They can go from prototype to development to flight testing in a short period of time.
So this is another exciting supersonic company for us to keep on our radar. We’ll check back in on Hermeus once flight testing begins… I’m ready for Mach 5.
Self-driving cars are about to hit the street in waves…
The U.S. government just cleared the way for fully autonomous vehicles (AVs).
Last week, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ruled that AVs no longer need to have a steering wheel or pedals. I know that might sound disconcerting to some of us, but it is a sign that the technology is maturing to levels that are safer than human drivers.
The regulators are basically acknowledging that the self-driving technology is ready for prime time.
The industry has been lobbying for this for quite some time now. That’s because carmakers can reduce costs materially by doing away with steering wheels and pedals. They can also optimize the car’s interior for passenger comfort and space. AVs will become more like a small living room on wheels.
So we are going to see a flood of fully autonomous vehicles as a result of this ruling. The inevitable just became imminent.
This may sound scary to some people. But self-driving cars will improve safety on the roads.
Think about this – right now over 35,000 people die in car accidents in the U.S. every year. And 94% of serious crashes are due to human error.
Self-driving technology removes human error from the equation. We can expect to see fatalities decrease dramatically as a result.
So I see this as an exciting development, even though I still enjoy driving myself.
And get this – over 30 companies now have self-driving testing permits on U.S. roadways.
This includes Motional, Waymo, and Cruise with their self-driving robo taxi services that we’ve discussed in these pages.
What’s more, General Motors (GM) and Cruise recently asked the NHTSA for permission to build the Cruise Origin with no steering wheel or pedals.
Here is a look:
Cruise Origin
Source: Cruise
Thanks to the NHTSA’s ruling, we can expect to see the Origin go into production later this year.
The bottom line is, self-driving cars are not years into the future… They are here now. And they are only going to proliferate in the months to come.
That’s why it’s important to position our portfolio to capitalize on this trend today. For more information on the best way to play it, go right here.
Niantic is going all in on augmented reality…
We last checked in on gaming and augmented reality powerhouse Niantic when it acquired social gaming company Lowkey last December. That brought Niantic one step closer to launching its own augmented reality (AR) eyewear.
Well, Niantic continues to press forward. The company just acquired 8th Wall, which is a company that specializes in web-based AR applications.
This is Niantic’s largest acquisition to date. And it could be the final piece of the puzzle…
8th Wall’s software supports the creation of AR-based apps on both the Apple and Android operating systems, as well as computers and virtual reality (VR) headsets.
In other words, 8th Wall’s tech allows developers to build AR apps that can run on over five billion smartphones around the world.
This gives Niantic the “reach” it needs for a mass-market AR launch.
And as we discussed before, it is taking the position that we won’t experience a metaverse in a purely virtual world. Instead, the metaverse will involve augmentation of the real world that we will each experience as we go about our day.
This is a sharp break from the approach that companies like Facebook (now Meta) are taking. But Niantic is operating on experience here.
If we remember, Niantic is the creator of the wildly successful Pokémon Go game. This game pioneered the concept of augmented reality gaming on smartphones.
Pokémon Go has generated over $5 billion in sales for Niantic. And it gave us an early look at Niantic’s vision for a metaverse. Here’s a great example:
Virtual Worlds and Reality Combined
Source: Panda Security
Here we can see a Pokémon standing in a supermarket aisle. It’s a little awkward experiencing this through the smartphone. But imagine seeing this augmentation directly in our line of sight as we walk down the aisle. That’s where AR eyewear comes in.
So we’re setting up for a huge battle over the future of what a metaverse looks like.
On one hand, we have Niantic’s AR-based vision with supporting eyewear. On the other, we have the 100% digital world vision embraced by Facebook (Meta), Roblox, Epic Games, and a long list of Web 3-native metaverses.
I’m excited to see how it plays out. The reality is that there will be a handful of very successful ones.
And we’ll certainly track Niantic very closely this year. My prediction is that the company will reveal its own AR eyewear before 2022 is out.
To learn more about how to profit as this trend continues, go right here to see some of my top recommendations…
Regards,
Jeff Brown
P.S. I’m gearing up to unveil my “Perceptron” in just a few hours. In fact, it just computed its next cryptocurrency trade recommendation…
I’ll send the name and ticker to everyone who tunes in to the event tonight. Just go right here to reserve your spot.