Tag Archives: nvda

Facebook 10-Year Plan Looks Way Beyond Selfies To A Sci-Fi Future

Facebook ( FB ) wrapped up its two-day F8 Developer Conference this week, clearly looking to drive immersion on the social network and ultimately tying it to the potential for user growth and ad views as well as alternate revenue drivers. The company showcased its rollout of live video streaming that users can post to their Facebook walls — including live aerials from drones. CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated it on Tuesday, the conference’s first day. His 10-year plan looks at broad ways to enhance connectivity, power experiences and transactions with artificial intelligence, and develop virtual reality and augmented reality interactions. A how-to at F8 showed how developers can now write AI-powered bots that let people do things, like order flowers from 1-800-Flowers ( FLWS ) via Facebook message.  Microsoft ( MSFT ) introduced its own bot-platform strategy a couple of weeks ago at its Build 2016 developer conference. Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry called Facebook’s AI efforts a positive for chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ), a Facebook partner in AI whose graphics technology is also big in supplying computing power for VR. Both Facebook and Nvidia are on the IBD 50 growth stocks list with top Composite Ratings, though they’re not in buy range. Another big online company in VR, Google owner Alphabet ( GOOGL ), is also on the list. Facebook F8 Takeaways: AI, VR, Bots And A 10-year Plan Related: Facebook Revs Engine On Multibillion-Dollar Market Opportunities

Is Apple Supplier NXP Semi Looking To Home In On Auto Market?

Apple ( AAPL ) chip supplier NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) could be looking to further focus on the automotive market, as it considers a $2 billion sale of its standard products unit, according to reports. NXP Semi shares jumped as much as 3.8% Friday morning in quick turnover to retake their 200-day moving average. But the stock pared its gains to closed with a 1.8% rise and fell back below the 200-day line. The standard products unit — which consists of transistors, diodes and other standard-chip products — accounted for 20% of NXP Semi’s 2015 sales, but the segment’s revenue fell 3% year-over-year, with an 18% drop in Q4. Chinese firms, including Beijing-based investment firm JAC Capital, are interested in a deal with NXP for the unit, sources told Bloomberg. The move could signal an effort by NXP to further focus on the automotive market, and even products it supplies to smartphone makers, including Apple. NXP became the largest chip supplier to the automotive industry with the completion of its $12 billion merger with smaller peer Freescale Semiconductor in December. At that time, the company said it had plans to lead the auto industry in terms of infotainment, vehicle networking, body, safety and secure access. NXP’s automotive segment revenue jumped 17% last year, boosted by the acquisition, to $1.34 billion. That represents 22% of NXP’s total sales for 2015. NXP, which has an IBD Composite Rating of 81 out of 99, is set to report Q1 earnings on April 25. Analysts expect the bottom line to drop 19% to $1.09 a share, while the top line jumps 51% to $2.21 billion. As NXP stock is trading 27% below its 52-week high, top-rated peer Nvidia ( NVDA ) is sitting just 2% below its recent high. The Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) supplier broke out of a cup-with-handle base several weeks ago and is now extended from buy range. Monolithic Power Systems ( MPWR ) is trading 8% below its high as it works on a base, while Silicon Motion Tech ( SIMO ) is nearing profit-taking zone after a breakout last month. Nvidia closed up 0.65%, Monolithic Power added 0.3%, and Silicon Motion climbed 2.4% Friday. Apple added 0.1%, and Tesla fell 2.8%.

CEO Bezos Says Amazon Cloud Business Outpacing Its E-Tail Business

After 10 years, Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing division, is a $10 billion business, Amazon.com ( AMZN ) CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in a letter to shareholders Tuesday. Though the $10 billion figure is not new — the firm’s Q4 AWS sales suggested a run-rate of $10 billion — it is the first time that Bezos has offered AWS guidance for 2016. Bezos also said in the shareholder letter, contained in the company’s 8-K filing with the SEC, that AWS is larger than Amazon was at the same stage in its history. “Over time, it’s likely that most companies will choose not to run their own data centers, opting for the cloud instead,” Bezos wrote. Amazon stock was up nearly 2%, near 597, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 77, where 99 is the highest. AWS dwarfs rival Microsoft ( MSFT ), which has been fighting to make gains in the cloud market. Alphabet ( GOOGL )-run Google is a distant third in market share. At its GPU technology conference in San Jose, Calif., this week, chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ) announced several new pieces of hardware targeted at cloud computing.