Category: Info

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Another BIG blast off moment for India on the global stage as it hosts the G20 Summit

India G20

India hosting the G20 summit

The G20 summit will be held in New Delhi on 9th and 10th September 2023. This is the first time that India has hosted such a prestigious event, which brings together the leaders of the world’s 20 major economies with the exception of Russia.

India has invited several other countries and organisations to attend the summit, to include Bangladesh, Egypt, Spain, Netherlands, Nigeria, Mauritius, Singapore, Oman, UAE, UN, IMF, WHO, WTO, ILO, OECD, ISA, CDRI and ADB.

Broad range of issues

The summit will cover a range of issues, such as global health and pandemic response, economic recovery and resilience, climate change and environment, digital transformation and innovation, and gender equality and women empowerment. India has also proposed three new agenda items for the summit: reformed multilateralism, physical and social infrastructure for rapid inclusive development, and media and entertainment.

Major global player

India hopes that the G20 summit will cement its role as a major global player and showcase its achievements and aspirations to the world. However, the summit also faces some challenges and uncertainties, such as the absence of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the possibility of failing to agree on a joint communique, and the criticism of India’s beautification efforts that have displaced many poor people and animals.

Significant growth expected for India

India’s economy is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. For example, some economists predict that India’s annual gross domestic product growth (GDP) will average 6.3% through 2030. Others estimate that India’s GDP is likely to more than double from current levels by 2031. The OECD also forecasts that India will grow by 6% in 2023–24 and by 7% in 2024–25.

Some of the factors that may contribute to India’s economic growth are its strong emphasis on physical infrastructure development, ease of doing business, improved global conditions, and increased public spending on health care. However, there are also some challenges and risks that India may face, such as inflationary pressures, global uncertainties, environmental issues, and the labour market.

What is the G20?

The G20 is a group of 20 major economies that meet annually to discuss global issues such as economic growth, trade, development, health, climate change and energy.

India plays host to the G20 (2023)

Members of the G20

  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Republic of Korea
  • Mexico
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa
  • Turkey
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • European Union

The European Union is represented by the European Commission and the European Central Bank. The G20 accounts for around 80% of gross world product, 75% of international trade, two-thirds of the global population, and 60% of the world’s land area. 

The G20 was founded in 1999 in response to several world economic crises and has become the primary venue for international economic and financial cooperation.

There is a possibility that the summit could be overshadowed by India and Modi, who has given the event ‘major’ attention.

Update

African Union made permanent member of G20 ‘family’ of countries at the India hosted summit 2023.

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‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’.

Ghandi

Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948

He was an anti-colonial nationalist, Indian lawyer and political ethicist who employed nonviolent methods to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British rule.

He inspired civil rights movements and freedom across the world

Gandhi, who led a major nonviolent protest against the British rule in India by marching to the sea to make salt. He was also known as Mahatma Gandhi, meaning ‘great soul’ in Sanskrit. 

He inspired millions of Indians to join his campaign of civil disobedience, or satyagraha, which means ‘truth force’ or ‘soul force’ in Sanskrit. 

He was arrested several times by the British authorities, but he never gave up his fight for India’s independence. He is widely regarded as the father of the Indian nation and a global symbol of peace and justice.

Ghandi
‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’.
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Bitcoin billionaires

Bitcoin billionaire

According to a report by Henley & Partners, a professional consultancy firm, there are 22 people who have crypto holdings worth at least $1 billion as of September 2023. Six of them hold their investments in Bitcoin, the first and largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Six Bitcoin billionaires reported net worth

  • Micree Zhan, the co-founder of Bitmain, a leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining hardware. He has a reported net worth of $3.2 billion as of January 2021.
  • Chris Larsen, the co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple, a blockchain platform that facilitates cross-border payments. He has a reported net worth of $2.9 billion as of January 2021.
  • Michael Saylor, the founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, a business intelligence company that has invested over $1 billion in Bitcoin since 2020. He has a reported net worth of $2.3 billion as of January 2021.
Bitcoin billionaire pile
  • Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. He has a reported net worth of $1.9 billion as of January 2021.
  • Tim Draper, a venture capitalist and early investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He has a reported net worth of $1.5 billion as of January 2021.
  • Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. He has a reported net worth of $1.3 billion as of January 2021.

Satoshi Nakamoto

There are also likely to be some anonymous Bitcoin billionaires who have not disclosed their identities or holdings to the public. 

One of them could be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious ‘likely’ creator of Bitcoin, who is estimated to have mined over one million Bitcoins in the early days of the network. 

If he still owns them, his fortune would be worth over $40 billion at current prices. However, there is no conclusive evidence that he is still alive or in control of his bitcoins, or even that he was the originator of Bitcoin.

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UK Superfund plan – KNOWHOW

Let the winners run!

The UK superfund plan is a new initiative launched by the Prime Minister and the Technology Secretary on 6 March 2023, with the aim of making the UK a global science and technology superpower by 2030.

The plan outlines key actions that will involve every part of the government

  • Identifying and pursuing strategic advantage in the technologies that are most critical to achieving UK objectives
  • Showcasing the UK’s S&T strengths and ambitions at home and abroad to attract talent, investment and boost our global influence
  • Boosting private and public investment in research and development for economic growth and better productivity
  • Building on the UK’s already enviable talent and skills base
  • Financing innovative science and technology start-ups and companies
  • Capitalising on the UK government’s buying power to boost innovation and growth through public sector procurementSshaping the global science and tech landscape through strategic international engagement, diplomacy and partnerships
  • Ensuring researchers have access to the best physical and digital infrastructure for R&D that attracts talent, investment and discoveries.

