Day: August 23, 2021

IBM – IBM Unveils On-Chip Accelerated Artificial Intelligence Processor

Written by admin on . Posted in IBM, Stock Report.

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — At the annual Hot Chips conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled details of the upcoming new IBM Telum Processor, designed to bring deep learning inference to enterprise workloads to help address fraud in real-time. Telum is IBM’s first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for AI inferencing while a transaction is taking place. Three years in development, the breakthrough of this new on-chip hardware acceleration is designed to help customers achieve business insights at scale across banking, finance, trading, insurance applications and customer interactions. A Telum-based system is planned for the first half of 2022.


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A “flythrough” of IBM Telum. Each chip contains 8 processor cores with a deep super-scalar out-of-order instruction pipeline, running with more than 5GHz clock frequency, optimized for the demands of heterogenous enterprise class workloads. The completely redesigned cache and chip-interconnection infrastructure provides 32MB cache per core, and allows clients to scale up to 32 chips. The dual-chip module design contains 22 billion transistors and 19 miles of wire on 17 metal layers.
A “flythrough” of IBM Telum. Each chip contains 8 processor cores with a deep super-scalar out-of-order instruction pipeline, running with more than 5GHz clock frequency, optimized for the demands of heterogenous enterprise class workloads. The completely redesigned cache and chip-interconnection infrastructure provides 32MB cache per core, and allows clients to scale up to 32 chips. The dual-chip module design contains 22 billion transistors and 19 miles of wire on 17 metal layers.
A collection of IBM Telum 7nm processors on a silicon wafer. Telum is IBM’s first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for AI workloads, designed to bring deep learning inference to enterprise workloads to help address fraud in real-time. Credit: Connie Zhou for IBM.
A collection of IBM Telum 7nm processors on a silicon wafer. Telum is IBM’s first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for AI workloads, designed to bring deep learning inference to enterprise workloads to help address fraud in real-time. Credit: Connie Zhou for IBM.

According to recent Morning Consult research commissioned by IBM, 90% of respondents said that being able to build and run AI projects wherever their data resides is important1. IBM Telum is designed to enable applications to run efficiently where the data resides, helping to overcome traditional enterprise AI approaches that tend to require significant memory and data movement capabilities to handle inferencing. With Telum, the accelerator in close proximity to mission critical data and applications means that enterprises can conduct high volume inferencing for real time sensitive transactions without invoking off platform AI solutions, which may impact performance. Clients can also build and train AI models off-platform, deploy and infer on a Telum-enabled IBM system for analysis.

Innovations across banking, finance, trading, insurance

Today, businesses typically apply detection techniques to catch fraud after it occurs, a process that can be time consuming and compute-intensive due to the limitations of today’s technology, particularly when fraud analysis and detection is conducted far away from mission critical transactions and data. Due to latency requirements, complex fraud detection often cannot be completed in real-time – meaning a bad actor could have already successfully purchased goods with a stolen credit card before the retailer is aware fraud has taken place.

According to the Federal Trade Commission’s 2020 Consumer Sentinel Network Databook, consumers reported losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020, up from $1.8 billion in 20192. Telum can help clients to move their thinking from a fraud detection posture to a fraud prevention posture, evolving from catching many cases of fraud today, to a potentially new era of prevention of fraud at scale, without impacting service level agreements (SLAs), before the transaction is completed.

The new chip features an innovative centralized design, which allows clients to leverage the full power of the AI processor for AI-specific workloads, making it ideal for financial services workloads like fraud detection, loan processing, clearing and settlement of trades, anti-money laundering and risk analysis. With these new innovations, clients will be positioned to enhance existing rules-based fraud detection or use machine learning, accelerate credit approval processes, improve customer service and profitability, identify which trades or transactions may fail, and propose solutions to create a more efficient settlement process.

Telum and IBM’s Full Stack Approach to Chip Design

Telum follows IBM’s long heritage of innovative design and engineering that includes hardware and software co-creation and integration that spans silicon, system, firmware, operating systems and leading software frameworks.

The chip contains 8 processor cores with a deep super-scalar out-of-order instruction pipeline, running with more than 5GHz clock frequency, optimized for the demands of heterogenous enterprise class workloads. The completely redesigned cache and chip-interconnection infrastructure provides 32MB cache per core, and can scale to 32 Telum chips. The dual-chip module design contains 22 billion transistors and 19 miles of wire on 17 metal layers.

