Gulfs Weekly
In this episode of Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing , Motley Fool contributors Travis Hoium and Lou Whiteman and Motley Fool analyst Jason Moser debate: The future of smart homes, flying cars, and AI wearables. Whether big tech's latest innovations can move the needle. The sharp sell-off in AI infrastructure stocks.
The financial pressures facing the AI industry. Stocks on the radar. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center .
When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy . A full transcript is below. This podcast was recorded on Oct. 16, 2026.
Travis Hoium: Flying cars are finally here, and Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing . I'm Travis Hoium.
I'm joined today by Lou Whiteman and Jason Moser. Guys, we got a couple of big product announcements, with Apple releasing the HomeView, and we have a new Roadster, or at least we're in 2028 from Tesla , that can fly. I want you guys' thoughts on this, but the context that I want this in is our history with technology.
I think we'll age ourselves a little bit here, but I remember the days when there was an encyclopedia sitting on our shelf in the living room. We actually built a whole thing around that encyclopedia, and it cost a lot of money. Suddenly, there was a computer in the late '80s; it was connected to the Internet sometime in the early '90s.
I remember Prodigy coming along. Suddenly, that information became more available. It was a no-brainer.
I spent time in the computer lab as a kid. Then suddenly those devices worked; the rotary phone that was on the wall could suddenly go in your car, and then it could go in your pocket. What a no-brainer technology advancement.
Now today we get to a point where an iPad has a speaker on it, but still has to be connected to the wall. Lou, when you look at the HomeView, is this making new products for the sake of making new products, or are we answering something? Because that's what I struggle with in this current age of AI is going to make everything easier, but is this going to be the solution?
Lou Whiteman: You're bringing me back because my parents fell for that scam. My parents bought cabinetry from the World Book company. You could buy a cabinet to house your World Book when you buy them.
Wow, gosh. But anyway, on to Apple. Travis Hoium: By the way, one of those was a Berkshire company.
Was it Britannica? Lou Whiteman: I think so. One of them definitely was.
But on HomeView, this is Apple 101. A pricier, hopefully more refined, works-a-little-better version of what is out there. Apple loves to do this, and I think it makes total sense for them to do it.
I think they should be here, but we are in the age of incrementalism; we are not in the age of wow. This is another example of something that is going to add to the system, reinforce the advantages they already have, but not redefine anything. I think the long-term plan is that they want to have as big of a foundation as they can.
When they start trying to charge $19 a month for Siri, Siri is really useful and helpful in a lot of different things. Will it get there? Not on its own, but they're doing it with partners.
They're not really expending a lot of capital. It does complement what they're doing, so it's somewhere between why bother and why not. Travis Hoium: Jason, does that resonate with you?
Not only HomeView, but also the home products that they announced this week? They are trying to build this ecosystem, and I think we thought they were going to build a decade ago when they introduced the Home app. If you have an iPhone, it's still on your iPhone, this Home app, and it never quite worked the way that they envisioned it.
But now it seems like they do have products. The problem is the ecosystem already exists for other stuff: the ADT s, the SimpliSafe, the world's smart speakers, smart lights, all that stuff. It's not like they're going into white space like they were in 2007 when they introduced the iPhone.
Jason Moser: You're right. Apple, it's not about being first; it's about being best. This made me immediately think because of what you said; they're late to the game.
I don't know if you saw this week also Block rolled out this restaurant device. I thought that's really clever. I'm wondering why you didn't do that five years ago, because there's this company called Toast that really has already won a lot of market share.
Can Block overcome that even? I don't know. That probably is part of the problem, and being a little bit later in the game here.
How long have we been having this conversation about: if they can ever get Siri right, if they can make Siri good? It's like, if Starbucks can ever figure out food? They've got it on the menu.
You're not really going there for the food. It's an ancillary add-on. For me, I wonder will Siri ever be worth anything?
I have an iPhone; I've had it forever. I never use Siri. The only time I've ever used it was on accident.
I do question whether Siri will ever really get there as far as utility. To me, this HomeView device really seems like a solution in search of a problem. It's not the first time we've seen this.
Amazon has already tried this with their Alexa video device. I guess it did OK. I've always said Apple could put a rock in a box and stamp their brand on top of it, three million people would buy it, no question about that.
