Gizmodo (June 8)
AI mania “is running up against some hard economic realities. In recent weeks, big tech companies have been forced to admit that spending on tokens—the basic unit of measurement for AI usage—has gotten out of control.” As companies grow more cost conscious, big tech is waking up to the need “to find a new way to sell people on the future of AI without the exorbitant token costs. If they don’t, companies and users will just switch to some open model they can use for free.”
Tags: Admit, AI, Big tech, Companies, Cost conscious, Economic realities, Exorbitant, Free, Future, Mania, Open model, Spending, Switch, Tokens, Usage
Wall Street Journal (June 2)
“Exxon Mobil shareholders last week voted to support management’s decision to move its corporate domicile to Texas from New Jersey. It’s a smart move that raises a question for other companies: Is it becoming a corporate governance duty to leave states that punish business for states that don’t?” While some companies may opt for higher taxes and costs to take advantage of talent clusters, “don’t be surprised if Exxon is a harbinger of more shareholder-driven relocations.”
Tags: Companies, Corporate domicile, Corporate governance, Costs, Duty, Exxon Mobil, Harbinger, New Jersey, Punish, Relocations, Shareholders, Smart move, Taxes, Texas, Voted
Reuters (May 28)
“Japan Inc’s fears of a breakup boom are understandable. There were a record 56 activist campaigns against Tokyo-listed companies last year, according to Barclays. The tally was more than all of Europe put together and second only to the United States.”
Tags: Activist campaigns, Barclays, Breakup boom, Companies, Europe, Fears, Japan Inc., Record, Tokyo-listed, U.S., Understandable
Financial Times (April 2)
“A record number of megadeals were agreed in the first quarter of the year as companies shrugged off war in the Middle East and a shakeout in the software sector to propel mergers and acquisitions to $1.2tn globally.”
Tags: Acquisitions, Companies, Megadeals, Mergers, Middle East, Q1, Record, Shakeout, Shrugged, Software sector, War
Barron’s (November 26)
“Less frequent financial reporting could create a longer runway for bad actors within publicly traded companies.… Proponents of semi-annual reporting raise two main points in support of their argument—short-termism and costs. Both are too speculative, and neither seems to outweigh the potential downsides to investors of less frequent reporting.”
Tags: Bad actors, Companies, Costs, Downsides, Financial reporting, Investors, Proponents, Publicly traded, Runway, Semi-annual reporting, Short-termism, Speculative
Bloomberg (November 15)
Next week a number of companies will release earnings results, and major retailers look primed to steal the show from “AI behemoth Nvidia” as traders seek to better grasp “the health of consumers and the economy.” Results from “Walmart Inc., Target Corp., Home Depot Inc. and other companies that sell the goods Americans buy are likely to overshadow Nvidia because they offer insights into spending patterns at a time when there’s scant data for Wall Street to go on.”
Tags: AI, Companies, Consumers, Economy, Health, Home Depot, Major retailers, Nvidia, Overshadow, Results, Spending patterns, Target, Traders, Walmart
Bloomberg (October 7)
Should Trump’s “signature tariffs” be overturned by the Supreme Court, “it would unleash a bureaucratic nightmare involving reams of refund paper checks.” This could involve refunding “the bulk of the $165 billion in customs duties collected so far this fiscal year back to companies that paid them. But they won’t have an easy time getting their money back.”
Tags: $165 billion, Bureaucratic nightmare, Companies, Customs duties, Overturned, Paper checks, Supreme Court, Tariffs, Trump
New York Times (October 6)
“For companies and governments worldwide, defending their digital operations is a constant challenge.” Recent cyberattacks at big British brands demonstrate how they can “upend company operations.” Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Jaguar Land Rover have all been “severely disrupted by cyberattacks this year, bringing pain to the lives of customers, workers, suppliers and government officials.” In fact, “Jaguar Land Rover hasn’t built a single car” since shutting its systems down on September 1. This has halted “production at its factories in England, as well as sites in Brazil, China, India and Slovakia.”
Tags: Brazil, Challenge, China, Co-op, Companies, Customers, Cyberattacks, Defending, Digital, Governments, Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, Officials, Operations, Suppliers, UK, Upend, Workers
Investment Week (September 29)
“Which companies are actually ‘doing AI’ is the question that has to be answered.” Just as “a lot of fund houses are making a big show of talking about AI as it puts them ‘in’ this next big trend, the same is true for many of the companies they are looking to buy.” Hype abounds and the Financial Times “discovered a disparity between the AI leaps CEOs were buzzing about in their company’s investor calls and the actual investment the businesses were making into this space.” To keep “AI in check just from a risk management basis” and to separate “the winners from the churn,” active mangers are essential. “The value of active management cannot be underestimated, not just for the necessary diversification but to actually play a role in making this new era not be as ‘terrifying’ as people are predicting.”
Tags: Abounds, Active mangers, AI, Big trend, Buy, CEOs, Churn, Companies, Disparity, Diversification, Fund houses, Hype, New era, Predicting, Risk management, Terrifying, Winners
Wall Street Journal (September 26)
“Walmart executives aren’t sugarcoating the message: Artificial intelligence will wipe out jobs and reshape its workforce.” They are not alone. “Companies including Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have bluntly predicted job losses associated with AI.” For the next three years at Walmart, head count is “expected to stay flat… despite growth plans, as AI eliminates or transforms roles.” Beyond that time frame, the outlook “remains murky” for the specifics of its labor force composition, but it will definitely be leaner.
Tags: AI, Amazon, Companies, Eliminates, Executives, Ford, Growth, Head count, Job losses, JPMorgan Chase, Murky, Reshape, Sugarcoating, Transforms, Walmart, Workforce
