My name is Porter Stansberry.

I'm the founder of one of the largest financial research firms in the world.

Over the last 26 years, we've helped investors navigate almost every major economic cycle, and we've been on the forefront of every big financial story from the rise of Bitcoin and mRNA vaccines to robotics and artificial intelligence.

But today, I'm breaking what I believe is the biggest story of my career.

Because one of the most famous historians alive — a man whose books have sold over 45 million copies in 65 languages — recently issued a warning that should stop every American dead in their tracks.

He warned of a coming wave that would create what he calls the "Useless Class."

Not the unemployed. The unemployable.

An entire segment of American society — including many white-collar professionals who earn six figures — rendered permanently irrelevant.

Not by a recession. Not by a policy mistake. But by a structural shift so large, so fast, and so irreversible that it has only one historical parallel.

1776.

That is not hyperbole.

As you'll see today, the last, and only, time a force this powerful reshaped the economic order was 250 years ago.

Now, on the eve of America's 250th anniversary, it's happening again.

One famous Stanford economist is even calling it:

"The biggest change ever… bigger than electricity… bigger than the steam engine."

And the aftershock could reset not just your personal wealth, but the entire U.S. economic system — how you work, how you earn, how you protect everything you've built.

Because as you'll discover, everything from the government quietly taking stakes in companies like Intel, Lithium Americas, and MP Materials…

To Trump's moves on Venezuela and Greenland… his never-ending executive orders… and his increasingly centralized grip over the economy…

All the way to the surging popularity of radical socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Zohran Mamdani…

It's all deeply connected. All part of the same story.

A story that one Nobel Prize winner says is dividing not just the economy but our entire society.

And whether you end up on the winning side of this moment – or find yourself part of the historian's "Useless Class" – comes down to the decisions you make starting now.

The stocks to buy… the stocks to sell… and the three money moves to ensure you and your loved ones aren't left behind by what's coming.

It's all laid out here.

Good investing,

Porter Stansberry

3 Companies That Could Thrive While the Fed Holds Rates Steady

Written by Nathan Reiff. Article Posted: 8/11/2026.

Though many investors started 2026 assuming that the Federal Reserve would eventually lower interest rates, another trajectory has emerged amid conflict in the Middle East and renewed inflation concerns. The Fed has appeared comfortable keeping interest rates elevated until inflation can be brought under control, and some analysts have even predicted that rate increases could be in store. The Fed kept its benchmark rate in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75% at its July 29 meeting, while three voting members preferred a quarter-point increase. Fortunately, some companies have consistent cash flow, strong balance sheets and limited dependence on inexpensive financing. Those traits can matter even more when rates remain steady or rise.

That shifts the focus away from companies waiting for borrowing costs to ease and toward companies that can continue compounding without help from lower rates. Businesses tied to transaction volume, recurring revenue or essential demand are better positioned than those whose growth depends on cheaper financing.

Visa's Execution Continues Despite Interest Rates

Few companies in or adjacent to the financial sector are as insulated from interest-rate changes as Visa Inc. (NYSE: V). Banks that make loans or take on credit risk are heavily affected by these changes. Visa, on the other hand, collects fees from each transaction consumers or businesses make on its payment network.

This transaction-fee model has allowed Visa to generate consistent revenue and earnings growth even as the broader economic environment shifts. With the secular shift toward cashless payments worldwide and the continued growth in cross-border payment volumes, Visa is a prime beneficiary.

A look at Visa's latest earnings report helps confirm that trend. For Q3 2026, the company reported strong net revenue growth of 14% year over year (YOY), alongside earnings per share (EPS) growth of 11% over the same period; both topped analyst expectations. The growth was driven by 10% increases in payments volume and processed transactions. What's more, the company has benefited from a combination of improving commercial payments volume, Visa Direct transaction growth and increased revenue from value-added services. It is not relying on a single part of its business to fuel gains.

Visa's excellent financial profile, including robust free cash flow, allows it to pay a stable dividend while also making aggressive share repurchases and ongoing investments in new technologies to support its growing payments network. This could be why the company has 31 Buy ratings and not a single Sell or Hold, signaling unanimous analyst support.

Spotify Combines Financial Improvement With a Loyal Premium Subscriber Base

Spotify Technology (NYSE: SPOT) is the dominant music-streaming platform, with a market capitalization close to $100 billion. The company spent years prioritizing subscriber growth over profitability, but significant improvements in operating efficiency have led to stronger financial results, even as many artists have spoken out against the company's payment practices.

In the company's Q2 2026 earnings report, Spotify highlighted several improvements, including 14% YOY revenue growth, a 21% YOY increase in gross profit and gross margins that rose to 33.4% from 31.5% a year earlier. Free cash flow also climbed 14% YOY to 797 million euros, or approximately $920 million. These results were driven by a combination of improving profitability and subscriber growth, with total monthly active users climbing 12% YOY.

