Market Cap Game Show: What’s Rare Earth Worth?

27:53It went public, though, in 2001. Norway does remain, of course, the controlling shareholder today. But then in 2018, Statoil dropped oil right out of its name. And Equinor combines Equi, which I think a lot of us would recognize words like equality or equilibrium, with Nor. Any guesses as to where the Nor would have come from? Norway. Excellent guess. So, yeah, Equinor intended to reflect the company's evolution into a broader energy business. And despite that broader identity, though, oil and gas remain overwhelmingly its principal energy output today. Ninety nine point nine six billion dollars.

28:33Pretty much an even 100. Great guess, Mac. Great point, Yasser and those who agreed. So by my count, it's two and a half to one and a half as we move to stock number five. Now, I want to remind my contestants, you guys are the halftime entertainment. I've asked you each to bring a joke. I think a lot of us are already rubbing our palms together in anticipation of the halftime entertainment. But before halftime, we go to stock number five. Yasser, let's talk about sleep. So what does Yasser El-Shimi need for a really good night's sleep? What's your ideal setup or routine? Man, I have to turn off all lights.

29:10Smart. I cannot have any light, however faint, in the room and in the hallway, most of the house. I just, I don't know. I feel like if it's nighttime, it's time to sleep. You got to let your body work its natural rhythm of complete darkness. Did you see recent studies that confirmed that, in fact, that disruptive light actually undermined the strength of our heart over long periods of time? I did not. That was in just the last couple weeks. Google it, guys. You'll see it. So, Yasser, you're doing it right there. Anything else about a perfect night's sleep for you? I mean, you got to have a good pillow and a good mattress.

29:48Otherwise, you know, like, I mean, I personally, my go-to is a Tempur-Pedic mattress. All right. Yeah, yeah. Temperature? Speaking of temp, temperature? Does that matter? It does matter. You can't be too hot. You can't be too cold. It has to be just the right temperature. What about the phone? Do you have your phone kind of in reach, out of reach? Is that a factor for you around sleep? Unfortunately, I have the bad habit of looking at my phone right before I go to sleep. But I do use my phone to help me sleep, actually. So I play some usually some white noise and that that helps put me right to sleep.

30:25I'm actually feeling a little bit more relaxed myself just hearing Yasser talk about that. Mac, do you have any agreements or disagreements, any violent agreements or disagreements with what Yasser just shared? I think I think that all makes sense. I'm also worried about my heart because having heard you with that sleep research, I've got. Yeah. Check it. But basically, you don't want to have light interfering with your sleep in any regular way at all. Does that include ESPN? Because if I'm checking scores, is that or is that different? I mean, I would say maybe the dark web version, right, where you flick it from light to dark on your browser or in your iPhone.

31:04That might help. Do you and maybe I'm dating myself, but I wake up at like 315 pretty much every night. And is that just a sign that I'm old? Or is there something about 315? Is there something happening at 315 Eastern? I think some questions are best left rhetorical. That is a powerful moment for this podcast. Thank you. Okay. All right. Picking it right up there. For a lot of people, the problem isn't about temperature or light. It's about breathing. Simply breathing. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the airway becomes blocked repeatedly during our sleep, often as the tongue and airway muscles relax.

31:45So CPAP has long been the standard treatment using a mask and hose to keep air flowing. Our next company approaches the problem very differently. Inspire Medical Systems, ticker symbol INSP, makes an implantable device for people with obstructive sleep apnea who've struggled with the CPAP. The device is implanted near your collarbone. It senses your breathing. And while you sleep, it sends gentle electrical pulses that stimulate the nerve that controls your tongue. It moves your tongue forward and helps keep that airway open. We patients then turn it on at bedtime with our remotes. Yasser El-Shimi, what is your stated market cap range for Inspire Medical Systems, ticker symbol INSP?