Government funding

The plan is backed by over £370 million in new government funding to support infrastructure, investment and skills for the UK’s most exciting growing technologies, such as quantum and supercomputing, AI, biotechnology, clean energy, space and robotics. The plan is expected to create high-paid jobs of the future, grow the economy in cutting-edge industries, and improve people’s lives from better healthcare to security.

Government funding for Superfund

The funding sources for the UK superfund plan are mainly from the government’s budget allocation for science and technology, which has increased by 50% since 2020 to reach £22 billion per year by 2024/25. The government has also committed to increase public spending on R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, which is expected to leverage additional private sector investment. Moreover, the government has established a new agency called Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA), which will have a budget of £800 million over four years to fund high-risk, high-reward research projects that could lead to breakthroughs in science and technology.

Foreign investment

The UK superfund plan also aims to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK’s science and technology sector, by promoting the UK as a leading destination for innovation and showcasing its world-class research facilities, talent pool, regulatory environment and market opportunities. The government has set a target of increasing FDI stock in R&D from £45 billion in 2018 to £67 billion by 2025.

The UK superfund plan is a separate initiative from the superfund consolidators for defined benefit (DB) pensions, which are a new innovation in the UK pension industry. Transferring a DB pension scheme to a superfund can improve the security of members’ benefits by replacing a weak employer covenant with a capital buffer. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published guidance for trustees and sponsoring employers of UK DB pension schemes considering transacting with a superfund.

GB Savings One Fund

The GB Savings One Fund is a proposal by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) to create the country’s first superfund for pensions. According to the TBI, the superfund would be an expansion of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which is a statutory fund that provides compensation to members of eligible defined benefit (DB) pension schemes in the UK when their employers become insolvent.

The UK Superfund

The Tony Blair Institute suggests that sponsors of the smallest 4,500 UK DB schemes would be offered the voluntary option of transferring to the PPF on a benefit preserving basis, which would improve the security and efficiency of their pensions.

The institute also proposes that the PPF model should be replicated and rolled out throughout the UK in a series of regional, not-for-profit entities that sit within a master governance structure under the existing fund or participate in consolidation in parallel with and modelled on the original GB Savings. 

The TBI argues that this approach would result in a modernised pension system that would generate better returns for pensioners, attract more investment and talent, and strengthen pensions for the entire generation stuck with inadequate provision since the closure of the DB funds over the past two decades.

GB Bank

The GB Savings One Fund is not related to GB Bank, which is a bank that offers competitive savings accounts that support residential and commercial developments in communities that need them most. GB Bank has a full UK banking licence and offers the same level of protection as the traditional high street banks. 

When you save with GB Bank, your money is protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

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Japan’s moon launch carrying lunar lander and X-ray telescope

Japan rocket to explore galaxies

Japan launched a rocket on 7th September 2023 carrying an X-ray telescope that will explore the origins of the universe and a small lunar lander.

The launch of the HII-A rocket from Tanegashima Space Centre in southwestern Japan was shown live by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Thirteen minutes after the launch, the rocket put into orbit around Earth a satellite called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, which will measure the speed and makeup of what lies between galaxies.

That information helps in studying how celestial objects were formed, and hopefully can lead to solving the mystery of how the universe was created, JAXA reports.

In cooperation with NASA, JAXA will look at the strength of light at different wavelengths, the temperature of things in space and their shapes and brightness.

Smart

Also aboard the Japanese rocket is the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, a lightweight lunar lander. The Smart Lander reportedly won’t make lunar orbit for three or four months after the launch and would likely attempt a landing early 2024, according to the space agency.

Japan launched a rocket on 6th September 2023 carrying an X-ray telescope that will explore the origins of the universe and a small lunar lander.

Going to the moon has fascinated humankind for decades. Under the U.S. Apollo program, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969.

Only four nations have successfully landed on the moon, the U.S., Russia, China and India.

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‘The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity’.

First female aviator to fly across atlantic ocean solo

Amelia Earhart 1897 – 1937 (disappeared – delcared dead 1939)

Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many records and was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel.

She also wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of ‘The Ninety-Nines’, an organization for female pilots.

First aviator to fly across atlantic ocean solo
‘The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity’.
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Baidu launches raft of AI applications after its Ernie chatbot receives massive public approval

AI chatbot

More than 6 million users already

Baidu also announced that more than 6 million users have used an AI powered tool that sits inside its Google drive-like cloud product.

At the 4th September event, Baidu also demonstrated ‘displayed generative’ AI-based products that could assist with traffic management, financial research and coal mine logistics.

ChatGPT, from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, is not officially available in China, where Google and Facebook are blocked.

10 new AI products announced by Baidu

Chinese tech giant Baidu announced more than 10 new AI-based applications on 4th September 2023, just days after its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot was released for public use.

Among the products revealed was a generative AI-integrated word processing app called WPS AI, created by Shanghai-listed Kingsoft Office. It was reported the company built the tool using the AI model on which Baidu’s Ernie bot is based, as well as Baidu’s ‘Qianfan’ cloud platform for AI models.

