HARDWARE

Nvidia’s Eureka Moment

On Wednesday, Nvidia passed Intel to become the U.S.’ largest chipmaker by market cap. Nvidia is up 78% this year; Intel is down 4%. 

A clairvoyant call by Nvidia—‘hey, this AI thing could be big’—helped the company reach this point. 

The new(er) kid on the block

Nvidia (est. 1993) started as a specialized developer of graphics processing units (GPUs). It triumphed over a crowded field and became the favored GPU for the graphic-intensive, potato chip-powered gaming market. 

Circa 2010: As my adolescent self built a Nvidia-powered gaming rig, GPUs transformed into the go-to workhorses for deep learning due to their proficiency with parallel computing. Nvidia laid the groundwork to become a dominant AI hardware player. 

Now: Nvidia gear can be found in high-performance computers, VR devices, Big Tech data centers, and all sorts of AI applications.

The old guard

Intel (est. 1968) was a 20th century IT powerhouse, and today its largest segment supplies processors for PCs, laptops, and tablets. 

On its toes: Intel missed the mobile revolution and waved the white flag last year after spending billions trying to catch up. The company has acquired and heavily invested with the hopes of not missing the AI revolution, too. A bright spot for Intel is its booming server and cloud business, which generated more than $20 billion in revenue last year.

And just for some perspective, Intel pulled in $7.2 billion of data center revenue in Q4. Over the same stretch, Nvidia reported $3.1 billion in total revenue (with “record data center revenue,” per founder and CEO Jensen Huang).

No time for victory laps or complacency

The AI hardware market is rapidly growing, but so is competition. China is turbocharging domestic chipmaking efforts, while Big Tech is pulling some silicon development in-house. 

One area to watch: Intel and Nvidia are heavily invested in building parts for cars that think. Intel’s Mobileye says it supplies tech to 70% of today’s automated driving-equipped cars. Meanwhile, Nvidia recently announced it will provide the AI hardware for Mercedes-Benz’s 2024 fleet of self-driving cars. 

Autonomy isn’t a two-horse race: Tesla ditched Nvidia in 2018 for its own self-driving chip and Qualcomm is developing its own stack.

CRYPTOCURRENCY

Crypto Exchange Meets Stock Exchange

Coinbase has looked at the public markets and it likes what it sees. The cryptocurrency exchange is preparing to go public, Reuters reported yesterday. It was last valued at $8+ billion in the private markets. 

Before any bell-ringing: Coinbase needs the blessing of the SEC. And unless it opts for a direct listing (which is definitely a possibility) the company needs to hire an investment bank. It may be the first time you have SEC regulators, bankers, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the same Zoom. 

While each group hasn’t historically gotten along, they can let bygones be bygones. JPMorgan recently extended banking services to Coinbase, and from the SEC’s POV, the cryptocurrency exchange has always been compliance-oriented.

Big picture: A stock ticker could help Coinbase tap new pools of capital, expand, and lend cred’ to cryptocurrencies. I have a hunch Robinhood traders would champ at the bit to buy some Coinbase. 

+ While we’re here: TikTokers are promoting a meme-oriented cryptocurrency. Can you guess which one?

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5G

A Wild 5G Has Appeared

Ookla tests how fast and furious cellular networks are in the field. This week, it published an analysis of U.S. carriers’ 5G speed and coverage in Q2. 

First, the lay of the land: As of July 8, the U.S. had 5G deployments in 6,087 cities and towns. T-Mobile boasts 94% of those deployments. AT&T has 237 deployments; Verizon has just 39. 

• T-Mobile took the opportunity to troll Verizon in a press release. 
• All in all, these numbers show we’re still in the early innings. 

But looks can be deceiving. T-Mobile and AT&T are deploying 5G primarily using low-band spectrum, while Verizon is focused on just the high-band. The latter is way faster. In 5G tests, Ookla gave Verizon the top speed score of 871 (AT&T: 79, T-Mobile: 65).

B2C The results don’t mean much for the average U.S. consumer right now, since most of us still use 4G/LTE phones (AT&T took the gold there, btw). But 5G is being built, and soon, they will come. 

B2B On the other hand, these early 5G networks will reshape the operations of entire industries. Read about how in our 5G guide.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: In its latest transparency report, TikTok says it took down over 49 million videos globally for content violations in H2 2019. That represents less than 1% of all videos uploaded. In India, the app removed 16+ million videos. In the U.S., it removed 4.6 million. 

Quote: “Viruses have no visas.”—Alibaba founder Jack Ma, speaking at the World AI Conference. 

Read: Self-driving startup Aurora writes that “independence allows us to innovate.” The company has avoided exclusive partnerships so it can integrate its car-agnostic tech across different vehicle categories.

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Rivian, the Amazon- and Ford-backed EV startup, raised $2.5 billion in fresh funding. 
• Ant Financial, Alibaba’s high-tech insurance arm, plans to go public in Hong Kong at a valuation north of $200 billion, Reuters reports. 
• Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” economic plan calls for $300 billion in advanced tech R&D spending.
• Sony invested $250 million for a stake in Fortnite parent Epic Games. 
• President Trump said banning TikTok is “something we’re looking at.”
• Elon Musk said “we will have the basic functionality for Level 5 autonomy complete this year.” Level 5 = a car can drive itself everywhere in all conditions. Musk = not the most reliable predictor of self-driving.
• Twitter is maybe building a subscription product?

GOING PHISHING

Three of the following news stories are true, and one...I made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. BMW will sell heated seats as a subscription. 
2. Orvis created a fly-fishing robot. 
3. China’s securities regulator used satellite data to uncover foul play at a fishery.
4. NASA says Curiosity Mars Rover started its summer road trip.

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For codeception: Watch this video of OpenAI’s text-generating model write Python code. 

For micromobility x Need for Speed: This week, organizers unveiled the eSkootr racing series, slated to launch next year. The IRL race will purportedly feature specially designed scooters capable of going up to 62 mph. The mock-up images look like Tron meets Formula 1:

eSkootr

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• TikTok pulls out of Hong Kong, as app faces pressure in U.S.
• Seven trends from Q2
• Microsoft launches online retraining program

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

Orvis didn’t make a fly-fishing robot.