Artificial intelligence

ASML’s sunny AI destination has a cloudy roadmap

15 Nov 2024

The $270 bln semiconductor equipment maker has stuck to its 2030 sales guidance, thanks to growing data centre needs. But chipmakers’ strife, politics, and weak smartphone demand remain near-term headaches. Investors may like ASML’s destination, but the route there looks bumpy.

Gulf’s AI strategy is built on more than sand

13 Nov 2024

The UAE and Saudi are raising $200 bln for artificial intelligence. A reliance on imported chips means AI superpower status akin to China or the US is unlikely. But even if the region can’t build a ChatGPT-killer, it can carve out a niche to make the exercise worthwhile.

Schneider fails first test of CEO succession plan

4 Nov 2024

The French electric equipment maker ousted Chief Executive Peter Herweck after finding him slow in the execution of his strategy. The $150 bln group needs to be fast in hot markets like data centres. But firing its boss after 18 months shows its decision-making is also wanting.

Saudi’s Davos is no longer such a desert

1 Nov 2024

Around 8,000 CEOs and financiers flocked to the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, twice the number at its inception in 2017. Western bosses were keener to talk about artificial intelligence than investing in the kingdom. But Saudi’s progress suggests that may yet change.

AI venture shapes up to be glue for the Muskiverse

31 Oct 2024

Tesla boss Elon Musk is in talks to raise money for his year-old xAI at a whopping $45 bln valuation. From satellites to cars to social media, his holdings have access to gobs of differentiated data. Self-dealing concerns aside, the OpenAI rival might just turbocharge the empire.

Big Tech’s AI spending isn’t crazy, in a vacuum

29 Oct 2024

Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet are all ramping investment by 40% or more this year. Each decision seems defensible, as an 8% revenue increase might justify the expense. Sitting out also could push businesses into extinction. But too many firms want pieces of the same pie.

China robotaxi IPOs may struggle to find their way

25 Oct 2024

Pony AI and rival WeRide are prepping US listings. But shares in fellow autonomous-vehicle pioneers like Mobileye and Hesai have lost half their value or more in the past year, and the road to profitability for driverless cabs looks long. That makes these deals a harder sell.

ASML’s weakness flags limits of the AI boom

15 Oct 2024

The 260 bln euro chip-machine maker’s shares plunged again amid flaky demand from smartphone customers. ASML already has separate issues with Intel and China. The struggles of a key sector stock are a timely reminder that the AI wave doesn’t lift all boats.

Why data centres are a bottleneck for the AI boom

15 Oct 2024

Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT depend on chips and energy. But a $1 trln rush to build data centres faces constraints on planning and power. In this episode of The Big View podcast, Morgan Laughlin of asset manager PGIM explains the virtual frenzy’s physical limits.

Tesla chooses a harder set of unanswered questions

11 Oct 2024

Boss Elon Musk revealed the self-driving Cybercab, reinforcing a turn from car-industry supremacy towards AI. As growth stalls, it offers a new excuse for Tesla’s $700 bln valuation, yet raises fresh technological and operational concerns. On those counts, the event was a dud.

Google antitrust roulette puts $600 bln at stake

9 Oct 2024

US competition cops presented a grab bag of possible remedies, including breaking up the $2 trln tech giant, after it was ruled a monopoly. Its dominance may soften the blow. But with search revenue and more at risk, the worst-case hit could top a quarter of Google’s value.

Decoding the puzzle of SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son

8 Oct 2024

The Japanese tycoon shaped global technology while building and losing vast fortunes. How does he keep going? In the first episode of Breakingviews’ new podcast, The Big View, former FT editor Lionel Barber discusses what he uncovered in his biography of Son, ‘Gambling Man’.

AI sparks only dim odds of nuclear chain reaction

7 Oct 2024

Plans to reopen a Three Mile Island plant have created buzz about an atomic energy comeback. For $1.6 bln, however, Constellation’s site would power just one big data center. The economics may someday compete with solar, but it will take coordination as hard to manage as fission.

OpenAI’s $157 bln valuation requires hand waving

3 Oct 2024

Assuming new investors want a 20% return in the artificial intelligence company, it needs a $1 trln price tag in a decade. That’s conceivable, based on other tech giants’ history. Founder Sam Altman just needs to beat rivals, turn a profit, and update its business model.

Big Tech farms out AI power build, keeps the risk

3 Oct 2024

Microsoft’s 10.5 GW electricity deal with Brookfield typifies a trend towards mega supply pacts. Given the huge capex bill for data centres, third-party power makes sense. But if artificial intelligence flops, so-called hyperscalers may be left with a lot of electrons to flog.

Beware hallucinations in AI chipmaker IPO

2 Oct 2024

Cerebras, a wannabe Nvidia challenger, may seek a valuation as high as $8 bln, or some 29 times sales. ChatGPT hype and Arm’s success will help, but the company’s growth hinges on one customer, Abu Dhabi’s G42. Their broader circular relationship also warrants sober scrutiny.

AI’s next feat will be its descent from the cloud

2 Oct 2024

Tech giants hoping to spend $1 trln on data centres are struggling to secure power supplies and space. That bolsters the case for smaller artificial intelligence models that can run on devices, not a remote platform. Phone and laptop makers from Apple to Lenovo stand to benefit.

OpenAI pushes limits of tech pivoting

26 Sep 2024

As part of a fundraising at a $150 bln valuation, ChatGPT’s maker may weaken its humanity-protecting nonprofit board and instead focus on profit. Boss Sam Altman also would get a big stake, in a rare case of equity misaligning incentives. Unless, that is, AI doomsayers are wrong.

AI is a black hole of bits, chips and power

26 Sep 2024

OpenAI’s ChatGPT kicked off a race to develop ever-more-sophisticated artificial intelligence. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingvews columnists dissect the vast amount of data-crunching bots and power required to feed it, investments that could cost trillions of dollars.

Chip halt flags EU’s also-ran status – and Intel’s

20 Sep 2024

The troubled US chipmaker has paused a 30 bln euros semiconductor factory in Germany. Weak demand is hampering Europe’s hopes to close the semiconductor gap between itself and the US. But another leg of the problem is that Intel itself lags rivals like Nvidia and TSMC.