sport football: 📊 Warren Buffett Dumps Amazon

In partnership with

Happy Monday!

Tariffs just got overturned.

In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump did not have the legal authority to impose certain tariffs under an emergency powers law.

That decision now puts roughly $170B in collected duties in question.
Thousands of companies and importers are expected to seek refunds, which could turn into a lengthy and complex claims process.

The policy response was immediate.

President Trump moved to raise global tariffs to 15% under a separate statute, and warned additional levies would follow.
And despite Trump's tariffs, the U.S. only saw its trade deficit decline by 0.2% in 2025.

Key Data Bites Over The Last Week:

Large cap stock pickers are outperforming at highest rate in 19 years.
U.S. stocks are off to their worst start versus global market since 1995.
U.K. unemployment rate hit near 5-year high.
Hedge funds bought most Asian equities in 10 years.
Uber sees additional $1B in gross bookings due to European expansion.
ServiceNow CEO to purchase $3M of stock.
Elliot Management built >10% stake in Norwegian Cruise.
Mistral CEO said >50% of enterprise software could switch to AI.
Japan to invest up to $36B in U.S. oil, gas, and critical mineral projects.
Microsoft pledges $50B to tackle AI inequality.
Palantir CEO spent $17.2M on private jets in 2025.
Hims to acquire digital health company Eucalyptus for up to $1.15B.
eBay will purchase Depop from Etsy for $1.2B in cash.
U.S. GDP increased 1.4% in Q4, below 2.5% expected.
Nvidia is set to invest $30B in OpenAI's mega funding round.

In today's newsletter:

🍎 Apple Ditches The AI Race
📉 Warren Buffett Dumps Amazon
💰 Wall Street's Top Earners
🐻 Mag 7 Is Underperforming
😢 Cathie Wood Lost Her Touch

Let's jump right in.

Partner With Us

📣 Together With Masterworks

Ray Dalio: "The S&P Fell 28% Last Year." Wait, What?

He's measuring in gold, not dollars. And that's the point.

The dollar dropped 10% in 2025. So, yeah, your portfolio went up in dollars, but, Dalio says your real return isn't so exciting.

And the decline is reportedly advancing as macro conditions don't improve.

So, what investments offer protection against that currency risk?

Well.. billionaires have an answer. And now 70,819 everyday investors have joined in.

This unexpected asset class outpaced the S&P 500 overall with low correlation since 1995.*

Not real estate or PE. Post war and contemporary art. Seriously.

Plus– Art trades globally ;)

And now, you don't need to be a billionaire–

Masterworks makes it easy to FRACTIONALLY invest in blue-chip art, with a track record of 26 net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8% on works held over a year.

See why investors moved $1.3 billion into 500+ offerings:

Skip waitlist

_{*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. See important disclosures at}_{masterworks.com/cd}_.

Apple is playing a different game.

While Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta are set to pour more than $650B into AI infrastructure this year, Apple is projected to spend just $14B.

In fact, Apple's CapEx declined 19% in the most recent quarter.

Instead of building massive in-house compute, Apple is leaning on partnerships, including Google's Gemini, to help power its technology.

That keeps the most expensive AI infrastructure off its balance sheet.

If the AI boom slows or timelines stretch, Apple may look less behind and actually come out ahead.

This comes as Apple saw its correlation to the Nasdaq drop to lowest since 2006.

Warren Buffett is quietly closing the chapter on Amazon.

In his final portfolio update before stepping down, Berkshire slashed its Amazon stake by 77%, reducing what was already a small position to just 0.19% of the portfolio.

The original investment, built in 2019 around the $80–$90 range, was never a major bet and has now been largely unwound.
Buffett also trimmed Apple by roughly 4% and added modestly to The New York Times, both relatively small adjustments.

This 13F filing marked Buffett's last disclosed portfolio move as Greg Abel took the helm of Berkshire Hathaway at the start of 2026.

Mets owner Steve Cohen is raking in dough.

