We're Eyeing 20 Signals Across 7 Pro Portfolio Investing Themes
Let's scan through the headlines for the stories of the week that speak to our Pro Portfolio holdings.
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This week we've tracked a variety of signals and confirmation points for the Pro Portfolio’s investment strategies and active positions. These include the latest in artificial intelligence, how cash-strapped consumers are flocking to places like Goodwill, and data center deals in Vietnam. Because you’re likely getting ready for the long weekend, we’ll keep the intro brief. Here are 20 signals across seven of our investing themes.
If you’ve come across a signal we should know about, be sure to drop a link in the Comment section below.
Artificial Intelligence
U.S. employees already using artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace used it slightly more often in the fourth quarter of 2025 than in the prior quarter, continuing a gradual increase since 2023. The proportion of employees using AI daily has risen from 10% to 12%. Frequent use, defined as using AI at work at least a few times a week, has also inched up three percentage points to 26%. Read more here
OpenAI has launched a new product to help enterprises navigate the world of AI agents, focusing on agent management as critical infrastructure for enterprise AI adoption… It’s not surprising that OpenAI would release this platform in early 2026, as the company has made it clear that enterprise adoption is one of its main focus areas for this year. The company has also announced two notable enterprise deals this year with ServiceNow and Snowflake. Read more here
Chief financial officers are moving rapidly from tentatively exploring generative artificial intelligence to managing it as a core element of finance operations. By the end of 2025, gen AI was no longer confined to pilot programs or isolated analytics use cases. Instead, CFOs report that they are increasingly embedding it across core finance functions, including financial reporting, capital and working capital management, and risk-related activities, all while delivering strong effectiveness across a wide range of tasks. Read more here
Insurance companies are beginning to deploy agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems that do more than summarize documents or answer customer questions. They are orchestrating entire workflows across claims, underwriting and policy servicing functions, touching legacy policy administration, billing and claims systems that were never designed for autonomous coordination. Unlike earlier automation waves that focused on robotic process automation or narrow machine learning models, agentic AI systems are designed to ingest unstructured emails, scanned PDFs and intake forms, extract relevant coverage and risk information, apply policy rules and route exceptions to human adjusters. Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL) , Amazon (AMZN) , Arista Networks (ANET) , Axon (AXON) , Meta (META) , Microsoft (MSFT) , Palantir (PLTR) , ServiceNow (NOW) , SuRo Capital (SSSS)
Cash-Strapped Consumer
In addition to the slowing economy, shifting consumer trends are boosting Goodwill’s sales. Much of the growth is coming from Generation Z and millennials who see secondhand clothes not only as cheaper but also as more sustainable and fashionable. Read more here
Some Americans ages 50 and over are exiting retirement and returning to work, according to a new AARP survey. Most surveyed individuals who are “unretiring” say they’re motivated to make money amid today’s high living costs, the nonprofit organization, which represents people ages 50 and older, found. In the past six months, 7% of retirees have re-entered the labor force, up from 6% who said the same in summer 2025, according to AARP’s survey results. Read more here
Position: Amazon, Costco (COST) , TJX Companies (TJX)
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Digital Identity
Newsletter platform Substack has confirmed a data breach in an email to users. The company said that in October, an “unauthorized third party” accessed user data, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other unspecified “internal metadata.” Read more here
A data breach at government technology giant Conduent appears to affect far more people than first disclosed, with the number of victims potentially stretching to dozens of millions of people across the United States. The January 2025 ransomware attack, which knocked out Conduent’s operations for several days, is now known to affect at least 15.4 million people in Texas alone, accounting for about half of the state’s population. Read more here
The computer systems of La Sapienza in Rome, one of the largest universities in Europe with around 120,000 students, have been down for three days following an apparent ransomware attack. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF, Microsoft
Digital Infrastructure
Abu Dhabi-based AI holding company G42 has signed an agreement with two Vietnamese companies to build three data centers in Vietnam. G42 will collaborate with FPT Corporation, one of Vietnam’s largest IT and telco firms, and the conglomerate Viet Thai Group under the terms of an undisclosed framework agreement. Read more here
Amsterdam-based AI cloud provider Nebius is planning a 240MW data center in Béthune, France. As reported by Les Echos, the project will see the former Bridgestone tyre plant redeveloped and set to deliver capacity in phases. According to Nebius CCO Tom Blackwell, the first phase of capacity is expected online by late summer, with half the data center up and running by the end of 2026. Read more here
… Menlo Equities is pivoting 888-894 Ross Drive in Sunnyvale within the Peery Park business park in Santa Clara County towards data center development… Timelines haven’t been shared, but BizJournal reports the project could be delivered around 2027/2028. Read more here
