A very brief presentation (35 mins) advising the commercial investors (investment houses, hedge fund managers, etc...) of Bank of America Securities on the issues facing Intel in the COVID-19 recession and its competitive environment. Before the presentation, I was asked to answer 3 main questions...
1. My opinion on INTC – how did it manage to lose its strong grip on its dominant market share? What caused the continuous delays in its manufacturing advancement and allowed the likes of TSMC to catch up to them?
2. My view on the future strategic direction that INTC should be taking – especially important for BofA clients – what is INTC likely to do in terms of outsourcing its manufacturing? How would the new CEO impact INTC’s future direction?
3. Bigger picture – Has the IDM business model run its course with the rise of fabless companies (AMD, NVDA, QCOM, etc) and system companies (AAPL, Google, AMZN) partnering with foundries (TSMC, and Samsung) and IP providers (ARM)
The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange struggled to keep up with record traffic as the price surged, with an upcoming launch of the first bitcoin futures contract further fueling investor interest. Proponents say bitcoin is a good medium of exchange and a way to store value, much like a precious metal. They also argue it is preferable to traditional currencies because it is not subject to central bank manipulation. The supply of bitcoin will eventually be capped at 21 million, and some 16.7 million have already been released. But critics say that the price run-up is a bubble that has been driven mostly by speculation, leaving bitcoin vulnerable to a sharp reversal. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon famously called bitcoin a fraud in September. “Bitcoin remains a major gamble as it is very much an asset that remains in uncharted waters, we’ve simply not experienced this before,” said Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group. “Also, an asset that goes almost vertically up should typically raise alarm bells for investors,” he added. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has surged seventeen-fold in value so far this year. The latest move brought its so-called market cap, its price multiplied by the number of bitcoins in circulation, to nearly $305 billion, according to Coinmarketcap, a trade website. By comparison, the market value of Wal-Mart Stores Inc is around $288 billion.