Leadership in semiconductors

Telum is the first IBM chip with technology created by the IBM Research AI Hardware Center. In addition, Samsung is IBM’s technology development partner for the Telum processor, developed in 7nm EUV technology node.

Telum is another example of IBM’s leadership in hardware technology. IBM Research, among the world’s largest industrial research organizations, recently announced scaling to the 2 nm node, the latest benchmark in IBM’s legacy of contributions to silicon and semiconductor innovation. In Albany, NY, home to the IBM AI Hardware Center and Albany Nanotech Complex, IBM Research has created a leading collaborative ecosystem with public-private industry players to fuel advances in semiconductor research, helping to address global manufacturing demands and accelerate the growth of the chip industry.

For more information please visit www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/capabilities/real-time-analytics.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

About IBM

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.

For more information, visit www.ibm.com

Media Contact:
Elizabeth Banta
IBM Systems
[email protected]
732-996-4159

1 Morning Consult – Global AI Adoption Index 2021
2 United States Federal Trade Commission, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/02/new-data-shows-ftc-received-2-2-million-fraud-reports-consumers  

SOURCE IBM

Related Links

https://www.ibm.com/

TSLA – Tesla Is Developing A Robot. If Combined With Neuralink, It May Have Revolutionary Healthcare Applications

Written by Sai Balasubramanian M.D. J.D. on . Posted in Stock Report, TSLA.

Elon Musk and his companies have a commitment to fearless innovation. The incredible accomplishments that his companies have achieved include cutting-edge electric vehicles with Tesla, next-generation space-flight capabilities with SpaceX, and the development of critical brain-machine interfaces with Neuralink, to name a few.

Musk’s most recent announcement was on behalf of Tesla, and was yet another ode to fearless innovation. Last week, during Tesla’s much anticipated “AI Day,” an event meant to showcase the company’s revolutionary strides in artificial intelligence technology, Musk announced the next frontier for the company: developing the Tesla Bot.

As described by the company, the Tesla Bot will be a “general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring.”

Elon Musk described the project in detail: “Basically, if you think about what we’re doing right now with the cars, Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company…because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels. With the full self-driving computer, the inference engine on the car (which will keep evolving, obviously), Dojo, and all the neural nets recognizing the world, understanding how to navigate through the world, it kind of makes sense to put that onto a humanoid form.” Musk described the purpose behind this bot, atleast initially: “it’s intended to be friendly of course, and navigate through a world built for humans and eliminate dangerous repetitive and boring tasks.” Musk also explained that a useful humanoid robot should be able to navigate the world without being explicitly trained step-by-step, and instead, should be able to perform advanced tasks with cognitive understanding of simple commands, such as “pick up groceries.”

But the potential applications go far beyond just picking up groceries. Indeed, the technology may play an important role in healthcare.

One basic example is home health, a massive yet often overlooked aspect of healthcare. For many patients, healthcare at their home is not only a comfort, but a critical need. When it comes to monitoring critically ill patients closely, one cannot replace a trained medical professional. However, there may be scope for a cognitively advanced robotic companion that may be able to help with basic tasks, or more importantly, alert the appropriate authorities as needed, in case of emergencies.

But perhaps the most obvious application entails integration with Elon Musk’s already revolutionary initiative in the healthcare space, Neuralink. I’ve written previously about Neuralink’s groundbreaking progress in developing brain-machine interfaces and how there’s growing interest in the company’s revolutionary technology. Indeed, one of the company’s main applications for its technology is to help people with paralysis “regain independence through the control of computers and mobile devices.” Specifically, the company is attempting to develop “a fully-implanted, wireless, high-channel count brain-machine interface (BMI) with the goal of enabling people with paralysis to directly use their neural activity to operate computers and mobile devices with speed and ease.”

The company has achieved quite a bit of success on this front. Most recently, it demonstrated how the Neuralink technology enabled a monkey to successfully play “MindPong,” controlling the video game with only its thoughts.

If Neuralink is indeed able to perfect this technology, and Tesla is able to create a humanoid bot that can correspond with a patient using Neuralink, it may provide important medical applications for paralysis patients and others. Furthermore, this may extend the scope of these two technologies beyond purely medical needs, such as powering and commanding a humanoid bot using only one’s thoughts. Though this idea may have seemed far-fetched just a year ago, these two separate initiatives by Musk are attempting to bring it to fruition very soon.

