AI
AI
AI
Is generative AI hitting a ceiling? Maybe, but investors don’t care
Of course the presidential election looms over everything, and I’ll just say one thing: Any executives or investors counting on President-elect Donald Trump keeping the vast majority of promises he has made are not as smart as they think they are. Maybe they just want their taxes and regulations cut, and they may well get those.
Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who believe we will now be entering a wonderland of building under a Trump administration, wonder if generative AI models are hitting their limits. A few other people have been baying at the moon about this for a while, so it’s worth pondering what that means for the current boom.
Nonetheless, even if the current approach by some to create AGI isn’t the right way to go, that doesn’t mean there isn’t utility for users today, so investors keep pouring the money into AI companies such as Anthropic, Perplexity and Physical Intelligence.
Speaking of big spending, those plans by Amazon, Meta and Google to jumpstart nuclear plants to power all that AI? They could take a while.
An open letter by Blue Duck Capital Partners to Amazon management this week calls for stock buybacks, more explanation of AI spending, and better management of its original-content ambitions — few of which seem all that compelling ways to spur innovation.
It’s still not entirely clear what’s going on with Supermicro’s books, but investors don’t like the signs one bit as its stock tanked again this week as its revenue missed estimates as well. Other earnings reports came in decidedly mixed. Arm and Qualcomm did pretty well partly on AI momentum, and so did GlobalFoundries, but NXP not so much. Cloudflare and Akamai also provided disappointing guidance.
Broadcom expanded its VMware private-cloud options, which could prove good timing for the special edge needs of AI.
Next week is KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in Salt Lake City. TheCUBE will be there and SiliconANGLE will have the news and analysis. I’ll be at BoxWorks in San Francisco too. Earnings reports slow down, but next week we’ll be looking at Cisco Systems and Applied Materials, among a few others.
TheCUBE Research analysts John Furrier and Dave Vellante discuss this and other news in more detail on this week’s theCUBE Pod, out later today on YouTube. And don’t miss Vellante’s weekly deep dive, Breaking Analysis, arriving this weekend, for some lean-back reading.
Here’s what happened this week around the enterprise:
AI and data: Perplexity’s prodigious pile
Top news and analysis
Breaking Analysis: Why Jamie Dimon is Sam Altman’s biggest competitor
Are generative AI models topping out in their capabilities? Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz think they are, at least for now. Some people warned us.
David Linthicum digs in: What do multimodal AI and smaller language models mean for enterprises?
A glimpse with George Gilbert into Uber’s cutting-edge data approach: Uber revamps its operating model with real-time data and microservice orchestration
Money matters
Hedge fund Coatue is raising $1B for AI bets
Perplexity AI’s value to soar to $9B as it finalizes new $500M funding round
AIs will need physical knowledge at least as much as text knowledge, so perhaps feedback from robots using AI brains will help: AI startup Physical Intelligence raises $400M to create a brain for any robot
Siit raises $5M for its AI-powered service desk platform
New models and services
Nvidia announces new robot AI learning and simulation tools
Anthropic partners with AWS and Palantir to provide AI models to defense agencies
Diliko launches agentic AI-powered data management platform for midsized enterprises
MuleSoft helps businesses create real-time AI agents with AsyncAPI support
View Systems launches AI-optimized data management platform
There’s more AI and big data news on SiliconANGLE
Around the enterprise: Nix on nukes for now
Amazon, Meta nuclear power initiatives reportedly encounter challenges
An open letter by Blue Duck Capital Partners to Amazon management calls for stock buybacks, more explanation of AI spending, and better management of its original-content ambitions. Perhaps some of those are good ideas in concept, but it’s not that convincing to me, especially the stock buybacks front and center. One would hope Andy Jassy and Matt Garman have better ideas. (Though admittedly they could have done a lot better on “Rings of Power.”)
Cloudbrink co-founder’s lawsuit draws attention of the SEC and DOJ
Earnings
Whew, crazy week:
Qualcomm and Arm cruise to another earnings and revenue beat
NXP tumbles on weak outlook as automotive chip revenue declines
GlobalFoundries shares jump on strong mobile business growth
Kyndryl sees good traction with AI consulting services, and its stock moves higher
Disappointing guidance sends Cloudflare and Akamai stocks lower
Datadog tops earnings expectations amid cybersecurity, AI growth
Rapid7’s revenue and earnings top forecasts amid product enhancements
Fortinet shares dip despite beating revenue and earnings estimates
Dynatrace shares close lower despite strong second quarter
Arista Networks beats expectations and offers strong guidance on AI demand
DigitalOcean shares drop 13% despite expectation-topping earnings, raised guidance
Astera Labs delivers blowout earnings and revenue beat and its stock jumps
Palantir shares surge over 12% on strong earnings and raised revenue outlook
Lyft shares surge over 20% as revenue growth outpaces expectations despite earnings miss
HubSpot earnings top forecasts with 20% revenue growth and customer gains
Five9 shares surge over 20% following strong quarter and upgraded guidance
JFrog’s stock stutters on lukewarm guidance, despite accelerating revenue and customer wins
And more…
- Duolingo stock drops as earnings beat is lost in translation
- Dropbox earnings top estimates following layoffs
- Freshworks raises annual revenue, profit forecasts as AI boosts demand
- Fastly beats profit and sales forecasts but stock slips after-hours
- Appian’s stock up after adjusted profit and revenue rise.
