Samsung semi goes into the red. Samsung reported preliminary results where profit fell by 95% as semiconductors in all probability has become loss-making which in turn triggered Samsung to finally cut its production. Q1 2023 revenues / operating profit were KRW63tn / KRW0.6tn way below consensus profit forecasts of KRW1.14tn and yet the shares rallied 4% after the news. This...
Google fails to dent Nvidia. Google’s claims of superior performance for its AI chips is somewhat misleading as it looks like the performance difference is to do with inter-chip data transport rather than processing speed and it benchmarks its products against one of Nvidia’s older products. Google has published a paper (see here) lauding the capabilities of its in-house designed...
2 good use cases for LLMs Bloomberg’s implementation of a chatbot using its own data and my own assessment of Bard, ChatGPT, Bing and so on leads to my conclusion that there are effectively 2 good use cases for large language models (LLMs) which could be very valuable within a reasonable time frame. Every man and his dog are racing...
Will he or won’t he? Tim Cook’s change of tone combined with endless leaks suggest that a Metaverse device is imminent however it still makes no sense to launch now and I have my doubts it will launch at WWDC. Despite the probability of further delays to the launch of a Metaverse device, the Apple marketing machine is already beginning...
Japan: the samurai strikes. Japan has entered the fray and put in place restrictions on semiconductor exports that are more draconian than the USA and where the Japanese state has effectively taken control of its semiconductor capital equipment market. Japan is imposing export restrictions on 23 types of equipment used to make semiconductors but instead of limiting it just to...
When FOMO bails, it is time to consider buying. Ford’s signalling of its intention to exit autonomous driving marks a point of capitulation for the momentum tourists implying that only the serious players are left and that perhaps the time is ripe to buy the distressed assets. Ford has informed the NHTSA (US road safety regulator) that it is not...
Turns out this stuff is expensive. Microsoft is moving to add advertising to its Bing GPT-4-powered chat service in a clear indication that large language models (LLMs) are very expensive to create and run which I think is a positive signal for Google. Bing has certainly seen an increase in usage as it now lays claim to 100m daily users...
State oversight is the driver. Shareholder value has little to do with Alibaba’s decision to reorganize and much more to do with providing the state with better visibility and control over the large range of its activities. Following on from the National People’s Congress, Alastair Newton and I have observed a range of reforms and changes being announced that have...
New CEO looks wrong for the job. Lyft’s founders have stepped back from running their company and have appointed a new CEO who, on the surface, appears to be wholly unequipped to deal with the difficult situation in which the company finds itself as well as its large and brutal competitor. Founders John Zimmer and Logan Green are stepping back...
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.
MoviePass 3.0 – Night of the living dead
Here we go again. MoviePass has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with yet another crack at the cinema subscription market after two failed attempts and a short sojourn with crypto and although this time there is a shred of economic rationality, I am not optimistic regarding its future. MoviePass first showed up in 2018 (see here) offering a fixed subscription...