Lou Whiteman: The first day. Jason Moser: They're always going to sell stuff. They do a lot of things very well on the hardware front.
I think this is interesting-looking technology. I will say, the ad that they put out for this. I'm not sure if you guys saw that.
Travis Hoium: Yes, we need to talk about that. A three-minute ad about the most uninspiring thing that you've ever seen from Apple. Jason Moser: It actively made me not want this device.
Furthermore, I don't know how useful this device truly would be for particularly the younger generation. Travis Hoium: That's what they brought up in the ad. I think you’re pointing in the right direction; it's almost like Apple doesn't really know what they want to do with this.
Because we don't have the device yet, but from what we know about it, I think you have to have a different device signed in to be able to log into your little account. Theoretically, everyone in that ad had an iPhone in their pocket. Why do you need to interact with this other device?
I think it would be a great FaceTime device. My kids love calling grandparents and things like that. That's not a $300 device; we have an older iPad that works fine for that.
It reminds me a little bit, as Jason, you were talking of Microsoft introducing the Zune. They dominated PCs, and then they knew this next thing was coming, and they were like, we got to get in there, compete with the iPod. Are we at that point where, if there's going to be something innovative coming to the home with artificial intelligence, it's not going to come from Apple; maybe it's going to come from Meta or a start-up or something like that, but Apple's not the company that's going to be able to structurally be able to do this.
Jason Moser: It seems that to this point, you are right. For the most part, like Lou said, it's the age of incrementalism. Your iPhone is a little bit faster, the battery life maybe last a little bit longer, and the cameras may be a little bit better.
I think it's worth remembering the lightning in a bottle that the iPhone was. That is one of the most phenomenal products of all time. I think it really goes to prove the point that innovation is really hard.
I'm not sitting there telling you that I've got the next great idea for them. I don't blame them for trying things like this. To me, this feels a little bit more like Vision Pro.
I think some people will buy it, but I think for the most part, I have zero interest in it. It's not going to be something we install in my house. I can tell you that.
But if you think about Amazon had a big product rollout this week, too. This B line of AI devices. You got a smartwatch-type idea and then this little card that attaches itself to the back of your phone that is apparently listening to you at all hours of the day.
Lou Whiteman: What could go wrong? Jason Moser: Currently making your life better. I struggle with the utility with a lot of this stuff.
It's not the technology; the technology is clever. It's impressive. But I'm trying to figure out how do I incorporate that into my everyday routine.
Meta is Muse. Do any of you guys have that? Travis Hoium: Yes, I have tried it.
I shut it down recently. Jason Moser: I struggled. I didn't download it because I simply could not figure out why in the world I need it.
I know there is no way in the world I'm giving access to my emails, my text messages, and my bank accounts. Apparently, that's what you have to give up in order for it to really serve any purpose whatsoever. Again, it's trying to find the utility of these things.
It's a solution in search of a problem, and that's like it's really solving a problem. Travis Hoium: That's why I started with how revolutionary some of these innovations, new products, were in the '80s, '90s, early 2000s. If you wanted to answer a question — my son is asking questions at dinner — I can literally pull the phone from my pocket and give an answer to almost any question.
We would have to go to the encyclopedia. If that answer wasn't there, you would have to go to the library. Good luck finding the book that you need in the library.
The change was so radical, so phenomenal, so obvious. That's what drove so many of these massive companies, and I feel a little bad that I'm in the same boat, where I don't necessarily understand some of the utility of these things either. I feel like, what am I missing here, Lou?
What are we missing? Lou Whiteman: Just one other thought here, too, and far be it for me to lecture Apple on product design, because I don't think they're going to listen to me. But what fail doomed HomeKit 10 years ago was, they went with a walled garden when everybody else was going to a unified standard, and they weren't able to bully their way into market dominance.
Now, as you say, I have products from three or four different companies around my house right now that they all work together. Apple is again going with a walled garden. I think if there's a market opportunity here, it is.
Things are going to continue to get smarter, more connected, all of that. If you could be almost not the iOS of this, where it's behind, but the Windows of this. The all-encompassing works with everything, going to bring order to your life as it gets more complicated, and then maybe Siri slides in; it's with that.
That seems to me to be the better market to pursue in 2026. I find it interesting that there, we have this great stuff, pay up for it and live in our ecosystem. We'll see.
