Artificial intelligence

Google will struggle with Apple-generated AI query

5 Apr 2024

Artificial intelligence presents the first serious threat to the search engine’s 25-year dominance. Parent Alphabet has the money and tech nous to fend off rivals. The bigger financial risk is its $120 bln relationship with the iPhone maker as trustbusters try to pry them apart.

US antitrust push invites creative dealmaking

4 Apr 2024

Policymakers and trustbusters are eyeing new restrictions on mergers and acquisitions. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists unpack some imaginative workarounds being used by companies ranging from Big Tech to fast food.

AI’s power surge short-circuits longer-term plans

1 Apr 2024

Data centers account for 2.5% of the US grid, and machine learning is supercharging growth. Where and how to build megaplexes consuming as much electricity as a small nuclear plant are the immediate problems, but they’re solvable. Calculating future demand is the real conundrum.

Collapsed US bridge spans hard assets to high-tech

26 Mar 2024

The Baltimore tragedy compounds Suez and Panama Canal shipping woes. Fallout from Los Angeles port closures illustrates how wide-ranging costs can be. For investors swept up in AI fervor, it’s a reminder that the value of intangible IP depends heavily on tangible infrastructure.

Middle East AI dream depends on luring brainpower

22 Mar 2024

An abundance of cheap energy to power data centres gives artificial intelligence startups reason to consider the Gulf. But to become a force in AI, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will have to design their own advanced chips. Attracting talent to the region will require more than money.

AI hype will be hard to puncture

20 Mar 2024

Short-seller Hindenburg is attacking $80 bln Equinix, whose data-center investments have been pumped up by artificial-intelligence exuberance. US regulators are also starting to target some of the hot air. Even so, the valuation bubble is more likely to deflate slowly than pop.

Alphabet and Apple have cause to circle AI wagons

18 Mar 2024

The $2.7 trln iPhone-maker is in talks to license Alphabet’s artificial intelligence models, according to Bloomberg. Apple has underinvested, but Google search’s pride of place on its devices is also at risk. A deal would help both defend their turf, if regulators don’t kill it.

AI makes venture capital Big Tech’s country cousin

13 Mar 2024

Early-stage investors have long competed to back the hottest startups. Now artificial intelligence startups seeking capital and computing power are going directly to deep-pocketed giants like Microsoft and Amazon, leaving venture capital firms scrabbling for crumbs in the boom.

Musk vs. Altman is a battle everyone loses

5 Mar 2024

The Tesla boss's complaint that OpenAI ignored obligations to the human race distracts from a bigger problem. Existential issues are best overseen by democratic governments, because to leave them to techno-libertarians and private contracts is absurd. AI is no different.

VCs don shades even as tech storm clouds gather

29 Feb 2024

Even as OpenAI faces a probe, entrepreneurs and their backers meeting in California have high hopes for the industry. It’s not clear why. Last year’s funding and dealmaking rout leaves founders short on cash, and attempts by big tech firms to fill the void may make matters worse.

Snowflake shows how easily AI valuations can melt

29 Feb 2024

Growth slows a little and a 65-year-old CEO retires. The result: a fifth of the data firm’s $75 bln market value vanishes. It’s a sign of how much perfection is priced into AI-related stocks. Snowflakes are never alike, but when it comes to investor exuberance, tech firms can be.

Apple picks a better road to AI dominance

28 Feb 2024

The $2.8 trln tech giant has ditched a decade-long quest to build a car. Though huge, the auto market is cutthroat. Besides, making cars would have mostly been a new way to capture customers’ data and brainspace. The iPhone maker has more effective ways to achieve that goal.

Europe shares’ granola rush will become thin gruel

26 Feb 2024

The STOXX 600 Index has hit a record, but local funds are seeing outflows. As in the US a small bunch of companies – the so-called GRANOLAS group – are behind the good news. But in the Old Continent they’re more dependent on weak economic growth rather than the AI revolution.

Nvidia’s AI stronghold supports $3 trln valuation

21 Feb 2024

The chipmaker’s latest results support the frenzy that tripled its stock price in a year. Unlike other dubious beneficiaries of artificial intelligence hype, the $1.7 trln company’s grip on the market will be hard to wrest. It could soon be worth nearly twice as much again.

Cloudflare risks a lesson in giants’ AI advantage

16 Feb 2024

At 23 times expected sales, the $34 bln cybersecurity firm is one of the most richly valued software companies. Using its network to power AI holds promise, but enormous spending and the risk of being overshadowed by titans like Microsoft makes investors look overambitious.

Nvidia’s AI mini-bets set an example not to follow

15 Feb 2024

SoundHound AI shares surged 76% thanks to a $3.7 mln investment from the giant chipmaker. Not bad for a company likely to miss projections it set before going public in 2022. The colossal Nvidia will be fine even if SoundHound proves a dud. Coattail riders can’t say the same.

Arm’s weirdly high valuation has legs

13 Feb 2024

The $150 bln chip designer’s shares have doubled since last week’s positive outlook. The good news supports a higher valuation, but Arm’s current level is excessive. Yet with a small free float and majority owner SoftBank unlikely to sell any time soon, it may stay in the clouds.

Sam Altman inflates one-man AI bubble

9 Feb 2024

The OpenAI chief wants to boost chip capacity to speed artificial intelligence, possibly raising $7 trln, the Wall Street Journal said. That’s what chipmakers might spend on factories in two decades - and would surpass previous investment booms. It’s mostly a gauge of AI hype.

EU’s AI ambitions may fail on two fronts

8 Feb 2024

Brussels wants to set the global standard for artificial intelligence rules while helping Europe’s most promising startups to thrive. But its AI Act may be too fussy for others to copy, even as risks remain. And it will do little to help local champions take on US tech giants.

Capital Calls: Maersk, SoftBank, Adyen

8 Feb 2024

Concise views on global finance: The Danish shipping giant’s shares fell 14% after it missed expectations and warned of years of earnings pain; the Japanese investment firm posted its first net profit in five quarters; the Dutch payment company is slowly recovering.