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>>> Google scraps plan to remove cookies from Chrome
Reuters
7-22-24
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technology/google-scraps-plan-to-remove-cookies-from-chrome/ar-BB1qr9ml?OCID=ansmsnnews11
(Reuters) - Google is planning to keep third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, it said on Monday, after years of pledging to phase out the tiny packets of code meant to track users on the internet.
The major reversal follows concerns from advertisers - the company's biggest source of income - saying the loss of cookies in the world's most popular browser will limit their ability to collect information for personalizing ads, making them dependent on Google's user databases.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority had also scrutinized Google's plan over concerns it would impede competition in digital advertising.
"Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they'd be able to adjust that choice at any time," Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Google-backed Privacy Sandbox initiative, said in a blog post.
Since 2019, the Alphabet unit has been working on the Privacy Sandbox initiative aimed at enhancing online privacy while supporting digital businesses, with a key goal being the phase-out of third-party cookies.
Cookies are packets of information that allow websites and advertisers to identify individual web surfers and track their browsing habits, but they can also be used for unwanted surveillance.
In the European Union, the use of cookies is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which stipulates that publishers secure explicit consent from users to store their cookies. Major browsers also give the option to delete cookies on command.
Chavez said Google was working with regulators such as the UK's CMA and Information Commissioner's Office as well as publishers and privacy groups on the new approach, while continuing to invest in the Privacy Sandbox program.
The announcement drew mixed reactions.
"Advertising stakeholders will no longer have to prepare to quit third-party cookies cold turkey," eMarketer analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said in a statement.
Lena Cohen, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said cookies can lead to consumer harm, for instance predatory ads that target vulnerable groups. "Google's decision to continue allowing third-party cookies, despite other major browsers blocking them for years, is a direct consequence of their advertising-driven business model," Cohen said in a statement.
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>>> Accenture (NYSE: ACN) offers consulting services to help its clients optimize their workplaces, improve productivity, and add value to their customers. The company reported strong and rising revenue, along with higher net income, during the past three fiscal years.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-growth-stocks-buy-hold-104500181.html
Revenue increased from $50.5 billion for fiscal 2021 to $64.1 billion for fiscal 2023 (ended Aug. 31). Net income climbed from $5.9 billion to $6.9 billion over the same period. The free cash flow generated was healthy and averaged $8.7 billion per year from the consultancy firm. Because of this consistent free-cash-flow generation, dividends increased from $3.52 per share to $4.48 from fiscal 2021 through 2023.
Accenture's earnings momentum has carried over into the first nine months of fiscal 2024 (ended May 31). Revenue inched up 0.8% year over year to $48.5 billion, while net income rose 1.5% year over year to $5.6 billion. The business continued to generate copious amounts of free cash flow and raised its quarterly dividend to $1.29 from $1.12 a year earlier, giving the professional services company an annualized dividend of $5.16 and a dividend yield of about 1.6%.
Accenture has a track record of growing through acquisitions and carried out three such transactions in early July. The first was the purchase of Excelmax Technologies in India to boost its silicon design and engineering capabilities. The second involved the acquisition of True North Solutions, an industrial engineering solutions provider in Canada, to help the company's clients transport energy safely and more efficiently.
The third acquisition was Cientra, a company based in the U.S. with offices in Germany and India. Cientra can help Accenture with consulting expertise in the Internet of Things (IoT) and application-specific integrated circuit design. Accenture has more potential to grow in new and adjacent verticals through acquisitions, so investors should view the company as a long-term steady grower that dishes out a rising dividend.
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>>> Monolithic Power (NASDAQ: MPWR) isn't as well known as some other semiconductor companies, nor is it as big, with a recent market value near $41 billion. But it's been growing like gangbusters, taking market share from rivals with its data-center chips.
Its valuation seems steep, with a recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 63, well above its five-year average of 43. So perhaps wait and hope for a pullback, buy in installments over time, or just jump in if you expect its amazing run to continue.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-semiconductor-stocks-could-millionaire-093800468.html
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>>> Semiconductor ETFs -- These companies are all intriguing, and many of them, but perhaps not all, will be outstanding performers in the years and decades ahead. (Much will also depend on the price at which you invest in them, if you do, so aim to buy when they appear undervalued or at least reasonably valued.)
One way to play it a bit safe — while also aiming for outsized returns — is to invest in semiconductors via ETFs that focus on them. Check out these that have solid track records:
iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ: SOXX)
VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ: SMH)
SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: XSD)
Invesco Semiconductors ETF (NYSEMKT: PSI)
Consider keeping some of your assets in semiconductors — whether via individual stocks or ETFs. Or both!
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-semiconductor-stocks-could-millionaire-093800468.html
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>>> Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) has lots of fans because it specializes not only in chips but also software — and its operations are very diversified, too, including wireless and wired technology, optical products, mainframe software, cybersecurity, and storage, among many others. Its customers include Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, Intel, and many other big names. Broadcom is executing a 10-for-1 stock split on July 12.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-semiconductor-stocks-could-millionaire-093800468.html
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>>> Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has grown at a torrential rate in recent years, with many expecting it to keep doing so. (Others see it as needing to take a breather.) The company made a name for itself with gaming chips, but now it's not only a leader in graphics processing units (GPUs) for games but also in chips for data centers. And data centers are booming, as much of our AI activity runs through them.
The stock's valuation is steep, but if it keeps growing like crazy, it can be warranted. Proceed with caution if you're risk-averse.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-semiconductor-stocks-could-millionaire-093800468.html
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>>> 1. Palo Alto Networks - With a market capitalization of $110 billion, Palo Alto is the world's largest cybersecurity provider. Companies continue to shift their operations online with technologies like cloud computing, which is making them more vulnerable to cyberthreats than ever before. Plus, artificial intelligence (AI) allows malicious actors to stage highly sophisticated attacks and strike with much greater frequency than they could in the past.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2-no-brainer-growth-stocks-091700076.html
In fact, over the past year, Palo Alto has observed a tenfold increase in the number of phishing emails, which are designed to trick corporate employees into clicking malicious links and handing over sensitive information.
Palo Alto's products are split across three platforms: Cloud security, network security, and security operations, which include dozens of individual modules. The company is leaning heavily on AI to automate threat detection and incident response, ensuring organizations receive appropriate protection against modern-day threats.
The company's research suggests that 93% of security operations centers still rely on human-led processes, which means 23% of security alerts are left uninvestigated due to the growing workload. The company's new Cortex XSIAM security operations solution uses AI-powered automation to solve that problem. For one oil and gas company, XSIAM led to a 75% reduction in the number of incidents requiring manual investigation.
"Platformization" is sweeping the cybersecurity industry right now. It means customers are consolidating their cybersecurity spending with one provider (rather than using various products from different vendors). Palo Alto is enticing customers by offering fee-free periods to give them time to wrap up old contracts with competitors, at which point they could use Palo Alto exclusively.
This has led to a slowdown in the company's revenue growth recently, but it should pay off in the long term because customers who use all three of Palo Alto's platforms have a lifetime value more than 40 times higher than those using just one. In fact, $4.1 billion of Palo Alto's estimated $8 billion in revenue for fiscal 2024 (ending July 31) is expected to come from those platformization customers.
By 2030, the company projects that figure to more than triple to $15 billion, so investors who buy the stock now might be getting in on the ground floor of Palo Alto's next growth phase.
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>>> Motorola (MSI) Opens R&D Facility in Ireland to Drive Innovation
Zacks Equity Research
Jul 8, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/motorola-msi-opens-r-d-161300593.html
Motorola Solutions, Inc. MSI recently announced the inauguration of a new research and development center in Cork, Ireland. Motorola already boasts a strong presence in the country. The company acquired TETRA Ireland Communications Limited in 2022 to strengthen its land mobile radio (LMR) communications portfolio and its worldwide Managed & Support Services business. Motorola currently provides its secure communications network to emergency services for Ireland’s National Digital Radio Service.
The latest R&D center at Cork's vibrant city center will house 200 highly skilled workers. The new facility will primarily focus on designing software for Motorola Solutions' LMR portfolio. Plans to expand into other technologies are also in the cards.
Motorola’s mission critical LMR technology is gaining solid traction due to its robust and secure communications capabilities, engineered to operate even in the most extreme environments. So far more than 13,000 LMR networks have been deployed by various government agencies and enterprises globally.
Motorola boasts a rich legacy of innovation; the launch of the first car radios in the 1930s and its role in Apollo missions are testaments of that heritage. Over the past decade, Motorola has invested more than $12 billion in R&D and acquisitions to develop a leading-edge and comprehensive safety and security portfolio. With LMR representing the foundational core, Motorola is at the forefront of developing communications, video security, artificial intelligence and command center technologies to address the diverse scale of safety and security challenges.
Motorola recently acquired Noggin, a global provider of critical event management software. Noggin’s product offerings facilitate effective communications and unified procedures during incidents, fostering enhanced collaboration and a more proactive approach to safety and security. The buyout has strengthened Motorola’s portfolio for emergency coordination solutions.
Management’s strong focus on innovations and expansion of technological capabilities combined with strategic buyouts will bolster its position in the industry. The company remains poised to benefit from strong commercial growth backed by a diversified portfolio for a large addressable market.
The stock has gained 31.9% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 45.9%.
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LWLG - >>> Commencement of Commercial Operations
We commenced commercial operations in May 2023. Presently, our commercial operations consist of a material supply license agreement to provide Perkinamine® chromophore materials for polymer based photonic devices and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The license agreement represents tangible commercial progress for electro-optic polymers as part of our Company's business plan. Our Company is also in various stages of photonic device and materials development and evaluation with potential customers and strategic partners. We expect to continue to obtain a revenue stream from technology licensing agreements, and to obtain additional revenue streams from technology transfer agreements and direct sale of our electro-optic device components. We have seen increased interest in our materials during 2023 and we are in discussions on future license agreements.
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https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1325964/000155335024000021/lwlg_10q-033124.htm
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LWLG - >>> Common Stock, Options and Warrants
In January 2019, the Company signed a purchase agreement with the institutional investor to sell up to $25,000,000 of common stock. The Company registered 9,500,000 shares pursuant to a registration statement filed on January 30, 2019 which became effective February 13, 2019. The Company issued 350,000 shares of common stock to the institutional investor as an initial commitment fee valued at $258,125, fair value, and 812,500 shares of common stock are reserved for additional commitment fees to the institutional investor in accordance with the terms of the purchase agreement. The Company registered an additional 6,000,000 shares pursuant to a registration statement filed on January 24, 2020 which became effective February 4, 2020. The Company registered an additional 8,000,000 shares pursuant to a registration statement filed on November 20, 2020 which became effective November 20, 2020. During the period January 2019 through June 30, 2021, the institutional investor purchased 22,337,500 shares of common stock for proceeds of $23,773,924 and the Company issued 772,666 shares of common stock as additional commitment fee, valued at $1,575,509, fair value, leaving 39,834 in reserve for additional commitment fees. All of the registered shares under the purchase agreement have been issued as of December 31, 2023.
On July 2, 2021, the Company filed a $100,000,000 universal shelf registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission which became effective on July 9, 2021.
On October 4, 2021, the Company entered into a purchase agreement with the institutional investor to sell up to $33,000,000 of common stock over a 36-month period. Concurrently with entering into the purchase agreement, the Company also entered into a registration rights agreement which provides the institutional investor with certain registration rights related to the shares issued under the purchase agreement. Pursuant to the purchase agreement, the Company issued 30,312 shares of common stock to the institutional investor as an initial commitment fee valued at $279,174 fair value, and 60,623 shares of common stock are reserved for additional commitment fees to the institutional investor in accordance with the terms of the purchase agreement. During the period October 4, 2021 through June 30, 2023, the institutional investor purchased 3,632,456 shares of common stock for proceeds of $33,000,000 and the Company issued 60,623 shares of common stock as additional commitment fee, valued at $694,531 fair value. All of the registered shares under the purchase agreement have been issued as of December 31, 2023.
On February 28, 2023, the Company entered into a purchase agreement with an institutional investor to sell up to $30,000,000 of common stock over a 36-month period. Concurrently with entering into the purchase agreement, the Company also entered into a registration rights agreement which provides the institutional investor with certain registration rights related to the shares issued under the purchase agreement. Pursuant to the purchase agreement, the Company issued 50,891 shares of common stock to the institutional investor as an initial commitment fee valued at $279,391 fair value, and 101,781 shares of common stock are reserved for additional commitment fees to the institutional investor in accordance with the terms of the purchase agreement. During the period February 28, 2023 through March 31, 2024, the institutional investor purchased 4,120,455 shares of common stock for proceeds of $21,298,402 and the Company issued 72,261 shares of common stock as additional commitment fee, valued at $433,003, fair value, leaving 29,520 in reserve for additional commitment fees. During the three-month period ending March 31, 2024, pursuant to the purchase agreement, the institutional investor purchased 1,250,000 shares of common stock for proceeds of $5,152,350 and the Company issued 17,482 shares of common stock as additional commitment fee, valued at $76,977 fair value. During April and May 2024, pursuant to the purchase agreement, the institutional investor purchased 250,000 shares of common stock for proceeds of $973,950 and the Company issued 3,304 shares of common stock as additional commitment fee, valued at $13,658 fair value, leaving 26,216 in reserve for additional for additional commitment fees.
On December 9, 2022, the Company entered into a sales agreement with an investment banking company. In accordance with the terms of this sales agreement, the Company may offer and sell shares of its common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $35,000,000 from time to time through or to the investment banking company, as sales agent or principal. Sales of shares of the Company’s common stock, if any, may be made by any method deemed to be an “at the market offering”. The sales agent will be entitled to compensation under the terms of the sales agreement at a commission rate equal to 3% of the gross proceeds of the sales price of common stock that they sell. During the three months period ending March 31, 2024, pursuant to the sales agreement, the investment banking company sold 77,150 shares of the Company’s common stock for proceeds of $330,453 after a payment of the commission in the amount of $10,221 to the investment banking company. During April and May 2024, pursuant to the sales agreement, the investment banking company did not sell any shares of the Company’s common stock.
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https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1325964/000155335024000021/lwlg_10q-033124.htm
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LWLG - >>> The Company's first commercial agreement occurred in May 2023, in the form of a four-year material supply and license agreement (the “License Agreement”) that incorporates the Company's patented electro-optic polymer materials for use in manufacturing of photonic devices (the “Licensed Product”). The licensee shall pay the Company a running royalty with a minimum royalty paid on an annual basis over the term of the License Agreement. Additional future revenue will be generated from royalties from the licensee’s sale of Licensed Product that exceed the minimum royalty payments and milestone license fees. The License Agreement is a non-exclusive material supply and license agreement.
