Robert Pera

Computex 2024 was a standout show. It was great to see what Taiwan tech has been cooking this year! We also talked to the exhibitors, CEOs, brand managers, and PR people to get the inside story. We interviewed over 30 people from over 20 tech brands about what they were working on for their tech brands, their plans for the future, their biggest pain points, and more. Here are some takeaways: 1. Influencer marketing was the no.1 biggest request. Most brands were looking to send their products to tier 1 YouTubers for product reviews. The problem? Many tier 1 tech YouTubers are reluctant to make content on newer or unknown brands. I have to admit, I saw many of the same DIY PC cases, cooling fans, GPUs and storage hardware — again and again and again. Just painted different colors. That's why Taiwanese tech brands need careful brand positioning and unique designs to win. 2. Social media content is the no. 2 most requested service. Social media video content was big on what brands are looking for, but mostly for the small and large brands, not medium. Small tech brands don't have a content team in-house, while big brands do have a content team but they are overwhelmed with the amount of content to produce. The medium-sized brands seemed to be doing fine with their in-house teams. 3. AI was everywhere. Thats not news. The funny thing is that AI has been around for years in the sense that software and hardware have been run by artificial intelligence as part of their basic framework. But now, everyone is slapping the word "AI" to the brand copy. At a certain point, the word "AI" will be meaningless if everyone is using it. Buzzwords come and go. Will this one stick? What do you think? Check out this lovely video made by Hoang Khanh Linh, our hard-working social media intern.

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Tencent just release Hunyuan-DiT, a bilingual chinese/english model that boasts SD3 level performance, but with an "open source" license. Here's why things are getting interesting... 1) China <> US -- AI models are the distillation of culture. It's important to recognize that a model trained to be compatible with Chinese culture will have some inherently different views on the world than a US trained model. Cultural exports (e.g., AI models) are part of a broader pattern/strategy of ideological influence, which I think often goes underestimated in the US (especially by those who decry open-source AI.) 2) Open Source <> Closed Source -- There is a growing trend of models being released as "open source", with licenses that are not truly open. For example, Playground 2.5 is listed in the table below, but isn't an open model. SD3 will likely also be released with similar restrictions. Tencent's new Hunyuan-DiT is no exception. Similar to LLaMA, there are restrictions based on size of company (100M MAU). Licenses with these types of restrictions are not truly "open". 3) Model Quality -- The architecture of available models continues to evolve, and open models are keeping up with their closed counterparts. As foundational model quality becomes increasingly similar, the biggest asset to begin developing is a curated dataset of first-party data -- Whether you are an individual or an enterprise. Own your model. Own your data. #generativeai #models #opensource #openai #notthatopenai

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Something I started doing as a means of better learning Chinese is watching Douyin videos. Douyin (抖音 - literally shake sound) is the Chinese domestic version of TikTik. TikTok itself is banned inside China, and anyone who tells you different is lying or ignorant. Douyin can however be watched in the United States, just like TikTok, there is no reciprocal ban. If you watch videos about western countries, particularly the United States, the general theme is the U.S. is racist, unsafe, in decline, warmonger, etc. The usual video of that type will take a scene of some skid row somewhere and portray it as all of America. That is not censored. There are some videos along the lines of "This is real America" that counter that negative narrative and show positive aspects, but the negative ones are more common. Some are funny in their degree of dishonesty and apparent hatred. I think the reverse scenario to the same degree does not exist. As for other media, I am pretty sure western journalists are not allowed to randomly go to any location within China. Their content is controlled to keep it positive and inline with narratives. Otherwise they can lose their press credentials and be deported. That has happened several times. Even domestically, you hear a murder was committed just a few blocks away, and that is suppressed from the news. Negative news is not allowed. Yet negative false content about western countries is commonly disseminated. Media produced for external viewing is often very anti-western, and even rudely so. Read Global Times to get an idea about that. Sometimes in these videos I see or hear things that I know are wrong because I have lived in both locations. There is not much I can say. Westerners should watch more of it. Get a feel for the side of China they don't show you. What do they actually think about you? (This is replacing a post I made yesterday. It strikes me as ironic that pride requires dishonesty to validate. That was my point. Yesterday a Douyin video annoyed me, and obviously the author knew it was a lie.)

