Imagine a world where you can whisper your digital wishes into your device, and poof, it happens. That world may be coming sooner than you think. But if you're worried about AI doing your thinking for you, you might be waiting for a while. In a fireside chat Wednesday (March 20) at NVIDIA GTC, the global AI conference, Kanjun Qiu, CEO of Imbue, and Bryan Catanzaro, VP of applied deep learning research at NVIDIA, challenged many of the clichés that have long dominated conversations about AI. Launched in October 2022, Imbue made headlines with its Series B fundraiser last year, raising over $200 million at a $1 billion valuation.

The Future of Personal Computing
Qiu and Catanzaro discussed the role that virtual worlds will play in this, and how they could serve as interfaces for human-technology interaction. "I think it's pretty clear that AI is going to help build virtual worlds," said Catanzaro. "I think the maybe more controversial part is virtual worlds are going to be necessary for humans to interact with AI." People have an almost primal fear of being displaced, Catanzaro said, but what's much more likely is that our capabilities will be amplified as the technology fades into the background. Catanzaro compared it to the adoption of electricity. A century ago, people talked a lot about electricity. Now that it's ubiquitous, it's no longer the focus of broader conversations, even as it makes our day-to-day lives better.

Jim Ryan—President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment—revealed a sobering restructuring plan earlier today: "The PlayStation community means everything to us, so I felt it was important to update you on a difficult day at our company. We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted." Ryan's full email—addressed to the entire Sony Interactive Entertainment workforce—can be found here. It reveals that company leadership has decided to close its PlayStation London Studio—the South East UK team is/was reportedly working on an announced "PS5 online game." Microsoft revealed a larger scale layoff program late last month—affecting 1900 employees—albeit without shuttering any major development studios. A number of its California-based teams are in the process of ditching "traditional" office locations (including a former aircraft hangar), and are moving to a work from home (WFH) model.

The SIE chief believes that current circumstances are not sustainable: "These are incredibly talented people who have been part of our success, and we are very grateful for their contributions. However, the industry has changed immensely, and we need to future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead. We need to deliver on expectations from developers and gamers and continue to propel future technology in gaming, so we took a step back to ensure we are set up to continue bringing the best gaming experiences to the community." His email outlines an "impact for employees across all SIE regions—Americas, EMEA, Japan, and APAC," with reductions affecting native development teams and Firesprite, a Liverpool, UK-based studio (founded by former Psygnosis veterans). Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios, also posted a blog entry on the subject of SIE global layoffs—he confirmed a number of reductions and project cancellations.

ASUS China has distributed Tianxuan 5 Pro laptop review samples to media outlets in the region—a video evaluation was uploaded to Bilibili yesterday, as discovered and shared by 9550pro. The reviewer, "Wheat Milk Mitsu," put his sampled laptop's AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX processor through the proverbial wringer—with benchmarking exercises conducted in Cinebench R23, PCMark 10, Counter Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Metro Exodus and more. The Ryzen 9 7940HX "Dragon Range" APU was last spotted in the specification sheets for ASUS TUF Gaming A16 (2024) laptop models—the mobile processor is essentially an underclocked offshoot of Team Red's Ryzen 9 7945HX. AMD's Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" series has received most of the attention in Western markets—we only see occasional coverage of older Zen 4 "Dragon Range" parts.

AMD's slightly weaker Ryzen 9 7940HX processor is no slouch when compared to its higher clock sibling, despite a lower base clock (2.4 GHz) and Turbo (5.2 GHz)—the Tianxuan (China's equivalent to TUF Gaming) branded laptop was outfitted with a GeForce RTX 4070 mobile GPU and 16 GB of DDR5 5600 RAM. Synthetic benchmark results in Cinebench R23 indicate a marginal 3.7% difference, and multi-core figures show an even smaller difference; 1%. The two Dragon Range APUs exhibited largely the same performance in gaming scenarios, although the 7945HX pulls ahead in Counter-Strike 2 frame rate stakes—328 vs. 265 at 1440p, and 378 vs. 308 at 1080p. AMD's convoluted naming schemes make it difficult to keep track of its many mobile offerings—a 7840HX SKU could join the Dragon Range family in Q1 2024. A few Western media outlets believe that a smattering of these parts are destined for global markets, but Team Red's Marketing HQ has not bothered to announce them in any official capacity. Strange times.

