Bitcoin fell 7% Monday 11th December 2023 after touching $45,000 demonstrating its aptitude for volatility. A $5000 fall in 24 hours.
The move comes after a 12% tear for Bitcoin in December 2023 as expectations grew that the U.S. could soon approve its first spot bitcoin ETF.
Bitcoin has been on a steady climb in recent weeks, following a long period of market apathy that witnessed the price trade in a narrow range for months.
Bitcoin price as of Tuesday 12th December 2023
Bitcoin is a volatile investment – be VERY careful.
The sudden pullback triggered a spike in liquidations. Bitcoin: $146 million in long liquidations on Monday, and Ether: $100 million.
Other Altcoins such as: ADA, XRP fell in unison.
Bitcoin’s volatility will likely see it climb back to the $45,000 level quite quickly.
NOTE: Bitcoin can damage your wealth. Do your research!
The two most significant events for gold demand in 2023 were the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the Hamas attack on Israel, the World Gold Council(WGC) said, estimating that geopolitics added between 3% and 6% to gold’s performance over the year.
The WGC estimated that central bank demand added 10% or more to gold’s performance in 2023 and said even if 2024 does not reach the same heights, above-trend buying should still offer an extra boost to gold prices.
The precious metal broke through $2,100 per ounce on Monday 4th December 2023 in intra-day trading, before moderating slightly. Spot gold prices were hovering at around $2,030 per ounce Friday 8th December 2023.
Gold price year to date chart
What is the World Gold Council
The World Gold Council (WGC) is a market development organization for the gold industry. It works across all parts of the industry, from gold mining to investment, with the aim of stimulating and sustaining demand for gold. The council sets standards, strengthens markets, and shapes the global conversation about gold. It was established to promote the use of and demand for gold through marketing, research, and lobbying.
The council includes 33 members, many of which are gold mining companies.
Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft said they will use AMD’s newest AI chip, the Instinct MI300X.
An indication that tech companies want alternatives to the expensive Nvidia graphics processors that have been essential for artificial intelligence (AI).
If the MI300X is good enough and inexpensive enough when it starts shipping early next year, it will likely lower costs for developing AI models.
AMD CEO Lisa Su projected the market for AI chips will amount to $400 billion or more in 2027, and she said she hopes AMD has a sizable part of that market.
Wall Street rallies on AMD and Google AI news
Wall Street resumed its rally after a short break as technology giants intensified their AI race, pushing up tech stocks.
When you witness Google launching a new AI model (Gemini) and AMD chasing a slice of the hot AI chip market, you know a pre-Christmas cheer will wash over investors.
To think, just a handful of years ago, other than in Science Fiction novels, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ didn’t exist in our vocabulary and now it is becoming more and more integrated with our day-to-day lives.
Stockmarkets love it. AI is fast becoming a business necessity and not just an option.
Wall Streets love affair with AI – how long will it last?
Pressure mounts on the Google to demonstrate how it plans monetize AI.
Google has launched its largest and most capable (by its own admission) artificial intelligence (AI) model on Wednesday 6th December 2023 pressure mounts on the company to answer how it’ll monetize AI.
Gemini
The large language model Gemini will include a suite of three different sizes: Gemini Ultra, its largest, most capable category; Gemini Pro, which scales across a wide range of tasks; and Gemini Nano, which it will use for specific tasks and mobile devices.
Cloud
Google is reportedly planning to licence Gemini to clients through Google Cloud to use in their own applications. Developers and enterprise customers can access Gemini Pro via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio or Google Cloud Vertex AI.
Android
Android developers will also be able to build with Gemini Nano. Gemini will also be used to power Google products like its Bard Chatbot and Search Generative Experience, which tries to answer search queries with conversational-style text.
Ultra
Gemini Ultra is reportedly the first model to outperform human experts on MMLU(massive multitask language understanding), which uses a combination of 57 subjects such as math, physics, history, law, medicine and ethics for testing both world knowledge and problem-solving abilities, the company said in a blog post Wednesday 6th December 2023.
It can supposedly understand nuance and reasoning in complex subjects.
Advanced
The company gave examples demonstrating Gemini being able to take a screenshot of a chart and analyse hundreds of pages from research and then updating the chart.