Check out this article below to learn a bit about the generations of AirPods to come! #airpods #apple #technologynews #futuretech #innovation #techgeneration https://smpl.is/9bavf

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🌟 From Tech Titan to Tech Trendsetter: The Rise of Jensen Huang and 'Jensanity' 🌟 🚀#NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang is making waves in the tech world, earning comparisons to none other than Taylor Swift for his remarkable influence and rockstar appeal. His presence at #Computex2024 in Taiwan showcased not just his charisma but also his profound impact on the industry. 💼 As Nvidia's market value surged past $3 trillion, Jensen Huang captivated audiences with his groundbreaking announcements and signature $9,000 Tom Ford biker jacket. His dynamic leadership and visionary approach to AI technology have placed him at the forefront of a global technological revolution. 🏆 Dubbed the "Taylor Swift of Tech," Jensen's story is one of transformative innovation and incredible success. From Taiwan to Silicon Valley, his influence is reshaping the landscape of AI and semiconductors. With Nvidia's chips driving advancements and fostering geopolitical discussions, Huang's leadership continues to be a source of immense pride and inspiration for many. 🌐 As the sole production partner for Nvidia’s leading AI chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has experienced a significant boost in shares, further emphasizing Taiwan's pivotal role in the tech industry. 📈 With Nvidia's shares skyrocketing over 200% in the past year and the company firmly planted among the world's tech giants, Jensen Huang's narrative is a testament to the unstoppable force of innovation. ⚡ In the face of challenges and investigations into big tech's market dominance, Jensen remains a beacon of progress and resilience, promising continued investment and innovation. 📢 Join us in celebrating #Jensanity and the relentless pursuit of excellence in technology. Jensen Huang’s journey is a powerful reminder that bold leadership and visionary thinking can change the world. #Semiconductors #Nvidia #TSMC #Innovation #TechNews #Leadership #JensenHuang

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🚀 AMD Instinct MI300X Outperforms NVIDIA: AI startup TensorWave endorses AMD Instinct MI300X over NVIDIA's H100 for AI tasks. 🌐 Cost-Efficient and Innovative: TensorWave integrates the cost-effective AMD Instinct MI300X, planning to deploy 20,000 units by year's end. 💾 Superior Specs: AMD Instinct MI300X boasts 192GB HBM3e memory at 5.3TB/sec, surpassing NVIDIA’s H100 and H200 in speed and capacity. 🔍 Learn More: Dive deeper into how AMD Instinct MI300X is changing the AI tech landscape. #Innovation #Tech #AMD #AI #TechSpecs #AIHardware

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https://lnkd.in/ghJBR_vf SK Hynix develops computing HBM to widen the AI memory gap for the late comers. SK Hynix is ​​entering the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market. It was discovered that a new concept, next-generation HBM with added calculation and communication functions is being developed. The strategy is to widen the gap with latecomers in the HBM market, where competition is heating up with differentiated technology and performance. Implementation of computing and network memory with systesemiconductors in HBM4, Significantly improved performance, power, size, etc. IP cooperation with fabless and foundry. #skhynix #nvidia #artificialintelligence #llms #generativeai #gpu #servers #datacenter #cloud #ai #Semiconductorindustry #electronics #semiconductor #technology #innovation #business credit: etnews