‘This AI malarchy is progressing at quite a rate’.

Nearly 10,000 businesses are actively using Baidu’s Qianfan cloud platform each month, the company claimed.

AI assistant

Baidu also announced that more than 6 million users have used an AI-powered tool that sits inside its Google drive-like cloud product. The AI assistant can search documents, summarize and translate text and create content, the company claimed.

It wasn’t immediately clear to what extent those products were available for public use.

On 31st August 2023, Baidu released its Ernie bot to the public, signaling government approval of the AI-powered chatbot. Other Chinese companies also released similar AI products around the same time.

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Arm looking for up to $52 billion valuation in U.S. IPO

Arm Holdings

Chip design firm Arm on 5th September 2023 submitted an updated filing for its upcoming initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, setting a price range between $47 and $51. Only 9.4% of Arm’s shares will be freely traded on the NYSE.

Arm was previously listed in London and New York, before SoftBank acquired it for $32 billion in 2016.

Chip design firm Arm on Tuesday is looking to acquire as much as $4.87 billion in its upcoming initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, according to the new filing.

The deal could value the company at as much as $52 billion

As a British company, Arm qualifies as a foreign private issuer in the U.S. and its shares will count as American depositary shares, or ADS’s. It is reported that the company will list some 95.5 million ADS’s at a price range of between $47 and $51. At the upper end of that range it is estimated that Arm will likely raise up to $4.87 billion. At the lower end, the IPO would fetch $4.49 billion of fresh capital for Arm. It could do even better.

Institutional funds

When the company floats in New York, it will look to enjoy a very deep pool of professional institutional funds. Arm seeks to ramp up its investments in research and development, particularly as it pursues growth in the artificial intelligence (AI) space with some of its newer chips. The company recently released new chips specifically targeted at AI and machine learning use cases.

Arm AI chip
Arm seeks up to $52 billion valuation in U.S. IPO

Upper end

At the upper end of the pricing range, Arm would also touch a total valuation of $52 billion or more. Only 9.4% of Arm’s shares will be freely traded on the New York Stock Exchange, with SoftBank expected to own roughly 90.6% of the company’s outstanding shares after the completion of the IPO.

Arm’s listing is set to be the biggest technology IPO of the year. Investors are hoping that the listing could breathe new life into an IPO market that has been ‘slack’ since 2022.

250 billion chips globally

Arm says its energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms are integrated into more than 250 billion chips globally, into products ranging from sensors and smartphones to supercomputers.

The company estimates it enjoys approximately 48.9% share of the market for semiconductor design. Other players, such as Intel and AMD, have raced to catch up on designing their own chip architectures, but have struggled so far.

U.K. misses out… again

The U.K. government had originally hoped Arm would list on the London Stock Exchange, but the company instead dealt a major blow to Britain’s ambitions to become the leading global tech hub by opting for New York. The U.S. financial center has a deep institutional investor base and analysts who have a close understanding of the technology sector.

BIG interest

Chip design firm Arm said in a Tuesday filing that Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Nvidia and other technology companies are interested in buying up to $735 million in its shares as it seeks to go public on Nasdaq.

The investments might not happen, but the fact that these companies are considering them underlines the importance of Arm, whose designs are used for processors in data center servers, consumer devices and industrial products.

ARM chip
Arm chip – some 250 billion chips globally

Chip makers Intel, Samsung and TSMC are interested in investing alongside the three trillion-dollar technology companies, along with AMD and MediaTek, which make chip designs based on Arm architectures. Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys, which make electronic design automation software for processor development, have also expressed interest, according to a revised prospectus for Arm’s shares sale. This IPO could easily be the biggest of the 2023!

As part of the deal, Arm could wind up with a $52 billion market capitalization and almost $5 billion in new cash.

This is likely to be the biggest IPO of 2023

It is estimated that there will be about 19 billion devices using the Arm processor in the world by the end of 2023.

Arm target

The market share of Arm across different technology markets worldwide, which was 90% for mobile application processors, 34% for embedded computing, and 5% for data center and cloud in 2019. 

Arm has a target of increasing its market share to more than 90%, 50%, and 25% respectively by 2028.

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When bad news is good news for U.S. stocks

Newsreader

With second-quarter earnings season now largely behind the U.S. market, stock investors have been focusing on the latest economic data and for the most part been reacting positively to bad economic news, or any data that may point to an economic slowdown. 

It’s been almost nine months since the trend emerged, as softening economic data and lower inflation may mean the Federal Reserve can stop raising interest rates.

Traders are reportedly pricing in an over 90% chance that the Fed will hold its policy interest rate unchanged at its September 2023 meeting, and a roughly 35% likelihood that the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates by 0.25% in November 2023.

Fed policy weakening?

The Fed’s monetary policy has lost some of its potency and interest rates may need to rise as a result, economists say.

U.S. stocks closed higher ahead of the Labour Day holiday weekend, after data released indicated a cooling labour market, though there was speculation that summertime jobs data may have been a factor. The U.S. created 187,000 new jobs in August, while the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% from 3.5%.

The data supports the narrative of a gradual slowdown in the U.S. labour market, but there are no dramatic signs that the economy is weakening significantly economists say. The economic data has not been bad. It is just softening.

News
‘Good news bad news, bad news good news’!

