longterm

Just across Long Island Sound from Long Island itself sits Purchase, NY, home of consumer-packaged goods giant PepsiCo (PEP 0.80%). The business began with a single beverage — Pepsi-Cola — in the small coastal town of New Bern, NC. But a bankruptcy saw the brand change hands, ultimately landing it with a business in New York, the state it’s still headquartered in today.

Since relocating to its current headquarters in Purchase, NY in 1970, PepsiCo has undergone a radical transformation. It’s an international powerhouse in the consumer-packaged goods space with dozens of beverage brands as well as food brands. And recent financial results underscore why this is still a solid stock to buy for the long term.

Image source: PepsiCo.

Pepsi’s rock-solid business

Pepsi stock is down about 23% from the all-time high it reached two years ago. Investors have soured on this stock because sales volume is under pressure. Investors consequently speculate that perhaps consumers are trading down to cheaper brands, that consumers are choosing healthier options, or that weight-loss drugs are suppressing appetites.

However, Pepsi is more resilient than investors give it credit for. On Oct. 9, the company reported financial results for its fiscal third quarter of 2025. Sales volume did decline by 1% for both beverages and convenient foods. And the decline was even more pronounced in North America. But the headline numbers didn’t tell the whole story.

Pepsi is actively reshaping its portfolio of beverage brands. One example is selling Rockstar Energy to Celsius. But another example is transitioning its case pack water business to a third-party partner. Changes such as these impact quarterly sales volume.

By simply adjusting results for the change to the water business, Pepsi’s beverage volumes in North America grew in Q3 — that’s a big deal. It suggest that the company is getting some positive traction in a core market with core products.

Sales in North America have been challenged for a while now. But Pepsi’s business was never in dire straights. This is because sales volume for food and beverages has continued rising in both Latin America and Asia.

This is the benefit of being a large, diversified business. Even if one part of Pepsi’s business is facing headwinds, chances are that other parts of the business are able to pick up the slack.

Is Pepsi stock a good long-term buy?

I believe that Pepsi stock is a good long-term buy, but I should clarify what I mean by that. I don’t believe that this will be among the top-10 stocks over the next decade or anywhere close to that. Those stocks will probably be up-and-coming businesses experiencing a lot of growth. And with over $90 billion in trailing-12-month revenue, it’s unrealistic to expect Pepsi’s business to be high growth.

But I believe Pepsi stock will make investors money over the long term with relatively little risk. Even if consumer tastes and preferences are shifting, the company operates a portfolio that it can adjust. As one example, Pepsi acquired prebiotic soda brand Poppi for nearly $2 billion, and it can use this new business to build more products that are aligned with trending preferences.

Moreover, Pepsi is a Dividend King, having paid and increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years now. This is a streak that it’s not going to give up on easily. And thanks to the pullback in the stock price, dividend investors can lock in at nearly an all-time high dividend yield, boosting returns from here.

PEP Dividend Yield data by YCharts.

Yes, Pepsi may be headquartered in New York. But this company is much more than the Pepsi brand, and it’s much bigger than the Empire State. It’s a profitable global business with a diversified portfolio that can adapt to changes in the consumer landscape.

Therefore, Pepsi stock is a solid long-term buy in my view and a good addition to a diversified portfolio of stocks.

It’s been just six months since CoreWeave (CRWV -4.96%) went public, and the stock has more than tripled in its short life as a public company, despite witnessing bouts of volatility during this period. The stock’s rapid rise has been fueled by its fast-improving revenue pipeline, but at the same time, investors have been worried about certain factors.

From CoreWeave’s rapidly rising debt to stock dilution on account of its $9 billion Core Scientific deal, shares of the company have slipped significantly since hitting a high nearly three months ago. However, the company’s latest deal with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) could help assuage investors’ concerns to some extent and set CoreWeave up for more upside.

