OpenAI jumps in just before everyone else. OpenAI’s new model has very little to do with improving raw performance and everything to do with making it easier and more fun to use, in a move designed to drive engagement and establish OpenAI as the premier AI ecosystem. OpenAI fired the first shots in the developer conference season that will see...
Pressure is making life very hard for Chinese semiconductors. SMIC reported difficult results as the cash machine that is supposed to be lagging edge is not delivering meaning that the losses that are being incurred at its most advanced, but uneconomic fabs are increasingly being felt in its financial performance. Q1 24 revenue / net income was $1.75bn / $71.8m...
Good, but it needs to be better. A large proportion of the automotive industry thinks that GM has taken leave of its senses by ditching CarPlay in its electric vehicles but the initial feedback is much better than expected although it needs to be a lot better before GM will be able to rid itself of Apple’s shackles. It was...
The story will remain v9 for some time. Arm reported good results where it made good on its FY24 forecasts, but the shares fell as the guidance for the coming year was not quite up to expectations meaning that the shares will now remain a push and pull between what multiple should be paid for AI and its relatively consistent...
Apple ups its cadence as competition heats up. Apple appears to be taking a leaf out of Nvidia’s book in launching a new chip just 6 months after it launched the last one in order to remain two generations ahead of Qualcomm even though it does not seem to be competing directly with it. Apple also updated its ageing iPad...
End-to-end machine learning is not the answer. SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft are pouring $1bn into a system that relies entirely on machine learning to drive vehicles in the hope that if the model is big enough and trained with enough data magically, the answer will pop out at the end. I suspect that when it comes to the problem of...
The only thing that matters is cash. The weakening of EV demand and the failure of the industry to produce autonomy has slowed demand for automotive Lidar putting a lot of players in existential trouble with Luminar being the latest victim. When a company announces a large restructuring, strategy shift and headcount reduction a few days before its results, it...
Fat middle age versus fighting for survival. Apple FQ2 24: Bounces off the bottom. Apple reported reasonable results and predicted a better FQ3 as the stabilisation in the smartphone market and continued growth in the services business are arresting the revenue decline. Apple also sprinkled its commentary with as much AI as possible promising that it would share “some very...
Stable quarter and guidance raised. A steady quarter devoid of fireworks but where the fundamentals are beginning to come together creates a foundation for more upside as new segments such as PCs and automotive gain traction. Qualcomm reported good results and raised guidance as the core smartphone chip business continues to recover and the new business areas get themselves ready...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
Google I/O – First Blood
OpenAI draws first blood in the competition against Google. Google continues to struggle with its messaging as OpenAI was able to deliver more in 30 minutes than Google did in a long, rambling and discombobulated 2 hours. If Google intended to amaze and astound then it failed badly, but it did manage to deliver a solid set of updates that...