I don't think that's how I would have gone, though. Travis Hoium: We need to touch quickly on the Roadster. They had their demo last night, going upside down, dropping gracefully from the sky.
Lou, what is this? How do you interpret something like that? I want to acknowledge this is incredibly cool.
Lou Whiteman: It's very cool. I know exactly what this is because I used to have to go to the Detroit Auto Show and the New York Auto Show in the '90s, and everybody had their concept cars. Things that were really flexing their muscle on engineering, but with no practical purpose.
With all respect to Tesla on the Roadster, I don't think non-road-legal cars are going to be on the roads by 2028. As automakers like to do and all, this was to look at what we're capable of and get the hype up. Nothing wrong with it, because everyone does it.
But if you are daydreaming about flying through the air in your Tesla in 2028 with your driver's license, I got bad news for you. [LAUGHTER] Travis Hoium: Jason resonates. Jason Moser: Listen, Musk knows how to sell the sizzle. That is one of his specialties.
He does a very good job of it, and he is tremendous at raising capital and creating interest. Obviously, there's not a place on the road for this thing. This is not a street-legal car, and you're not going to be flying your car around and leapfrogging.
Travis Hoium: Twitter was telling me something different last night. Jason Moser: Sure, take that for what it's worth, I suppose. We haven't even really been able to figure out the regulatory landscape for self-driving cars yet either.
I think it's fascinating; hats off to him. That was pretty cool. I must say that I saw that presentation; it was pretty cool.
I think the clock is ticking on when we see Tesla and SpaceX merge. Because that Roadster is utilizing SpaceX technology, and that was apparent; very cool. I think the broader implications to me are: when do we see SpaceX and Tesla merge?
I suspect it will happen in 2027. Travis Hoium: I will say, going back to my 3M days, we are seeing a lot of invention right now, which we used to define as turning money into ideas. I don't know if we're seeing a lot of innovation, which is turning those ideas back into money.
Jason Moser: What about OpenAI? A lot of this conversation, think about OpenAI. It was like a year ago, where they were sitting there telling us how they were working on their own line of devices that were going to revolutionize.
I haven't seen anything from them, not even a prototype. It's interesting to see. I think it speaks to that point: innovation is really hard.
Trying to find that next big problem to solve, and it's proving more difficult to do than some may believe. Travis Hoium: Innovation is hard, and hardware is hard. We'll get to what's going on with AI Meltdown this week in a moment.
You're listening to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing . Welcome back to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing . This week, we saw a meltdown, but a pretty sharp decline in some of the AI-related stocks.
Lou, I'm looking at CoreWeave , Nebius , and IREN , all down about 20% this week alone. Are we seeing some cracks in this AI trade? Lou Whiteman: Right now, yes, because look, the maths don't math for CoreWeave right now. [LAUGHTER] You cannot borrow at 15% plus and then generate a 5% return and say, make it up on volume.
That doesn't work. Travis Hoium: To be clear, their debt is trading for 15% yield; they have not borrowed money at 50% yield. A lot of people talk about it, but the spot rate matters because that's going to be where you're going to be able to borrow; your next [OVERLAPPING] need markets.
Lou Whiteman: I'm glad you said that there are ways out of this. The bull case could be that debt gets cheaper. That is what they hope: borrowing costs go down.
That's hard for them to control. The other bull case is that there's such scarcity that compute is going to get significantly more expensive and you can still cover your cost of capital. If so, I've got real questions about the hyperscaler bull case or some other bull case.
There's still this weird tension here. I think don't read too much into a moment because you're right, Travis, bonds trade where they want to trade. That does not predict where it is.
But it ain't good right now. Travis Hoium: Jason, is there a way out for these companies? Jensen Huang made some interesting comments about CoreWeave.
Specifically, this is a company that Nvidia almost helped form. Not quite, but he was a significant backer when they were still private. He basically said, hey, they're doing fine, and yet the market is asking different questions.
It seems like there's a lot of people talking, and then you've got to look at what their actual actions are. Maybe he's not the backstop that investors are hoping he's going to be. Jason Moser: There is a lot of push and pull here, and the numbers tell you one thing, and then you listen to Jensen Huang, who says something else, and clearly he's a big force in the space.
