AI Plays besides NVIDIA

[Nbadan]

This thread is not intended as investment advice but is merely for infotainment purposes only. You assume any and all risks should you choose to invest based on information in this thread. Neither the creator of this thread nor the owners of Spurstalk are responsible for bad investment decisions

That said....NVDIA isn't the only AI game in town and we aren't talking about the big 7....we will cover each of those in their own thread....so what are other AI plays were investors should be looking in 2024 and beyond?

[Nbadan]

Let's look at ....

Marvell Technology


Another semiconductor stock in this week's list is Marvell Technology (MRVL). The company managed to surpass analysts' expectations for the fiscal second quarter, even as revenue declined compared to the year-ago period. Management expects sequential revenue growth to accelerate in the fiscal third quarter, fueled by AI and cloud infrastructure.

In reaction to the results, Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore reiterated a buy rating on MRVL stock with a price target of $70. The analyst noted that the company delivered a modest top-line beat and in-line outlook, with solid acceleration in AI-related applications offsetting macro-related weakness.

"Overall, we continue to believe MRVL has a compelling portfolio of infrastructure products that address powerful secular growth trends in AI/Cloud (electo-optics & significant custom compute), 5G and Automotive," said Seymore.

The analyst thinks that Marvell's infrastructure products, coupled with an eventual cyclical recovery in the storage, wired and on-premise businesses, would help in significantly accelerating the company's growth heading into calendar year 2024.

Seymore holds the 9th position among more than 8,500 analysts tracked on TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 75% of the time, with each rating delivering an average return of 24.2%

[Nbadan]

Marvell's AI Chips Fail to Provide a Big Boost to Growth, but That Could Change Soon


A few months ago after the initial Nvidia AI pop, I said to be leery of chasing Marvell stock after it ran higher on AI optimism, too. The earnings update for the second quarter of fiscal 2024 (for the three months ended in July 2023) just proved why.

Marvell reported revenue of $1.34 billion in its second quarter, a 12% year-over-year decline and just a 1.5% quarter-over-quarter increase. Revenue is expected to be a bit higher in the third quarter, $1.4 billion at the midpoint of guidance, as Marvell keeps working through enterprise customer weakness (non-cloud data centers) due to excess inventory of some components and economic concerns (customers are in cash conservation mode this year).

[Nbadan]

Profitability wasn't so hot either. Net loss under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was $208 million in Q2, or $290 million in net income on an adjusted basis. The difference between the two profit metrics is primarily non-cash depreciation and amortization expenses of $75.5 million and $272 million, respectively (from a string of acquisitions made a few years ago), and stock-based compensation of $153 million. Free cash flow (FCF) in the quarter was $1 million, compared to positive FCF of $105 million in the first quarter.

[Nbadan]

Marvell's chips used in the latest generative AI servers are off to a hot start. Come calendar year 2024, Marvell should be sitting on a new product line worth well in excess of $1 billion for the full-year period. That's significant, given that Marvell's all-time peak annual revenue was just shy of $6 billion in 2022. The key to the company surpassing that previous peak will be the rest of the data center and enterprise computing business solidifying going forward. Ongoing 5G network construction would help, too.

With Marvell still anticipating just a moderate uptick in sales activity in Q3, it's still hard for me to say it's time to buy. Shares trade for an elevated 60 times trailing-12-month free cash flow, although part of that high price tag has to do with depressed profitability during the ongoing semiconductor downturn. Perhaps by the fourth quarter, or early next year, things will start to heat up again. For now, Marvell is maybe a dollar-cost-average candidate for investors thinking generative AI is the real deal long-term, but prudence and patience could pay off here ahead of a more robust rebound in the business.

[Nbadan]

Here is what a sample of analysts are saying about Marvel

Morgan Stanley cut the price target on Marvell Technology from $68 to $65.
Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore maintained an Equal-Weight rating.
B. Riley Securities raised the price target on Marvell Technology from $75 to $77.
B. Riley Securities analyst Craig Ellis maintained a Buy rating.
Oppenheimer analyst Rick Schafer, meanwhile, reiterated Marvell Tech with an Outperform and maintained a $70 price target.
Needham analyst Quinn Bolton reiterated Marvell Tech with a Buy and maintained a $65 price target.
Rosenblatt analyst Hans Mosesmann reiterated Marvell Tech with a Buy and maintained a $100 price target.

[Nbadan]

The rise in ultra-fast, high-capacity GPU-based servers for AI will also require a massive investment in networking, as large numbers of high-capacity switches and optical communications processors will be needed to quickly transmit huge amounts of data, both within and between AI data centers.

On the networking side, those investments should benefit Marvell's PAM4 digital signal processing (DSP) interfaces for lighting-quick data transmission at speeds of 800 Gbps and above, along with its data center interconnect products and Teralynx 10 Ethernet switching platforms.