Image source: Getty Images

Nvidia’s guarantee is great news for CoreWeave investors

CoreWeave has built its business by offering dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) data centers powered by graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia. It rents out its cloud computing capacity to the likes of Meta Platforms and Microsoft, which account for the majority of its top line. It has also added a third big customer in the form of OpenAI.

The ChatGPT maker offered an initial contract worth $11.9 billion to CoreWeave in March this year, before enhancing the size of the deal by another $4 billion. And now, Nvidia has signed a $6.3 billion contract with CoreWeave that will guarantee the latter’s revenue growth in the long run. Under this agreement, Nvidia will be purchasing any unsold data center capacity from CoreWeave through April 2032.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), CoreWeave pointed out that “Nvidia is obligated to purchase the residual unsold capacity” of its data centers in case its “data center capacity is not fully utilized by its own customers.” CoreWeave’s existing data center capacity is falling short of demand.

CFO Nitin Agrawal remarked on the August earnings conference call that CoreWeave’s “growth continues to be capacity-constrained, with demand outstripping supply.” This is evident from the fact that its contractual backlog increased by close to $14 billion year over year in Q2, driven by the multibillion-dollar contracts the company signed in the quarter.

For comparison, CoreWeave’s Q2 revenue increased to $1.2 billion from $395 million in the year-ago period. Not surprisingly, the company is laser-focused on bringing online more data center capacity so that it can fulfill its massive revenue backlog worth $30 billion. It currently operates 33 dedicated AI data centers in the U.S. and Europe, with active power capacity of 470 megawatts (MW).

However, it has been increasing its contracted data center power capacity at a nice clip so that it can bring more active capacity online. Specifically, CoreWeave’s contracted data center power capacity increased by 600 MW in the previous quarter to 2.2 gigawatts (GW). But even that might not be enough in the long run, as according to McKinsey, data center capacity demand could grow by 4x between 2023 and 2030.

The firm estimates that global data center capacity demand could hit 220 GW in 2030 from 55 GW in 2023 in a midrange scenario. So there is a good chance that CoreWeave could remain capacity-constrained in the long run thanks to the AI-powered data center boom. For instance, McKinsey is expecting a deficit of more than 15 GW in data center power capacity in the U.S. itself by 2030.

As such, CoreWeave may not be left with any residual capacity to sell to Nvidia going forward, as there is a good chance that data center demand will continue to be stronger than supply on account of AI. And now, Nvidia’s guarantee gives CoreWeave investors an extra cushion that should ensure healthy long-term growth for the company, even if there’s a drop in AI computing capacity requirements.

What should investors do?

Nvidia’s guarantee suggests that the demand for AI computing is likely to remain robust in the long run. This should ideally translate into a bigger backlog and stronger growth for CoreWeave, which is just what analysts are expecting from the company through 2028.

CRWV Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts

The massive opportunity in the cloud AI infrastructure market should help CoreWeave sustain impressive growth rates beyond 2028. For instance, even if it clocks 20% annual top-line growth in 2029 and 2030, its revenue could hit $25.6 billion. If the stock is trading at even 5 times sales at that time, in line with the Nasdaq Composite‘s average sales multiple, its market cap could get close to $130 billion. That would be more than double CoreWeave’s current market cap.

Importantly, CoreWeave can now be bought at 16 times sales, which isn’t all that expensive when we consider its remarkable growth.

So investors looking to capitalize on the AI cloud infrastructure market’s long-term growth potential can consider buying this AI stock right away, especially considering that the Nvidia deal is a vote of confidence in CoreWeave’s — and the AI data center market’s — prospects.

Google parent Alphabet (GOOG 0.27%) (GOOGL 0.22%) faced a frightening challenge after its search engine business was declared an illegal monopoly last August. Since then, investor concern over the potential consequences dampened Alphabet stock’s performance.

That changed on Sept. 2, when a federal judge finally delivered the legal penalties, and they largely favored Alphabet. The news sent the company’s stock to a record high.