32:35My stated range is$2 to$6 billion. $2 billion to$6 billion. A smaller cap company, I think it's fair to say, than Equinor? Absolutely. You're very confident in that. Much smaller. Yeah, much smaller. Okay. Mac, you've already shared a possible addiction to ESPN disrupting some of your sleep. I don't think there's an implantable device necessarily for you there. But if you ever or your loved one suffer from sleep apnea, this is a new option. Now, Yasser said$2 billion to$6 billion. Mac, what are you feeling right now? Before you give your official answer, just how are you feeling? So I'm a little anxious.

33:11I'm also thinking about how the Breathe Right strips used to be the big sleep aid. And I don't know if that's still a thing. Yeah. Like it was the athletes on the field, but then people would go to sleep with them. Yes. And then who knew? But I'm pretty sure, I don't know if that really worked, but I'm going to say that it's - I mean, they're not around anymore. No, no. Are they? Like where did the Breathe Right nose strips go? And couldn't you just put a Band-Aid on your nose? That's the thing that always threw me about that. Yeah, so I'm a little nervous. This is a tough one. I'm familiar with the company.

33:43I've definitely heard about the company. Inspire. You're inspired. Yeah, I'm inspired. So he said$2 billion to$6 billion players at home. Matt Greer, do you want to agree or disagree with that range? So I had written down on my notepad here$10 to$18 billion. But then I started thinking, that's a pretty small market of people who need that. So maybe it's lower than$2 billion. But then I start thinking I'm usually wrong about stuff. So I'm going to say that it's higher and it's out of the range. All right. So you're saying outside the range. Outside the range. And you believe it's higher. It's higher.

34:19All right. Players at home, do you want to go with max approach or stick with Yasser's range? And if you stuck with Yasser's range, give yourself a plus one, which makes this game tied. because the market cap for Inspire Medical Systems is$2.06 billion just inside Yasser's range. But on the low end of his range, it is a smaller problem, a smaller company. It is an emergent company. In fact, Inspire Medical Systems actually began inside a much larger company, Medtronic. The technology and its intellectual property were spun out in 2007, and that created the company we know today as Inspire Medical Systems.

35:02The resulting system later became the first FDA-approved neurostimulation technology for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea. And probably not as important as that, it gave Yasser a point in this game to tie it at 2.5 to 2.5, which means players at home, if you've scored three or more points, you're actually winning. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to grow and protect our money. But one convincing text, email, or fake website can put all of that at risk. Today's scams can look completely legitimate, even like your bank. And by the time an alert arrives, the money may already be gone.

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36:40Therefore, I'm going to randomize who's going first. First, I'm going to my dice rolling app on my phone. One to three. Yasser, you'll be telling the first joke. Mac, you're four to six. Yasser, what do you have for us? Okay, I have one. Why do chefs love to invest? Why do chefs love to invest? I'm always unclear. Are we supposed to give our best shot at answering that question? Yes, absolutely. Or just let it happen, Mac? Go for it. Why do chefs love to invest? Is this going to make us laugh? Maybe not. Probably not? I'm working on something with net margins, but I can't quite get there. Let's just go right back to the source.

37:19Yasser, why do chefs love to invest? No guess even. Not even a guess? Well, net margin. Net margin. Okay. Net margin. All right. Okay. Amortization. Possibly the worst guess we've ever had at halftime of the show. I have no idea where you came up with that. It's unclear where that came from. All right. Yeah. Why do chefs love to invest? Well, they know all about stocks. Beef stock, chicken stock, vegetable stock. Nice. I mean, that does make sense. And maybe one day they can aspire to become bouillonaires. Oh. That was. That was. That hurts. In a good way. I like that. In a bad way. I like that.

37:56That was the cherry on top. That's good. That's good. I was not expecting that, Yasser. Thank you. You know, no one is laughing harder than Yasser at his own joke. That's good. It's good stuff. It's a sign of a really bad joke. No, no, no, no. Thank you. It was well delivered. Mac, you have an opportunity to continue the entertainment. So, David Yasser, a termite walks into a bar and says, is the bartender here? Mmm. Mmm. I got that. I did, too. I did, too. What I'm doing is I'm weighing the value of these two jokes. I'm actually weighing whether we should keep doing jokes at halftime now. Oh, my God.

