# NISHA TOMA


## Posts

- [China Isn’t Just Copying Nvidia’s Chips. It’s Rebuilding the Moat.](https://nishatoma.com/china-ai-chips-nvidia-software-moat/): On September 30, DeepSeek released code for Huawei’s Ascend AI chips. One library handles the calculations models repeat millions of times. Another helps chips pass work to each other. DeepSeek and Huawei have also worked on a machine built around 128 Ascend 950 processors. The partnership puts a major model builder to work on the software that makes Chinese hardware usable. That matters more than another comparison of chip specifications. The release has an awkward detail. Its best published communication results came from a special hardware configuration supplied to DeepSeek. The recommended commercial version was still due in October, and parts […]
- [What If Every App Had Closing Hours?](https://nishatoma.com/app-closing-hours/): A shop has closing hours. At some point the lights go out, the cashier goes home, and the sign flips to CLOSED. The building is still there. You can walk past it. You simply cannot buy anything inside until morning. Your phone has no such sign. At 11:40 p.m., you can check whether your rent payment cleared, buy a pair of shoes, argue with a stranger, watch somebody else’s vacation, and open a trading app to see what the market did today. All of that is available through the same rectangle, from the same couch. Some of this is wonderful. If […]
- [Why China’s $1.2 Trillion Trade Surplus Is a Global Problem](https://nishatoma.com/china-trade-surplus-2025/): The China trade surplus 2025 figures ended the year with a staggering number: $1.189 trillion. That was the gap between the value of goods China sold abroad and what it bought from the rest of the world. That number shows the strength of China’s export machine, but also something less triumphant. China is producing far more than its own households and businesses buy, while importing relatively little in return. The excess is sold abroad at prices competitors increasingly struggle to match. Every product in the data found a buyer, so the world is still absorbing China’s exports literally. The real question […]
- [Even Superintelligence Has Limits](https://nishatoma.com/limits-of-superintelligent-ai/): Picture a superintelligent AI on Earth that understands a star four light-years away better than any astronomer who has ever lived. If that star changes today, the AI still waits four years for the news. Intelligence cannot make the signal arrive early. That delay exposes the flaw in the popular image of artificial superintelligence as a digital god. An ASI reasons, learns, plans and invents far beyond human ability. It only knows what the universe allows it to observe and calculate. It needs hardware, energy, time, data and experiments. Some questions are too expensive to answer. No general algorithm can settle […]
- [Anthropic Could Be Worth $4 Trillion.](https://nishatoma.com/anthropic-valuation-4-trillion/): A software buyer can move from Claude to another artificial intelligence model without selling a factory, retraining a workforce or waiting for a lease to expire. In some systems, the change takes little more than an API call and a round of testing. That small technical fact sits underneath one of the largest valuation debates in business. Anthropic was valued at $965 billion in a May funding round. Some investors now imagine an initial public offering worth between $1.5 trillion and $4 trillion, according to the Financial Times. The upper end would place a young AI company among the most valuable […]
- [How I’d Invest My First $1,000 in Canada in 2026](https://nishatoma.com/how-to-invest-1000-in-canada/): If you’re wondering how to invest $1,000 in Canada, the investment itself is only part of the decision. You also need to figure out which account to use, how soon you’ll need the money, what fees you’ll pay, and what you’ll actually buy. You have $1,000 sitting in your bank account and you’ve finally decided to invest it. Now comes the confusing part. Do you open a TFSA? Buy the S&P 500? Pick a few stocks? Download Wealthsimple? Put everything into a dividend ETF? When I first started learning about investing, most of my attention went to the investment itself. I […]
- [Sixty-One Percent of Energy Investment Is Now Going Into Electricity](https://nishatoma.com/electricity-investment-vs-oil-gas/): On sunny spring afternoons in California, something counterintuitive happens: the grid operator tells solar farms to make less electricity, not more. In 2024, the California Independent System Operator curtailed 3.4 million megawatt-hours of utility-scale wind and solar output, a 29% jump from the year before, mostly because transmission lines didn’t have room to carry the power away. The panels were fine. The sun was fine. The wires were the problem. That small, specific breakdown is a preview of the argument the head of the International Energy Agency made in Seoul on September 17. Fatih Birol told reporters that electricity demand is […]
