Category Archives: Big Tech

IS THERE ANY limit to the ambition and hubris of big tech firms? In October Mark Zuckerberg renamed Facebook Meta and described humankinds new future in virtual worlds. On January 18th Microsoft, worth more than $2trn, decided it wasnt big enough and bid $69bn for Activision Blizzard, a video-games firm, in its biggest-ever deal. These decisions are part of a vast new investment surge at five of Americas biggest firms, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoftcall them MAAMA. Together, they have invested $280bn in the past year, equivalent to 9% of American business investment, up from 4% five years ago.

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Big tech wants to find the next big opportunity, and our analysis of deals, patents, recruitment and other yardsticks shows that cash is flowing into everything from driverless cars to quantum computing. The shift reflects a fear that the lucrative fiefs of the 2010s are losing relevance, and the fact that techs titans are increasingly moving onto each others patches (the share of sales that overlap has doubled since 2015 to 40%). So they are all looking to swoop into new territory.

They also have an eye on the history of technology, which is littered with once-dominant firms that were brought down not by regulators, but by missing the next big thing. Fairchild Semiconductor ruled in the 1950s but now exists only in books. In 1983 IBM was Americas most profitable firm but eight years later was loss-making after botching the move from mainframes to PCs. Nokia, once seemingly invincible in mobile devices, fumbled the shift to smartphones. The MAAMAs spent the 2010s fortifying commanding positions, in business tools for Microsoft, e-commerce for Amazon, social media for Meta, and so on. The pandemic has boosted demand, from bored couch-surfers to startups in need of cloud computing. Apple and Alphabet are now larger than were US Steel and Standard Oil, the two mighty monopolies of the 1900s, measured by profits relative to domestic GDP. Yet past performance is not indicative of future results, and now all of them are limbering up for whatever comes next.

The problem is that nobody knows what it will be. But it will probably involve new physical devices that will supersede the smartphone as the dominant means of connecting people to information and services. Whoever makes such devices will therefore control access to users. This explains why Apple is planning a virtual-reality headset to compete with Metas Oculus range and Microsofts HoloLens. Alphabet, Apple and Amazon have also all placed expensive bets on autonomous cars. And vast sums are being spent on designing specialised chips, and pursuing new approaches like quantum computing, to provide the processing power for whatever new devices emerge.

The MAAMAs other priority is creating software platforms that will allow them to extract rents, by drawing in users, and then relying on network effects to draw in even more. Hence Facebooks renaming and its $10bn annual spending on immersive online worlds, known as the metaverse. Apple has been expanding the walled garden of services it provides to users of its devices, moving into areas such as fitness classes and television shows. Buying Activision may help Microsoft provide a richer experience for its gaming customers, while Mesh, a platform for virtual 3D workplaces, is aimed at corporate users. The cloud-computing platforms operated by Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft literally charge rent to host computing environments for other companies.

Governments, rivals and billions of customers, who already fear these firms are too powerful, may be alarmed by all this. One view is that the companies large customer bases, and control of pools of data with which to train artificial intelligence (AI), give them an insurmountable advantage. Wont the giants use that to squash rivals? Yet all these new areas look competitive for the time being. Many other firms are in the metaverse race, for example. Fortnite, made by Epic Games, has more than 300m players worldwide, while Roblox has 47m gamers who spend 3bn hours a month on its platform. Nvidia, a chip firm, is moving into the space, too. Even Microsofts Activision deal would raise its market share in gaming to only 10-15%hardly a monopoly. In autonomous cars, big tech must contend with the likes of Tesla, GM and Volkswagen. Global startups raised $621bn of venture funding in 2021, far more than big tech invested. And new rivals have emerged with unexpected speed in some areas, such as TikTok in social media.

Moreover, there is an outside chance that the new terrain will prove less prone to domination by centralised platforms. Deep-learning technology, the dominant form of AI today, relies on large amounts of data, but future forms of AI may not. Then there are the decentralised blockchain services owned and operated by users, loosely known as Web3. At the moment these have clunky interfaces, use up lots of energy and are not always as decentralised as they seem. But in one areadecentralised finance, or DeFirapid improvements are already under way.