38:39I think we should allow our listeners to vote on the best jokes. That's bad for your heart also. I will say this. Next week on this show, it is our September 2026 mailbag. Dear listener, if you feel as if you have a better joke than my contestants brought and you'd like to share it with the world, I will share it through this podcast next week on our mailbag. It's a low bar. I mean, we might have a lot of entries. I also want to mention that we have audio mailbag now on Rule Breaker Investing. We've enjoyed doing this the last couple of months. So if you'd like to submit, I mean, the email address is the same, rbi at fool.com.

39:17If you'd like to submit an audio thought, question, poem, challenge, we enjoy doing audio as well. So you can be famous on next week's show with your voice or you could mail us a joke. You probably shouldn't do both. Should we have people send in audio mailbags with their jokes? I'd be careful. I'd be careful of that. So we'll see. It has to be PG. Family show. Thank you. Well, speaking of family shows, this is one that I hope is entertaining the family because we have a tie at halftime. This is getting exciting, guys. Let's move on to stock number six. All right, stock number six. Matt Greer, we're back from halftime.

39:59Let's start with a little quiz. So I'm going to give you the name of a real person whose name became the name of a public company. So you're going to tell me what that person did. Pretty basic. You ready? Okay. Charles Schwab. Invest. Help people invest. Yeah. Like brokerage account, right? Yeah, brokerage. Discount brokerage. Okay, good, good. You got that one. Next one. John Deere. Ag, equipment, tractors, all the good stuff. But who was John Deere? John Deere. I think that's a trick question. You can't use AI. By the way, I'm the only one with a computer because I'm running the game show. These guys can't see anything.

40:36So you can't use ChatGPT right now to tell you who John Deere is. I admit I didn't know who John Deere was myself. I do know now. I do know. I just don't like talking about it. Because, you know, blacksmiths who develop commercially successful steel plows just kind of on your verboten list. Yeah. Yeah. Blacksmith. Okay. Okay. So, Charles Schwab, you nailed it. I would say you mostly got John Deere. So, you ready for another famous American who gave his name to a public company? Yep. All right. Who is Jack Henry? So, John Henry was a steel-driving man, I think, right? He was probably a friend of John Deere.

41:14Right. And Johnny Tremaine, those were fictitious. John Henry fictitious, I think. It sounds like you don't know who Jack Henry is. No, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Jack Henry was, I mean, they were, you know, John, Jack, they were brothers. um john henry no is it jack henry or john henry so i'm gonna answer the question he was an entrepreneur he was an entrepreneur that is true he was and he was he was he was very successful do you remember what america's bicentennial year was um yeah 1976 and that was the year that jack henry and his business partner jerry hall started a little company in monette which state missouri Dang it.

41:53Yasser was born in Egypt, and he just nailed that. Oh, my gosh. Wasn't Jerry Hall married to Mick Jagger?

42:02Jack Henry and our Jerry Hall provided computer systems to community banks. So 50 years later now, Jack Henry & Associates, ticker symbol JKHY, is one of the, I would say, one of the important technology companies that sits invisibly behind American banking. So it provides the core systems, digital banking, payments, fraud protection, lending, other technologies that help banks and credit unions actually function. So today, more than 7 ,200 financial institutions use not John Henry and not Jerry Hall, although, yes, Jerry Hall, but Jack Henry technology. So we've talked about the company. What I haven't shared yet is this is a throwdown.

42:54This is throwdown number two, our final throwdown for this episode of the Market Cap Game Show. So Mac and Yasser pencils out. What are your stated market cap ranges for Jack Henry and Associates? Ticker symbol J-K-H-Y. Maybe not as well known as Charles Schwab, maybe. By now, players at home, I think you know the deal. When I count three, you're simply going to say Mac or Yasser. And if that fool gets it right, you get a point. I see, Mac, you are already ready. Yasser, okay, your pencil is down. Let me turn right back to Mac Greer. Mac, what did you write down for the market cap for your guy, Jack Henry?