However, if investors see a significant decline in the housing and U.S. labour markets, that could change the narrative and break the cycle in which ‘bad economic news is good news’ for stocks, economic data have to be much worse than now, indicating more damage from high interest rates and higher inflation.

The trend may also reverse if there is a meaningful downgrade of corporate earnings ‘expectations’ and then this translates into weakened profitability.

Inflation just may climb again

Investors should also be alert for the possibility that inflation may accelerate again. Data showed that the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 0.2% in July, but the yearly inflation rate crept up to 3.3% from 3%. Inflation has been trending down but that trend could turn again.

If investors start to treat ‘bad economic news as bad news’ for the stock market, it could put pressure on the 2023 stock-market rally, with the S&P 500 SPX already up 17.6% since the start of the year and the Nasdaq Composite COMP up 34%.

General concensus is that the bull run ain’t over just yet.

Just keep an eye on the data…

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‘It is the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see’.

Sunshine

Henry David Thoreau 1817 –1862

He was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher and leading transcendentalist.

Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States.  

A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly ‘self-reliant’ and independent.

People and a sunset
‘It is the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see’.
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Adobe hunting for potential future AI software top spot – STOCK WATCH

Adobe Firefly

The creator of Photoshop and InDesign launched a generative AI tool called ‘firefly’, which has recently gained traction. It is quite possible that Adobe has one of the best AI generative tools available and it’s worth checking it out as a stock to *invest in.

Firefly enables users to edit through simple typed commands

Adobe Firefly is a generative AI-powered content creation tool from Adobe that allows you to experiment, imagine, and create an infinite range of images with simple ‘text’ prompts. 

You can use Firefly to generate images from a detailed text description, apply styles or textures to words and phrases, use a brush to remove objects or paint in new ones, generate color variations of your vector artwork, and more. 

Adobe Share Chart as at 5th september 2023

Morgan Stanley thinks Adobe can benefit from artificial intelligence-powered products even more.The bank upgraded Adobe to overweight from equal weight.

Bank of America has also upgraded Adobe to buy with a revised target price of $63000 per share.

Definitely one to watch!

*Please do your own careful research – this is not a recommendation but simply an observation. Remember RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!

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David Ferrucci, the scientist behind IBM Watson raises substantial funds for his AI project

AI Mainframe Supercomputer Computer

David Ferrucci, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who led the team that created IBM Watson, has reportedly raised nearly $60 million for his AI company called Elemental Cognition.

Headquartered in New York, Elemental says on its website that the company seeks to develop AI that ‘thinks before it talks‘. It offers two enterprise products, Cogent and Cora, which are essentially chatbots designed for different scenarios. They can be used in financial services, interactive travel planning and for automating research discovery in life sciences.

Elemental Cognition

  • The new startup company is called Elemental Cognition, and it was founded in 2015 by David Ferrucci, who led the team that created IBM Watson.
  • Elemental Cognition aims to develop AI that ‘thinks before it talks‘ and can understand the meaning and context of human language. It offers two enterprise products, Cogent and Cora, which are chatbots for different scenarios.
  • Elemental Cognition has raised $60 million in funding from 17 investors, including Jim Breyer, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, and Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures.

What is IBM Watson?

IBM Watson is used in various areas of AI, such as natural language processing, machine learning, computer vision, speech recognition, and knowledge representation. IBM Watson is a cognitive computing system that can process natural language, analyze large amounts of data, and learn from its interactions with humans and machines.

IBM Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM’s DeepQA project by a research team led by principal David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM’s founder and first CEO, industrialist Thomas J. Watson.

Watson Assistant: A chatbot platform that allows businesses to create conversational agents that can interact with customers and employees through text or voice. Watson Assistant can understand natural language, provide personalized responses, and integrate with other services and data sources.

A watercolour image of an AI microchip powering a mainframe supercomputer computer

Watson Discovery: A data analysis tool that can extract insights from structured and unstructured data, such as documents, web pages, social media posts, and images. Watson Discovery can perform natural language understanding, sentiment analysis, entity extraction, and document classification.

Watson Studio: A cloud-based platform that enables data scientists and developers to build, train, and deploy AI and machine learning models. Watson Studio supports various frameworks and languages, such as Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch and R. Watson Studio also provides tools for data visualization, collaboration, and automation.

Watson Visual Recognition: A computer vision service that can analyze images and videos for content, objects, faces, scenes, and emotions. 

Power

The IBM Watson computer consists of a cluster of ninety IBM Power 750 servers, each of which uses a 3.5 GHz POWER7 eight-core processor, with four threads per core. The system has 2,880 POWER7 processor threads and 16 terabytes of RAM. It can process 500 gigabytes (the equivalent of a million books) per second.

Supercomputer now with AI power

The IBM Watson computer has an avatar that is inspired by the IBM ‘Smarter Planet’ logo. The avatar is a globe with a grid pattern and four glowing stripes that represent the four main aspects of Watson: natural language processing, hypothesis generation and evaluation, dynamic adaptation, and evidence-based learning. The avatar also changes color and brightness depending on Watson’s mood and confidence level.

International Business Machines (IBM)

IBM was founded in 1911 in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) by Charles Ranlett Flint. The company changed its name to International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924 under the leadership of Thomas J. Watson, Sr.  IBM is one of the oldest and most influential technology companies in the world, with a history of innovation and research in various fields of computing.