- [Google Is Paying Farmers to Change How They Grow Rice. Here's the Real Bet Behind It.](https://nishatoma.com/google-rice-carbon-credits/): How Google Rice Carbon Credits Work Google rice carbon credits are built around an unusual idea: changing how farmers flood their fields could reduce methane while helping remove carbon from the atmosphere. That unglamorous fact is the starting point for the largest carbon-removal deal Google has signed to date. On September 16, Reuters reported that the company would back a project covering more than 200,000 hectares of rice farmland in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s rice belt, developed by a climate startup called Terradot. The project asks the same land to do two different jobs: change how farmers flood their fields […]
- [Banks Are Lending $22 Billion Against AI Chips. Here’s the Risk.](https://nishatoma.com/banks-lending-against-ai-chips/): A bank knows what to do with a house after a borrower defaults. It can sell the property and recover part of the mortgage. A warehouse full of artificial intelligence chips creates a stranger problem. The hardware is valuable, difficult to replace and capable of generating enormous revenue. It can also lose economic value quickly when a faster generation arrives. Ten banks are now preparing one of the largest tests of that collateral. The group is providing a reported $22 billion loan to Crux AI, a cloud-computing venture created by Blackstone and Alphabet’s Google. The money will purchase Google’s Tensor Processing […]
- [How to Turn Text Into Your Own Voice for Free on Windows](https://nishatoma.com/free-text-to-speech-windows/): You can run Chatterbox TTS on your Windows PC, give it a short recording of your voice, and generate narration through a local browser interface. The setup takes some command-line work, but you only need to do it once. This guide uses the open-source Chatterbox project from Resemble AI and my Chatterbox Voice Studio interface. The interface adds microphone recording, audio trimming, long-script support, voice controls, playback, and downloadable WAV files. I tested this process on Windows 11 with Python 3.11, an NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti with 8 GB of VRAM, driver 560.94, PyTorch 2.6.0 using the CUDA 12.6 wheel, and […]
- [Why Private Equity Wants Your Retirement Money](https://nishatoma.com/private-equity-in-401k-plan/): Every two weeks, millions of Americans receive a paycheck and automatically send part of it into a 401(k). Most will repeat that process for decades. They rarely move the money, and they cannot use most of it without consequences until they reach retirement age. From your point of view, this is disciplined saving. From Wall Street’s point of view, it is an almost perfect stream of capital: predictable, automatic and patient. Private equity firms have noticed. BlackRock, Blackstone, Apollo, KKR and other large asset managers are building products and business units designed to bring private investments into workplace retirement plans. The […]
- [Coway Airmega 150C Review: One Month in My Small Bedroom](https://nishatoma.com/coway-airmega-150-review/): Affiliate disclosure: I bought this air purifier with my own money. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you. Amazon did not review or approve this article. I use the Airmega 150C in the corner at the foot of my bed. I bought the Coway Airmega 150C on August 18 and paid $278.43 CAD after tax. It now sits at the foot of my bed in a bedroom that measures about 108 square feet. I leave it on auto, sleep with it running and mostly forget that it is there. That last point has […]
- [Wall Street Invented an ETF That Resets Every Hour](https://nishatoma.com/hourly-reset-etf/): Defiance ETFs wants to compress the leveraged ETF from one trading day into a single hour. The result would turn the path a stock takes through the day into part of the investment itself. Imagine buying a fund linked to Nvidia at 10:05 a.m. By 11:05, Nvidia is higher and your market call appears correct. Yet your return may still fall short of twice the stock’s gain because the fund reset its exposure while you were holding it. That is the central feature of the hourly reset ETF, a proposed product that makes even today’s leveraged funds look patient. Defiance ETFs […]
- [Can a Private Credit Fund Stop You From Withdrawing Your Money?](https://nishatoma.com/private-credit-fund-withdrawals/): An account statement may show that you own $100,000 of a fund. Converting that value into cash can still depend on a quarterly withdrawal limit. Investors in Blackstone Private Credit Fund, commonly known as BCRED, encountered that limit in 2026. During the third quarter, they requested about $4.3 billion, equal to roughly 10% of the fund’s outstanding shares. BCRED repurchased shares equal to 5% of its net asset value. Many investors would have to wait and submit the remainder again. Can a private credit fund stop you from withdrawing your money? Its terms may permit the manager to limit, delay or […]
