A Place in the Sun host Laura Hamilton has been at the helm of the Channel 4 programme for more than a decade and has visited some breathtaking locations over the years
Laura Hamilton has reflected on her 13-year career as the host of A Place in the Sun(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Laura Hamilton has looked back on her 13-year stint presenting A Place in the Sun and revealed her three top destinations. It’s fair to say that Laura, having hosted the sun-soaked Channel 4 property-hunting show for over a decade, has clocked up some serious air miles.
You would also expect that, after more than ten years of globetrotting, picking a favourite spot would prove tricky. But thankfully, for curious fans, Laura has whittled it down to just three choices.
She told Woman magazine how the first holds special family significance.
South Africa
“I loved filming in South Africa,” Laura revealed. “My dad was born there. It was great to get to see that.” South Africa, perched at the southern tip of the African continent, boasts one of Africa’s largest and most developed economies.
The nation has 12 official languages, encompassing Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, and IsiNdebele. It’s also renowned as a wildlife paradise, home to everything from lions and elephants to vervet monkeys and baboons.
Meanwhile, along the coastline, adventurous tourists might even glimpse great white sharks and dolphins.
Morzine, France
Laura’s second choice was considerably nearer to home. She revealed: “I also loved filming in Morzine, in the mountains of France. I’m a big skier and it was great to see it in the summer months.
Morzine is an alpine village nestled within the Chablais mountain range, positioned between the towering 4,800-metre Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva. This bustling ski resort boasts a rich history spanning more than 1,000 years.
In earlier centuries, monks and miners made Morzine their home. However, by the 1800s, with advancing technology, the area became renowned for its slate mining operations, an industry that brought wealth to the town.
Granada, Spain
Lastly, Laura selected Spain’s stunning city of Granada and its encompassing mountain range. She went on: “Granada, Sierra Nevada, was amazing. Being on the beach in the morning and the slopes in the afternoon – that’s amazing. There are places I’ve seen that I would probably not have got to go to.”
Sierra Nevada describes a mountain range in Spain, located in the Andalusian province of Granada. It’s reportedly also the location of Europe’s most southerly ski resort, providing spectacular views across the Mediterranean.
This comes after reports revealed how Laura admitted to occasionally feeling exasperated by some “crazy” buyers on the programme. Speaking in the same interview, she was questioned whether people ever participate in the show simply to secure a free trip.
She dismissed this idea, explaining how it’s a “week’s work” and a massive decision for those taking part. Nevertheless, she also described how she has presented properties to people and thought “you’re crazy” when they choose not to purchase them.
Why trains need to return to Ashford International
The Sun’s Deputy Travel Editor Kara Godfrey weighs in.
Living just down the road from Ashford International Station, it is baffling to me how trains to Europe are yet to return.
It is certainly a depressing sight, as I leave the station, seeing the huge international terminal left abandoned.
The town needs the return of trains to Europe, not just because it more than doubles the time for Kent travellers.
Locals have said that they have lost millions in business since the axing of the route in 2020, which once connected the UK to Paris, Brussels and Disneyland.
While investment will be needed to install the new EES systems that were rolled out over the weekend, it would also ease the pressure points at London St Pancras, which can see huge queues at the Eurostar terminal.
It is great news that FS has revealed plans for a 2029 launch – and it can’t come too soon.
This could include places like Cologne and and Frankfurt, as well as Geneva and Zurich.
There is a lot of hype with this quantum computing company. But it has a lot of bark and little bite.
Everyone wants to own quantum computing stocks. Companies like IonQ(NYSE: IONQ) are up hundreds of percent in the last year, with the aforementioned stock now at a market cap of $25 billion while generating less than $100 million in revenue. Quantum computing could drive huge gains in productivity if the technology is ever commercialized, but today, IonQ is a highly speculative company with little to no business model. This makes it an incredibly risky stock to own.
Here are two stocks not betting on a speculative science fiction future, but creating value in the present. Both Remitly Global(RELY -3.13%) and Portillo’s(PTLO -2.76%) will be larger than IonQ in five years’ time. Here’s why you should add them to your portfolio over any quantum computing stock.
Remitly’s disruptive opportunity
Remitly Global has moved in the opposite direction from IonQ in 2025. Shares of the remittance provider are off 42% from highs set earlier in 2025, while IonQ is up 78% year to date (YTD) and just reached a new all-time high.
Investors are nervous about Remitly because of the immigration crackdown in the United States, which may reduce cross-border payments from the United States to Mexico and other Latin American countries. This is Remitly’s core business as a mobile disruptor to the legacy players, such as Western Union. Fears are also rising due to a new tax on remittance payments, although it is just a 1% tax and likely not to greatly impact payment flows.
Despite these worries, Remitly has posted strong growth throughout 2025. Revenue was up 34% year over year last quarter, with 40% growth in send volume. Not only is Remitly completely disregarding immigration fears for remittance demand, but it is also taking a ton of market share from legacy players due to its low fees and easy-to-use mobile application.