During 2024, the Company performed device poling work for a customer.
Timing of Revenue Recognition and Contract Balances
Revenues related to the initial license fee and a minimum annual royalty are recognized over time commencing with the License Agreement in May 2023. An up-front license fee in the amount of $50,000 was paid during the period ending December 31, 2023. $35,708 of this amount is recorded in short term liability deferred revenue in the Company’s balance sheet as of March 31, 2024. For the three months ended March 31, 2024, the Company recognized $16,667 in revenue related to this agreement.
In March 2024, the Company completed coating and poling work on the devices supplied by a customer. Revenue for this contract was recognized at the time of shipment of the devices back to the customer and amounted to $13,750 for the three months ended March 31, 2024.
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https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1325964/000155335024000021/lwlg_10q-033124.htm
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LWLG - from Q1-24 (Form 10 Q)
>>> Our future expenditures and capital requirements will depend on numerous factors, including: the progress of our research and development efforts; the rate at which we can, directly or through arrangements with original equipment manufacturers, introduce and sell products incorporating our polymer materials technology; the costs of filing, prosecuting, defending and enforcing any patent claims and other intellectual property rights; market acceptance of our products and competing technological developments; and our ability to establish cooperative development, joint venture and licensing arrangements. We expect that we will incur approximately $1,840,000 of expenditures per month over the next 12 months. Our current cash position enables us to finance our operations through August 2025.
On February 28, 2023, the Company entered into a purchase agreement with an institutional investor to sell up to $30,000,000 of common stock over a 36-month period (described in Note 10). Pursuant to the purchase agreement, the Company received $973,950 in April and May 2024 and the remaining available amount of $7,727,648 is available to the Company per the agreement.
On December 9, 2022, the Company entered into a sales agreement with an investment banking company whereby the Company may offer and sell shares of its common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $35,000,000 from time to time through or to the investment banking company, as sales agent or principal (described in Note 10). There were no sales of shares of the Company’s common stock pursuant to the sales agreement in April and May 2024. The remaining available amount of $33,096,514 is available to the Company per the agreement.
The Company's first commercial agreement occurred in May 2023 from a material supply and license agreement that incorporates the Company's patented electro-optic polymer materials for use in manufacturing photonic devices (described in Note 3). For the three months ended March 31, 2024, we recognized $16,667 in revenue related to this agreement.
Our cash requirements are expected to increase at a rate consistent with the Company’s path to revenue as we expand our activities and operations with the objective of increasing our revenue stream from the commercialization of our electro-optic polymer technology. We currently have no debt to service.
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>>> Why Badger Meter Stock Is Off the Charts Today
by Rich Smith
Motley Fool
Apr 18, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-badger-meter-stock-off-154259846.html
Shares of water measurer Badger Meter (NYSE: BMI) jumped 12% through 11:15 a.m. ET Thursday after exceeding expectations with its Q1 2024 earnings report this morning.
Analysts had forecast Badger Meter would earn $0.82 per share on sales of $182.3 million -- but Badger beat those numbers with a stick. Badger's earnings for the quarter came within a whisker of $1 a share -- $0.99 -- and sales were $196.3 million.
Badger Meter Q1 sales and earnings
Badger Meter scored wins across the board this morning, growing sales 23% year over year, expanding its operating profit margin by 290 basis points to 18.6%, and growing its net income a whopping 50%. CEO Kenneth Bockhorst credited both "robust customer demand" and "operating execution" for the "exceptional" results.
Sales growth among water utility customers was particularly strong, up 29% -- continuing a yearlong trend of 30%-ish sales growth in this sector. This suggests that America's long-delayed project to improve water infrastructure is now well underway.
Is Badger Meter stock a buy in 2024?
There are pluses and minuses in this for Badger Meter investors. On the one hand, Bockhorst notes that Badger Meter will face "more difficult prior-year comparisons as the year progresses" in 2024. On the other hand, though, he agrees that the water industry is currently enjoying a "resilient macro trend" that should "drive sales and earnings growth."
My big worry as an investor: Continuation of this trend could already be baked into the stock's price. While 50% Q1 earnings growth was certainly impressive, Badger stock also trades at a very impressive price-to-earnings ratio of 48. That's a fair price to pay if growth keeps going at its present pace, and Badger's share price surge today is certainly justified by the news.
But if growth slows at all, Badger investors could find themselves caught in a trap. Caveat investor.
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>>> Palantir looks to have many years of growth ahead
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/forget-nvidia-likely-next-once-113000380.html
Jake Lerch (Palantir Technologies): What makes for a once-in-a-generation stock buying opportunity? For me, the most important factor is a secular growth story. And today, nothing fits that bill better than the rise of artificial intelligence. So it should come as no surprise that my pick is an AI stock: Palantir Technologies.
Palantir specializes in AI-driven data analysis and pattern recognition. Through its software platforms, Palantir can help various organizations achieve very different ends. On the one hand, it could help law enforcement track and apprehend cybercriminals. On the other, it might assist healthcare organizations deliver better outcomes to patients.
In short, almost every organization today could benefit from its products in some capacity. Moreover, AI is only getting better. As it improves, the results it can deliver will also scale -- making Palantir's products even more appealing to organizations looking to increase revenue, cut costs, or improve customer satisfaction.
Best of all for potential investors, Palantir remains in the early stages of its life cycle. The company got its start partnering with governmental organizations -- law enforcement, national security agencies, and military branches. Recently, however, Palantir's commercial customer base has expanded.
In its most recent quarter (the three months ending on Dec. 31, 2023), Palantir reported commercial revenue of $284 million -- up 32% from a year earlier and representing 47% of its overall sales. American-based commercial revenue grew even faster -- 70% year over year.
To sum up, American companies are flocking to Palantir. Yet, the company still has ample room to grow -- a fantastic combination for investors.
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>>> Why a near-miss cyberattack put US officials and the tech industry on edge
Reuters
by Raphael Satter
April 5, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-near-miss-cyberattack-put-110219091.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -German software developer Andres Freund was running some detailed performance tests last month when he noticed odd behavior in a little known program. What he found when he investigated has sent shudders across the software world and drawn attention from tech executives and government officials.
Freund, who works for Microsoft out of San Francisco, discovered that the latest version of the open source software program XZ Utils had been deliberately sabotaged by one of its developers, a move that could have carved out a secret door to millions of servers across the internet.
Security experts say it’s only because Freund spotted the change before the latest version of XZ had been widely deployed that the world was spared a digital security crisis.
“We really dodged a bullet,” said Satnam Narang, a security researcher with Tenable who has been tracking the fallout from the find. “It is one of those moments where we have to wipe our brow and say, ‘We were really lucky with this one.’”
The near-miss has refocused attention on the safety of open source software – free, often volunteer-maintained programs whose transparency and flexibility mean they serve as the foundation for the internet economy.
Many such projects depend on a tiny circle of unpaid volunteers fighting to get out from under a pile of demands for fixes and upgrades.
XZ, a suite of file compression tools packaged into distributions of the Linux operating system, was long maintained by a single author, Lasse Collin.
In recent years, he appeared to be under strain.
In a message posted to a public mailing list in June 2022, Collin said he was dealing with "longterm mental health issues" and hinted that he working privately with a new developer named Jia Tan and that “perhaps he will have a bigger role in the future.”
Update logs available through the open source software site Github show that Tan’s role quickly expanded. By 2023 the logs show Tan was merging his code into XZ, a sign that he had won a trusted role in the project.
But cybersecurity experts who’ve scoured the logs say that Tan was masquerading as a helpful volunteer. Over the next few months, they say, Tan introduced a nearly invisible backdoor into XZ.
Collin didn’t return messages seeking comment and said on his website that he would not respond to reporters until he understood the situation well enough to do so.
Tan did not return messages sent to his Gmail account. Reuters has been unable to ascertain who Tan is, where he is, or who he was working for, but many of those who've examined his updates believe Tan is a pseudonym for an expert hacker or group of hackers -- likely one working on behalf of a powerful intelligence service.
“This is not kindergarten stuff,” said Omkhar Arasaratnam, the general manager of the Open Source Security Foundation, which works to defend projects like XZ. “This is incredibly sophisticated.”
‘WE LUCKED OUT’
Tan could easily have gotten away with it had it not been for Freund, the Microsoft developer, whose curiosity was piqued when he noticed the latest version of XZ intermittently using an unexpected amount of processing power on the system he was testing.
Microsoft declined to make Freund available for an interview, but in a publicly-available email and posts to social media, Freund said a series of easy-to-miss clues prompted him to discover the backdoor.
The find “really required a lot of coincidences,” Freund said on the social network Mastodon.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella congratulated Freund over the weekend, saying in a post to the social network X that he loved seeing how the developer, “with his curiosity and craftsmanship, was able to help us all.”
In the open source community, the discovery has been sobering. The volunteers who maintain the software that underpins the internet aren't strangers to the idea of little pay or recognition, but the realization that they were now being hunted by well-resourced spies pretending to be Good Samaritans was “incredibly intimidating,” said Arasaratnam, of the Open Source Security Foundation.
Government officials are also weighing the implications of the near-miss, which has underlined concerns about how to protect open source software. Assistant National Cyber Director Anjana Rajan told Politico that “there’s a lot of conversations that we need to have about what we do next” to protect open source code."
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says it has been leaning on U.S. companies that use open source software to plow resources back into the communities that build and maintain it. CISA adviser Jack Cable told Reuters the burden was on tech companies not just to vet open software but to “contribute back and help build the sustainable open source ecosystem that we get so much value from.”
It’s not clear that software companies are properly incentivized to do so. Online open source mailing lists are teeming with complaints about tech giants demanding that volunteers troubleshoot issues with open source software those companies use to make billions of dollars.
Whatever the solution, almost everyone agrees the XZ episode shows something has to change.
“We got unreasonably lucky here,” said Freund in another Mastodon post. “We can't just bank on that going forward.”
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Vertiv Holdings - >>> Here's Why Shares in This Nvidia Partner Soared in March
by Lee Samaha
Motley Fool
Apr 5, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-shares-nvidia-partner-121917710.html
Shares in data center equipment company Vertiv Holdings (NYSE: VRT) rose by a whopping 20.8% in March as the company rode the artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom. The stock price took a leg up in mid-March following the announcement that Vertiv would become a Solution Advisor: Consultant partner in the Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) Partner Network.
Data centers are cool
You can't have a burgeoning investment in AI applications without data centers, and you can't have data centers without cooling. As such, Vertiv has a critical role in the growth of AI, a fact acknowledged by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) a day after the announcement. Huang noted that Nvidia and Vertiv were working on cooling systems, with Vertiv acknowledged as "very important" in ensuring the cooling of data centers.
While that's a red rag to an Nvidia bull, there's reason and hard numbers behind the optimism.
Spending on data centers continues to surge
As previously discussed, there's been an incredible boom in U.S. manufacturing construction investment over the last couple of years, led by investment in semiconductors and electronics, including data centers. In fact, U.S. manufacturing spending came in at $214 billion in 2023 compared to less than $100 billion in 2022 and even lower in the pre-pandemic era.
Moreover, the boom in interest in AI has made spending on data centers higher. For example, here's a look at capital expenditures at leading data center company Equinix. Although it dipped through 2022 in line with a correction after the boom inspired by the pandemic, it's now taken off again. Equinix management expects $2.9 billion to $3 billion in capital spending in 2024.
Vertiv will benefit from booming data center spending
The ongoing spending in data centers is also seen in Vertiv's order growth -- up 23% on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 18% in the third quarter of 2023. Moreover, CEO Giordano Albertazzi expects spending "to continue to be strong up in the high teens on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter across the portfolio" in the first quarter.
As such, Vertiv is set for another year of strong growth, and management forecasts call for a double-digit increase in organic revenue for the full year.
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>>> Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) -- Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 302
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/5-best-stocks-to-buy-right-now-according-to-financial-media-1270874/4/
Number of Times Stock Appeared in Top Picks of Financial Media: 7
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a Washington-based technology company. On March 6, investment advisory Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock with a price target of $500.
Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Texas-based investment firm Fisher Asset Management is a leading shareholder in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) with 25 million shares worth more than $9.5 billion.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Fred Alger Management, an investment management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a beneficiary of corporate America’s transformative digitization. Microsoft’s CEO expects technology spending as a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to jump from about 5% now to 10% in 10 years and that Microsoft will continue to capture market share within the technology sector. The company operates through three segments:
Productivity and Business Processes (Office. LinkedIn, and Dynamics),
Intelligent Cloud (Server Products and Cloud Services, Azure, and Enterprise Services), and
More Personal Computing (Windows, Devices. Gaming, and Search).
During the quarter, the company reported strong fiscal first quarter results, where revenues and earnings beat analyst estimates, driven in large part to growing Al demand. Regarding Intelligent Cloud segment, management noted Azure optimizations were similar to the previous quarter, but new Al and traditional workloads are helping drive greater consumption growth, which resulted in their first reacceleration since March 2022. We believe the strong Azure performance suggests diminishing cost optimization headwinds and growing strength in Al service consumption.”
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>>> Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/5-best-stocks-to-buy-right-now-according-to-financial-media-1270874/4/
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 131
Number of Times Stock Appeared in Top Picks of Financial Media: 6
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a consumer electronics firm. On March 5, investment advisory Wedbush maintained an Outperform rating on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock with a price target of $250.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, 131 hedge funds in the database of Insider Monkey held stakes worth $205 billion in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), compared to 134 in the previous quarter worth $179 billion.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Horizon Kinetics LLC highlighted a few stocks and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“The full point is that if BYD has turned its attention from its domestic market to direct global competition, then other Chinese companies can do the same. The next most visible example of Chinese commercially applied technological prowess relates to the 2nd highest-weight company in the S&P 500, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
In September 2023, Huawei Technologies introduced its Mate 60 Pro smartphone. It uses its own, internally developed 5G enabled chip that is apparently competitive with the Apple A17 chip. For practical purposes it has the functionality of the iPhone 15 Pro. This came as a great surprise – perhaps even shock – to the U.S. technology community, because four years ago the U.S. placed strict sanctions on China’s access to state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing technology…”
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>>> NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) -- Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 173
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/5-best-stocks-to-buy-right-now-according-to-financial-media-1270874/3/
Number of Times Stock Appeared in Top Picks of Financial Media: 5
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) provides graphics, computing and networking solutions. On March 7, investment advisory Mizuho maintained a Buy rating on NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock and raised the price target to $1,000 from $850.
Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Florida-based investment firm Citadel Investment Group is a leading shareholder in NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) with 15.4 million shares worth more than $7.6 billion.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Fred Alger Management, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:
“NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a leading supplier of graphics processing units (GPUs) for a variety of end markets, such as gaming, PCs, data centers, virtual reality and high-performance computing. The company is leading in most secular growth categories in computing, and especially artificial intelligence and super- computing parallel processing techniques for solving complex computational problems. Simply put, Nvidia’s computational power is a critical enabler of Al and therefore critical to Al adoption, in our view. During the period, shares contributed to performance as Nvidia reported solid fiscal third quarter results well above analyst expectations, driven by strong demand from data centers. Growing Al data center workloads are driving demand for the increased interconnections and fully accelerated software stacks, thereby enabling leading application performance and fast result times.”
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>>> Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) -- 14-day RSI: 32.14
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/11-oversold-blue-chip-stocks-195219274.html
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 131
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a leading technology company focused on the designing, manufacturing, and marketing of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories, and sells a variety of related services. It released worldwide the latest version of its flagship smartphone titled iPhone 15, on September 22 last year.
The quarterly revenue of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) increased by 2% on a y-o-y basis in the quarter ended December 30. The company posted a revenue of $119.6 billion and a net income of $33.9 billion, which translated to an adjusted EPS of $2.18.
As of Q4 2023, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares were held by 133 of the 933 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, the highest on our list of 11 oversold blue chip stocks to buy right now. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was its biggest shareholder with ownership of 905.6 million shares valued at $174 billion.
In its Q4 2023 investor letter, Wedgewood Partners, an investment management firm, made the following comments about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL):
“The Company's services segment revenue growth accelerated to +16% over last year, one of the fastest growth rates since Covid-19 lockdowns, helping drive +11% growth in earnings per share. The strength in the Company's services segment was aided by over 1 billion paid subscribers across Apple's media platforms. We estimate that there are more than 2 billion iOS devices in Apple's global installed base, which still represents a very large addressable share of their current subscriber count. Apple also continues to innovate across its hardware portfolio, with custom silicon for nearly all its device form factors. More recently, the Company launched its new line of Mac computers, which included their M3 family of chips, including the M3 Max, which contains up to an astonishing 92 billion transistors. Apple's long-term strategy of creating products with customized hardware and software should continue to differentiate their products and help drive solid revenue growth and expense leverage across the Company's ecosystem.”
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Palantir - >>> Analyst who correctly forecast Palantir's stock rally updates outlook
The Street
by Todd Campbell
Mar 29, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analyst-correctly-forecast-palantirs-stock-173300455.html
The artificial intelligence boom has helped many tech stocks, including Palantir Technologies, produce market-beating returns.
While the S&P 500's 10% first-quarter return is nothing to sneeze at, Palantir shares surged 34%. Its shares also substantially outperformed the benchmark index over the past year, returning 172% since March 2023. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up about 29%.
Those extraordinary gains likely surprised many investors who were concerned that the Peter Thiel-founded company would struggle because the possible recession and congressional wrangling over the debt ceiling would dent demand.
However, where others saw risk, TheStreet Pro's Stephen Guilfoyle saw an opportunity. He bought shares when they were trading below $10 in April 2023, allowing him to profit handsomely from surging optimism over AI spending.
Given Palantir's shares rocket-ship ride higher and a current price near $23, Guilfoyle has updated his analysis and stock price target.
Palantir's demand driven by AI wave
Guilfoyle's purchase of Palantir stock last year was based on its strong, debt-free balance sheet, improving free cash flow, and a clearer pathway to profit growth.
The highly successful launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in December 2022 has proven to be a boon for the company, making Guilfoyle's prediction prescient.
Interest in using AI to digest, interpret, and create new insights from siloed data has swelled across most industries, resulting in the most rapid research and development since the Internet Age in the 1990s.
Banks are using AI programs to hedge risks, evaluate loans, and price products. Drugmakers are exploring its use in predicting drug targets and clinical trial outcomes. Manufacturers are evaluating if it can boost production and quality. AI may also help retailers forecast demand, manage inventories, and curb theft.
AI's widespread applications seem boundless, which has led many companies and governments to turn to Palantir's deep expertise in managing and protecting data for help in training and running new AI apps.
Palantir's (PLTR) roots stretch back to helping the U.S. government design systems for counter-terrorism. Its Gotham platform continues to assist governments in those efforts today. It also offers solutions that manage, interpret, and report data across enterprise and cloud networks to large companies too.
Its deep data experience positioned it perfectly to help customers design large language models and other AI solutions using its AI platform (AIP).
"The demand for [Artificial Intelligence Platform] AIP is unlike anything we have seen in the past twenty years," said CEO Alan Karp last summer. "We are currently in discussions with more than three hundred additional enterprises to deploy AIP within their organizations, all of which are searching for an effective and secure means of adapting the latest large language models for use on their internal systems and proprietary data."
Karp's optimism appears to have been well-placed. Palantir's year-over-year sales growth has exceeded 20% in each of the past three quarters, and its earnings per share growth in each of those quarters has been in the double-digit percentages.
Revenue totaled $736 million and earnings per share were 9 cents in the fourth quarter, up 21% and 16% from the previous year.
Wall Street analysts think Palantir's profit growth will continue. The consensus analyst estimate for earnings in 2024 and 2024 is 33 cents and 39 cents, respectively, an increase of 34% and 17%.
Palantir pause may set up another opportunity
Initially, Guilfoyle's Palantir stock price target was $12. However, he bumped that target to $18 last June, $20 last July, and $22 last August.
Shares eclipsed $22 in February, reaching a high of $27.5 in early March. Since then, they've retreated about 16% to $23.
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Again - this is one of several substrates that LWLG's Perkinamine can work with and maximize potential.
It is a POSSIBLE symbiotic tech, not competitive.
It's an industry focused news site - with no relationship to LWLG.
>>> Apple’s first quarter has felt more like an entire (bad) year
Yahoo Finance
Daniel Howley
Mar 27, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apples-first-quarter-has-felt-more-like-an-entire-bad-year-201715880.html?.tsrc=fin-notif
Apple (AAPL) is in the midst of what you could generously call a “difficult” period. The company is contending with a high-profile antitrust battle with the Department of Justice, falling iPhone sales in China, and a regulatory investigation in the European Union. And those are just the headlines from the past week.
The company is also still facing a shortfall when it comes to generative AI capabilities. And while it’s widely expected to debut some kind of generative AI offering during its WWDC developer event on June 10, it’ll need to have quite an impressive showing if it’s going to catch up to its Big Tech rivals including Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL).
All of that is hurting Apple’s stock price. Shares of the iPhone maker have fallen more than 7% since the start of the year and are up just 6.25% over the last 12 months. Shares of Microsoft, meanwhile, are up 14% year to date and 49% over the last 12 months. Google? Shares of the search giant are up 9% year to date and 43% in the last 12 months.
Suffice it to say, Apple’s 2024 is not going well.
Apple’s China problem
Apple’s latest headache came Tuesday, when Bloomberg, citing Chinese government data, reported that iPhone shipments fell 33% year over year in the country in February.
China is Apple’s third-largest market behind North America and Europe. In 2023, the region accounted for $72.6 billion of Apple’s $383.3 billion in total revenue. That’s roughly 19% of the company’s sales.
And this isn’t exactly out of the blue. Earlier this month, Counterpoint Research reported that iPhone sales fell 24% year over year through the first six weeks of 2024 in the country. Overall smartphone unit sales in China declined 7% during the same period.
Apple has been aggressively expanding in China for years, but a resurgent Huawei and difficult economic conditions in the country are squeezing device sales. The company isn’t just sitting idly by, though. Last week, CEO Tim Cook flew to China for the opening of the company’s latest flagship store in Shanghai. He also attended the China Development Forum in Beijing and was expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
According to the South China Morning Post, Apple-authorized retailers are also trying to goose sales, cutting the price of the company’s latest iPhones in the hopes that it will get consumers to start buying again. However, it might take more than lower prices to make that happen.
A battle with the DOJ
Outside of Apple’s China sales drama, the company is also facing its long-anticipated antitrust fight with the Department of Justice. The lawsuit, which the DOJ filed last Thursday, accuses Apple of illegally maintaining dominance over the premium smartphone market by pushing aside competing apps and devices.
The Justice Department claims that Apple imposes restrictions on app developers, makes it difficult for users to switch to competing platforms, and hinders cloud gaming and so-called super apps that allow users to access multiple smaller apps from one larger platform.
Apple, however, is fighting back, saying in a statement that the suit "threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple."
The DOJ is seeking to force Apple to change its business practices, which could mean giving third-party apps greater access to the company’s platforms and requiring Apple to expand compatibility with third-party device makers.
The lawsuit could also prove to be a dangerous distraction for Apple similar to how Microsoft’s antitrust battle in the 90’s stole executives’ attention away from emerging technologies like smartphones. If Microsoft hadn’t been so invested in its antitrust fight at the time, there’s a good chance it would have seen the smartphone age coming as did Apple and Google, and launched its own line of handsets.
European Commission calling
In addition to slowing iPhone sales in China and the DOJ’s antitrust suit, the European Union’s competition watchdog, the European Commission on Monday, announced that it is looking into whether Apple is in compliance with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.
In a statement released Monday, the Commission said it is investigating Apple’s new app fee structure in the EU as well as whether it meets user choice obligations related to default apps and the ability to delete preinstalled apps.
The Digital Markets Act requires Apple to open up the iPhone to third-party app stores, enabling developers to get around the 30% and 15% fees the company charges for sales through its own App Store. While Apple said it will allow those third-party stores, the company said it will also charge developers a 50 euro cent Core Technology Fee per install per year on apps that have been installed more than 1 million times in the last 12 months.
In a statement, the EC said it is looking into whether Apple’s new fees defeat the purpose of the obligations of the Digital Markets Act.
While Apple is certainly facing a slew of challenges, it’s far from down and out. It’s still the second-richest company in the world by market capitalization — behind Microsoft — and it’s sure to continue to sell millions of devices and services subscriptions throughout the year ahead.
Still, for the foreseeable future, Apple could be in for a bumpy ride.
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>>> Startup HyperLight debuts thin-film Lithium Niobate platform at ECOC 2021
Sept. 13, 2021
https://www.lightwaveonline.com/optical-tech/components/article/14210212/startup-hyperlight-debuts-thin-film-lithium-niobate-platform-at-ecoc-2021
The company, led by CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Mian Zhang, has developed an electro-optic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform based on the thin-film Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) technology.
HyperLight, a startup founded out of Harvard in 2018, will make its debut this week at ECOC 2021 in Bordeaux, France. The company, led by CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Mian Zhang, has developed an electro-optic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform based on the thin-film Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) technology.
Zhang says that HyperLight has been able to apply silicon photonics processes to LiNbO3, thus enabling a significant reduction in size versus traditional modulators based on the technology. As a result, products such as optical transceivers and transponders, among others, can enjoy the power and performance benefits of LiNbO3 without sacrificing the small package sizes silicon photonics and other photonic integration approaches make possible.
Zhang expects HyperLight’s technology will enable thin-film LiNbO3 modulators that require sub-volt driving voltages while supporting greater than 100-GHz bandwidth. Working with Nokia Bell Labs, an “early version” of the platform demonstrated a 700.5-Gbps line rate and 538.8 Gbps net rate with intensity-modulated and direct detect (IM-DD) signals over 10.2 km of single-mode fiber. However, Zhang says the company and Nokia Bell Labs have since demonstrated the ability to accommodate coherent transmissions up to 1.58 Tbps at 200 GBaud. Both results required only a single thin-film LiNbO3 modulator.
The company is working with partners towards productization and has begun shipping prototype chips in this context. However, a generally available product using the thin-film LiNbO3 technology is still “a couple of years away,” in Zhang’s estimation.
Zhang will discuss the company’s work via a presentation as part of ECOC’s Market Focus on September 15, at 12:40 pm, CET.
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>>> Optical Fiber Conference 2022 - Who are these people?
March 30, 2022
https://www.lightwaveonline.com/business/companies/article/14233154/who-are-these-people
Some of these companies may be relatively young; others may have recently rebranded. All would like a bit of your time and attention. So, as a public service, here is some background on a few companies that may not be familiar to you, but it might benefit
A look through the conference program for OFC 2022 will reveal speakers from the usual list of well-established optical communications technology suppliers as well as a wide assortment of research centers (and centres), universities, colleges, institutes, écoles, and whatnot. However, it would not be surprising to see a company or two you may not know well, if at all. The same may also be true upon perusal of the exhibitor list.
Some of these companies may be relatively young; others may have recently rebranded. All would like a bit of your time and attention. So, as a public service, here is some background on a few companies that may not be familiar to you but it might benefit you to know.
In the conference sessions
Several presenting companies in 2022 made their debuts around the OFC 2021 timeframe but may have escaped your notice. For example, Mountain View, CA, based Avicena Tech Corp. focuses on chip-to-chip communications for high-performance computing, cloud computing, and data center networking using a combination of micro-LEDs from the display world and multicore fiber similar to what’s found in imagery applications.
Central to Avicena’s LightBundle architecture are Cavity-Reinforced Optical Micro-Emitters (CROMEs) based on GaN micro-LEDs. These visible blue light emitters typically can transmit less than 1 Gbps of information but Avicena has developed a way to increase that by 10X. The CROMEs are bonded to CMOS in a highly parallel array alongside arrays of silicon photodetectors (PDs) grown directly in CMOS. The technology can enable 10 Tbps per square millimeter at a power efficiency of less than 0.5 pJ/bit, company sources have told Lightwave. The CROME emitters operate at ASIC temperatures, meaning they can serve reliably as internal laser sources for co-packaged optics without cooling.
The multicore fibers will connect to the CROME/PD combinations via passive alignment. Avicena expects the fiber, in a diameter of about 1 mm, to support hundreds of channels initially and thousands of channels eventually. However, development work on the multicore fiber now being used in applications such as endoscopy will be required to support such channel counts, Avicena acknowledges.
The company introduced the LightBundle concept to OFC 2021 attendees via a post-deadline paper. Here, the company described a demonstration of an array of more than 200 devices at a 30-mm pitch coupled simultaneously through a 0.5-mm imaging fiber. As 10G drivers were not available then in an array format, the CROME arrays were driven at 2 Gbps. However, the engineers conducting the demonstration also were able to package the CROME with an external driver to achieve 10 Gbps. At OFC 2022, Avicena CEO Bardia Pezeshki (most recently CEO of Kaiam) will deliver “W1E.1: Microled Array-Based Optical Links Using Imaging Fiber for Chip-to-Chip Communications” as a paper Wednesday, March 9, in which he will undoubtedly report on the company’s progress since last June.