The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), nicknamed ‘Big Blue’, is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in New York and is present in over 175 countries. It specializes in computer hardware, middleware, and software, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is the largest industrial research organization in the world.

IBM holds the record for most annual U.S. patents generated by a business for 29 consecutive years from 1993 to 2021? 

Big Blue quietly works on…

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AI – music to my ears… or not?

Ha Jiang

Ha Jiang, is a virtual online idol, and only exists online.

Ha Jiang signed a record deal with Whet Records, Warner Music Group’s pan-Asian dance label in China, in 2021. Ha Jiang is the first virtual idol to conduct a record deal with a major label. The virtual idol uses AI technology to create music and has become an online sensation in Asia.

Ha Jiang online music avatar. She is a virtual artist who uses artificial intelligence to create music

Virtual AI artist

Ha Jiang is a virtual artist who uses artificial intelligence to create music. She is the first virtual idol to sign a record deal with a major label, Whet Records, which is Warner Music Group’s pan-Asian dance label in China. My understanding is that the music was composed by humans, so not entirely AI generated then.

Would this also work in west – is it time to be concerned?

She already has more than 100,000 followers in China and is known for her sense of style and fashion. She is also a social influencer who has been hired by the city of Shanghai to promote safe driving. Ha Jiang is not a real person, but a computer-generated avatar who only exists online. She is part of a growing phenomenon of virtual idols in Asia, especially among Gen-Z fans.

Endel, is a sound startup company that uses artificial intelligence to create personalized audio tracks. Endel was the first to sign a record deal with Warner Music Group in 2019 to release 20 albums of ambient music.

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India’s mission to the sun is next

India mission to the sun

Mission to the sun

Days after India’s successful moon mission, the country is now setting its sights on the sun. 

According to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be launched from the Sriharikota Spaceport on 2nd September 2023 in a bid to study the sun and its effect on space weather. 

Aditya (sun in Hindi)

Aditya, which refers to the sun in Hindi, is to be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 of the Sun-Earth system, where the sun can be observed without any obstructions, an ISRO report stated.  

Lagrange points are positions in space where gravitational forces of two large masses produce ‘enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion’, according to NASA. The resulting force can be used to remain in position and reduce fuel consumption – and can be likened to ‘parking places’ for spacecraft.

To become India’s first space based observatory

The launch will mark India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun, and would offer a ‘major advantage of continuously viewing the sun without any occultation or eclipses’, the ISRO report stated.

India mission to the sun
India’s mission to the sun

The mission would also allow for the study of solar wind, which could potentially cause disturbances on Earth, such as disrupting communications, navigation systems and weather patterns.

India’s government had granted a $46 million budget for the mission back in 2019.

India recently became only the fourth country to land on the moon, doing so with the relatively low budget of $75 million. This was a massive achievement and one India celebrated with relish.

While a first attempt for India, other countries have successfully placed orbiters to study the sun. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe in 2021 which was sent to the sun’s corona to sample particles and magnetic fields, as well as the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter which was launched the year before. 

See India’s moon mission article here

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‘What’s the point of HS2 if there is no one to run it?’ ‘Beats me… guess we’re stuck with it!’

Train strikes

‘Is this the end of the line’?

Yet more strike action continues to create chaos for travellers

Much of the UK will have no train services on Friday 1st Septemebr 2023 as the latest major strike action takes place.

Members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, who work at more than a dozen train companies, have walked out and have refused to work.

Up to 20,000 RMT union members at 14 operators will also strike on Saturday in a long-running dispute

Meanwhile, a consultation closing most ticket offices in England ends.

Ticket office closures

Unions and disability groups have also taken action against other proposed working practices in the industry, such as ticket office closures.

Currently, nearly 300 stations in England run by train companies with Department for Transport contracts have a full-time staffed ticket office – 708 are staffed part-time. Under the proposals, most would close.

Train strikes
‘What’s the point in HS2 if there is no one to run it’? ‘Beats me… guess we’re stuck with it!’

Ongoing dispute

The UK train strikes are part of an ongoing dispute between the rail unions and the train operators over pay and conditions.

  • ASLEF members at 16 rail operators will strike again on Friday, 1st September 2023 and Saturday, 2nd September 2023.
Strike action
‘What year is it? Strike action continues to hold inflation higher. Been here too many times before’.
  • RMT members at 14 train companies will strike again on 2nd September 2023. This will severely affect the timetables.

Pay dispute and working practices

The rail unions are demanding a pay rise that reflects the rising cost of living, as well as job security and improved working conditions. The train operators say they need to make changes to the ways of working in order to save money and improve efficiency, especially after the pandemic hit their finances hard. 

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train operators, has offered a 5% pay rise for 2022, but the unions have rejected it as insufficient and conditional on reforms they oppose.

The train strikes have caused significant disruption and frustration for millions of passengers, especially during the peak summer holiday season. The government has urged both sides to resume talks and find a resolution

Train strikes
‘Does this train go north’?
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UK house prices experience biggest yearly decline since 2009

UK House Prices Fall

The Nationwide Building Society says house prices are 5.3% lower compared to August last year, in the biggest annual decline since 2009.

Nationwide said the drop represented a fall of £14,600 on a typical home in the UK since house prices peaked in August 2022. It also said higher borrowing costs for buyers had led to a slowdown in activity in the housing market. Mortgage approvals are also about 20% below pre-Covid levels.

