$Alphabet(GOOG)$ A summary of the Morgan Stanley Conference from a couple of days ago. Not too much groundbreaking information that wasn't already discussed in the Q4 earnings call.
1. Looking into developing and incorporating AI into search for it to be more human like and more 'Conversational.' There are plans for Google Search to incorporate lens features. For example, taking a picture of a bike with immediate suggestions asking, "How do I fix this" or "What model is this bicycle?"
2. Further development of Google Cloud with the introduction of productivity tools. The acquisition of Mandiant will also increase its security, thus its USP and market share.
3. Specific improvements are being made constantly to the retail search category. This will result in user growth, higher merchant spending, and more overall transactions per customer. This is done through connecting users to merchants better in building an open ecosystem with partners such as Shopify and Square.
4. The increase in capex the last year involved investments in data centres, offices, and their move to hire talent aggressively. Also, more share repurchasing is to be expected in the future.
5. As for Waymo, more progress is being made in SF in attempts to get through regulation and tests, while tests have also begun in NY. There was also a brief announcement of Waymo Via, as they plan to venture into the logistics space in the future as well.
6. Finally, they touched on Alphabet's position in emerging markets, specifically India and Africa. There continues to be large sums of investments in those regions to secure the next billion users (Eg. $10b India digitisation fund to build digital ecosystems, and $1b investment in Africa).