[Nbadan]

n addition to networking, Marvell also has a growing ASIC business, in which Marvell collaborates with third parties to design custom chips built for a specific purpose. Aside from the large generalized GPU accelerator companies, leading cloud providers are now designing custom ASICs for AI as an alternative, and Marvell is set to benefit from the growth of these types of custom AI ASICs as well.

In early June, JPMorgan Chase analyst Harlan Sur issued a bullish note on Marvell, identifying that it has about 15% of the custom ASIC market -- a market that Sur projects will grow 20% annually over the medium term.

That optimism appeared validated just one week later, when the Taiwan-based Liberty Times reported that Marvell had won a new ASIC contract with Amazon Web Services for Amazon's next-generation accelerators.

[Nbadan]

With the AI segment apparently primed for multiyear hypergrowth and the potential for a recovery in the other core businesses, Marvell's stock soared in 2023's first half.

Still, I'd remain cautious on buying Marvell today after its strong run. The company is still only operating around breakeven, with lackluster total-company growth. So if Marvell delivers anything other than strong growth in the quarters ahead, the stock could pull back. That being said, it's certainly an AI name to watch over the medium and long term.

i currently do not own any Marvell shares

[Nbadan]

Palo Alto Networks


Next up is cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks (PANW), which reported better-than-anticipated fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Revenue grew 26% year-over-year to $1.95 billion but slightly lagged estimates.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman, who ranks 584th out of over 8,500 analysts on TipRanks, noted that the company's fiscal 2024 guidance of 19% to 20% year-over-year billings growth and an 37% to 38% adjusted free cash flow (FCF) margin was better than expectations of mid-teens billings growth and a FCF margin in the mid-30% range.

Bachman thinks that the trend of consolidating solutions with leading security vendors will continue as the threat landscape evolves and as generative AI emphasizes the need for data aggregation. He added that implementing a consolidated portfolio enhances the prospects for real-time threat detection and remediation.

The analyst highlighted that customers are increasingly adopting each of PANW's three platforms (Strata, Prisma and Cortex), as they look for integrated solutions and unified data models. He increased his price target to $275 from $235 and reiterated a buy rating on Palo Alto.

"We believe that the strength of PANW's portfolio and the consolidation of spend are key drivers of PANW's long-term targets and net new NGS ARR [next-generation security annual recurring revenue] growth," said Bachman.

[Nbadan]

Palo Alto Networks had a vision back in 2018, spearheaded by then-new CEO Arora, to get the company back on track for a coming explosion in cybersecurity demand. Specifically, the need for new types of network protection, including public cloud (use of a remote data center accessed via the internet) and automation of security tasks using AI, were what Palo Alto Networks was hitching its future to then.

Suffice it to say, it's paid off. The company now touts itself as a full-fledged platform for all types of cybersecurity. It was a bumpy road, one that included over a dozen acquisitions of small start-ups along the way, culminating with the purchase of Cider Security, announced in late 2022. But since 2018, revenue has gone from about $2.5 billion to $6.9 billion in fiscal 2023, free cash flow remained positive all along the way, and net income is fast on the mend after the transformation.

[Nbadan]

As for the final numbers for fiscal 2023, revenue increased 25% year over year. Full-year GAAP net income was $440 million, compared to a loss of $267 million in 2022. And free cash flow (FCF) was $2.6 billion (a very good FCF profit margin of 38%), up a whopping 47% from 2022.

[Nbadan]

Going forward, Palo Alto Networks thinks its cybersecurity platform will continue to be a winning formula. Indeed, the amount of digital data out there has exploded, as has the number of ways for employees to access it. Security priorities will revolve around expanding zero-trust architecture (rooted in the "never trust, always verify" principle that requires users to constantly validate their credentials), security built directly into apps themselves during the coding process (the rationale behind that latest acquisition of Cider Security), and more automation of real-time monitoring.

The last five years have been good, and it looks like management thinks they'll continue. Its goals through fiscal 2026 (which ends in July 2026) are for revenue to increase an average of 17% to 19% each year. And along the way, the adjusted operating profit margin is expected to expand to a range of 28% to 29%, up from 24% this past year.

[Nbadan]

Of course, Palo Alto Networks will need to execute this plan to justify making a buy today. Its shares now trade for 30 times trailing-12-month free cash flow, a bit on the high side compared to where it has traded the last five years. And as good as the outlook is going forward, Arora and the top team do seem to be expecting a modest cooldown from recent growth.