43:35$20 to$30 billion. $20 billion to$30 billion. Yasser, what do you have on your pink post-it note? Sure. I went a little lower with$13 to$18 billion. $13 billion to$18 billion. Players at home, I'm about to count three. You're either going to say Mac if you think it's$20 to$30, or Yasser if you think$13 to$18 billion. All right, three, two, one. All right, you said it. And I'm here to let my players know you guys both missed it again. And one of you got closest to the actual market cap of Jack Henry, which is$10.45 billion, which means if you said Yasser, players at home, you and Yasser get a point.

44:21$10.45 billion, Yasser. You said$13 to$18, so that was closest. You know, the Jack Henry origin story is almost suspiciously perfect for a game show because the year was the bicentennial year. Matt Greer and Jack and Jerry sketch out their business idea. Where? Literally on the back of a napkin. And where did they rent that space to make it all happen? An engine repair shop. They were renting for$40 a month. This is a classic business startup kind of a situation. 50 years later, Jack Henry is an S &P 500 company. By the way, one year later in 1977, their grand total revenue was$115 ,222. Eight years after that, Jack Henry went public on the NASDAQ, and JKHY has been its ticker ever since.

45:12Yasser, were you confident, as you wrote down, is this a stock you've looked at 13 to 18? It's a stock I looked at way in the past, and I don't know, about a year ago or so, I looked at it again, and it still seemed not to have moved that much from when I had looked at it several years ago. So I kind of figured it was kind of a little bit on the smaller side. A spot of internet research shows that Jack Henry 10 years ago this week was at$87 a share. Today it's at$149, so it's up. but it certainly has underperformed the market averages. The markets have more than tripled over these 10 years. The stock has not yet doubled.

45:53It is way, way ahead of where it started, though, 50 years ago. So congratulations to Jack Henry and Mick Jagger's main squeeze, Jerry Hall. I think with Jerry Hall. I could be wrong about that. I don't know. You know, I had to check back in with my pal Wikipedia to just remember. So, yes, you're absolutely right. In fact, on her Wikipedia page, her partner Mick Jagger, 1977 to 1999. I think we may all be a little bit guilty, though, of failing the cultural literacy test here because Jerry Hall married Rupert Murdoch in 2016. They divorced six years later. But, yeah, we need to keep up a little bit more with, like, what's happening in the world.

46:38I had forgotten that. My wife informed me a few years ago that I needed to update my cultural references because I told someone like three years ago that I guess I wasn't cool because I didn't listen to Radiohead. And she said, you need to update your references. Well, you're slightly less cool than you were five minutes ago because Yasser has just taken a one point lead, three and a half to two and a half. And on to stock number seven. Yasser, rare earths, a phrase that we've probably heard dozens of times, especially in recent years. I'm not convinced that I personally could pass a pop quiz on what exactly a rare earth is.

47:16So help me out here. Is this an area of knowledge for you? Have you studied this? Vaguely, I've looked at it. What are rare earths? Okay, I mean, those are minerals that are found. They're actually, fun fact, they're not rare at all. They're plentiful. However, the effort and expense and cost necessary to actually refine the, I guess, the dirt or the ground or the rocks. Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium. I can never say those words. I wouldn't even be able to pronounce them correctly. But, you know, yeah, they are plentiful and they're expensive to refine. They're relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, but it's rare to find them concentrated enough to extract them.

48:07So, yeah, powerful permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, robotics, drones, the list goes on. That all takes us to MP Materials, ticker symbol MP. MP owns and operates the Mountain Pass. rare earth mine and processing facility in California. It has expanded downstream into making rare earth metals and magnets at its independent facility in Fort Worth, Texas. In other words, MP is trying to build an American supply chain that goes from rock in California to finished magnet in Matt Greer's home state, the proud state of Texas, the Lone Star State. Yasser El-Shimi, what is your stated market cap range for MP materials, ticker symbol MP?

