Apple to introduce the latest iPad with AI – the most powerful AI PC

The US tech company Apple has today reveiled its latest new iPad Pro with artificial intelligence. According to Apple, it is the most powerful AI PC in the world. The sales beging 15th of May.

The new iPads are thin and light with 13-inch and 11-inch designs.

– The new iPad Pro with M4 features Apple’s most powerful Neural Engine ever, capable of 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine in the A11 Bionic chip, the company stated in the release.

– Combined with next-generation ML accelerators in the CPU, a high-performance GPU, more memory bandwidth, and intelligent features and powerful developer frameworks in iPadOS, the Neural Engine makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for AI. With iPad Pro with M4, users can perform AI-enabled tasks even faster, like easily isolate a subject from its background in 4K video with just a tap with Scene Removal Mask in Final Cut Pro. With this advanced level of performance, the Neural Engine in M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today, the company says.

Cook: Apple to announce AI news in coming weeks (updated)

The CEO of Apple Tim Cook said in the company conference call on Thursday that Apple is to announce AI news in the coming weeks.

He got several questions about the generative AI, but he stated only that the company considers it as key opportunity driver for all product categories.

His stated also related to Apple Vision Pro that so far they have had good feedback from different kind of industry verticals like healthccare, education, training, control centres and that the company is expecting to get more apps and engagement around the product.

Apple said it is expecting the services sector to continue to grow double-digit in the June quarter. Also iPads are expected to grow double-digit during the current quarter.

The second most focused question topic was China and the operations Apple has there. Tim Cook said that during his visit in the country now in spring he noticed strong commitment and excitment among customers. He confirmed that iPhone grew in mainland China during the quarter as the company opened their new Shanghai store there as well.

Cook said he has great view of China as a long-term business.

China is by far the largest emerging markets for Apple, but that gap between other emerging markets is decreasing as other countries like India, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia are growing. At the moment their exposure in the group’s revenue is small.

The company also indicated it has cut greenhousegas emissions more than 55% since 2015. Apple is targeting to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Apple has been increasing recycled critical materials in its products. For example 56% of the cobalt in Apple batteries came from recycled sources. 24% of lithium in Apple batteries came from certified sources. The company is also using recycled copper in its products.

The commodities impact the gross margings and according to the financial report, the gross margings are now historically high. Apple confirms that during the reporting Q2 period commodity prices were favourable for their production and that the company tries to mitigate the price impact by contracting.

Apple’s revenue 90,8 billion dollars – iPhone sales 45,9 billion dollars (updated)

The US tech company Apple reported  revenue of 90.8 billion dollars for the March quarter. According to company, services-sector made all time high revenue during the Q2 FY 2024.

– During the quarter, we were thrilled to launch Apple Vision Pro and to show the world the potential that spatial computing unlocks, the CEO Tim Cook said in the release.

Apple’s operating income was 27,9 billion dollars during the quarter, down from 28,3 billion dollars year ago.

Net income was 23,6 billion dollars compared to 24,2 billion dollars year ago. EPS increased to 1,53 dollars per share from 1,52 dollars per share year ago.

Apple’s iPhone sales decreased to 45,9 billion dollars during the quarter from 51,3 billion dollars year ago. Mac sales was 7,4 billion dollars compared to 7,2 billion dollars year ago. IPad sales decreased to 5,6 billion dollars from 6,7 billion dollars.

Wearables were 7,9 billion dollars while year ago their sales were 8,7 billion dollars. Services sectors sales jumped to 23,8 billion dollars from 20,8 billion dollars year ago.

Apple increased its investments in R&D, which were 7,9 billion dollars during the quarter compared to 7,4 billion dollars year ago.

Apple stock closed at 173,03 dollars on Thursday in New York, up 2,2%. The company stock increased altough over 7% in the extended trading after the report.

Novo Nordisk sales 65,3 billion DKK in Q1 2024 – raises outlook (updated)

The Danish pharma company  Novo Nordisk said its Q1 2024 sales increased to 65,3 billion DKK and operating profit was 31,8 billion DKK compared to 25 billion DKK year ago.The company EPS increased to 5,68 DKK  per share from 4,39 DKK per share year ago.

Novo Nordisk said its Wegovy sales increased to 9,3 billion DKK from 4,5 billion DKK year ago.

The company said it is raising its full year outlook. Sales growth is now expected to be 19-27% at CER and operating profit 22-30% at CER.

– We are pleased with the sales growth in the first three months of 2024 driven by increased demand for our GLP-1 based diabetes and obesity treatments, the company CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said in the release.

– More patients benefit from our innovative treatments and agreement to acquire the three Catalent manufacturing sites will enable us to serve significantly more people living with diabetes and obesity in the future, he said.