What’s more, Remitly is starting to get profitable. On $1.46 billion in trailing revenue, the business generated an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $27 million, with plenty of room to increase its operating leverage over time. Compare that to IonQ with minimal revenue and huge operating losses, and Remitly looks like a company that should have a larger market cap than any quantum computing stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
Portillo’s expansion plans
Portillo’s is a restaurant chain that sells Chicago-style street food, such as hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. It has begun to expand to other markets such as Texas and Florida with average success, as some of its restaurant volumes have been hit by a broad slowdown in consumer spending at restaurants in 2024 and 2025.
Despite this, Portillo’s is poised to grow substantially in the years ahead. It is planning to slowly grow its presence in new states around the country, bringing this beloved Chicago brand to a national stage. Last quarter, Portillo’s posted just 3.6% annual revenue growth, but that is due to the fact that its new store openings are going to be weighted to the back half of 2025. With the company planning to have just around 100 restaurant locations at the end of this year, there is still a huge runway for the concept to expand to new metropolitan areas in the United States.
Portillo’s has a market cap of just $464 million today. Investors may look at this market capitalization compared to IonQ and think it is impossible for the restaurant operator to surpass the $25 billion stock within five years. But let’s truly compare the underlying financials to show why IonQ is grossly overvalued at its current price.
Over the last 12 months, Portillo’s generated $65 million in EBIT on $728 million in revenue. IonQ generated just $53 million in revenue and lost $351 million (it has never been profitable). Portillo’s may not surpass a $25 billion market cap in five years, but it will be larger than IonQ because IonQ does not deserve anything close to a $25 billion valuation.
Buy Remitly and Portillo’s. Avoid IonQ and other quantum computing stocks. Your portfolio will thank you five years from now.
Brett Schafer has positions in Remitly Global. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The small seaside development in Carmarthenshire is known as ‘Sunset Village’ and offers stunning and tranquil views that residents say are like a year-round holiday
The village that looks like a film set(Image: John Myers)
In a charming seaside town, there’s a row of houses that leave locals gasping ‘wow’ every morning.
Living here feels like a permanent holiday, regardless of the British weather. Who needs a coastal getaway when you can see the sea as soon as you open your curtains? Welcome to Pentre Nicklaus Village on the fringes of Llanelli in south-west Wales.
Although it’s just a stone’s throw from the town centre, the peaceful views and tranquillity make it feel miles away. Two decades have passed since the first of approximately 170 homes were built here, offering vistas found in few other parts of the UK.
The properties in this development were designed in a ‘New England style’, giving you the feeling of being in a Welsh mini-version of The Hamptons – an area in Long Island, New York, known for its grand homes with spacious terraces and balconies overlooking breathtaking sea views, reports the Express.
In fact, it bears a striking resemblance to Seahaven, the fictional small, privately-owned beachside town from the Truman Show, made famous by Jim Carrey in the 1998 hit comedy drama. From your balcony, on a clear day, you can enjoy stunning views of Gower on one side and Tenby on the other.
“I’m always in awe – in the summer in particular it’s just breathtaking,” said Janice Gallacher, a local resident who enjoys a stunning view of the Millennium Coastal Path, a picturesque trail along the Loughor Estuary that leads into the bounteous Carmarthen Bay.
“But whatever the season, it’s beautiful. Every day is different, every day you get to see the sunset. Even when the tide is rough it’s brilliant to watch.”
In 2004, Janice relocated to Pentre Nicklaus alongside her husband Stuart, a Llanelli icon celebrated for his rugby accomplishments in both union and league, before assuming senior positions as chief executive of Llanelli RFC and the Scarlets.
Stuart died in 2014, but Janice has remained deeply devoted to the area they selected together. Now a great-grandmother, the location continues to provide plenty for her to enjoy.
Showcasing her spacious open-plan upper-floor home, Janice enthuses about the local wildlife and the sweeping coastal views on her doorstep.
She also highlights the proximity to Llanelli’s town centre, saying: “I can walk to the nursery in 10 minutes, we’ve got the golf club around the corner – it’s a wonderful place to live. I can see the coast for miles around. We knew when we bought the place almost 20 years ago that it was a home for life.”
Carwyn and Susan Richards, who reside next door to Janice, are equally fortunate with their seaside outlook and recall how the view of the property convinced them to relocate immediately. The pair hail from Llanelli and returned here in 2014 following a period in neighbouring Gower.
“We had to travel into and through Swansea to get anywhere, but here we’re close to shops, we’re close to family and we’re close to the M4, it’s perfect. Summer time is the best time to live here but it’s beautiful all year round,” they gushed.
A photograph captured by Carwyn, which adorns their wall, perfectly captures the stunning panorama from their home. “We’ve moved around a lot over the years with my job,” Carwyn recalled.
“We had a lovely place to live in Gower, right by the beach. When we decided to come back to this area, we looked at several places. But as soon as we stepped through the door here, it was June and straight away we saw that view. That was it. We knew within 30 seconds that this was where we wanted to be.