48:55My stated market cap range is$20 billion to$33 billion. $20 billion to$33 billion. Now, Mac, this is, I mean, Yasser showed, I would say, a high degree of comfort with the phrase rare earth. While he didn't name any of the rare earths themselves and said he couldn't pronounce them, he already understood the gist of it. And his market cap range of$20 billion to$33 billion would probably strike you, would have to strike you as plausible. Yes, absolutely. But I think it may be a little rich. So I think that the valuation is a little more down to earth. So I'm going to say - You're going to disagree.

49:40I'm going to disagree. And are you going to say, press a half point? I'm going to press a half point and I'm going to go below the range. So players at home, you can either agree with Yasser, in which case if it's 20 to 33, you're going to get a point. Or you could disagree with Yasser and take Max Gambit saying it's lower than that. And the market cap for MP Materials at market close Tuesday, September 22nd, was$9.09 billion. dollars, which means if you disagreed with Yasser and in fact went and pressed with Mac, give yourself a point and a half. Now, this is part of the fun of the King Sharon rule introduced last show that we use now because normally you could only score a point.

50:26But what just happened with Yasser up three and a half to two and a half, Mac, you just took a half point lead. You're now winning four to three and a half. It's a rare win, but I'll take it. Yeah. Your emotions right now. I just I'm on the verge of tears. It's so emotional. I hear the emotions. I mean, it's audio, so you can't see it, but I'm incredibly choked up right now. Mountain Pass, by the way, has been around a lot longer than today's rare earth headlines. Rare earths were discovered there in 1949. By 1966, the year of my birth, Mountain Pass had become the world's leading source of rare earths, a position it held for decades.

51:04Here's some sense of its skill. Well, MP has historically produced roughly 15 % of the world's rare earth content from this one California operation. Although, as we just noted, it's now not just mining, it's also crafting. And so that's an interesting company, but a smaller cap company than some of us were thinking. So as we move on to stock number eight, again, it's Mac four, Yasser three and a half. Let me turn back to Mac Greer. Mac, we haven't talked at all about landlords so far this episode. Let's talk a little bit about landlords. So over your lifetime, you may have been a renter at points.

51:39I was. I think you might be a homeowner today. I'm a homeowner. I rented in Washington, D.C. for 10 years. So a long time. What makes somebody a good landlord? You know, I think responsive, right? So when you have a problem, they respond. They're on it. Did you have a moment with a landlord where you experienced responsiveness? Very few. and I will say that part of the deal was I had a very good setup. I didn't know that my place ended up being rent stabilized and it was crazy. So my rent essentially didn't go up over 10 years, which is nuts. In D.C., it went up like$30 over a 10-year period. You should be thanking the Washington, D.C.

52:20city government. I know, I know. It's crazy and we won't get into the politics of it, but what I took from that is I just need to fix all my own stuff and never complain and never say peep to the landlord because I have a good deal. So that was my approach. Got it. And yet you walked away from it all and bought a house at some point. All right. Well, let's upgrade your needs substantially for the purpose of stock number eight. So you're starting a biotech company, Matt Greer. You've raised your first serious round of funding. You've hired some scientists. You need a place to put them. What does your dream landlord need to provide now?

52:56It's biotech. So you need a clean space. I need a sterile, clean space. Yeah. Maybe some laboratory ventilation. Yes. Yes. A cryogenic chamber to sleep. No, no. Yeah. But a clean space. A clean space. Hazardous material handling. Oh, absolutely. Not every landlord provides. That's true. Some good gloves, but clean space. I want a clean space. You'd probably love to be surrounded maybe by universities. And that too. Hospitals. Yes. Sorry. And a clean space. Other scientists. Capital. That's good. Starbucks. Excellent. That all brings us then to the business of Alexandria Real Estate Equities. ticker symbol A-R-E.