While the Mets have struggled on the field, Cohen has been winning on Wall Street.

According to Bloomberg, he earned $3.4B, ranking him among the highest paid hedge fund managers. That works out to more than $9M per day.
About $2.7B came from gains on his personal investments, with another $690M from performance fees.
His firm, Point72, manages roughly $46B in assets, placing it among the largest multistrategy hedge funds in the world.

Zooming out, the rest of Wall Street is also doing well.

The 20 managers on Bloomberg's ranking earned an average of $1.4B, the highest level in five years.
It also marked a record for the number of managers bringing in $1B or more.

The most crowded trade in the market might be starting to crack.

The Magnificent 7 have been investor favorites for years, backed by dominant moats, massive cash reserves, and consistent growth.

Yet this year, every single one is underperforming the S&P 500.
Microsoft is trailing the most, down 16% YTD.

The shift is not about fundamentals collapsing, but about spending.

AI investment has accelerated faster than analysts expected, with capital expenditures across the majority of the group exceeding forecasts last quarter.
That surge in spending has forced investors into a wait and see stance.

For now, the AI trade remains relatively intact, but positioning has become far more fragile than it was just a year ago.

Cathie Wood's investors are still underwater.

Her flagship ARK Innovation ETF recently recorded its worst 10-day losing streak on record.

The fund is down nearly 50% over the past five years.
Over that same period, the Nasdaq has delivered more than triple the return.

The damage is visible in assets.

After peaking at $28B in February 2021 following its pandemic surge, the fund has fallen roughly 80% to about $6B today.
Data shows most capital arrived near the highs, leaving many investors to absorb the bulk of the drawdown.

And investors continue to head to the exit.

Net flows were -$3.2B in 2024 and -$1.3B in 2025, with another $120M exiting so far this year.

📣 Presented by EnergyX

Meet America's Newest $1B Unicorn

It just surpassed a $1B valuation, joining private US companies like SpaceX and OpenAI. Unlike those companies, you can invest in EnergyX today. Industry giants like General Motors and POSCO already have. Why? EnergyX's tech can recover 3X more lithium than traditional methods. Now, they're preparing 100,000+ acres of lithium-rich Chilean land for commercial production. Buy private EnergyX shares alongside 40k+ people at $11/share through 2/26.

Invest in EnergyX Today

_{This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at}_{invest.energyx.com}_{. Under Regulation A, a company may change its share price by up to 20% without requalifying the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.}

⚡ Chip Expansion^↗ – Meta is expanding its deal with NVIDIA to use millions of AI chips in its new data centers.

♟️ Merger Chess^↗ – Netflix gave Warner Bros. Discovery permission to restart deal talks with Paramount.

📝 Policy Pressure^↗ – Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said they may require data center builders like Meta to absorb more of their infrastructure costs.

⚔️ AI Tension^↗ – Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense are reportedly clashing over how the Pentagon can use Claude.

📉 Executive Turnover^↗ – Companies are replacing CEOs at record rates, and the new leaders are skewing younger than before.

⚠️ Software Reckoning^↗ – A top-performing investment fund that beats nearly all peers says only a small number of software companies will survive the AI transition.

Notable Companies Reporting Earnings Week of February 22nd, 2026:

Major Trades Published 2/16 - 2/20. Trades may be those of family members. [Source: Capitol Trades]

Buys

Kevin Hern (R)
- Company: Royal Bank of Canada ($RBC)
  - Amount Purchased: $250K - $500K
Gil Cisneros (D)
- Company: Wheaton Precious Metals ($WPM)
  - Amount Purchased: $15K - $50K
- Company: General Electric ($GE)
  - Amount Purchased: $15K - $50K
- Company: Franco-Nevada ($FNV)
  - Amount Purchased: $15K - $50K
Rick Allen (R)
- Company: S&P Global ($SPGI)
  - Amount Purchased: $15K - $50K