Nonetheless, the temptation is for regulators to clamp down pre-emptively. In 2020 Lina Khan, who is now Americas top antitrust official, recommended that big tech firms be banned from expanding into adjacent areas. Some big antitrust cases may reach Americas courts by 2023. And Europe may soon pass a sweeping Digital Markets Act, aimed at regulating big technology companies ex antethat is, constraining such firms behaviour upfront, rather than punishing them later with antitrust cases (Margrethe Vestager, the EUs competition tsar, explains all on our Money Talks podcast).

Yet a lighter touch is the best policy. Investment in tech is linked to rising productivity, and the share of cashflows the tech giants are reinvesting has almost doubled since a decade ago. Trustbusters will struggle to predict the technologies of tomorrow. What they can do is block firms from doing deals that give them a monopoly position in new markets today. That is not yet a danger. Indeed, history suggests that tech giants are most often brought down by failing to master emerging technologies. If todays giants want to spend billions trying to move into new areas to avoid that fate, so far there is no reason to stop them.

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Big techs supersized ambitions | The Economist

1. House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan subpoenas big tech CEOs over user speech  CBS News
2. House Judiciary chairman subpoenas big tech executives for company communications with executive branch  CNN
3. Jim Jordans Big Tech subpoenas ignored Twitter and Elon Musk  MSNBC

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House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan subpoenas big tech CEOs over user speech - CBS News

At Tesla and Other Big Tech Firms, Its Not the Machines But the Assumptions Behind Them Causing Problems  Forbes

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At Tesla and Other Big Tech Firms, Its Not the Machines But the Assumptions Behind Them Causing Problems - Forbes

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Big Tech results reinforced concerns a boom in cloud services is easing, limiting a lucrative source of profit when a slowing economy has hit the companies' other businesses and prompting a bet on artificial intelligence as the next growth driver.

Earnings from Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) - which together dominate the cloud market - showed growth in the business was at its lowest since they started breaking out the metric in 2015 and was on track to slow further.

Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), which has the smallest cloud business among the three, said Google Cloud grew 32%, the slowest rise since the company began reporting the measure in 2019.

The poor results reflect a shift to post-pandemic frugality by corporate customers whose budgets have been squeezed in the past year by high inflation and rising interest rates.

"Once thought as the most defensive revenue stream in tech, we are seeing investors questioning the cyclicality for the (cloud) business," analysts at Bernstein said.

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Cloud services had long been a reliable source of earnings for Microsoft and Amazon.

The Windows maker posted growth of around 50% in its Azure cloud-computing business for each quarter of calendar 2020, when the pandemic forced people to work and study at home. Meanwhile, market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported sales jump of about 30% during the same period.

Times, though, have changed.

[1/3]The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics centre in Boves, France, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

Growth at AWS slowed to a record low of 20% in the last three months of 2022 to $21.4 billion, slightly missing analysts' estimates of $22.03 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Microsoft's revenue in its so-called intelligent cloud business that includes Azure rose 18% to beat expectations for October to December. But its current-quarter forecast of $21.7 billion to $22 billion was below estimates of $22.14 billion.

"The deceleration in AWS was even worse than expected and means Amazon can't rely on that business units' operating profits as much in coming quarters," said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Amazon finance chief Brian Olsavsky said on Thursday that the company expects slower cloud growth rates for the next few quarters. That echoed Microsoft, which said last week that growth in its Azure cloud-computing business would slow by 4-5 basis points in the March quarter.

"You've just come off two years of rapid movement of workloads to the cloud, there's probably a lot of inefficiency in cloud spending and now there is a shifting focus to greater efficiency," said James Cordwell, analyst at Atlantic Equities.

A potential boom in AI after the viral success of OpenAI's ChatGPT could boost demand for cloud services again though, analysts said. AI applications require massive computing power, a boon for companies whose services help run the technology.

As an investor and partner of OpenAI, Microsoft looks well poised, analysts said, but any gains may take time to translate into profits.

"Those (AI) advancements and demand for related cloud services will take time to materialize. They're not likely to offset current headwinds in the enterprise market over the next few quarters," Lipsman said.

Reporting by Aditya Soni, Yuvraj Malik, Akash Sriram and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Big Tech earnings face more heat as cloud cover fades | Reuters

By Aditya Soni and Yuvraj Malik

(Reuters) - Big Tech results reinforced concerns a boom in cloud services is easing, limiting a lucrative source of profit when a slowing economy has hit the companies' other businesses and prompting a bet on artificial intelligence as the next growth driver.

