MW Why you can lose a lot of money from Tech's AI splurge

By Philip van Doorn

Also: The best ways to invest now for long-term growth as autonomous vehicles are adopted and how Walmart has risen as Target has struggled

These Big Tech players have all shown significant declines in free cash flow - with negative free cash flow for two of them - as they have spent heavily to develop artificial-intelligence technology.

Investors are well aware of how much money Nvidia Corp. has been making while providing the bulk of high-end graphics-processing units installed by data centers to support the development of artificial-intelligence technology.

Nvidia (NVDA) is getting paid for the hardware. But other Big Tech players are footing the bill for all the new computing power, hoping the new AI applications will be lucrative for them.

Christine Ji shared the numbers behind what may be a dark cloud for Big Tech as it shovels out the cash.

Nvidia news: Nvidia faces new report on China-geared H20 chip. What Jensen Huang is saying.

A warning: Take heed of the latest market wobble. 'You get warning shots before meaningful pullbacks,' says this strategist.

'Hard times' for short sellers

Joseph Adinolfi explained why short sellers have been having such a difficult time lately - and it is not only because we have been in a bull market for stocks. Here are the challenges faced by short sellers, along with some recent wins.

Bearish: Why a 'wall of money' is unlikely to flood into stocks when the Fed cuts rates

More on the market: The S&P 500 is at its most expensive by this measure. These stocks have bucked the trend.

How auto manufacturers will save themselves - and us - money

A modular approach promises to improve the efficiency of vehicle assembly lines.

Claudia Assis described how automakers have been working to transform assembly lines to make cars more efficiently and enable drastic price reductions.

How does your wealth measure up?

What does the term "middle class" mean to you? People at various income levels may face financial pressures. And maybe most people will never stop worrying about money, no matter how much they earn or save. Venessa Wong described five wealth classes for Americans. See which wealth class includes you. You can join the conversation - along with the dozens of MarketWatch readers who shared comments.

Quentin Fottrell offered his own take on the subject: Are you middle class? No, you're not. Here's why.

How to take an early ride on a long-term tech trend

According to Michael Brush, even if Bank of America's projections for the growth of the autonomous vehicle market "are off by half," they still back the notion that AVs are "one of the best secular tech trends to invest in."

Brush interviewed three money managers who discussed how AV makers and operators, including Tesla Inc. $(TSLA)$, Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) and Waymo (a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL)), were set up to compete. Here are the best plays on the autonomous vehicle market for investors right now.

The Moneyist

Quentin Fottrell is the Moneyist.

Quentin Fottrell - the Moneyist - provided advice to a woman who felt ignored by her broker at a time when she was facing the pressure of helping family members with their own financial difficulties.

More from the Moneyist:

-- 'The money went into his account': Is my father trying to swindle me out of my grandparents' $800K home?

-- As a nurse, I've seen people use their power of attorney to take advantage of their parents. Watch out for these warnings.

-- 'I learned a hard lesson': My ex-husband gambled away our $900,000 life savings. Do I use my 401(k) to buy a home?

-- My stepmother's lawyer called us 'greedy' for fighting for our father's estate. When will it end?

Managing your retirement-account tax burden

If you have a traditional individual retirement account, 401(k), 403(b) or other tax-deferred account, eventually you will need to begin taking required minimum distributions that will be fully taxed as regular income.

If you have a Roth retirement account, you give up the advantage of deferring income taxes on your contributions, but you will never pay taxes on any money in the retirement account.

You can convert some or all of a traditional tax-deferred retirement account to a Roth account, but it can be difficult to work through complex scenarios to determine whether or not such a move or series of moves is worthwhile.

This week in the Help Me Retire column and in the Fix My Portfolio column, Alessandra Malito and Beth Pinsker shared strategies for avoiding taxes on retirement accounts:

-- I plan to convert $100,000 a year to a Roth. I'm 59 and worried about Social Security and RMDs.

-- Worried about taxes on huge RMDs? Consider this alternative to Roth conversions.

Suze Orman's favorite stock

Several stocks that Suze Orman selected in October 2023 have had stellar since then, including Palantir Technologies, Microsoft and Amazon.

Michael Sincere interviewed Suze Orman, who has made some excellent investment selections over the years. Orman shared her favorite stock in the current market and explained the lesson she learned from her "biggest mistake" as an investor.

A mortgage-fraud primer

This week Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent a criminal referral letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying it appeared that Lisa D. Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, had "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud."

Cook is also a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the Federal Reserve's interest-rate policies.

Aarthi Swaminathan looked further into Pulte's accusation and similar ones against enemies of President Donald Trump, while also describing the various types of mortgage fraud.

More coverage of residential real estate:

-- Homes are taking longer to sell, with more on the market than at any time since the pandemic

-- Home builders boost sales incentives to 5-year high as they struggle to sell newly built homes

-- Home-builder stocks are hot - these are expected to show the best growth numbers

Good times for Walmart's shareholders

A one-year total-return chart for Walmart and Target shows how investors feel about the retailers' efforts to remain competitive.

The chart above shows that Walmart Inc.'s $(WMT)$ stock returned 31.5% for one year through Thursday, while shares of Target Corp. (TGT) sank 36.5%, both with dividends reinvested.

Bill Peters explained the recent and long-term developments that have helped Walmart take market share from Target.

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-Philip van Doorn

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August 22, 2025 12:26 ET (16:26 GMT)

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