── Why More Amazon (AMZN) ──
Amazon is one of those companies that keeps getting bigger while somehow still feeling underappreciated. The e-commerce business alone is a monster — 200 million Prime members worldwide, a logistics network that rivals UPS and FedEx in reach, and a third-party marketplace where sellers do billions in transactions every quarter. But e-commerce is just the front door.
The real value creation engine is Amazon Web Services — the cloud infrastructure business that powers a staggering portion of the internet. AWS generates more operating profit than the entire retail operation, with margins that make traditional retailers weep. And now Amazon is pouring billions into AI infrastructure, building out custom chips (Trainium, Inferentia), data centre capacity, and the Bedrock platform that lets companies run AI models without managing servers. This is the same playbook that made AWS dominant: build the infrastructure first, let the competition chase you, and watch the operating leverage kick in as the investments mature.
The share price has had a strong run, but the long-term thesis hasn't changed. Amazon is a compounder with multiple growth engines, an obsessive culture around customer experience, and a track record of turning massive capital investment into durable competitive advantages. I'm happy to keep adding. Every share I buy today is a share I plan to still own a decade from now.
── Why Intel (INTC) — The Contrarian Bet ──
Yes, Intel. The one that's down. The one that missed the mobile revolution, stumbled on process technology, lost its manufacturing lead to TSMC, and watched AMD eat its lunch in data centre CPUs. The one everyone loves to hate. I get it. The last five years have been a masterclass in how a dominant company can lose its way.
But here's the thing about Intel at these levels: the share price already reflects a lot of bad news. The market is pricing Intel as if it's going out of business, which — given the strategic importance of advanced semiconductor manufacturing to the United States, the CHIPS Act funding flowing in, the new foundry business (Intel Foundry Services) starting to win external customers, and the 18A process node on the horizon — seems overly pessimistic.
This is a small position, deliberately. Intel is not a conviction bet like Apple or Microsoft. It's a calculated, patient, 'I can afford to be wrong' bet on American semiconductor manufacturing being too strategically important to fail. The fabs, the IP, the decades of engineering talent — these assets would cost far more to replicate than Intel's current market cap. Whether Intel's own turnaround succeeds or someone else ends up owning those assets, the underlying value is real.
I don't know if the turnaround works. Nobody does. But at today's price, I'm willing to take a small, long-term bet that US chip manufacturing doesn't disappear. The upside if they pull it off is significant. The downside — well, the share price is already pricing in plenty of that. Position sized accordingly.
── Why More VWRP & VUAG — The Engine Room ──
And then, as always, the boring bit. More VWRP and more VUAG. The Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. Two funds that own thousands of the world's best businesses at microscopic cost.
I keep buying these because they work. Every pound I put into VWRP buys me a tiny slice of 3,700+ companies across nearly 50 countries. Every pound into VUAG buys me 500 of America's largest, most profitable, most innovative businesses at 0.07% — which is so cheap it's practically free. These ETFs don't need a turnaround. They don't need a thesis. They just need time, and time is the one thing the SIPP has in abundance.
The individual stock picks — AMZN, INTC, AAPL, MSFT, BLK, PYPL, MCD, RDDT — they're the seasoning. The ETFs are the meal. I never lose sight of that. The boring, broad, dependable index funds do the heavy lifting. Everything else is sauce. Tasty sauce, hopefully profitable sauce, but sauce nonetheless.
── The Big Picture ──
Today's buy is a mixed bag, and I like it that way. Amazon — a dominant compounder that's only just beginning to show its true earnings power. Intel — a deeply unloved contrarian bet that might go nowhere or might look brilliant in five years. VWRP and VUAG — the steady, boring, beautiful index funds that have never let me down and probably never will.
Not everything in a portfolio needs to be a sure thing. Some positions are there because they're obvious winners compounding quietly. Some are there because the price is wrong and the market is too pessimistic. And some are there because owning the world at 0.07% is the closest thing to a free lunch investing has ever produced. Mix them together, let them sit in the SIPP for a decade or two, and see what happens.
As always, nothing on this site is financial advice. I'm sharing what I bought and why. Do your own research. All investments can go down as well as up. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. I'm a 66-year-old UK investor managing my own SIPP, making my own decisions, and sharing the journey publicly because I believe in transparency. Your money, your choices, your responsibility.