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#Taiwa ~ #Facebook - Ongoing growth of value. Meta Q1 FY 24 Meta has two business segments: FoA: Family of Apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp). RL: Reality Labs (virtual reality hardware and supporting software). FoA Daily Active People grew +7% Y/Y to 3.24 billion. Zuck called out healthy growth in the US, on WhatsApp specifically. As expected, management stopped reporting Facebook standalone numbers. 📊 Ad impressions grew +20% Y/Y (vs. +21% Y/Y in Q4). Average price per ad grew +6% Y/Y (vs. +2% Y/Y in Q4). Growth was strongest in Europe and Rest of World. The average revenue per person grew +18% Y/Y to $11.20. Higher engagement met continued strong advertising demand. For context, 💰 Operating cash flow was $19.2 billion (53% margin, +4pp Y/Y). Free cash flow was $12.5 billion (34% margin, +10pp Y/Y). Balance sheet: Cash, cash equivalent, and marketable securities: $71.5 billion. Long-term debt: $18.4 billion. 👀 Q2 FY24 revenue was $37.7 billion in the mid-range ($38.3 billion expected). FY24 expenses $96-$99 billion (previously $94-$99 billion). FY24 Capex $35-40 billion (previously $30-$37 billion). So what to make of all this? User net additions were consistent with Q4 metrics. Meta still found a way to add another 50 million users to its Family of Apps. However, it was a slight slowdown after four consecutive quarters of accelerating growth. Revenue grew +27% Y/Y in constant currency. It was another acceleration from +23% Y/Y in Q4. The usual suspects were behind ad revenue growth: The online commerce vertical was the largest contributor to year-over-year growth, followed by gaming and entertainment & media. Growth was strongest in Rest of World (40%) and Europe (33%). 💻 m Reality Labs revenue grew 30%, driven by Quest 3. The lower loss for this segment was primarily due to a favorable comp with restructuring costs last The operating margin improved following the “year of efficiency.” Meta incurred $3.5 billion in restructuring charges in FY23 (primarily facilities consolidation and employee severance costs). However, it was slightly down sequentially. 💰 Returning cash to shareholders: Stock buybacks were $15 billion in Q1, a huge increase compared to $9 billion in the prior year. Management still finds the stock attractive enough. They also paid $1.3 billion in dividends. Free cash flow hit a Q1 record, another manifestation of the year of efficiency. While Meta loses nearly $16 billion annually on Reality Labs, the company remains a cash-printing machine ($48 billion in free cash flow in the past 12 months). FY24 Capex and operating expenses were raised, primarily due to higher infrastructure investment to support the AI roadmap. Meta Facebook Taiwa - Reach made simple.

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Chinese Tech Takeover: Are DJI-Powered Drones Too Risky for the U.S.? Anzu Robotics: The American Facade Anzu Robotics, a U.S.-based startup, is making waves by selling drones equipped with technology from DJI, a Chinese firm. The New York Times reports that the company aims to appease U.S. concerns about Chinese-made drones, but its ties to China run deep. Despite being headquartered in Texas and assembling drones in Malaysia, Anzu’s drones heavily rely on Chinese parts and software. This connection raises questions about Anzu’s independence from DJI. The Chinese Connection Anzu’s CEO, Randall Warnas, revealed that DJI approached U.S. drone-industry executives, proposing a way to make DJI technology suitable for the U.S. […] by Haye Kesteloo #drone #drones #Arkansas #China #DataSecurity #DJI #DroneIndustry #Drones #Kansas #Legal #NewYork #Texas #Washington

