when did you last pay for pest control?

October 29, 2026

Bonus Content: Unity’s Industrial AI Turn Is What Microsoft Needs


A note from our friends at Med-X Inc(ad)

Hi,

Quick question: when did you last pay for pest control?

A termite inspection. A mosquito treatment for the yard. A can of bug spray under the sink.

Whatever it was, you’ll pay for it again. And that’s the part most people miss.

When the public turns on a product, people usually stop buying it. But some things can’t be quit.

Termites still eat houses.

Rodents still get into food plants.

Crops still need protecting.

And the mosquito still bites.

So as conventional pesticides face more scrutiny, from health research and lawsuits to regulators and corporate buyers rewriting their standards, the need doesn’t go away. The spending may simply move.

Our new investor letter follows where it could go, and introduces a small company that has spent years building botanical products for exactly that shift.

Where does that money go next? →

P.S. The letter also covers what most stories skip: the counterarguments. You may not agree with the conclusion. Read it and decide →

 
 
 
Bonus Article

Unity’s Industrial AI Turn Is What Microsoft Needs

Unity Software (NYSE: U) has spent the better part of two years stripping itself down. The ironSource ad network is being wound down, with its direct demand business sunset effective April 30, 2026. The Supersonic publishing business was sold on August 4, 2026. What remains is a cleaner, faster-growing company whose most underappreciated division is not its mobile ad platform but its industrial simulation stack, and that is precisely where Microsoft’s strategic gap sits.

The Financial Backdrop

Unity’s Q2 2026 results told a story that most traders filed under gaming. Revenue was $546.47 million, up 23.9% year-over-year, while net loss narrowed sharply to $22.67 million from $107.37 million in the prior-year quarter. Free cash flow reached $202 million, up 59% year-over-year, with $2.357 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash on the balance sheet as of June 30. The market cap sits near $17.6 billion. Analysts rate the stock a strong buy, with a 12-month consensus price target of $50.41, implying roughly 26% upside from current levels.

The number that matters more for the M&A thesis is not Vector’s ad growth. Unity does not separately disclose an Industry segment line item; industrial exposure largely sits inside Create, which means the true scale of enterprise simulation remains opaque to most investors. Hidden optionality at this price is not a liability for an acquirer. It is a feature.

Sponsored

US$1 Silver-Gold Stock Ripping Higher as Metals Surge

Silver and gold are surging toward new all-time highs as capital rotates aggressively back into precious metals. As that shift accelerates, the market is once again hunting for early-stage discovery stories with real scale. One under-the-radar North American silver-gold company – trading below US$1 per share – has just crossed a key inflection point with drilling underway across a newly unified, district-scale system. Early holes are delivering high-grade silver-gold mineralization.

Now’s your window as Phase-2 drilling accelerates.

Where Microsoft’s Need Is Sharpest

Microsoft delivered a record fiscal year with Azure revenue surpassing $100 billion. Its AI business surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year-over-year. But gaming is deteriorating. In fiscal 2026, Xbox revenue decreased 7%, driven by declines in both content and hardware. In Q4, Xbox content and services revenue declined 10%.

Microsoft remains central to enterprise spatial computing through Azure Digital Twins and broader XR infrastructure, with enterprise clients using the platform for factory floor maintenance, design review, and remote collaboration. The gap is the rendering layer. Unity fills it. Unity often cites that more than 70% of the top 1,000 mobile games are made with Unity, but its industrial reach is broader than that figure suggests.

The Industrial Angle Traders Are Pricing Wrong

Unity has framed its industrial push around connecting physical AI work to virtual environments and expanding the scope of digital twin applications in production settings. Its on-device AI inference tooling, branded as Sentis, is designed to run models locally, reducing reliance on a separate server for every inference loop and supporting use cases that include object recognition on local compute.

Enterprise spending on spatial computing services has been forecast to grow at roughly a 44% CAGR through 2030. Microsoft, with its Azure Digital Twins infrastructure but no native real-time 3D engine, is paying third parties to bridge that gap every quarter.

Scenario Modeling

Bull Case: Microsoft acquires Unity at a 35% to 40% premium to the current $17.6 billion market cap, roughly $24 billion to $25 billion. Unity’s industrial and gaming engine integrates natively into Azure Mixed Reality and Copilot workflows. Q3 earnings on November 5 show strategic revenue guidance of $540 to $550 million met or exceeded, validating the asset.

Base Case: No deal materializes near-term. Post-Activision antitrust scrutiny keeps another major gaming acquisition a regulatory slog for Microsoft. Unity trades toward the $48 to $50 analyst consensus on its own operating momentum, with November 5 earnings the next catalyst.

Bear Case: Bearish options flow is already elevated, with put volume running five times expected. The most active strikes are January 2027 $45 puts and October 2026 $43 puts. Any Q3 guidance miss or macro deterioration sends Unity back toward the $28 to $32 zone that held through mid-July.

Sponsored

Today: $0. Later: $29.97.

Here’s what changes if you wait to grab my book, Simple Options Trading for Beginners.

The book doesn’t. Same pages. Same plain-English explanations. Same step-by-step examples.

Only the price changes. Through this link, it’s free. On my website, it’s $29.97.

Get your copy while it’s $0.

Trader Framework

Unity reports Q3 on November 5. Q3 strategic revenue guidance calls for $540 to $550 million, implying 44% to 47% year-over-year growth. That release is the nearer decision point, independent of any M&A speculation. Watch the $38 level as structural support. A hold above $40 into earnings keeps the bull case intact. Disciplined traders size accordingly, because at beta 2.11, a miss does not move this stock modestly.

The industrial simulation thesis is real. Whether Microsoft is the buyer, or whether Unity compounds its way to a rerate on its own, the risk is in confusing the two timelines.

More From Author

The early AI winners were obvious in hindsight

Micro coins: knowing when to sell matters most

Live Market Pulse

The charting technology is provided by TradingView. Learn how to use theTradingView Stock Screener.

Categories