After 14 rate increases from the Bank of England – a two year fixed rate mortgage is now touching 6.7%

Since December 2021, the Bank of England (BoE) has raised interest rates 14 times in row in a bid to clamp down on rising inflation in the UK. The bank’s base rate now stands at 5.25%. This has led to lenders raising their mortgage rates, putting increased pressure on homebuyers.

The average two-year fixed mortgage rate on Friday was 6.7%, while the average five-year fix was 6.19%.

Average house prices in the UK peaked at £273,751 in August 2022 but fell to £259,153 last month.

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Robots are coming to a home near you..?

Robot AI

Think of the biggest market for a physical product you can possibly imagine – are you thinking mobile phones, cars or game devices even? Think again…?

They are all big commercial markets but in the coming decades a new product is coming and it will be so desirable that it will dwarf these giants – it will be… the ‘robot’.

Robots will be able to understand what we want, comprehend the way the world works and looks and have the skills to execute our commands in a safe and controlled manner – at home and in the workplace.

Biggest market

The labour market is the biggest market that has ever existed in the history of business – it’s the market where we want things ‘done’ – where we do things – and it’s forever evolving. It carries massive stock market and investing potential right now and for the future.

Robot AI tech
Robot AI tech – a market place to explore

Take Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Apple and Tesla as prime examples of companies pioneering technological advancements for instance – we can already enjoy and invest in these – and there’s much more to come.

Dozens of firms around the world are working on the technology

In the UK, Dyson is investing in AI and robotics aimed at household chores.

One of the highest profile companies in the market is Tesla, Elon Musk’s electric car company. It is working on the Optimus humanoid robot, which Mr Musk intimates could be on sale to the public in a few years’ time.

Massive tecnological advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics suggest the development of humanoid robots is accelerating… and fast. It’s a race to the become the first to succeed in the biggest practical labour market ever… and it carries huge potential for everyone, including you and me.

20 years from now…? Where were Tesla and Apple 20 years ago?

Twenty years at the pace the technology is developing now is is an eternity – every week, month and year there are new developments in the AI world that have introduced fundamental changes and enhancements to our world.

Mainstream interest in AI exploded late 2022 when a powerful version of ChatGPT was made public. Its ability to generate almost unlimited useful text and images has spawned rivals and a wave of investment in AI technology.

But developing the AI that would allow a robot to complete useful tasks is a different and much more difficult task. Tesla could be the company best placed to be one of the first to achieve this goal – given its advancements in ‘self driving’ technology. But, unlike ChatGPT and its rivals, humanoid robots have to navigate the physical world and need to understand how objects in that world relate to each other.

Tasks that seem easy to humans are major feats for humanoid robots. This is a problem that engages a lot of different complex issues in an AI driven robotics system. Picking up a cup and having a drink is a major undergoing for a robot.

The market place potential is unlimited

The potential market for robots in the future depends on various factors, such as the level of technological innovation, the demand from different industries and sectors, the regulatory and ethical frameworks, and the social and economic impacts of robot adoption. But if recent developments are anything to go by – it promises to be big!

Robot
Robot AI – a massive potential future market place

Based on the some indicative web search results, the current market size for robots is estimated to be around $55 billion to $114 billion in 2023, depending on the type and scope of robots included. The projected market size for robots in 2028 or 2029 ranges from $165 billion to $260 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4% to 17.6%.

The professional services robots, which include medical, agricultural, and personal assistance robots, are expected to dominate the market and account for more than half of the total sales by 2030. The industrial and logistics robots, which include conventional, collaborative, and mobile robots, are also expected to grow steadily and increase their productivity and efficiency in various manufacturing and transportation applications.

However, these projections are based on assumptions – but one thing is for sure the robots are coming and the market will be massive!

I for one will be keeping a watchful eye on where to invest my hard earned cash to take advantage of this potentially high growth market in the coming years (and now).

Nvidia stock anyone?

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Baidu’s Ernie bot is top app on Apple’s app store in China

Chatbot AI

Top of the apps on Apple app store

Baidu’s Ernie bot is a ChatGPT-like chatbot that can generate natural and fluent text based on user input. It is one of the latest artificial intelligence applications from Baidu, a Chinese tech giant that specializes in search engine and AI development. 

Ernie bot was released to the public on 31st August 2023, after getting approval from the Chinese regulators under the new AI regulations and quickly became the most popular app on Apple’s app store in China, surpassing other local generative AI models.

ChatBot apps coming to a device near you

Ernie bot can be accessed through an app or a website, and users can chat with it on various topics, such as news, entertainment, sports, and education. Ernie bot is also able to learn from human feedback and improve its foundation models.  

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Bitcoin rallies as court rules in favour of Grayscale over the SEC in crypto ETF case

Cryptocurrency

Court rules SEC wrong

The price of bitcoin surged Tuesday 29th August 2023 after the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was wrong to deny crypto investment giant Grayscale permission to convert its popular bitcoin trust into an ETF.

Bitcoin jumped around 7% following the ruling to $27,852. The move lifted other cryptocurrencies as well as crypto equities higher.

Grayscale

Grayscale’s lawsuit against the SEC has been closely watched by investors and other industry participants as a key catalyst that would shake up a market governed by low volatility and liquidity.

