Month: January 2021

Two trends are intersecting that are causing humans to doubt their intelligence. Firstly, the increasing application of mathematical techniques to a growing number of fields traditionally outside the reach of maths departments. Secondly, the increasing ability of artificial intelligence to solve mathematical challenges. Together, they are increasing concern that, at some point in the future, artificial intelligence will be able to make better decisions and understand the world better than human brains ever could.

ARK Invest, led by perhaps the world’s most famous Tesla bull Cathy Wood, has had an incredible few years. They have created some of the world’s most popular ETFs and positioned themselves as on the forefront of the biggest innovations the world will see over the coming decades. In this Big Ideas report, the ARK Invest team drill down into some of these technology mega trends that they think will lead to big investment opportunities in the coming decades.

Palantir may be one of the most controversial companies in the world today. The software company has made a name for itself by taking incredibly complex data sets and making them usable for companies and governments around the world. Famously, Palantir has been embedded with the US Military in operations across both Iraq and Afghanistan and worked for years with the CIA to help make sense of complex data coming from intelligence reports and soldiers in the field.

A battle over the future direction of the internet is being waged in the boardrooms of two of the internet’s biggest companies. In the ring are Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. For years, the internet business model has been simple - gather as much data as possible about users and sell that data to third parties, mainly advertisers. Apple, led by Tim Cook, are looking to change that.

If you’ve been following the financial news this week, you’ve heard about GameStop. The struggling game retailer, owner of Australia’s EB Games, has been on the decline for years as more and more gamers have moved to buying games digitally rather than in bricks and mortar stores.

When we look back on the 2010’s, we’ll lament the lost time. The opportunity cost of the time wasted as climate denialists held up the policy process and stopped governments around the world from tackling the underlying causes of climate change head on. However as we enter the 2020’s, there is some good news.

$600,000 per minute. That is how much revenue Amazon makes. Over the past ten years it has grown its revenue from $27 billion to $347 billion. Not only is it the #1 player in eCommerce but it is the world’s largest cloud service provider. This article makes the case that this is just the beginning. Amazon may be well on its way to becoming a multi-trillion dollar conglomerate.

Chances are you haven’t heard of him. YouTube’s highest paid earner in 2020, Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), made $24 million from YouTube last year. This is the story of how he cracked the YouTube algorithm and amassed almost 52 million subscribers.

President Obama was often told he should spend more time with Congress and have a drink with Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. “Why don’t YOU get a drink with Mitch McConnell” was his joking response. The lack of a personal relationship between the two leaders made it difficult for Obama to break through the Congressional gridlock and get things done in his second term.