[Nbadan]

Palo Alto Networks' Debt And Its 36% ROE

We think Palo Alto Networks uses a significant amount of debt to maximize its returns, as it has a significantly higher debt to equity ratio of 3.20. While its ROE is no doubt quite impressive, it could give a false impression about the company's returns given that its huge debt could be boosting those returns.

[Nbadan]

There's no denying that Palo Alto Networks is an expensive stock. Shares are currently priced at 13 times annual sales, which is higher than investors have seen since well before the pandemic. Microsoft is trading for 12 times sales, for context, even though the company is much more profitable and owns a dominant market position across several growth niches in the software-as-a-service space.

You could still see excellent returns from owning Palo Alto over the next several years, if the company can extend its current positive sales and profit margin momentum. Most Wall Street pros are expecting this to happen in 2023 and beyond. On average, they predict sales will rise 25% as earnings improve to $4.27 per share from $2.52 last year.

[Nbadan]

e cybersecurity market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.8% between 2023-2030. We think PANW will be among the primary benefactors of the cybersecurity opportunity; this quarter, the company reported over $1B in bookings for FY23 in SASE and Cortex, and over $500B in Prisma Cloud ARR in Q4. We're specifically constructive on PANW growing its larger deal bookings, with the number of deals over $20M increasing 43% Y/Y, outpacing smaller deals under $10M, which grew at 37% Y/Y. PANW growing large deal sizes highlights the company's relative resilience to macro headwinds.

I currently own 4 shares of PANW

[Nbadan]

Palantir (PLTR)


Palantir operates AI data mining platforms for government agencies and enterprise businesses. Gotham, Palantir’s government platform, finds patterns in disparate data so intelligence teams can locate and respond to terrorism threats. Unconfirmed sources say Gotham played a role in capturing Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Businesses use Palantir Foundry to house, transform and manipulate organizational data to streamline processes and make better decisions.

Palantir went public in 2020 and recently reported its first profitable quarter (fourth quarter 2022).

[Nbadan]

Is Palantir Stock an Undervalued Gem?


While Snowflake and MongoDB trade at meaningful premiums to rest of the field, Palantir trades in line with Datadog, and ServiceNow is not too far behind. All of these companies are investing heavily in AI, and it's interesting to see which names are garnering more support from the markets.

To me, upon looking at the analysis above, the more interesting takeaway is that Palantir essentially sits right in the middle of this cohort. But as a longtime Palantir bull, I know there is far more to the story. In the next section, I'll dig into whether Wall Street sees potential for Palantir.

[Nbadan]

To summarize, Ives estimates that Palantir will reach $5 billion in revenue by fiscal 2027, and he uses a 10x multiple to derive a $25 price target. Although the forecast of a more than 60% upside from Palantir's current trading levels can be tempting, Rosenbaum makes a great point that the report lacks details supporting these future profitability estimates. In other words, while $5 billion in sales by 2027 is impressive, what is the opportunity cost?

More recently, Morgan Stanley downgraded Palantir stock to $8, which implies a 40% drop from current trading levels. According to several public reports, the bank's downgrade anchors on the gap between Palantir's AI progress and how much it is moving the needle for the company.

This is an interesting stance because Palantir's management has highlighted how much demand the company is experiencing from its AI products. For example, per the company's most recent shareholder letter, investors learned that the company's latest AI development has been deployed across 100 organizations, and the company's current pipeline has 300 or more identified opportunities. But Morgan Stanley could have a point here. Despite the impressive stats above, Palantir is only guiding toward approximately 16% top-line growth this year, far less than other notable beneficiaries of the AI boom such as Nvidia.

Although it would be nice to see a more pronounced reflection of AI demand in Palantir's financials, my view is that Morgan Stanley's stance is a bit shortsighted. Some companies, like Nvidia, will witness a higher surge in demand sooner than others due to how heavily its customers rely on its chip products. However, a company like Palantir is in a more unique position.

While the company sells its software across a variety of industries and end-markets, investors should understand a couple of nuances. First, the sales cycle for enterprise software can be quite long. It could easily take weeks or even months of demoing the products before a formal deal is put in place. Moreover, while the notion of digital transformation and where AI sits in that equation is increasingly becoming a top priority for executives, that does not necessarily mean that all potential customers currently have an identified use case in which AI is ready to be deployed.

[Nbadan]

If you invested in Palantir stock earlier this year when it was trading around its lows, it's probably not a bad idea to take some gains and recoup your initial investment, given how much the stock has run up. However, as a long-term investor, my suggestion would be to hang on to the bulk of your position. Taking short-term profits at the expense of long-term gains is not a strategy that I suggest.

As of now, the initial demand around Palantir's AI suite is encouraging, but I think investors have yet to see the full potential and impact this can have on its financial profile. For this reason, I do not think the AI hype is fully reflected in Palantir stock, despite its somewhat rich valuation when compared to other competitors.

