Themes

Ford’s re-org was an effort to excite investors about the company’s progress in EVs. The plan would have been better received if there was formal split of the company. Big picture: there’s lots of optimism around EVs and it will…

Gene, Doug and Andrew discuss: Most of the major U.S. tech companies are finding a way to lend a hand in Eastern Europe. The multiple examples all underscore government’s need to be cozy with Big Tech. After a few year…

Takeaways: There were reports that TSLA has plans to increase its China production from 1.1M to 2M vehicles/year. As a point of comparison, VW expected to be able to produce 1M EVs in China in 2023. Bottom line is: China is…

Gene and Doug discuss: How a global launch of Facebook Reels will further the company’s aim to rival TikTok. While TikTok has a greater pool of content creators, Facebook better understands its users’ network of friends which could be an…

Gene and Doug discuss: How the U.S Senate’s bipartisan Open App Markets Act (S. 2710) will impact our digital ecosystem. The bill was passed with a 20-2 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and aims to penalize developers with what…

Gene is joined by Justin Barrett (CEO/Co-Founder, Eyesafe), David Friess (VP of Global Medical Affairs, STAAR Surgical) and John Ryan (CEO, Vision Plans at Unitedhealth Group) to discuss the harmful effects of blue light emitted from our digital devices and…

Amazon and Visa find a way forward. The two have reached a global resolution after a months-long dispute over processing fees. In November, Amazon threatened to stop accepting VISA in the UK, Singapore and Australia due to a 2% merchant fee,…

Gene and Doug discuss: Google is implementing its Privacy Sandbox for Android OS, and we believe it will be more advertiser-friendly than IDFA. While some have compared Google’s changes to that of Apple, it seems that Google is allowing for…

Gene is joined by Antora co-founder, Andrew Ponec, to talk batteries for heavy industry. They’re big, cost-efficient and the most likely path to turn manufacturing green. The company recently generated $50M in funding from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV),…

Gene and Doug discuss: Where there’s massive reach, there’s massive ad opportunity. Amazon increases its ad spend to $31B — which is larger than the ad revenue of Snap, Pinterest and Microsoft combined. Facebook launches its news aggregation service to…

EVs and Crypto got a lot of attention from Super Bowl advertisers. On the EV side, the long-term question is more about identity than percentage of vehicles that are electric. Featuring ⁠— General Motors, Chevy Silverado, BMW, Polestar, Kia and…

 Takeaways: Apple’s open source code has mistakenly revealed references to a new ‘realityOS.’ While we don’t expect the MR headset to be released until 2023 at the earliest, this is confirmation that the product is in the works. Salesforce shared…