Earnings from Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp - which together dominate the cloud market - showed growth in the business was at its lowest since they started breaking out the metric in 2015 and was on track to slow further.

Alphabet Inc, which has the smallest cloud business among the three, said Google Cloud grew 32%, the slowest rise since the company began reporting the measure in 2019.

The poor results reflect a shift to post-pandemic frugality by corporate customers whose budgets have been squeezed in the past year by high inflation and rising interest rates.

"Once thought as the most defensive revenue stream in tech, we are seeing investors questioning the cyclicality for the (cloud) business," analysts at Bernstein said.

Cloud services had long been a reliable source of earnings for Microsoft and Amazon.

The Windows maker posted growth of around 50% in its Azure cloud-computing business for each quarter of calendar 2020, when the pandemic forced people to work and study at home. Meanwhile, market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported sales jump of about 30% during the same period.

Times, though, have changed.

Growth at AWS slowed to a record low of 20% in the last three months of 2022 to $21.4 billion, slightly missing analysts' estimates of $22.03 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Microsoft's revenue in its so-called intelligent cloud business that includes Azure rose 18% to beat expectations for October to December. But its current-quarter forecast of $21.7 billion to $22 billion was below estimates of $22.14 billion.

"The deceleration in AWS was even worse than expected and means Amazon can't rely on that business units' operating profits as much in coming quarters," said Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Story continues

Amazon finance chief Brian Olsavsky said on Thursday that the company expects slower cloud growth rates for the next few quarters. That echoed Microsoft, which said last week that growth in its Azure cloud-computing business would slow by 4-5 basis points in the March quarter.

"You've just come off two years of rapid movement of workloads to the cloud, there's probably a lot of inefficiency in cloud spending and now there is a shifting focus to greater efficiency," said James Cordwell, analyst at Atlantic Equities.

AI SILVER LINING

A potential boom in AI after the viral success of OpenAI's ChatGPT could boost demand for cloud services again though, analysts said. AI applications require massive computing power, a boon for companies whose services help run the technology.

As an investor and partner of OpenAI, Microsoft looks well poised, analysts said, but any gains may take time to translate into profits.

"Those (AI) advancements and demand for related cloud services will take time to materialize. They're not likely to offset current headwinds in the enterprise market over the next few quarters," Lipsman said.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni, Yuvraj Malik, Akash Sriram and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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Big Tech earnings face more heat as cloud cover fades

1. Big Tech on defense: Apple, Amazon and Google report earnings  CNN
2. Big Tech earnings face more heat as cloud cover fades  Reuters
3. Big Tech Didn't Quite Clear the Bar  The Wall Street Journal

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Big Tech on defense: Apple, Amazon and Google report earnings - CNN

Californias new gold rush: Big tech moves to gain the edge in AI  The Indian Express

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Californias new gold rush: Big tech moves to gain the edge in AI - The Indian Express

I saw this film again yesterday for what must now be the tenth or so time and it's a film that makes me stop whatever I'm doing and immerse myself in the unfolding story. Never mind the fact that I am by now familiar with the premise, which incidentally far exceeds similar ones of the genre released at this time - Vice Versa and 18 Again (the latter being truly dire).

I think this is one of Hanks' finest hours and see it as the pinnacle of his early pre-90's career. His later performance in Philadelphia would eclipse this role, although this was obviously more serious in its message.

It takes real talent to act the young boy in the body of a thirty something and Hanks' copes admirably, from the comical leaping around the bedroom when he is trying to put on the jeans of the child on discovering his transformation to the child-like reaction displayed on Perkins' advances toward him. He captures the essence of youthful innocence both in the company of his younger peers and older 'work' colleagues.

Elizabeth Perkins complements the performance of Hanks' and it seems a shame that on searching the database that her career perhaps hasn't mirrored the success of Hanks' since making 'Big'.

I don't know why, but I always shed a tear at the end of the film. Perhaps it is the longing in all of us to want to return to the days of our youth and that we cannot turn back the clock as one can in the imaginary world of film.

As I grow older, and watch my children grow-up it makes me realise that time is a precious commodity and that life is a gift that should be cherished and nurtured carefully. This film somehow reinforces these feelings.

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Big (1988) - IMDb

Big is a 1988 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a pre-adolescent boy whose wish to be "big" transforms him physically into an adult. The film also stars Elizabeth Perkins, David Moscow, John Heard, and Robert Loggia, and was written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg. It was produced by Gracie Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Upon release, Big was met with wide critical acclaim, particularly for Hanks' performance. It was a huge commercial success as well, grossing $151 million worldwide against a production budget of $18 million, and it proved to be pivotal to Hanks' career, establishing him as a major box-office draw as well as a critical favorite.[2] The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Hanks) and Best Original Screenplay.

Twelve-year-old Josh Baskin is told that he is too short for a carnival ride called the Super Loops while attempting to impress a girl. Dejected, he inserts a coin into an antique fortune-teller machine called Zoltar, and makes a wish to be "big". It dispenses a card stating "Your wish is granted", as Josh discovers the machine has been unplugged the entire time.

The next morning, Josh finds that he has grown into an adult. He tries to locate the Zoltar machine, but finds that the carnival has moved on. Returning home, he tries to explain his predicament to his mother, who chases him from the house thinking he is a stranger who has kidnapped her son. He then finds his best friend Billy and convinces him of his identity by reciting a silly song that only they know. With Billy's help, Josh learns that it will take at least six weeks to file an information request and find the Zoltar machine again, so Josh rents a room in a flophouse in New York City and gets a job as a data entry clerk at the MacMillan Toy Company.

Josh meets the company's owner, Mr. MacMillan, at FAO Schwarz, and impresses him with his insight into current toys and his childlike enthusiasm. They play duets ("Heart and Soul" and Chopsticks) on the store's Walking Piano, and MacMillan invites Josh to a massive marketing campaign pitch meeting with senior executives. Unimpressed with the toy being pitched, Josh shocks and challenges the executives with a simple declaration that the toy is not fun, and while his follow-up suggestions invigorate the team for new ideas, he earns the animosity of Paul Davenport, the pitch's leader. Meanwhile, a pleased MacMillan promotes Josh to Vice President of Product Development. He soon attracts the attention of Susan Lawrence, a fellow executive, and a romance begins to develop, much to the dismay of her former boyfriend, Davenport. Josh becomes increasingly entwined in his adult life by spending time with Susan, mingling with her friends, and entering into a steady relationship with her. His ideas become valuable assets to MacMillan Toys; however, he begins to forget what it is like to be a child, and his tight schedule rarely allows him to spend time with Billy.

MacMillan asks Josh to come up with proposals for a new line of toys. He is intimidated by the need to formulate the business aspects of the proposal, but Susan says that she will handle the business end while he comes up with the ideas. Nevertheless, he feels pressured and longs for his old life. When he expresses doubts to Susan and attempts to explain that he is a child, she interprets this as fear of commitment on his part and dismisses his explanation.

Josh learns from Billy that the Zoltar machine is now at Sea Point Park, and he leaves in the middle of his presentation to MacMillan and the other executives. Susan also leaves and encounters Billy, who tells her where Josh went. At the park, Josh finds the machine, unplugs it, and makes a wish to become a kid again. He is then confronted by Susan for running off, but upon seeing the machine and the fortune, she realizes that he was telling the truth, and becomes despondent at realizing their relationship will end. He tells her that he enjoyed their time together and suggests that she use the machine to wish herself younger, though she declines and offers to take him home.

After sharing an emotional goodbye with Susan, Josh transforms into a child again before reuniting with his family and Billy.

The Italian film Da grande (1987) has been said to be the inspiration for Big.[3][4]

Anne's brother Steven Spielberg was attached to direct the film and wanting to cast Harrison Ford as Josh but Spielberg dropped out when his son Max was born and also due to scheduling conflicts with Empire of the Sun.[5][6][7] Kevin Costner, Steve Guttenberg, Warren Beatty, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Modine were all offered the role of Josh, all of whom turned it down.[8][9][10] Albert Brooks was also offered the role but turned it down as he didn't want to play a kid.[11][12] John Travolta wanted to play Josh, but the studio wasn't interested in casting him.[13] Sean Penn was considered for the role of Josh, but Marshall deemed him too young. Gary Busey auditioned for the role of Josh, but Marshall didnt think he could pull off playing an adult.[8] Andy Garca read for Josh, but one of the studio executives didn't want to spend $18 million for "a kid to grow to be Puerto Rican" (Garca is actually Cuban).[8] Debra Winger tried to convince Marshall to rewrite Josh into a woman.[14] Robert De Niro was cast in the lead role with Elizabeth Perkins. He later dropped out due to "scheduling conflicts" and was replaced by Tom Hanks.[15][16] Hanks and Loggia made two cardboard pianos and practiced them at home,[17] the studio hired doubles in case if Hanks and Loggia didnt get it right.[18]