Another example was analyzing a photo of a person’s math homework and identifying correct answers and pointing out incorrect ones.
The future is artificial.
Definition of the word Gemini: Constellation, Astrological Sign or Twins in Latin.
Bitcoin extended its rally overnight, climbing past the $41,000 level for the first time since May 2022.
The price of Bitcoin quickly soared above $41,000 easily taking out $40,000. The cryptocurrency is up around 13% over the past month and up more than 130% year to date. But the price of Bitcoin is down more than 40% from its all-time high in 2021.
In November 2023, analysts reportedly said Bitcoin could soar to as high as $150,000 in 2025, as it rides a new bull cycle. Other altcoins are available, as they too ride the coat tails of Bitcoin’s encouraging move. Be aware though, Bitcoin is a volatile asset and as such is subject to dramatic moves in either direction. BE CAREFUL!
Bitcoin price snapshot 09:35GMT 4th December 2023
Why is Bitcoin on a tear?
Cryptocurrency industry analysts have suggested this bull-run could lead to fresh all-time highs in 2024 above $100,000.
Excitement around a Bitcoin ETF being approved in the U.S. in 2024 as well as the process of Bitcoin halving due in April 2024 is fueling this rally in cryptocurrencies.
Many also say the crypto industry is enjoying a market climb due to the FTX case and the Binance settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) as the two outstanding issues that were holding up the crypto market were resloved.
Gold was on a tear overnight 3rd December 2023 ripping to a new all-time intra-day high of 2135.
Gold prices are on course to hit fresh highs in 2024 and could remain above $2,000 levels, analysts predict. Geopolitical uncertainty, a likely weaker U.S. dollar and possible interest rate cuts are cited as the drivers.
Prices of the precious metal have risen for two consecutive months. Gold tends to perform well during periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty due to its status as a reliable store of value.
Gold price 5 day 2023
Gold soars to a new record December 2023
Gold price 1 month 2023
Gold soars to a new record December 2023
Gold at $2500?
It has been estimated that gold prices could reach up to $2,200 by the end of 2024. Some have even suggested it could go as high as $2,500.
This was the highest level ever recorded since the gold price began to be tracked in 1970.
Online investments app Robinhood said Thursday 30th November 2023 that it’s set to launch its platform in the U.K. in early 2024, marking the company’s third attempt at cracking international expansion.
Features on offer by the firm include the ability to choose from 6,000 U.S. stocks including Tesla, Amazon and Apple, and 24-hour trading five days a week. However, Robinhood will not offer U.K. stocks to begin with but will look to add them as it brings more products into the platform later. The U.K. version won’t include options and other derivatives at launch, either.
FCA warned of ‘gamification’
The FCA has previously warned about ‘gamification’ of investments, something the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is also worried about. Companies are obligated to respect consumer standards set out by the regulator.
Regulators are concerned brokerage apps like Robinhood and eToro, which engage retail investors with stimulating features like colourful graphics, push notifications, and a game-like interface, may encourage excessive trading that harms investors but is profitable for the market-makers.
Safeguards
Customer cash will be held in segregated accounts protected by U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Commission insurance, Robinhood said, rather than the U.K. Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Robinhood users will be able to make a 5% annual yield on cash held in their accounts.
This will be the third attempt by Robinhood to launch in the UK.
It has been a turbulent time at Twitter since Musk’s acquisition and the subsequent renaming of the company to X.
X is a subsidiary of X Holdings Corp., which is owned by Elon Musk. X has faced several issues and controversies since its inception, such as advertiser boycott, declining user base, staff layoffs, and more recently accusations of antisemitism and even more recently of a profane outburst levelled against X advertisers.
What a mess
Elon Musk launches attack on X advertisers in a profanity-laced outburst.
Musk has slammed advertisers that have left X, warning they will kill the social media platform. At an event in New York, he accused companies that have joined an advertising boycott of the site formerly known as Twitter of trying to blackmail him.
Musk tells X (Twitter) advertisers to go ‘f**k yourselves,’ but admits it will die without them: Despite this, Musk refused to accept responsibility for the impact of his statements on X’s ability to do business.
Instead, the billionaire insisted that if X (Twitter) went under, the blame would be entirely on the advertisers who fled as opposed to his decisions as its owner which more likely pushed them away.