“We’re not moving again!” Susan declared emphatically. “This is home.” Further along Pentre Nicklaus, Garry is busy with his refurbishment.
Unlike most properties of comparable design that boast a wall separating the kitchen and lounge on the second floor, Garry has opted to knock it down, forming a vast open-plan area that makes the most of the spectacular seaside vistas through the enormous glass windows.
Garry and his family were attracted to their property in Pentre Nicklaus six years ago, chiefly for its breathtaking outlook: “We wanted this place because of the view. We originally came here because it’s near the sea and the coastal path and I love cycling – all that is literally right in front of us, so it was a lifestyle choice.”
Situated in Llanelli, a town with a proud rugby tradition, Garry’s home boasts a remarkable sporting connection, having previously belonged to Gareth Jenkins, the former player and head coach of the Wales national team – a detail Garry enthusiastically mentions from his balcony.
“We wanted this place because of the view. We originally came here because it’s near the sea and the coastal path and I love cycling – all that is literally right in front of us, so it was a lifestyle choice.”
“Some people might look at the land down there (between his home and the estuary) and think it’s just wasteland but we don’t see it like that. We have wild foxes here, we have birds of prey – for us it’s a nature reserve on our doorstep.
“The best part about the view is that it changes every hour. It’s expensive to buy a property here but it’s free for everyone to enjoy the path and the surroundings. We used to commute a lot, which is bad for the environment and it’s bad for our health. Thankfully I’m able to work from home. People might think you take it for granted after a while but you don’t. It’s just stunning.”
Living in Pentre Nicklaus delivers the perfect balance. Whilst the town centre’s energy and activity lies just a brief stroll away, your property serves as a peaceful sanctuary.
Peering through your generous lounge window during the evening hours, you’re surrounded by wildlife and the ocean, creating the sensation of being countless miles from civilisation.
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If you’re planning to be a long-term holder, make sure its stocks like these with durable competitive advantages.
If you’re looking for some monster returns, the stocks that can provide them come in many shapes and sizes. For this exercise, we’re going to identify three stocks that show significant revenue growth as well as improving free cash flow and gross margins.
These indicators emphasize better financial health, flexibility for growth, or returning extra value to shareholders. Here’s a look at three companies with rising top lines, while simultaneously bringing more dollars to their bottom lines.
One seller’s trash, another buyer’s treasure
First up is a company called Copart(CPRT -0.33%), which operates an online salvage-vehicle auctions that 11 countries across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Copart makes over 3.5 million transactions annually through its virtual bidding platform that connects vehicle sellers with over 750,000 registered buyers.
Copart has quickly grown into the largest online salvage-vehicle auction operator in the U.S. market and has grown its top line nearly fivefold since 2009 thanks to a strategy of land expansion and higher salvage volume. The company has contracts with large auto insurers, which have a plethora of vehicles deemed a total loss and sell them on consignment for high margins to dismantlers.
Image source: Getty Images.
Copart has been expanding. It’s crucial for the company to have ample land capacity to handle an influx of salvage vehicles on short notice and has nearly tripled its acreage since 2015, with an emphasis on areas at high risk of natural disasters. It’s also expanding into the salvage-vehicle resale process with offerings such as vehicle title transfer and salvage estimation services.
The company is expanding its business and its top line and has durable competitive advantages with the land it owns, creating a high-liquidity marketplace for buyers and sellers that isn’t easily replicable.
A recurring revenue dream
Autodesk(ADSK -2.19%) is an application software company servicing industries that span architecture, engineering, construction, product design and manufacturing, media, and entertainment. The company essentially enables the design, rendering, and modeling needs of those industries and has over 4 million paid subscribers across 180 countries.
Autodesk, while providing leading industry computer-aided design software, drives its success and durable competitive advantages through switching costs and network effects, which actually tend to reinforce each other. Widespread training on its software, often early in careers, not only gives people familiarity with the software, it also makes the cost of learning a competing software undesirable, unproductive, and time-consuming.
Furthermore, according to Morningstar, over 95% of its revenue is now recurring after the company transitioned away from licenses to a subscription model over the better part of the last decade. The change should enable the company to drive its top line even higher as it extracts more revenue per user with upsells and a more mature and loyal user base.
Autodesk even has upside if it can capture a chunk of the estimated 12 million to 15 million people using pirated versions of its software.
A hotel for every need
As of the end of 2024, InterContinental Hotels Group(IHG -1.01%) operated nearly 990,000 rooms across 19 brands that span from midscale through luxury segments. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are its largest and most recognizable brands, but it also has an assortment of lesser-known lifestyle brands that are recording strong demand.
While there’s a bit of U.S. economic uncertainty in the near term, InterContinental should be able to leverage its strong brand of assets to drive room share (i.e., market share) over the next decade. It has renovated and newer brands focusing on attractive midscale and extended-stay segments, as well as a loyalty program with roughly 145 million members to help drive growth.
