The Quiet Enabler of Trillions in Wealth Is Starting to Move

Author

Noah Zelvis
September 16, 2025

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You don’t need to chase hype to find momentum. One financial backbone of the U.S. wealth system is quietly breaking out, with strong earnings, sticky assets, and bullish setups all lining up.

Keep This Stock Ticker on Your Watchlist

They’re a private company, but Pacaso just reserved the Nasdaq ticker “$PCSO.”

No surprise the same firms that backed Uber, eBay, and Venmo already invested in Pacaso. What is unique is Pacaso is giving the same opportunity to everyday investors. And 10,000+ people have already joined them.

Created a former Zillow exec who sold his first venture for $120M, Pacaso brings co-ownership to the $1.3T vacation home industry.

They’ve generated $1B+ worth of luxury home transactions across 2,000+ owners. That’s good for more than $110M in gross profit since inception, including 41% YoY growth last year alone.

And you can join them today for just $2.90/share. But don’t wait too long. Invest in Pacaso before the opportunity ends September 18.

Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.

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Retail Tech

Walmart’s New Super Agents Could Make Checkout Lines a Thing of the Past

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is pushing hard into AI, and it starts with a squad of “super agents” built to handle everything from shopping carts to supply chains.

The goal is simple: make every part of retail feel less like work and more like magic.

At the center of the rollout is Sparky, the smiley digital assistant already sitting in Walmart’s app.

Ask Sparky for reorders, product suggestions, or returns, and it acts more like a helpful buddy than a faceless search bar.

Sparky Wants to Own Your Cart

Sparky isn’t just fetching toothpaste; it’s learning how to predict your entire shopping rhythm.

The plan is for it to grow into a personal guide that makes Walmart feel more like a concierge than a big-box store.

Early feedback says it works, and Walmart is preparing to scale Sparky until it feels like part of the family. If this sticks, shoppers may never scroll through boring menus again.

Robots Behind the Aisles

The other three agents won’t get the spotlight, but they’re just as critical.

One manages schedules and sales data for employees, another streamlines suppliers and advertisers, and the last helps developers test and ship products faster.

Walmart is even creating digital twins of warehouses to predict delays before they happen. AI isn’t just running the aisles, it’s running the entire playbook.

If Walmart pulls this off, shopping won’t just change; it will feel like retail finally got itself a brain. And that could make Sparky the spark that lights up a whole new era.

Media

YouTube Just Turned Studio Into a Creator’s Swiss Army Knife

YouTube (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is turning Studio into a creator control room, rolling out AI tools that protect faces, spark ideas, and even sync lips to dubbed languages.

It’s part productivity boost, part defense shield, and it’s rolling out to 30 million creators worldwide.

The standout is likeness detection, now open to all Partner Program creators.

If someone uploads a deepfake or swipes your face without consent, you can flag it and remove it before your audience gets fooled.

Ask Studio, Not Forums

Creators can now talk directly to Ask Studio, an AI chatbot that serves answers about performance and audience feedback in plain English.

No more drowning in spreadsheets, just insights you can act on instantly.

The Inspiration tab is also getting smarter with channel-specific prompts and multiple AI-generated responses. Think of it as a brainstorming partner that never runs out of coffee.

From Collabs to Lip-Syncs

A new collab tool lets up to five creators co-own a single video, dropping it into all their feeds for maximum reach.

It’s exposure math that could help smaller channels hitch a ride with bigger names.

And auto dubbing gets a glow-up, matching lip movements across 20 languages. If it works, creators won’t just translate their content; they’ll look fluent worldwide.

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Fintech

PayPal Links Make Splitting Bills as Easy as Dropping a DM

PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is making peer-to-peer payments as casual as sharing a meme.

Its new feature, PayPal Links, lets you whip up a one-time payment or request link, drop it in a chat, and get money moving in seconds.

Unlike PayPal Me, which only shares your profile, Links lock in a specific amount for that transaction. No profile hunting, no extra verification — just click, pay, and done.

DM Your Debt Away

Need $20 back for last night’s pizza? Create a link, send it in the group chat, and watch your friends run out of excuses.

Each link is private, expires in 10 days, and can be canceled or nudged with a reminder if someone “forgets.”