His message to advertisers leaving X of: ‘Go f**k yourself’ – didn’t help matters as he admits responding to anti-Semitic post on X was one of the most foolish things he’s done on the platform.
Elon Musk is reported to have said on Wednesday 29th November 2023 that he regretted his November 15th tweet allegedly endorsing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
Is the death knell of X and of a $44 billion investment?
Musk should be a force for good in the world – could that still happen?
Gold prices are on track to rally to all-time highs in 2024 on the back of interest rates increases, inflation fear, looming recessionary concerns and geo-political unrest.
The precious metal is always sought after as a safe haven asset. The gold price hit a record intraday high of $2,072.5 on 7th August 2020, according to data. Some analysts say it could surpass that level and push beyond the record.
Another positive driver for gold is an anticipated peak in Fed rate hiking cycle as well as upcoming topping out of U.S. dollar strength.
Gold usually performs well during uncertain times
Gold tends to perform well in periods of economic uncertainty such as recessions and stagflation due to its status as a reliable store of value.
Gold is often used as a hedge against inflation.
Any type of recessionary move would be positive for gold.
Gold should trade higher when interest rates stop rising and the dollar retreats.
As interest rates rise, demand for gold drops as alternative investments like bonds become more appealing and yield better returns. These may now have peaked.
Gold prices tend to have an inverse relationship with interest rates.
Central bank purchases of gold have been consistently strong, alongside consumer demand for the precious metal.
Gold price year on year
Some analysts are particularly bullish on gold and have called for a target of $2,500 by the end of next year.
There has been a return of physical gold jewellery demand from China and India as both economies improve and retail spending returns.
First quarter gold jewellery demand in China was reported just shy of 200 tons. Analysts project more than 700 tons of jewellery demand from China by the end of 2023.
Chinese retail gold demand has been resilient in 2023 even as consumption of other commodities remained weak.
The target is $2,500 by the end of 2024
Much of this has to do with the fact that recessionary forces may take hold beginning early in 2024.
Let’s watch and see.
NOTE: This is not investment advice!
You must, as always do your own careful research before making an investment.
Gold prices on Monday 27th November 2023 climbed to a more than six-month high as the U.S. dollar weakened.
Investors, it is reported, have placed their bets, suggesting the Federal Reserve is finished with interest rate hikes.
Gold was up around 0.52% at $2,012 per ounce in early afternoon trading (London time). It reached a high of $2,017.82 earlier in the day. Gold futures for December 2023 hit $2,018.90 according to analysts’ data.
The dollar index, a measure of the greenback against major currencies, was 0.13% lower as markets price in a more than 90% chance the Fed will hold rates at its next two meetings.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs reportedly said that the outlook for 2024 is that gold’s ‘shine is returning’.
The potential upside in gold prices will be closely tied to U.S. real rates and dollar moves.
Binance is still open for business and is now being run by, Richard Teng. But who is the new boss of Binance?
Mr Teng, from Singapore joined Binance just over two years ago as the chief executive of the Singapore business. That was the year when Binance came under a Justice Department investigation, and as regulatory scrutiny of the company and Zhao intensified. Richard Teng was rapidly climbing the ranks in the background.
He only stayed in his original position as the Singapore CEO for five months, according to his LinkedIn page, before he was promoted to regional head of Europe, Asia and the Middle East and North Africa in April 2023.
Mr Teng later moved to become head of regional markets in May 2023 before he was appointed to the top job on Tuesday 21st November 2023.
In announcing his successor, Mr Zhao called Mr Teng a ‘highly qualified leader‘, adding that ‘with over three decades of financial services and regulatory experience, he will navigate the company through its next period of growth’.
Traditional financial background
Prior to joining Binance, Mr Teng worked in the more traditional financial sectors as a director of corporate finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and a chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). He then moved on to the become chief executive of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre in the United Arab Emirates, where he stayed for six years. The ADGM regulates the trading of digital assets.
In a statement on Wednesday 22nd November 2023, Mr Teng said he was honoured to take this position, adding that he would focus on reassuring Binance’s 150 million users about ‘the financial strength, security and safety of the company’.