- [Best Canadian Dividend ETF: VDY vs XEI vs XDIV vs CDZ](https://nishatoma.com/best-canadian-dividend-etf/): If you are searching for the best Canadian dividend ETF, four names tend to appear again and again: VDY, XEI, XDIV and CDZ. At first glance, they look almost interchangeable. Each fund owns Canadian dividend-paying companies. Each trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Each pays a monthly distribution. Put money in, wait a few weeks, and cash appears in your account. Beautiful. But these ETFs are not four versions of the same portfolio. One emphasizes high-yielding, large Canadian companies. Another spreads its money across a broader collection of dividend stocks. A third applies a quality screen. The fourth focuses on companies […]
- [Can Lululemon Get Its Cult Back?](https://nishatoma.com/why-lululemon-is-struggling/): There was a time when a small white logo on a pair of black leggings communicated an entire way of life. It suggested that you went to yoga before work, knew which smoothie cost twelve dollars and treated self-improvement as a daily obligation. The clothes were comfortable, but comfort was only part of what Lululemon sold. The real product was membership in a disciplined, affluent and slightly aspirational world. Now the logo is everywhere. Lululemon appears in airports, offices, school drop-off lines and gyms. Its most recognizable designs have been copied at nearly every price point. Meanwhile, younger competitors such as […]
- [AGI Has Arrived. Nobody Can Tell You What Arrived.](https://nishatoma.com/did-gpt-6-astra-achieve-agi/): GPT‑6 Astra may be an extraordinary technological achievement. That does not give a company executive the authority to end the argument over what intelligence means. Did GPT‑6 Astra achieve AGI? There is not yet an agreed standard capable of delivering a credible yes. What exists instead is a collection of impressive benchmark scores, product demonstrations, competing definitions and corporate declarations. Together, they show that AI is advancing quickly. They do not settle whether artificial general intelligence has arrived. On September 6, 2026, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang compressed one of the largest scientific questions of our time into four words: “AGI […]
- [Your Finance App Is a Casino Lobby](https://nishatoma.com/finance-app-gamification/): The most dangerous feature may not be the trade button. It may be the feeling that something is always happening—and that you should do something about it. Finance app gamification rarely announces itself as a game. There may be no roulette wheel on the screen, no dealer asking you to place another bet. There is only a phone glowing beside the bed. A stock has moved. A number has turned red. A notification says an asset on your watchlist is “on the move.” Somewhere inside the app, a leaderboard of winners waits to be opened. None of this forces you to […]
- [The Housing Market Is Not Housing](https://nishatoma.com/housing-market-vs-housing-crisis/): Why falling prices can coexist with a housing crisis Canada’s housing market can cool without Canada’s housing crisis ending. Home prices can fall while monthly payments remain unaffordable. Rental vacancies can rise while the least expensive units remain fiercely contested. Construction can accelerate while families struggle to find homes with enough bedrooms, near the places where they work. These facts appear contradictory only when the housing market and the housing system are treated as the same thing. Housing is connected to almost everything that makes a place livable: transportation, employment, population, construction, public space and the ability to remain in a […]
- [The $4.2 Trillion Climate Risk Hiding in America’s Bond Market](https://nishatoma.com/climate-risk-municipal-bonds/): Climate risk and municipal bonds are becoming increasingly connected as disasters threaten property values, tax revenue, and essential infrastructure. Most people experience municipal finance as concrete. It is the storm drain at the end of the street, the school roof that does not leak, the pipe carrying clean water, or the seawall holding back the tide. Behind much of that concrete is a bond: a promise that a city, county, school district, or public utility will repay investors over many years using taxes or service fees. The infrastructure stays in one place. So does the government responsible for the debt. That […]
- [The Puer Aeternus: Why We Stay in Love With Potential](https://nishatoma.com/puer-aeternus/): A laptop can become a museum of unlived lives. There is the half-written novel, the abandoned business plan, the course bought during a burst of conviction, the application that never quite felt ready to send. Each file preserves a small promise: when the right mood, opportunity, or version of the self arrives, real life will finally begin. The person behind these plans may not lack ambition. He may be overflowing with it. The problem is that his ambition lives more comfortably in the imagination than it does on a calendar. Jungian psychology has an old name for this pattern: the puer […]