Earlier this month, bitcoin trading volatility fell to its lowest level in more than four years as investors had been waiting on the sidelines for more regulatory clarity on crypto activity .

Several bitcoin futures ETFs have already been approved in the U.S.

Stablecoin regulation
‘Shackles being removed from crypto regulation paving way for easier crypto trading’

Court ruling

‘The denial of Grayscale’s proposal was arbitrary and capricious … The Commission failed to adequately explain why it approved the listing of two bitcoin futures ETPs but not Grayscale’s proposed bitcoin Exchange Trade Product (ETP),‘the court said in the ruling. ‘In the absence of a coherent explanation, this unlike regulatory treatment of like products is unlawful. We therefore grant Grayscale’s petition for review and vacate the Commission’s order‘.

Tuesday’s ruling may increase the chances that the SEC will approve other bitcoin ETF applications, including that of BlackRock, whose filing in late June 2023 drove one of bitcoin’s big rallies this year, as well as Fidelity, Invesco and many others.

A U.S. bitcoin ETF would provide a way to get exposure to bitcoin without having to hold it, which would invite retail and institutional investors as well as wealth managers into the market.

A spokesperson for the SEC said it’s ‘reviewing the court’s decision to determine next steps‘.

‘Today’s decision reaffirms that a bitcoin ETF in the U.S. is a matter of when, not if’, said the global head of asset management at Galaxy, which filed with Invesco for its bitcoin ETF. ‘In order for digital assets to continue to flourish, they must be accessible to all investors. We believe that the ETF structure can enable greater access to and transparency across cryptocurrency investing, and truly help further democratize the asset class‘.

Dark cloud for crypto finally lifting?

The ruling also comes as a relief to many crypto market traders who have been frustrated by the SEC, particularly under Chair Gary Gensler, and its insistence on regulating by enforcement.

The crypto industry has long sought out clarity in rules businesses can apply to establish and build long-lasting, compliant companies. The U.S. regulatory crackdown on crypto in 2023 – which includes SEC enforcements and a lawsuit against the biggest U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and also its case against XRP Ripple has been a dark cloud over the market.

Lawsuit filed June 2022

Grayscale initiated its lawsuit against the SEC in June 2022 after the agency rejected its application to turn its bitcoin trust, better known by its ticker GBTC, into an ETF. The company decided to pursue the ETF, which would be backed by bitcoin rather than bitcoin derivatives, after the SEC approved ProShares’ futures-based bitcoin ETF in October 2021.

The ruling faced multiple delays but the SEC ultimately rejected the application last summer, citing failure by Grayscale to answer questions related to concerns about market manipulation and investor protections.

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Nvidia’s stock at record high after Google AI deal

AI microchip

Nvidia shares rose 4.2% Tuesday 29th August 2023 to close at a record high, after the company announced a partnership with Google that could expand distribution of its artificial intelligence technology (AI).

The stock’s bountiful run continued, now up 234% in 2023, making it by far the best performer in the S&P 500. Facebook parent Meta is second in the index, up 148% so far this year.

The record close comes less than a week after the company said quarterly revenue doubled from a year earlier and gave a forecast indicating that sales this period could rise 170% on an annual basis. The day after the better-than-expected earnings report, the stock climbed to a record intraday high of $502.66 before declining later in the afternoon.

Nvidia’s business is booming because its graphics processing (GPU’s) are being gobbled up by cloud companies, government agencies and startups to train and deploy generative AI models like the technology deployed in OpenAI’s ChatGPT as fasta as Nvidia can make them.

NVIDIA stock chart

Nvidia announcment

On Tuesday 29th August 2023, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appeared at a Google conference to announce an AI agreement between the two companies.

Through the partnership, Google’s cloud customers will have greater access to technology powered by Nvidia’s powerful H100 GPUs.

‘Our expanded collaboration with Google Cloud will help developers accelerate their work with infrastructure, software and services that supercharge energy efficiency and reduce costs’, the Nvidia CEO reportedly said in a blog post.

Nvidia’s GPUs are also available on competing cloud platforms from Amazon and Microsoft.

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Japan Fukushima controversial water release

Tap waste water

Japan has started releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday 25th August 2023. 

This is a controversial decision that has been opposed by China, South Korea, and some Pacific island nations. They fear that the water release will harm the marine environment and human health, and affect seafood exports.

Safe?

Japan says that the water release is safe and necessary for the decommissioning of the plant, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The water has been treated to remove most of the radioactive substances, except for tritium and carbon-14, which are considered to have low risks. The water will also be diluted to meet the international standards for drinking water before being discharged.

IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has endorsed Japan’s plan and said that the water release will have a negligible impact on people and the environment. The IAEA will also monitor the water release and verify Japan’s compliance with the safety standards.

30 years

The water release is expected to take about 30 years to complete, and will involve pumping out about 1.34 million tonnes of water from more than 1,000 tanks at the Fukushima site.

Contaminated water
Japan Fukushima nuclear plant controversial release of potentially contaminated water
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UK debt, a perfect storm

UK Debt burden

Slow-Growing UK Faces Over £2.6 Trillion Debt Pile

£2,600,000,000,000 in debt

The amount the UK owes exceeds GDP for first time since 1961. Inflation-linked bonds mean the UK is paying more than its peers.

From the financial crisis to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK has borrowed and spent its way out of every jam. The bill for that is becoming a massive concern for the UK treasury and for the economy.