53:33Alexandria is a real estate investment trust specializing in life science campuses. It owns and develops laboratory and research properties concentrated in places like greater Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and New York City. As of June 2026, Alexandria had 36 million rentable square feet of operating properties. I'm providing some numbers, maybe a little bit of help for players at home and Matt Greer, who's now on tap to announce his stated market cap range for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, ticker symbol A-R-E. Five to ten billion dollars.

54:20$5 to$10 billion. Now, The Motley Fool started in Alexandria, Virginia. Alexandria Real Estate Equities actually started one year later. It was in 1994. No connection whatsoever, by the way. The latter, this company, is actually named for Alexandria, Egypt, which I think you'll appreciate, Yasser. I do. The great ancient center of science and learning. Also, their market cap is a bit larger than ours. Mac, you said$5 billion to$10 billion. Correct. All right. Yasser, players at home, do you want to agree or disagree with Max 5 to 10 billion? I'm going to disagree. All right. You're going to disagree.

54:59Would you like to press it or leave it alone? I'm going to press it. All right. And say it's higher. All right. So Max said 5 to 10. Players at home, you could agree with that. Or you could disagree and specifically say it's higher than that and press for a point and a half. And if you agreed with Mac, give yourself a plus one because that was a good call, Mac Greer. You made it hard on your opponent. $9.38 billion. Pretty squarely. I mean, it was close, but pretty squarely in your range. Is this sort of, Mac, you're coming off the par four where you've just birdied the hole with an awesome long putt and you drop the ball on the tee and you bring out your biggest club, your driver, and you're like, I am going to absolutely crush this.

55:46Is that how you felt as you said 5 to 10? I feel like I'm living a lie every time I win in this game. So that's how I feel.

55:57All right. The score is 5 to 3.5. There are two questions left, two stocks left. Let's keep moving. By the way, before we do, Alexandria began as a garage startup with$19 million in capital. It bought its first lab in Torrey Pines, San Diego. It went public just three years after that. What a story. Let's go on to stock number nine. Yasser, tomorrow morning, let's say you wake up after a beautiful night's sleep and decide you're done analyzing other people's businesses. You're going to start your own. What business does Yasser El Shimi start? Wow.

56:37Yeah. Yeah, I probably would start a bakery. Love it. Because there is a conspicuous need for fresh pastries in Montgomery County, Maryland. I'm just going to leave it at that. I'm already your first customer. Sounds fantastic. Yasser, you need some money, though. So you walk into a bank. You're looking for your first serious business loan. What would you want your banker to understand about your business before you'd feel comfortable borrowing to start that bakery? from them? I think I would want my banker to know that I have done a feasibility study, that I've kind of studied the area. I know what the traffic is going to be like and have some projections.

57:24Thank you. And Mac, now that you know that Jack Henry is probably running that bank systems, does that inspire you to maybe start a competing bakery? No, because I can't. I can't. I don't have the skills. I would invest in Yasser's Bakery. I would. I would as well. Yes. I don't want him to leave the Motley Fool and walk away from analyzing businesses, but I am excited about the possibility of a better croissant. Yeah. And he's done a feasibility study. I have not. Well, this conversation gets to the unusual idea behind our next company. So rather than simply saying we make small business loans, this bank has built teams that specialize in particular industries.

58:03In fact, it all started with a remarkably narrow customer base. The year was 2008. And Live Oak Bank shares in Wilmington, North Carolina said, we're just going to focus on one customer type, veterinarians. And they nailed it. They figured out that industry, and then that gave them confidence to go to other specialized industries. And today, Live Oak Bank shares, well, I'm not going to share the market cap because I'm going to turn to Yasser in a moment and ask him. But that is the story behind ticker symbol L-O-B, which, Mac, you'll also appreciate as a Houston Astros fan, stands for left on base.