Ayar Labs is another young company focused on chip-to-chip communications and co-packaged optics that will present a paper during the show. The company’s optical I/O approach features 5x9-mm TeraPHY silicon chiplets paired with SuperNova external lasers. The chiplets, which feature micro-ring resonator-based modulation, are designed to be integrated within the packaging of the semiconductor via a multi-chip module approach using normal processes, whether in-house or third-party.
The laser/chiplet combination is designed to support transmission distances of 2 km. Via a post-deadline paper at OFC last year, Ayar reported on a demonstration of a TeraPHY chiplet with eight optical ports providing error-free transmission of 1.024 Tbps at less than 5 pJ/bit. The error-free status was obtained without recourse to forward error correction (FEC). The SuperNova external laser source showed the ability to generate 64 addressable wavelengths based on laser array technology from MACOM.
The company believes its approach can benefit datacom and telecom networking, aerospace and government, and high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications. An Ayar Labs source told Lightwave at the end of 2020 that he expected the company will begin small volume production perhaps as early as the beginning of this year. Dr. Mark Wade, co-founder and CTO of Ayar Labs, likely will provide updates via the talk he's scheduled to provide on Tuesday (which, as of this writing, remains without an announced title) as part of Tu2A Symposia: Emerging Photonic Interconnects and Architectures for Femtojoule per Bit Intra Data Center Links Session I.
Thursday will see the presentation of “Th1J.1: BTO-Enhanced Silicon Photonics – a Scalable PIC Platform with Ultra-Efficient Electro-Optical Modulation,” from Lukas Czornomaz, co-CEO and founder of Lumiphase AG. “BTO” stands for “Barium Titanate,” which Lumiphase asserts enables low-power, low-optical-loss silicon photonics modulators to enable Mach-Zhender interferometers and other optical processing devices, according to a report in eeNews Europe. In the paper description, Czornomaz touts BTO’s strong Pockels effect, which relates to changes in refractive index – which are very fast in BTO – with the application of an electric field. Lumiphase states on its website that BTO enables “nprecedented piezo- and ferro-electric properties on silicon.”
The company spun out of IBM Europe, which did early work on such devices, at the beginning of 2020. At the time the article appeared last July, Lumiphase was contemplating a Series A funding round for either late in 2021 or at some point this year to help it produce products for the communications, optical computing, and sensing markets. The company has its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Europe – specifically, France – also is home to SCINTIL Photonics; CEO Sylvie Menezo will discuss the company’s work in silicon photonics Tuesday in “Tu2A.2: (Integrated or Not?) Laser Source for a Few pJ/bit DWDM Links” in the same session in which Ayar Labs’ Wade will speak. The fabless company was founded in Grenoble in November 2018 by Menezo, previously with CEA-Leti, and Chairman Pascal Langlois, former CEO of Tronics Microsystems. SCINTIL Photonics has developed a silicon photonics platform in which it can integrate multi-wavelength lasers. In a 2020 interview with Lightwave, Pascal said that the company can combine silicon, indium phosphide, germanium, and silicon nitride in a CMOS compatible process it calls BackSide-on-BOX. The process sees unprocessed InP/III-V dies bonded on the backside of processed silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, only where it is needed – hence the name. BackSide-on-BOX enables integration of laser arrays and other active and passive components and functions to support applications such as multi-channel 800 Gigabit Ethernet without the need for hermetic packaging.
SCINTIL has secured an agreement with a commercial foundry for PIC production; at the time of the interview, Pascal expressed hope that the company could deliver commercial photonic integrated circuits (PICs) at some point this year.
Finally, Sivers Photonics isn’t a new company – but it has a relatively new name. The company has its roots in CST Global (also known as Compound Semiconductor Technologies), an independent manufacturer of III-V photonic devices that Sivers IMA Holding purchased in 2017. The company provides custom, foundry services in wafer, coated bar, chip device and die on tape formats. Sivers IMA Holding changed its name to Sivers Semiconductors in 2020 – and concurrently changed the name of the subsidiary formed by the former CST Global to Sivers Photonics AB.
Andy McKee, Sivers Photonics, will discuss “Recent Advances in InP Laser Sources for SiPh Hybrid Integration” Wednesday as part of a panel on Progress and Roadmap in Silicon Photonics Foundries and Supply Chains (W1B).
Exhibit floor programming
Two young companies that are delivering commercial products will be among the participants in some of the exhibit hall programming. For example, Lumenisity will attempt to top the splash it made during last OFC with its hollowcore fiber. The company’s nested anti-resonant nodeless fiber (NANF) approach, developed at the University of Southampton in the UK, caught the eye of BT Labs, which conducted several tests and demonstrations of the technology that were discussed around the time of the 2021 show. Lumenisity also announced results of a demonstration of coherent transmission over the NANF hollowcore fiber with Ciena.
Lumenisity, BT, and several other speakers will be back to discuss hollowcore fiber advances on Thursday, March 10, at noon in a panel discussion titled, “Hollow Core Fiber - Ready for Prime Time?” The event takes place in the show floor’s Theater II. Tony Pearson, vice president, sales and marketing, will represent Lumenisity as he discusses “Hollow Core Cable – Delivering Prime Time and…Connecting More Light Faster!”
The next day, at 12:20 pm, POET Technologies Inc. will participate in a Technology Showcase with the presentation, “Hybrid Integration Platform for Co-Packaged Photonics Using POET’s CMOS Based Optical Interposer.” POET develops and sells a variety of optical engines for transceivers, as well as the O-Band LightBar applicable to co-packaged optics (CPO) applications. The products are based on the company’s POET Optical Interposer, which leverages integrated spot-size converters designed to minimize coupling losses and increase laser power efficiency. The approach enables straightforward integration of photonic elements such as waveguides, filters, and gratings, as well as passive alignment of lasers for flip-chip bonding, according to the company.
POET demonstrated these technologies at last year’s OFC. Since then, the company has announced a pair of customers for its optical engines, one of whom is Shenzhen Fibertop Technology Co., Ltd.
Swing by the booth
On the show floor, HyperLight Corp. will be making its OFC debut. The company, co-founded out of Harvard by CEO Dr. Mian Zhang and Head of Product Dr. Christian Reimer, focuses on the use of thin-film Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) technology as part of an electro-optic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. Zhang told Lightwave last fall that he expects HyperLight’s technology will enable thin-film LiNbO3 modulators that require less than 1-V driving voltages while supporting greater than 100-GHz bandwidth. Working with Nokia Bell Labs, an early version of the platform demonstrated a 700.5-Gbps line rate and 538.8-Gbps net rate with intensity-modulated and direct detect (IM-DD) signals over 10.2 km of single-mode fiber. However, Zhang says the company and Nokia Bell Labs have since demonstrated coherent transmissions up to 1.58 Tbps at 200 GBaud. Both results required only a single thin-film LiNbO3 modulator, he said. A generally available product using the thin-film LiNbO3 technology is still “a couple of years away,” Zhang’s stated during the interview.
Finally, a company whose name may make your brow furrow initially as you pass by its booth is Quantifi Photonics – until you realize that the company used to be called Coherent Solutions (and, before that, Southern Photonics). The test and measurement technology developer, which made its mark in coherent transmission testing, changed its name in the fall of 2020 to signal a wider scope of activities. The New Zealand-based company completed an oversubscribed Series B funding round of $10 million last July designed to fund expansion of its activities in North America.
Of course, there are many factors that combine to determine how familiar a company may be. Whether mentioned here or discovered via a look through the OFC conference schedule or exhibition list, exploring a company whose story is unfamiliar to you could reveal valuable discoveries.
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>>> Lightwave Logic reaches electro-optic polymer materials commercialization with supply license agreement
June 1, 2023
https://www.lightwaveonline.com/optical-tech/components/article/14294661/lightwave-logic-reaches-electro-optic-polymer-materials-commercialization-with-supply-license-agreement
Lightwave Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWLG) has announced its first commercial material supply license agreement for its Perkinamine chromophore electro-optic polymers. The company has been working on electro-optic polymer development for photonic applications since at least 2008.
The company did not identify the customer or how the materials will be used, although Lightwave Logic is known to have worked with Polariton (see, for example, “Lightwave Logic touts stability of its polymer material in Polariton's plasmonics platform”) and startup SilOriX on the use of its organic polymers for optical modulators for fiber-optic communications applications. Lightwave Logic CEO Michael Lebby acknowledged that while its electro-optic polymer technology could be used for a variety of applications, the company has focused its efforts on 1550- and 1310-nm telecom and datacom applications.
Lebby said the deal runs for at least four years. In addition to a license initiation fee, the agreement covers per-unit royalties, minimum royalty levels that increase annually, and minimum sales volume in units.
The deal marks commercial acceptance of Lightwave Logic’s technology and approach, Lebby asserted. He added he is pursuing other license opportunities that may be the subject of similar announcements in the not too distant future. Pursuit of such license agreements is part of what Lebby describes as a three-pronged approach towards commercialization, alongside development of the company’s own chips and technology transfer. He says that examples of Lightwave Logic’s own chips are returning from multiple fabs, setting the stage for additional prototyping efforts. He revealed that significant developments in this area are on tap for later this year.
Meanwhile, he says that the market is beginning to warm to new approaches towards component development as the industry grapples with how to support future optical transmission rates and chip I/O requirements. He pointed to the attention being given to barium titanate (BTO) and thin-film lithium niobate approaches alongside electro-optic polymers as evidence of this trend.
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Nvidia - >>> Exclusive: Behind the plot to break Nvidia’s grip on AI by targeting software
Reuters
by Max A. Cherney
3-25-24
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-behind-plot-break-nvidia-110359868.html
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nvidia earned its $2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial-intelligence chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from startups to Microsoft, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet.
Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years' worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia's CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps.
Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm, Google and Intel plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going after the chip giant’s secret weapon: the software that keeps developers tied to Nvidia chips. They are part of an expanding group of financiers and companies hacking away at Nvidia's dominance in AI.
"We're actually showing developers how you migrate out from an Nvidia platform," Vinesh Sukumar, Qualcomm's head of AI and machine learning, said in an interview with Reuters.
Starting with a piece of technology developed by Intel called OneAPI, the UXL Foundation, a consortium of tech companies, plans to build a suite of software and tools that will be able to power multiple types of AI accelerator chips, executives involved with the group told Reuters. The open-source project aims to make computer code run on any machine, regardless of what chip and hardware powers it.
"It's about specifically - in the context of machine learning frameworks - how do we create an open ecosystem, and promote productivity and choice in hardware," Google's director and chief technologist of high-performance computing, Bill Hugo, told Reuters in an interview. Google is one of the founding members of UXL and helps determine the technical direction of the project, Hugo said.
UXL's technical steering committee is preparing to nail down technical specifications in the first half of this year. Engineers plan to refine the technical details to a "mature" state by the end of the year, executives said. These executives stressed the need to build a solid foundation to include contributions from multiple companies that can also be deployed on any chip or hardware.
Beyond the initial companies involved, UXL will court cloud-computing companies such as Amazon.com and Microsoft's Azure, as well as additional chipmakers.
Since its launch in September, UXL has already begun to receive technical contributions from third parties that include foundation members and outsiders keen on using the open-source technology, the executives involved said. Intel's OneAPI is already useable, and the second step is to create a standard programming model of computing designed for AI.
UXL plans to put its resources toward addressing the most pressing computing problems dominated by a few chipmakers, such as the latest AI apps and high-performance computing applications. Those early plans feed in to the organization's longer-term goal of winning over a critical mass of developers to its platform.
UXL eventually aims to support Nvidia hardware and code, in the long run.
When asked about the open source and venture-funded software efforts to break Nvidia’s AI dominance, Nvidia executive Ian Buck said in a statement: "The world is getting accelerated. New ideas in accelerated computing are coming from all across the ecosystem, and that will help advance AI and the scope of what accelerated computing can achieve."
NEARLY 100 STARTUPS
The UXL Foundation's plans are one of many efforts to chip away at Nvidia's hold on the software that powers AI. Venture financiers and corporate dollars have poured more than $4 billion into 93 separate efforts, according to custom data compiled by PitchBook at Reuters’ request.
The interest in unseating Nvidia through a potential weakness in software has ramped up in the last year, and startups aiming to poke holes in the company's leadership gobbled up just over $2 billion in 2023 compared with $580 million from a year ago, according to the data from PitchBook.
Success in the shadow of Nvidia's group on AI data crunching is an achievement that few of the startups will be able to achieve. Nvidia's CUDA is a compelling piece of software on paper, as it is full-featured and is consistently growing both from Nvidia's contributions and the developer community.
"But that's not what really matters," said Jay Goldberg, chief executive of D2D Advisory, a finance and strategy consulting firm. "What matters is the fact that people have been using CUDA for 15 years, they built code around it."
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Lightwave Logic -- Re-post - >>> Lebby is the Axe of the entire Industry!! He chairs at the major Industry conferences, he orchestrates the Industry Roadmaps, and if you would have ever come to one of the Executive Forum events you'd know that it is the top dogs of the Tier 1's who find their way over to Lebby for discussions!!
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174089938
At OFC this coming week Lebby will be giving a Keynote address on Hybrid Integration, this is what LWLG's technology won the top award at ECOC 2023 for, and there will be a Panel discussion on the topic the following day as well
1) Lebby's Timeline to Mass Commercialization has remained UNCHANGED in presentations for the last few years, Lebby has told investors that LWLG would come to market at 800Gbs in 2024!!
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172658420
2) Lebby has been making partnering DEALS at least as far back as ECOC 2019 when LWLG presented its META-STABILITY DATA that showed the material systems actually GAINED stability over time!!
3) Lebby's Timeline of 2024 is a PERFECT MATCH to what the industry is now showing to be the FASTEST ADOPTION EVER of a Next-Gen Node Implementation at 800Gbs set for, you guessed it, 2024!!! Check out this chart showing 800Gb adoption to be HUGE at $2 Billion starting in 2024!!! (note 800Gbs is the BLUE SHADED area)
https://investorshub.advfn.com/uimage/uploads/2023/8/19/wwenqIMG_7963.png
4) Lebby in the latest Wall Street Transcript just flat out told investors who the Customers are going to be when this thing ROLLS, which will undoubtably be in 2024 because that is what the INDUSTRY is saying will be the HUGE rollout of 800Gbs, and make NO MISTAKE when you read below who LWLG's Customers are going to be (all under NDA now!!)
