Declines in tech stocks? Healthy movement. Local officials stopping data centers? Prevents overbuild. Valuations high? Well, they deserve to be.

Why it matters: Every risk for the AI trade is framed as a positive by Wall Street bulls who are adamant we are in the early stages of the AI revolution.

What they're saying: "I genuinely think the wall of worry is a good thing to climb," Jeffrey Favuzza, tech strategist at Jefferies, tells Axios.

Between the lines: Let's run through the threats to the AI trade and then the bull case Wall Street is attaching to each of those.

1. Stock valuations are too high.

• Wrong! "Nvidia is being valued like a mediocre growth stock. It's obviously not," Vivek Arya, senior tech analyst at Bank of America, said during a 2026 semiconductor outlook call.
• When you consider the 50% sales growth expected for Nvidia, it is actually undervalued, according to several strategists who spoke with Axios.
• Nvidia trades at 23 times earnings, the second-lowest ratio among the Magnificent 7. Cisco traded at 140 times ahead of the dot-com bubble.
• Tech stocks are also not ferociously rallying the way they once did, which suggests investors are choosier, which is "healthy," Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson, tells Axios.

2. Demand for AI will not materialize.

• Nope. OpenAI's weekly ChatGPT users just hit a record of 800 million.

3. Data centers are getting overbuilt.

• Great news! Local officials and state lawmakers are going to put a cap on data center growth as they start to push back on that infrastructure from both sides of the aisle.
• "That's a very healthy natural governor in this market," Favuzza says.

4. Too much money is being spent.

• Sure, these top tech companies are on average spending about two-thirds of their cash flow on AI infrastructure. Traditionally they spend very little.
• But "that cash was just collecting dust" before the rollout of AI, Arya at Bank of America said. In that view, spending on AI is a way to create those future growth and sales opportunities necessary to survive the AI revolution.
• More capex is bullish. Arya expects at least $1.2 trillion in capex by 2040.

5. Is AI ever going to make money?

• It comes down to monetization, likely in the form of advertising and likely first from OpenAI, which is widely believed to roll it out early next year.
• New product releases could also deliver more opportunities to monetize.
• Favuzza is also watching how OpenAI works with enterprises, as the company recently hired former Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its chief revenue officer, indicating a push to sell to more businesses.

The bottom line: Throw out your business school investing textbooks. The rules of markets are changing with the AI revolution, strategists argue.

Let's explore what comes next for the surprise odd couple of the year: Trump Media and TAE Technologies, a company trying to commercialize fusion.

Why it matters: The deal injects new cash into TAE as fusion — long more science fiction than energy reality — moves closer to commercial scale.

• The merger — if it goes through — with President Trump's publicly traded media group will offer the first test of public market appetite for the tech.
• It also signals a massive pivot for Trump Media. Its stock spiked on the news last week, but year to date is down nearly 53%.

A few nuggets that have emerged since the news first broke:

1. Ambitious plans: TAE hopes to start producing power by 2031 from a 50-megawatt reactor it plans to start building next year with financing from the merger.

2. Big name on board: Donald Trump Jr. will be on the merged firm's board.

3. Democrats wary: The deal "raises significant concerns about conflicts of interest and avenues for potential corruption," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), a fusion booster who cofounded the bipartisan House fusion energy caucus.

Catch up quick: The deal will provide TAE, whose prior backers include Google, up to $200 million in cash at signing.

• Another $100 million will be available upon formally notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission, the companies said.

The intrigue: The company plans to solely focus on energy, which means that Truth Social and other Trump Media assets could be sold or separated, a source familiar with the deal tells Axios.

• TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer did not confirm or deny this in an interview with Axios.

What to watch: When asked if TAE is in talks with hyperscalers about power offtake deals, Binderbauer cited its ties to Google and said it "knows the space very well," but added, "I'm not ready to announce a deal there at this point."

What comes next: The companies need approval from shareholders and regulators to merge, which they expect to do in the middle of 2026.

Dan Primack and Alex Fitzpatrick contributed. Read the full story here.

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The U.S. dollar, the dominant currency in global trade, has had a rough year, falling in value against other major currencies amid continued uncertainty over tariff policy and falling interest rates in the U.S.

Why it matters: A weakened dollar makes U.S. companies more competitive abroad, as President Trump has said, but it is a sign of concern over U.S. fiscal policy and ballooning debt, as investors move out of dollar-denominated assets.

What they're saying: "The U.S. dollar is likely to be on a choppy path over the next 12 months, with continued weakening in the coming months followed by a recovery and an end to the dollar's bear market in the second half of 2026," Morgan Stanley notes in its 2026 investment strategy outlook.