While Morgan Stanley's research suggests a more conservative price target, I don't believe that waiting around for a massive pullback is prudent. My suggestion would be dollar-cost averaging into Palantir over time and remaining vigilant around the company's growth prospects.

[Nbadan]

Despite massive government contracts, Palantir has shown fundamental issues with its margins and profitability, consistently spending more than it makes. That’s a recipe for long-term value destruction, which is unfortunately what this meme stock has shown.

Perhaps things are changing, and that could certainly be the case. Palantir has continued to show vigorous growth, pumping out top-line revenue growth of 47% in 2020 and 41% in 2021.

[Nbadan]

The stock surged from $4.30 to $20 based on hype around the company’s potential to monetize artificial intelligence. While an obvious catalyst for growth reaccelerating, I’m skeptical as to Palantir’s ability to capitalize on this specific secular growth trend.

A positive call from Wedbush’s Dan Ives boosted the stock 15% in days. While bullish sentiment prevails, the company’s valuation of roughly 16-times sales ought to raise caution, especially for those who take fundamentals seriously.

Parsing out how much of Palantir’s valuation is still hype, versus how much is fundamental long-term cash flow growth, is difficult to do. However, it’s my view that the company’s valuation reflects a considerable amount of hype right now, and in the absence of revenue growth acceleration, this is a stock with significant downside risk from here.

[Nbadan]

Peter Thiel’s Palantir is seeing ‘unprecedented’ demand for its military A.I. that its CEO calls ‘a weapon that will allow you to win


AIP stands for Artificial Intelligence Platform. According to the company’s site, the tool can be used by militaries to tap the kinds of AI models that power ChatGPT to aid in battlefield intelligence and decision-making. A demo video shows how the platform can display and analyze intel on enemy targets, identify potentially hostile situations, propose battle plans and send those plans to commanding officers for execution.

The video emphasizes that the platform is safe and secure, allowing a client to decide what data the models can see and what they “can and can’t do on behalf of humans.”

“If you wheel these technologies correctly, safely, and securely,” Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp said during Monday’s call, “you have a weapon that will allow you to win, that will scare your competitors and adversaries.”

Karp described the boom in large language models as a revolution “that will raise ships and sink ships.” Demand for AIP is like “nothing I’ve ever seen in 20 years of being involved in Palantir,” he said. “We are reorganizing our efforts aggressively to capitalize.”

Karp also said that while Palantir has had conversations about the platform with “hundreds” of potential partners, details like pricing and terms are still being decided. Palantir recently refocused its engineering teams and other resources around AI to meet demand, and are “running hard” at the opportunity, Karp told analysts.Play Video

I currently do not own any palantir

[Nbadan]

Adobe (ADBE)


Adobe makes software for content creation, marketing, data analytics, document management, and publishing. Its flagship product, Creative Cloud, is a suite of design software sold via subscription.

In 2022, Adobe announced new AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities in its Experience Cloud product, a marketing and analytics suite. These advancements include predictive capabilities that help sales and marketing teams understand how the different facets of marketing campaigns affect customers' buying decisions. They can use that information to optimize campaigns and their budgets.

[Nbadan]

Adobe’s remarkable capacity to consistently achieve double-digit growth is truly awe-inspiring, particularly when one considers the initial belief that the creative software industry had become saturated in a post-COVID world.

Specifically, with the rapid expansion of the content creation industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, many anticipated a saturated market and believed Adobe’s revenue would soon plateau without significant catalysts for growth. However, this has not been the case.

In its most recent fiscal Q2 results, Adobe posted revenue growth of 10% (or 13% in constant currency) to a new quarterly record of $4.82 billion. To give you some context regarding Adobe’s ability to consistently grow its revenues in the double-digits, the company’s three-year, five-year, and 10-year revenue CAGRs (compound annual growth rates) now stand at 15.5%, 17.0%, and 16.9%.



Given Adobe’s near-monopoly position in the creative software industry and its continual innovation in the ever-evolving content creation landscape, the reasons for the company’s impressive and sustained growth become clear. Interestingly enough, Adobe finds itself in the midst of the ongoing craze in AI developments, as artificial intelligence has unlimited applications around digital content, positioning Adobe for another era of booming growth.

Adobe’s Firefly & Express’ Effect on Growth
Adobe has been moving fast in the AI world, with its R&D investments leading to the rapid development and deployment of Firefly, the company’s generative AI technology. As you may know already, generative AI’s capabilities depend on the amount of data it can be trained on. This is true for all kinds of AI, such as ChatGPT. In that regard, the company has a significant advantage, as its rich data sets from creativity, documents, and customer experiences enable Adobe to teach models on the highest-quality assets.