The company also holds significant assets in international markets with those outside of the Americas generating 47% of total rooms for 2024, and it’s well positioned for the more than 1 billion middle-income consumers expected to be joining the global population over the next 10 years.
The company has over 99% of rooms managed or franchised, which provides an attractive recurring-fee business model highlighted by high return on invested capital (ROIC) as well as high switching costs for property owners.
Contracts often last from 20 to 30 years, also providing noteworthy cancellation costs for owners — all helping drive durable competitive advantages for IHG.
Are they buys?
For long-term investors, these three potentially monster stocks have proved they can rapidly grow their top line while also improving gross margins and pushing more dollars into free cash flow.
The kicker is that all three possess some form of competitive advantage that should sustain and enable growth over the next decade. If you’re looking for market beating returns, these three stocks are a great place to start your research — and perhaps a small position.
Brookfield Corporation has been a wealth-creating machine.
Brookfield Corporation(BN -4.28%) completed a three-for-two stock split earlier this week. The global investment firm split its shares to make them more accessible to individual investors and to enhance the trading liquidity of its stock.
Over the past 30 years, the company has completed several stock splits as a result of delivering a total return exceeding 27,000%. Brookfield has consistently outperformed the broader market, with a 19% annualized total return over the last three decades compared to 11% for the S&P 500. Looking forward, Brookfield expects to continue delivering strong growth, which could triple the value of its shares by 2030
Image source: Getty Images.
Brookfield: The wealth-creating machine
Despite its impressive returns, many investors aren’t too familiar with Brookfield. The Canadian company is a leading global investment manager with three businesses:
Asset management: The company owns a 73% interest in Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative investment manager with over $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM).
Wealth solutions:Brookfield Wealth Solutions is an investment-led insurance company that offers annuities, as well as property, casualty, and life insurance.
Operating businesses: It owns interests in four global operating platforms focused on infrastructure (Brookfield Infrastructure), renewable energy (Brookfield Renewable), private equity (Brookfield Business), and real estate (Brookfield Property).
These businesses generate significant and rapidly growing operating cash flows, enabling Brookfield to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, while also allocating funds to enhance shareholder value.
Over the last five years, Brookfield has grown its distributable earnings at a 22% compound annual rate, raising them from $2 billion in 2020 to an expected $5.3 billion this year. This growth puts the company’s intrinsic value at $102 per share (pre-split), well above the recent pre-split stock price of less than $70 a share. Over the past year, Brookfield has returned $1.5 billion to investors ($1 billion for share repurchases and $500 million in dividends), while retaining the remaining capital for reinvestment.
The plan leading to 2030
Brookfield expects to continue growing rapidly over the next five years. The company aims to deliver annualized total distributable earnings-per-share growth of 25% during this period. Within this, its core businesses should generate 20% annualized growth, with an additional 5% growth anticipated from capital allocation activities. As a result, Brookfield estimates its share value could increase at an annual rate of 16%, potentially rising to $210 (pre-split) by 2030 — a projected increase of over 200% from current levels.
The investment firm anticipates that its wealth solutions business will be a significant growth driver through 2030, accounting for over one-third of its anticipated total growth. Management’s goal is to grow its insurance assets from $135 billion currently to $350 billion by 2030, which it expects would more than double the platform’s earnings in the next five years. Brookfield has been expanding this platform through acquisitions, most recently announcing an agreement to acquire Just Group for $3.2 billion, expanding its reach to the UK pension risk market.
Brookfield also sees robust future growth for its asset management business. The company anticipates capitalizing on growing investor demand for alternative investments, which typically offer higher returns and lower volatility compared to traditional asset classes. Many individual investors have relatively low exposure to alternatives, representing a major market opportunity given that they hold $40 trillion in wealth.
Finally, Brookfield generates significant free cash flow, providing capital to grow shareholder value. The company estimates that by 2030, it will produce $25 billion in cumulative surplus free cash flow after dividend payments and current capital commitments, which it can allocate to acquisitions, fund investments, and other opportunities.
A top stock-split stock to buy now and hold for the next five years
Brookfield Corporation has consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to grow shareholder value over the years. As a result, it has had to split its stock several times, including earlier this week. More stock splits seem likely, given the company’s robust growth profile. That makes it a great stock to buy post-split, as shares could triple in value from here by 2030.
Matt DiLallo has positions in Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Corporation, Brookfield Infrastructure, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable, and Brookfield Renewable Partners. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Brookfield, Brookfield Corporation, and Brookfield Wealth Solutions. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable, and Brookfield Renewable Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
There’s something about Thai cuisine that is warm and welcoming.
Perhaps it’s the fire that bird’s eye chili brings to a dish, or maybe the bold punchiness of tom yum soup.
My colleague and food critic Bill Addison referred to Thai as “a pillar cuisine of Los Angeles.”
And why not?
The city boasts the world’s largest Thai population outside of Thailand. Those who open restaurants open our palates to a diverse range of flavors and sensations from their micro-regional cooking styles.
