Tech newsround – Merge and acquisitions

Crypto – The Merge pt. II Ethermine, the world’s biggest mining services provider for Ethereum miners will close its servers over the next 24 hours rendering $10bn of hardware useless which is now likely to end up on the second-hand market. While this is a big step forward for cryptocurrencies in their quest to become viable payment mechanisms (see here),...

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Crypto – The Merge

Good for payments. Bad for Nvidia / AMD. The Ethereum Blockchain will attempt to change the way it operates this week which will make it much cheaper to operate (good for payments) but at the same time, there will be a load of graphics cards that suddenly are no longer needed by their owners (bad for Nvidia). There are two...

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Peloton – Spring cleaned

Barry completes the clean-out. Barry McCarthy has completed the clean-out of Peloton meaning that the turnaround can begin in earnest but this remains a risky proposition and there are plenty of other options out there arguably with a better risk/reward trade-off. Peloton has announced that the two founders Hisao Kushi and John Foley are leaving the company they created but...

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Apple & YMTC – Insurance backfire

Apple likely to drop its insurance policy. Apple is demonstrating just how difficult it is to keep both the Chinese Communist Party and the US Congress happy at the same time and now it is likely to be forced to drop its budding relationship with the Chinese memory maker YMTC. Apple has been warned by the more hawkish end of...

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Faraday Future – Death throes

Chapter 11 or 7 is but months away A recent test drive of Faraday Future’s FF91 vehicle reveals that it is very far from being ready which combined with a very chequered history and dreadful management execution to date leads me to think that bankruptcy is only a few months away. Faraday Future showed off its “near-production” vehicle at the...

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Apple – Form over substance

Apple launches more of same. When the most exciting product launch is aimed at a tiny minority of the user base it becomes clear that Apple is struggling to find ways to get the mass market to buy a new device this year. The net result is that the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch 8 are unlikely to be able...

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Digital Ecosystems – Hardware season

Very little to excite consumers. The autumn hardware launch season kicks off today with Apple followed by Google and Meta the main theme of which is going to be how to keep consumers buying when they are worse off. Apple is expected to launch a new iPhone range and a watch on 7th September with Google launching a new Pixel...

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Apple – Asking for suits

Digital advertising is not worth the risk. Apple is building up its advertising business which I think is very likely to attract a raft of lawsuits from the other digital ecosystems alleging unfair competition and demanding tens of billions in damages. Research carried out by the FT (see here) concludes that Apple is planning on doubling the headcount in its...

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USA vs. China – Semiconductor debate

Evolution means China will never catch up. The USA’s clampdown on AI silicon sales to China has reignited the debate as to whether China can become independent on semiconductors, but I think that all the evidence points to China making very little headway towards this goal. This is not a new issue as it was 2015 when China put together...

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USA vs. China – Turn of the screw

USA increases pressure on China. Restrictions are being placed on the export of advanced AI chips for the data centre to China and Russia which will slow China’s strategy to become a technological superpower demonstrating that while the world remains dependent on Silicon, China is at a big disadvantage. The US Government has increased its regulation of advanced AI silicon...

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