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This may be just campaign rhetoric, but I can tell you based on living over 10 years in China, especially through the covid lockdown, on this, Biden is right. It is a topic that doesn't get enough attention, and most western people simply don't know how bad it is. Try working as the only non-Asian in a private non-education related company in China, you'll know what I mean. Even overseas Chinese often fall right back into the nationalistic collectivist group think of us versus foreigner when beneficial upon return. Shockingly, often even those who benefitted greatly from living in the US. Traveling to China for a work trip or vacation, especially if you don't speak the language, you won't understand the xenophobia. You are there for their profit. When you are there living normal life and also can understand the language, you'll know. It's always fun being called foreigner. When directed at your kids and some aiyi (middle aged woman) starts pointing them out to her grandson saying 不一样、 不一样、 不是中国人. (not the same, not the same, not Chinese - I have this recorded along with the resulting argument she had with my Chinese wife, this xenophobic lady was very aggressively sticking her finger within inches of my kids' faces and shouting "not the same, not Chinese" at them) Then you know a little more. You are not considered equal. You must be reminded you are an outsider and don't really belong. When experiencing xenophobia based discrimination or even outright racism in professional matters, then you know even more. Your contributions belong to the company, you get no credit or recognition. You are a foreigner. Do not expect fair treatment, fairness based on individuality vs that based on collectivism is not the same thing. You will never be accepted as a part of the collective, you are a foreigner. So much I could say.

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Startup Grind Tokyo, Japan – From Earth to the Stars: A Guide to Space Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Communication (English) 🚀🌌 I'm honored to join John Kojiro Moriwaka for a dynamic fireside chat on Saturday, Jul 20, 11:00 AM (Japan Time) / Friday, Jul 19, 8PM (MT) as we explore "From Earth to the Stars: Space Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Communication"! 🔗 Register now: https://lnkd.in/gjfQyKCb 🗓 Date & Time: MT: 8PM, July 19 (Friday) JT: 11AM, July 20 (Saturday) 📍 Place: Zoom Webinar (Enter the room 10 minutes early) 🎟 Admission: FREE! Reserve your ticket now. About the Event: Embark on a thrilling journey beyond our planet as we discuss space technology's economic and practical impacts on everyday life and global communication. Key takeaways include: How space technology enhances daily applications like GPS and weather prediction. The role of space innovation in achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Visionary projects like asteroid mining and solar energy harvesting from space. Strategies to increase public awareness and foster a diverse, inclusive workforce in the space sector. About Startup Grind: Founded in 2010 in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind is a global community that educates and connects entrepreneurs. With chapters in over 600 cities across 125 countries, Startup Grind hosts events and fosters a supportive environment for startups to learn, grow, and scale. I'm looking forward to this exciting discussion and hope you'll join us to explore the boundless possibilities of space technology! #SpaceInnovation #Entrepreneurship #TechAdoption #BusinessChallenges

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🌏 NVIDIA – Indonesia: Has Vietnam Really Missed Out? 😐 Many in Vietnam were likely disappointed to hear that Nvidia recently invested $200 million in Indonesia. This sentiment stems from strong statements made last year by CEO Jensen Huang in Vietnam: " This trip will definitely open up future trips. I will return to Vietnam, to NVIDIA's second homeland" 🤔 Why Shouldn't Vietnam Worry? "I would not say that Vietnam is at a disadvantage in technology investments compared to other ASEAN countries like Indonesia," says @Radomir Tomovic, managing director at Dezan Shira & Associates in Hanoi. "The opposite is true. Vietnam's deep integration in the global web of free trade agreements make it the ideal investment destination within the region." Despite ongoing challenges, Vietnam has undeniable strengths: a plentiful and relatively inexpensive workforce; increasingly improved infrastructure; and a more stable political environment than many neighboring countries. Notably, its geographical proximity to China offers significant cost savings with the China+1 strategy. "Vietnam's proximity to China and its attractiveness to China+1 supply chains, especially for industries reliant on sourcing parts from China, contribute to its appeal," writes Radomir. 🔌 With common concerns about power shortages among foreign investors, Vietnam is actively improving. It has recently sought to add more imported power sources, enhance power conservation, and deploy projects to upgrade transmission lines and the electrical grid. 🌐 Southeast Asia – Nvidia's New Market? In reality, the recent investment in Indonesia only highlights the importance of the Southeast Asian market in Nvidia's strategy. Since 2021, Nvidia has been striving to move beyond its reputation as a mere semiconductor manufacturer by launching the AI-on-5G platform - integrating AI into the 5G network to unlock new solutions with potential applications in various fields, from manufacturing automation to healthcare and smart city development. The $200 million investment in Indonesia marks Nvidia's third significant investment in the region, following partnership deals with Singtel (Singapore) and YTL (Malaysia). In Indonesia, Nvidia's partner is PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, the country's second-largest telecom group. There is no sign that its investment efforts are concluding. In Singapore, Nvidia collaborates with Singtel - a leading telecom operator - to deploy AI-driven data centers. In Malaysia, the company invested $4.3 billion in November 2023 to develop supercomputing and cloud AI infrastructure, in collaboration with YTL. Last year, Jensen Huang also explored potential collaborations with Viettel – a leading Vietnamese telecommunications group. Vietnam might still be part of Nvidia's plans. #Nvidia #VietnamEconomy #semiconductors

