To The Moon

American chipmaker Nvidia Inc's ($NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$) earnings release for Q3 2024 (or "FY 2025" in their reporting convention) wasn't expected to be a disappointment and it certainly wasn't: adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.81 cents against an expectation of $0.75 while revenue ran at $35.08 billion versus an expectation of $33.16 billion.  However, the share price instantly plunged 2% in after-hours trading and an overall "deceleration" in share price growth is being implied. The reasons for this are somewhat complex.  Trend Drilldown In terms of revenue, the company's line item trends have plenty to cheer. As one drills down through different layers, however, there is some signs of dampening.  Note: The a

Chinese “pure play” electric vehicle carmaker NIO Inc. ($NIO Inc.(NIO)$ or $NIO Inc.(NIO.SI)$ ) — a long-touted “Tesla Killer” — announced its second quarter (Q2) earnings for its Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 on the 5th of September. By no means was the stock a massive earner in the Year Till Date (YTD) until then. However, the stock had risen by a massive 47.35% from a month before the earnings release. Since the release and as of the 11th, the stock has held steady. Early trends for the 12th indicate a significant downturn in the single-digit percentage range. Interestingly, the bulk of the price accrual seen in the American Depositary Share (ADS) noticeably occurred during the first week of Se

Leading AI-relevant chipmaker Nvidia Inc's (ticker: $NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$) earnings for its second quarter (Q2) beat analysts' consensus estimates by delivering $30.04 billion versus an expectation of $28.7 billion and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.68 versus an expectation of $0.64. Despite projecting $32.5 billion in revenue over the current quarter versus expectations of $31.7 billion and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress expressing confidence in the company being able to several billion dollars in value of its next-generation Blackwell products (currently being tested as samples) in its fourth quarter, the company's stock dropped by 8% in extended trading. When markets opened, the stock fell another 6.38%.

Over the course of the second quarter (Q2) of the calendar year, a number of institutional investors – with Scion Asset Management run by Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame finding particular mention in the media – loaded up on shares of China search giant Baidu, Inc ( $Baidu(BIDU)$ in the U.S.; $BIDU-SW(09888)$ in HK) as it floundered. The stock has notably not been doing well over the course of the Year Till Date (YTD) and its Q2 earnings were decidedly mixed: while revenue did drop on a quarter-on-quarter basis by 0.4%, it delivered ¥33.93 billion ($4.67 billion) as opposed to analysts' average estimate of ¥33.55 billion.  There are likely several factors behind the uptick in share "buy-i

In 2019, Jack Ma, the "chief founder" of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (ticker: $Alibaba(BABA)$), Jack Ma, stepped down as chairman and gave way to co-founder Daniel Zhang Yong who rapidly went on to be enter the roster of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in 2020. Alibaba's sprawling business empire was long considered to be driven by those in the chairman's seat. This, however, changed in April 2023 when the company announced that it will split into 6 units - each of which will managed by its own CEO and board of directors. These units will be free to pursue independent fundraising and a public listing. Taiwanese-Canadian lawyer and long-time Hong Kong resident Joseph Chung-Hsin Tsai – who left a $700,000-a-year job with Sweden's Walle

San Jose-headquartered Super Micro Computer, Inc ($SUPER MICRO COMPUTER INC(SMCI)$ ) - better known as "Supermicro" - had been in operation for a long time and was relatively unmarkable in that it was just one of a number of companies building servers and storage systems for computing hardware (among other server-related areas). The company doesn't manufacture chips, per se, but rather assembles the server around a chipmaker's products in the most efficient manner. The founder, Charles Liang, holds several patents in server technology and the company went on to become one of the largest producers of high-performance and high-efficiency servers. His wife was the treasurer until 2019 (she remains on the board of directors) and his brothers run

Denver-based Palantir, Inc ($Palantir Technologies Inc.(PLTR)$) released its Q2 earnings after markets closed on the 5th of August. While analysts had estimated earnings per share (EPS) at $0.08 on revenue of $653 million, the company's actual EPS of $0.09 were earned on the back of revenues of $678 million. Immediately following the earnings, the stock surged during both extended trading on the 5th as well as early trading on the 6th. On the 6th alone, it closed 10% higher. As it stands, trends as of the first half (H1) of the year have several milestones seemingly on the verge of being made.  Trend Drilldown 2023 was a transformative year for the company's fortunes, with H1 2024 performance showing early trends

It has been a while since Amazon.com, Inc ($Amazon.com(AMZN)$) went from being an "e-commerce company with a quirky cloud computing effort" to a "cloud computing company with a costly e-commerce gig and a content business thrown in". In 2023, the company advanced on its plans to shake the status quo by: building outreach to independent third-party merchants by and their customers by offering additional services such as "Fulfillment by Amazon" (FBA) in a bid to stymie the likes of Shopify; capturing market share away from Google and Meta Platforms in the business of online advertising (after all, Amazon is a sellers' platform); continuing to make their content business the means of converting shoppers to subscribers and vice versa. Early in the mor

Over the past few years, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc ($Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$) has always been a beat or two behind its ostensible cousin Nvidia (with their respective founders being literal cousins). AMD's latest earnings release for Q2 2024 posted modest gains against analysts' consensus expectations by posting revenues of $5.84 billion for the quarter versus an expectation of $5.72 billion and with earnings per share (EPS) of $0.69 (adjusted) versus an expectation of $0.68.  The modest gain over expectations indicates that the company's growth was largely predictable and well in line with its ongoing transformation to becoming yet another Nvidia.  Trend Drilldown As early as 2021, AMD was driven by being both a long-sta

On the 18th of July, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company ( $Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM)$), the principal foundry for both Nvidia ($NVIDIA Corp(NVDA)$) and AMD ($Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)$) chips, announced its Q2 results. At 673.51 billion New Taiwan dollars (NT$) in revenue versus expectations of NT$657.58 billion and a net income of NT$247.85 billion versus an expectation of NT$238.8 billion, it could be argued there is cause for cheer. However, an increasing number of investors have concerns for the sector as a whole.  Trend Drilldown At first blush, the line item trends for the first six months of 2024 are generally positive