Although there is still much work needed to be done with both Neuralink and Tesla’s AI powered bot, the applications for these technologies independently and together are both revolutionary and endless. Time will tell as to the efficacy, safety, and scalability of these innovations. However, if perfected, they may redefine healthcare for generations to come.

BLK – BlackRock Japan hires former BOJ member Masai to board

Written by Reuters Staff on . Posted in BLK, Stock Report.

By Reuters Staff

1 Min Read

FILE PHOTO: Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) new board member Takako Masai attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, June 30, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

TOKYO (Reuters) – BlackRock Japan said on Monday it was hiring former Bank of Japan policymaker Takako Masai as an external board member, effective Tuesday.

Masai served as the sole female member of the central bank’s nine-member board for five years until June.

Reporting by Leika Kihara

MSFT – What Microsoft's Office Price Increase Means for Investors

Written by Adam Levy on . Posted in MSFT, Stock Report.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced the first price increase for its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions since the subscription offering was first introduced more than a decade ago. In its announcement, Microsoft pointed out all the additional value it’s added to the software suite over the last 10 years, justifying its price increase. Indeed, new services such as Microsoft Teams have become invaluable for many workplaces in the work-from-home era.

Microsoft’s decision to raise its pricing should show up on both the top and bottom lines. Here’s what investors can expect.

A display on the wall features three people and meeting slides.

Microsoft Teams, a 2017 addition to the Microsoft 365 suite. Image source: Microsoft.

What exactly is changing?

Microsoft is specifically changing the commercial pricing for Microsoft 365 and Office 365. Consumer pricing isn’t changing at all, so if you subscribe to the service personally, you won’t see any change in your monthly or annual bill from Microsoft. The new commercial pricing won’t go into effect until March 1, 2022.

Service Tier

Current Monthly Price Per User

Monthly Price Per User 3/1/2022

Percent Increase

Microsoft 365 Business Basic

$5

$6

20%

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

$20

$22

10%

Office 365 E1

$8

$10

25%

Office 365 E3

$20

$23

15%

Office 365 E5

$35

$38

8.6%

Microsoft 365 E3

$32

$36

12.5%

Data source: Microsoft.

The price increases will affect the 300 million commercial Office 365 and Microsoft 365 paid seats. But they won’t all see the price increase at once. Microsoft locks in long-term contracts with businesses, so the full impact probably won’t show up until well into fiscal 2023.

What kind of impact can investors expect?

When the price increase is fully rolled out, the 300 million existing subscribers will be paying at least $1 more per month, but $2 or $3 in most cases. Also consider that the price increases for the lower tiers of service are more substantial (on a percentage basis) than the higher tiers. That could push more businesses to opt for higher-tier services, producing further revenue growth.

Subscriber churn shouldn’t be a huge concern for Microsoft. Not only is this its only price increase in the history of the service, but it also has a moat around its software suite. No business wants to spend hours retraining its workforce on a competing product, and it’s standard across industries to use Microsoft’s Office suite. So the potential to lose revenue from churn is minimal.

An average increase of $2 per user would translate into $7.2 billion in additional revenue. That’s on top of any organic subscriber growth the company can produce. For reference, Office 365 Commercial’s revenue increased 25% year over year in the fourth quarter. And during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, CEO Satya Nadella said it’s seeing double-digit year-over-year seat growth across every segment.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives expects the price increase to produce $5 billion in additional revenue in fiscal 2022.

Importantly, the increased revenue should provide a substantial boost to profits. Microsoft isn’t planning to add anything more to the suite than it already has. The operating costs won’t increase any more substantially compared with the old pricing. As such, the bulk of that revenue increase will flow to Microsoft’s bottom line.

Microsoft produced an operating income of nearly $70 billion in fiscal 2021. Adding $4 billion or $5 billion in additional operating income with just a price increase is a 6% or 7% increase in operating income. And don’t forget the service is continuing to grow subscriptions. As such, the price increase should compound earnings growth for the tech stock for years to come.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. We’re motley! Questioning an investing thesis — even one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

XBI – Small-Cap Biotech Stocks Are Having a Rough Year, But That Could Change in a Heartbeat

Written by The Daily Upside on . Posted in Stock Report, XBI.

While the world’s leading biotech companies — churning out Covid-19 vaccines and treatments — have hit record share prices, their small-cap rivals have been sinking. But some analysts say the latest figures suggest a bargain in the sector.