If I'm correct, I think that CoreWeave represents something like 8% of Nvidia's GPU sales. That old mongrelism: Show me the incentive, and I'll show you the outcome. He clearly has an incentive to, for lack of a better word, cheerlead on CoreWeave's behalf.
I guess we have to wait to see how that shakes out, because there is this interesting dilemma in regard to AI today in that the cost of compute continues to go up. But we're starting to see companies more and more pairing back on that old token magazine. I think you saw the headline this week for Accenture basically laid it out there for their employees.
They said, we're spending $1,000 per month for many of you to use all these tools. We're pairing that back; we're going to cap you off at 29 bucks. Travis Hoium: Twenty-nine dollars, you can't even get OpenAI or ChatGPT and Claude subscriptions for that price.
Jason Moser: The build-out is going to continue. But if the prices that these companies are able to bring in continues to go down, you can see the dilemma there. I think that's the easiest out.
This is only for a handful of companies right now. You look at Anthropics of the world. Anthropic needed to go public yesterday.
They have something like $1 trillion in obligations and not even anywhere close to the revenue to support that. But if they can get to the capital markets and raise more sooner rather than later, I think that's going to be the easiest way out for a lot of these companies, but there's no question about it. The economics right now are in a really funky space.
Travis Hoium: To bring Anthropic into this, I think they are the company to watch at this moment. They're the first of these two major AI companies that are slated to go public. Their news this week was that they grew, I think it was 45% quarter over quarter.
That sounds phenomenal, but that is significantly slower than more than doubling quarter over quarter in the second quarter, and that's the kind of growth that investors are looking for. It's really hard to match up these exponentials because the supply is increasing exponentially, revenue's increasing exponentially, but you get those mismatched even just a little bit and you run into a lot of trouble. We'll be back in a moment with more from Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing .
Welcome back to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing . In this segment, we like to have a little bit of fun with investing, and I want to know more about what Lou and Jason are thinking about some of these new products that we talked about at the top of the show: HomeView, Tesla Roadster. Are these products that are going to actually move the needle for these companies, and are these products that they're interested in buying?
Lou, let's start with you. HomeView from Apple, is this product or anything similar, I will say a screen that's going to do some AI stuff for you, is that compelling to you at all? Lou Whiteman: If you even let me count my phone, sure.
Because that's my screen that will do AI stuff. Look, I am a Google Pixel person, and I have Google Home, and I do use it, and I'm glad I use it. All the lights come on when I'm out of town, my thermostat adjusts, it knows when I'm not around.
I see value in all of that. I don't know if Google came along and said, "You have to pay me a dollar a month to do it," if I would keep doing it or not. I buy having it, I buy that it just gets incorporated in.
I don't buy it as being a wow. Travis Hoium: Jason, is HomeView on your Christmas list? Jason Moser: Short answer, no.
I feel like we've been having the smart home conversation for a long time, and Lou had mentioned earlier, you got a lot of different players in the space now. So rather than that walled garden approach that Apple traditionally likes to take, I tend to think if you're going to do smart home stuff, then you need to open that universe up. I was an early adopter to Alexa when Amazon first came out with that device back in, I don't know, 2011 or '12 or whatever it was.
I remember coming home one day and thinking, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to connect Alexa to our lights in our house, and that's going to be just awesome." So I shopped around Amazon, of course, found the connected bulbs that I could use to put in our lamps and everything. I got it all hooked up, and it was pretty cool.
"Alexa, turn on the lights. Alexa, turn off the lights." It was all great, it worked wonderfully until it didn't. Travis Hoium: There's always that one moment where something breaks and you go, "Uh." Lou Whiteman: Can I tell you the worst [OVERLAPPING] Jason Moser: You're sitting there spending time trying to fix it, you reset your router, you reset the device, you delete the cache, whatever it may be that you have to do.
You know what's undefeated? The frigging light switch. Every time I flip that thing up or down, it works.
And so it just struck me as, again, it's clever technology. I don't know that it's necessarily something that I really personally need. I think if anything, these are the types of devices that speak to just how powerful these phones that we have today are.
Lou Whiteman: J-Mo, there's a step worse than this. Everything you said is true, but then that look you get from your spouse, the judgmental look when you say, "Hey Google, turn on the light" instead of walking two steps, that's when it really falls apart for you because I know that look, brother. Travis Hoium: Exactly.