Investment firm Scranton will build a new data center on the site of the former Iberboard Mill paper mill near Barcelona in Spain, giving the site a second industrial life after more than a year in bankruptcy. The facility, located in Igualada (Barcelona), will transition from a paper mill to a site specializing in digital infrastructure, geared toward hosting servers and high-demand workloads. Read more here
Shares of data-center-infrastructure provider Vertiv soared after the company’s outlook for 2026 simply smashed expectations… Orders were strong, too, up 252% year over year and up 117% sequentially from the third quarter of 2025. Read more here
Position: Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom (AVGO) , Marvell (MRVL) , Microsoft (MSFT) , Nvidia (NVDA)
Digital Lifestyle
Cars, like many other functional utilities now decked out with large connected screens, are quickly becoming an advertising gold mine. That potential revenue is leading automakers to test the controversial addition of in-car ads — and likely playing into the growing wave of automakers scrapping popular phone-mirroring systems like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from their models. Read more here
PayPal is launching an artificial intelligence-focused partnership with tech firms Sabre and Mindtrip, according to a Thursday (Feb. 12) press release. The collaboration combines PayPal’s agentic commerce capabilities, Sabre’s enterprise-grade travel technology and agentic AI expertise, and Mindtrip’s agentic consumer platform, the release said. The goal is to replace the “fragmented multistep booking processes” with a “single, intelligent experience that moves seamlessly from inspiration to action,” Read more here
Position: Alphabet (GOOGL) , Amazon, Apple, Meta (META) , SuRo Capital (SSSS)
Energy Pain Point
The largest U.S. electric utilities are ramping up spending on new power infrastructure to meet surging demand from data centers, with companies like American Electric Power (AEP.O), opens new tab and Exelon (EXC.O), opens new tab unveiling expanded investment plans on Thursday and fielding questions about rising power bills. Read more here
Duke Energy raised its five-year spending plan on power infrastructure to $103 billion, an 18 percent jump from the last iteration of what has become the largest capital expenditure plan for any U.S. regulated electric utility, the company said on Tuesday. U.S. power companies are beefing up spending plans to record levels as the country's power demand forecasts rise after decades of stagnation, with growth driven by the proliferation of the technology industry's energy-intensive data centers. Read more here
The parent company of Consumers Energy, Michigan’s second largest investor-owned electric utility, plans to invest more than $17 billion in generation, distribution and other assets over the next five years, company executives said at its fourth quarter earnings call Thursday. Its generation investment is set to increase more than 25% over the previous five-year plan. Read more here
Position: Eaton (ETN)
Homebuilding & Materials
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell sharply in January as higher home prices and possibly harsh winter weather kept many prospective homebuyers on the sidelines despite easing mortgage rates. Existing home sales sank 8.4% last month from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the biggest monthly decline in nearly four years and the slowest annualized sales pace in more than two years. Read more here
The Strategies Behind Our Thematic Models
Aging of the Population - Capturing the demographic wave of the aging population and the changing demands it brings.
Artificial Intelligence – Software, chips, and related companies that facilitate the collection and analysis of large data sets and autonomous generation of solutions given non-machine language prompts.
Cash-Strapped Consumer - Companies poised to benefit as consumers stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have.
Cybersecurity - Companies that focus on protecting against the penetration of digital networks and the theft, ransom, corruption, or destruction of data.
Data Privacy & Digital Identity - Companies providing the tools and services that verify authorized users and safeguard personal data privacy.
Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity -The buildout and upgrading of our Networks, Data Storage Facilities, and Equipment.
Digital Lifestyle - The companies behind our increasingly connected lives.
Digital Payments - This model focuses on companies benefiting from the accelerating structural adoption of digital payments and financial technology (FinTech).
Energy Pain Point - Companies poised to prosper from rising power demand.
EV Transition - Capturing the transition to EVs and related infrastructure from combustion engine vehicles.
Guilty Pleasure – Companies that produce/provide food and drink products that consumers tend to enjoy regardless of the economic environment and potential long-term health hazards associated with excessive consumption.
Homebuilding & Materials – Ranging from homebuilders to key building product companies that serve the housing market, this model looks to capture the rising demand for housing, one that should benefit as the Fed returns monetary policy to more normalized levels.
Luxury Buying Boom - Tapping into aspirational buying and affluent buyers amid rising global wealth.
Rebuilding America - Turning the focused spending on rebuilding US infrastructure into revenue and profits.
Safety & Security – Targeted exposure to companies that provide goods and services primarily to the Defense and security sectors of the economy.