£2.6 trillion public debt

The UK’s public debt has soared by more than 40% to almost £2.6 trillion ($3.3 trillion) since the pandemic struck, leaving the country owing more than its entire annual economic output for the first time since 1961. A heavy reliance on index-linked bonds, at a time of high inflation, also means Britain will pay more to service the debt.

The high level of debt poses a risk to the UK’s credit rating, which could affect its borrowing costs and fiscal credibility. The three main credit-rating firms are due to update their assessments of the UK over the next four months in 2023, and some analysts are concerned that the UK could face a downgrade, especially after the U.S. lost its AAA status from Fitch. 

ONS data to March 2023

A downgrade could undermine Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s effort to rebuild Britain’s fiscal reputation after his predecessor, Liz Truss, triggered a bond-market crash in 2022 by promising huge unfunded tax cuts.

Bond sell-off pressure

The pressure on the UK’s finances is also being compounded by a selloff in bonds amid aggressive rate hikes by the Bank of England to quell inflation. The yield on the 10-year benchmark this week rose above 4.70% to its highest since 2008. 

UK debt higher than UK GDP March 2023

The UK bond market is among the developed world’s worst performers this year. The rise in yields could increase the cost of servicing the debt, which is already high due to the UK’s heavy reliance on index-linked bonds that adjust with inflation.

The UK’s economic growth is forecast to remain flat through next year, which limits the scope for reducing the debt through higher revenues or lower spending. The National Health Service is stretched to breaking point and the tax burden is already at a 70-year high. The ONS warned that debt could balloon to more than three times GDP over the next half century without action.

ONS data

According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.2% in the second quarter of 2023 (April to June), following a revised growth of 0.1% in the first quarter of 2023 (January to March). This means that the UK’s GDP growth rate for the whole year of 2023 is estimated to be 0.3%, which is lower than the previous forecast of 0.5%.

ONS data to March 2023

The main factors that contributed to the weak GDP growth in the second quarter were the slowdown in consumer spending, the decline in business investment, and the negative impact of the additional bank holiday in May due to the King’s Coronation. The services sector, which accounts for about 80% of the UK’s economy, grew by only 0.1% in the second quarter, while the production sector grew by 0.7%, and the construction sector fell by 0.2%.

Uncertain outlook in uncertain times

The outlook for the UK’s economy remains uncertain, as it faces several challenges such as high inflation, rising interest rates, a slowing global economy, and the ongoing effects of Brexit and the effects of the war in Ukraine. 

ONS data for EU countries

Some economists have warned that the UK faces a ‘very real risk’ of recession due to higher interest rates, which could dampen consumer and business confidence and increase the cost of servicing the debt. 

The OECD has projected that the UK’s GDP growth will improve moderately to 1.0% in 2024, but still remain below its pre-pandemic level.

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‘Sometimes later, becomes never. Do it now’!

Butterfly in flight

The quote is often used to inspire people to take action and avoid procrastination, as it implies that delaying something may result in missing the opportunity or losing the motivation to do it.

The quote also suggests that the present moment is the best time to pursue your goals and dreams, rather than wait for a more convenient time.

‘Sometimes later becomes never – do it now!’

See other quotes

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Nvidia blasts off into AI superstardom

AI rocket

Technology giant Nvidia reports its sales have hit a record after more than doubling as demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) chips take off!

It figures

The company says revenue jumped to above $13.5bn (£10.6bn) for the three months to the end of June. Nvidia also expects sales to perform very well in the current quarter and plans to buy back $25bn of its stock. The firm’s shares rose by more than 6.5% in extended trading in New York, adding to their huge gains this year. Nvidia also said it expects revenue of around $16bn for the three months to the end of September 2023.

That is substantially higher than Wall Street expected and would equate to a rise of around 170%, compared to the same time last year.

Even before 23rd August’s figures, Nvidia’s stock price had more than tripled for the year, making it the top performer in the S&P 500. It’s share price jumped to around $500 after hours, a level that would mark a record if it closes there on 24th August 2023. Its prior closing high was $474.94 on 18th July 2023.

‘A new computing era has begun’, Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, said in a statement. ‘Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI’, he reportedly added.

Strong performance

The strong performance was driven by Nvidia’s data centre business, which includes AI chips.

The power of Nvidia’s AI microchips

Revenue for that unit came in at more $10.3bn, a rise of more than 170% from year ago, as cloud computing service providers and large consumer internet companies snapped up its next-generation processors.

This year, Nvidia’s stock market value has jumped to more than $1 trillion as its shares more than tripled in value, mking it the fifth publicly traded U.S. company to join the so-called ‘Trillion dollar club’, along with Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft.

AI ‘mania’ helps Nvidia

Nvidia have been making micro chips for a long time and it’s only really been in the last couple of years that the market has caught on.

Nvidia was originally known for making the type of computer chips that process graphics, particularly for computer games. They have been making chips for a long time and have now become the leader in AI chip design and manufacture.

Now Nvidia’s hardware is the foundation for most AI applications, with one report suggesting it had cornered 95% of the market for machine learning.

ChatGPT which generates human-like responses to user queries within seconds was trained using 10,000 of Nvidia’s graphics processing units clustered together in a supercomputer belonging to Microsoft.

AI products are expected to dramatically change how we use computers and the role they play in our lives.