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Vuzix Quanta partnership, PPI and more +3

17:48 15-Nov-23

ChargePoint has announced its Express Plus Power Link 2000 DC fast charging platform, which will be incorporated into the Mercedes-Benz HPC NA network, which is just beginning to roll out.  Having the highest top speed of 500kW will be a feather in the cap, and being able to use two plugs from the same charger is also nice.  The speed easily beats the 350kW at Electrify America Hyper stations I've been touting, but it won't matter with my current Polestar or most other existing EVs, though it might with our Ioniq 5.  However, using liquid cooling will probably make the stations substantially more expensive to build.  It does make sense to try to get ahead of the game this way, and 2025 Polestars might also be able to use the added charging speed.

In the meantime, this is pretty obviously a case of competing on specs, when you can't compete with Tesla and Hilton on location and quantity.  CHPT rose to $3.33 yesterday with other stocks, but appropriately, isn't getting much reaction to this today.  I will try to find and use one of these new stations in the real world, but I won't be rushing to buy CHPT.  Mostly this just heralds in an overdue era of charging competition, and I welcome that.

Vuzix has announced a partnership with Quanta Computer, but as usual, provided few details.  Right now all that is confirmed is an initial batch of waveguides, with more to follow next year.  Nonetheless, I see this as a potentially major turning point.  Quanta has the funds, scale, contacts and experience to really make a difference in wearables, though it's not certain to what extent this lifeline will benefit ordinary VUZI shareholders.

The stock fell as low as $1.87 following the last report, where management prepared remarks confirmed to me that any real world results from Atomistic are a long way off.  The only verifiable thing it has done is create a website.  There is only one more $1.5M payment to Atomistic due at year end, and management did say that further investment would be modest.  VUZI now trades just below the $2.50 strike on this news.  I won't chase them, and might not even buy on new lows, but I will give VUZI and this partnership more attention going forward, especially in light of the updated inflation data below.

Also on the corporate side, the Intel Director from Cadence purchased 66K INTC shares last week via his trust fund at an average price of $37.84.  That's almost half his consulting bonus, and I continue to think he's overpaying.

PPI numbers for October signal an acceleration of the CPI trend by falling half a percent.  That's the largest decline since the beginning of the pandemic.  The Fed may continue its cautious tone, but so long as it doesn't cut rates prematurely, we've probably seen their peak already.  Mortgage applications even rose 2.8% last week, signaling that the housing market could thaw quickly as real rates do move.
 

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