There is much worse ahead. Although the real regulatory hammer has yet to fall on Tencent, it is being hit far harder than I expected in other areas meaning that when all is said and done, Tencent will be a pale shadow of its former self. Chinese regulators summoned the games companies to meetings to discuss their fate in what...
Nonsensical notion takes another hit. The defection of Apple’s car chief, Doug Field, is being seen as a huge blow for Apple’s ambitions to make a vehicle but seeing as this was very unlikely to ever materialise, it is not particularly big news. Doug Field is moving to Ford where he will be responsible for advanced technology and embedded systems...
State intervention will be detrimental in the long term. Part of the remedies imposed by the Chinese regulator could be a move to effective state control and a delisting from the US which I continue to believe will do more harm to China’s technology ambitions than the USA will ever accomplish on its own. China’s regulators are annoyed with Didi...
The concession that brings down the house. Apple’s most recent changes to its App Store policy look like little more than an attempt to win favour with both the US Government which is considering antitrust action and the judge currently considering her verdict in the Apple vs Epic battle royale. Apple is hoping that this will put the debate to...
Very little to see here. The notion that Arm China has pilfered Arm’s IP and is selling it to Chinese customers makes no sense because even if it were true, those customers would be unable to sell a device outside of China without being hit with a large stack of lawsuits. It is not difficult to draw this conclusion when...
South Korea sets a painful precedent. South Korea’s legislation to force Apple and Google to open their app stores to third-party payment options sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the world where the 30% obligatory revenue share model is coming under increasing pressure. On 31st August 2021, the National Assembly passed the Telecommunications Business Act which categorically states...
The real hammer has yet to fall. There is more bad news for Tencent as regulatory tightening is further restricting its gaming business but the real hammer that decimated Ant Group has yet to fall on Tencent’s huge financial services business. Under-18 Chinese children will now only be allowed to play video games between the hours of 8 pm and...
At $70bn+, expect valuation gymnastics. How an electric car company that has not yet shipped a single vehicle is worth more than Ford or GM or BMW or many other companies who sell millions of vehicles every year will need some contortion of investing fundamentals to explain. Rivian is an electric car company that was founded in 2009 and targets...
More peak cycle signals. Following on from its strong Q2 2021 results, Samsung has announced that it will be investing an eye-watering KRW240tn or $215bn over the next three years (see here) which combined with Intel is a further sign that this cycle is big and that the peak is not that far away. This investment includes the hiring of...
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.
China vs USA – Problematic signals
SMIC’s expansion highlights China’s difficulty in semiconductors. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is expanding its capacity, but its plans betray its limitations meaning that its 10nm aspirations are probably vapourware and that it will never compete in the big leagues. SMIC has announced that it will spend $8.9bn on a new fab in Shanghai that will be able to produce...