TWST: Do you see your ideal customers like Cisco or whoever makes these particular modulation devices? Are they the ones who are going to buy?
Dr. Lebby: Yes, they will — a lot of these larger companies. The Ciscos of this world as well as the Intels and the Cienas, these types of players, Googles and others. A lot of these folks are actually vertically integrated. So they actually do a lot of the things themselves. And some of the parts they send out to foundries or to contract manufacturers.
As I see the business model, you need to be flexible, because some of these guys will want to buy from you direct. And other ones who will say, go work with our contract manufacturer or go work with our foundry, get qualified there, and then we’ll give you the business.
And so, we have to be flexible with these large guys, because they have different working models.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LWLG/comments/15twmqr/interview_with_dr_lebby_august_17_2023/
Ok folks, so Investors now now that the Intel's and Cisco's and Google's ARE THE CUSTOMERS that the Foundries PDK's HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED to serve!!!! Lebby has already told investors that there are PRODUCTION TRIALS in progress for at least the last 6 months but more likely a year or more!!!
PRODUCTION TRIALS!!! Nothing makes short sellers more nervous than finding out that Lightwave Logic’s foundry partners are currently running PRODUCTION TRIALS Why would they do that? “We” were convinced their technology would never scale and the fact that Lightwave Logic has never produced a product in 20 years was proof positive that they would never ever produce any revenue. We even talked to an ex employee who told us there were issues five years ago.
The worst news possible is learning about production runs because reaching that step means both parties want to produce and market this technology. In order to reach agreement on the terms of a license, both parties must be comfortable with the production economics. What level of upfront cash payment is appropriate? What percentage of gross modulator sales makes sense?
One thing is clear to me, the foundries want this technology and are already devoting machine time to be able to price the agreements. If I were short this stock, I would be fargin nervous as hell.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171355567
. This expansion of our IP moat, paired with our acquisition of the mission-critical IP assets of Chromosol Ltd (UK) to strengthen foundry PDK design capabilities with extremely low temperature ALD Processes, is a part of our ability to advance initial production trials with our foundry partners and secure our first licensing agreements in the near-term.
Corporate Update March 2, 2023
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Apple - >>> Justice Department files antitrust suit against Apple
Yahoo Finance
by Daniel Howley and Alexis Keenan
March 21, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/justice-department-files-antitrust-suit-against-apple-145514025.html
The US Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple (AAPL), alleging that the maker of the iPhone illegally maintains its dominance over the smartphone market by boxing out competing apps and devices.
Apple "has maintained its power not because of its superiority, but because of its unlawful exclusionary behavior," Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference Thursday.
Apple said it would fight the lawsuit, which it said "threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple."
A victory for the US in this case "would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology," Apple added in its statement.
Apple's stock fell more than 4% following news of the lawsuit, which the Justice Department filed with 16 state attorneys general.
The filing sets up yet another confrontation between the US government and a Silicon Valley icon as the Biden administration tries to rein in Big Tech's power.
The Department of Justice is suing Google (GOOG, GOOGL) over antitrust allegations, while the Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook (META) alleging they also violate antitrust laws.
The new DOJ lawsuit filed Thursday poses a major new threat to Apple's various revenue streams.
Apple generates the bulk of its cash through the sale of its wildly popular iPhone, which accounted for $200.6 billion of the company's $383.3 billion in total revenue in 2023. But Apple's services and hardware that tie into the iPhone are also incredibly lucrative.
The company's wearables, home, and accessories business, which includes its Apple Watch and AirPods sales, generated $39.8 billion last year, while its growing services business, which includes subscriptions for things like Apple Music+ and App Store sales, brought in $85.2 billion.
The DOJ's suit comes just weeks after the European Commission (EC) fined Apple $2 billion for allegedly breaking competition laws in the bloc. The EC alleged the company illegally wielded its dominance to the detriment of its rivals in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps.
The Justice Department suit is just the latest headache for Apple, which is off to a rough start in 2024.
Shares of Apple are down 7% year to date as the company struggles with slowing iPhone sales in China, its third-largest market. Apple also lost its title as the world's most valuable company to rival Microsoft (MSFT).
How Apple allegedly wields power
At the center of the DOJ’s lawsuit is the iPhone, Apple’s most recognizable product.
The company harms consumers by making it more difficult for iPhone users to switch to a competing product and to access competing services, according to the government. The complaint also says Apple harms app developers by imposing restrictions on app creation and distribution.
That includes everything from text messaging to digital wallets to apps that reduce user dependence on the iPhone.
Garland, for example, characterized Apple’s iMessage as anti-competitive, saying that when it is used to text with a Google Android device, the iPhone user’s response is in green rather than blue. (whoopee)
That, he said, "limits functionality." The videos sent via text, Garland added, can also be pixelated and grainy.
He then quoted Apple’s CEO responding to a complaint from a user who said he couldn’t send his mom certain videos: "'Buy your mom an iPhone.'"
Apple, the suit alleges, also makes it more difficult for smartphone users to access competing digital wallets by blocking developers from using tap-to-pay functionality in their apps. And it prevents the Apple iWatch from working with Android smartphones while making it more difficult for someone with an iPhone to use a rival’s smartwatch. (too bad)
"Apple repeatedly responded to competitive threats," said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, "by making it harder to leave, then making it more attractive to stay. The antitrust laws have something to say about that."
Apple, according to the suit, also suppresses cloud streaming gaming apps and denies consumers access to so-called super apps, which allow users access to a broad range of functionalities from a single interface.
The wide-ranging suit is "about the core unfair practices of Apple," Case Western Reserve University antitrust expert and law professor Anat Alon-Beck said.
"Apple systematically excludes rivals from the Apple ecosystem. By doing that, Apple is hurting so many startup businesses, stakeholders, customers, and, in my opinion, its shareholders."
As a result, she predicts that Apple's stock will "see more downward movement."
Apple's Epic battle
This is just the latest antitrust battle Apple has had to contend with in the US.
The last was in 2020, when "Fortnite" maker Epic Games sued the company and accused it of violating antitrust law by prohibiting third-party app developers from offering their own payment methods within their apps —as opposed to using Apple's payment service.
Justice Department lawyers were permitted to present arguments in that high-stakes dispute. It focused attention on Apple’s App Store — the only place consumers can download apps for iPhones and iPads, which generally charges app developers a 30% commission on paid app purchases made through the platform.
Apple scored a victory in that case when the appeals court upheld a California trial court's ruling that said Apple did not hold a monopoly in the market for mobile app stores.
However, in a minor win for Epic, the appeals court also upheld the trial court's ruling that said Apple must allow app developers to offer more ways for users to pay for purchases.
Both companies tried to take their fight to the Supreme Court, though the high court declined to take up either appeal.
Following that decision, Apple said it will allow developers to offer third-party payment options through their apps. However, the company said developers would still have to pay fees of either 12% or 27%, a move Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called "anticompetitive."
Apple is in the midst of reconfiguring its App Store payment system in the European Union. Under the EU's new Digital Markets Act (DMA), the company must allow EU customers the option to download third-party app stores and get access to third-party payment options.
Apple said it would address the measure and allow third-party downloads and payments, but will still charge developers a fee of 50 euro cents for each download if they cross the 1 million download threshold in a year.
Both Epic and Spotify objected to the measure, with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek calling the new rule "hostile."
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>>> Nextracker Inc (NASDAQ:NXT)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/12-best-wind-power-solar-162031158.html
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 33
Nextracker Inc (NASDAQ:NXT) provides integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and ground-mounted solar projects.
Insider Monkey's database of 933 hedge funds updated for the fourth quarter of 2023 shows that 33 hedge funds had stakes in Nextracker Inc (NASDAQ:NXT).
Last month Nextracker Inc (NASDAQ:NXT) posted solid Q4 results and upped its guidance. Adjusted EPS in the period came in at $0.96, beating estimates by $0.47. Revenue in the quarter jumped 38.4% year over year to $710.43 million, beating estimates by $92.94 million.
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>>> Nextracker Inc. (NXT), an energy solutions company, provides solar tracker and software solutions for utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects worldwide. The company offers tracking solutions, which includes NX Horizon, a solar tracking solution; NX Gemini, a two-in-portrait format tracker, which holds two rows of solar panels along the central support beam; and NX Horizon-XTR, a terrain-following tracker designed to expand the addressable market for trackers on sites with sloped, uneven, and challenging terrain. It also provides monitoring and control software solutions including TrueCapture, a solar boosting power plant, which boost plant performance by correcting for shading and diffuse light conditions; and NX Navigator, a mitigating extreme weather risk navigator which helps to maintain optimum tracker equipment health and availability. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Fremont, California. <<<
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>>> Oracle Posts Biggest Gain Since 2021 on Cloud Revenue Growth
Bloomberg
Brody Ford
Mar 12, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracle-set-biggest-gain-since-091209365.html
(Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp. shares posted their biggest gain in more than two years after reporting a spike in bookings in its cloud computing business, showing progress in its bid to capture more of the competitive market.
Remaining performance obligation — a measure of Oracle’s sales backlog — was $80 billion at the end of the quarter ended in February. That was significantly ahead of the $59 billion expected by analysts. Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz pointed to this figure, which she said was driven by “large new cloud infrastructure contracts signed in the third quarter,” as evidence of momentum.
The stock rose 12% to close at $127.54 in New York, a record high. Shares had been down about 10% over the past six months through Monday’s close, lagging the iShares software ETF, which gained 16%.
The Austin-based company, known for its database software, is focused on expanding its cloud infrastructure business to compete with Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. That effort has faced headwinds in recent quarters as growth rates slowed. But there were signs of stabilizing in the third quarter, with sales gaining at nearly the same pace as the three months preceding it.
“We expect to continue receiving large contracts reserving cloud infrastructure capacity,” Catz said on a conference call, adding that Oracle is “very rapidly” opening new data centers to meet demand.
Cloud revenue jumped 25% to $5.1 billion in the period that ended in February, the company said, just ahead of Wall Street’s $5.06 billion estimate. Of that, $1.8 billion came from renting out computing power and storage over the internet and $3.3 billion from applications.
The results were “certainly better than feared,” said Jefferies analyst Brent Thill in an interview on Bloomberg TV, noting that other cloud vendors like Amazon and Microsoft have similarly reported strong results recently.
Total sales in the fiscal third quarter increased 7.1% to $13.3 billion, roughly in line with analysts’ estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Excluding some items, profit was $1.41 a share, compared with the average estimate of $1.38.
Sales of Fusion software for managing corporate finance increased 18% in the quarter from a year earlier. Revenue from NetSuite, enterprise planning tools aimed at small and midsize companies, was up 21%. Revenue from both businesses gained 21% in the previous period.
After acquiring Cerner, the electronic health records company, Oracle has been focused on modernizing the legacy software business. It finished moving “the majority of Cerner customers” to Oracle cloud infrastructure in the quarter, Chairman Larry Ellison said. Further updates over the coming year, such as a new suite of applications, will transform Cerner and Oracle’s health operations into “a high-growth business for years to come,” he added.
In the current quarter, which ends in May, revenue will be up about 5%, Catz said. Cloud revenue without Cerner will be about 23%, she said. Cerner will return to revenue growth in the fiscal year ending in May 2025, Catz said, adding that it has been a “significant headwind” to revenue growth this year.
Capital expenditures will be as much as $7.5 billion in the current fiscal year, Catz said. As the company builds more data centers to meet demand for cloud computing, that spending will increase to $10 billion in fiscal 2025, she added. That’s above the average analyst estimate of about $8.9 billion.
Investors are watching capital expenditures as a proxy for future cloud demand, as it means Oracle is constructing data centers, wrote Guggenheim analyst John DiFucci. “We believe Oracle continues to face a situation in which Oracle demand is outpacing the ability to meet it.”
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>>> Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) has many business software products under its umbrella. However, the company’s most famous software is TurboTax. People use the product to file their taxes every year, and it results in steady revenue for the company. Quickbooks is another popular tool that Intuit owns.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/market-mavericks-7-growth-stocks-154037454.html
The company’s Q2 FY24 results indicate more growth is ahead. Revenue increased by 11% year-over-year while net income more than doubled year-over-year. Intuit reiterated guidance for the fiscal year which projects 11%-12% year-over-year revenue growth. Expanding profit margins will make the company’s valuation more appealing for long-term investors. All in all, it’s one of those growth stocks to consider.
Intuit has been a winning stock for patient investors. Shares are up by 61% over the past year and have gained 165% over the past five years. The company’s vast array of business software gives it many opportunities to gain market share for the benefit of long-term investors. The stock offers a low 0.55% dividend yield, but growth rates have been solid. The company hiked its dividend by 15.4% year-over-year in 2023.
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Super Micro - >>> Move over, Nvidia. Investors are obsessed with this AI stock you may never have heard of
by Krystal Hur
CNN
Mar 7, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/move-over-nvidia-investors-obsessed-123045939.html
Nvidia isn’t the only stock capturing the attention of AI enthusiasts these days.
Nvidia is undoubtedly the poster child for artificial intelligence. Shares of the American chipmaker have soared roughly 277% over the last 12 months, helping drive a powerful bull market that’s led stocks to record highs. Nvidia closed above a $2 trillion market cap on March 1, joining an elite cohort including Apple and Microsoft.
But there’s another AI-related stock that has quietly logged eye-popping gains.
Shares of Super Micro Computer (SMCI) have surged about 296% so far in 2024, following a 246% jump in 2023. Supermicro’s stock gained even more momentum in January, after the company reported second-quarter results that blew past expectations and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Supermicro’s stock was one of the most popular names bought by Charles Schwab clients in February, according to the firm’s latest trading activity index.
The server producer counts Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices among its customers. Its stock had risen at a breakneck pace even before last year’s bull market. The shares jumped roughly 87% in 2022, while other tech names and the broader market got pummeled as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates aggressively to bring down wayward inflation.
Supermicro’s runaway gains are indicative of the burgeoning demand for high-quality infrastructure to support AI chips, after the creation of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022 kickstarted a race among tech behemoths to develop generative AI platforms and tools.
Nvidia has been the biggest beneficiary of the AI boom. The chipmaker, which produces processors that power AI systems, reported last month that its full-year profits grew more than 580% from the prior year.
“Everyone’s looking for something that looks and smells and tastes like Nvidia. … [Supermicro] is exactly that,” said Victoria Bills, chief investment strategist at Banrion Capital Management.
Supermicro has a market cap of roughly $63 billion, up from $5 billion just a year ago. The stock is set to join the benchmark S&P 500 index at its next quarterly rebalance.