Alone In The Red

Pfizer’s share price hit a record high for the first time in 20 years this month, topping $48, while vaccine partner BioNTech and rival vaccine producer Moderna have witnessed triple-digit gains in 2021. But all that success overshadows the struggles of other biotech stocks:

  • While the Nasdaq Biotech Index is up 8.7% this year, that’s mostly thanks to Moderna’s triple-digit growth. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, which gives equal weighting to companies (offering a more complete picture of small caps), has fallen 13%.
  • The healthcare sector is the only sector in the red this year on the Russell 2000 Index, which tracks small-cap stocks across several industries. Small-cap healthcare stocks are down 8.7%, while utilities are up 3.8%, energy 11.9%, real estate 14.5%, financials 19%, and consumer services an impressive 25.2%.

Playing Catch-Up: Many analysts, however, think the tide could turn soon for underperforming biotechs. That’s because, historically, successes at larger biotech companies have been followed by the emergence of smaller rivals, as was the case following downturns in 2015 and 2018. “This is like being a kid in a candy store,” Federated Hermes senior portfolio manager Tom Brakel told Bloomberg News of bargain biotech stock prices.

Next Up: One name that’s already popped is Cassava Sciences. The company, which reported positive results for Alzheimer’s treatment trials, has grown 1,500% this year after bigger rival Biogen earned FDA approval for its own treatment. Others poised for potential growth include Syros Pharmaceuticals, which will release new cancer treatment data later this year, and Karuna Therapeutic, which has had promising trials of a new schizophrenia drug.

PTON – Peloton Interactive Shares: $130 Target From MKM Partners

Written by admin on . Posted in PTON, Stock Report.

  • The shares of Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ: PTON) have received a price target of $130 from MKM Partners. These are the details.

The shares of Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ: PTON) have received a price target of $130 from MKM Partners. And MKM Partners analyst Rohit Kulkarni is maintaining a “Buy” rating on the shares ahead of the fourth-quarter earnings results happening this coming week.

Kulkarni had raised the price target from $110. And Kulkarni noted that innovation and execution at Peloton are continuing to improve through a series of recent positive developments such as the Precor acquisition, a corporate wellness program expansion, and the Australia launch.

In recent news, the Peloton app appears to hint that the company is developing a rowing machine. This was discovered by 9to5Google.com – which reverse-engineered the app following the latest Android update. The potential rowing machine product would also feature scenic rides just like the cycling videos.

Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes. Before making any investment, you should do your own analysis.

UBER – Woolworths, Uber Eats join hands to meet same-hour delivery demand

Written by Reuters on . Posted in Stock Report, UBER.

Aug 23 (Reuters) – Woolworths Group (WOW.AX), Australia’s biggest supermarket chain, said on Monday it is teaming up with Uber Eats (UBER.N) for same-hour grocery deliveries to meet the unprecedented demand centred around speed and convenience amid the pandemic.

Woolworths’ locations will be available on the Uber Eats app from the last week of August for account holders based in Sydney and Melbourne before expanding across the eastern seaboard in the following weeks, the supermarket chain said.

Consumer demand for home delivery has grown throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and risen even further during stringent lockdowns, the ride-share service’s Eats platform said.

Uber Eats will also become a delivery option for customers ordering through the Woolworths website, with Uber providing delivery solutions to the supermarket chain’s existing online retail operations, Woolworths said.

Reporting by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SNOW – Snowflake Shares: $290 Target From Piper Sandler

Written by admin on . Posted in SNOW, Stock Report.

  • The shares of Snowflake Inc (NYSE: SNOW) have received a $290 price target from Piper Sandler. These are the details.

The shares of Snowflake Inc (NYSE: SNOW) have received a $290 price target from Piper Sandler. And Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin is maintaining an “Overweight” rating on the shares.

Bracelin noted that the intraday selloff in shares of Snowflake on fears of moderating growth metrics on elongating sales cycles can be considered overdone.

Even though the remaining performance obligation growth could moderate to 144% during the second quarter from a prior four-quarter average of 218%, Bracelin said that this is solely a function of a tough comparison due to the company closing its first eight-figure contract a year ago.

Bracelin believes this is not reflective of elongating sales cycles and is inevitable as the remaining performance obligation (RPO) approaches multi-billion levels. And Bracelin’s data-driven analysis in the last 30 days shows growing popularity and meaningful new plans to re-platform onto Snowflake at Ansys, Baxter, Kimberly Clark, Labcorp, T-Mobile, Traveler’s, and Williams Sonoma.

Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes. Before making any investment, you should do your own analysis.

