Ah, cool, that is very helpful thanks! Certainly gives her some additional options - clearly she is 'used to' Aviva, but I am explaining how Aviva seem to be a bit stale in their options! I will sort a call with you in a week or two. Cheers

No fees other than the 0.35% annual management fee, applied monthly

quai undertaking maintenance.

Thanks for taking the time to reply Adam << thumbs up thingy>>

Thanks Adam

It’s probably just anticipating Trump being Trump every few minutes

Yep....me , just landed and invested in time for the usual Friday drop ( Quick edit: as thought complete 720 RAS added 31July wiped out 1 August . Talk about Tariffs and nuclear war sure helps )

It seems to do that from time to time, sometimes they come through later, sometimes not at all.

Yeah I'm currently not paying anything into my ISA each year, but that's sat at around £110k, with my pension pots amounting to around £225k. Wanted to get a chunk more into my pension until that is on track to grow comfortably with just my workplace contributions, then look to focus a bit more on the ISA to bridge any potential gap and leave some flexibility if I decide to change careers as I begin to wind down.

I don't mind disclosing the following with the caveat, everyone's situation is different by virtue of their: age appetite for volatility time to retirement total liquid assets lifestyle and cash requirements For example, we do have clients of advanced years(80+) with 100% of their assets with us in Tech. I happen to know that number represents less than 10% of their liquid funds. Conversely we have JISA accounts where their trustee has chosen MM or bonds. The point being, investment selection is based on many factors which you must weigh. Investment decisions should not be made based on a poll. If anyone wants to discuss their investment choices myself or Nik are happy to discuss. Our guidance service is FOC. Total assets under management % split and 3 year rank(1-5) performance: Lifestyle 40% (2) Tech 18%(1) IMOP 12%(4) PHE 8.5%(5) Index 8%(3) Other

An incredible result from GOOG, $28B net income for a 13 week quarter. The stock has done well lately but there is still an overhang from sentiment that the company has anti trust issues and is spending too much on AI. I think these fears are materially overblown. GOOG reported its second-quarter 2025 earnings on 23 July 2025, showing robust financial performance driven by strong growth in Search, YouTube, and Cloud segments, underpinned by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). Despite a significant increase in CapEx, the company exceeded analyst expectations, though investor sentiment was mixed due to concerns over rising expenditure (always!)and regulatory challenges.Key Financials (Q2 2025)Revenue: $96.43 billion, up 13.8% year-over-year (YoY), surpassing estimates of $94 billion. Revenue (ex-TAC-traffic acquisition cost): $81.2 billion, compared to expectations of $79.6 billion. Earnings Per Share (EPS): $2.31 (adjusted), a 22% YoY increase, beating estimates of $2.18. Net Income: $28.2 billion, up 19% YoY. Operating Income: $31.3 billion, up 14% YoY, with an operating margin of 32.4% (flat YoY despite legal settlement costs). Google Cloud Revenue: $13.62 billion, up 32% YoY, exceeding estimates of $13.11 billion. YouTube Advertising Revenue: $9.8 billion, up 13% YoY, slightly above estimates of $9.56 billion. Search Revenue: $54.1 billion, up 11% YoY, surpassing expectations of $52.7 billion. Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC): $14.71 billion, in line with expectations. Conference call highlights AI-Driven Growth:Pichai emphasised that “AI is positively impacting every part of the business, driving strong momentum.” Search saw double-digit revenue growth, fuelled by AI features like AI Overviews (1.5 billion monthly users) and AI Mode (100 million monthly active users). Google’s Gemini AI model has grown to 450 million monthly users, reinforcing Alphabet’s competitive edge in AI against rivals like ChatGPT. Google Cloud’s 32% YoY revenue growth was driven by demand for AI infrastructure and generative AI solutions, with an annual revenue run-rate exceeding $50 billion. Capital Expenditure :Alphabet announced a $10 billion increase in its 2025 CapEx guidance, raising the total to $85 billion from $75 billion, reflecting strong demand for cloud and AI infrastructure. CFO Anat Ashkenazi noted that Q2 CapEx was $22.4 billion, significantly above estimates of $18.2 billion, primarily for servers and data centres(nice). The increase is driven by a “tight supply environment” for chips needed to train and run AI models. Ashkenazi highlighted that CapEx is expected to rise further in 2026 due to ongoing demand, but Alphabet is focused on efficient allocation to mitigate profitability concerns. A “highly rigorous process” ensures optimal use of resources. The increased CapEx raised investor concerns about near-term profitability(we can see profit headwinds NOT), as depreciation costs are expected to accelerate in 2025 due to prior and ongoing infrastructure investments. Positive Developments:Search: AI Overviews and AI Mode have boosted user engagement, enabling Alphabet to address more complex queries and maintain its dominance despite competition from AI-powered chatbots. Search revenue grew 11% YoY, outperforming expectations. YouTube: The platform’s ad revenue grew 13% YoY, driven by increased viewership on Connected TV and Shorts monetisation, which now matches or exceeds traditional in-stream ads in key markets. YouTube’s shift to television as its primary consumption medium is eroding traditional network market share. Google Cloud: The segment’s profitability improved, with an operating margin of 20.7% (up from 17.1% in Q1 2025), reflecting strong demand for AI and core cloud products. Subscriptions and Other Bets: Subscription platforms (YouTube, Google One) grew 19% YoY to $10.4 billion, with 270 million paid subscribers globally. Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit, is scaling, serving over 150,000 paid rides weekly. Talent and Innovation: Pichai downplayed concerns about AI talent wars, stating that retention and new talent acquisition metrics remain “healthy.” The company continues to innovate rapidly, with over 1,000 new cloud products and features launched in the past eight months. After an initial soft after hours reaction, the stock rose a few dollars and futures are up nicely overall.

