BBC (October 15)
“Silicon Valley is on the hunt for new sources of power to drive enormous data centres and in particular, the high-power chips that have become the backbone of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.” Nuclear power is capturing Increasing attention, especially small modular reactors (SMRs), which “sound like the perfect solution to the growing energy AI demand.” Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The SMRs being discussed would only produce a small fraction of AI’s needs. Moreover, SMRs generate more nuclear “waste than larger conventional reactors.” Nevertheless, “big tech is making a big bet on nuclear – Microsoft has even recently joined the industry’s lobbying group, the World Nuclear Association.”
Tags: AI, Chips, Conventional reactors, Data centers, Lobbying, Microsoft, Nuclear power, Power, Silicon Valley, SMRs, Solution, Sources, Waste
The Economist (July 31)
“America’s biggest technology companies are combining Silicon Valley returns with Ruhr Valley balance-sheets. Investors who bought shares in Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft a decade ago are sitting on eight times their money, excluding dividends.” Their hard assets multiplied with data center investment and their property, plant and equipment is now “worth more than 60% of their equity book value, up from 20%” a decade ago. Even more eye popping, combined with Amazon and Oracle, their capex spending is estimated to account “for a third of America’s economic growth during the most recent quarter.”
Tags: Alphabet, Amazon, Balance sheets, Book value, CAPEX, Data centers, Dividends, Eye-popping, Hard assets, Investors, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Returns, Shares, Silicon Valley, U.S.
Financial Times (January 25)
“A small Chinese artificial intelligence lab stunned the world this week by revealing the technical recipe for its cutting-edge model, turning its reclusive leader into a national hero who has defied US attempts to stop China’s high-tech ambitions.” DeepSeek claims to have “used just 2,048 Nvidia H800s and $5.6mn to train a model with 671bn parameters, a fraction of what OpenAI and Google spent to train comparably sized models.” The release of DeepSeek’s R1 model “has Silicon Valley on the defensive, raising doubts “about whether better resourced US AI companies, including Meta and Anthropic, can defend their technical edge.”
Tags: AI, Anthropic, China, Cutting edge, DeepSeek, Defensive, Google, High-tech, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, R1 model, Silicon Valley, Stunned, Technical recipe, U.S.
Bloomberg (March 6)
“However California’s next monumental blaze begins, the toll will be vast. People will be injured, some will die. Thousands of homes will be destroyed. When the smoke clears, the most populous US state, home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and a real estate market worth more than $9 trillion, will be ground zero for a sweeping financial crisis.”
Tags: $9 trillion, Blaze, California, Destroyed, Die, Ground zero, Hollywood, Homes, Injured, Monumental, Real estate market, Silicon Valley, Smoke, Toll, U.S., Vast
Financial Times (August 25)
“Things are bad. Silicon Valley is choking on wildfire smoke. Louisiana is expected to be hit by two hurricanes this week. Britain had its wettest February on record and faces it lowest wheat harvest since the 1980s…. We either hammer carbon emissions or they will hammer us every year harder and harder.”
Tags: Carbon emissions, Hurricanes, Louisiana, Silicon Valley, Smoke, UK, Wettest, Wheat harvest, Wildfire
Bloomberg (January 25)
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is “ridiculous” on many fronts, but France’s recent $57 million fine of Google suggest much worse. If they are merely making “an example of Google,” this suggests “Europe intends to wield these rules — as it does so many others — to punish Silicon Valley giants and protect local rivals.” If on the other hand, they are planning to hit every company with crushing fines, that suggests even worse.
Tags: Crushing fines, Europe, France, GDPR, Google, Local rivals, Protect, Punish, Ridiculous, Silicon Valley
The Economist (September 1)
“If Silicon Valley’s relative decline heralded the rise of a global web of thriving, rival tech hubs, that would be worth celebrating. Unfortunately, the Valley’s peak looks more like a warning that innovation everywhere is becoming harder.”
Tags: Decline, Innovation, Peak, Rivals, Silicon Valley, Tech hubs, Warning
LA Times (June 5)
In a prime example of “hype and plunder,” Domo’s filing for an IPO “may be setting a new low for self-indulgent IPOs.” Once valued at $2-billion, this unicorn is “deeply in the red and burning through cash so fast that if it can’t stage its IPO by August or borrow millions, it will have to shrink drastically—conceivably, reading between the lines, to nothing.” But the “most disturbing aspect of the IPO filing” is the voting rights associated with the new shares. Before the IPO, the founder “has 91.7% of the votes. The IPO won’t change that materially.” This “points to a persistent flaw in Silicon Valley financing: the willingness to give start-up founders unassailable control of their companies, to the point that investors have no recourse if things go blooey.”
Tags: Control, Disturbing, Domo, Flaw, Founders, Hype, Investors, IPO, Plunder, Self indulgent, Silicon Valley, Unicorn, Voting rights
U.S. News & World Report (February 6)
“A report published last year stated that more than 37 percent of workers in Silicon Valley are foreign-born.” Not surprisingly, given that, “a group of nearly 100 tech companies have filed an amicus brief to a federal appeals court voicing concerns over President Donald Trump’s stalled immigration-focused executive order.” Among them were “Google, Apple, GoPro, Facebook, Dropbox, eBay, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix and Twitter.”
Tags: Amicus brief, Apple, Dropbox, EBay, Facebook, Foreigners, Google, GoPro, Immigration, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, Silicon Valley, Tech companies, Trump, Twitter, U.S.
Bloomberg (December 22)
Rather than a battle to the death between “lumbering” automakers and disruptive Silicon Valley, the deal between Google and Ford proves “that Detroit and Silicon Valley are increasingly likely to collaborate rather than compete” to realize autonomous vehicles. Ford’s decision to collaborate “may accelerate the decline of the traditional industry, but by taking an early seat at the table right next to Google, the firm has secured a position of relevance in the new mobility paradigm.”
Tags: Automakers, Autonomous vehicles, Collaborate, Compete, Detroit, Disruptive, Ford, Google, Lumbering, New mobility paradigm, Relevance, Silicon Valley
