The 7investing Podcast

Simon Erickson and Heather Horton break down Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ:UPST) Q2 2026 earnings, released the day before this live stream. New CEO Paul Gu, one of the company's original co-founders, posted his own recap directly on X just 100 days into the role, a move Simon highlights as a sign the company is finally learning to speak Wall Street's language rather than getting lost in the weeds of its AI credit models. Upstart uses proprietary AI models, drawing on more than 1,000 data points instead of a traditional FICO score, to originate consumer loans in a lending market Simon describes as worth more than a trillion dollars.The episode covers total loan originations of $4.2 billion, up 50% year over year across 558,000 loans, along with a breakdown of unsecured personal loan growth versus a rapidly scaling auto and home loan business. Simon and Heather also walk through Upstart's contribution profit, total net revenue, and its return to GAAP net income for the quarter, along with the company's newly reaffirmed three-year growth targets through 2028. They close with a discussion of Upstart's pending federal banking charter and what that could mean for how the company funds future loans.🔗 Free 7investing trial: https://7investing.com/subscribeStocks MentionedPublicly Traded:Upstart Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UPST)#7investing #SimonErickson #Upstart #UPST #AIstocks #FintechStocks #EarningsReport #StockAnalysis #ArtificialIntelligence

47 days after SpaceX's record-breaking $75 billion IPO — the largest in history — Simon Erickson and Heather Horton dig into whether the stock is a buy now that shares have pulled back from their post-IPO highs. Learn about SpaceX's origin story, Elon Musk's Mars mission, and how the company slashed launch costs from over $18,000 per kilogram down to under $1,000. Simon breaks down SpaceX's three business divisions — Space, AI (xAI/Grok), and Connectivity (Starlink) — and explains why a 75x trailing revenue valuation, upcoming lockup expirations, and the $60 billion Cursor AI acquisition make this a "buyer beware" situation for investors.🔗 Free 7investing trial: https://7investing.com/subscribeThis is Part 1 of a multi-part SpaceX series on 7investing Live, streaming every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10 AM ET.Stocks MentionedPublicly Traded:Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) — mentioned re: GPUs powering SpaceX's data centersAT&T (NYSE:T) — mentioned as a Starlink alternativeVerizon (NYSE:VZ) — mentioned as a Starlink alternativeSpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX)Private/Not Publicly Traded:xAI (SpaceX division)Starlink (SpaceX division)Cursor AI (acquired by SpaceX)AnthropicOpenAIChaptersTime Chapter0:50 Welcome to 7investing Live2:21 SpaceX's Record $75B IPO4:44 SpaceX's Origin Story & Elon's Mars Mission6:51 How SpaceX Slashed Launch Costs9:57 Why SpaceX Isn't Just About Profit10:32 SpaceX's Three Business Divisions12:25 Space Division: Rockets & Launches13:42 AI Division: xAI, Grok & the Colossus Data Center15:42 Connectivity Division: Starlink17:45 Buyer Beware: Is SpaceX Overvalued?18:41 Lockup Expirations Explained19:34 Elon's Voting Power & the Tesla Comparison20:12 The $60B Cursor AI Acquisition22:33 SpaceX's Massive Capital Expenditures27:12 What's Next: Part 2 Preview#7investing #SimonErickson #SpaceX #ElonMusk #Starlink #xAI #IPOStocks #StockMarket #SpaceStocks #InvestingTips

Simon Erickson breaks down how a short squeeze works and why SoundHound AI stock (NASDAQ: SOUN) may be setting up for one right now. Learn what short interest and days-to-cover really mean, how these metrics predicted Upstart Holdings' (NASDAQ: UPST) 220% run in 2023, and why SoundHound's current 41.6% short interest and 5.8 days-to-cover ratio look strikingly similar. Simon Erickson and executive producer Heather Horton also discuss SoundHound's conversational AI platform, its 99% year-over-year revenue growth, upcoming Q2 earnings on August 5th, and whether short squeeze investing is right for the average investor.Simon also shares why SoundHound AI ranked #3 on 7investing's Best Buys list for July and how you can see the full rankings.🔗 Free 7investing trial: https://7investing.com/subscribeStocks MentionedPublicly Traded:SoundHound AI (NASDAQ:SOUN)Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ:UPST)Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)SoundHound customers:Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) Hyundai Motor Company (KRX:005380) SoundHound customerHonda Motor Co. (NYSE:HMC) Private/Not Publicly Traded:Jersey Mike'sTorchy's TacosAmelia (acquired by SoundHound AI)Chapters0:00 Welcome to 7investing Live0:40 Today's Topic: What Is a Short Squeeze?1:58 Defining Short Interest4:44 Defining Days to Cover7:02 Case Study: Upstart Holdings (UPST) in 20238:50 Today's Candidate: SoundHound AI (SOUN)9:16 SoundHound's Conversational AI Business12:00 SoundHound's Short Interest & Days-to-Cover Data15:03 SoundHound Ranks #3 on 7investing's Best Buys16:53 Q&A: Why Is SoundHound Being Punished?19:03 How to Play a Short Squeeze Stock20:02 What Catalyst Could Trigger the Squeeze?22:46 Is This Strategy Right for Average Investors?23:43 Fundamentals vs. Technical Analysis27:54 Wrap-Up & Next Show Preview#7investing #SimonErickson #SoundHoundAI #SOUNStock #ShortSqueeze #StockMarket #AIStocks #ShortInterest #SmallCapStocks #StockAnalysis⚠️ This is not investing advice. Please do your own research before making any investment decisions.