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Taiwan heavily using Threads was not on my social media tracking bingo card. ----- RestOfWorld: "Who’s actually using Threads? Young protesters in Taiwan Despite Meta’s promise to crack down on political content in the app, Taiwanese activists are using it to organize." (Viola Zhou) (MAY 24, 2024) "--Meta’s Threads platform has become a new gathering space for young, progressive users in Taiwan. --During the ongoing protests in Taiwan, users are calling for participation and organizing supplies on Threads. --Meta’s promise to reduce political content on its platforms is causing concerns that users will lose nascent political communities." "Threads, which had 150 million monthly active users globally by April, is doing exceptionally well in Taiwan, where it’s commonly loosely transliterated as cui — because the “th” sound doesn’t appear in Mandarin. It works like X, allowing users to post 500-character-long text posts as well as audio, photos and short videos. Despite its small population of 23 million, Taiwan had 1.88 million active users on Threads from May 5 to 11, behind only the U.S., Japan, and Brazil, according to Data.ai. While young Taiwanese users discuss everything from relationships to celebrity gossip on Threads, the app has gradually become a gathering space for progressives, who favor independence from China to defend the island’s democracy. Despite Meta’s pledges to tame down political content on its platforms, Taiwanese users are flocking to Threads specifically for that purpose. Meta did not immediately respond to a Rest of World request for comment. The Chinese government claims Taiwan to be its own territory, and has threatened to take it back by force. As President Lai Ching-te, with the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was inaugurated, opposition lawmakers from Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party, which favor a more conciliatory stance towards China, pushed for a bill to increase the parliament’s oversight over the executive branch. Young supporters of the DPP believe it to be an attempt to undermine the president’s power and Taiwan’s democracy. Thousands of people took to the streets this week, and many of them spread the news on Threads. Protestors have been using a range of apps, including Facebook, Line, and Discord, to coordinate the leaderless protests, but many have found Threads to be the most effective in connecting with people outside their own social circles. Twitter/X has never become mainstream in Taiwan. During the last major protest, the 2014 Sunflower Movement, student activists communicated through a mix of Facebook, local forums, and YouTube livestreams, participants told Rest of World. But the youth have now found those platforms to be obsolete and too conservative. “It feels like we are starting fresh on Threads,” Huang Tzu-ning, a 26-year-old education worker." RestOfWorld: https://lnkd.in/gejVuNcN #taiwan #china #socialmedia #facebook #instagram #threads

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According to The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang: “The reason why you choose something incredibly hard to do, it’s so that you can have some time to go and learn it” When things are quite easy to do, best believe that it’s obviously going to be extremely competitive. But choosing the difficult or hard part is what discourages other people to do. At the earliest phase of my career, I began to notice a certain pattern why people don’t grow beyond where they are and this was one of the major reasons. The moment I took in more responsibility and challenging myself to do beyond my current capacity, I began to see so much possibilities in this realm. People who are ready and willing to pay the price of greatness, ends up becoming the most successful people. Before you go on, ask yourself if you love that thing you’re willing to pay the price for, so you are able to endure the pain and suffering that comes with it. Have a great thought on this and enjoy the rest of your week! P.S: I've been invited to speak at Tech4Good on The Intersection of Success: Empowering People, Optimizing Costs, and Maximizing Resources. Send a mail to o.sesan@enclavehomes.com.ng if you're looking to host me as a speaker at your business or corporate event. #strategy #success #responsibility

