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Where to invest? As the holidays approach and the year comes to a close, the broader Seeking Alpha community is looking into market trends, top performers and what to anticipate for 2025.
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Drones have been all the rage in recent weeks, with sightings reported across New Jersey and the U.S. East Coast. It's not yet clear where they are coming from and why, but what seems pretty clear is that drones will be playing a big part of life in the foreseeable future. UAVs have been moving fast out of the hobbyist and techie world into the commercial and military sectors, and that trend might be a big one for 2025 and beyond.
The latest: DoorDash (DASH) is partnering with Alphabet-owned Wing (GOOGL) to deliver food orders from two malls in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area, including Hulen and Stonebriar Centre (BN). Orders can be placed from more than 50 merchants, with meals arriving "in as little as 15 minutes." The delivery drones fly up to 65 mph and reach a cruising height of around 150 feet before lowering their contents to the ground via a winch system.
The service was made possible by the Federal Aviation Administration recently approving Wing (and rival Zipline) to conduct beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights over Dallas. Wing has completed over 400,000 commercial deliveries worldwide since its first U.S. pilot began in 2019. Its last partnership with DoorDash in March gave consumers the ability to order flying burgers from Wendy's (WEN), but Wing is now looking to transform the industry by converting open areas of shopping malls into drone delivery hubs.
"We are proud to be the first landlord to provide drone delivery as another avenue to help our tenants serve our communities," said Katie Kurtz, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Brookfield Properties. "We're committed to meeting the changing needs of the ways people shop. Brookfield Properties has a strong track record of evolving our assets and leading ahead of the curve in retail."
What else to watch: While drone capabilities are expanding in food delivery after successful tests with consumer products (with Walmart) and medicine (with Walgreens), advancements in the military are being eyed as the next big theme. In several controversial posts over the past month, Elon Musk took aim at the costly Lockheed Martin (LMT) F-35 program and "manned fighter jets [that] are becoming obsolete in the era of drones." According to the DOGE appointee, drones can be networked to fly in swarms, are exponentially cheaper, and will never "get [any] pilots killed." Take the new WSB survey.