From its launch in late March until Adobe’s Q2 results (June 15th), Firefly captured the imagination of the world with over 500 million generations, and the company is “just getting started.” On August 15th, Adobe launched Express, the latest iteration of an all-in-one AI content creation app. Integrated with the Firefly beta’s generative AI capabilities, it’s revolutionizing creative expression, enabling users of all skill levels to design and share exceptional content.

The transformative power of these AI tools extends to novices who might lack prior experience with Adobe’s creative suite. As a result, the company is poised to welcome an influx of new users previously incapable of independently navigating its software. This imminent wave of adoption promises to be a potent driver of growth, particularly considering the persistent surge in demand for content creation solutions.

The Valuation Might Look Pricey, but It’s Likely Justified
With Adobe being in the spotlight of AI innovation in the creative software industry, shares have experienced a strong rally year-to-date that has, in turn, resulted in the stock’s valuation expanding. Based on the company’s performance during the first half of its fiscal year, management expects that Adobe will achieve adjusted EPS between $15.65 and $15.75 for the full year. The midpoint of this range implies that Adobe is currently trading at a forward P/E of 34.4.

While this multiple may seem somewhat rich within the context of rising rates, I find it quite reasonable, given Adobe’s ever-consistent ability to deliver double-digit growth, its unbreakable moat, and the AI-powered growth potential. In fact, analysts expect that Adobe’s EPS growth will be sustained well within the mid-teens, which, along with its underlying qualities, do deserve the underlying premium present.

Is ADBE Stock a Buy, According to Analysts?
Turning to Wall Street, Adobe has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 19 Buys, nine Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months. At $550.83, the average Adobe stock forecast suggests just 1.9% upside potential over the next 12 months.

If you’re wondering which analyst you should follow if you want to buy and sell ADBE stock, the most accurate analyst covering the stock (on a one-year timeframe) is Mark Moerdler of Bernstein, with an average return of 32.38% per rating and a 93% success rate. Click on the image below to learn more.

Final Thoughts
In conclusion, as Adobe’s meteoric year-to-date rise prompts potential investors to wait for a more opportune entry point, the prospect of such an entry might be an exercise in futility. The compelling combination of Adobe’s unwavering growth trajectory, dominant industry position, and AI-driven innovations generates robust bullish sentiment. Thus, the prevailing high valuation appears justified, in my view.

[Nbadan]

How Adobe's Copyright Protection Will Make it an AI Leader


A grey area that critics of AI point out centers around copyright law. If you use AI to generate content anywhere, any time, for any reason, you would be making a mistake if you believe this can't affect your business. There are three core legal issues that AI is raising.

The first issue is who owns the copyright of AI-generated work? If an individual uses prompts to guide AI, can that person take ownership of the work? And what happens when, as is true in some cases, AI programs create new works with no human involvement?

In 2022, the U.S. Copyright Office ruled that a work of art created by artificial intelligence is not subject to copyright protection. The ruling is based on the idea that the work in question can't be classified as intellectual property.

Copyright infringement is another big concern with AI. Can an AI-generated image or bit of content violate an existing copyright or trademark?

There have already been several instances where AI has produced work similar to or identical to existing works that are still protected by copyrights. The concern here is that an AI system cannot incur liability; therefore, if the wronged party cannot sue the AI, who can they sue?

This raises the third key legal issue of how authorship and, therefore, ownership of AI output is determined.

[Nbadan]

rtificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping many industries. AI will have many benefits, but it's also likely to produce the law of unintended consequences. One of those consequences centers around copyright protection.

The proliferation of digital content creates concerns about who owns the content if it's being generated, in part, using generative AI tools. That's an issue that Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is working to address. And a recent announcement shows how the company continues to take a leadership position in defining and establishing copyright protection in AI.

[Nbadan]

Adobe Unveils Future of Creative Cloud With Generative AI as a Creative Co-Pilot in Photoshop


Powered by Firefly: Firefly is designed to generate images that are safe for commercial use and is trained on Adobe Stock’s hundreds of millions of professional-grade, licensed, high-resolution images, helping ensure Firefly won’t generate content based on other peoples’ or brands’ intellectual property (IP).
Magically leap from idea to image, with simple text prompts: Add, extend or remove content from images to achieve astounding results.
Edit non-destructively: Create newly generated content in generative layers, enabling you to rapidly iterate through a myriad of creative possibilities and reverse the effects when you want, without impacting your original image.
Create at a transformative rate: Experiment with off-the-wall ideas, ideate different concepts and produce boundless variations of high-quality content as fast as you can type.
Available as a web tool: Generative Fill is also available as a new module in the Firefly beta for users interested in testing the new capabilities on the web.

