China always had an ‘Oil’ problem. It produced only 30% of its total oil consumption. Even worse, 80% of its oil imports passed through the Strait of Malacca. This ‘chokepoint’ is 2.8 kilometers wide at its narrowest, making it easy to effect a naval blockade. To reduce its dependence on Oil, the Chinese government went…
Blogs
AI Scaling Laws and the Race to AGI – Part 2
In the first part ‘AI Scaling Laws and the Race to AGI – Part 1‘, we explored: In this blog, we will look at why AGI is an opportunity and an existential risk for most tech companies. AGI – Opportunity or Existential risk for Big Tech? In 2005, Ray Kurzweil predicted in his book ‘The…
AI Scaling Laws and the Race to AGI – Part 1
Outline Overview Some analysts are saying that the markets today are like 1996 – the promise of a magical era where valuations didn’t matter as long as you dared to dream big and believe in the power of the emerging World Wide Web (Internet). Others say that a rude awakening awaits us and the markets…
Qualcomm – When AI says Hi to the Edge
Microsoft kicked off the AI race when ChatGPT was launched on 30 Nov 20222 and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) genie was let loose. On 21 May 2024, Microsoft was again first off the blocks to bring AI to a PC near you. Vital to its plan are chips manufactured by Qualcomm that allow AI processing…
Snowflake – A Curiously Resilient Performance in Q3 FY24
Exploring Snowflake’s resilient Q3 FY24 performance amid changing cloud dynamics. Insights on gross margin expansion, headcount increases, US concentration, network effects, and the marketplace’s impact. A detailed analysis shedding light on Snowflake’s strategic moves and growth potential
Running Stable Diffusion is also expensive but Nvidia isn’t complaining – Part 2
In the first part of this series on Nvidia’s role in AI, we covered how the Artificial Intelligence (AI) arms race began. We examined the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) requirements for training AI Models such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. We saw that training AI Models is clearly expensive – it took 4,000 & 10,000 Nvidia…
Teaching ChatGPT is Expensive but profitable for Nvidia – Part 1
“This is the iPhone moment of artificial intelligence” said Jensen Huang, the charismatic Nvidia CEO, to an audience hanging on to every word in rapt attention at the Haas School of Business, Berkeley on 1 Feb. The analyst community was counting down to 22 Feb when Nvidia would release its Q4 and FY23 results. The…
Nvidia – From GPUs to AI to everything else in Between
If you have been following Nvidia of late, it seems to offers a dizzying array of products and solutions in industries ranging from self-driving tractors, medical scanning, folding proteins, robots running around, metaverse and of course, everyone’s favourite – Artificial Intelligence (AI). It still remains the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) of choice for gamers. But…
Tesla & The Inevitability of EVs?
The fundamental question on Tesla is whether it is an Auto company or a Technology company. At this point, it would be safe to say that a large part of Tesla’s valuation is from the auto sales. Let’s look at the Auto Industry globally, the growth of Electric Vehicles and Tesla’s seemingly inexorable rise to…
Snowflake – Overvalued, but for a very good reason
In Sept 2020, long-term Warren Buffett watchers were surprised to learn that Berkshire Hathaway purchased shares of a ‘Cloud Company’ called Snowflake during its IPO debut. This action was atypical of Buffett – who famously eschews Technology Stocks as they are outside his ‘circle of competence’. Buffett also had a stated aversion to buying companies…