Moderna to enhance AI collaboration with ChatGPT

The US biotech company Moderna said last week it is enhancing its AI collaboration with ChatGPT.  According to Moderna CEO Stephen Bancel the company  has an ambitious plan to launch multiple products over the next few years.

– Collaborations with companies like OpenAI are critical to our ability to scale and maximize our impact on patients, he said in the release.

– Moderna is a digital-first company that has leveraged the power of machine learning since its beginnings. This strong data foundation, along with its robust culture of learning, positions the Company to responsibly and seamlessly integrate generative AI into its operations and capitalize on next-generation AI innovation, the company says.

These GPTs are now embedded across Moderna’s business functions – from legal, to research, to manufacturing, to commercial – and are purpose-built as assistants that work beside Moderna’s employees, augmenting their roles through personalized support.

According to company in the few months since adopting ChatGPT Enterprise, Moderna has deployed more than 750 GPTs across the Company that help drive automation and productivity.

Tesla automotive sales decline 13% in Q1 2024

The US EV manufacturer Tesla reported today its Q1 2024 figures. It showed that the automotive sales dropped 13% to 17,4 billion dollars during the first quarter this year.

Total revenues were 21,3 billion dollars, down 9% from year ago.

Tesla’s operating margin declined to 5,5% during the quarter, year ago it was 11,4%.

EPS declined to 1,53 dollars from 2,93 dollars.

Tesla says in the release that sales was impacted by the different disruptions in their factories during the quarter.

Tesla’s total production was 433.371 vehicles at the end of quarter while deliveries were 386.810, down 9%.

Tesla has 6249 Supercharger  stations in the world, up 26%.

Apple to expand their hub in Singapore

The US tech titan Apple is to expand their regional hub in Singapore. The company plans to invest about 250 million dollars for the renovation and enlarging their campus in Ang Mo Kio, Singapore.

Apple build their first facility in Singapore about 40 years ago to manufacture Apple computets. Now the hub is having 3600 employees and they are engaging with software, hardware, services and support.

The Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the campus last week during his Asia tour.

Tesla decreases prices in the US and China – earnings on Tuesday (updated)

The US EV manufacturer Tesla is decreasing its electric cars prices in the US and China. According to the info, the cut is 2000 dollars in Model Y, S and X, the company said on Saturday.

It will mean the Model Y starts at 42.990 dollars excluding taxes and fees, Model S 72.990 dollars and Model X 79.990 dollars.

Tesla Cybertruck and Model 3 were unchanged, partly of low production still.

Model Y and X are in the US IRA program, which means that they are eligble for 7500 dollars discount.

Tesla said last week that it is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce to reflect the global EV market.

Tesla is to report its first quarter earnings on Tuesday next week. The company stock closed at 147 dollars, down 1,92% in New York on Friday. The company stock has decreased 40,8% this year.

US: Samsung to build 40 billion dollars tech ecosystem in Texas

Samsung is building 40 billion dollars ecosystem in Texas, the US Biden-Harris Administration announced today.

According to the info, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Samsung Electronics (Samsung) have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT).  This means also that Samsung has got up to $6.4 billion direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of the U.S. semiconductor supply chain, advance U.S. technology leadership, and fuel U.S. global competitiveness.

Samsung is on the other hand expected to invest more than $40 billion dollars in the region in the coming years, and the proposed investment would support the creation of over 20,000 jobs.

The proposed investment would turn Samsung’s existing presence in Texas into a comprehensive ecosystem for the development and production of leading-edge chips in the United States, including two new leading-edge logic fabs, an R&D fab, and an advanced packaging facility in Taylor, as well as an expansion to their existing Austin facility, the release says.

Because of investments like Samsung’s, the United States is projected to be on track to produce roughly 20% of the world’s leading-edge logic chips by 2030.

– I signed the CHIPS and Science Act to restore U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and ensure America’s consumers, businesses, and military maintain access to the chips that underpin our modern technology,” the President Joe Biden said in the release.

-The chips that Samsung will be making in Texas are important components to our most advanced technologies, from artificial intelligence to high-performance computing and 5G communications. With President Biden’s leadership and Samsung’s commitment to the U.S., this proposed funding advances America’s leadership in semiconductor manufacturing on the world stage, the US Department of Commerce stated.

NBIM owns over 5 % of German pharma Morphosys

The Norways’s Investment management company NBIM has  over 5 % ownership of the German pharma company Morphosys. The company announced the changes on Friday.

Morphosys is an innovative biopharma company developing the next generation cancer treatments. It has also accepted the deal with the Swiss pharma company Novartis with 142 % premium to its three months stock price.

The board and the supervisory board of Morphosys have decided to recommend the deal. Also the antritrust regulators have given their clearance, the company announced on Friday.