Despite this, Mr Teng has reiterated that Binance is ‘here to stay‘, adding that company’s foundation stands ‘stronger than ever’.
Nvidia’s revenue grew 206% from year 2022 during the quarter ending 29th October 2023, according to data from Nvidia.
Net income, at $9.24 billion, or $3.71 per share, was up from $680 million, in the same quarter of 2022.
The company’s data centre revenue came in at: $14.51 billion, up a massive 279% and above consensus of $12.97 billion. Half of the data centre revenue came from cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon, and the other from consumer internet and large companies, Nvidia said. Healthy uptake also came from clouds that specialized in renting out GPUs to clients.
Earnings: $4.02 per share, adjusted, vs. $3.37 per share expected
Revenue: $18.12 billion, vs. $16.18 billion expected
The gaming segment contributed $2.86 billion, up 81% and higher than the $2.68 billion general consensus. Nvidia’s future guidance suggested $20 billion in revenue for Q4, implying a nearly 231% revenue growth.
Year on year Nvidia share price movement.
Year on year Nvidia share price movement – Nov 2022 – Nov 2023
During the quarter, Nvidia announced the GH200 GPU, which has more memory than the current H100 and an additional Arm processor onboard. The H100 is expensive and in demand. Nvidia said Australia-based Iris Energy, an owner of bitcoin mining data centers, was buying 248 H100s for $10 million, which works out around $40,000 each.
Nvidia share price moved down 1% in after-hours trading on Tuesday 21st November 2023 after the reporting fiscal Q3 results that surpassed predictions. But the company called for a negative impact in the next quarter because of export restrictions affecting sales to organizations in China and other countries.
‘We expect that our sales to these destinations decline significantly in the Q4 2024, though we believe the decline will be more than offset by strong growth in other regions’, Nvidia reported.
At the speed of AI, the story at OpenAI moves at lightning speed.
Hundreds of OpenAI employees signed a letter demanding the OpenAI board resign or face an employee exodus to Sam Altman’s new venture at Microsoft ‘imminently‘.
The board then attempted to negotiate Altman’s return, but those talks were unsuccessful.
At the touch of a button – resignation letter sent to the OpenAI board of directors
To the Board of Directors at OpenAI
OpenAI is the world’s leading AI company. We, the employees of OpenAI, have developed the best models and pushed the field to new frontiers. Our work on AI safety and governance shapes global norms. The products we built are used by millions of people around the world. Until now, the company we work for and cherish has never been in a stronger position.
The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company. Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI.
When we all unexpectedly learned of your decision, the leadership team of OpenAI acted swiftly to stabilize the company. They carefully listened to your concerns and tried to cooperate with you on all grounds. Despite many requests for specific facts for your allegations, you have never provided any written evidence. They also increasingly realized you were not capable of carrying out your duties, and were negotiating in bad faith.
The leadership team suggested that the most stabilizing path forward – the one that would best serve our mission, company, stakeholders, employees and the public – would be for you to resign and put in place a qualified board that could lead the company forward in stability. Leadership worked with you around the clock to find a mutually agreeable outcome. Yet within two days of your initial decision, you again replaced interim CEO Mira Murati against the best interests of the company. You also informed the leadership team that allowing the company to be destroyed “would be consistent with the mission.”
Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.”
In just 5 days
Sam Altman sacked from OpenAI.
Altman appears to move to Microsoft.
OpenAI staff revolt.
No confidence in OpenAI board.
Space for staff to move to Microsoft and create new AI company under Altman’s leadership.
OpenAI mass employee resignation letter emerges.
Microsoft CEO Nadella says OpenAI governance needs to change no matter where Altman ends up.
Altman back at OpenAI after board changes.
Now, Altman is back after getting the sack.
So, is all OK at OpenAI? I asked CHATGPT the question, here is the answer…
Nvidia stock closes at all-time high, a day before earnings
Shares of Nvidia closed up 2.3% at an all-time high of $504 on Monday 20th November 2023. The record comes ahead of the company’s Q3 results due Tuesday 21st November 2023, when analysts are expecting to see revenue growth of over 170%.
And, if that’s not enough, the forecast for Q4, according to some analysts, is likely to show a number close to 200% growth.