Even so, Alphabet didn’t escape unscathed. While the penalties pose no immediate threat, over the long run, the possibility exists for damage to its critical artificial intelligence (AI) business. Digging into the court ruling’s implications can reveal if the tech titan’s AI aspirations face long-term risk.

Image source: Getty Images.

How the court’s decision affects Alphabet’s AI ambitions

The Sept. 2 legal ruling bars Alphabet from signing exclusive contracts with partners such as Apple. Deals are still allowed, as long as exclusivity isn’t a component, so no immediate revenue impact is involved here.

But another legal stipulation mandates sharing some of Google’s search data with competitors. This is where AI comes in.

Artificial intelligence relies on massive troves of data to perform tasks accurately. The court’s decision arms Alphabet’s rivals with ammunition to improve their AI models.

That competition includes Microsoft, which battles Alphabet on several fronts, including search, digital advertising, cloud computing, and of course, AI. The court’s requirement would deliver Google’s data insights to Microsoft’s Bing search engine, and feed across all the areas where the two corporations compete. But where it can really provide value is in AI.

Microsoft incorporates AI models developed by ChatGPT creator OpenAI into its offerings, since it has a stake in the company. ChatGPT’s introduction of generative AI to the world is one of the key drivers that kicked off the current artificial intelligence frenzy. Adding Google data to the mix could strengthen both Microsoft and OpenAI’s tech.

In fact, the judge who delivered the Sept. 2 ruling, Amit Mehta, noted, “The emergence of GenAI changed the course of this case.”

Is Alphabet’s AI position at risk?

Alphabet has the option to appeal the court’s penalties, but even if it doesn’t, the tech conglomerate’s impressive use of AI to date could be enough to prevent erosion of its businesses.

For instance, new AI features introduced to its Google search engine boosted usage. This enabled Google search revenue to hit $54.2 billion in the second quarter, up 12% from 2024’s $48.5 billion.

Alphabet’s AI advancements helped Google maintain a search market share of 90% in August, compared to next-closest competitor Bing’s 4%. Even if Google’s data helps Bing gain share, the gap between the rivals is so huge, Bing is unlikely to make a meaningful dent in Google’s lead anytime soon.

AI contributed to growth in Alphabet’s cloud computing segment, Google Cloud, as well. The division is bringing AI-powered shopping capabilities to PayPal. Such customer adoption of AI drove Google Cloud’s Q2 sales to $13.6 billion, a whopping 32% year-over-year increase.

Should cloud competitors improve their AI with Google data, the difference would have to be significant to get Alphabet’s customers to switch. Google Cloud integrations aren’t easily unfurled, leading to high switching costs.

Beyond search and cloud computing, Alphabet has injected AI into YouTube, its Waymo robotaxi service, Gmail, and more.

Alphabet isn’t out of the woods yet

Overall, Alphabet dodged a bullet in the Google search antitrust case. The legal penalties could have been as far-ranging as a forced divestiture of its popular Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system.

Considering these worst-case scenarios, Alphabet got off pretty light, and the ruling’s impact to its business over the long term looks minimal. The conglomerate’s widespread use of AI across its operations gives it a solid lead against competitors who may benefit from access to Google data.

But the legal dangers aren’t over yet. Earlier this year, Alphabet lost a separate antitrust case directed against its advertising empire. The penalties in that case are yet to be determined. However, Google was slapped with a $3.5 billion antitrust fine by the European Union on Sept. 5 for violating rules designed to protect a competitive advertising marketplace.

Compared to the Google search case, this separate antitrust lawsuit poses a lower risk. That’s because it involves advertising tech related to the company’s Google network, which produced $7.35 billion in Q2 sales, a drop from the $7.44 billion generated in the previous year. By comparison, Google search accounted for $54.2 billion of Alphabet’s $96.4 billion in Q2 revenue.