What helps Spotify thrive despite higher interest rates is the combination of margin, earnings and free cash flow gains with continued Premium subscriber growth, a sign that customers have generally accepted the company's price increases. Subscription-based models like Spotify's generate predictable recurring revenue, while the company's advertising arm provides an additional avenue for longer-term growth.

An impressive 20 out of 26 analysts have rated SPOT shares a Buy, and the company has nearly 25% upside potential.

UnitedHealth Stands Out for Stability Despite Medicaid, Reimbursement Hurdles

As one of the most defensive sectors, health care includes companies that are practically built for high-rate environments. UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH), a major diversified health care company, stands out for its reliability.

Because health care utilization tends to remain mostly stable throughout economic cycles, a company like UNH can generate steady revenue regardless of interest-rate movements. This is not to discount the impact of reimbursement trends, regulatory changes and other factors, though these challenges can often be managed by a company of UNH's size and scope.

This is perhaps why UNH was recently able to raise its full-year 2026 outlook for adjusted EPS and operating earnings even as commercial medical costs remain elevated and Medicaid remains under significant pressure. It could also explain why the company retains strong analyst support, with 22 Buys against five Holds, despite those external challenges.

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Microsoft's Maia 300 Chip Targets NVIDIA's AI Dominance

Submitted by Chris Markoch. Originally Published: 8/16/2026.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is preparing to unveil its next-generation Maia 300 AI accelerator as soon as September. The company hopes the third time will be the charm, as Maia 300 is its third attempt to prove that homegrown AI silicon can work at scale. Maia 100 shipped in limited volume, while Maia 200 was delayed and deployed narrowly.

Microsoft has entered talks to secure manufacturing capacity for more than 300,000 units from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM), with delivery planned for 2027. That figure dwarfs Microsoft's prior chip volumes. 

The longer-term goal is to secure capacity for more than one million units, though supply constraints could slow that timeline.

Why Microsoft Is Racing to Cut the Cord on NVIDIA

The reason behind Microsoft’s ambition comes down to supply and demand. The processors from NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) are the industry standard for AI training. But that dominance comes at a cost. Every dollar spent on NVIDIA hardware is a dollar leaving Microsoft. A homegrown chip would allow Microsoft to own more of that value chain itself.

To support that effort, Microsoft is pitching Maia 300 to external customers, including Anthropic. If outside companies adopt Maia instead of NVIDIA GPUs, the chip could chip away at NVIDIA's pricing power. That is what investors will need to watch closely. The real question isn't whether Microsoft can build a chip; it's whether anyone with a real choice will use it.

What Maia 200 Already Proved

Maia 200 packs more than 140 billion transistors and 216GB of HBM3e memory, delivering more than 10 petaFLOPS of FP4 performance. Microsoft claims it offers 30% better performance per dollar than its prior hardware generation. It is already powering real workloads, including OpenAI's GPT-5.2 models and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

TSM Stands to Benefit

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is the direct supply-chain beneficiary of this buildout, since Microsoft is negotiating with TSMC to fill an order far larger than anything in Maia's history. However, TSMC and NVIDIA have a deep collaboration in manufacturing and process optimization. In this situation, TSMC gets paid regardless of which chips customers prefer.

The Real Test: Will Anyone Outside Microsoft Actually Use It?

Microsoft is pitching Maia 300 to Anthropic, even as Anthropic has confirmed it is building its own internal chip-design team. That makes Anthropic both a potential customer and a future competitor.

Internal usage doesn't answer the harder question: Will a customer with real optionality choose Maia over NVIDIA when it doesn't have to? Internal adoption is guaranteed, but that won't do anything for Microsoft’s numbers. External adoption is not guaranteed, but that’s what would actually dent NVIDIA's numbers.

Why This News Isn't Driving the Stock

Maia 300 is a real, strategic story. But it has almost nothing to do with why MSFT has been strong lately. The reason goes back to Microsoft’s Q4 2026 earnings report.

Microsoft's fiscal fourth-quarter revenue grew 18% year over year to $90 billion, with Azure sales soaring 43% and crossing $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time. Shares surged on that news, erasing much of MSFT's year-to-date losses in a single session.

Free cash flow is another reason for positive investor sentiment. Microsoft's capital expenditures (CapEx) are set to reach roughly $190 billion in 2026, consuming up to 78% of operating cash flow. Fourth-quarter free cash flow fell 23% to $19.64 billion. However, CFO Amy Hood said she expects Microsoft to remain free cash flow positive in fiscal 2027.

