Artificial Intelligence

We’re updating our estimates for stand-alone smart speakers and tuning our model based on more historical sales figures. Bottom line: this market remains in high growth mode. We estimate more than one-third of all US households will have a smart…

Apple is in talks to acqui-hire the team of a well-known self-driving vehicle startup, Drive.ai, according to The Information. The company has raised $77M and was last valued around $200M. In our view, Apple is not after brand or even…

Apple begins its annual developer conference on Monday. We think that most of the headlines around the announcements are widely known, so we’re preemptively shifting from “preview” mode to “take away” mode. History suggests investor disappointment will follow the event…

Google shares traded off ~7% in after-hours trading after reporting soft top-line results and expectations for continued FX headwinds. Separately, deceleration of paid clicks growth from 66% to 39% is likely viewed as a directional negative, given the preference toward…

This piece marks the first in a quarterly series to track the progress of frontier tech, as measured by the Loup Frontier Tech Index. The index tracks the performance of publicly-traded companies that influence the future of technology including AI,…

AT&T recently rolled out a limited 5G Evolution (5GE) network in Minneapolis in combination with its sponsorship of the Final Four. We tested the network and found only modest improvements in network speeds. Given AT&T’s 5GE marketing hype, we’re disappointed…

Bloomberg recently reported that Amazon is planning an Alexa-based rival to Apple’s AirPods in an attempt to get Alexa out of the home and into the world. Thus far, Amazon’s device efforts have been muted because they don’t own an…

We have done extensive research on which smart speaker is best. The ability to understand users, correctly answer their questions, and deliver responses in natural sounding speech is usually summed up by one word: intelligence. The IQ of the assistant…

Tim Cook commented in a recent interview that their impact on health will be “Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind.” While “greatest contribution” doesn’t necessarily mean “biggest business,” it may mean Apple would pursue a path toward improving primary healthcare by…

The Loup Frontier Tech Index tracks the performance of publicly-traded companies that influence the future of technology including AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, computer perception, and virtual and augmented reality. We will be publishing periodic pieces, to highlight specific companies in…

The 5G hype has already begun, but investors underappreciate the opportunity that it represents for most tech companies. Apple has four initiatives that will materially benefit from 5G: iPhone, augmented reality, healthcare, and autonomous vehicles. In our view, Apple will…

Shares of NVDA are trading up 5% after hours, as final results for Jan-19 were in-line with the disappointing pre-announcement. While we are believers in the Nvidia story and expect the company to be one of the more notable winners…