$Pistol Pete$, $Mick$ & Friends Stock Picks /news, DD and charts

[mick]

These days, the tech giants have gotten really big. Apple (AAPL) is over $900 billion, by market cap. Microsoft (MSFT) is over $1 trillion. If these were countries, their GDP would be comparable to the Netherlands and Indonesia, respectively.

But even to these companies, $1 billion is a pretty big chunk of change.

So when, for example, Microsoft spends $1 billion on artificial intelligence like it did a few weeks ago -- it's worth paying attention.

Now Apple is spending another $1 billion to acquire a modem division of Intel (INTC).

To understand why, we've got to clear up one thing. When most people think of modems, they think of something like this -- the equipment that gets you online at home or work: