Our team presents a snapshot of the Tech and Future Scene in our World Courtesy Crypto Briefers, InformationWeek; inside tech & Robinhood snacks:
The Lithium Boom | |
Did you know it takes 10,000 iPhone batteries worth of Lithium to make just 1 EV? With 350M+ EVs projected to be sold globally by 2030, demand for Li is projected to soar and current extraction methods won’t be able to meet the demand. So when EnergyX revealed that their technology could extract 300% more lithium than traditional methods, investors everywhere took note. |
Bitcoin is inching closer to its all-time high, with the price soaring to $71,200 on Tuesday, just 4% away from the historic peak of $73,700 established earlier in March. The rally is fueled by massive inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with data from HODL15Capital showing that these funds collectively witnessed $887 million in net inflows on June 4, marking the second-highest such inflow ever recorded.
Meanwhile, Marathon Digital, one of the largest Bitcoin mining firms, has sold over 60% of all Bitcoin it mined since the halving took place in late April. The company's move to sell a significant portion of its BTC production in May highlights the adjustments miners are making to their operations following the reduction in mining rewards. As the competition intensifies, miners are seeking to expand their fleets, improve efficiency, and explore overseas expansion to remain competitive.
VanEck, a prominent asset manager, has projected Ethereum to reach $22,000 by 2030, representing a 487% increase from current levels. The forecast is based on Ethereum's anticipated generation of $66 billion in "free cashflows" and its potential in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The recent approval of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US has also contributed to VanEck's optimistic outlook for the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Courtesy the Information ; Crypto Briefing:
This was Jensen Huang’s week. As we saw when he appeared at the Computex conference in Taipei this week, Huang is now a fully fledged celebrity CEO. (See Qianer Liu’s report on Computex below). Fittingly, Nvidia also this week briefly passed Apple as the second most valuable company, with a $3 trillion market capitalization. It’s extraordinary that someone who runs a company that two years ago most people wouldn’t have heard of and whose products are among the most arcane in tech has risen to nearly Elon Musk’s level of stardom. Nvidia is at the nexus of two of the big stories in tech right now, artificial intelligence and China-U.S. trade relations. That was clear in my colleague Anissa Gardizy’s scoop this week revealing that Chinese firms like ByteDance are getting around U.S. export controls on Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips by buying or renting them in the U.S. Next week, the focus of tech news will shift to Apple and Elon Musk. Let’s face it, the focus is rarely off either of them, but next week will be particularly intense, so buckle up. On Monday, Apple kicks off its annual developer conference, where it typically unveils all sorts of news about upcoming software and hardware. The chatter ahead of next week’s event has been about how Apple will add lots of AI-enhanced features to the iPhone and other products. Then on Thursday, Tesla shareholders are due to weigh in on Musk’s $45 billion pay package, the one a judge in Delaware rescinded earlier this year. That could be a close vote. On the one side are the Musk superfans, whom we profiled here. They include Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, who wrote a letter to shareholders this week saying the vote was about “retaining Elon’s attention and motivating him to focus on achieving astonishing growth for our company.” (Shouldn’t lifting the value of his existing 12.8% stake be motivation enough?) Meanwhile, some big shareholders aren’t so keen on the pay package. The outcome of this vote will unquestionably be a big story. Stay tuned! Jensen Huang and Lisa Su in the SpotlightNvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su, the two biggest luminaries of the chip world, were the stars of the Computex tech conference held in Taipei this week. Smart minds from around the globe converged to explore the realm of AI, particularly in chip manufacturing and the supply chain that supports AI infrastructure. Huang and Su each showcased their companies’ next generation of chips, which aim to drive the future AI frenzy. Throngs of press chased the two executives, both born in southern Taiwan and maternally related to one another, across town like rock stars. Huang, of course, was the bigger name, inspiring a craze dubbed “Jensanity.” Amid the hustle and bustle of trade shows and industry gatherings, the chances of securing a table at any nearby eatery were akin to winning the lottery. I often had to squeeze into the space in front of a 7-11, gobbling up rice balls quickly while exchanging bits of industry gossip with other attendees. Although OpenAI wasn’t present at the exhibition, Sam Altman’s chips gambit was ever present in my conversations with industry veterans in Taiwan’s chip manufacturing and hardware supply chain. I encountered an intriguing mix of skepticism and admiration. The consensus was that Altman is both too idealistic and too radical to build or fund chipmaking plants. The sentiment echoed the approach of TSMC chair and CEO CC Wei, who commented after Tuesday’s TSMC annual shareholders meeting: “Sam Altman, he’s just too aggressive, too aggressive for me to believe.” TSMC produces the majority of powerful advanced chips globally for everything from AI systems to smartphones, including Nvidia’s highly sought-after silicon chips. Huang reiterated multiple times during Computex how important TSMC is to Nvidia and then said he would support TSMC’s plan to raise its prices. That’s a rare move for a cost-sensitive company like Nvidia. As for Altman: Creating complex chipmaking infrastructure requires substantial capital, time and talent. Constructing a chip factory alone can take several years, from setting up the facility to installing and testing equipment, as well as fine-tuning production lines and improving yield. If Altman is serious about building multiple chip factories, he had better get a move on soon. If he was already underway, you can bet talent scouts and equipment vendors would have caught wind of it. But the whispers in the Taiwanese circle are few and far between.—Qianer Liu The Information's Stories From This Week:
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