[Nbadan]

“Enterprise leaders expect content demands will increase by five-fold over the next two years, making it imperative for them to drive efficiencies internally,” said David Wadhwani, president of digital media business at Adobe. “This new enterprise offering empowers users of any skill level to instantly turn ideas into content with Firefly, while tapping into the power of Express and Creative Cloud to quickly modify assets and deliver standout designs.”

[Nbadan]

This new enterprise-level product isn’t an unexpected move from Adobe, especially if you’re already familiar with its Firefly AI model. Adobe created Firefly to be safe for commercial use by training it on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and content without copyright restrictions within the public domain. That sets it apart from many other generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s Dall-E, which could cause copyright issues for organizations as they haven’t disclosed their training data.

Aside from its assured commercial viability, Firefly’s explosive popularity — largely fueled by its high-quality results — will likely hold plenty of appeal for businesses looking to explore generative AI solutions. Firefly beta users have generated over 200 million images since it launched in March 2023, and over 150 million images have been generated in just two weeks using Photoshop’s new Firefly-powered Generative Fill feature. The company also recently launched an Enterprise tier for its Adobe Express product that’s designed to support collaboration across organizations.

[Nbadan]

The company is seeking to patent a system for "diversity auditing" using computer vision. Essentially, this system uses facial detection and image classification to break down photos of employees and slot them into categories based on certain physical traits and characteristics.

Adobe's system looks through several images and detects faces in each one, then classifies each face based on a predicted "sensitive attribute" relating to "protected classes of individuals," such as race, age or gender. For example, Adobe noted, this system may classify images from a company's website, then compare its predictions to a "comparison population." (Adobe noted that this could mean census or employment data, but it could also potentially include internal data, such as a companywide diversity report.)

The system then calculates a "diversity score" for the set of images using machine learning by comparing the classified images to the comparison population. Finally, the system then "augments the set of images to increase diversity" using "additional retrieved images" until a certain threshold of diversity is met.

Adobe noted that conventional diversity auditing systems are time-consuming and "rely on manual identification of image attributes, and this manual approach does not scale to large image sets."

I currently own 5 shares of Adobe

[Nbadan]

Taiwan Semi-Conductor Manufacturing (TSM)


Most of the high-tech chips that power data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, smartphones, and laptops originate from one place: Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM), or TSMC. As the name suggests, the company is headquartered in Taiwan and has most of its operations there, although it has made significant investments in factories in the U.S.

[Nbadan]

Some of the most technologically advanced companies, like Apple and Nvidia, utilize TSMC's chips in their products. While the broader consumer electronic market is currently down and causing Taiwan Semiconductor some demand challenges, the future remains bright. Furthermore, with its new 3nm (nanometer) chip entering production, the gains provided by this technology will likely sway its customers to upgrade to the newest gaming or data center graphics processing unit (GPU) and iPhone.

However, the overarching risk of a Chinese invasion gives many investors pause when considering investing in Taiwan Semiconductor. No one knows what would happen, but in the best-case scenario, a critical supplier for digital products would be taken offline for some time.

That would cause the supply chain of vital components to be disrupted far worse than in 2020 and would likely sink almost every other stock in the market. So, if you're concerned about a Chinese invasion (a valid concern), it may be unwise to invest in the market whatsoever.

Because it is so vital to our digital society, I think investors should consider Taiwan Semiconductor for their portfolios. But you'll have to be patient, as Taiwan Semiconductor is a cyclical business.

[Nbadan]

Demand for TSMC's chips rises and falls alongside consumer sentiment, which is directly tied to the economic cycle. Some signs point toward a recession unless the Federal Reserve can engineer a soft landing. In any case, the consumer is far from their strongest right now, translating to weak sales for TSMC.

[Nbadan]

n the second quarter, revenue decreased by 10% year over year (in New Taiwanese dollars), and profits declined by 12%. TSMC also reports monthly revenue, and July looked like a bit of a relief from the trends experienced over the past few quarters. July revenue was up 14% compared to June but still down 5% from last July.

Still, this decline is only temporary as TSMC's chips are utilized in multiple areas, and the consumer's spending power will recover eventually. In fact, analysts project that TSMC's revenue will rise 23% next year.

As a result of its temporary business decline, using forward earnings in tandem with trailing earnings to judge how expensive the stock is from a historical perspective is a smart strategy.

[Nbadan]

While TSMC stock looks cheap from a trailing standpoint, that's because further earnings declines are expected throughout this year. However, even when that's factored in, you can purchase the stock for its average valuation over the past decade. Furthermore, the S&P 500 trades at 26 times trailing earnings, so it's much cheaper than the broader market.

As a result, investors should consider adding TSMC to their portfolio. TSMC's products will only become more essential in the coming years. Although there's the overarching risk of an attack by China, the rest of the market will falter in response.