Addison is wary of using the term “best.” Instead, he crafted a list of his 15 favorite Thai restaurants in Los Angeles. Here, we’ll highlight a handful of those choices, in Addison’s own words.
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If you’ve had any passing interest in Los Angeles dining culture this decade, you probably know the story: Anajak Thai was founded in 1981 by chef Ricky Pichetrungsi, whose recipes merge his Thai upbringing and Cantonese heritage, and his wife Rattikorn.
In 2019, when Pichetrungsi suffered a stroke, the couple’s son Justin left a thriving career as an art director at Walt Disney Imagineering to take over the restaurant.
It changed his life, and it changed Los Angeles, with Justin’s creative individualism — specifically his Thai Taco Tuesday phenomenon.
That’s when the menu crisscrosses fish tacos lit up by chili crisp and limey nam jim with wok-fragrant drunken noodles and Dungeness crab fried rice. Add what has become one of L.A.’s great wine lists, and the restaurant has catapulted into one of the city’s great dining sensations.
The restaurant closed for a couple of months over the summer for a renovation, revealing a brighter, significantly resituated interior — and introducing an open kitchen and a second dining room — in August.
The menu didn’t radically alter: It’s the same multi-generational cooking, tracing the family heritage, leaning ever-further into freshness, perfecting the details in familiar dishes.
Fried chicken sheathed in rice flour batter and scattered with fried shallots, the star of the Justin-era menu, remains, as does the sublime mango sticky rice that Rattikorn makes when she can find fragrant fruit in season and at its ripest.
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Ayara Thai (Westchester)
Owner Andy Asapahu grew up in a Thai-Chinese community in Bangkok.
Anna Asapahu, his wife, was raised in Lampang, a small city in the verdant center of northern Thailand.
They melded their backgrounds into a sprawling multi-regional menu of soups, salads, noodles and curries when they opened Ayara in Westchester in 2004.
Their daughters Vanda and Cathy oversee the restaurant these days, but Anna’s recipe for khao soi endures as the marquee dish.
Khao soi seems to have become nearly as popular in Los Angeles as pad Thai. This one is quintessential: chicken drumsticks braised in silky coconut milk infused with lemongrass and other piercing aromatics, poured over egg noodles, sharpened with shallots and pickled mustard greens and garnished with lime and a thatch of fried noodles.
The counterpoints are all in play: a little sweetness from palm sugar and a lot of complexity from fish sauce, a bump of chile heat to offset the richness.
Pair it with a standout dish that reflects Andy’s upbringing, like pad pong kari, a stir-fry of curried shrimp and egg with Chinese celery and other vegetables, smoothed with a splash of cream and served over rice. The restaurant has a spacious dining room.
Note that lunch is technically carry-out only, though the family sets up the patio space outside the restaurant for those who want to stick around.
(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)
Holy Basil (Atwater Village)
Wedchayan “Deau” Arpapornnopparat and Tongkamal “Joy” Yuon run two wholly different Holy Basils.
Downtown’s Santee Passage food hall houses the original, a window that does a brisk takeout business cranking out Arpapornnopparat’s visceral, full-throttle interpretations of Bangkok street food.
His pad see ew huffs with smokiness from the wok. The fluffy-crackly skin of moo krob pops and gives way to satiny pork belly underneath. Douse “grandma’s fry fish and rice” with chile vinegar, and in its sudden brightness you’ll understand why the dish was his childhood favorite.
Their sit-down restaurant in Atwater Village is a culmination of their ambitions. The space might be small, with much of the seating against a wall between two buildings, but the cooking is tremendous.
Arpapornnopparat leaps ahead, rendering a short, revolving menu of noodles, curries, chicken wings, fried rice and vegetable dishes that is more experimental, weaving in elements of his father’s Chinese heritage, his time growing up in India and the Mexican and Japanese flavors he loves in Los Angeles.
One creation that shows up in spring but I wait for all year: fried soft-shell crab and shrimp set in a thrilling, confounding sauce centered around salted egg yolk, browned butter, shrimp paste and scallion oil. In its sharp left turns of salt and acid and sultry funk, the brain longs to consult a GPS. But no map exists. These flavor combinations are from an interior land.
(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
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The £175m Beaulieu Park train station in Chelmsford is finished well ahead of time, and will open for passengers next week – it’s the first station on the Eastern main line for 100 years
New railway station arrives months early
The first new train station on the Eastern main line for 100 years will be arriving … four months early. Rail chiefs are delighted with the £175m station which will open its doors next week.
Beaulieu Park is the first station on this part of the UK rail network network since the 1920s. And because it’s months ahead of schedule passengers will be able to use it from October 26th.
The station is part of a new super green initiative project near Chelmsford, Essex. Martin Beable, Greater Anglia’s Managing Director, said: “We are really looking forward to the opening of Beaulieu Park station, the first new station on the Great Eastern Main Line in over 100 years.
“Beaulieu Park station will benefit from a regular and reliable service of up to four trains per hour during peak times and two trains per hour during off peak periods, making rail travel simple and convenient for passengers.”