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Sorry for the delay in last week's AI news - just got back from Taiwan and all of its Jensenity! 🔙 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 Week 42 | June 3-9 JENSENITY at Computex Industry: 🚨AMD unveiled its latest AI processors at the Computex trade show. It also detailed plans to compete with Nvidia (https://lnkd.in/ggvTrCre) 🚨 NVIDIA is said to be prepping AI PC chip with next-gen Arm cores and its Blackwell GPU architecture (https://lnkd.in/gS6Qv2rm?) Financing and M&A: 🚨 Text-to-video platform Pika raises $80M led by Spark Capital with participation from Greycroft, Lightspeed, and others (https://pika.art/blog) 🚨 Twelve Labs, a leader in the multi-modal foundational model space, raised $50m led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and nVentures. The platform is being used by companies in the media & entertainment, advertising and automotive sectors (https://lnkd.in/gvwRkxAr) 🚨 Tektonic AI raises $10m led by Point72 and Madrona to build AI agents to help automate business operations. CEO Nic Surpatanu previously held leadership roles at Tanium, UiPath and Microsoft (https://lnkd.in/gGfxiNW6?). 🚨 Hoop, a next-generation task management platform, raises $5M seed round from Index Ventures 🚨 Greptile raises $4m seed round for code understanding (https://lnkd.in/gDF8MD-C?) 🚨 Cartwheel, a generative 3d animation tool raises $5.6m seed led by Accel and KV Research & Development: 🚨 Qwen2 from Alibaba launched. According to internal released benchmarks, the language model demonstrates superior performance over Llama3-70B and Mixtral 8x22B (https://lnkd.in/gEJi2shn?) 🚨LlamaCare: A Large Medical Language Model for Enhancing Healthcare Knowledge Sharing (https://lnkd.in/g44Q8Pyv?) Other Interesting Resources: 🚨 A good article on robotics in the new wave of LLMs and foundational models. Highly recommend a quick read through for anyone interested in robotics (https://lnkd.in/gn5gbrTR) 🚨Interesting article from John Luttig from Founders Fund on open-source vs. closed-source 🚨Interesting article from Anthropic on Claude's character based on Anthropic's constitutional AI (https://lnkd.in/gK43G7kF?) 🚨Jensen keynote address at Computex: https://lnkd.in/g_eBy-he

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Silicon Valley Ventures supports fast-growing startups in Japan and abroad, as well as large corporations, venture capital firms, CVCs, financial institutions, accelerators, universities, and governments. Japan Market Entry Support: 1) Localization of Marketing Materials 2) Branding Strategy for SNS and Media 3) Marketing: Promoting your services 4) Partnership: Introduction to business partners and employees 5) Investment: Introduction to investors

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Apple said to be working on custom AI server chip based on TSMC's 3nm process Main Points: Apple is reportedly developing its own custom #AI #server processor, aiming for mass production by the second half of 2025. The #chip will be fabricated using TSMC's 3nm process, promising significant improvements in energy efficiency and performance. Unlike other tech firms focusing on server-based AI services, Apple prioritizes on-device AI solutions, aligning with its commitment to user privacy. Future Apple devices may integrate substantial Neural Processing Unit (NPU) components to accelerate #machinelearning algorithms locally. The custom AI chip could enhance Apple's vertical integration strategy, similar to its approach with Apple Silicon chips. to read the article: https://lnkd.in/deTMG9Ac

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When founders raise money, they focus on valuation when they should be focusing on the terms: https://lnkd.in/gM3mWZpA John Sung Kim Chang (CK) Kim #startupswithseoul

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