The catch is that it will need to be a long-term holding, as the economic cycle will cause its results to fluctuate from year to year. However, if you come in with a mindset of holding the stock for at least five years, Taiwan Semiconductor will likely be a winning investment.

[Nbadan]

Nvidia may be raking in the dough, but the overall computing chip market isn't in such great shape. Following the chip shortage that occurred during the pandemic, there's been an overhang of excess inventory in non-AI categories (data centers ex-AI, PCs, smartphones) as demand normalized just when chipmakers were able to ramp up supply.

[Nbadan]

The result for TSMC has been its first down year in quite some time, with revenue on track to fall by as much as 10% from its peak of nearly $76 billion in 2022. Again, this is primarily due to a downturn in demand for more consumer-facing products like PCs and smartphones, as well as non-generative AI high-performance computing (HPC) chips.

[Nbadan]

The upshot of all this is that TSMC expects a sequential rebound during the second half of 2023. Given the planning involved between Nvidia and its manufacturing partner, TSMC already has Nvidia's booming AI chip demand factored into its outlook.

[Nbadan]

TSMC's share price looks like a value right now if you believe management's forecast for big AI growth and a general uptick in semiconductor manufacturing will start again in 2024. The market has been persistently shining a spotlight on TSMC's geopolitical risk due to the threats Taiwan faces from mainland China, so a discount could still be applied to TSMC stock even if strong growth resumes next year. Nevertheless, with another knockout quarter for Nvidia in the books and increasing AI chip supply expected through the end of 2024, TSMC could be a solid investment for the start of the generative AI era.

[Nbadan]

All of TSMC’s (TSM) first-generation 3-nanometer process chips for 2023 will go to Apple (AAPL) for its “upcoming iPhones, Macs, and iPads,” reports MacRumors, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes. According to MacRumors, Apple is taking 100% of TSMC capacity this year “due to delays in Intel’s (INTC) wafer needs.” Intel’s order slowdown “means TSMC’s sales of 3nm chips will be significantly lower this year. TSMC is still expected to grow in Q4 “as it starts mass producing 3nm chips for Apple’s needs,” added the story.

[Nbadan]

BofA said Nvidia’s (NVDA) strong Q2 results and guidance led by generative AI reaffirms its positive thesis on TSMC (TSM), which it views as “likely to rise with” Nvidia as a key supplier and a beneficiary of the generative AI trend. The firm maintains a Buy rating on TSMC with a price target of NT$720.

[Nbadan]

TSMC has a steady growth plan for the next decade. It is ahead of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) in its manufacturing process. Intel is playing catch-up in the industry by spending billions building its capacity globally. This includes an Ohio factory that will cost $20 billion. TSMC’s growth ambitions are even greater.

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It committed a capital expenditure plan of $100 billion over three years. For example, it has a $12 billion fabrication plant in Phoenix, Arizona, where it will produce 5-nanometer chips in 2024. TSMC will output 20,000 wafers monthly.

7 Safe Investments for Seniors to Consider in 2022

TSM views the European Union countries as a source for expanding chip production. In February, the company unveiled a plan calling for the European Commission to ease funding rules for semiconductor plants. The easing regulations in the region will benefit TSM. Amid a semiconductor shortage, the company will reshape its global supply chain.

The EU’s support for TSMC will help the company resolve the global chip shortage sooner. Furthermore, the company will geographically diversify its manufacturing facilities worldwide. This lowers the chances of another chip shortage in the future.

I currently own 30 shares of Tiawan Semi

[baseline bum]

Who are you expecting to read this?

[Nbadan]

Who are you expecting to read this?

Whomever wants to read it and comment

Much of this information is behind pay walls and subscriptions

There are a lot of people who are tired of the trolling that goes on in the political forum. This place is a nice escape to talk about man stuff

[baseline bum]

Whomever wants to read it and comment

Much of this information is behind pay walls and subscriptions

There are a lot of people who are tired of the trolling that goes on in the political forum. This place is a nice escape to talk about man stuff

No one is going to read 44 straight posts of yours man

[Nbadan]

No one is going to read 44 straight posts of yours man

oh yee of little faith....I'm not alone

you'll see

[baseline bum]

oh yee of little faith....I'm not alone

you'll see

:rollin

No one's reading this thread

[Nbadan]

:rollin

No one's reading this thread

nobody read the political forum for month man....now look at it...

I was the only poster for months look it up on the wayback machine

[Nbadan]

This forum, should it take hold....will be much bigger than the political forum

I only do this once every 20 years when i see a need

[Nbadan]

IBM


This legacy tech company is an integrated provider of hardware, software, and services to large enterprise customers. Its mainframe computer systems are still ubiquitous in certain industries, and it regularly signs multi-year technology deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars each.