We got a smart lock that I was pretty excited about. Allows us to let people into the house at certain times with a certain code and stuff like that, and one day it just stopped working. Went through some sort of software update, and suddenly we went back to a manual lock pretty quickly.
Jason Moser: I will say the same thing. Travis Hoium: It turns out those work pretty well too. Jason Moser: We got a lock, it's a version of a smart lock, and it looks like your traditional lock hardware.
It's touch-sensitive, so you can just touch the lock and it unlocks. Of course, it runs on a battery, and of course, it needs to be connected. It all worked wonderfully until it just didn't, and it's because maybe it was disconnected from the network or the battery died or whatever it may be, and it just was a great reminder, you know what else is undefeated?
The key. It just works. You put it in there and turn it, and the door opens.
It's neat technology, but it just doesn't feel like it's solving a critical problem. Travis Hoium: Speaking of not solving a critical problem, the Tesla Roadster, Jason, is this a product, if you've got an extra couple hundred thousand dollars laying around and you're going to spend that on a car, is this going to be on your shopping list? Jason Moser: I thought that was a pretty cool-looking set of wheels.
Travis Hoium: 0-60 in 0.9 seconds, you may end up with some injuries, but. Jason Moser: Exactly. I think you have to be very careful driving around in something like that.
I think much like Apple, Tesla has a large universe of enthusiasts, and they're going to love basically everything that the company puts out. I think, again, the technology's phenomenal. I thought it was a very good-looking car too.
This is coming from a guy who's driving a 2015 Ford Explorer too, so take that for what it's worth. But I could definitely see taking that thing for a spin. Travis Hoium: I could see Lou in one too.
Lou Whiteman: I'm going to be an arrogant person here because my driving's fine. It's everybody else's driving. But look, not only do I not want this, I can see every time I get in my car how dangerous we humans are with just the ability to go in, I don't know, three dimensions.
I don't need a fourth dimension screwing things up. Nothing but trouble comes out of this. There's a reason why it's not street legal.
Jason Moser: You imagine, Travis, I know you get this coming up sooner rather than later, teaching your kids how to drive. You imagine teaching your kid how to drive in that thing? Travis Hoium: Yeah.
The other thing that I always find ironic about these kinds of products is Tesla's entire thing is telling people that they don't need to drive anymore, and then introducing a car that I would think would be very, very fun to drive. I don't know what the ultimate story here is. The other thing from an economic standpoint is if you look at the economics of Ferrari , they make most of their money on these very, very, very expensive cars.
Now we're talking several million for a car, so I don't know if that's where this is going to be priced. But that premium price point can be pretty attractive for companies. Let's go to Meta's VR glasses.
First, Lou. Is this something I'm going to catch you in in the next five years? Lou Whiteman: As a person who wears glasses, the idea of having to go through the hassle of getting my prescription and the expense in all of these just so to save me the two seconds it takes to look down at my phone, no.
Travis Hoium: What about the VR ones? Let's stick with the AR ones for just a moment. But the VR ones, the form factor is starting to be a little less intrusive than it was back in the Oculus days.
You don't have to hook it up to a computer anymore. I don't know, is VR enough of a thing that this could potentially be something in the future for you? Lou Whiteman: I'm not a gamer, so I'm just not going to get it that way.
If it's just going to give me directions as I walk along around town, again, I have a phone for that. I don't like the idea of practical glasses that I have to charge every few hours because I like to see during the entire day. So if it's just for gaming, it probably has a niche, but it's not my niche.
If it's for more than that, if it's actual for practical use, again, who wears glasses wants to put their glasses down and not see for a few hours to give it that little 30-70% charge during the day? I just don't get it. Travis Hoium: Jason, I'm sure you tried the Oculus back at The Motley Fool offices.
Gosh, this was a decade ago at this point. Has the technology gotten to a point where it's at all compelling to you? Jason Moser: I don't think so.
Not for the masses. It's still a niche offering. We got one of my daughters an Oculus as a Christmas or birthday gift several years back, and the novelty wore off pretty quickly for her, so it just has turned into a dust collector.
I went to the Apple Store a couple years ago and actually test-drove the Vision Pro, and again, amazing technology. It's like magic. It's amazing what they've done with this stuff.
But the core practical everyday use case, I just don't think is there. As someone who wears glasses, I don't see any interest really. It feels like it could be distracting, I guess, in some cases, but I am trying to figure out ways to minimize the things that I need to charge in my life.
