Gregg Thurman on Daniel Ives: Tech sell-off way overdone - 'John what’s the monthly cost of your solar system?'
on Daniel Ives: Tech sell-off way overdone - '@Greg We have so much solar on the roof that this year the electric company paid me at the end of the year. Not much, about $550, but first time the utility company ever paid me. I was stunned.'
on Daniel Ives: Tech sell-off way overdone - 'The tech sell-off is only overdone if you think the capex and debt financials behind the AI datacenter and LLM-base AI buildout will return positive ROIs, profits and cash flows. They won’t.'
on Daniel Ives: Tech sell-off way overdone - 'More gigawattage powered by methane gas turbines. Lovely!'
on Daniel Ives: Tech sell-off way overdone - 'This kind of quantitative prediction is dicey in the best of circumstances. It’s particularly dicey at this moment, so soon after an electoral wave that was shockingly blue. In Texas at least, new people in government have not yet decided how much they can and should do, having never in their wildest dreams expected to have gained so much power all at once.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'I just posted this in the AAPL Independent Analysts group on LinkedIn. I’ll share it here: Looking at the overall market’s performance today I can understand investor bewilderment after Wednesday’s big gains in prices followed by today’s big selloff across sectors. The DJIA fell 3.44%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite dropped 5.52% and the S&P 500 retreated 4.36% on the day. In today’s trading Apple gave back $5.34 or 1.53% from yesterday’s all-time closing high of $349.51. Apple, which reported earnings on Monday, continues to keep the confidence of several Wall Street analysts. For example, CFRA is maintaining its Buy recommendation on the shares and its $380 price target following results. With today’s price drop Apple ended the session right at the $5 trillion market cap marker.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Daniel, my response had to do with how little AAPL declined vs all the AI stocks. You used a phrase that set it up perfectly.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Gregg my remark was referring to Raj’s “Turbo spike to 360 today?” question as I was expressing skepticism that Apple would spike even further than it had done earlier in the day. Apple stock gave up its record high of 355.38 and with the day low of 342.06 it only finished down 1.53 % at 344.17.from its opening of 353.89. So not terrible but the range was bigger than the close implies. Considering how much momentum Apple had from the day before I could say a bit of a pullback would be expected. The major market sell off magnitude didn’t leave Apple stock unscathed and likely delayed any run to 360 for at least the weekend.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'Speaking of EEE Times, this came out last month with an interesting insight into misleading accounting by the hyperscalers: The AI Boom Has a Gigawatt Accounting Problem This caught my attention: “This does not mean the underlying demand is artificial. It does mean that the roles of supplier, customer, investor, and financier are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.” Everybody is investing so when multiple companies talk about so much GW of capacity from datacenters, they are often talking about the same datacenters, not separate ones. But Wall Street continues to act like they are all different. Circular financing for circular control of the same facilities.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - '”gets a more accurate budget” If Apple can see how much is personal use, and how much is professional, they may be able establish AI usage tiers for free Apple Intelligence, and when to start charging for professional tiers.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - '”there’s probably going to be a glut of chips in the not-too-distant future, when financial rationality returns to tech stocks.” Bill I’ve been harping about the financial model of LLM data centers for well over a year. The first concern I saw was in the EEE Times. Their financial analyses way back then was so thorough I completely swore off the hype and questioned the utility of AI. I’ll never understand how so many intelligent people ignored the gaping shortfalls in the financials. The only possibility was that they planned to abandon the technology after taking their gains and running to the bank. That run, with pockets bulging, has begun. This time next year will be too late.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - '”given market sell off.” The NAZ closed today’s session down ~6.72% AAPL finished the day down ~1.25%. Today’s sell off was not an Apple thing. AAPL got cast out with the bath water. I would expect a recovery beginning Monday'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'All in all an interesting look into how much AI tokens can end up costing. Even if the numbers we are kicking around are not accurate, I do think they can give a feel for the costs. And even charging these fees ($4m a day) the AI companies are still burning dumpsters full of cash.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'When something really big goes down, it pulls everything around it with it. But some things will eventually bob to the surface. In Apple’s case, that 71 M volume and relatively small pullback is saying that Apple longs are in exactly the right place at the right time. Still, we’ve got about 26 months before things really turn around. I’d advise keeping that seat belt buckled….'
