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Fantastic Four is the new Magnificent Seven

The S&P 500 is up 36% from September 2022 lows and 60% of the unexpected performance is attributed to the Magnificent Seven. The seven stocks — Alphabet (+68% YTD), Amazon (+60% YTD), Apple (+50% YTD), Meta (+196% YTD), Microsoft (+77% YTD), Nvidia (+303% YTD) and Tesla (+70% YTD) — have collectively risen nearly 117%, far … Continued

The Magnificent Seven – how did they get here and where will they go?

Since January 2023 the stock market has been surprisingly strong despite negative macro data points and sentiment heading into 2023. Consider the following forecasts made by investment bank market strategists at the start of the year. The S&P 500 was trading at 4,472 on 13 July 2023 when this article was written. The limited number … Continued

Google’s divestiture dilemma

Exploring implications of a forced divestiture of Google’s ad tech business amid EC & DoJ antitrust complaints. Key points: Regulators may try to force Google to divest its ad tech business. The financial impact of a forced divestiture is small. Google could further reduce the impact by selling just the EU portion of the ad … Continued

Shorts and screens: YouTube’s winning combo

YouTube has evolved from a video-sharing site into a vibrant digital ecosystem with creators, viewers, and advertisers. At the helm is CEO Neal Mohan, whose strategic vision includes sustaining growth and unlocking potential to redefine how we consume content online. In a recent interview, Mohan outlined his critical strategic priorities for YouTube and the platform’s … Continued

Google I/O 2023: Unveiling the future of AI, Android and Pixel

The Google I/O 2023 developer conference has always been a platform for showcasing innovative technology. This year’s event didn’t disappoint, as Google revealed an impressive array of advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), Android and Pixel devices, pushing the boundaries of what technology can do for us. AI Google also presented Bard, its AI chatbot which … Continued

Alphabet’s investments in AI

Marvin Minsky, the American computer scientist, noted in the 60s; “within a generation … the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ will substantially be solved”. So, it is with great trepidation I write this note. Fortunately, Alphabet (nee Google) has been tinkering in AI since 2012, so I feel somewhat protected from overreach on my predictions. … Continued

Valuing big tech

The downturn in the price of high-growth tech stocks has been sudden and has led some commentators to voice concerns about a tech-driven crash similar to the “dotcom bubble” bursting in 1999-2000. This is simply not a fair comparison for our companies. Big tech value The “dotcom bubble” was characterised by companies with questionable business … Continued

Google Shopping

Continuing our review of Google’s 2021 developer conference I/O 2021, this insight investigates developments in Google’s Shopping applications. We believe the functionality announced at the conference will create paths for long-term revenue growth and solidify the company’s competitive advantage as a platform for shoppers and merchants. Google’s announcement Shopping Graph is a real-time dataset using … Continued

Google Search

Tech industry analysts have repeatedly questioned the magnitude and focus of Alphabet’s R&D investments in Google. And the size of the investment is considerable. Alphabet spent more than $105 billion on R&D over the last 5 years, and we estimate it will almost double that figure in the next five years. Its effectiveness was difficult … Continued