I don't have a smartwatch. I will not have a smartwatch. I don't have AirPods.
I'm trying to figure out any way, I just don't want to have to charge anything else other than really my phone at this point. So it does seem like something that's still a little bit further out because we're still looking for just that killer app, that core use case that everybody just says, "Man, I need this in my life every day." Because you've seen even now technology where auto companies are superimposing maps features on your windshield. So you don't need headwear to actually do this.
That to me is a far greater use case and seamless, I might add, as well. Those are the kinds of things that I think make a little bit more sense, but I'm sure they'll sell some. Travis Hoium: This is one that I'm very interested in watching because we are getting now to the weight, the size, the form factor.
Now do people actually want this stuff? Do they want to use it on a regular everyday basis? I think this would be a great device for recording podcasts virtually.
We could sit here at the table, talk to each other, but maybe we'll try that and [OVERLAPPING] Lou Whiteman: There is no way that microphone is up to producer Dan Boyd's quality standards. I do not believe that. Travis Hoium: That's definitely true.
I do want to know about, Jason, the Meta Ray-Ban audio glasses. Take the camera away. I think they made a good decision here saying, "Hey, we got some cool AI technology with Muse and our models and all this stuff.
People are a little creeped out by the camera." Is that a possibility for you in the next, let's say, three years, having glasses that you can just talk to and say, "Hey, add some peanut butter to my grocery list"? Jason Moser: Maybe. Again, it's probably not something really for me.
I always find it funny when you see people walking around and they're either wearing AirPods or they're doing something and then they're talking as if they're talking to no one. They're connected to somebody, right? Travis Hoium: Yes.
Jason Moser: In some way, shape, or form. But they're just sitting there talking and you're like, "What?" I have reservations walking around doing that, but I think I could see at least more utility in that. So I would say it's possible.
Probably not likely, but possible. Travis Hoium: Lou? Lou Whiteman: I already said for me personally, and again, they say the charge will last 12 hours.
We know in the real world that's maybe eight if we're lucky. Travis Hoium: Yeah, 6-8. Lou Whiteman: For those of us who do need glasses, so I'm going to buy them for half the day and wear my others?
I will say, though, J-Mo said from the other glasses, it's lacking a killer app. I can't help but wonder if the killer app for glasses was going to be the creep factor, the people who just wanted to go around videoing you in your life. That's the one huge advantage that glasses give over your phone or your iPod or your things that you can talk to and put peanut butter on your shopping list that way, is that maybe the killer app was going to be that people wanted to video you and just didn't want you to know that.
And so removing that might actually remove some of the incentives. If you have a $350 note-taker, when you already have something that does the same thing in your pocket, and maybe in your, not in J-Mo's ears, but in a lot of people's ears you can do this too. Again, it's neat.
I get the early adapter, but is this going to become mainstream? It's not the phone. I think this is the theme for the show, but we, if anything, underappreciate just how revolutionary the phone was and how just useful it continues to be.
Travis Hoium: This is the challenge, I think, for all of these companies. Like I said, we're inventing new products all the time. We're throwing a lot of stuff at the wall, and I come back to, if you look back, if you're old enough to remember any of these technology revolutions, PC, the Internet, mobile devices, as they've come out, I don't know that any of them are such a huge leap that it's going to be people standing in line like they were when the iPhone was released.
Not only standing in line, but standing in line weeks after it was announced or after it was released because you were just hoping that the new shipment came out that day. But we will see. Maybe we're wrong.
Hopefully. Jason Moser: Well, I think also that's an interesting thing to note. We mentioned it earlier; the Amazon's new line of Bee products.
All of these things, all of these devices, they're incrementally a little better. They do something obviously, but they're not that lightning in a bottle, and yet it also seems like they become more and more invasive. They become more and more invasive.
Like the little Amazon thing that you slap on the back of your phone. It says, "It's listening to you all day every day." Of course, they say, "Your privacy is what matters most," and yada, yada, yada. But all of these devices, they just become more and more invasive, and I have to wonder, I know some people are perfectly fine with it, but I know a lot of people are not.
How much of your life do you want to give away for something that might offer you a little bit of benefit on the margin? I think we're seeing that play out right now with Muse. Muse was a big headline-getter for a month.