Newegg Commerce, Inc., a global e-commerce leader for technology products, today announced the launch of Newegg's GPU Trade-In Program, allowing customers to trade in an eligible GPU device and receive a trade-in value credit toward the purchase of a new qualifying graphics card also known as a graphics processing unit (GPU).

Newegg's GPU Trade-In Program not only helps customers upgrade to a newer GPU model, the program also helps limit electronic waste. By offering a resource for customers to exchange their unwanted GPUs for new ones, the program simultaneously contributes to waste reduction and facilitates cost-effective PC upgrades.

Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of innovative visual processing solutions, today announced the official launch of its new IRX gaming experience brand. As a brand targeted at smartphone users, IRX is grounded on Pixelworks' mobile visual processing solutions and coupled with in-depth game tuning services. This combination leverages Pixelworks' expertise to achieve ultra-smooth gaming experience and the highest picture quality for different types of games on mobile devices. In addition, it exercises effective control of power consumption, latency and other performance variables to ensure stable and long-lasting gaming with optimal visual performance, providing end users with unparalleled mobile gaming experiences.

The IRX gaming experience is enabled by a portfolio of technology advantages and product application experiences based on the Company's innovative distributed rendering architecture. More specifically, Pixelworks' ultra-low latency MotionEngine technology, low power super-resolution technology, AI Always-on HDR and other technologies bring optimized rendering capabilities to smartphones that exceed what can be achieved by a traditional chipset. Together with Pixelworks' profound tuning experience for different games on various mobile devices the result is a meaningfully enriched visual experience for smartphone users, which is the core foundation for the IRX gaming experience.

Seagate has recently published a preview of its next generation product hard drive lineup that utilize heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. A company roadmap indicates that the first commercial release of 32 TB capacity HAMR Mach 2 drives is penciled in for a Q3 2023 window, with a short hop to increased storage (40 TB) models predicted for launch in 2024. Seagate is also expected to release 24 TB and 28 TB capacity HDDs - based on the older perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology - at some point in the near future. Technology news outlets anticipate that these two product ranges will co-exist for a while, until Seagate decides to favor its more advanced thermal magnetic storage solution. A lucky data center client has been getting hands-on time with evaluation HAMR hardware, as reported in late April. Seagate has since supplied other enterprise customers with unspecified HAMR HDD models.

Executives at Seagate have been openly discussing their HAMR products - destined to sit in new Corvault server equipment. Gianluca Romano, the company's chief financial officer, mentioned several models during a presentation at the Bank of America 2023 Global Technology conference: "When you go to HAMR, our 32-terabyte (model) is based on 10 disks and 20 heads. So same number of disks and head of the current 20-terabyte PMR...So all the increase is coming through areal density. The following one, 40-terabyte, still (has) the same 10 disks and 20 heads. And also the 50 (TB model), we said at our earnings release, in our lab, we are already running individual disk at 5 terabytes."

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation ("Silicon Motion" or the "Company") today announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2022. For the fourth quarter of 2022, net sales (GAAP) decreased sequentially to $200.8 million from $250.8 million in the third quarter of 2022. Net income (GAAP) decreased to $23.5 million, or $0.71 per diluted American Depositary Share ("ADS") (GAAP), from net income (GAAP) of $42.9 million, or $1.29 per diluted ADS (GAAP), in the third quarter of 2022.

For the fourth quarter of 2022, net income (non-GAAP) decreased to $41.1 million, or $1.22 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), from net income (non-GAAP) of $51.2 million, or $1.53 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), in the third quarter of 2022.

Today ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2022 second-quarter results. Q2 net sales of €5.4 billion, gross margin of 49.1%, net income of €1.4 billion. Record quarterly net bookings in Q2 of €8.5 billion. ASML expects Q3 2022 net sales between €5.1 billion and €5.4 billion and a gross margin between 49% and 50%. Expected sales growth for the full year of around 10%.

The value of fast shipments*in 2022 leading to delayed revenue recognition into 2023 is expected to increase from around €1 billion to around €2.8 billion.
"Our second-quarter net sales came in at €5.4 billion with a gross margin of 49.1%. Demand from our customers remains very strong, as reflected by record net bookings in the second quarter of €8.5 billion, including €5.4 billion from 0.33 NA and 0.55 NA EUV systems as well as strong DUV bookings.