So while Alphabet isn’t out of legal trouble yet, the biggest long-term risk to its business is behind it, as long as the conglomerate can continue pushing AI innovation across its operations.

Today we discuss flora, fauna and self-gratification.

You’ve been away.

Yes, I was living in a tent for two weeks, communing with the pine trees and black bears of the Sierra.

You heard about California’s likely special election?

I did.

It seems Gov. Gavin Newsom will have his way, with help from the Democratic-run Legislature, and voters will be asked in November to approve a partisan gerrymander aimed at offsetting a similar Republican power grab in Texas.

As many as five GOP House seats could be erased from the congressional map drawn by California’s independent redistricting commission, which voters established more than a decade ago — expressly to take the line-drawing away from a bunch of self-interested politicians.

Fighting fire with fire!

Could we please retire that phrase.

Huh?

Also references to knife fights and Democrats showing up with pencils, rubber bands, butter knives and other wimpy implements. The campaign hasn’t even started and already those metaphors have grown stale.

Fine. At least Democrats are showing some fight.

In an impulsive, shortsighted fashion.

Look, I get it. Donald Trump truly knows no bottom when it comes to undermining democratic norms, running a familial kleptocracy and, in the felicitous phrase of Gustavo Arellano, my fellow Times columnista, treating the Constitution like a pee pad.

Democrats are powerless in Washington, where a pliant Republican-controlled Congress and a supine right-wing Supreme Court have shown all the deference of a maître d’ squiring Trump to his favorite table. So the idea of doing something to push back against the president is quite invigorating and, no doubt, gratifying for Democratic partisans.

It’s also expedient and facile, sparing the party from looking inward and doing the truly hard work it faces. Taking on Republicans over redistricting — a fight among insiders, as far as many voters are concerned — does absolutely nothing to address the larger problem confronting Democrats, which is the absence of any broader message beyond: Trump, bad!

We saw how that worked for them in 2024.

But this is a “break-the-glass” moment for our democracy. Gov. Newsom said so!

Please.

The only thing worse than a grasping and nakedly calculating politician is a politician who wraps his grasping and naked calculation in all sorts of red, white and blue bunting.

At bottom, this is all about Newsom’s overweening presidential ambitions.

How so?

The whole episode started when our gallivanting governor went on a left-wing podcast during a Southern campaign swing and huffed and puffed about responding to Trump and Texas by executing a similar gerrymander in California. (He elided the fact that, under the state Constitution, he has no such authority. Hence the need for a special election to seek voter approval of new, slanted political lines.)

Soon enough, Newsom’s threat took on a life of its own. Normally, redistricting is done once every 10 years, after the latest census. Suddenly, mid-decade redistricting became a new front in the ever-escalating war between red and blue; now several more states are talking about rejiggering their congressional maps for partisan gain.

The problem for Newsom and his fellow Democrats is that Republicans have a lot more gerrymandering opportunities than they do. So instead of those five Democratic-held seats in Texas, many more could be at risk for the party in 2026.

Golly.

Though, it should be said, at this point all that election handicapping is nothing more than speculation.

What do you mean?

Democrats need to flip three congressional districts to seize control of the House. That’s why Trump prodded Texas Republicans to try to nab those five extra seats, to give the GOP some padding.

But there’s no guarantee Republicans will win all five seats. They’re counting on the same strong Latino support Trump received in 2024, and recent polling suggests some of that pro-GOP sentiment may be waning.

Beyond that, the ever-insightful Amy Walter, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, makes an important point.

“Even as the possibility of new maps in Texas and California may change the size and the shape of the 2026 playing field,” she wrote in a recent analysis, “the fate of the Republican-controlled House is ultimately still going to be determined by two fundamental questions: how do voters feel about the state of the economy, and how do independent voters assess the party in power?”

It’s a long way to November 2026. But at this point, neither of those factors augurs well for Trump and Republicans.

Well, they started it, by messing with Texas.

