Say goodbye to four wheels and pavement and hello to wings and the clouds.
That’s right.
Lilium, a start-up in Munich, Germany, has plans to launch the world’s first electric air taxi in 2025. And it won’t even break the bank! The goal is for the service to be as affordable as an equivalent trip through Uber (UBER).
The jet flew for the first time last month. And the company has already raised $100 million from investors, including Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent Holdings (TCEHY).
Lilium’s five-seater jet takes off and lands vertically, so it won’t require the large amount of space that traditional aircrafts require. Plus, it can travel up to 300 kilometers per hour on a single charge. That’s the equivalent of 186 miles in an hour – or a trip from New York City to Baltimore. Can you imagine?
Pilots are currently required to fly the air taxis, but Lilium is in the process of building out a team to focus on self-flying vehicles. In fact, Morgan Stanley says that the market for autonomous flying cars could be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040.
I’m all for calling up Jetsons-style flying cars to take me back and forth between meetings. Unfortunately, though, this industry is a little too early stage for our attention right now.
There are plenty of other slightly less early stage industries out there that are ripe for the picking. We’re covering a lot in my newsletters, and plenty of related headlines have been released over the last week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.
All Eyes on AVs
Staying on the topic of autonomous vehicles (AVs), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) didn’t let the withdrawn merger proposal between it and Renault (RNLSY) stop it from moving forward in the industry.
The company said it will partner with Aurora, a developer of self-driving technology, to develop vehicles for corporate clients. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hyundai Motor (HYMTF) also recently expanded on its existing partnership with Aurora. Again, terms were not released, but the two companies have been working together for over a year now to develop AV technology that will be used in Hyundai and Kia vehicle models.
Nobody wants to be left behind in the shift toward Transportation 2.0. Trillions of dollars will be changing hands as the industry is reshaped.
One company that doesn’t want to miss out on that all that potential is Apple (AAPL). According to sources close to the company, Apple is looking to acquire self-driving vehicle start-up Drive.ai. The company wants to get its hands on Drive.ai’s 100+ engineers.
Apple was once at the top of the AV pack, logging nearly 80,000 test driving miles in fiscal 2018 – the third-highest of any other company. However, earlier this year it reassigned 200 employees who had been working on the AV project, so it appeared as though Apple was shifting its focus. Well… it looks like things are back on track!
The shift to electric and eventually autonomous vehicles wouldn’t be possible without next-generation batteries. These batteries will change the way we travel, the way we interact with our cellphones and laptops, and so much more. Staking a claim now will set you up for huge moneymaking opportunities in the years ahead.
Marijuana Milestones
$1,017,120,136.
That’s how much state revenue Colorado has raked in since being the first state to fully legalize marijuana back in 2014.
Interestingly, it took the state three-and-a-half years to reach the $500 million mark in legal marijuana sales. Less than two years later, that figure has doubled… and then some.
That wasn’t the only exciting milestone in Colorado’s recently released monthly data. As of the end of May it had brought in more than $6.5 billion in sales. May and April were the two highest-grossing months in the five-year history of the industry. April – which just so happens to include the infamous 4/20 holiday – brought in the highest total ever of $24.2 million.
Additionally, monthly tax and fee revenue hasn’t dipped below $20 million. According to Governor Jared Polis, the industry is “creating tens of thousands of jobs, tax revenue for the state, filling up buildings for landlords, and reducing crime.”
With stats like those, what state wouldn’t want to legalize marijuana? I continue to believe it’s only a matter of time before the federal government makes a push toward legalization. In fact, I think it’s coming far sooner than most people think.
The key is getting in now… BEFORE the U.S. government starts taking action and BEFORE the big money has already been made. Just a small stake in this industry could earn you massive rewards in the future.
Crypto Back in the Spotlight?
Lastly, there are rumblings on Wall Street that Facebook (FB) is gearing up to unveil a new cryptocurrency as early as next week. And in anticipation of that, it is in talks to sign up companies including Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), PayPal (PYPL), and Uber to each invest $10 million to create the coin.
It is said that the coin will be called Libra and that it will be used to send cash and make purchases on Facebook and other internet sites. It is expected to be launched sometime next year.
What’s really interesting is that the coin is expected to be tied to government-issued currencies, which will help it avoid some of the volatility that the cryptocurrency market has been known for.
I’ve followed cryptos in the past, so you can bet this is a topic I’ll be keeping an eye on in the weeks ahead. As always, I will share any interesting information with you.
P.S. I have a lot of travelling on my plate this summer – I’m about to jet off to Dublin, Ireland as I write this – and I’ll have my eyes peeled for new and exciting investing trends.
In fact, last week when I attended two marijuana conferences in Toronto I came home even more excited than ever about the industry’s huge moneymaking potential.
And earlier in the month I found opportunities in China that most people probably never would have uncovered!
This is only the beginning. I expect to uncover a lot more early stage mega-trends. And I also expect my boots-on-the-ground research to dig up stock picks and other exciting information we can use to our benefit.
If you’re interested in finding out how you can get your hands on this valuable research, click here now.
Learn where Matt McCall sees
huge investment opportunities right now:
Autonomous Vehicles: A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity
Self-driving cars – aka “autonomous vehicles” (AVs) – represent one of the biggest investment opportunities of the next 25 years. This innovation will transform huge portions of our economy and create trillion dollar ripple effects through time. It will create huge new winners in short periods of time. It will demolish losers in equally short periods of time. It’s critical that you stay on the right side of this trend. Learn more here.
Why the Legal Marijuana Industry is Set to Grow More than 10-Fold
Marijuana has been outlawed most everywhere for decades… but now a wave of legalization is starting to sweep the world. This will create massive new markets and massive stock market winners. Learn more here.
2019 Will Be Sports Betting’s Biggest Year Yet
If I had to make one bet for 2019 it would be that betting is going to be big. The Supreme Court’s May 14 ruling cleared the way for states to allow sports gambling. And in my 25 years of investing experience, I honestly cannot remember many things that come close to magnitude of the investing opportunity that opened up to us. Massive amounts of money are involved in sports betting, and I expect massive amounts of money will be made, too. Learn more here.