Nvidia is still by far the market leader in GPUs for AI, but high prices and competition are fast becoming an issue.
Can Nvidia continue the AI ride and hold this remarkable market share position?
Sam Altman, the former CEO of OpenAI, who was fired last week in a controversial board decision.
According to the latest reports, Altman is joining Microsoft to lead a new AI research team that will focus on advanced and ethical AI development.
Altman is a well-known entrepreneur and investor who has been involved in several AI-related projects.
He was one of the co-founders of OpenAI, a research organization that aims to create artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can ‘benefit humanity without causing harm’ or being controlled by a few elite players.
Leadership and ideology clash
However, Altman’s vision and style clashed with some of the board members and researchers at OpenAI, who reportedly accused him of being too ambitious, secretive, and authoritarian. They also reportedly claimed that he was pursuing a dangerous goal of creating artificial superintelligence (ASI).
The disagreements escalated when Altman announced a partnership with Microsoft in 2023, which gave Microsoft exclusive access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo model, a powerful natural language processing system that can generate realistic text on any given topic.
Some of the OpenAI staff and community members reportedly felt let-down by this deal, which they saw as a violation of OpenAI’s original mission of creating and sharing ‘AI for the common good’.
On Friday 17th November 2023, the board of OpenAI voted to remove Altman as CEO, citing irreconcilable differences and lack of trust. He was replaced by Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, who promised to restore transparency and collaboration at OpenAI.
Altman to join Microsoft
Altman did not comment on his dismissal. However, on Monday 20th November 2023, he rocked the AI world by announcing he was joining Microsoft as the head of a new AI research team.
He reportedly said that he was excited to work with Microsoft’s talented people and that he would continue to pursue his vision of creating beneficial and ethical AI for humanity.
Altman’s move to Microsoft has sparked mixed opinions from the AI community. Some have praised him for his innovation and courage, others have criticized him for his arrogance and recklessness.
There were reports over weekend suggesting employees and investors including Microsoft were pushing for Mr Altman to be reinstated. Some employees resigned in support of Altman.
Some have expressed concern about the potential impact of his new role on the future of AI development and regulation.
Where do OpenAI, Microsoft and the AI go from here?
Microsoft is working on its own artificial intelligence chip, code-named Athena, that could compete with Nvidia’s products.
The company introduced two new microchips.
The first, its Maia 100 artificial intelligence chip, could compete with Nvidia’s highly sought-after AI graphics processing units.
The second, a Cobalt 100 Arm chip, is aimed at general computing tasks and could compete with Intel processors.
The chip is designed for training large language models (LLM’s) like ChatGPT and powering AI applications. Microsoft has been developing the chip since 2019 using Taiwan Semiconductor’s 5-nanometer process. The chip is currently being tested by a small select group of Microsoft and OpenAI employees.
Long-term objective
Microsoft’s objective is to reduce its dependency on third-party hardware providers and to customize its AI infrastructure for its own projects.
Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, to enhance its position in the AI field. The Athena chip could also enable Microsoft to add AI capabilities to its Office products and GitHub, but it has already achieved this using the OpenAI system.
Microsoft has not announced when the chip will be available to the public or to its Azure cloud customers.
U.S. Inflation was flat in October from the previous month, providing a positive sign that high prices are finally easing their tight grip on the U.S. economy. Is this also a green light for the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates.
The consumer price index (CPI) was flat in October 2023 from the previous month but up 3.2% from a year ago. Both were below analysts’ estimates, sparking a major stock market rally.
Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the core CPI rose 0.2% and 4%, against the forecast of 0.3% and 4.1%. The annual rate was the smallest increase since September 2021.
The flat reading on the headline CPI came as energy prices declined 2.5% for the month, offsetting a 0.3% increase in the food index.
Traders do not anticipate that the Fed will raise interest rates in December 2023, according to data from the CME Group.
Traders do not anticipate that the Fed will raise interest rates in December 2023, according to data from the CME Group.
U.S. Treasury yields fall
U.S. Treasury yields fell on Tuesday 14th November 2023 as key inflation data showed a surprisingly ‘soft’ change in prices last month.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to about 4.45%. The 2-year Treasury yield fell more to under 4.9%.
Good data
Inflation stabilising, yields falling and equities up – are the stars aligning for a stock market rally leading into Christmas 2023?
