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Speaking at Italian Tech Week on Friday, Bezos said the excitement around AI has led to unprecedented funding, noting that “every experiment gets funded, every company gets funded, the good ideas and the bad ideas.” He added that investors often struggle to distinguish between the two during periods of hype.

Drawing parallels with the biotechnology bubble of the 1990s and the dot-com boom, Bezos said both periods saw significant investor losses but also delivered transformative advances. “In the biotech bubble, a lot of companies went out of business and investors lost money. But we did get a couple of lifesaving drugs,” he said. “The internet bubble left behind the infrastructure for the modern digital economy.”

Today’s AI boom mirrors these dynamics, he said, with capital flowing not only to software startups promising AI applications but also to the underlying infrastructure, including chipmakers, cloud platforms, and data centers. Recent deals highlight the scale of the investment surge: Bloomberg reported that BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners is nearing a $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers, while OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, became the world’s most valuable privately held company with a $500 billion valuation after a secondary share sale.

Bezos emphasized the long-term benefits of AI, predicting the technology will transform nearly every industry and improve productivity worldwide. “AI is going to change every industry and improve the productivity of every company in the world. When the dust settles and you see who the winners are, society benefits from those inventions,” he said.

Amazon itself has invested heavily in AI, leveraging its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure, as well as AI applications in logistics, e-commerce, and its Alexa voice assistant. Bezos concluded that while bubbles may be painful for investors, they accelerate the development of world-changing technologies.

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Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, saw a massive increase in his wealth by $3.8 billion due to a recent boost in the stock market.

This surge was driven by investor confidence in Amazon’s future in 2024.

On Monday, Bezos emerged as the top gainer in the market session, with his current estimated net worth reaching $171.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Despite a previous downturn in the tech market, Amazon showcased strength by experiencing a 1% increase in its stock value.

This positive trend is mainly attributed to the hopeful expectations surrounding Amazon’s profits, especially fueled by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI).

During the pandemic, strategic investments made by Amazon played a vital role in the company’s strong growth and better profit margins.

The expected rise in demand for Amazon’s cloud business, backed by advancements in AI, is creating a positive outlook for the company among investors.

Consensus estimates for Amazon’s earnings in 2024 have increased by 18% over the past three months, which contrasts with a stabl

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TECHDIGEST – Amazon said Friday it will invest $120 million to build a satellite construction facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, as part of its plans to launch a space internet service to rival SpaceX’s Starlink.

The company founded by Jeff Bezos says its “Project Kuiper” will provide “fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world,” with a constellation of more than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).

“We have an ambitious plan to begin Project Kuiper’s full-scale production launches and early customer pilots next year, and this new facility will play a critical role,” said Steve Metayer, vice president of Kuiper Production Operations.

The company has another production facility in Kirkland, Washington, where it will begin operations by the end of this year.

The units will then be sent to Florida to carry out final preparations, and integrate them with rockets from Blue Origin — also founded by Bezos — and United Launch Alliance (ULA) ahead of launch.

READ ALSO:NDS: FG Inaugurates Technical Working Committee to Drive Implementation

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the first batch of its more than 3,700 operational Starlink satellites in 2019 and is by far the biggest player. London-headquartered OneWeb is another early entrant in the emerging sector.

But governments are also keen to join the rush.

China plans to launch 13,000 satellites as part of its GuoWang constellation, while Canada’s Telesat will add 300 and German start-up Rivada is eyeing 600.

That will be in addition to the European Union’s Iris project — 170 satellites — and the 300-500 satellites planned to be launched by the US military’s Space Development Agency.

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TECHDIGEST – Researches emanating from the telecommunications sector should be commercialised to enhance their originality and acceptability.

This formed part of the discussions that emanated at the recently organised roundtable with academia, industry and other stakeholders in the Southern Region by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) with the theme: “The Path from Innovative Research to Commercialisation of Viable Prototypes.”

Lead Speaker, Founder of the Valentine Chineto Ozigbo (VCO) Foundation, Valentine Ozigbo, said innovative research is the search for new business methods, strategic techniques, and solutions to solve today’s pressing problems.

Ozigbo, the immediate past President and Group CEO of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), stressed that it is the process of inventing new products or solutions that solve a problem uniquely.

According to him, the 2021 Global Innovation Index created by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ranked Nigeria 118th out of 132 economies. Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States of America lead the world, adding that in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania lead.

Revealing some worrisome data, he said Nigeria filed 425 patents in 2020. According to him, there is a difference between filed and approved, “between 2010 and 2020, Nigeria filed 1,702 patents. Let us match that against our universities – the pinnacle of research and innovation in any society. We have 91 public universities in Nigeria. This would mean that, on the average, each Nigerian university filed 19 patents in 10 years.

“This tells us what we may already know about ourselves. The world has left us behind. We are far behind. We are not given to problem solving or original thinking. We need to step up our game in the area of innovation. We need to catch up with the rest of the world. I believe that we can catch up and overtake them but specific radical steps need to be taken.”

