Your 5 weekly reads:
Powell to stay on as Fed governor — last done in 1948
Big Tech's AI CapEx is lifting semis, utilities, and power
$715B in AI spend = more than 2x the Apollo program
How strategic mortgage management can turn a liability into an asset
iOS app refresh: Rai got faster and smarter
📱Follow us on Instagram for updates throughout the week – like this video about why prediction markets took off.
1. MARKET ROUNDUP
Powell’s Last Meeting as Fed Chair
The S&P 500 closed its 5th consecutive week of gains, its longest winning streak since 2024, hitting fresh all-time highs above 7,200.
Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple reported Q1 earnings this week — all five grew quarterly revenue 17+% YoY. The first four now plan a $715B combined 2026 CapEx (up 90% from $376B in 2025), while Apple beat estimates at $111.2B revenue with iPhone sales up 22%.
The Fed held rates at 3.5%–3.75% after Jerome Powell’s last meeting as Fed Chair this week. The decision came down to an 8-4 split, the most dissents since October 1992.
Anthropic is in talks to raise at a $900B valuation — up from $380B in February and ahead of OpenAI's $852B mark from late March.
Range Takeaway: Powell closed out his eight years as Fed chair with a quiet act of institutional defiance. By staying on as a governor once Warsh takes over, he denies the President an immediate Board majority. Powell is just the second Fed chair in history to do this, following Marriner Eccles in 1948. Investors are pricing in zero rate cuts through the rest of 2026. With markets at all-time highs and jobless claims at their lowest since 1969, the economy might not need any.
2. THE BIG TAKE
The AI Boom Is…Booming
Tech’s heavyweights are opening their wallets, and the sheer scale of the spending is staggering. This week’s earnings reports showed capital expenditures for Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are projected to top $700 billion this year. That’s a 90% year-over-year jump and nearly 5x the annual CapEx spend from the pre-ChatGPT days of 2022.
To put that into perspective: these four tech titans are now spending roughly as much on infrastructure as every non-tech company in the S&P 500 combined spent in 2025.
For the spenders, Wall Street is happily greenlighting the bill, provided underlying earnings growth keeps accelerating (see: Alphabet, +10% after earnings). But the real story is downstream. One company’s CapEx is another’s top-line revenue. This historic buildout is fueling market gains well beyond the hyperscalers themselves, driving double-digit rallies in the sectors selling the pickaxes: semiconductors, memory, utilities, and power.
Right now, the AI flywheel is spinning: hyperscaler earnings are accelerating, and rising CapEx forecasts are pulling earnings higher across the rest of the market. This puts a sturdy floor underneath equity markets even in the face of $100 oil and continued geopolitical uncertainty. If any part of this flywheel slows, the market will quickly reassess its appetite for risk.
3. BY THE NUMBERS
Big Tech is Spending Big
$715B: Combined projected spend by Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone.
90%: Growth in those four companies' combined CapEx compared to 2025.
$305B: Cost of the entire Apollo program, inflation-adjusted; Big Tech is spending more than 2x that this year.
$665B: Cost of building the U.S. Interstate Highway System over 35 years; these four companies will outspend this in 12 months.
4. FROM THE RANGE TEAM
Mortgages Are Tools, Not Life Sentences: Here’s How to Optimize Them
Most homeowners treat their mortgage like a fixed cost — something to endure for 30 years. In reality, it can be one of the most flexible levers on your balance sheet.
Here are the three strategies Range members use to align their mortgage with their broader financial plan:
To accelerate your payoff date: principal overpayment. Extra capital goes entirely toward the principal balance and shortens the loan by years. While your required monthly payment typically stays the same on a standard amortizing loan, you reduce the total interest paid over the life of the debt. Best for those prioritizing a debt-free balance sheet over immediate liquidity.
To capture lower market rates: mortgage refinancing. Refinancing replaces your current loan with a new one at a lower rate or different term. While it typically involves upfront closing costs, it allows you to reset your interest schedule. We recommend it when the monthly savings recoup the closing costs within 24 months—and before you plan to sell. For high-balance loans, even a fractional rate drop can justify the move.
To lower your monthly overhead: mortgage recasting. Following a liquidity event—like a bonus, inheritance, or asset sale—you apply a lump sum to your principal and ask the lender to re-amortize. Your rate and payoff date stay the same, but your monthly payment drops permanently. Best for those looking for a low-cost alternative to refinancing.
RAI PROMPT OF THE WEEK
The math on whether to refinance your mortgage isn't always obvious. Rai can run the numbers to see whether it's actually worth it.*
Lead Tech Recruiter Sean Pennington asked: "Should I refinance my mortgage?"
Rai compares your current rate, balance, and remaining term against today's rates and closing costs to tell you whether refinancing pencils out — and how much you'd save if it does.
Before we go…
🏙️ From Bloomberg: NY Pied-à-Terre Tax Needs Significant Rates to Earn $500 Million.
*Please see Range Advisory’s ADV Part 2A for important risk disclosures and risks related to the use of AI. Recommendations depend on the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide to us. Recommendations based on incorrect or incomplete data may not be accurate.