Wall Street thinks it has more room to run. Bank of America analysts initiated coverage on Supermicro last month with a “buy” rating and price objective of $1,040, which the stock has already surpassed, closing at $1,124.70 a share on Wednesday. Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs analysts also recently initiated coverage.
“The company’s willingness to experiment with different combination of components, its close proximity to leading semiconductor companies in San Jose and the fact that a majority of its manufacturing is in the United States is a competitive advantage,” wrote BofA analysts in a February 15 report.
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>>> Why Broadcom Stock Was Sliding Today
by Jeremy Bowman
Motley Fool
March 8, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-broadcom-stock-sliding-today-170211445.html
Shares of Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) were moving lower Friday after the diversified semiconductor company posted solid results in its fiscal 2024 first-quarter earnings report after the market closed Thursday, but failed to raise its guidance.
High expectations were also baked into the stock. The company is viewed as a beneficiary of the AI boom, and as its shares have risen in recent months in consequence.
As of 11:59 a.m. ET, the stock was down by about 6%.
A good -- but not good enough -- quarter
Broadcom, which also just completed its purchase of VMware, said that revenue jumped by 34% in the quarter (which ended Feb. 4) to $12 billion, edging past the consensus estimate of $11.72 billion. Organic revenue, which excludes the impact of the VMware acquisition, was up 11%, accelerating from just 4% growth in the previous quarter, and the company said it was seeing strong demand for AI-related products.
In its semiconductor solutions segment, it reported 4% growth to $7.4 billion, while VMware drove a 153% jump in infrastructure software revenues to $4.6 billion.
Further down the income statement, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 26% to $7.16 billion, and adjusted earnings per share rose 6.4% to $10.99, which beat the consensus estimate of $10.29.
CEO Hock Tan noted the strengthening tailwind in AI, saying, "Strong demand for our networking products in AI data centers, as well as custom AI accelerators from hyperscalers, are driving growth in our semiconductor segment."
Guidance falls a bit short
Friday's share price pullback seems to be driven by the company's decision to maintain its full-year guidance at $50 billion in revenue and $30 billion in adjusted EBITDA. It kept that steady forecast even as it has had one quarter to integrate VMware and as it's seeing increased demand for AI products.
Even with Friday's slide, Broadcom shares are still up 18% year to date and have more than doubled in the last year, showing the stock is benefiting from AI tailwinds. While this session's dip may be disappointing for investors, it shouldn't change anyone's long-term thesis on the stock.
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>>> PTC for the new manufacturing world
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-great-value-stocks-set-172200800.html
This industrial software company's solutions lie at the heart of the digitization of the manufacturing sector. Its computer-aided design (CAD) software helps customers digitally create and modify designs. The products that are designed can be digitally analyzed and tested via simulation before they are built. This interface between the physical and digital worlds continues with PTC's product lifecycle management (PLM) software. Meanwhile, its Internet of Things (IoT) software digitally integrates products and assets.
Digital technology is revolutionizing manufacturing and helping reduce product development times while creating so-called "closed loop" manufacturing, whereby data is being constantly analyzed to improve production iteratively, and can even lead to adjustments to the product design.
These are hot concepts in modern manufacturing plants, and PTC is a leader in the field. The company continues to grow its annual run rate revenue, a figure that represents its recurring revenue, at a mid-teens growth rate, and it's likely to drop down into significantly more free-cash-flow generation in the coming years. Wall Street analysts have PTC growing its free cash flow to around $1 billion in 2026, putting the stock at a ratio of 20 times estimated 2026 free cash flow at the current price. That's a good value for a company growing at a mid-teens rate.
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>>> Why C3.ai Stock Rocketed Higher Thursday Morning
by Danny Vena
Motley Fool
Feb 29, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-c3-ai-stock-rocketed-162410723.html
Shares of C3.ai (NYSE: AI) moved sharply higher Thursday morning, soaring by as much as 26.4%. As of 10:40 a.m. ET, the stock was still up by 24.3%.
The catalyst for that surge was the quarterly report it delivered after the close Wednesday, which revealed that the artificial intelligence (AI) specialist may finally be tapping into the widening adoption of AI.
The beginnings of a turnaround?
For its fiscal 2024 third quarter, which ended Jan 31, C3.ai generated revenue of $78.4 million, up 18% year over year. Subscription revenue grew even faster, up 23% to $70.4 million, accounting for 90% of the total. The results were further aided by the company's expanding gross profit margin of 58%, which edged higher from 56% in fiscal Q2.
Profits continued to be elusive. C3.ai booked a net loss of $72.6 million, resulting in an adjusted loss of $0.13 per share -- more than double its loss of $0.06 per share in the prior-year quarter.
To put those results into context, analysts' consensus estimates were calling for revenue of $76.1 million and a loss of $0.28 per share, so the company beat on both top and bottom lines.
Better days to come
C3.ai's results might not seem like much to celebrate, particularly given its worsening bottom-line losses. However, there are indications that better days could be coming as management increased its full-year guidance and investors let out a collective cheer.
The company cited the increasing number of new agreements it has signed with customers -- it inked 50 during the quarter, up 85% year over year. Of those, 29 were new pilots. Management expects these deals will translate into commercial revenue in the months and years to come.
For its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter, management forecasts revenue of between $82 million and $86 million, which would amount to growth of roughly 10% at the midpoint. For the full year, C3 is forecasting revenue of $306 million to $310 million, a year-over-year increase of about 15% at the midpoint. Most of that range tops analysts' consensus expectation for revenue of $306.2 million. However, as a result of its increasing investments, the company said its losses will continue, and it no longer expects to be profitable by the fiscal fourth quarter.
C3.ai still needs to show it can capitalize on the AI boom and turn a profit.
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>>> Super Micro surges as AI server maker set to join S&P 500
Reuters
March 1, 2024
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/super-micro-surges-ai-server-000955723.html
(Reuters) - Shares of Super Micro Computer rallied 13.5% in extended trade on Friday after it was announced the seller of AI-optimized servers will join the S&P 500.
Super Micro and Deckers Outdoor Corp will be added to the S&P 500 prior to the start of trading on Monday, March 18, coinciding with a quarterly rebalance of Wall Street's most widely followed stock benchmark, S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a news release.
Those two companies will replace Whirlpool Corp and Zion Bancorporation, S&P Dow Jones Indices said.
Index funds that track the S&P 500 are among the most popular investment tools on Wall Street, and those funds will have to purchase shares of Super Micro and Deckers in order to stay aligned with the benchmark's composition.
Such S&P 500 index funds have assets of about $7.8 trillion, according to Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Super Micro sells high-end servers made with Nvidia's top-of-the-line AI processors, and its stock has more than tripled this year.
With Super Micro's stock market value reaching over $50 billion, investors had speculated the company would be added to the S&P 500.
On Friday, investors exchanged almost $10 billion worth of Super Micro's shares, eclipsing trading in Wall Street heavyweights including Microsoft and Amazon.
Its jump in after-hours trading adds to a 4.5% surge during Friday's trading session.
Shares of Deckers rose 2.7% in extended trade, while Whirlpool dipped 1.7% and Zion Bancorporation fell 2%.
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>>> PTC Inc. (PTC) operates as software company in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides
Windchill, a suite that manages all aspects of the product development lifecycle(PLM) that provides real-time information sharing, dynamic data visualization, collaborate across geographically distributed teams, and enabling manufacturers to elevate product development, manufacturing, and field service processes;
ThingWorx, a platform for Industrial Internet of Things;
ServiceMax, a field service management solutions enable companies to asset uptime with optimized in-person and remote service and technician productivity with mobile tools. and deliver metrics; and Arena, a SaaS PLM solution enables product teams to collaborate virtually to share product and quality information with internal teams and supply chain partners and deliver products to customers. It offers -
Codebeamer, an application lifecycle management for products and software development;
Servigistics, a service parts management solution; and FlexPLM, a solution provides retailers with a single platform for merchandising and line planning, materials management, sampling, and others. In addition, it offers -
Kepware, a portfolio of industrial connectivity solutions helps companies connect diverse automation devices and software applications;
Creo, a 3D CAD technology enables the digital design, testing, and modification of product models; and -
Onshape, a cloud product development platform that delivers computer-aided design with data management tools. Further, it offers -
Vuforia, an augmented reality (AR) technology enables the visualization of digital information in a physical context and the creation of AR enabling companies to drive results in manufacturing, service, engineering, and operations; and -
Arbortext, a dynamic publishing solution streamlines how organizations create, manage, and publish technical documentation. PTC Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PTC/profile
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>>> Why Palantir Technologies, Arm Holdings, and Other Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Have Skyrocketed 50% or More in February
by Danny Vena
Motley Fool
February 19, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-palantir-technologies-arm-holdings-171500648.html
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has been gathering steam over the past year, but there's been a notable uptick in AI-related developments over the past several weeks. Since the start of February alone, shares of Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) have jumped 55%, Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) surged 72%, Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM) soared 90%, and SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN) skyrocketed 121% as of the market close on Thursday.
The common thread that runs through these companies is the accelerating adoption of AI. There wasn't a single development that drove these stocks higher, but rather the growing tidal wave of AI that's beginning to overtake the tech industry.
Let's look at what drove each of these stocks higher and what it all means for the future.
Show me the money
It wasn't just the growing secular tailwinds of generative AI that drove these stocks higher. Three of the four recently reported quarterly financial results that easily surpassed investor expectations.
Supermicro was first out of the gate, reporting the results of its fiscal 2024 second quarter (ended Dec. 31, 2023). The company generated revenue of $3.7 billion, up 103% year over year and 73% sequentially. Management cited record and accelerating demand for AI servers. Profit was equally spectacular, with adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.59 rising 62%. If that weren't enough, the company is forecasting full-year revenue of $14.5 billion at the midpoint of its guidance, which would represent 100% growth.
Next up was Palantir Technologies. For the fourth quarter, revenue of $608 million marked a 20% jump year over year and 9% sequentially, fueled by a 70% jump in U.S. commercial revenue. This performance helped the company generate its fifth consecutive quarter of profit according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), with adjusted EPS of $0.08. The headline was the forecast for at least 40% growth from its U.S. commercial business over the coming year, thanks to robust demand for its Artificial Intelligence Platform, Palantir's generative AI solution.
Most recently, Arm Holdings delivered eye-opening results. For its fiscal 2024 third quarter, Arm generated record revenue of $824 million, up 14% year over year, driven by license revenue that grew 18% and record royalty revenue that climbed 11%. This performance resulted in adjusted EPS of $0.29, rising 32%. It was the company's forecast that really caught Wall Street off guard. Management is guiding for fourth-quarter revenue in a range of $850 million to $900 million, or growth of between 34% and 42%, lunging past the third quarter's 14% growth.
What these companies have in common, aside from the obvious ties to AI, is that each company delivered a "beat and raise" quarter, defying expectations and providing guidance that outpaced Wall Street's already bullish expectations.
The godfather of AI takes stock
There's a strong argument to be made that Nvidia saw the writing on the wall and positioned itself for the AI boom to come. Investors need only review the company's recent results to understand the magnitude of the secular tailwind involved.
For Nvidia's fiscal 2024 third quarter (ended Oct. 29, 2023), the company delivered record revenue that jumped 206% to $18.1 billion, resulting in diluted EPS that surged 1,274% to $3.71.
So when Nvidia makes a notable move in the field of AI, investors take notice.
In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Nvidia revealed that it had taken stakes in several AI-related companies, causing a spike in their respective shares.
Nvidia purchased 1.73 million shares of SoundHound AI, which provides voice-controlled AI solutions for businesses, in a stake valued at $6.5 million as of Thursday's market close. The company's technology has been deployed by a number of high-profile restaurants, including White Castle and Jersey Mike's, to power voice-enabled phone and drive-through ordering. It's also one of the leading providers of voice-AI solutions to carmakers, counting more than 20 automotive brands on its customer list.
SoundHound wasn't the only one. Nvidia finally confirmed the size of the stake it took in Arm Holdings: It owns 1.96 million shares worth roughly $262 million. Arm provides the designs behind some of the world's most widely used central processing units. After two years in the making, regulators quashed an attempted merger between Nvidia and Arm in early 2022.
Some viewed these purchases as a significant vote of confidence from Nvidia. As a result, many investors followed suit, piling into the stocks.
The cost isn't as high as you might think
The most common bear argument for investing in these and many AI stocks is the valuation. That view is understandable but tends to ignore the stunning growth rates of the companies in question. It reveals the limitations involved in using the price-to-earnings ratio or the price-to-sales ratio, especially when using them in a vacuum.
When dealing with high-growth stocks, the more appropriate measure is the price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio, as it takes the growth rate of the company's profit into account. Since SoundHound AI isn't yet profitable, the point is moot. However, for Arm Holdings, Super Micro Computer, and Palantir Technologies, they clock in with forward PEG ratios of 0.8, 0.5, and 0.3, all well below the level of 1, which is the standard for an undervalued stock.
From that perspective, Arm Holdings, Super Micro Computer, and Palantir Technologies are not only growing quickly but are also cheaper than you might think.
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SMCI - >>> 1 Wall Street Analyst Thinks Super Micro Computer Stock Is Going to $1,040. Is It a Buy?
by Howard Smith
Motley Fool
February 18, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-wall-street-analyst-thinks-173000319.html
Data center systems provider Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) has been a darling of Wall Street lately. Its shares have soared 950% over the past year and have been on a parabolic move recently.
The stock has tripled in just the last month, but one Wall Street analyst thinks Supermicro, as it is known, still has more room to run. Bank of America Securities analyst Ruplu Bhattacharya began coverage on the supplier of accelerated computing server systems with a buy rating and a $1,040 price target. That would represent a jump of 18% over Wednesday's closing price, even after Supermicro's torrid run.
AI has legs
Companies in virtually every sector are leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI). The biggest beneficiary in the stock market thus far has been semiconductor chipmaker Nvidia. In that company's third quarter, overall revenue more than tripled from a year ago and soared 34% sequentially from the prior quarter. That jump came mainly from growth in Nvidia's data center business thanks to customers craving its chips that power AI applications.
But businesses don't just need the chips, they need the server infrastructure that keeps the full AI machine running. And while Nvidia's revenue tripled year over year, its earnings per share rocketed by more than 12-fold. That's the earnings power that Bhattacharya sees helping boost Supermicro too.
In a client note, he wrote: "We think this provider of server and storage solutions will be a beneficiary of AI-driven demand growth ... We believe the market for AI servers is much larger than is factored in [Wall] Street models."
Is it too late to buy Supermicro?