Councillor Louise McKinlay, Deputy Leader at Essex County Council, said: “Essex is pioneering the type of infrastructure-supported growth that’s on the national agenda, being bold and ambitious in our commitment to future-proofing the county and putting investment where it’s most needed.
“The new Beaulieu Park station is testament to this, and the role it will play in transforming travel in this part of Chelmsford and surrounding areas will have a positive impact for years to come.
“The progress being made to build the station is remarkable and I want to thank everyone involved for their hard work to get the project to this stage. I’m very much looking forward to the station opening.”
Council bosses hope the new station will transform travel north of Chelmsford as it will eases pressure on the existing busy Chelmsford train station and reduces car journeys into the city centre.
The station is a significant addition to the Beaulieu and Channels neighbourhoods in the north of the city, which form the first phases of the new Chelmsford Garden Community.
4,350 homes already have planning permission as part of the Garden Community. This includes 1,989 new homes which have already been built, along with the Beaulieu Square Neighbourhood Centre providing local shops, community and health services.
This is in addition to the Beaulieu Park School – the first all-through primary and secondary school in Essex.
Another 6,250 homes, a second all-through school campus, up to three primary schools with early years and childcare provision, up to four standalone early-years facilities, more than nine hectares of employment space and walking and cycling routes will also be delivered as part of the Garden Community in the coming years.
Beaulieu Park Station will provide easier and quicker access to jobs, helping the economic development of the area and encouraging further investment.
Beable added: “We expect the new station to be a very attractive and popular option for travellers from that part of Essex.”
If you’re looking for hidden gems that could return significant value as driverless vehicles take over roads, start here.
Like it or not, and whether we trust driverless vehicles yet or not, they’re on the way, and the future is coming faster than many investors realize. The driverless vehicle market has enormous growth potential and is projected to be worth trillions of dollars in a decade’s time.
Don’t take it from me: Goldman Sachs Research predicts that robotaxis’ ride-share market alone is on the path for a 90% compound annual growth rate between 2025 and 2030, and that’s merely scratching the surface. If you’re looking to dip your toes into what could be a generational investing opportunity, here are three stocks to keep an eye on.
One way to play robotaxis
Mobileye Global (MBLY -6.56%) is in the business of developing and deploying Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving technologies and solutions. With a comprehensive collection of software and hardware technologies, Mobileye can offer end-to-end products and services for automakers. Investors should look at Mobileye as a solid robotaxi investment for those who don’t want to deal with the drama currently surrounding Tesla.
With the automotive industry heading toward driverless vehicles, Mobileye’s technology and systems will bolster automotive safety, productivity, and vehicle utilization through solutions such as Supervision, Chauffeur, Drive, and EyeQ. Meanwhile, management has been working hard to secure new ADAS deals with large customers, while finding new opportunities with untapped clients. One driving force for the company is a growing adoption of multicamera setups due to the need for increased safety and a push toward hands-free highway driving.
Adding to Mobileye’s growth is its strategic partnerships, including ZEEKR, using Mobileye as its launch partner for its ADAS, and its design wins with automakers such as Porsche and Mahindra, among other major OEMs. Just this spring, Volkswagen announced a collaboration with Mobileye to improve safety and driving comfort for some of its upcoming vehicle pipeline.
The company remains unprofitable, with full-year guidance expecting an operating loss between $436 million to $512 million. That said, Mobileye boasts roughly $1.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents, rising free cash flow, very little debt, and should be able to navigate choppy waters as the industry slowly figures out the path to full autonomous vehicles.
The business of connectivity
Aptiv PLC(APTV -2.47%) is a technology company working to bring the next generation of active safety, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and connectivity through its decades of experience pioneering advances in the automotive industry.
While the stock has faltered from its all-time highs as electric vehicle hype died down with slower-than-anticipated adoption in the U.S. market, it’s still performing well, with earnings expected to check in at $7.48 per share in 2025, up significantly from $2.61 in 2021 — a compound annual growth rate of 30%.
Image source: Aptiv.
But its growth prospects might improve even more, with the company’s business split on the horizon for the first quarter of 2026. Aptiv plans to split into two companies: one that will focus on slower-growth electrical distribution systems (EDS), and the second on faster-growth safety and software — the latter aimed at a more driverless vehicle focus.
It’s easy to understand the rationale behind the business breakup when you consider the EDS business generated 2024 sales of $8.3 billion at earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) profit margins of 9.5%, while the safety and software generated 2024 sales of $12.2 billion with EBITDA margins nearly double at 18.8%.
The new Aptiv with a focus on safety and software that enable higher levels of autonomous functions won’t be limited to vehicles either, with potential applications for planes and other machines. Aptiv has already begun branching out its overall business with its communications software acquisition of Wind River in 2022.
All things autonomous
Hesai Group(HSAI -11.13%) is a global leader in lidar solutions, with its products enabling a wide range of applications including passenger and commercial vehicles ADAS, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and nonautomotive applications such as last-mile delivery robots.