- Block shares slip after-hours amid mixed earnings results
- RingCentral earnings surpass estimates, investors yawn
- Amplitude tops estimates as annual recurring revenue rises 9% to $298M
- Electric vehicle maker Rivian’s earnings fall short, guidance lowered
- Expensify stock rises 12% after free cash flow guidance raised
- Synaptics beats estimates on revenue and profit but visibility ‘limited’
In other news
Broadcom broadens private cloud options And Zeus Kerravala’s analysis: VMware’s bevy of updates to VCF at Explore Barcelona 2024: Here’s why they matter
AMD overtook Intel for the first time in data center revenue in the third quarter, according to SemiAnalysis
TSMC, GlobalFoundries reportedly complete CHIPS Act funding negotiations
EU launches antitrust probe into Apple glass supplier Corning
IonQ snaps up quantum networking company Qubitekk, but financial results disappoint investors
Rackspace offers GPUs as a cloud service with spot instance pricing
We have more news on cloud, infrastructure and apps
Cyber beat: CrowdStrike strikes again
Money matters
CrowdStrike acquires cloud security provider Adaptive Shield
Malwarebytes acquires VPN provider AzireVPN
Attack & response
That’s a lot of dough: Ransomware gang demands ransom payment in Schneider Electric data breach: baguettes
Canada arrests suspected hacker over breach of 160+ Snowflake users’ data
Google’s Big Sleep AI model sets world first with discovery of SQLite security flaw
City of Columbus acknowledges data theft after lawsuit against security researcher
JFrog report highlights critical security flaws in machine learning platforms
White-noise apps exploited in major audio ad fraud schemes, report finds
New services
Fortinet expands generative AI in cybersecurity portfolio with new FortiAI integrations
Permiso launches three open-source tools to enhance cloud security detection
Kloudfuse enhances observability platform with AI tools and scalable data management
Elsewhere in tech: All clear for Amazon drones
Amazon gets green light to start drone deliveries in Arizona
Lyft inks new partnerships to make autonomous taxis available through its app
TikTok told to close its business in Canada amid national security concerns
Bad timing for the New York Times as its tech union goes on strike
And check out more news on emerging tech, blockchain and crypto and policy
Comings and goings
Mozilla‘s open internet advocacy efforts falter as it lays off 30% of its staff
Gabor Cselle, co-founder and former CEO of defunct X rival Pebble, has joined OpenAI to work on a “secretive project” (per TechCrunch).Caitlin Kalinowski, Meta’s former head of augmented reality hardware, is also joining OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware.
Google confirmed to CRN that Workspace leader Aparna Pappu is stepping down as general manager for another, unspecified role at Google.
Former Google, Meta and Uber exec Dwarak Rajagopal will be Snowflake’s new VP of engineering for AI and machine learning (per The Information)
Abhey Lamba, formerly Amazon Web Services’ VP of finance for global infrastructure, is RingCentral’s new chief financial officer.
Qualtrics appointed Microsoft veteran Rachita Sundar, mostly recently senior VP of finance at Hubspot, its new chief financial officer.
Ali Siddiqui was named president of BMC Helix, the IT services and operations management company recently split off from BMC Software.
What’s next
Events
Nov. 12-13: BoxWorks, San Francisco and virtual. I’ll be there and SiliconANGLE will have all the news.
Nov. 13-15: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, Salt Lake City. TheCUBE will be there and SiliconANGLE will have the news and analysis.
Nov. 19-21: SC24, the supercomputing and high-performance computing conference, Atlanta. TheCUBE will be there and SiliconANGLE will have the news and analysis.
Earnings
Tuesday, Nov. 12: Rigetti Computing and Rackspace
Wednesday, Nov. 13: CyberArk and Cisco Systems
Thursday, Nov. 14: D-Wave and Applied Materials
Image: SiliconANGLE/Ideogram
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