Connected newsletter: A tough week for TikTok as Nvidia shares surge
Connected at the Business Post is your source for the news that matters in technology and innovation, all told from an Irish perspective
There is no stopping Nvidia at the moment. The artificial intelligence chipmaker is on a roll, reporting revenue of $24 billion for is latest quarter, as against Wall Street predictions of $21.9 billion.
Shares in the company surged on the results on Wednesday and as Jensen Huang, Nvidia chief executive, said generative AI has reached a “tipping point.” Adam Sarhan, founder of 50 Park Investments described it as another “blowout quarter” for the company. Few would disagree.
Spare a thought for Intel meanwhile, which is seeking to prove it can compete in the foundry market, where companies produce custom chips for clients. It struck a deal to produce chips for Microsoft this week in a major win. I’ll be reporting on Intel’s efforts at the weekend so keep an eye out for that.
Talking of chips, US president Joe Biden is stepping up efforts to strengthen America’s chip production with a $1.5 billion funding package for GlobalFoundries, a domestic semiconductor maker. As if that weren’t enough, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s plans to create a $100 billion chip venture to supply AI-enabling semiconductors.
It was a week to forget for TikTok this week as it announced plans to cut a few hundred roles in Dublin as part of a major global restructuring. On top of that, EU regulators announced a major investigation into the video-sharing platform over its alleged failure to protect minors. My colleague Donal McNamee did an excellent analysis piece outlining the continued flow of layoffs announced by companies such as TikTok and its likely impact on Ireland Inc.
TikTok could face a big fine on the back of the EU investigation, as could Apple with a $500 million fine expected to be issued on the company in a major music streaming anti-trust probe.
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• Politicians here expressed their frustration on Wednesday after what was described as an “incredibly unhelpful” meeting with X, Elon Musk’s social media platform.
• Shares in Nintendo slumped this week as it said its next-generation video game console will be delayed to the early months of 2025 from the last quarter of this year.
• • Elsewhere, Tinder is expanding its identity verification programme at a time when AI can make it hard to tell who’s real and crime is rising on dating apps.
Online marketplace Etsy become the latest company to secure authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland as a payments institution this week. In other local news, Irish-founded mobile marketing engagement platform Pulsate raised $7.75 million (€7.1 million), while LetsGetChecked launched a new genetic testing service designed to highlight a predisposition to hereditary conditions such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
• Two women entrepreneurs based in Ireland - Bàrbara Oliveira, co-founders of Luminate Medical. and Cristina Purtill, chief executive of Plio Surgical- have been shortlisted as finalists in the prestigious EU Prize for Women Innovators awards. On the same theme, Techstars Startup Weekend Women Dublin is returning in late March, with the TechFoundHer bootcamp back the following month.
Finally, Connected magazine returns this weekend with a host of great features on everything from Belfast’s buzzing tech scene, life beyond CoderDojo, and the good and bad of online dating. Don’t miss it.
All the best,
Charlie
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Inside the funding frenzy at Anthropic, one of AI’s hottest start-ups (New York Times)
Tech leaders fled San Francisco during the pandemic. Now, they’re coming back (Wall Street Journal)
