GSI Banner
  • Free Access
  • Contributors
  • Membership Levels
  • Grey Swan Forecasts
  • Video
  • Origins
  • Sponsors
  • My Account
  • Sign In
  • Join Now

  • Free Access
  • Contributors
  • Membership Levels
  • Grey Swan Forecasts
  • Video
  • Origins
  • Sponsors
  • Contact

© 2026 Grey Swan Investment Fraternity

  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Whitelist Us
Beneath the Surface

Nvidia Goosed 401(k) Millionaires – Beware

Loading ...Addison Wiggin

May 24, 2024 • 3 minute, 57 second read


Nvidia Goosed 401(k) Millionaires – Beware

“History shows us, over and over, that bull markets can go well beyond rational valuation levels as long as the outlook for future earnings is positive.”

–  Peter Bernstein


[Special Reminder: In case you missed our recent announcement, The Essential Investor has merged with legacy contributors to Agora Financial. The new, larger, more inclusive project is called The Grey Swan Investment Fraternity. If you’re interested in the scope and benefits of our new endeavor, please see what prompted us to merge here. If you’ve been a member of The Essential Investor, please keep an eye out for your new benefits.]

May 24, 2024 – This interesting stat shows the extent of the market’s current rally. It’s the total number of individuals with at least $1 million socked away in their 401(k):

Turn Your Images On

New 401(k) millionaires can thank Nvidia, in part, for their own investing genius.

This single company alone – which has more than doubled since the start of 2024 – accounts for 5.8% of the S&P 500 by weight.

The $2 trillion dollar AI chip maker is also one of the greatest threats to the stock market and individual investor wealth we’ve seen since funds were overweight mortgage-backed securities in 2007 — 08.

We’re doing a deep dive into the meaning of AI for the June Grey Swan Bulletin we send to paid readers.

In it, we’ll introduce new Grey Swan contributor Zoltan Istvar, who, if anybody does, has the perfect name to match his status as a world-renowned futurist.

Further introductions are on the way…

Also, one company we’re looking into is a small cap producing energy for server farms dedicated to AI computing.

With a gain of 412% over the past 12 months, the company’s share growth has outpaced Nvidia. We haven’t decided whether to pull the trigger yet, but the energy sector for AI is intriguing, to say the least.

The case for waiting to buy in, at this point, is largely made by the Global Markets Investor substack post we’ve republished below.

Hint: The company’s market cap is now larger than the stock market in Germany, South Korea and Australia… enjoy! ~~ Addison

NVIDIA is One of the Largest Threats
to the U.S. Stock Market

Global Markets Investor

On Wednesday, after the market closed, Nvidia released its financial report for the fiscal first quarter 2025. The company’s earnings per share came at $5.98, above Wall Street estimates of $5.57. Revenues in first quarter were $26.04 billion, beating average forecasts of $24.55 billion. Adjusted gross margin came at 78.9%, above the analysts projected 77%. As you can see, these are really great results and substantially exceeded expectations.

Turn Your Images On

Moreover, in the last four quarters, Nvidia’s revenue has tripled year-over-year and reached $79.77 billion.

Turn Your Images On

What caused the stock to move higher, however, was the 2Q 2025 sales outlook of $28.0 billion (plus, minus 2%) which came significantly above Wall Street estimates of $26.8 billion. The chip-maker also announced a 10-for-1 stock split and raised its quarterly dividend by 150% to 10 cents a share.

As a result, Nvidia rallied by 9.3% on Thursday and closed above the $1,000 per share mark for the first time ever. The company added $217.7 billion to its market value in just one day, more than the combined market cap of McDonald’s and Ford and almost $80 billion more than the value of Intel.

The below meme perfectly shows Thursday’s and the last few quarters of U.S. stock market developments.

Turn Your Images On

On Thursday, the S&P 500 closed down by 0.7% and the Nasdaq by 0.4% as recent economic data showed that inflation has not been easing. However, if not for Nvidia’s 9% gain, the stock market would have easily dropped by more than 2%.

Turn Your Images On

Nvidia’s performance indeed looks great, and the company has been materially exceeding market expectations for the last two years. However, have the things not moved too far and too quickly?

The company has become so great that it should be considered as the largest threat to the U.S. stock market performance in the months ahead. ~~ Global Markets Investor

So it goes,

Turn Your Images On

Addison Wiggin,
The Wiggin Sessions

P.S. Monday is Memorial Day, and the stock market is closed. As has been our modus operandi for decades now (oof!), we’re not going to publish on Monday. Enjoy your long weekend!

(How did we get here?  An alternative view of the financial, economic, and political history of the United States from Demise of the Dollar through Financial Reckoning Day and on to Empire of Debt — all three books are available in their third post-pandemic editions.)

(Or… simply pre-order Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or if you prefer one of these sites:Bookshop.org; Books-A-Million; or Target.)

Please send your comments, reactions, opprobrium, vitriol and praise to: addison@greyswanfraternity.com


The Great Rotation to “Stuff”

February 18, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

It’s pretty clear from the leaderboard year-to-date that investors are moving their money out of AI stocks into real-world “stuff” – the energy and commodities, natural that are the building blocks of an economy.

The Great Rotation to “Stuff”
Frank Holmes: Why the 10/10 Crypto Crash Still Haunts Bitcoin

February 17, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

The crash was a major structural shock that wiped out leveraged positions and forced necessary, but painful, deleveraging across the digital asset ecosystem.

Did irresponsible marketing campaigns by certain platforms contribute to the crash? Again, I believe yes. When you incentivize users to treat a tokenized hedge fund like a stablecoin and then allow unlimited leverage on top of that, risk is amplified.

As massive as the crash was, it may have been necessary medicine. Sometimes excess leverage needs to be flushed from the system before the next move higher can begin. I believe we’re in the last stages of that process. 

Frank Holmes: Why the 10/10 Crypto Crash Still Haunts Bitcoin
SpaceX and the Private Capital Edge

February 17, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

Gallup reports that 62.1% of Americans describe themselves as thriving in 2025, down 2.7 percentage points from 2024. Yet, only 59.2% expect a high quality of life in five years, the lowest reading on record. We wonder how many of the 40.8% of the naysayers were trading on Robinhood…

Our goal at Grey Swan is to make sure we’re in the cohort of thrivers now, five years from now… and beyond.

To that end, folks who build durable positions tend to focus on balance sheets, cost structures, and who controls the pipes — whether those pipes carry rockets, data, oil, or dollars.

SpaceX and the Private Capital Edge
Markets Ready to Crack as the AI Story Implodes

February 17, 2026 • Addison Wiggin

In the past eight-day trading period, over 20% of S&P 500 stocks have had at least one intraday decline of at least 7%. 

Typically, that kind of volatility occurs in the middle of a market correction or crash – not this close to all-time highs.

Markets Ready to Crack as the AI Story Implodes