Tech

Brick phones will ring in an unlikely revival

19 Dec 2024

Nokia handsets of the early 2000s are appealing to a generation seeking a digital detox. The market, which is only 2% of US devices, is growing fast having doubled in a year. With the likes of Australia banning social media for under-16s, Apple and Samsung may pivot or lose out.

SoftBank’s $100 bln US pledge is doubly fanciful

17 Dec 2024

In 2016 Masayoshi Son offered to invest $50 bln stateside. Now the Japanese group’s founder has promised Donald Trump twice that sum, despite having barely a quarter of it at his disposal. It will be hard to make up the difference without selling shares in his crown jewel, Arm.

OpenAI IPO would create the next hot meme stock

16 Dec 2024

Sam Altman’s $157 bln ChatGPT creator looks increasingly like a money pit in need of constant funding. Elon Musk’s Tesla has shown that retail investors can support the stock price of a buzzy brand. An ongoing cleanup of the company’s unusual governance structure would help too.

US-China tech war will hold Asian allies hostage

16 Dec 2024

Washington’s curbs on semiconductors and other goods are starting to elicit a response from the People’s Republic. New export control rules offer a way for Beijing to retaliate. Its leverage over giants like Japan’s Toyota or South Korea’s SK Hynix make them prime targets.

Berlin can curb but not stop a Romania-TikTok mess

12 Dec 2024

The app is under scrutiny for enabling meddling in Bucharest’s elections. Given a blanket TikTok ban is beyond the EU’s remit, Germany’s February poll may go the same way. Yet Berlin could also coordinate better with tech platforms ahead of time – which Romania didn’t.

Masa Son risks overcompensating for his AI misses

3 Dec 2024

The SoftBank founder sold Nvidia too early and seems late to the party with his recent OpenAI investments. Now, he may be planning to invest $9 bln a year in artificial intelligence. The risk for the billionaire’s shareholders is that he acts recklessly to make up for lost time.

Big Tech’s Irish grip is immune to election shocks

27 Nov 2024

Sinn Féin wants Ireland to ditch its centre-right coalition. If their hard-left policies win, it would give the likes of Google a fright. But with a cadre of multinationals providing 60% of corporate tax receipts, policy will continue to be weighted towards them regardless.

A financial historian’s warning about the AI boom

26 Nov 2024

Artificial intelligence hopes have unleashed an investment frenzy, propelling chip giant Nvidia’s value to $3.5 trln. In this episode of The Big View podcast, mathematician Andrew Odlyzko explores parallels with the 1990s dotcom bubble and Britain’s railway mania of the 1840s.

Ireland’s $25 bln tax bounty reveals OECD flaws

19 Nov 2024

Dublin expects a record budget surplus in 2024 thanks to a cash deluge from tech giants. In this episode of The Big View podcast, Pascal Saint-Amans, the architect of a landmark 2021 tax treaty, explains how the US’s failure to ratify the deal allows havens to rake in billions.

Nvidia’s growing cash hoard points to M&A

18 Nov 2024

The chip designer could have $175 bln on hand in two years, surpassing even Apple’s giant pile of liquidity. Combined with a more deal-friendly US president, it opens up acquisitions. Founder Jensen Huang’s broad ambition means optics, healthcare and robotics are possible.

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.

Investors ignore the law of long-term averages

14 Nov 2024

US stocks are trading at 38 times cyclically adjusted earnings, near the most expensive level ever on that measure. For more than two decades, equities have defied predictions that valuations return to the historical mean. Yet conditions which enabled juicy returns are fading.

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.

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.

Uber’s deal chest would be well spent on groceries

31 Oct 2024

The $150 bln ride-sharing firm’s rich stock price gives boss Dara Khosrowshahi good reason to go shopping, especially amid the threat of robotaxis. Slower growth this quarter adds to the anxiety. A mooted Expedia tie-up would send the wrong message. Instacart is a better fit.

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.

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.

What Masayoshi Son can teach us about investing

11 Oct 2024

The Japanese tech tycoon backed future giants like China’s Alibaba as well as spectacular flops like office-sharing startup WeWork. A new biography likens him to a high-stakes gambler. But Son’s chequered career also reveals some of the skills of a successful venture capitalist.