Alternative Investing Report - December 19, 2025

*as of 12/18; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, 30YM

Anduril
Last public valuation: $30.5 billion (June 2025)
Current secondary market valuation: $61.9 billion (Notice.co)

• It’s private today but I believe it will be public in three years

• It’s not as correlated with AI, which could go through a choppy period

• I’m interested in the big things that could be the most disruptive, and drones are a serious mega trend in defense tech

Here’s a list of our past expert investing picks.

Ben Miller is Co-Founder and CEO of Fundrise, America's largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment manager. Fundrise’s mission is to use technology to build a better financial system for the individual investor, one that is simpler, lower cost, more reliable and transparent.

In this episode, Slava Rubin talks with Ben Miller, founder and CEO of Fundrise, about the past three years in the real estate market, and his predictions for 2026.

After a delay due to the government shutdown, the consumer price index (CPI) and core CPI inflation reports were released yesterday, and they showed better than expected results. Both CPI and core CPI rose by 0.2% in November, below expectations, with CPI up 2.7% annually and core CPI up 2.6% annually. Both measures came in 0.4% below expectations, a substantial difference, though there are some doubts about how reliable the report will be without full October data.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The markets reacted well to the report, with the S&P 500 up 0.8% and the Nasdaq up 1.4%, and crypto saw a temporary boost before falling to the same levels as the day before. With inflation seemingly stabilizing, and the labor market struggling, the odds of a Fed rate cut in January or March have risen, with the CME FedWatch tool inidcating a 57% chance of at least one cut in those two meetings. That number was at 49% a week ago and 36% a month ago.

🎨 Art market rebound: The art auction market generated $4.55 billion in sales this year, an 11% increase over 2024, with impressionist art and modern art categories seeing the biggest gains and contemporary art seeing the biggest decline.

🚀 Waymo funding round: The self-driving car company owned by Google parent Alphabet is in talks for a massive $15 billion funding round at a $110 billion valuation, more than doubling its $45 billion valuation from last October.

🏀 Kobe sneakers: A signed pair of the only Kobe Bryant game-worn example of the “Grinch” colorway Nike Kobe 6s is up for sale at Pharrell Williams’ Joopiter platform. It is apparently carrying a $10 million price tag, which would shatter the current record for a single pair of sneakers.

🤖 Databricks completes fundraise: After months of rumors, the AI and data intelligence startup raised $4 billion at a $134 billion valuation, up 30% from August and more than double its valuation last year.

🏡 Pending home sales fall: U.S. pending home sales are down 5.8% year-over-year, and typical home sale is taking a week longer than it did last year, as homebuyer demand continues to fall.

🪙 Visa stablecoin settlement: The credit card giant is expanding its stablecoin settlement program to the U.S., using Circle's USDC on the Solana blockchain to allow certain firms to settle transactions in stablecoins.

Monday: 🏢 Office market, 🏀 WNBA cards surging
Tuesday: 🚀 Seed funding, 💵 Real assets report
Wednesday: 📊 Jobs report, 🏡 Most popular 2025 markets
Thursday: 🚀 Medline IPO, 🤖 OpenAI and Amazon

Have a great weekend!