IBM’s strategy with AI is to apply the technology in ways that augment human intelligence, increase efficiency, or lower costs. In the healthcare industry, IBM’s AI technology is being used to create individualized care plans, accelerate the process of bringing new drugs to market, and improve the quality of care, though it sold off its Watson Health business in early 2022. In the financial services industry, via the company’s 2016 acquisition of Promontory Financial Group, IBM is using AI to help clients with the daunting task of financial regulatory compliance.

While the market for AI products and services is fragmented, IBM is leading the industry. Market research firm IDC ranked IBM as the leader in AI software platforms with a 13.7% market share in 2020, up 46% from the prior year.

IBM is a complicated company undergoing transformation, and AI is far from its only growth opportunity. But if you’re looking to invest in a company that is well-positioned to benefit from the AI boom, IBM is a good choice.

[Nbadan]

Indian Bank Partners with IBM to Boost Scalability and Agility
IBM's proposed solution for Indian Bank includes a hybrid cloud approach for all AIX workloads, aimed at boosting agility


IBM today announced that it has collaborated with Indian Bank, a premier public sector bank, to accelerate its modernization path with flexible and secure compute infrastructure for deploying new front-end banking applications, while addressing the business growth of the Core Banking Solution (CBS) workloads for the bank.

The key objective of this partnership is to achieve greater agility, scalability, and security to meet the bank’s growth requirements in today’s dynamic and hyper-competitive market.

With over 100 million customers and a vast network of 5,798 branches spanning India and overseas, Indian Bank as part of their ambitious “Project PARADISE”, sought to consolidate their Front Branch Servers for improved manageability and availability at their Data Centres (DC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) centres. Additionally, Indian Bank aims to run its Core Banking Solution (CBS) workloads on the latest generation of IBM Power® servers.

[Nbadan]

IBM’s CEO, who froze hiring for thousands of back-office jobs and predicted A.I. would take up to 50% of new jobs, just piled into a $4.5 billion tech unicorn’s massive new $235 million funding round

https://fortune.com/2023/08/28/ibm-ceo-arvind-krishna-ai-unicorn-hugging-face-series-d/

[Nbadan]

BM rolled out its newest mainframe, the z16, in April, which helped boost z Systems revenue by 16% year over year, contributing to $4.5 in the infrastructure segment’s quarterly revenues.


Yet z16 performance was a footnote in what CEO Arvind Krishna characterized as “the first full year of the new IBM,” during the earnings call.

“Hybrid cloud and AI are the two most transformative technologies for business today,” Krishna said, highlighting IBM’s expanded partnership with AWS, the growth of its revamped partnership program and its focus on AI, automation and data solutions for industry cloud applications.

Krishna, who rose to CEO in April 2020, has tried to make IBM more focused and leaner, Arun Chandrasekaran, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, told CIO Dive.

The company has made more than 20 consulting and software acquisitions over the last two years, Chandrasekaran said, in part to dispel the perception that its consulting business was merely an extension of IBM products.

“If you want to be a successful consulting company, you need to be vendor neutral,” Chandrasekaran said.

IBM spun off its infrastructure services division Kyndryl in November 2021 and Watson Health in January. The company announced it was laying off 3,900 workers Wednesday as a result of those divestitures.

During the earnings call, Kavanaugh announced another cost-saving measure. “Due to advances in technology, we are making an accounting change to extend the useful life of our server and networking equipment effective the first of January,” Kavanaugh said.

Microsoft made a similar move in July for projected savings of $3.7 billion. IBM expects to bank $200 million over the next year, according to Kavanaugh.

[Nbadan]

IBM Signs Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Amazon Web Services to Deliver IBM Software as-a-Service on AWS


BM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), with plans to offer a broad array of its software catalog as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on AWS.

Building on IBM Software being available as-a-Service (aaS) on IBM Cloud, this first-of-its-kind agreement between IBM and AWS will provide clients with quick and easy access to IBM Software that spans automation, data and AI, security and sustainability capabilities, is built on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA), and runs cloud-native on AWS. The two companies are also committing to a broad range of joint investments to make it easier for clients to consume IBM Software on AWS, including integrated go-to-market activities across sales and marketing, channel incentives, developer enablement and training, and solution development for key verticals and industries such as Oil and Gas, Travel and Transportation, and others.

[baseline bum]

This forum, should it take hold....will be much bigger than the political forum

I only do this once every 20 years when i see a need

There is no need for spamming this forum

[Nbadan]

There is no need for spamming this forum

nobody is spamming this board, but it's ok to spam other people's threads?

[baseline bum]

nobody is spamming this board, but it's ok to spam other people's threads?

Rapid firing 44 posts in a thread isn't spamming? :lmao