Because Links work across DMs, texts, and online convos, they fit naturally into the way people already split costs. It’s Venmo vibes, but portable.

Crypto Coming Soon

The bigger twist is that PayPal Links will soon handle crypto in the U.S., supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, PYUSD, and more.

That means settling tabs or trades with tokens is about to be just as easy as sending cash.

If it scales, PayPal could blur the line between casual payments and crypto transfers. And that might finally make digital coins feel useful outside the hype.

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Recent Tech Movers

IonQ (NYSE: IONQ)
Quantum Leap or Just Getting Started?
IonQ jumped after Craig-Hallum raised its price target to $65 from $50, citing a bullish Analyst Day that felt more like a “coming-out party.”

The UK just approved its Oxford Ionics acquisition, and analysts say the company’s roadmap could give it a serious time-to-market edge in quantum computing, and maybe even quantum networking and sensing.

Needham chimed in with an $80 target, betting on IonQ’s long-term roadmap to hit 80,000 logical qubits by 2030.

Meanwhile, management is expanding its communications business and inching toward quantum sensing. 

With shares up over 600% in the past year, IonQ’s clearly not just another hype stock, it’s becoming a category leader in a space where first-mover advantage could be everything.

SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN)
Voice + Vision = the AI Agent Future?
SoundHound is no longer just that company doing voice commands in your car. Its new Amelia 7.0 platform is a full-stack AI agent creator, blending voice, visual, and low-code capabilities.

The combination of legacy speech-to-meaning tech and Amelia’s enterprise DNA is positioning SoundHound as a serious player in agentic AI.

The company is in the middle of transitioning its 15 biggest customers to Amelia 7.0.

That upgrade could unlock bigger contract sizes and new verticals like healthcare and financial services, two of the largest untapped markets for voice-first automation. 

Revenue just jumped 217% to $42.7 million, and management says they’re on track for EBITDA profitability by year-end 2025.

Volatile? Sure. But in this corner of AI, they’re building something sticky.

AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP)
AdTech With Rocket Fuel
AppLovin shed its game dev skin and turned into a full-blown adtech machine. Its AI-powered Axon 2.0 engine just drove a 77% revenue jump to $1.26 billion, and it’s piloting use cases outside gaming, like e-commerce and web ads.

Short sellers keep swinging, but the stock’s up 500%+ over 12 months.

There’s more under the hood. EBITDA nearly doubled to $1 billion, and management is rolling out a self-serve ads platform, which could supercharge customer onboarding and margins.

Analysts are bullish that Axon’s optimization engine, which tailors ads in real time using ML, could reshape digital marketing beyond gaming.

If traction in web and retail holds, AppLovin could turn into the next big thing in ad infrastructure.

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The Financial Rails Powering 30,000 Advisors

LPL Financial (NASDAQ: LPLA): If you've ever wondered who powers the backend for thousands of wealth advisors and RIAs, you're looking at them.

LPL is the largest independent broker-dealer in America, think of it as the engine under the hood for nearly 30,000 financial advisors.

And while the stock’s been quietly trading in a tight range, that sideways action might be setting up a bigger breakout.

LPL just posted a 22% jump in Q1 earnings, beating estimates with $5.15 EPS and revenue up 30%.

Total assets hit $1.79 trillion, and with the recent acquisition of Commonwealth Financial (another $285 billion in AUM), the firm is only getting bigger.

Analysts are bullish: Morgan Stanley raised its target to $450, citing industry consolidation, scale advantage, and a sticky advisor base.

The bigger story here is efficiency and execution.

LPL’s organic net asset growth is outpacing competitors, return on equity is near best-in-class, and advisor retention is over 90%, an industry rarity.

CFO Matt Audette recently noted assets have doubled in five years, and management believes the runway from here is “substantial.”

Add to that an A- Accumulation/Distribution Rating, a 23x forward P/E, and market leadership in the most fragmented part of financial services, and you get a stock that isn’t flashy, but might just be foundational.

Everything Else

That's our coverage for today; thanks for reading! Reply to this email with feedback or any tech stocks you want me to check out.

Best Regards,
—Noah Zelvis
Tech Stock Insider