on Errol Brandt: Sam Altman says memory is wasted in your Apple devices - 'Hi, Richard. Great question! It immediately made me think about supply vs demand, and how matching demand is STILL a perennial problem for Apple. A $5 T market cap is just the beginning….'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Don’t forget Not lighting cash on fire for potential speculative future gains on frontier models.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Nvidia is down ~3% YTD. They gave up all their gains for the year. Market cap now ~4.38T. SpaceX is now below the IPO price. CoreWeave is down ~51% for the last month. Makes me feel pretty smug that Apple is only down ~1.5% for the day and +27% YTD.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'Ordinary users like myself experience AI as free, or with a small monthly fee, nearly so. I’ve no idea how much tokens are costing corporations. This is what Errol Brandt has been saying, i.e. that there will be a backlash by companies on account the expense, not to mention the privacy issues. This is a great opportunity for Apple to sell a lot of Macs to businesses, enabling much of their AI needs to be covered on-device, while not “leaving the premises.”'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'I call it a “Red See” day because all I see across the markets is a sea of red. Personally, I think Apple has held up well following the release of September quarter earnings, December quarter guidance and now today’s selloff. The company is extraordinarily well run, has ample cash reserves and is growing revenue. Apple also has one of the most valuable brand names on the planet. Markets dynamics are always changing while Apple finds new ways to innovate and grow. It’s best to watch Apple at least as much as we watch the market.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - '“The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set for another strong day on Thursday” Spoken perhaps a tad too soon.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'Don, I forgot to annualize the data. Thanks for picking up on my mistake. That can be some real money then. I am guessing that what Richard said in a later post is true as well that this is being done to get a better handle on how things need to be budgeted.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'Apparently Apple employs about 21,000 engineers (which doesn’t include the ~44,000 in IT or 4,600 in project management positions, out of the ~244,000 total observed employee profiles in a July headcount): https://www.unifygtm.com/insights/headcount/apple Which would work out to a little more than $4 million per day in savings, cutting LLM use costs from $300/day to $100/day. Which works out to $1 billion, if you go with 5 days/wk and 48 wks/year (likely conservative, given that Apple engineers probably don’t work bankers’ hours/days). My guess, though, is that a lot of people in IT are/were using AI also.'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'Translation: “After trying out incorporating unlimited LLM use into our work, we’ve realized it’s not worth the expense in any way we measure it.” Which is, surprise surprise, the same thing almost every major company has discovered about unlimited LLM-based AI use. Which is why the financials for AI hyperscalers are never going to work in any way, and why there’s probably going to be a glut of chips in the not-too-distant future, when financial rationality returns to tech stocks. And that’s when I hope John Ternus says to the chip makers, “Remember when you held us over a barrel, despite that we’ve been your biggest and best customer since long before the AI mania and were obviously going to continue to be after the hype died?”'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'Gurman = grains of salt. I’d bet that the policy change, $300 to $200, applies generically. No doubt some engineers such as chip designers, testing, and software can make the case to spend more, maybe much more.'
on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Blood in the streets. Tesla is down 10%. Oracle just made a new low. DJT touched$3.80, almost a penny stock. Volumes are all running high. This could be good. A sort of realignment. I’ve seen it suggested several places that if there is a slow down in data centers that could lower memory prices which would help lots of companies. Apple is only down 1.25%. We’re getting off easy.'
on Errol Brandt: Sam Altman says memory is wasted in your Apple devices - 'You meant Altman, Zuckerberg, or Musk right? Poor Elon may be busy right now looking for another state to move to…'
on Mark Gurman: Apple curtails AI use by its engineers - 'My guess is that a lot of the budgeted AI money was actually not being used. So, to reclaim that budget, and get a better idea of its specific needs, Apple lowers the amount given to all employees but also allows those in need to ask for more, demonstrate the need and get it. The Apple gets a very good idea of its AI needs, gets a more accurate budget and saves some money.'
on Errol Brandt: Sam Altman says memory is wasted in your Apple devices - 'There is a wafer shortage because the AI memory chips need so many. Apple has a partnership with GlobalWafers in Texas, providing wafers for Apple’s partners, like TI and TSMC. Phase 1 is producing about 350,000 wafers a month and that is expected to double next year. I wonder if Apple could also send some of those wafers to help companies having a harder time getting wafers? And get a better deal for things like memory?'