Nvidia has recently announced its latest high-end chip, the GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, which is designed for training AI models at giant scale.
The GH200 is a breakthrough accelerated CPU that combines the NVIDIA Grace™ and Hopper™ architectures using NVIDIA® NVLink®-C2C to deliver a CPU+GPU coherent memory model for AI and HPC applications. The superchip delivers up to 10X higher performance for applications running terabytes of data, enabling scientists and researchers to reach unprecedented solutions for the world’s most complex problems.
The technical bit
The GH200 features 72 cores of Grace CPU outfitted with 480 GB of ECC LPDDR5X memory, as well as the GH100 compute GPU that is paired with 141 GB of HBM3E memory that comes in six 24 GB stacks and uses a 6,144-bit memory interface.
The GH200 also has a new 900 gigabytes per second (GB/s) coherent interface, which is 7X faster than PCIe Gen5, and supercharges accelerated computing and generative AI with HBM3 and HBM3e GPU memory. The GH200 can run all NVIDIA software stacks and platforms, including NVIDIA AI Enterprise, HPC SDK, and Omniverse™.
Nvidia unveils its newest GH200 high-end AI Superchip.
The GH200 is available as part of the NVIDIA DGX GH200, a massive memory supercomputer that fully connects 256 GH200 Superchips into a singular GPU. The DGX GH200 offers 144 terabytes (TB) of shared memory with linear scalability for giant AI models.
The DGX GH200 is a turnkey data centre-class solution that includes integrated software and white-glove services from NVIDIA, from design to deployment, to speed the ROI of AI.
The DGX GH200 is the only AI supercomputer that offers a massive, shared memory space of 144TB across 256 NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips, providing developers with nearly 500X more memory to build giant models.
Bitcoin rose to a new high for 2023 on Thursday 9th November 2023 as optimism around a potential Bitcoin ETF approval continued to build.
The price of the Bitcoin rose more than 6% to climb above $37000 for the first time since May 2022. It touched $37900 before drifting back slightly. Ether was little changed but held recent gains and was trading just below the $2000 level.
The rise in the Bitcoin triggered a wave of short liquidation overnight, which aided and propelled crypto prices higher.
Over the past year, cryptocurrencies in general have been desperately searching for a catalyst and the ETF news has been just that. We may witness another big surge when the ETF news fully breaks.
Altcoins
Other crypto assets as well as crypto equities enjoyed the Bitcoin price wave. Solana, one of the biggest outperformers in crypto this year, gained 11%. The tokens related to Cardano and Polygon rose 4% and 3%.
When Bitcoin surges, Ether and other altcoins tend to follow suit. Bitcoin is up over 120% year-to-date, we are seeing many other coins turning bullish now too, and trading volumes are picking up.
Microsoft ended Tuesday’s trading session at a record high of $360.53, following fresh optimism about growth from a key partner in artificial intelligence (AI). The increase gives the company a market value of about $2.68 trillion.
At a tech event on Monday 6th November 2023, Microsoft’s AI partner, OpenAI, announced a batch of updates, including price cuts and plans to allow people to make custom versions of the ChatGPT chatbot.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attended and emphasized that developers building applications with OpenAI’s tools could get to market quickly by deploying their software on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure.
Microsoft has invested a reported $13 billion in OpenAI, which has granted Microsoft an exclusive licence on OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model that can generate human-like prose in response to a few words of text.
Fictitious AI robot learning from a digital human online
Last week, Microsoft announced the release of an AI add-on for its Office productivity app subscriptions and an assistant in Windows 11, both of which rely on OpenAI models.
The future is looking bright for Microsoft right now.
An old well established and trusted tech brand pivoting to AI that has a high dividend yield is IBM, which has been around for more than a century and is known for both its hardware and software products.
IBM is investing heavily in AI, cloud computing, and quantum computing, and has recently acquired several AI start-ups, such as Instana, Turbonomic, and Waeg.
IBM also has a partnership with OpenAI, one of the leading AI research organizations, to provide cloud infrastructure for its AI models.
Investors who love IBM expect the company to grow its earnings by around 10% annually over the next five years. Investors were also impressed with IBM’s dividend yield, which is currently around 4.5%. Dividends are a great way to generate passive income.
