• In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to Strategy CEO Michael Saylor on the migration to digital capital.
• The big story: U.S. sides with Russia and China at the U.N. but a Ukraine mineral deal is in sight.
• The markets: Down, down, down.
• Analyst notes from Saxo (on Nvidia earnings), Wedbush (on Tesla), Apollo (on the S&P), Convera (on Trump’s tariffs).
• Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. From 1989 to 2022, Michael Saylor was cofounder and CEO of MicroStrategy, recently rebranded as Strategy, a software company that was plodding along in the shadows of bigger rivals. Then Saylor pivoted the company to become a buyer of bitcoin—a lot of bitcoin. As of yesterday, it holds 499,096 bitcoins. That’s worth about $46.6 billion, a number that could shift quite a bit by today or tomorrow, depending on supply and demand. While that can be said of any asset class, what’s different about Bitcoin is that it has no legislated or intrinsic value, no backing by a central bank or financial institution. That makes it speculative for many investors and a fan favorite among ransomware gangs—and others with a huge appetite for risk.
And yet. With so much demand and so many investment products built around Bitcoin, the currency clearly has a future. At what price is open to debate. Saylor, now executive chairman of Strategy, believes the price will hit $13 million by 2045, up from roughly $94,000 per coin today. It sounds wildly speculative. But Saylor is a man who has bet his entire company on Bitcoin, a strategy that has thus far pushed its formerly lackluster stock price up more than 2,000% since 2020.
“Bitcoin outperforms everything,” he told me when I moderated a fireside chat with him last week at FII in Miami. Having originally bought Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, he now calls it the most popular, useful, global, digital, interesting, and fastest-growing asset there is. His investors clearly agree (although Strategy’s stock price has trended down since late November).
According to Saylor, “we’re a Bitcoin treasury company.” Once upon a time MicroStrategy was a data analytics company. It still is, officially. But, now, Strategy mostly sells shares and debt and then takes that money to buy more Bitcoin. Saylor owns about a 10% stake in the company, and more than $2 billion in Bitcoin. There are plenty of skeptics who believe this will not end well, as my colleague Shawn Tully has pointed out. But Saylor plans to continue betting big on Bitcoin as long as he can. “It’s only once in 5,000 years that you create perfect money using technology,” he says, arguing the migration to digital capital has just begun.
Among Bitcoin fans, Saylor is a rock star. There was a constant stream of people asking for selfies and pitching him on their companies when we were together in Miami. But he isn’t this century’s version of Gordon Gekko, hawking a mindless new version of “greed is good.” The childless billionaire plans to leave all of his profits to a foundation that he has devoted to making education free for all. When I ask what brings him joy, he looks at me quizzically and then mentions that he likes his homes and a koi pond he has built. But his passion is creating more wealth through Bitcoin.
You can check out our townhall here.
More news below.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady, diane.brady@fortune.com, LinkedIn.
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2025 Tech Outlook According to Deloitte research, the tech industry is set for growth in 2025, driven by increased IT spending, AI investments and a renewed focus on innovation, despite recent economic uncertainties. What strategies should tech leaders consider moving forward? Explore insights here.
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U.S. sides with Russia and China. The United States voted against a resolution in the U.N. that condemned Russia’s “aggression” in Ukraine. Also voting with the U.S.: Russia, China, North Korea, Belarus, and Sudan. The vote is unlikely to affect the course of the war but the optics were great for Putin and Xi. Europe remains appalled.
France wants “autonomy”: Yesterday, the new leader of Germany, Friedrich Merz, called for Europe’s “independence” from the U.S. because the Trump Administration is siding with Russia in the war in Ukraine. That same day, France’s Emmanuel Macron called for “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. Context: The NATO alliance between the U.S. and Europe has kept peace in Europe since 1949. This is a major split.