Razer (RAZFF) is set to become privately held after shareholders voted to delist from the Hong Kong stock exchange in a privatization deal that values the company at $3.17 billion USD. The privatization scheme is led by a consortium of Razer's co-founders Tan and Kaling Lim who currently own 57% of the company along with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. The plan was approved by over 75% of shareholders at a recent general meeting and will see the withdrawal of company shares from the Hong Kong stock exchange at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, 13 May 2022. This private ownership of the company isn't expected to last long with the owners planning to relist the company's shares in the US in the hopes of gathering a higher valuation. Razer continues to record growth with revenues of $1.62 billion USD in the 2021 FY, up 33% from the previous year.

Microsoft on Tuesday achieved another milestone on its road as a publicly traded company - the $2 trillion valuation milestone, that is. Microsoft may have felt slightly stung when Apple crossed that threshold first in 2020, but slowly and surely sure does pave the way. Microsoft crossed the $2 trillion valuation mark after its share rose by 1.2%. The company is currently having some of the best quarters in its history, with the latest quarter bringing in revenue increases of around $41.7 billion, and a clean, tidy, enormous $15.5 billion in profit during the same time.

Microsoft's shares have increased some 20% YoY already, and the acceleration from its $1 trillion market cap is nothing short of grandiose. The company took 33 years from its IPO (Initial Public Offering) to reach the $1 trillion valuation in 2019 - and it took them less than two years to double that to $2 trillion. COVID, of course, has its microscopic toes in this success, but so does Microsoft's increased investment and returns in gaming, as well as the lift-off of its cloud business.

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing another major shakedown in pricing, with the overall crypto market valuation dropping by more than a trillion dollars in less than 24 hours. As of time of writing, leading cryptocurrency by market cap Bitcoin has lost more than 30% in value, dropping to $31,000. Ethereum is down by 40% to $2,424, and memecoin Dogecoin has fallen by 45% - one would think a memecoin would have had its value dropped to zero from the instant of its conception, but that's not the world we live in.

As the market tries to staunch the bleeding, major cryptocurrency platforms Coinbase and Binance are down, citing "network congestion" issues stemming from the unexpected volatility. As investors see their attempts to sell neutered by these network congestion issues, this seems like a way to reduce the amount of cryptocurrencies available in the market, which would feed the descending value cycle even more. Whether or not this is the bubble popping, it's yet another foundational shock to the trust that was already achieved by these platforms and the cryptocurrency market as a whole. How this will affect market availability and demand for graphics cards and hardware is anyone's guess, but even if it does, it'll take some time until we see availability in the main and secondary channels.

Today Epic Games announced that it completed a $1 billion round of funding, which will allow the company to support future growth opportunities. Epic's equity valuation is now $28.7 billion.

This round includes an additional $200M strategic investment from Sony Group Corporation, which builds on the already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces their shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services. Other investment partners include Appaloosa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, GIC, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Park West, KKR, AllianceBernstein, Altimeter, Franklin Templeton and Luxor Capital. Epic continues to have only a single class of common stock outstanding and CEO Tim Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder of the company.

Epic Games today announced a $1.78 billion round of funding consisting of primary capital and secondary purchases from employee equity holders. Epic's post-money equity valuation is now $17.3 billion.

This round includes a previously announced $250 million strategic investment from Sony Corporation. Additional investment partners include Baillie Gifford, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and David Tepper. Existing investors KKR and Smash Ventures also added to their 2018 investment. Following the closing of the funding round Epic will continue to have only a single class of common stock outstanding and will remain controlled by its founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney.

Arm co-founder Hermann Hauser recently gave an interview to BBC where he expressed some concerns regarding the prospective buy acquisition from NVIDIA, which has been in talks with Arm owner Softbank towards the IP-designer's acquisition. As Hauser puts it, "It's one of the fundamental assumptions of the ARM business model that it can sell to everybody," Hauser told BCC, "The one saving grace about Softbank was that it wasn't a chip company, and retained ARM neutrality. If it becomes part of Nvidia, most of the licensees are competitors of Nvidia, and will of course then look for an alternative to ARM."

