NVIDIA
- NVIDIA's three-day losing streak ended, but it still lost $430 billion in market capitalization.
- NVIDIA's sales are difficult to predict due to supply and demand factors and the company's small number of large customers.
- Steve Eisman believes that as long as the story of NVIDIA's growth remains intact, investors will continue to buy the stock despite its high valuation.
AI and Technology Summit
- Bloomberg Technology Summit is taking place in New York City today and tomorrow, featuring notable speakers such as Saba Capital and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
- Sonali Basak highlights the pervasiveness of AI in conversations at the Bloomberg Invest Summit and discusses the different perspectives on AI's potential.
- Ian argues that the more difficult question is whether the infrastructure being put in place by AI companies is paying off or not.
- Philippe Laffont believes that while there is a lot of hype around AI, there are significant opportunities in the field, particularly in the near term.
China's Innovation and Technology
- Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasizes the need for increased innovation in the country, acknowledging that China lags behind in original innovation and relies on foreign technologies.
- A deeper alliance between Huawei and Optica, a century-old scientific research organization, has been revealed. Huawei secretly sponsored a research competition run by Optica, raising concerns about the potential transfer of U.S. scientific research to China.
- Lawmakers are investigating the Huawei-Optica relationship due to concerns about the potential exposure or export of U.S. scientific research to China.
- China's spacecraft successfully returned to Earth with samples collected from the far side of the moon, marking a significant milestone in their lunar exploration program.
- OpenAI announced that it will block access to its tools and software in China starting in July, citing concerns over privacy practices.
Funding and Investments
- Anduril Industries secured new capital, boosting its valuation to $14 billion. The company specializes in developing drones, autonomous weapon systems, and unmanned fighter jets.
- Function Health, a personalized health platform, raised $53 million in funding. It aims to empower individuals to manage their well-being by providing access to their own health data and insights from experts.
- Etch, an AI chip company, has developed a specialized AI chip for transformers, claiming it outperforms GPUs by more than 20x. Etch has already received tens of millions of dollars in preorders from major customers.
- Etch has raised $120 million in Series A funding, which will be used to build products and scale up the business.
US-China AI Competition
- OpenAI has warned developers in China that it will begin blocking their access to its software from July, citing concerns about the use of its technology for nefarious purposes.
- China has domestic champions in the field of generative AI technology, and they are appealing to developers to switch to their technology following OpenAI's decision.
- Lawmakers in Washington are concerned about China's efforts to ramp up its AI capabilities, particularly in areas that could impact national security.
- The US government is taking actions to curb investment in AI in certain areas and imposing curbs on chip exports to China.
- The Biden administration is taking steps to undercut China's efforts to bolster its military capabilities through AI, including investing in chip manufacturing.
Activist Investor Targeting CEFs
- An activist investor discusses their strategy of targeting closed-end funds (CEFs) that trade at a discount to their net asset value (NAV).
- The activist investor explains that CEFs can be "trapped" with no majority owner and can have arcane election rules that make it difficult to replace the board of directors.
- The activist investor highlights the case of the "Big Z" fund (BZ), where they won a vote to replace the board but were unable to achieve the required 50% of all shares to make changes.
- The activist investor criticizes BlackRock, the manager of BZ, for having nominees who sit on approximately 70 different boards, raising concerns about their ability to effectively govern.
