Stargate for Healthcare, Heidi Health's $26.8M, and Alcohol Myths Busted

Another 18 awesome nerds joined the newsletter this week! Welcome to the club! 💰🎉

This Week:

• 🚀 $500B AI project is changing healthcare forever

• 📈 Startups to Watch: Heidi Health & Andromeda

• 💊 A Boost for the Supplement Industry

• 🍷 Alcohol myths busted: No benefits, only risks. It’s the #3 preventable cause of cancer 🎗

• 📉 Weekly Deep Dive: Warren Buffet called tariffs “an act of war“💥

Stargate: The future of AI in Healthcare?

💥 Stargate, a collaborative project by tech giants, like Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI, has announced a groundbreaking $500 billion investment in AI’s next frontier: healthcare. 

In a recent conference, Open AI’s CEO and Oracle’s CTO explained how Stargate could revolutionize medicine, from curing heart disease to producing cancer vaccines within 48 hours.

This is not a hoax. Let me break this down.

Cancer cells mutate and produce unique proteins💊, which evade detection by our immune system. Stargate’s AI approach aims to identify these specific mutated proteins (our own cells), helping the body to produce precise immune responses against these proteins.

This is amazing, and I’ll keep covering its progress.

With Trump and his administration pushing to cut red tape around AI 🚫 to stay ahead of rising powers like China, I expect to see rapid progress in AI, especially in fields like healthcare, where innovation has been held back for a long time (due to regulations and red tape).

Startups to Watch: Heidi Health and Andromeda

💰 Heidi Health raises USD $26.8 million.

In a recent conversation, a former doctor who left medicine told me that 2/3 of a doctor’s time is spent on paperwork. Heidi Health is taking steps in automating these boring tasks, allowing doctors to dedicate more time to patient care.

🤖 Andromeda is making headlines again! They design humanoid robot to assist the elderly in aged care homes. Now, they’re taking a bold step by launching Australia’s first-ever humanoid robot production line.

For a country that has historically shown little interest in advanced manufacturing, this could mark the beginning of something big.

The Supplement Boom

🚀 The global dietary supplement industry is already a $70 billion market. Now, it is set to become even bigger.

In the U.S and most countries, there were strict regulations (by agencies like the FDA, obviously) around approving supplements like vitamins, protein powders, and probiotics.

But now, RFK Jr., the new U.S. Health Secretary, has pledged to promote exercise, dietary supplementation, and nutrition over pharmaceutical products. This could open massive opportunities for businesses in the wellness and supplement space, especially supplements (like probiotics).

Looking to build in healthcare? Now’s the Time

💰 If you’re eyeing healthcare as your next venture, the numbers speak for themselves. A recent JAMA study found that major healthcare companies paid back $2.6 trillion to shareholders over 20 years through dividends and stock buybacks.

📈In 2022 alone, publicly traded healthcare firms in the S&P 500 paid shareholders $170 billion; a 315% jump from $51 billion in 2001.

That’s massive.

The Truth About Alcohol 🍷: A Dangerous Myth Debunked

For years, we were told that moderate alcohol consumption, particularly one or two glasses of wine, protected us from heart disease. This is not true 🚫.

Studies promoting alcohol as heart-healthy were largely funded by the alcohol industry itself. This raised serious concerns about bias and conflicts of interests because it is hard for researchers to not be influenced by those who fund their research. The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy publicly acknowledged this.

Alcohol is a known cancer-causing agent, increasing the risk of at least seven types of cancer, including breast, liver, and oral cancers 🎗.

It is now the 3rd leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States. The General has advocated for warning labels on alcohol containing beverages, similar to those on tobacco products, to inform consumers of the cancer risk.

The harsh truth is that no amount of alcohol is considered safe. 

Deep Dive: “The Beginning of the Trade War”⚔️

Trump has finally rolled out his long-anticipated tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had already promised to send thousands of soldiers to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and fentanyl into the U.S., but that hasn’t been enough for Trump.

As a result, new tariffs have taken effect today:

• An additional 10% tariff on all Chinese goods, bringing the total to 20%

• A 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico.

Canada has imposed retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods, while China has signaled plans to impose 10-15% tariffs on certain U.S. imports in the coming days.

So, why is a tariff a bad idea? 📊

Tariffs Could Slow Innovation and Spark a Bear Market

⚔️ Billionaire investor Warren Buffett called tariffs “an act of war“. Their ripple effects are already hitting markets. Yesterday, the S&P 500 fell 2%, and as of this writing, it’s down another 1.2%.

💰 Higher tariffs mean higher inflation, leading to reduced savings and investment. Since ETFs across the world (including Australia) hold large positions in U.S. stocks, investors globally will feel the drop.

If you learned something new, now’s the time to subscribe to this newsletter to keep this going. Have a great week! 🎉🚀💊