IBM is not the only tech company that is pivoting to AI. Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic are competing in the field of generative AI, which can create text, images, music, and more from natural language prompts.
Integrate generative AI
These companies are attempting to integrate generative AI into their products and services, such as search engines, maps, word processors, office applications, chatbots, and more. Generative AI is seen as a game-changer for many industries and applications, and could potentially disrupt the dominance of Big Tech.
Legacy companies can pivot to a platform model, which is a business strategy that connects producers and consumers of value through a digital interface. Platform companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Tencent have created value at stunning rates, and have grown rapidly and own large market shares.
IBM mainframe from the 1970’s
Legacy companies can leverage their existing systems, such as customer relationships, data, and brand recognition, to create platforms that offer impressive and immersive products and services.
Other successful platform pivots are Disney+, which transformed Disney from a media producer to a media platform; Nike+, which connected Nike’s physical products with digital services; and John Deere, which created a platform for precision agriculture.
As OpenAI ChatGPT continue to take the AI world by storm, others play catch-up.
Aleph Alpha, which has built its own large language models, raised $500 million backed by Bosch, SAP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
It is reported that Aleph Alpha will use the new funds to invest in research on foundation models, advanced product capabilities and marketing of its software.
A big part of what Aleph Alpha is pushing for with its technology is a concept known as ‘data sovereignty’ the concept that data stored in a certain country is subject to that country’s laws.
The fund-raising round was backed predominantly by German firms, with enterprise IT giant SAP and Schwarz Group, (the owner of Lidl). Park Artificial Intelligence and Burda Principal Investments also invested.
If you were wondering…
Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
South Korea stocks surged on Monday, 6th November 2023 after the country imposed a ban on short selling, while most Asia-Pacific markets took the lead from a lighter than expected U.S. jobs report that helped reduce interest rate expectations.
Financial decision makers in South Korea said short selling will be banned until the end of June 2024. Short selling is when a trader sells borrowed shares to buy back at a lower price and pocket the difference.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has been found guilty of fraud and money laundering at the end of a month-long trial in New York.
He was accused of lying to investors and customers and stealing billions of dollars from FTX, which went bankrupt in November 2022. He now faces up to 115 years in prison. The jury delivered its verdict after less than five hours of deliberations. His sentencing has been set for 28th March 2024.
Month long trial
The verdict was delivered after a month-long trial that saw three of his former associates, including his ex-girlfriend, testify against him as part of a plea deal. They revealed that Bankman-Fried used customer deposits from FTX to fund his other company, Alameda Research, as well as to buy property and make political donations. He denied the charges and claimed that he acted in good faith and made mistakes due to being overwhelmed by the rapid growth of his businesses.
It concludes a dramatic fall from grace for the 31-year-old former billionaire and one of the most public faces of the crypto industry.
The case has been seen as a major blow to the crypto industry, which has been struggling to recover from the market crash and regulatory scrutiny that followed the FTX collapse. Bankman-Fried was once one of the most prominent and influential figures in the sector, known for his philanthropy and crypto industry innovation.
His downfall has been described as the industry’s greatest cautionary tale.
Verdict
‘Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history – a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto’, U.S. attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict. ‘This case has always been about lying, cheating and stealing, and we have no patience for it’.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has been found guilty of fraud and money laundering at the end of a month-long trial in New York.
Prosecutors had accused Bankman-Fried of lying to investors and lenders and stealing billions of dollars from cryptocurrency exchange FTX, helping to precipitate its collapse. They charged him with seven counts of fraud and money laundering.
He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, maintaining that, while he had made mistakes, he had acted in good faith.
After the verdict Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen said: ‘We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result’.
Mr Bankman-Fried reportedly maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.
If the Israel-Hamas conflict further intensifies, the risks to the global economy are growing, economist Mohamed el-Erian reportedly said Monday 30th October 2023.
The impact on global markets was initially limited, as investors viewed the conflict as contained. However, the prospect of a regional spillover has added to a sense of unease.
‘The longer this conflict goes on, the more likely it will escalate. The higher the risk of escalation, the higher the risk of contagion to the rest of the world in terms of economics and finance’, el-Erian said.
