April Tech Round-Up: Crashes, Contagion and Innovation
As the Tech Meltdown of 2022 rolls into 2023, contagion has spread to the banking sector. With new dominos still likely to fall, markets are nervous. This month we dive into past crashes and provide some clues on what to expect - including the wave of innovation spawned when things go awry.
Enjoy, from all of us at North Ridge Partners
(Image by Dall-E 2: “sketch of a NASDAQ crash and liquidity crisis”).
Original Thinking From North Ridge Partners
Bank contagion following the failure of SVB is the latest domino to fall in the unfolding tech sector meltdown that has seen funding sources dry up and tech companies battening down the hatches. However, from a longer-term perspective this looks a lot like the last Tech Wreck, and the one before that - not just in terms of wealth lost, but also in opportunities emerging.
Click to read about the Tech Wreck: Financial crises are more akin to droughts than meteorite strikes; they tend to be regular occurrences common across decades and reflect a cycle rather than random catastrophic events. We’ve been here before and the patterns are very familiar.
Click to read about innovation in a downturn: The GFC and the earlier dotcom crash sent markets into sharp reverse, but they each also ushered in new waves of technological innovation. It’s happening again.
Click for this month’s minicast: This month Peter Hynd, Fiona Robertson and John Moore draw on lessons learned in previous downturns and predict what comes next.
Click for some bull and bear tunes: half a dozen songs about making it (and losing it) to keep your life in balance!
Big Tech
Late to the party: Apple launches Buy Now Pay Later.
About that Metaverse. Zuckerberg goes all in on AI.
Can Amazon resurrect AMC from its walking death?
From Adani to Block: Hindenberg smashes Block then Dorsey bites back.
And so it begins…with early hints that Bing’s search market share is growing, Microsoft brings advertising to ChatGPT.
Half price Twitter shares, anyone? Musk puts a $20 billion value on Twitter.
Troubles at Tik Tok
Singaporean CEO takes plenty of heat in Washington – just who is Shou Zi Chew?
Despite the risks, Tik Tok’s advertisers seem to be holding firm.
Stirred but not shaken - you have to give parent ByteDance credit as its Instagram rival Lemon8 hits the US App Store’s Top 10.
Asia Pacific Tech News
Inside (arguably) the world’s most important company: TSMC.
Breaking up isn’t hard to do: investors warm to Alibaba’s plan for a six-way split.
Tencent sees AI as a growth multiplier (and reports its first annual revenue decline!)
Competing with ChatGPT isn’t so easy - Ernie backfires on Baidu.
Blackrock and Invesco slash Indian tech valuations.
World Startup congress: world’s biggest startup funding fest turns out to be a hoax.
SVB, Banking Contagion and What it all Means
SVB collapsed because of people on iPhones says Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Nah, says US regulator, not even close. Meanwhile, analysts say it’s not a banking crisis - it’s sentiment contagion.
UBS swoops on Credit Suisse - a victim of both SVB contagion and poor decision-making. The spotlight switches to Deutsche Bank but it seems a safer bet than Credit Suisse.
What happens next? Institutional Investor tells us that non-traditional investors will pull back from VC in the wake of SVB’s collapse, as Bloomberg predicts a $500bn haircut.
Other Stuff
The genie escapes: Stanford copies the ChatGPT AI for less than $600. (Yes, $600!)
Startup community pivots to AI - YCombinator’s winter class sets the scene.
Gamechanger: ChatGPT plugins.
Gravity strikes at Virgin Orbit as the company burns up in uncontrolled descent.
Down but not out as Ledger raises $100m Series C.
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