Hi Mazza LTA allowances are not overly relevant now, it is the "lump sum allowance" (LSA) that is now more applicable. Tax free cash is now capped at either 25% of your pension value or £268,275 which ever is the lower, unless you have some form of pension protection place. Drop me a message at nik.burrows@cobensdirect.co.uk and let me know what you need. Cheers Nik

From JP Morgan: AMZN has grown its Advertising Services revenue from ~$13B in 2019 to ~$56B in 2024, implying a +39% CAGR. The success of Amazon’s Advertising Services business highlights key advantages AMZN & retailers have over GOOGL & META. According to WSJ, AMZN has deployed more than one million robots in facilities, which is the most it has ever had and near the count of human workers at the facilities.

FYI: PNL changes for yesterday: Equity +2% Tech +0.18% Lifestyle +0.67%

Cheers Nik No urgency at all, I have another question, I shall ping off an email to you in the morning again no urgency on it

Colossus-2 expansion to 1 million GPUs gets closer....... xAI is raising $25 billion, comprising $5 billion in debt through Morgan Stanley (a term loan B, fixed-rate term loan, and senior secured notes) to fund the Colossus supercomputer with commitments due by June 17, 2025. Additionally, xAI is seeking $20 billion in equity at a valuation between $120 billion and $200 billion to support its growth.

Interesting update which is a big positive for companies like Oracle. 'You can have our tech if we manage it' -seems to be a link to Stagate/open AI for countries. Quoted from a news wire below New AI Diffusion Rule is COMING SOON and New Version Will Let Allies Buy US Chips With Conditions The Commerce Department is drafting a replacement for its recently repealed AI diffusion rule to ensure the new controls don’t impede U.S. exports to allies, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said June 4. “Our view is we are going to allow our allies to buy AI chips provided they’re run by an approved American data center operator and the cloud that touches that data center is an approved American operator, so we control it while it’s over there,” Lutnick testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science. The rule that was rescinded last month (see 2505130018) was “very confusing,” Lutnick said. “For example, the prime minister of Poland hunted me down and said, ‘What did I ever do to you that you have me as a Tier 3’ country, the most stringent of three tiers? ‘I’m part of Europe -- what are you doing?’ It was illogical. It was hastily rushed through at the very end of the Biden administration.” He expects Commerce will release the new AI diffusion rule soon. “I can’t say with more specificity but pretty soon,” he said.

The previously posted tables containing predicted min Blackwell (packaged) chips has proven very accurate in fact we also said TSMC would likely find additional capacity(and apparently they have). And from that we forecast the revenue growth, knowing what they sell these chips for. The start of Blackwell was clunky due to the transition from Hopper because Hopper was packaged on the 'S' line and Blackwell on the 'L' line and there were some heating issues which is no surprise because it was all very new. We predicted about $10 billion Q o Q growth vs $4-5B during Hoppers reign. We are now at this point today. Blackwell is bug free and at ramping as fast as CoWoS will allow. This is the old schedule by quarter in 000's: [image: 1748798151117-screenshot-2025-06-01-at-18.14.59.png] . TSMC have indicated circa 500k chips per month and growing from June. They are all sold(5-10X). Losing China completely, and it wont be but let's just ignore it all together. All that has happened is we take the hit and next quarter they achieve $47B and the next $57, $67, $77 and so on. The only caveat is that when Rubin arrives at year end, Dec/Jan they will add further revenue to each quarter simply due to the ASP of Rubin being higher-so id expect $12-$13B q o q increases. Next year automotive will be meaningful as all car makers equip their cars with ADAS and robotics/omniverse will start adding revenues-the q o q rhythm will grow again. But this is exactly how I see their revenue grow over time. A very long time and yes I expect 100B+ per quarter some time at the end of next year or Q1 the following. And to anyone who thinks they will have transition issues again, well, Rubin and Rubin Ultra are all packaged on the same line so the transition will be seamless . It is not until 2027 that packaging will move to a new process called Sow-X which is when the real party starts. We are looking at racks 40X more powerful than today's. Racks containing 500 chips and consuming 1 megawatt each and could cost $20M or more. This is the roadmap from 2027 to 29. The experts have been predicting a plateau in revenue for over a year now-remember Cathy Wood and the 'Dean of Valuation'. They were all wrong and continue to be so. Cisco-look at Cisco. A very scientific analogy. Exciting times ahead imo.

The stock doesn’t fit out criteria and moving 100% in a day doesn’t make it attractive. Odds are it will fade over the coming weeks. It’s very small, no track record, loses money and will be extremely volatile. And to add something you have to make a call on what to sell. That’s not to say it can’t go higher.