Hauser doesn't think the NVIDIA deal will follow through due to these aspects of the chip design ecosystem, with many Arm clients - such as Intel, Apple, Qualcomm, TSMC, Samsung, among others - being direct or otherwise indirect competitors to NVIDIA. Hauser thinks that Arm would be much better served through a British government intervention in bringing the company back towards the British fold: "The great opportunity that the cash needs of Softbank presents is to bring ARM back home and take it public, with the support of the British government." The Softbank acquisition occurred back in 2016 and cost the company some $24 billion; however, recent estimates from New Street Research LLP placed Arm's valuation at USD $44 billion if its IPO took off in 2021, and as much as $68 billion by 2025.

The Sony Corporation today announced plans to invest $250 million to acquire a minority interest in Epic Games Inc. This investment represents a 1.4% ownership of the company and gives Epic a valuation of nearly $18 billion. This investment solidifies the strong existing relationship between the two companies at a time when Sony is preparing to release the PlayStation 5. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has publicly praised the upcoming console calling it a "remarkably balanced device" and praised its innovative SSD. The Sony Corporation will join Tencent and various other companies who own significant stakes in the company. The merger is still subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and it is unsure when or if this will be granted.

SonyThe investment allows Sony and Epic to aim to broaden their collaboration across Sony's leading portfolio of entertainment assets and technology, and Epic's social entertainment platform and digital ecosystem to create unique experiences for consumers and creators.

NVIDIA during its investor day revealed some interesting statistics on its Turing-based graphics cards. The company essentially announced that revenue for Turing graphics cards sales increased 45% over that generated when NVIDIA introduced their Pascal architecture - which does make sense, when you consider how NVIDIA actually positioned its same processor tiers (**60, **70, **80) in higher pricing brackets than previously. NVIDIA's own graphics showcase this better than anyone else could, with a clear indication of higher pricing for the same graphics tier. According to the company, 90% of users are actually buying pricier graphics cards this generation than they were in the previous one -which makes sense, since a user buying a 1060 at launch would only have to pay $249, while the new RTX 2060 goes for $349.

Other interesting tidbits from NVIDIA's presentation at its investor day is that Pascal accounts for around 50% of the installed NVIDIA graphics cards, while Turing, for now, only accounts for 2% of that. This means 48% of users sporting an NVIDIA graphics card are using Maxwell or earlier designs, which NVIDIA says presents an incredible opportunity for increased sales as these users make the jump to the new Turing offerings - and extended RTX feature set. NVIDIA stock valuation grew by 5.82% today, likely on the back of this info.

EA stocks today have taken a dive of 12.83% (17% at the worst case scenario, with a slight rebound in the meantime), at the moment of writing, compared to their opening hours. The descent, which represents a dip towards a $80.61 valuation per share compared to the $92.52 at the opening market, followed the release of the company's Q3 FY19 Financial Results, caused by lower than expected sales from Battlefield V and lower than expected revenue from EA's mobile efforts. This is capitalism at its finest - the 7.3 million sales of Battlefield V (an impressive number by any metric) fell close to a cool million short of projected sales by this time, and that is enough for the market to correct their expectations.

EA's mobile business saw a YoY fall of 22%, which did little to assuage investors and provide a positive note for the underperforming Battlefield V. It's interesting to note how interesting the markets can be: on the surprise announcement of the new, Respawn-developed Apex Legends, there was no significant change in EA's stock valuation, despite this launch meaning a new, hopefully rich, revenue source for the publisher. Although considering TechPowerUp's overall sentiment regarding that games' launch (not representative of the entire community), it seems that EA won't be banking much on our users.

NVIDIA's stock value has been falling precipitously in the last several months. We reported in December that the company lost some 48.8% in value between October and December, moving from an all-time peak of $289.36 on October 1st, to just under $149 on December 14th. At the time, excess inventories were the cause, alongside a less than glamorous reception to their new RTX series of graphics cards. Now? NVIDIA cites "deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, particularly in China" as harming demand for their gaming GPUs. But this now comes alongside a its datacenter business also falling short of expectations - that's two of NVIDIA's most lucrative markets being put towards the red, or at least, with lower than expected income revenues.

This led the company to revise its financial outlook for the year, lowering revenue estimates by $500 million, down to $2.2 billion from its initial $2.7 billion forecast. Gross margins have been lowered by some 7%, which means lowered earnings for investors. Since the December plunge, NVIDIA's stock had recovered up to around $160 per share, but has now dived 14.52%, down to $136.90 - even lower than before. The company has seen its market valuation shrink by more than 50% inside of four months - while the company is still well in the green side of the limbo, so to speak, these certainly don't serve to improve the company's spirit.