Market decline does not change the mega growth opportunities. The heart rate of the market increased the past week because of fears of a trade war, Facebook data privacy, and broken market technicals, but the health of the market is unchanged and the health is good. Core underlying tech trends including artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, and autonomous transportation, will support continued growth.

Hold tech for the long-term. We believe that tech is essentially taking over the rest of the economy; therefore, investors should hold tech long term. Just as every company is now an internet company to some degree, we believe that eventually every company will be an AI company.

Market undervalued. From a valuation perspective, our view is undervalued. The market has rallied back to the old highs, but the S&P is up only 3% per year over the past 17 years, compared to the previous 17 years (1983-2000) when it was up 17% per year.

Putting the size of tech into perspective. The tech sector’s growing clout is not just a U.S. story. Tech stocks have become so dominant in emerging markets that for the first time since 2004, the industry last year overtook finance as the biggest sector in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Tech had a 28% weighting near the end of 2017, more than double its level six years ago, according to data provided by MSCI. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix Inc. and Alphabet together account for a 7.8% weighting in the S&P 500, more than double from five years ago.

Company Updates:

Tesla. We remain positive on TSLA. Shares are down 20% in the past month mostly due to fears of another miss in Model 3 production. The recent stock dive is due to a combination of a Model X accident that is being investigated, Waymo’s partnership with Jaguar, which legitimizes a key competitor (the I-Pace electric SUV), growing concern among all companies testing self-driving vehicles amid the Uber fatality, and news that Moody’s has downgraded Tesla’s bonds to B3 from B2, citing significant shortfall in the Model 3 production rate and a tight financial situation. We continue to believe the Tesla story has the best risk-reward among tech companies over the next 5 years.

• Model 3 production. We’re expecting another miss in Model 3 production in the March quarter but that does not change the story. There is more demand than supply for the Model 3 (about 400k preorders which is unheard of in automotive). It might take a year, but eventually, Tesla will get the Model 3 production right, and ramp output.
• Model X accident. We see the recent Model X accident the same as accidents with gas cars. It is unlikely that the battery or Tesla’s advanced cruise control “autopilot” were to blame. Tesla disclosed that the autopilot feature properly functions 200 times a day on the same stretch of road where the accident happened.

Facebook. Limited upside to FB. Given the privacy issues, for the first-time advertisers have to think about Facebook as a liability. Separately, it’s unclear about how the recent privacy changes will impact Facebook’s ability to make money.

Nvidia. We remain positive on NVDA. Shares of NVDA dropped 11% in the past week following the announcement that they temporarily stopped autonomous testing, and in part because of the broader market sell off. While the company did not comment on timing, we expect testing to resume in the next 3 months. The big picture is the company is well positioned to capitalize on four mega trends, AI, autonomous cars, gaming, and blockchain through their dominance of GPU processors.

Apple. We remain positive on AAPL. Concern is emerging that iPhone demand in June will fall below Street expectations. We think iPhone demand over the next two quarters is not important to the story. What’s important is the share buyback, services, and the next iPhone.

• Share buyback. Apple can add 4% per year to the stock price (assuming they use $40B of the $55B they generate in cash each year to buy back stock). Apple will give an update on the share buyback when they report the March quarter, likely late in April.
• Bigger screen iPhone this fall. We expect Apple will announce a 25% bigger phone in the fall. This will be a positive for unit demand and average selling price.
• Services. Services account for about 15% of revenue and are growing at 15-20% year over year. We believe this segment will continue to grow at a 15% or better rate over the next five years. This is important because the earnings multiple on shares of AAPL will likely increase as investors view the predictability of services are more attractive.

Google. We remain positive on GOOG. We expect the next six months to be rough for shares of GOOG as questions emerge about how the company uses data. Despite that negative potential, Google is too tightly woven into the fabric of the internet. The company is one of the best ways to invest in AI, given the company has a stated their intention to move from a mobile-first company to an AI-first company over the next several years. Lastly, the company has a stake in Waymo, the leading autonomous car company. We expect years of positive news to come from Waymo.

Amazon. We remain positive on AMZN. The company is best positioned for the future of retail. We see that future as a combination of both online and offline retail. Online sales account for about 15% of global retail, and in the future, we believe it will eventually reach 55% of sales. We also expect Amazon to do more with physical retail locations and we continue to believe the company will eventually acquire Target (TGT). The company’s AWS web hosting business is only 15% of revenue, but it is growing at greater than 30% for the next several years.

Twitter. Limited upside to TWTR. About 14% of Twitters 2017 revenue came from selling data, growing at 18% y/y, compared to Twitter’s ad business that declined by 6%. Selling private data is a toxic label, and this could limit the upside to shares over the next year.

Disclaimer: We actively write about the themes in which we invest: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. From time to time, we will write about companies that are in our portfolio.  Content on this site including opinions on specific themes in technology, market estimates, and estimates and commentary regarding publicly traded or private companies is not intended for use in making investment decisions. We hold no obligation to update any of our projections. We express no warranties about any estimates or opinions we make.