True. And none of this is meant to defend Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott or the president’s other political henchmen.

But effectively disenfranchising millions of California Republicans isn’t any better than effectively disenfranchising millions of Texas Democrats.

Huh?

If Democrats have their way, the GOP would hold just a handful of California’s 52 House seats, or even less. How is that possibly fair, or representative, in a state that’s home to millions of Republican voters — more, in fact, than any state other than Texas.

There are already countless residents, many living outside Democrats’ city and suburban strongholds, who feel ignored and politically impotent. That’s not healthy for California, or democracy. It breeds anger, resentment, cynicism and a kind of political nihilism that, ultimately, helps lead to the election of a middle-finger president like Donald Trump.

Of course, Newsom may not care, since at this twilight point of his governorship it’s all about his White House hopes and desire to pander to the Democrats’ aggrieved political base.

By fighting fire with fire!

And potentially burning the whole place down.

Harriet Cowan has been a huge hit with fans of Clarkson’s Farm, with many praising the 24-year-old’s passion for farming and her dedication to show how women can thrive in male-dominant industries

Harriet Cowan, the fresh face on ‘Clarkson’s Farm’, has spilled the beans on her romantic life. People have been curious about the 24-year-old’s life off-screen ever since she appeared on the Amazon Prime show.

Joining the latest series, Harriet has been a major help to ex-‘Top Gear’ host Jeremy Clarkson at Diddly Squat Farm, particularly when fan-favourite Kaleb Cooper headed off to work on various projects across the UK.

Viewers have been cheering for nurse turned farm worker, marvelling at her passion for rural living and ambition to demonstrate that ‘girly girls’ like her can handle tractors and livestock as competently as her male counterparts.

Nevertheless, her time on the programme was short-lived because of Kaleb’s return, which left her new-found fans yearning for more. Yet, her online video shares let followers stay tuned into her daily adventures, drawing in millions of views.

Then, last night [June 19], Harriet dropped a bit of personal news on her TikTok page as she introduced her beau James Booth to followers. A recent cosy snapshot was shared alongside a throwback pic from their teen days at 18.

Harriet expressed: “From party teenagers in 2018, to mid-to-late 20s in 2025 and like to be in bed before 10. I hope I get to this life with you forever.”

Harriet and her beau James, who is said to be a third-generation farmer, first crossed paths at a Young Farmer’s meeting. Harriet often gives her followers a peek into their life together via social media.

In one of her recent posts, she shared a clip of James behind the wheel of a tractor, hinting that he is four years her senior. In another post, she mused: “The ‘butterfly effect’ is crazy because if I didn’t join Young Farmers we’d never have met.”

She continued: “YFC gave me my whole life and for that I will be forever grateful!” Harriet also urged others to consider joining community groups, promising they will “meet the greatest people”.

Her followers were delighted to see the couple together. One commented: “Wishing you both eternal happiness,” while another added: “You two are so cute,”.

One follower, who has been in a relationship for a similar duration, shared: “Me and my partner begun our relationship in 2018 too! 7 years, 1 dog, 2 kids and two homes later, we made it.”

Some fans hinted at wedding bells, too. One joked: “Buddy needs to put a ring on your finger.” And another cheekily asked: “When’s the wedding?.”

Aside from her love life, Harriet has been concentrating on her own business since her stint on the show. Recently, she directed her 493,000 Instagram followers to her new contracting page, Cowan Contracting.

The description of the page reads: “Cowan Contracting ~ family business. Eddy Cowan / Harriet Cowan. Contracting needs over Derbyshire. Based in Belper.”

However, fans hope she’ll leave some time to come back to our screens. After the new Clarkson’s Farm episodes aired, one fan begged: “Harriet was amazing, brought so much to the show, please bring her back.”

Another commented: “Please bring Harriet back, she was a fantastic addition.” And a third chimed in with praise, saying: “Thought she was such a hard worker, bless her.”