Bhattacharya's price target could even be conservative. If the market for AI servers grows at a 50% annual rate over the next several years as Bhattacharya thinks, Supermicro has plenty more sales and earnings growth ahead.
Yet the stock is still not overly expensive. It has a price-to-sales ratio of about 6 compared to 40 for Nvidia. And earnings could soar as they have for Nvidia. The analyst's call looks very achievable.
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>>> Palantir Stock Is Going to the Moon Following Its Jaw-Dropping Earnings Report
by Adam Spatacco
Motley Fool
February 13, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/palantir-stock-going-moon-following-095400737.html
Earnings season is in full swing, and investors still have their eyes on one big item: artificial intelligence (AI). Much of the buzz surrounding AI is saved for the "Magnificent Seven" -- a catchy moniker that includes megacap tech behemoths Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla. But that doesn't mean no other companies are riding the wave.
With a market cap of just $51 billion, Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) may not be seen in the same light as big tech, but Palantir is making inroads in the space as well, and investors realized it last week.
Following the release of a jaw-dropping fourth-quarter earnings report on Feb. 5 after the market closed, Palantir stock rocketed by roughly 50% over the next five trading days.
From revenue to operating margins to cash flow to customer acquisition strategies, Palantir is giving investors no shortage of key performance indicators to drool over. Let's analyze the report, and what the company's current performance could spell for its future. Despite operating in the shadows of megacap tech, now could be a lucrative time to invest in Palantir as it pushes forward in the AI arms race.
Customer acquisition at its finest
2023 was full of exciting developments in the world of artificial intelligence. Microsoft invested billions into OpenAI, the start-up behind ChatGPT. Alphabet and Amazon swiftly followed, with each investing in a competing platform called Anthropic.
In an effort to stand out, Palantir created a unique lead generation strategy to help fuel interest in its newest product, its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). Specifically, the company began hosting immersive seminars that it calls "boot camps." During these sessions, attendees can try out Palantir's software and get a better understanding of how the company can play a critical role in generative AI-driven use cases.
During Palantir's fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts, investors learned that the company completed over 500 boot camps last year. It conducted only 92 during 2022. While it's clear that the boot camps are in high demand, a thorough analysis of the company's customer growth is worth a look.
Palantir had 497 customers in the fourth quarter, a 35% increase over the year-ago period. Palantir is witnessing surging demand in the private sector in particular, with customer count increasing 44% annually.
This is important, because for many years Palantir was knocked by Wall Street bears over the company's heavy reliance on government deals. It's clear that the advent of AIP is building demand and business outside of its legacy public sector operation is thriving.
Margins are expanding, and cash flow is compounding
The chart below illustrates Palantir's annual revenue for the last five years.
https://media.zenfs.com/en/motleyfool.com/f14da0e2f277f368492b7e658c255d8d">https://media.zenfs.com/en/motleyfool.com/f14da0e2f277f368492b7e658c255d8d" />
Palantir was founded in 2003 and the chart shows that it took almost two decades for the company to reach the milestone of $1 billion in annual revenue. And yet in just three short years, the company has doubled its revenue. This growth is astounding considering how tough the macroeconomic outlook has been in recent years, coupled with the a fierce competitive landscape.
Perhaps more importantly, Palantir is also generating healthy margin expansion, which is flowing right to the bottom line. After adjusting for non-cash expenses like stock-based compensation, Palantir's operating margin expanded from 22% in 2022 to 28% in 2023. Furthermore, free cash flow grew 260% year over year to $730 million.
Some things to consider
The combination of top-line growth and margin expansion has helped bolster Palantir's liquidity. As of Dec. 31, the company had $3.7 billion of cash and marketable securities, and no debt on its balance sheet.
While this is encouraging to see, investors should take note of the disparity between the company's customer growth and its revenue acceleration. Even though customer count increased by 35% last year, Palantir's total revenue only grew by about 17%.
To me, this signals that Palantir is playing the long game when it comes to AI. In other words, the boot camps are merely a low-cost mechanism to get customers into the pipeline and convert them into paying users of the company's software. However, through a combination of use-case discovery rooted in AI along with enhanced customer-nurturing efforts, Palantir has the ability to upsell and cross-sell customers over time. As such, the company should enjoy significant revenue acceleration as time goes on.
I'd caution investors from buying into any hype narratives surrounding Palantir. Focusing on the long-term picture and assessing the company's position among enterprise software providers specializing in AI will be important.
For me, the fourth-quarter report was a preview of what investors could expect on an ongoing basis. As artificial intelligence software becomes more prominent in IT budgets, Palantir should be well positioned to benefit from secular tailwinds. Now looks like a great opportunity to scoop up shares for both new and existing investors, and prepare to hold on for the long term. The ride appears to just be getting started.
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Apple - >>> Warren Buffett Says Steve Jobs Once Called Him Asking For Advice On How To Invest Apple's Cash — Then He Completely Ignored The Advice
Benzinga
by Jeannine Mancini
February 12, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-says-steve-jobs-192312997.html
Warren Buffett shared a look into a conversation with Steve Jobs about Apple Inc.'s financial strategy during a 2012 appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
In the "Ask Warren" segment, Buffett said, “It was an interesting conversation because I hadn’t talked to him in a long time. He said, ‘We’ve got all this cash. What should we do with it?’ So we went over the alternatives. It was kind of interesting.”
This dialogue between two titans of industry sheds light on the decision-making process at one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Jobs, known for his transformative role in making Apple a global technology leader, reached out to Buffett to seek advice on the company’s cash-management strategies. Buffett, a legendary investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., outlined the four primary options available for deploying cash: stock buybacks, dividends, acquisitions or holding onto it.
Despite Jobs’s acknowledgment that Apple’s stock was undervalued, indicating that buybacks could be a wise choice, he ultimately decided against taking any action, preferring to maintain the company’s cash reserves.
“I went through the logic of each thing. He told me they would not have the chance to make big acquisitions that would require lots of money," Buffett said. "And then I asked him the question, I said, ‘I would use it for buybacks if I thought my stock was undervalued.’ And I said, ‘How do you feel about that?’ The stock was 200-and-something. He said, ‘I think my stock is very undervalued.’ I said, ‘Well, what better to do with your money?’"
Jobs liked having the cash and that was what he ultimately decided was his best option. Buffett added that Jobs interpreted their conversation as Buffett endorsing his decision to hold onto the cash. "I later learned that he said I agreed with him to do nothing with the cash," Buffett said.
The conversation between Jobs and Buffett highlights a cautious approach to financial management, contrasting sharply with the actions taken by Jobs’s successor Tim Cook. Under Cook’s leadership, Apple has aggressively pursued stock buybacks, spending over $500 billion on them in the last decade. According to Business Insider, this expenditure surpasses the market capitalization of major corporations like Visa Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and ExxonMobil Corp., underscoring the scale of Apple’s commitment to repurchasing its shares.
Apple’s buyback strategy has enhanced shareholder value and increased the stake of Berkshire Hathaway in the tech giant without additional investment. Berkshire Hathaway, owning nearly 6% of Apple, has seen its ownership stake grow as a result of these buybacks.
Buffett has publicly supported Apple’s repurchase efforts, noting in his 2021 letter to shareholders the positive impact of the buybacks on both Berkshire’s holdings and Apple’s broader ecosystem.
“Much of what the company retained was used to repurchase Apple shares, an act we applaud,” Buffett wrote. “Tim Cook, Apple’s brilliant CEO, quite properly regards users of Apple products as his first love, but all of his other constituencies benefit from Tim’s managerial touch as well.”
While Jobs exhibited a preference for liquidity and financial flexibility, Cook has leveraged Apple’s financial strength to actively manage its capital structure, reinforcing the company’s position as a leader in the technology sector and delivering value to its shareholders and stakeholders alike.
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>>> Why Monolithic Power Systems Stock Popped After Earnings
by Rich Smith
Motley Fool
February 8, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-monolithic-power-systems-stock-172638300.html
Shares of Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ: MPWR), a specialist in manufacturing integrated circuits for controlling power systems, surged 17.2% through 10:55 a.m. ET Thursday morning, after the company beat expectations for fourth-quarter earnings last night.
Heading into its Q4 report, analysts had forecast the semiconductor company would earn $2.85 per share on sales of $452 million. In fact, Monolithic earned $2.88 per share on sales of $454 million -- a small beat to be sure, but still a beat.
Monolithic Power sales and earnings
Not all the news was good however. While better than expected, Q4 sales actually declined 4.4% year over year, and gross profit margins on those sales contracted by 290 basis points, to 55.3%.
Even worse, operating costs rose nearly twice as fast as sales fell, up 8.2%, driving operating profits down 20% year over year, and subtracting 19% from net income. While Monolithic reported non-GAAP (adjusted) profits of $2.88 per share, thus exceeding Wall Street's expectations, its actual earnings as calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) were only $1.98 per share.
Results for the full year fiscal 2023 were only a bit better. Gross margin still fell, operating costs still rose, and on the bottom line, earnings were only $8.76 per share. But that was only a 3% decline versus 2022, thanks in part to 2023 revenue rising 1.5% in comparison to 2022.
Is Monolithic Power Systems stock a sell?
And yet, the news could also get better going forward. Turning to guidance, CEO Michael Hsing said he's "cautious about near-term business conditions." Nevertheless, he's predicting that in the first quarter, sales will range from $437 million to $457 million -- the entire range of which is ahead of Wall Street's own forecast for $431 million in sales. Gross margin is also stabilizing, and may even improve, with Monolithic saying its gross margin this coming quarter will range from 55.1% to 55.7%.
All things considered, Monolithic still probably won't earn as much in Q1 2024 as it earned in Q1 2023. But analysts are forecasting a 16% decline. If sales turn out to be better than expected, though, and gross margin stops shrinking, then Monolithic could be on course to beat earnings again in Q1 2024.
As for investors' reaction to this news, they're obviously happy about it today. Still, with Monolithic Power stock selling for a pricey 74 times trailing earnings, and earnings still shrinking (by any amount), the stock still looks expensive to me. I don't mean to rain on investors' parade or anything, but I'm afraid this semiconductor stock is still a sell.
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>>> 4 Phenomenal Companies That Will Be Massive Winners, Regardless of Who Wins the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Arms Race
by Keithen Drury
Motley Fool
Feb 10, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-phenomenal-companies-massive-winners-121500269.html
Investing in artificial intelligence (AI) can be overwhelming, as many companies benefit from this trend. Whether it's a company deploying AI to improve its business or one that makes AI software, there are a lot of opportunities.
However, there are also hardware components of AI, and many of these companies will be winners regardless of what happens to individual companies. I've pinpointed four that will be massive winners over the coming years.
1. ASML
A microchip is at the core of every computer used to create an AI model. These components require highly specialized machinery to make them, and one of the key suppliers in this realm is ASML (NASDAQ: ASML). The company makes lithography machines, which make the conductive traces on chips.
Semiconductors have reached the point where the distance between these traces is as small as 3 nanometers (nm). For reference, the human hair is about 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. With smaller distances between traces, these chips become more powerful and efficient -- a key need for any device.
ASML currently holds a technological monopoly in this space, as no other companies make EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machines. If you're making cutting-edge chips, you must work with ASML. As a result, ASML will be a huge winner in this space.
2. Taiwan Semiconductor
Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) is a huge user of these machines. The company is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, which means it makes chips for other clients.
TSMC is a leader in this field, as it has 3-nm chips but is also developing 2-nm chips slated to launch in 2025. Taiwan Semiconductor's innovative culture is always working on the next thing, which will provide continual revenue boosts as these new products launch.
Among Taiwan Semiconductor's customers are Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AMD, which provide another critical component in the AI value chain.
3. Nvidia
Nvidia has probably received the most attention in this group, as its best-in-class GPUs (graphics processing units) are crucial in AI. GPUs are used to process vast amounts of data and train AI models, making them must-have hardware.
When a business outfits a computer to train these models, they don't just buy one or two GPUs; they buy thousands. This caused Nvidia's revenue to explode higher in 2023, as the demand for its GPUs was unprecedented.
Nvidia's strength will continue as long as AI is a massive trend, as it requires a significant computing infrastructure buildout.
4. Super Micro Computer
You can't just go out and buy a few thousand Nvidia GPUs filled with Taiwan Semiconductor chips made with ASML's lithography machines, hook them up, and expect a positive result. Instead, a specialized server is needed to maximize efficiency so a business can get the most performance out of its supercomputer.
That's where Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) comes in. Supermicro specializes in server design, whether it's being used for engineering simulations, drug discovery, or AI model training. Its products are highly configurable, whether a company wants a couple of hundred GPUs or a couple of thousand.
As the demand for AI computers reaches the general market, Supermicro will continue to excel, which is part of the reason the stock is up around 140% to start in 2024.
A basket of AI winners
You don't have to pick a single winner to be a successful AI investor. Instead, you could select a variety of stocks that are critical suppliers in the AI field and likely do quite well.
This group will be successful regardless of which company produces the best AI product, as they provide the building blocks necessary for all AI models.
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>>> Biden administration announces $5 billion commitment for research and development of computer chips
The Washington Post
By Josh Boak?|?AP
February 9, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/02/09/computer-chips-research-development-biden/c704b56c-c73c-11ee-bbc9-9b5ca9b20779_story.html
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday announced the investment of $5 billion in a newly established public-private consortium aimed at supporting research and development in advanced computer chips.
The National Semiconductor Technology Center is being funded through the CHIPS and Science Act. That 2022 law aims to reinvigorate the computer chip sector within the United States through tens of billions of dollars in targeted government support.
Stakeholders in the chips industry gathered on the White House campus to discuss how the center should prioritize research and worker training for an industry poised to expand because of government backing. The coronavirus pandemic exposed the risk to the economy and national security of an overdependence on Taiwan for advanced chips, while the emergence of artificial intelligence is likely to push demand for newer and more innovative chips upward.
“This is an inflection point in the industry,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told the group. “Not just because we’re dangerously dependent on one country for so many of our chips, but because AI is going to lead to an explosion of demand for chips, for sophisticated chips, more energy-efficient chips, cost-effective chips.”
The center would help to fund the design and prototyping of new chips, in addition to training workers for the sector.
Companies say they need a skilled workforce in order to capitalize on the separate $39 billion being provided by the government to fund new and expanded computer chip plants. Raimondo said there will be “a drumbeat” of funding announcements for companies in the next six to 12 weeks.
The sector would likely increase rapidly in terms of its need for highly specialized workers. Labor Department data say that about 375,000 people are employed in the production of computer chips with an average income of $82,830.
