Cobalt is a critical mineral used in numerous commercial, industrial, and military applications.
In recent years, it has gained attention as it is also necessary for batteries used in cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles (EVs). This graphic by Elements / Visual Capitalist illustrates estimated cobalt production by country in 2023 in metric tons. The data is from the most recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries, published in January 2024.
Productivity rules
Source: Eric Parker on X
Norway’s massive sovereign wealth fund on Wednesday posted first-half profit of 1.48 trillion kroner ($138 billion)
It has been primarily driven by robust returns on its investments in technology stocks. The so-called Government Pension Fund Global — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — said it had a value of 17.75 trillion kroner at the end of June. The fund’s overall return for the six-month period was 8.6%, which was 0.04 percentage points lower than the return on its benchmark index. “The result was mainly driven by the technology stocks, due to increased demand for new solutions in artificial intelligence,” CEO Tangen said in a statement. Source: CNBC
Temu overtook eBay to become the 2nd most-visited e-commerce website in the world
Source: SimilarWeb, Juozas Kaziukėnas on X
Naval Ravikant Happiness Theory
Source: artofpoets.com
Athletes from four California universities won 89 Olympic medals. (The United States won 126 total).
Athletes from Stanford University alone won more medals than all but seven countries in the world. Source: Erik Brynjolfsson
March 22, 2000
Difficult to compare the internet bubble with the current ai mania. Source: Andrew Kuhn
BREAKING: Container shipping costs from China have spiked to their highest levels since 2022
Since the beginning of 2024, shipping rates have more than TRIPLED. It now costs ~$9,000 to ship a 40-foot container from Shanghai to New York and ~$8,000 to Los Angeles. This has been driven by a sharp drop in Suez Canal transit volume, disruptions at some ports in Asia, and demand increase due to inventory restocking. Rising shipping costs should be considered as an upside risk to inflation. Source: The Kobeissi Letter