Everyone calls the S&P 500 "the market." But is it really? In this episode of 7investing Live, founder and CEO Simon Erickson breaks down what the market actually is in 2026, and why the benchmark you're using matters more than you think. There are roughly 5,600 companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ, yet just 500 of them make up 80% of the total US market value and the top 10 stocks alone now account for a staggering 36.4% of the S&P 500 index.Simon walks through the numbers behind today's market concentration: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) sitting at the top as a nearly $5 trillion company, the S&P 500's $69 trillion total market cap, and why the index now rises and falls with Big Tech and the AI trade. Then the conversation turns to the more surprising story of 2026: the Russell 2000 small-cap index is up 20.7% year-to-date, nearly double the S&P 500's return, marking its best first half since 1991 and its widest margin of outperformance over the large-cap index since 2001.What's driving the rotation? Simon and Heather dig into mega-cap fatigue, stretched valuations for companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), the worst performer of the top 10 constituents, down 20% this year, 40%+ forecasted earnings growth for small caps, and the under-the-radar AI infrastructure plays like Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE) hiding in the small-cap fish pond. Plus, a preview of later this week: three small-cap ideas with 20-bagger potential.0:00 - Welcome and 7investing Overview2:00 - Large-Cap Dominance: A closer look at the S&P 5007:02 - The Entire Market: An Introduction to the Russell 3000 Index8:32 - A Small-Cap Index: An Introduction to the Russell 200010:56 - Why are Small Caps Outperforming in 2026?13:40 - Returns of the Top 10 Companies in the S&P 50016:50 - Q&A: Investor behavior and risk toleranceWant to see all of our official stock recommendations? Visit 7investing.com/subscribe and get your first 7 days of premium access completely freePublicly Traded Companies Mentioned:NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG)Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B)Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)Lumentum (NASDAQ:LITE)Indexes/ETFs referenced: S&P 500 (SPY), Russell 3000, Russell 2000 (IWM)Private / Pre-IPO Companies Mentioned:OpenAIAnthropicHashtags#7investing #SimonErickson #SP500 #Russell2000 #smallcapstocks #stockmarket #investing #stocks #NVIDIA #bigtech #AIstocks #marketanalysis

Prediction markets are taking the financial world by storm. Kalshi and Polymarket have gone from under $1 billion in combined monthly trading volume to over $40 billion in just one year, a 30X explosion fueled by the World Cup, the NFL, elections, and even bets on AI milestones. In this episode of 7investing Live, Simon Erickson is joined by Brett Schafer and Ryan Henderson of the Chit Chat Stocks podcast to break down what this meteoric rise means for investors.We dig into how prediction markets actually work: peer-to-peer event contracts regulated by the CFTC, take rates of just 0.7-1.5% versus the 7-10% cut traditional sportsbooks capture, and why that efficiency gap could be a massive disruption threat to online sports betting giants like DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG) and FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment (NYSE:FLUT). We also explore which brokerages stand to benefit; Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ:IBKR) and Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) are racing to bring event contracts onto their platforms, and whether derivatives exchange CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), now trading near its cheapest valuation in a decade, is being unfairly punished by the market.Plus: the ethical concerns around insider trading and political betting, the coming regulatory showdown between the states and federal government, and our panel's picks when forced to choose between Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Kalshi, Polymarket, and DraftKings at today's valuations.0:00 - Introduction to Prediction Markets and Chit Chat Stocks1:56 - Predicting the Winner of the 2026 World Cup3:26 - Prediction Market Trading Volumes and the Growth Drivers8:28 - Overview of Kalshi and Polymarket and how they differ from Casinos and Online Sports Betting12:03 - Impact to Brokerages: Robinhood and Interactive Brokers14:07 - Controversial Topics: Government-related events and cracking down on bad behaviors16:19 - The shifting role of state-based and Federal regulations18:32 - DraftKings and the scalability of consumer-facing platforms26:15 - Robinhood and Interactive Brokers and the upside for brokerages29:02 - Closing Game! Which stock would you invest in: Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Kalshi, Polymarket, or DraftKings? Publicly Traded Companies Mentioned:Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ:IBKR)Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD)DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG)Flutter Entertainment / FanDuel (NYSE:FLUT)CME Group (NASDAQ:CME)Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE)Spotify (NYSE:SPOT)Boeing (NYSE:BA)Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX)Private / Pre-IPO Companies Mentioned:Kalshi (~$22B valuation, Series F)Polymarket (~$15B valuation)AnthropicFiscal AIWant to see all of our official stock recommendations? Visit https://7investing.com/subscribe get your first 7 days of premium access completely freeFind more of Brett and Ryan's stock research at chitchatstocks.substack.comand www.youtube.com/@UCG5Ni-SI-jyrEsoNUhqftNQ Hashtags#7investing #SimonErickson #PredictionMarkets #Kalshi #Polymarket #DraftKings #InteractiveBrokers #Robinhood #stocks #investing #sportsbetting #stockmarket