Throughout the company’s second quarter, Hesai secured a notable number of new design wins through 2026, with 20 models from nine leading OEMs, highlighted by a platform win for multiple 2026 models with one of its top two ADAS customers. The design wins help cement lidar as a standard feature across the specific customer’s model lineups and will drive the company’s order book higher in the near term.
Outside its automotive wins, the company’s robotics business is also doing well, ranking No. 1 in lidar shipments in China for the first half of 2025, per Gaogong Industry Research Institute. Its robotics business is well positioned for the wave of physical artificial intelligence (AI), with lidars becoming essential for AI to perceive and sort the dynamic world we operate in, especially in driverless vehicles.
“In the first six months of 2025, total shipments have already surpassed those of full-year 2024. According to Gasgoo, we ranked first in installation volume among long-range lidar suppliers during this period,” said Hesai cofounder and CEO Yifan “David” Li in a press release.
Are the stocks buys?
The number of robotaxis and driverless vehicles on the roads is set to increase in the coming years, especially as leading autonomous vehicle operators reduce costs and begin scaling the business. Right now, roughly 1,500 such vehicles operate across a handful of U.S. cities, but that figure is expected to soar to about 35,000 across the country in 2030.
Even then, driverless vehicles will represent a fraction of the rideshare market, leaving plenty of long-term growth for investors who believe these companies have injected their technologies and solutions into the industry. Mobileye, Aptiv, and Hesai are all proven companies with products poised to push the boundaries of driverless vehicles, robotaxis, and ADAS going forward, and savvy investors would be wise to keep them on a watch list.
Can the original meme coin keep its top-10 crypto ranking for five more years? These three utility-focused cryptocurrencies suggest otherwise.
Dogecoin(DOGE -17.67%) was never really supposed to be a functional cryptocurrency. It’s a clone of a clone of Bitcoin with a few funny tweaks to the code, intentionally making Dogecoin less secure and less valuable in the long run.
Yet, its adorable dog mascot and support from popular meme lords made Dogecoin one of the most valuable cryptos on the planet. With a $37.6 billion market cap as of Oct. 9, it would be a mid-range member of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) if it were a stock, comparable to household names like Yum! Brands or Delta Air Lines.
But these things change over time. Five years ago, Dogecoin was only the 43rd-largest name in crypto, with a $328 million market value. About one-third of the coins ranked above it in 2020 have fallen out of the top-100 list, according to CoinMarketCap.
And I think Dogecoin’s days in the spotlight are numbered. Thanks to firmer regulation, the advent of crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and the incoming Web3 trend, the top coins of the relatively near future will have to prove their worth with real-world usage. Dogecoin doesn’t have much to offer in that department. By 2030, I expect Chainlink(LINK -15.25%), Avalanche (AVAX -14.17%), and Polkadot (DOT -21.71%) to have passed Dogecoin’s market value.
Sorry Doge, these coins are stealing your lunch. Image source: Getty Images.
Let’s talk about the Web3 revolution
Spoiler alert: I’ll keep coming back to Web3 ideals in these explanations. Cryptocurrencies should go mainstream in that world, where internet users own their data, digital assets, and online identities through blockchain technology rather than relying on big tech companies.
I mean, most people may be unaware of the Web3 changes going on behind the scenes, and the best Web3 apps will surely look and feel like any other application. But the structural changes are still necessary, and that’s why I like this particular trio of future crypto giants.
1. Polkadot connects the crypto universe
On that note, I have to mention Polkadot. It’s the brainchild of the Web3 Foundation, founded by Web3 champion and Ethereum(ETH -6.65%) co-founder Gavin Wood.
Polkadot’s main purpose is to help app developers take full advantage of many other cryptocurrencies and blockchain ledgers. It connects to the other cryptos, easily transferring data between them and simplifying the design of complex crypto apps.
It’s also incredibly fast, which comes in handy when interacting with some of the highest-performance crypto systems available. And thanks to a recent community vote, there is now a hard cap on the number of Polkadot coins that will ever exist — making it as inflation-resistant as Bitcoin.
Polkadot is much smaller than Dogecoin today, with a market cap of just $6.6 billion. That value relationship should flip by 2030.
2. Smart contracts would be pretty dumb without Chainlink
Chainlink is another crucial Web3 component. The leading oracle coin collects real-world data and delivers it to blockchain systems, usually to trigger smart contracts.
Development ecosystems such as Ethereum and Polkadot often rely on Chainlink to collect critical data. Popular data feeds include stock market pricing, foreign exchange rates, weather reports, and sports results. Without these data feeds, the Web3 world would grind to a halt — and Chainlink is the top data provider by far.
Chainlink is currently the 11th-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of $15 billion. This figure should trend higher over the next few years as Dogecoin fades.
3. Avalanche brings eco-friendly speed to Web3
Finally, Avalanche is a high-performance alternative to Ethereum. This coin combines quick smart contract execution with an energy-efficient computing back-end, making Avalanche a popular platform for eco-friendly decentralized apps.