The New York Times praised the performances of Moscow and Rushton, saying the film "features believable young teenage mannerisms from the two real boys in its cast and this only makes Mr. Hanks's funny, flawless impression that much more adorable."[19] John Simon of the National Review described Big as "an accomplished, endearing, and by no means mindless fantasy".[20]

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor (Hanks) and Best Original Screenplay.[21] At the Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, while Hanks won for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.[22][23]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a "Certified Fresh" 97% rating based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Refreshingly sweet and undeniably funny, Big is a showcase for Tom Hanks, who dives into his role and infuses it with charm and surprising poignancy."[24] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[26]

The film is number 23 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In 2000, it was ranked 42nd on the American Film Institute's "100 Years100 Laughs" list.[27] In June 2008, AFI named it the tenth-best film in the fantasy genre.[28] In 2008, it was selected by Empire Magazine as one of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time."[29]

Big was part of a series of twin films featuring an age-changing plot produced in the late 1980s, including Like Father Like Son (1987), 18 Again! (1988), Vice Versa (1988), 14 Going on 30 (1988),[30][31]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

The film opened at No. 2 with $8.2 million in its first weekend.[34] It would end up grossing over $151 million ($116 million in the US and $36 million internationally).[34] It was the first feature film directed by a woman to gross over $100 million.[35]

In 2004, an Indian remake titled New in Tamil-language starring S.J. Suryah and Naani starring Mahesh Babu in Telugu-language was released.[36][37] An Indian Hindi-language remake titled Aao Wish Karein starring Aftab Shivdasani released in 2009.[38]

In 1996, the film was made into a musical for the Broadway stage. It featured music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr., and a book by John Weidman. Directed by Mike Ockrent, and choreographed by Susan Stroman, it opened on April 28, 1996, and closed on October 13, 1996, after 193 performances.

The first attempt at adapting the film as a TV series came in 1990, with a sitcom pilot produced for CBS that starred Bruce Norris as Josh, Alison LaPlaca as Susan, and Darren McGavin as Mr. MacMillan; it was not picked up as a series.

On September 30, 2014, Fox announced that a TV remake, loosely based on the film, was planned. Written and executive produced by Kevin Biegel and Mike Royce, it dealt with what it means to be an adult and kid in present times.[39]

The fictional Zoltar Speaks fortune-telling machine portrayed in the film was modeled after the real-life 1960s machine Zoltan,[40][41] the name differing by one letter. In 2007, the Nevada-based animatronic company Characters Unlimited was awarded a trademark for Zoltar Speaks[42] and began selling fortune-telling machines with that name.[43]

The film is referenced in the 2019 DC Extended Universe film Shazam!. In the scene in which Doctor Sivana chases Billy Batson into a toy store, Billy unknowingly steps onto a Walking Piano and briefly plays it before being knocked out a window by Sivanna. Additionally, both films' plots center around a child who is magically transformed into an adult.[44][45]

An Easter egg made an appearance in The Order season 2, episode 2, entitled "Free Radicals, Part 2." In the episode, Alyssa shows Jack (Jake Manley) their vault of magical artifacts, which is described by Alyssa as "the beating heart of the Order." This place has everything from Excalibur to the Ark of the Covenant. While there, a Zoltar fortune-telling machine from Big catches Jack's eye. Alyssa explains that it's an "enchanted" Zoltar machine that makes wishes come true. After Jack says he wishes to know his major, Alyssa quickly warns him that Zoltar is a "bit of a trickster" who "grants your wishes ironically." The machine, which is among the artifacts stolen by the demon summoned by the Knights of Saint Christopher, can be spotted in multiple episodes.[46]

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Big (film) - Wikipedia

Dow books third straight day of gains, but Nasdaq and S&P 500 end lower as investors await big tech earnings  MarketWatch

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Dow books third straight day of gains, but Nasdaq and S&P 500 end lower as investors await big tech earnings - MarketWatch