Microsoft & OpenAI – Chinese whispers.

This is not a simple $10bn investment. Microsoft is deepening its ties with OpenAI which looks to me to be mostly about cementing Azure’s edge over AWS in that Microsoft has exclusive access to the hottest AI property on the market right now. Microsoft has said that it is making a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs” and that...

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Artificial Intelligence – Exploding hubris.

ChatGPT comes down to earth while Tesla goes underground. ChatGPT & AI in general had a bad week last week with a series of blunders that once again demonstrate that the machines are far too stupid to do anything that could be remotely described as intelligent in human terms. ChatGPT kicked off the series of howlers with a series of...

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Netflix Q4 2022 – Middle-aged.

Hastings ends on a bounce. Netflix announced good results at the same time that its long-term founder and CEO stepped down to be replaced with two co-CEOs which is never a good idea. Q4 2022 revenues / EPS were $7.85bn up 5% YoY (constant currency) / $0.12 below forecasts of $7.85bn / $0.5 but critically subscribers positively surprised. During Q4...

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Microsoft – single vision.

The end for HoloLens? Part of Microsoft’s 5% workforce reduction includes “changes to our hardware portfolio” which probably does not mean Xbox or Surface meaning that it is almost certainly HoloLens that is taking the hit throwing Microsoft’s Metaverse ambitions into even more uncertainty. HoloLens was once a trailblazer launched in 2015 demonstrated by Joe Belfiore shooting aliens behind a...

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Apple – Failure to launch.

Apple’s incremental reality The new reality of the Metaverse appears to have caused Apple to delay its AR headset and although the media still expects it to release a VR-like device this year, I continue to think that there is only downside and no upside in releasing any VR or AR devices before 2025. Apple also updated its Mac lineup...

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Google vs. ChatGPT – Scroogled again?

ChatGPT has Google needlessly rattled. Google has published a thinly veiled push-back against the notion that ChatGPT is a threat to its core search business demonstrating that ChatGPT has made Google nervous. I continue to think that there is no way that ChatGPT is in a position to replace Google anytime soon and so this is more of a PR...

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Deep Tech – 3D & wireless power

3D without glasses – The great debate. Ever since the TV makers’ disastrous attempt to get us all watching 3D TV at home, 3D outside of the cinema has been plagued by the question of whether it is a solution looking for a problem. The notion of wearing 3D glasses at home is well and truly over meaning that if...

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Semiconductors – Competing factors

2023 likely to be West vs. East. TSMC added its voice to Samsung’s in calling out the softness in the semiconductor market and I think that H2 2023 is very much up in the air as strength from China will help offset weakness from the West but there is no indication of by how much. TSMC reported Q4 2022 revenues...

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China vs. USA – False dawn.

There is more to EUV than a patent. There is a very big difference between filing a patent on the reflection of Extreme Ultraviolet light (EUV) and producing a working EUV machine that can be used to make chips in volume with good yields at 7nm and below. Despite this difference, the market seems to think that China is one...

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Microsoft & OpenAI – Fluff ’n’ stuff

OpenAI is a long way from challenging Google. The hubris around OpenAI following the popularity of ChatGPT continues to grow but the nature of ChatGPT and NLP models, in general, has not changed and they remain wholly unsuited for any task where factual accuracy and truth are important. As a result, I think that Microsoft will struggle to make a...