Editor’s Note: Few investors have witnessed as many generational wealth shifts as Marc Lichtenfeld.

From living through the dot-com boom in San Francisco to watching the railroad and radio revolutions through a historian’s lens, Oxford Club’s Chief Income Strategist understands what separates lasting winners from bubble casualties.

That front-row seat to multiple industry transformations gives Marc a unique ability to spot the patterns most investors miss – like recognizing that while everyone’s chasing AI headlines, the real opportunity might be in quantum computing’s quieter revolution.

In today’s piece, he shares the investment framework that helped navigate previous booms and why the next wealth explosion could dwarf them all.

– Ryan Fitzwater, Publisher

5 Minutes… vs. 10 SEPTILLION Years!

That’s not a typo – and it’s about to change everything.

Google developed a quantum computing chip that solved a problem in five minutes that would take the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years to solve. (Ten septillion is a 1 followed by 25 zeros.) Think about that in years. Now, think about condensing that to five minutes. It’s absolutely mind-blowing.

A Front-Row Seat to History

I consider myself fortunate to have had a front-row seat to history.

I lived in San Francisco during the dot-com boom. It was a wild time. My wife and I both worked for dot-com startups.

Most people we knew either worked for or had some connection to a dot-com company.

Watching the development of the internet unfold in real time and seeing what was going on behind the scenes was an invaluable lesson about new trends, greed, and hubris. And, perhaps most importantly, what it takes for a business to thrive in a new industry.

I was enough of a student of history to realize that what I was witnessing and participating in, while uncommon, was not unheard of.

Things Are About to Change in a Big Way

There have been several times when industries completely changed the way Americans – and then the rest of the world – lived. Those disruptions led to immense creation of wealth.

In 1869, the transcontinental railroad was born. By 1880, $50 million worth of goods were being transported each year. (That’s nearly $1.6 billion in today’s dollars.) Within just a few years, there were 364 railroad companies.

Radio was the 1920s equivalent of the dot-coms. In 1921, there were five radio stations in America. Six years later, there were 681.

Radio stocks were a big factor in the Roaring ’20s stock market, with RCA rising 200x.

Of course, there were other industry booms as well, such as autos in the early part of the 20th century and personal computers at the end of the century.

These were all generational changes that drastically improved billions of lives.

Two Generational Shifts Happening Right Now

Today, we’re on the cusp of another such change.

In fact, we’re on the cusp of two of them.

Surely, you’re familiar by now with artificial intelligence (AI). Even if you haven’t used it yourself, you’re aware of its capabilities. We’re all just now starting to perceive how much the world is going to change because of AI.

But there’s another quieter change coming that I suspect will be just as important as AI – if not more important.

The Quantum Computing Revolution

Quantum computing makes today’s supercomputers look like an old Wang PC from 1984. Quantum computers can solve complex problems in minutes that take today’s most powerful computers years to solve.

You can imagine the potential and what it will mean for the companies at the forefront of this technology (as well as their investors).

Learning from History’s Winners and Losers

Here’s the thing: in every boom, whether it was the railroads, radio, or the internet, there was excess, and when the bubble burst, investors got hurt chasing copycat companies that had no real edge.

The ones with lasting power, such as Ford Motor Company, Cisco Systems, and Amazon.com, consistently found ways to create value for their customers and shareholders in a very big way.

Where the Smart Money Goes

There is going to be a lot of money to be made in the AI and quantum computing space over the next few years. But there are also going to be a lot of companies that are simply cashing in on the craze, without offering anything unique.

Find the companies that are the early creators of these technologies and that have big leads over new competition.

They are likely going to be the big winners that will move the needle in a very big way in your portfolio.

YOUR ACTION PLAN

The potential of quantum computing technology is absolutely staggering.

Right now, in an enormous facility in the Arizona desert, one incredible company is doing something you’ll have to hear to believe.

It’s producing a special material capable of harnessing the raw power of light itself. This breakthrough material – which I call “TF3” – can grab and direct individual particles of light to unleash computing power beyond anything we’ve ever seen.

FUN FACT FRIDAY

With Ethereum up over 50% this month, here’s a wild fact: it was invented by a 19-year-old who funded the project by winning a $100,000 programming competition, then used that prize money to travel the world promoting his “world computer” idea.

Vitalik Buterin literally turned teenage prize money into what is now a $474 billion market cap!