Seven million downloads, three million weekly active users, 1.8 million daily active users. In the context of Meta's 3.6 billion user base, that's obviously a drop in the bucket, but we're already seeing Muse downloads start to decline. It's losing its luster because I think a lot of people have just said, "Look, this is neat.
Maybe it helps me here and there, but I don't want to give up access to my entire life for something that isn't going to really fundamentally change my life.". Travis Hoium: That's going to be the big question is how many of these products are going to fundamentally change our lives? We need to take a break, and I need to explain to Jason how long my battery on my Garmin lasts.
Maybe I can convince him to get a little bit smarter watch if it has two or three weeks' worth of battery life. We will be back with the stocks on our radar. You're listening to Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing .
As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows The Motley Fool's editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only.
To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. We'd like to end the show with the stocks on our radar. Jason, you are up first, and let's bring in Dan Boyd for his thoughts behind the glass.
What do you got for us? Jason Moser: Talking a little bit more about Veeva Systems today. Ticker is V-E-E-V.
Veeva Systems develops Cloud-based software for the life sciences industry and pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, medical device makers, and whatnot. They do that through a core set of offerings. They had their Veeva Commercial Cloud, their Veeva Development Cloud, Veeva Quality Cloud.
See where I'm going with this, Dan? It's a lot of Cloud stuff. And Veeva Data Cloud.
But this is ultimately a universe that helps these life sciences companies manage everything under the sun. The stock has had a really good back half of the year here so far after languishing for more or less the first half of the year. It's up now 40% in 2026.
In the first half of the year, it really wasn't doing terribly much. But I think we're seeing one of the reasons why: the company's recent fiscal second-quarter report showed revenue growing 18% from a year ago. That was fueled primarily by subscription revenue, so there's a lot of predictability in that business model.
Management raised guidance for the full year, calling for revenue and profit growth of 15% and 14%, respectively. That was up from guidance of 14% and 12% from just a quarter ago. So I think a lot of encouraging things here.
The question with Veeva early on was, is AI disrupting this company? I think what we're seeing is that really AI is enabling Veeva to do even more. Travis Hoium: Dan, what do you think about life sciences?
Dan Boyd: Well, when Jason introduced this in the pre-show, I misheard him, and I thought he said Velveeta, the cheese product, I believe from Kraft , and I got really excited because it is football season, and I do like some nacho cheese dip made with Velveeta. Jason Moser: That's good stuff. Travis Hoium: That would be a good pitch.
Lou Whiteman: You know what I always think about with this too? Do you guys remember the sketch comedy show Viva Variety ? Travis Hoium: I know.
Lou Whiteman: Oh my God. It was maybe a little tip, but gosh, it was good. It was all the guys from this, they gave it up to do Reno 911 , but a great thing.
Anyway, sorry. Dan Boyd: Now, that was a good show, Reno 911 . Travis Hoium: Lou, what stock are you looking at this week?
Lou Whiteman: Dan, it has been a tough week for Rocket Lab , ticker RKLB. Shares are down about 20% after the company said there's a fresh issue with its Neutron rocket. Yes, the Neutron rocket, the one we hope for first flight in 2024, now looking at mid-2027 because engineers discovered tiny air pockets in a carbon fiber tank they're manufacturing.
I think the stock's reaction makes sense. Rocket Lab is priced at 40 times sales. Neutron is a big part of the backlog.
I get the concern. I remain optimistic, though. I think management has warned going in that carbon composites require a lot of trial and error.
We saw this with the 787. We've seen this with everything you've tried to do. It's just really hard to get right.
But there are massive engineering and weight advantages once they get it right. I also appreciate the company's candor. They decided to come forward with this instead of just waiting for earnings.
I think they're being honest with us. This is not one for the faint of heart. The risks are real, but I remain intrigued by Rocket Lab's long-term potential even after this setback.
Travis Hoium: All right, Dan, quick for you. Is Rocket Lab or, don't call it Velveeta, Veeva going on your watch list? Dan Boyd: You know what, Travis?
The idea that AI is enabling Veeva has got me intrigued, so this time we're going Veeva. Jason Moser: Veeva, Dan Boyd. Travis Hoium: Congratulations, Jason.
We're out of time. We'll see you here tomorrow.
Source: The Motley Fool
