As mentioned in earlier notes, Chris Versace is traveling in Europe for a series of meetings in different countries.
On Thursday he met with investors in Finland -- and they had a hefty interest in technology plays that aren't correlated with the Nasdaq 100. What this means is they are looking for opportunities outside the "Magnificent Seven" group of stocks of Nvidia (NVDA) , Microsoft (MSFT) , Alphabet (GOOGL) , Apple (AAPL) , Amazon (AMZN) , Meta (META) , and Tesla (TSLA) .
That makes a report Thursday rather timely. Google is reportedly contemplating switching to Marvell (MRVL) from Broadcom (AVGO) for some of its chips, including AI, around 2027. Before we jump to conclusions, though, the timing discussed is a few years out, and, in our experience, we've seen many design wins fail to come to fruition.
We see shipping product identified through tear-down analysis as a far more reliable indicator. Marvell was also discussed given its exposure to data center and digital networks, while conversations about the CHIPS Act in the U.S. and its counterpart in Europe led to discussions about Action Alerts PLUS holding Applied Materials (AMAT) .
We also learned there is little interest from investors in Finland for EV stocks and EV-charging companies. This is intriguing to us given the country is ahead of many in embracing ESG and sustainability. Also interesting was the lack of interest in solar, although several money managers discussed their interest in uranium.
There was a general tone of concern among Finnish investors over several current and potential hiccups, including the UAW strike, the continued tight labor market and wage inflation, a possible government shutdown, and higher borrowing costs. These items also came up in Chris's meeting in London as well, and it tells us our thinking here is on the right path.