58:41Been rough here. I mean, my Minnesota Twins have been worse. It's been mediocre. It's just a lot of mediocrity. I mean, you guys gave us Correa. Then we gave him away. I know. I'm confused by what's been happening in baseball. It makes no sense. All right. This is a sidelight. We'll pick it up later. Okay. Yasser, Live Oak Bank shares, ticker symbol LOB. What is your market cap range for LOB? My range is$3 to$5.75 billion. $3 billion to$5.75 billion. Mac, have you ever been to Wilmington, North Carolina? I have. Yes. I think I have. I should know the answer to that. I'm going to go with yes. Did you visit Live Oaks corporate headquarters?

59:23I did not. I did not. Really? But I know that oaks are slow growers. So I'm working with that. Yeah. And they're beautiful trees. They're beautiful. It's North Carolina, one of my favorite places on earth. Yeah. Wilmington. But they take a while. Yasser said$3 billion to$5.75 billion. First of all, that's very close, but it's just a hair under three. so I'm going to say out of the range and I'm going to say below the range because it's a hair under three because oaks are slow growers. Okay. So Mac has disagreed with Yassir's range and also provided questionable reasoning behind his answer. Players at home, do you want to stick with Yassir's three to 5.75 billion Yassir's specific with these?

1:00:08We appreciate the second digit on this game show. Or you could disagree and with Mac say, Not only is it outside that range, it's lower than that range. And for questionable reasons. Yes. And for questionable reasons. Just a hair lower. Just a hair. And we have a new champion because Matt Greer, you just nailed it once again. This is one of the rags to riches stories, not just for this game show, but I would say for the last 50 years in American history, this is an amazing. You lost to Emily 9 to 1. Yes. Yes. Wow. So the market cap for Live Oak Bank shares, and I wouldn't have guessed this myself, but it's$1.75 billion.

1:00:44You basically reasoned correctly. I was trying to throw players at home off your scent, but the fact is you nailed that. It was a little bit lower than three. I'm going to credit my father, rest in peace, lifelong banker. His father, lifelong banker. So I think some of that must have gotten into osmosis. I thought when I was a kid, I was going to be a banker. Turned out I didn't want to be a banker. I'm so glad you weren't. But I think that maybe something got through there. Your father was a fantastic man. What a generous, generous family you come from, Mac. And thank you for sharing that memory of your father on a serious note.

1:01:22And I'm glad you're not a banker. And you know something about banks. Well done. You just took a lead six to three and a half, no matter what Yasser does for this last question. He can't catch you. And yet, as I'll often point out, people tend to forget everything else and just remember what happens at the end, Yasser. So let's move on to stock number 10. Mac, this is the final stock. I want you to think about everything that has to happen before you pull into a gas station, put the nozzle in your car, and gasoline actually comes out. Now, I know I'm talking to a native of Houston area, Texas.

1:01:54And so starting in an oil field somewhere and ending up in your gas tank, talk me through that journey. What do you think happens along the way? A lot of refinement and some processes that I'd rather not get into. Yeah, some pipeline maybe? Yeah, of course. Standard pipeline stuff and refinement. Really well said, yeah. Can we talk about Yasser's Bakery? What about the tanker truck to the local gas station, right? Oh, yeah, that's true. Oh, yeah, you got to transport it. So you got to get it out of the ground. You got to transport it. Yeah, you did so well with that. But let me ask you a further question.

1:02:33What about natural gas? How would you describe that journey? You know, it's... Comes out of wells. Much more natural. I mean, different form. I mean, processing plants remove water. Yeah, that's true. And other substances. Near Mac's community, it enters a local distribution system where pressure is reduced and smaller pipes carry it beneath the streets and ultimately into maybe his house or his parents' house or friends' houses and furnaces. And that's the story behind the physical network that makes filling up, I don't know, your house or your car possible. Our final company today. I was going to get to that.