- [How to Start a Business When You Have No Idea Where to Start](https://nishatoma.com/how-to-start-a-business/): Introduction If you’re trying to figure out how to start a business, the best place to begin is not with a logo, a company name, or quitting your job. There is a strange amount of pressure around starting a business. Find the perfect idea. Build a brand. Make passive income. Quit your job. Scale it. Automate it. Do all of this before somebody else discovers the same opportunity. I think this makes starting much harder than it needs to be. If you have never built a business before, you do not need the perfect idea. You need a small experiment. That […]
- [Is Wealthsimple safe? What Canadians should know before using the platform](https://nishatoma.com/is-wealthsimple-safe/): MONEY · WEALTHSIMPLE · CANADA Wealthsimple is one of the most popular financial apps in Canada, but a lot of people still wonder what would actually happen to their money if something went wrong. Short answer: Wealthsimple is a legitimate Canadian financial company. Eligible cash can receive CDIC protection through partner institutions, while eligible investment assets may be protected by CIPF. Is Wealthsimple safe? Yes. Wealthsimple is a legitimate Canadian financial services company. Eligible cash balances are held in trust with CDIC-member financial institutions, while eligible investment accounts may receive protection through the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). If you’re interested […]
- [TQQQ vs QQQ: What Happens When You Hold 3x Leverage Long Term?](https://nishatoma.com/tqqq-vs-qqq/): MONEY · BACKTEST · POSSIBLY TOO MUCH SPREADSHEET ENERGY I wanted to answer a very normal question: what happens if you take QQQ, give it roughly three times the daily exposure, and then hold on for dear life? Naturally, I responded by building a 26-year backtest. Because apparently this is what I do for fun now. In this article QQQ vs TQQQ How I built the backtest What happened to $10,000 The drawdown But what if we DCA? Can you actually hold TQQQ long term? Final Note QQQ vs TQQQ QQQ is basically a basket of 100 of the biggest non-financial […]

## Pages

- [Compound Interest Calculator](https://nishatoma.com/compound-interest-calculator/): Free investment tool Compound Interest Calculator See how an initial investment and recurring contributions could grow over time. Adjust the assumptions to compare different saving habits and returns. Your assumptions Build your scenario Reset Currency CAD — Canadian dollarUSD — U.S. dollarEUR — EuroGBP — British pound Initial investment $ Recurring contribution $ Contribution frequency MonthlyBiweeklyWeeklyAnnually Expected annual return % Time horizon years Advanced assumptions Compounding frequency AnnuallyMonthlyDailyQuarterly Contribution timing End of each periodBeginning of each period Annual contribution increase % Results update automatically as you change the numbers. Your projection Estimated value after 30 years Copy results Future balance $0 […]
- [TQQQ Vs QQQ Dashboard](https://nishatoma.com/tqqq-backtest-lab/): 3× TQQQ Backtest Lab Loading backtest data… Path dependence visualized TQQQ looks amazing. Until you start in 2000. A research dashboard comparing QQQ with hypothetical daily-reset 3× Nasdaq-100 strategies across the dot-com crash, the financial crisis, and the modern technology boom. Explore the backtest Download source data Important: TQQQ launched on February 9, 2010. Every pre-inception TQQQ result shown here is a hypothetical simulation, not an actual fund return. Results depend on fees, financing assumptions, tracking error, taxes, liquidity, and execution. Final value — Calibrated 3× from selected start Maximum drawdown — Peak-to-trough decline Longest underwater — Time below a previous […]
- [Tools](https://nishatoma.com/tools/): TOOLS Things I built. Small tools, experiments, dashboards, and utilities I made because I wanted them to exist.
- [About](https://nishatoma.com/about/): Nisha Toma I am a Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience in mobile development, with a passion for automation, teaching, and wealth. I enjoy reading, watching movies, and tinkering with technology. I also love learning about different approaches to building passive income streams that enable me to regain my time and take more control over my life.
- [Blog](https://nishatoma.com/blog/)
- [Home](https://nishatoma.com/): NISHA TOMA Tech, Philosophy, Lifestyle. Ideas and frameworks to help you think clearly, live intentionally, and build a better future. My articles

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