Huawei is not coming back in 5G. Huawei is reportedly planning a 5G comeback in smartphones but while there is no reason why it can’t make 5G devices, they will be so uncompetitive that it might as well not bother. Furthermore, its inability to access the Google ecosystem means that even if it could make good 5G phones, it would...
Strategic investors will pay more. SoftBank is engaging in a strategy to maximise the price at which it can sell Arm with the hope that because strategic investors are very likely to be willing to pay a high valuation, the public market will also. Nvidia is in talks to become an anchor investor in the re-IPO of Arm which would...
An impossible problem. China is pressing ahead with AI regulation which is going to be so problematic that it could end up destroying development in this key technology highlighting the conflict between the CCP’s need to control public discourse and its desire to excel at AI. The proposed European regulation has exactly the same problems but the greater freedom that...
Ant Group’s nightmare is finally over. Ant Group is buying back some of its shares in a move that indicates that the evisceration inflicted upon it as a result of Jack Ma’s transgressions is over and the company can get back to business. Ant Group is proposing to buy back 7.8% of every shareholder’s position at a valuation of $78.5bn...
Samsung echoes Micron. Samsung reported the worst set of preliminary results for many years but critically, they were slightly better than expectations and show a similar pattern to Micron where the decline in demand appears to be stabilising. Q2 2023 revenues / operating profit is expected to be around KRW60tn (down 22% YoY) / KRW600bn down from KRW14.1tn in Q2...
I think Musk wins this cage fight. Meta Platforms is releasing an alternative to Twitter which will give all those who say they want to leave an opportunity to do so and will be a real-world test of the power of the network. Meta’s new app will be called Threads which will be a text-based platform where users can post...
History looks set to repeat itself. China’s limitations on Gallium and Germanium will cause some short-term disruption but it will not deliver negotiating leverage and will only accelerate the decoupling and increase China’s isolation in the long term. China has announced that it will impose limitations on the export of Gallium and Germanium in order to “safeguard the national security...
Apple makes lemons from lemonade. The master of marketing will be at work drumming up excitement via increased scarcity for a product that has no long-term future in this iteration even if the Metaverse does take over and replaces the smartphone. The FT is reporting (see here) that Apple has been forced to make substantial cuts to its production numbers...
Irrational exuberance is in full swing. As surely as autumn and winter follow summer, the current exuberance around AI is not going to last simply because the machines remain incapable of living up to the expectations that have been set for them. These cycles typically take the form of a discovery of some description followed by a ramping of expectations...
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.
Artificial Intelligence – Platform wars
The fight for the next platform begins. Meta’s decision to release commercial versions of its generative AI models as well as the supposed “leak” of its models have nothing to do with openness being “the best antidote to the fears surrounding AI” as stated by Meta and everything to do with becoming the development platform for the next generation of...