Sells

Gil Cisneros (D)
- Company: Pan American Silver ($PAAS)
  - Amount Sold: $50K - $100K
- Company: Exxon Mobil Corp ($XOM)
  - Amount Sold: $50K - $100K
Rick Allen (R)
- Company: American Water Works Company ($AWK)
  - Amount Purchased: $50K - $100K

Major Trades Published 2/16 - 2/20

Buys

KKR ($KKR)
- Insider: Scott Nuttall (Co-CEO)
  - # of Shares Purchased: 125,000
  - $ Amount: $12,833,087
  - SEC Forms: [1]
- Insider: Joseph Bae (Co-CEO)
  - # of Shares Purchased: 125,000
  - $ Amount: $12,773,530
  - SEC Forms: [1]
- Insider: Matt Cohler (Director)
  - # of Shares Purchased: 43,872
  - $ Amount: $4,514,429
  - SEC Forms: [1]
Microsoft ($MSFT)
- Insider: John Stanton (Director)
  - # of Shares Purchased: 5,000
  - $ Amount: $1,986,750
  - SEC Forms: [1]

Sells

Alphabet ($GOOG)
- Insider: John Walker (President)
  - # of Shares Sold: 47,574
  - $ Amount: $14,341,414
  - SEC Forms: [1]
Arista Networks ($ANET)
- Insider: Kenneth Duda (COO)
  - # of Shares Sold: 58,000
  - $ Amount: $8,259,002
  - SEC Forms: [1]

Disclaimer: The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. All statements and expressions herein are the sole opinion of the author, paid advertiser, or partner and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Carbon Finance is a publisher of financial information, not an investment or financial advisor. We do not provide personalized or individualized investment advice or information that is tailored to the needs of any particular recipient.

The information contained on this website/newsletter has been crafted with the assistance of an AI language model to enhance the content of this newsletter. We have made efforts to ensure the quality and reliability of the information presented, but we cannot guarantee its absolute accuracy. Therefore, readers are advised to exercise their own judgment and seek additional sources if necessary.

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS WEBSITE/NEWSLETTER IS NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND DOES NOT PURPORT TO BE AND DOES NOT EXPRESS ANY OPINION AS TO THE PRICE AT WHICH THE SECURITIES OF ANY COMPANY MAY TRADE AT ANY TIME. THE INFORMATION AND OPINIONS PROVIDED HEREIN SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS SPECIFIC ADVICE ON THE MERITS OF ANY INVESTMENT DECISION. INVESTORS SHOULD MAKE THEIR OWN INVESTIGATION AND DECISIONS REGARDING THE PROSPECTS OF ANY COMPANY DISCUSSED HEREIN BASED ON SUCH INVESTORS' OWN REVIEW OF PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

No statement or expression of opinion, or any other matter herein, directly or indirectly, is an offer or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell the securities or financial instruments mentioned.

Any projections, market outlooks or estimates herein are forward looking statements and are inherently unreliable. They are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed to be indicative of the actual events that will occur. Other events that were not taken into account may occur and may significantly affect the returns or performance of the securities discussed herein. The information provided herein is based on matters as they exist as of the date of preparation and not as of any future date, and the publisher undertakes no obligation to correct, update or revise the information in this document or to otherwise provide any additional material.

The publisher, its affiliates, and clients of the publisher or its affiliates may currently have long or short positions in the securities of the companies mentioned herein, or may have such a position in the future (and therefore may profit from fluctuations in the trading price of the securities). To the extent such persons do have such positions, there is no guarantee that such persons will maintain such positions.

Neither the publisher nor any of its affiliates accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of the information contained herein.

This newsletter is sponsored by EnergyX and Masterworks. Sponsorship does not influence our editorial content. We do not endorse the sponsor's products, services, or views, and we are not responsible or liable for any interaction or transaction between readers and the sponsor.

Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links. This means that if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain our own.

By using the Site or any affiliated social media account, you are indicating your consent and agreement to this disclaimer. Unauthorized reproduction of this newsletter or its contents by photocopy, facsimile or any other means is illegal and punishable by law.