And the Avalanche-based app portfolio is growing by leaps and bounds right now. Fresh examples include a global social network for sports fans, a decentralized fine wine database, and digital tickets to the Latin American baseball championships of 2025. These projects all hit the public market in the last two weeks.
Avalanche’s market cap stands at $12.0 billion today, up from $7.7 billion six months ago. Avalanche is a vibrant cryptocurrency with a real shot at Web3 relevance. Sorry, Dogecoin — Avalanche will probably also eclipse you in the next five years.
Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin, Chainlink, Ethereum, and Polkadot. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Avalanche, Bitcoin, Chainlink, and Ethereum. The Motley Fool recommends Delta Air Lines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The possibilities for CoreWeave’s future are all over the map. But a middle-of-the-road scenario looks quite promising.
What’s the most exciting initial public offering (IPO) of 2025? My vote would go to CoreWeave(CRWV -3.25%). Its IPO was the biggest for a tech stock since 2021.
Sure, CoreWeave had to lower its planned IPO share price. However, that was due more to broader market headwinds than anything related to the company itself. At any rate, CoreWeave stock has nonetheless performed exceptionally well. It ranks among the biggest large-cap winners of the year.
But that’s all water under the bridge now. Where will CoreWeave stock be in five years?
Image source: Getty Images.
CoreWeave’s future largely hinges on three key factors
To make an educated guess about CoreWeave’s prospects, we have to first understand its business. The company is one of a handful of artificial intelligence (AI) hyperscalers. Its sole focus is providing infrastructure designed to support the workloads of AI systems, especially generative AI applications.
The most important factor affecting where CoreWeave stock will be in 2030 is almost certainly how strong the demand for AI infrastructure will be through the rest of the decade. As of right now, the prognosis looks great. Exhibit A is that CoreWeave’s revenue more than tripled year over year in its latest quarter.
Next on the list, in my view, is how well CoreWeave can keep up with the demand. CEO and co-founder Michael Intrator said in the company’s Q2 update, “We are scaling rapidly as we look to meet the unprecedented demand for AI.” Such a massive buildout is expensive. That’s the main reason CoreWeave remains unprofitable.
Electricity supply could also be a constraint. Consulting giant Deloitte estimates that power demand from U.S. AI data centers could skyrocket more than 30x by 2035 to 123 gigawatts.
CoreWeave’s future hinges on a third factor, too: competition. The hyperscaler’s rivals include some of the biggest companies on the planet with exceptionally deep pockets. If AI infrastructure demand slows, the competitive threats could become more pronounced.
Potential scenarios
With those factors in mind, let’s explore a few potential scenarios for CoreWeave. I’ll start with the most optimistic one.
An explosion in AI infrastructure demand fueled by AI advances
The AI demand we’ve seen thus far could be only the tip of the iceberg. Agentic AI remains in its early stages of adoption. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI) aren’t the stuff of science fiction anymore. Major companies are investing heavily in developing these game-changing AI breakthroughs.
In this scenario, CoreWeave’s growth would be impressive. The company could probably generate revenue of over $200 billion in 2030. At the current average price-to-sales ratio of 8 for the internet services and infrastructure industry, that would translate to a market cap for CoreWeave of at least $1.6 trillion — a gain of roughly 23x in five years.
One wrinkle in this scenario, though, is that the biggest hyperscalers could view CoreWeave as an attractive acquisition target to boost their own capacity. The purchase price would depend on the timing of such a potential buyout: The earlier in the AI infrastructure explosion, the less expensive acquiring CoreWeave would be.
Solid AI infrastructure demand growth
In this scenario, AI infrastructure demand continues to grow at a robust (although not explosive) pace. We probably wouldn’t see AGI or ASI emerge over the next five years. However, agentic AI could gain more widespread adoption.
I think CoreWeave could realistically rake in revenue in the ballpark of $60 billion in this scenario. That number reflects an increase of around 12x from Wall Street’s consensus revenue estimate for 2025. Using the average industry P/S multiple of 8, that would put CoreWeave’s market cap at $480 billion or so. Its share price would need to grow nearly 7x to hit that mark.
Weak AI infrastructure demand growth
Now, let’s suppose AI infrastructure demand tapers off dramatically. This scenario would likely be devastating for CoreWeave. Its stock already has significant growth baked into the share price with a P/S ratio of 19.
If CoreWeave fell to the current industry average P/S multiple, its stock could plunge by at least 50%. However, I suspect that the average would itself decline quite a bit if AI infrastructure demand slowed to a crawl. A decline of 70% or more for CoreWeave’s share price probably wouldn’t be out of the question in this scenario.
A prediction for CoreWeave in 2030
The easiest prediction for CoreWeave in 2030 is to go with something along the lines of the middle-of-the-road scenario mentioned above. Even if that scenario is still overly optimistic, I could easily see CoreWeave being worth at least $200 billion by the end of the decade. A gain of almost 3x in just five years isn’t too shabby.
Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