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>>> 20 Best-Performing AI ETFs for February 2024
Exchange-traded funds are one way to invest in artificial intelligence. THNQ and SPRX are some of the best-performing AI ETFs.
Nerd Wallet
By Sam Taube
Feb 2, 2024
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/best-performing-ai-etfs
Spear Alpha ETF (SPRX)
59.11%
iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW)
51.09%
iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF (IGM)
47.88%
iShares U.S. Tech Independence Focused ETF (IETC)
47.57%
Clockwise Core Equity & Innovation ETF (TIME)
45.68%
Fidelity MSCI Information Technology Index ETF (FTEC)
41.06%
iShares Global Tech ETF (IXN)
40.36%
Franklin Exponential Data ETF (XDAT)
37.19%
Invesco NASDAQ Internet ETF (PNQI)
36.08%
Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ)
34.33%
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>>> Arm Holdings plc (ARM) architects, develops, and licenses central processing unit products and related technologies for semiconductor companies and original equipment manufacturers rely on to develop products. It offers microprocessors, systems intellectual property (IPs), graphics processing units, physical IP and associated systems IPs, software, tools, and other related services. Its products are used in various markets, such as automotive, computing infrastructure, consumer technologies, and Internet of things. The company operates in the United States, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, and internationally. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom. Arm Holdings plc operates as a subsidiary of Kronos II LLC.
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>>> Is It Too Late to Buy Palantir Stock?
by Will Healy
Motley Fool
Feb 7, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/too-buy-palantir-stock-143129749.html
Palantir Technologies' (NYSE: PLTR) stock price has jumped nearly 31% since Monday afternoon right after the release of its earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2023. With its artificial intelligence platform (AIP) and U.S. commercial segment showing massive growth, investor interest in the software stock has surged.
With the stock already up approximately 163% over the last year and its valuation rising, have investors missed their opportunity to buy?
Palantir and AIP
Admittedly, the potential of the company could motivate some investors to ignore its current elevated valuation. Palantir has stood out above other SaaS stocks by analyzing data and delivering insights. It has long relied on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to make its determinations. After first focusing on national defense applications, it turned to the commercial sector to apply its knowledge to the business world.
With Palantir releasing AIP last year, more commercial customers have become interested in the software after attending Palantir boot camps. On the Q4 2023 earnings call, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Legal Officer Ryan Taylor spoke of one attendee who said they could find at least "100 use cases" for AIP. Another attendee remarked about finding "endless solutions" through the product.
Such successes were likely the biggest reason Palantir's revenue in the U.S. commercial sector rose by 70% in Q4. U.S. commercial customer counts also moved higher by 55% over the same period.
Palantir's financials and valuation
Those aforementioned successes appeared to move the stock higher despite more muted financial results. The $2.2 billion in revenue reported for 2023 increased by 17% yearly, with Q4 revenue climbing by 20%.
Also, since operating expenses rose modestly, Palantir earned considerably higher profits. Its net income of $217 million in 2023 increased from a $371 million loss in 2022. The company also earned $97 million of that profit in Q4 alone, having increased quarterly net income by 152% compared with year-ago levels.
Nonetheless, considering that Q4 2022 was its first quarterly profit, investors should remember that profits usually rise by a considerable amount when a company first reaches profitability, rendering its P/E ratio of just above 360 meaningless. Looking to the future, a forward P/E of 73 is high but not unprecedented for an AI company in today's environment.
Also, its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 23 is up from single digits one year ago, and investors could turn on the stock should sentiment turn negative. Still, the P/S ratio is down from the 2021 bull market when it was routinely above 25 despite Palantir not being profitable at the time. That could indicate that investors are willing to tolerate a higher sales valuation for this company.
Moreover, AIP's success could help to increase revenue and earnings growth in future quarters. That, in turn, could help the P/S and P/E ratios fall quickly, which could propel the stock higher at a faster pace.
Is it too late to buy Palantir?
Given Palantir's current state, investors should feel safe adding shares at current levels. Indeed, valuations are high, which could give pause to some prospective buyers.
However, Palantir's customers appear to see game-changing potential in its software, which gives the company tremendous pricing power. Also, the rapid increase in customer counts and U.S. commercial revenue confirms the high demand for this software, and sales and earnings multiples will likely fall as customer counts increase.
Thus, it is likely not the end of the bull run for Palantir, and customers who buy the stock now can still earn considerable returns over the long term.
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Super-micro - >>> 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Help Make You a Millionaire
by Will Healy
Motley Fool
Feb 7, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-artificial-intelligence-ai-stocks-114500306.html
Much like the technology trends of the past, artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially help turn investors into millionaires. The performance of stocks like Nvidia and the recoveries of numerous other stocks from their 2022 bear market lows reflects the tremendous growth that these new technologies are driving for the companies involved, and the willingness of investors to pay for it.
Recently, investors have begun to gravitate toward smaller companies with the potential for massive growth. As AI makes more headway among investors, businesses, and consumers, these AI stocks could deliver outsized gains to investors.
Palantir
Investors should not ignore the AI-driven opportunity in Palantir (NYSE: PLTR). The company has long used machine learning and other AI tools to deliver analytical insights to clients in the national defense and commercial realms. The success of its platforms has helped it grow its revenue and profits.
However, the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) may take its AI prowess to a much higher level. AIP employs generative AI technology, and the company has heavily promoted the product recently through what it calls "boot camps," where it helps prospective customers find real-world ways to use the technology to their benefit. Clients that attend these boot camps have reported eye-popping productivity gains from them, such as producing outputs 10 times faster with one-third of the resources.
Admittedly, the impacts of AIP have not yet shown up in the company's headline numbers. In the first three quarters of 2023, its revenue rose 16% to $1.6 billion. Also, Palantir limited operating expense growth, resulting in a net income of $120 million during that timeframe. Due to investors' optimism about the company's future, its stock has risen by about 110% over the last year.
With that gain behind it, the stock now trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 17, a valuation that may give some investors pause. Still, when factoring in the growth potential, others might see it as a relative bargain based on its forward P/E ratio of 55. If AIP's successes start translating into revenue gains, a surge in the stock could bring investors closer to millionaire status.
Supermicro
Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) -- better known simply as Supermicro -- has existed for over 30 years, but it may finally be getting its moment in the sunshine amid the AI revolution. It describes itself as a "rack-scale total IT solutions provider," building servers for big data, cloud computing, enterprise, 5G, and other applications.
However, it has drawn particular attention with its servers for data centers powered by Nvidia's AI chips. With more than 6 million square feet of manufacturing space and operations in over 100 countries, it has positioned itself to take this technology wherever customers demand it.
Indeed, interest in its products has begun to skyrocket. In the first six months of its fiscal 2024 (a period that ended Dec. 31), its revenue rose 58% year over year to $5.8 billion. But because operating expenses also rose rapidly, its net income increased by just 25% to $453 million.
Since those higher operating expenses appear to have been primarily related to improvements, investors seem to be less concerned about them, and more focused on the company's burgeoning AI opportunity. The stock has risen by an eye-popping 695% over the past year, and doubled since the beginning of 2024.
Despite that gain, its price-to-earnings ratio is around 43, a relatively moderate level considering its revenue growth. Considering that the stock trades at just 26 times forward earnings, it is probably not too late for investors to see further substantial gains in Supermicro.
Upstart
Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ: UPST) seeks to upend the loan evaluation business using AI. According to internal studies, it has found loan opportunities overlooked by Fair Isaac's FICO scoring tool, allowing Upstart's lending clients to approve more loans without increasing their risks.
The FICO score is particularly vulnerable to disruption since its processes have changed little since Fair Isaac launched the scoring tool in 1989. Also, because Upstart seeks to earn revenue on evaluations only, it should carry little credit risk, in theory.
Unfortunately for the company, its period of fast growth and profitability ended abruptly as interest rates rose. Its fairly small client base and high dependence on two large clients have also hampered Upstart, as did its decision to widen its business model and become the lender on some of the loans its platform approved.
Consequently, its revenue in the first nine months of 2023 fell 46% year over year to $408 million. Nonetheless, in Q3, its revenue rose 3% from the previous quarter to $147 million, suggesting that the worst may be over. Also, the stock's price-to-sales ratio stands at just 5, a small fraction of where it stood in the previous bull market.
Upstart carries significant risk, but its platform's ability to approve more loans without increasing lenders' credit risk could offer tremendous value, especially if more banks use it to replace the FICO score model. If more banks adopt its tool and interest rates head lower, Upstart could deliver massive shareholder returns.
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Name | Symbol | % Assets |
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Apple Inc | AAPL | 12.81% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 10.19% |
Amazon.com Inc | AMZN | 9.98% |
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 4.24% |
Facebook Inc A | FB | 4.19% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 3.80% |
Alphabet Inc Class C | GOOG | 3.69% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 2.65% |
PayPal Holdings Inc | PYPL | 2.02% |
Adobe Inc | ADBE | 1.84% |
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CrowdStrike Holdings Inc Class A | CRWD | 2.50% |
Roku Inc Class A | ROKU | 2.38% |
The Trade Desk Inc A | TTD | 2.20% |
Zscaler Inc | ZS | 1.74% |
AstraZeneca PLC ADR | AZN.L | 1.58% |
Fortinet Inc | FTNT | 1.55% |
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc | TTWO | 1.53% |
Coupa Software Inc | COUP | 1.52% |
Liberty Broadband Corp C | LBRDK | 1.50% |
Etsy Inc | ETSY | 1.48% |
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Tesla Inc | TSLA | 10.55% |
Roku Inc Class A | ROKU | 6.79% |
Invitae Corp | NVTA | 6.71% |
CRISPR Therapeutics AG | CRSP | 6.05% |
Square Inc A | SQ | 5.67% |
Slack Technologies Inc Class A | WORK | 4.49% |
Teladoc Health Inc | TDOC | 3.94% |
Proto Labs Inc | PRLB | 3.03% |
Zillow Group Inc C | Z | 2.84% |
Spotify Technology SA | SPOT | 2.81% |
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Tesla Inc | TSLA | 3.14% |
Square Inc A | SQ | 1.25% |
MercadoLibre Inc | MELI.SA | 1.05% |
Xiaomi Corp Ordinary Shares - Class B | 01810 | 1.04% |
Adyen NV | ADYEN | 0.99% |
Wuxi Biologics (Ca | N/A | 0.98% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 0.96% |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc | AMD | 0.92% |
Vestas Wind Systems A/S | VWS | 0.82% |
Albemarle Corp | ALB | 0.81% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
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Apple Inc | AAPL | 8.04% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 7.99% |
Amazon.com Inc | AMZN | 7.65% |
Facebook Inc A | FB | 5.86% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 4.45% |
Alphabet Inc Class C | GOOG | 4.36% |
Visa Inc Class A | V | 3.12% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 2.91% |
Mastercard Inc A | MA | 2.61% |
PayPal Holdings Inc | PYPL | 2.21% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Apple Inc | AAPL | 17.46% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 15.92% |
Visa Inc Class A | V | 4.74% |
Intel Corp | INTC | 3.86% |
Mastercard Inc A | MA | 3.84% |
Cisco Systems Inc | CSCO | 3.10% |
Adobe Inc | ADBE | 2.07% |
Oracle Corp | ORCL | 1.99% |
Salesforce.com Inc | CRM | 1.98% |
International Business Machines Corp | IBM | 1.81% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Apple Inc | AAPL | 17.44% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 15.91% |
Visa Inc Class A | V | 4.38% |
Intel Corp | INTC | 3.86% |
Mastercard Inc A | MA | 3.83% |
Cisco Systems Inc | CSCO | 3.10% |
Adobe Inc | ADBE | 2.07% |
Oracle Corp | ORCL | 1.99% |
Salesforce.com Inc | CRM | 1.98% |
International Business Machines Corp | IBM | 1.81% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Apple Inc | AAPL | 2.02% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 1.80% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 1.80% |
Amazon.com Inc | AMZN | 1.78% |
Facebook Inc A | FB | 1.68% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 1.62% |
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ADR | BABA | 1.40% |
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 1.14% |
Tencent Holdings Ltd | 00700 | 1.07% |
Intel Corp | INTC | 0.98% |
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Qualcomm Inc | QCOM | 4.16% |
Meituan | 03690 | 3.69% |
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | 005930.KS | 3.37% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 3.35% |
Salesforce.com Inc | CRM | 3.30% |
ServiceNow Inc | NOW | 3.13% |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc | AMD | 3.09% |
Facebook Inc A | FB | 3.02% |
Shopify Inc A | SHOP.TO | 2.97% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 2.94% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 7.86% |
Adobe Inc | ADBE | 7.58% |
Salesforce.com Inc | CRM | 7.48% |
Oracle Corp | ORCL | 6.03% |
ServiceNow Inc | NOW | 5.55% |
Intuit Inc | INTU | 4.98% |
Zoom Video Communications Inc | ZM | 4.71% |
Activision Blizzard Inc | ATVI | 3.32% |
Autodesk Inc | ADSK | 3.32% |
DocuSign Inc | DOCU | 2.26% |
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Cabot Microelectronics Corp | CCMP | 4.18% |
Viavi Solutions Inc | VIAV | 3.48% |
Brooks Automation Inc | BRKS | 2.92% |
Qualys Inc | QLYS | 2.74% |
Itron Inc | ITRI | 2.55% |
Power Integrations Inc | POWI | 2.55% |
Rogers Corp | ROG | 2.40% |
LivePerson Inc | LPSN | 2.38% |
Anixter International Inc | AXE | 2.37% |
ExlService Holdings Inc | EXLS | 2.27% |
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DexCom Inc | DXCM | 7.61% |
STMicroelectronics NV | STM.SI | 7.48% |
Skyworks Solutions Inc | SWKS | 6.75% |
Garmin Ltd | GRMN | 6.22% |
Sensata Technologies Holding PLC | ST | 5.54% |
Cypress Semiconductor Corp | CY | 5.48% |
ADT Inc | ADT | 4.85% |
Advantech Co Ltd | 2395.TW | 4.75% |
Silicon Laboratories Inc | SLAB | 3.18% |
ams AG | AMS | 2.83% |
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Align Technology Inc | ALGN | 1.47% |
ADT Inc | ADT | 1.43% |
DexCom Inc | DXCM | 1.43% |
Fortinet Inc | FTNT | 1.24% |
Qorvo Inc | QRVO | 1.23% |
Splunk Inc | SPLK | 1.21% |
Insulet Corp | PODD | 1.19% |
Avast PLC | AVST.L | 1.18% |
Xero Ltd | XRO.NZ | 1.18% |
Brookfield Renewable Partners LP | BEP.UN | 1.17% |
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