Ukraine mineral deal: More details have emerged about a potential deal between the U.S. and Ukraine over its rare earth deposits. The deal now contains a reconstruction fund for Ukraine; investment by the U.S.; and the U.S. has dropped its demand for $500 billion from the proceeds of the deal (a sum that was more than the U.S. has supplied Ukraine in aid since the war began.) It may be signed as soon as Monday.
What’s missing: There is no mention of military guarantees to prevent Russia from restarting the war. That’s a problem because Ukraine will see a shortfall in weaponry this summer if the U.S. backs out.
Nvidia earnings—another huge call ahead. Nvidia is preparing for an earnings call on Wednesday, and the company risks getting “crapped on” if it doesn’t exceed its own expectations once again. Wall Street expects the company to report around $38 billion in revenue, $1 billion more than the company forecasted, but falling margins associated with a new line of chips will be top of mind for investors.
The bond market is unimpressed by DOGE: Spending cuts are more trivial than the headline numbers suggest, which explains why the 10-year yield remains higher than Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants it to be.
New Unilever CEO: After only a year in charge, Unilever has moved chief executive Hein Schumacher out and replaced him with former CFO Fernando Fernandez. The board wants the company’s turnaround plan executed more rapidly.
From Fortune
• Fortune 500 Power Move
Diamondback Energy (No. 449) announced that CEO Travis D. Stice will step down from the role, effective as of the Company’s 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. He will be replaced by Kaes Van't Hof, who currently serves as President and CFO of the company.
Apple announces $500 billion investment, but UBS has doubts
Apple announced on Monday that it would invest $500 billion into its American operations, including a new AI-focused factory in Texas. UBS analyst David Vogt, however, told Fortune that he’s skeptical that the investment will actually pan out. Fortune
Stripe’s Collison brothers say remote work solves ‘two-body problem’ for couples
Patrick Collison says: “I think one of the theories for declining dynamism in the U.S. and declining TFP [total factor productivity] is that allocative efficiency of people declined as women entered the workforce because now you have…this two-body problem where both people have to make coordinated switches…and remote work solves that.” Fortune
In conversation with Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass
Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass, who celebrated a year as head of the iconic denim brand in January, recently told Fortune that she’s hoping to turn the company into “at least a $10 billion company” following a promising first year. The veteran retail executive is diversifying with more non-jean denim products, a refocus on Levi’s own stores, and an emphasis on women customers to do so. Fortune
The markets
• The S&P 500 closed down 0.5% yesterday and is now back under 6,000 at 5,983.25 … The Nasdaq gave up more than 1% … One of the biggest losers? Palantir, which lost 10% and has given up 24% over the last five days … Bitcoin sunk to $88K … Japan, Europe, and China are a sea of red this morning … S&P futures aren't showing a way out of the gloom: they were down 0.22%, premarket.
From the analysts
• Saxo on Nvidia earnings (Feb. 26): “Nvidia has a strong track record, having beaten Wall Street estimates in 16 of the last 18 quarters – but with expectations already sky-high, even a solid beat may not be enough to keep the stock moving higher,” per Jacob Falkencrone.
• Wedbush on Tesla: “...with this influence in the Trump Administration and the broadening DOGE initiative in the 202 area, there has been a visible perceived downside impact weighing on Tesla shares … [But Musk] will successfully (in our view) balance his Tesla CEO role along with DOGE, SpaceX, xAI, and a myriad of other initiatives. We maintain our OUTPERFORM rating and $550 price target,” per Daniel Ives et al.
• Apollo on investor concentration: “Global equity investors are not only highly concentrated in tech stocks, they are also highly concentrated in US stocks, see chart below. It goes against page one in the finance textbook, which says that investors should be diversified,” per Torsten Sløk.
Convera on Trump’s tariffs: “So far, Trump’s tough talk on regional trade has been more bark than bite. After just one month in office and four proposed tariffs on its regional trade allies, markets have started calling his bluff. But brace for a bumpy ride—volatility will be on the rise as tariff risks make a comeback, with the 30-day tariff pause set to expire on March 4th,” per Kevin Ford.
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