Wells Fargo recently raised its price target to $700, making it one of the highest on Wall Street. The firm is betting that Azure's 40%+ growth and Copilot monetization will justify the spending. Most other analysts remain far more cautious, creating a roughly $140 gap between the bull and consensus targets.

But all of that doesn't mean Maia 300 doesn't matter. It matters for a different reason: It is a lever Microsoft could eventually pull to ease the CapEx burden, a variable not currently baked into anyone's FCF model.

Custom chips take years to scale and prove out economically. Even Maia 200, which is already in production, has primarily supported Microsoft's internal workloads rather than serving as a broad external revenue driver. Investors should treat Maia 300 as a multi-year option on Microsoft's margin structure, not a near-term catalyst.

MSFT’s current strength is a bet on Azure's growth rate and whether CapEx spending starts converting into cash flow on schedule. If Maia 300 succeeds commercially, it could eventually reduce the very CapEx burden weighing on FCF today. But that's a 2027-and-beyond story. It won't show up in a single quarter's numbers, and it's not what's moving the stock this month.

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Okta’s AI Tailwind Could Put This Forgotten Software Stock Back in Play

Author: Sam Quirke. First Published: 8/19/2026.

For a few years now, Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) has been something of a forgotten name in technology investing. Once a high-flying darling of the cloud software boom, the identity-management specialist saw its growth cool and its shares languish, prompting many investors to move on to shinier names. Lately, though, something has begun to stir.

The stock has quietly rallied around 60% so far this year, comfortably outpacing the broader market, and Wall Street is paying attention again. The reason lies in a subtle but powerful shift in how businesses are planning to spend their technology budgets, one that plays directly to Okta's strengths.

The question for investors is whether this marks a real turning point. After years in the wilderness, is Okta finally set for the comeback its long-suffering shareholders have been waiting for, or is this simply another false dawn?

A Spending Shift in Okta's Favor

At the heart of the renewed optimism is a change in corporate priorities. For a long time, digital identity—the business of verifying who is allowed to access what within an organization—was treated as a worthy but unglamorous line item. With the rise of AI, though, that's changing fast, and the evidence is compelling.

A fresh upgrade from Wells Fargo this week highlighted that identity management has vaulted up the list of corporate spending priorities, ranking second only to AI after sitting well down the list just a quarter earlier. Crucially, the same analysis identified Okta as the biggest market-share gainer, overtaking even Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), with a string of large enterprise wins to show for it.

Wells Fargo is not alone in its renewed enthusiasm. RBC, Citizens JMP, Oppenheimer and Barclays have all turned bullish on the stock this month, pointing to improving sentiment across the software sector and particularly encouraging signs in cybersecurity. Overall, Wall Street rates Okta a Moderate Buy, and some of its recently updated price targets point to gains of up to 25% from current levels.

AI Agents Could Be Okta’s Next Demand Driver

If the spending shift is the spark behind this renewed interest, the rise of AI is acting as the accelerant—and this is where the story becomes particularly interesting. Rather than threatening Okta, as some once feared, the AI boom is shaping up to be one of the company's most powerful tailwinds.

The logic is similar to what has already played out with several other software companies this year. For Okta, it works like this: Every time a business deploys an AI agent to carry out tasks, that agent needs its own digital identity to be verified and governed, just as a human employee would. As companies unleash armies of these agents across their operations, the number of identities requiring management could balloon—a phenomenon some have neatly termed identity inflation.

This could transform Okta's opportunity. For years, its growth was tethered to the number of human employees for whom it could charge, but a world awash with AI agents blows that ceiling wide open. Okta has been moving quickly to capitalize, snapping up a specialist business to bolster its ability to monitor and secure both human and machine activity and positioning itself squarely at the center of this emerging need.

From Cash Burn to Cash Machine

Beyond the demand story, a quieter but equally important transformation is taking place in Okta's finances. The company many investors remember as a fast-growing but unprofitable disruptor has matured into something rather different—and considerably more attractive.

Okta has now been consistently profitable for two years and boasts a net cash position of more than $2 billion. That war chest gives it the flexibility to continue buying back shares or make strategic acquisitions—the kind of firepower unprofitable growth companies can only dream of.

The Bull Case Has More Behind It This Time

This is the cherry on top of the renewed bull case. The argument isn't simply that Okta's growth is about to snap back to its former highs, but that the market has yet to fully appreciate its transformation into a durable, cash-generative franchise. In that context, those recent price-target hikes could easily become just the first stops in a much longer rally.

Weighing it all up, Okta looks more compelling than it has in years. A powerful spending shift, a sudden AI tailwind and a much-improved financial profile have combined to give this once-overlooked name a credible path back to favor. The comeback isn’t guaranteed, but for the first time in a long while, the pieces are falling into place.