HOOD – Robinhood To Give Cash To New Clients

Written by PYMNTS on . Posted in HOOD, Stock Report.

Robinhood, the low-cost brokerage some critics say has gamified stock trading so much that new investors may not realize they’re risking losing real money, has scheduled what the company is calling a “$100,000 summer giveaway sweepstakes” to attract new clients, according to an announcement.

Participants in the program don’t have to join Robinhood or use its services to qualify as contenders for one of 200 $500 prizes. They need only to apply for Robinhood brokerage accounts and link their bank accounts to Robinhood or refer someone else who applies successfully for a Robinhood account and links a bank account, the announcement stated.

Winners will be notified by Sept. 16, according to the announcement. They will then have 30 days to claim their cash rewards. They can invest the funds immediately or withdraw them as cash after 30 days.

Robinhood’s new promotional campaign comes less than after a week after the company released its first set of second fiscal quarter financial results since going public.

Read more: Robinhood Says More Than 60 Pct Of Funded Accounts Traded Crypto

Net cumulative funded accounts grew to 22.5 million from 9.8 million a year ago. Assets under custody grew to $102 billion year over year from $33 billion. Monthly active users increased to 21.3 million from 10.2 million a year ago. Total net revenue increased to $565 million from $560 million expected.

Crypto-related revenues surged to $233 million of the total $451 million in the transaction-related top line, a marked increase from the $5 million in crypto transaction-related sales seen a year ago.

The company warned that moving ahead, “for the three months ended September 30, 2021, we expect seasonal headwinds and lower trading activity across the industry to result in lower revenues and considerably fewer new funded accounts than in the prior quarter.”

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NEW PYMNTS DATA: 58 PERCENT OF MULTINATIONAL FIRMS ARE USING CRYPTOCURRENCY

 About: In spite of their price volatility and regulatory uncertainty, new PYMNTS research shows that 58 percent of multinational firms are already using at least one form of cryptocurrency — especially when moving funds across borders. The new Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Global Business survey, a PYMNTS and Circle collaboration, polls 500 executives looks at the potential and the pitfalls facing crypto as it moves into the financial mainstream.



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PSFE – Paysafe Acquires Germany's viafintech, Boosts Its Alternative Banking, Payment Solutions

Written by PYMNTS on . Posted in PSFE, Stock Report.

Specialized payments platform Paysafe will be acquiring Germany-based viafintech, which offers the biggest bank-independent payments structure in the DACH region (Austria, Germany and Swizerland), according to a press release.

Viafintech operates under the brands Barzahlen/viacash and viacash and offers an alternative to traditional banks, the release stated.

By acquiring viafintech, Paysafe will gain the ability to grow more in Germany as well as create more revenue-generating opportunities, being able to cross-sell viafintech’s products for alternative banking solutions to merchants globally, according to the release.

Viafintech, which was founded in 2011, integrates with digital banking apps to provide a way for customers to make deposits or withdraw cash from digital bank accounts at retail stores, much like an ATM would allow, the release stated.

“We are very excited to welcome a star player like viafintech into the Paysafe family,” said Udo Müller, CEO of Paysafe eCash and Open Banking, in the release. “We believe the team are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the shift away from the legacy banking system in Germany and beyond as more and more challenger banks enter the market and consumers opt to use mobile-based solutions for banking and payments.”

Meanwhile, viafintech Co-Founder and Managing Director Sebastian Seifert said in the release that the move “will enable us to build on our business achievements to date and accelerate our future growth as Europe’s No. 1, non-banking, cash-in/cash-out infrastructure, further fueling the shift away from legacy banking and driving more financial inclusion in general.”

This month, Paysafe also acquired SafetyPay, a Latin American digital payments platform. The company was founded in 2007 and lets eCommerce transactions happen at cash collection points, using open banking and eCash offerings.

Read more: Paysafe Plans To Buy eCommerce Payment Platform SafetyPay

The acquisition will help Paysafe establish more of a foothold in the region following the deal to acquire Peruvian payment service PagoEfectivo.

——————————

NEW PYMNTS DATA: 58 PERCENT OF MULTINATIONAL FIRMS ARE USING CRYPTOCURRENCY

 About: In spite of their price volatility and regulatory uncertainty, new PYMNTS research shows that 58 percent of multinational firms are already using at least one form of cryptocurrency — especially when moving funds across borders. The new Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Global Business survey, a PYMNTS and Circle collaboration, polls 500 executives looks at the potential and the pitfalls facing crypto as it moves into the financial mainstream.



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