1:03:11I felt rushed, but I was going to get to all of that. I was just trying to take the ball from you and run with it for a while. Our final company today is Kinder Morgan, ticker symbol KMI. It's one of my poorer stock picks in my own personal history. But it is one of North America's largest energy infrastructure companies. It owns interest. Well, I won't even say because that starts creating a spoiler. So let me just cut to the quick here. Matt Greer, for our 10th and final stock, what is your stated market cap range for Kinder Morgan, ticker symbol KMI? Can I call my brother? Can I phone a friend?

1:03:44Because he would know this because he has covered this company. We're sorry, Jim. You can't take Matt's call this time. But you guys can talk about it after the podcast. Okay. Kinder Morgan. Keep in mind. Rich Kinder. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Okay. And so I'm going to use my oak tree logic. Rich suggests a kind of rich valuation. Okay. Oh, I see. I'm going to say Kinder Morgan is$30 to$60 billion. All right. $30 billion to$60 billion for, again, one of North America's largest energy infrastructure companies. $30 to$60, Matt? Correct. All right. Yasser, while it's not possible to win, it is possible to get stock number 10 right.

1:04:31And we're playing for everybody at home right now, some of whom have like six and they're tied with Mac and they need you to come through for them. So 30 to 60 billion dollars. 30 to 60 billion dollars. this is admittedly not in your wheelhouse a number of these companies have not been in your wheelhouse I randomized from the full 500 every time we had a couple we had stat oil we had Norway for you alright so I'm going to go with disagree and I'm even going to press it with lower alright so Yasser has disagreed with max 30 to 60 billion dollar range players at home what are you doing alright give yourself plus one if you disagreed because you're right.

1:05:17And yet, I'm going to have to take away half point because it's not that it was smaller, it's that it was a little bit bigger. And I wouldn't have got this one myself, but the reality is market cap Kinder Morgan KMI, 69.63 billion dollars outside Max's range. Painfully close. You were right to say outside, a little bit not right to say lower, but you get a half point, which gives us an even score of six to four. This was close. Matt, you got off to a little bit of a lead. Yasser made a nice comeback. We were tied at halftime, but you were strong in the second half. Looking back right now, Matt Greer, little post-game interview, what do you think did it for you in the second half?

1:05:56I thought my termite joke may have kind of – that's when the momentum shifted. I couldn't recover from that. I couldn't recover. And it didn't really land in the room, but I could hear the people at home. All right. Well, thank you both. The final accounting then is this. I think I got it right. Mac 6, Yasser 4. But Mac and Yasser and I know we're not playing this game for each other. We're playing for you. So how did you score? Dear fool, dear listener at home, we hope that you outscored all of us. The purpose of the Market Cap Game Show is to make more popular. I'm never going to say as popular as Jeopardy, but to make more popular.

1:06:39Market Caps, the real value of stocks on the market that most people don't understand, except that, well, dear listener, you do understand because you just listened to us for an hour, and I hope you scored at least a few points this week and maybe beat one or both of our competitors. Yasser and Mac, thank you both for helping make the world a little bit smarter, happier, and richer this week. A quick reminder, next week is our month-end September mailbag. if you feel like you have a better joke than you enjoyed at halftime, we'd love to hear from you. Audio mailbags welcomed as well. Before I go, though, I would be remiss if I didn't turn to each of my noble contestants and ask them for a final line or a final thought.

1:07:21Yasser, I will turn to you first. What do you got? Someone wise once told me, if you don't ask, the answer is always no. and so uh it's a piece of advice i've taken with me throughout much of my adult life and uh hope to also convey to my kids as well i love that uncommon usually people have throwaway you actually threw down wisdom on the show i love that thank you very much yasser i will remember that and now turning to you mac i see you've whipped out your phone are you about to present a dramatic reading so a termite no i've got i've got a reading i've got a reading it's one of my favorite quotes, Maya Angelou.

1:08:01I've learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. That was beautiful, by the way. It is a great line, by the way. And Jerry Hall was apparently married to Rupert Murdoch. Thank you, Yasser. Thank you, Mac. Thank you, Fools at Home for suffering. Three Fools, gladly, this week. We hope all your market caps are on the rise. See you next week, Fool on!