On this, he said there are three approaches to innovation, which include, “needs-based approach (this is when innovation is driven by needs identified in the market]; seeds-based approach (this is driven by the supply needs in the industry or manufacturing ecosystem] and the accelerated innovation approach, which is driven by the quest to solve industry-relevant problems.

According to him, Nigeria needs a radical innovation approach, which considers all three protocols above and even some more, where there are no boundaries in thinking. “One that involves original thinking, solving the world’s biggest problems. One that identifies problems nobody has thought about and solves before they know they have a problem.

“We need to get into the zone where Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, the late Steve Jobs and other innovators operate. Where inventions around space travel are being made. Where rapid and radical reengineering in the field of food, medicine, human potential, longevity, fuel, power, energy, technology, and learning are occurring. The space where 3D, 4D, 5D are made. I am talking about the world of limitless possibilities and infinity thinking,” he stated.

To transform a prototype to business venture, Ozigbo said it is advisable to “seal the protection of your ideas via patenting, trademarking, and other intellectual property registrations.”

According to him, an initial feasibility study would also support the process at this point. He explained that a feasibility study accesses the practicality of a plan or method or endeavour.

Earlier at the forum, the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta said the commission collaborates with the academia in maximising the contributions of the country’s tertiary institutions to innovations and sustainable development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Industry.

The NCC EVC, who was represented by the Director, Legal and Regulatory Services at the commission, Ms. Josephine Amuwa, informed that at the end of 2021, the telecoms body provided N522.6 million as research grants to tertiary institutions. He stressed that each research is designed to deliver a prototype that can be commercialised for the benefit of the industry and consumers.

As such, Danbatta said the roundtable was put together to encourage the commercialisation of locally developed telecommunications innovations, which hitherto had been sponsored by the commission, as a way of fostering and deepening the indigenous technological capabilities of Nigerians, to support the overall growth of the industry and creating wealth for the spin-off companies.

He said academia is a key driver of innovation in all spheres of human endeavor, “but in specific terms, the ideas, inventions and improvements that emanate from the academia are required by industry for improved efficiencies and productivity. With this in mind, the regulator, as a critical component of any ecosystem, aims to ensure all stakeholders are protected and the industry nurtured for maximum benefit to business and society.”

Danbatta said faced with the challenges of commercialising research prototypes, it is clear that the commission will have to make a commitment to facilitate the contributions from academia, by supporting the commercialisation of these prototypes, to deepen the indigenous technological capabilities, which would support the overall development of the industry.

On his part, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, said bringing all stakeholders involved in innovation together remains very key for the country.

Adebowale said one of the things lacking in Nigeria is the idea of the Triple Helix Model of Universities that carry out research for government and probably handshake with them so that it won’t just be research for research sake, “but research for development, which will see industry been able to come to the university and tell us the problems before them. Also the varsities will then be able to visit private industries and then be able to ask them what they can do.

“It is when we do this that we will be able to impact on national development. Otherwise, we will just be carrying out these researches and they will just remain on the shelves and die there, which we don’t want. But when we come together like this, we will be able to exchange ideas and as NCC is doing, provide a channel for us to be able to interact.”

Source: Guardian.ng

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TECHDIGEST – World’s richest men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos lost a sum of $18.71 billion in a single day, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on Thursday.

The CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk saw his net worth drop to $199 billion after losing $13.3 billion, which brings his total year-to-date loss to $71.7 billion. This is according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index tracker.

In the same manner. Jeff Bezos, the second richest man in the world and CEO of Amazon recorded a $5.41 billion decline in his worth, bringing his net worth to $169 billion and his year-to-date loss to $22.9 billion.

The decline in both their net worths came on the back of the announcement that Russian troops have invaded some parts of Ukraine, which caused selloff sentiments in various markets.

For example, the crypto market dipped significantly in the early hours of Thursday.
On the other hand, the crude oil market enjoyed bullish trade, leveraging on the tension between Ukraine and oil-producing giant, Russia. Brent touched $95 per barrel at some point during intra-day trading.

On Wednesday, 23rd February, Tesla stock traded at $764.04 per share, representing a 7% decrease from the last trading session. Meanwhile, the stock has rallied as of press time with a 2.91% gain to trade at $787.02.

According to trading economics global macro models projections insists there may be a further decrease in the price of the stock as they predict that by the end of this quarter Tesla stock would trade at $748.27 and further decrease to $703.84 in one year.

Amazon on the other hand took a hard hit as it traded at $2,896 on Wednesday decreasing by $107.41 since the last trading season. On an annual basis, the stock price of Amazon has dipped by 1.66%.

Meanwhile. trading economics global macro models projections forecast that Amazon stock would be priced at $2,836 by the end of this quarter and at $2,668.24 in one year.

Stock markets responded negatively to the news of Russia invading Ukraine as tension caused sell-off actions across some notable financial markets in the world. Specifically, according to the Wall Street Journal, the stock markets in Europe dropped sharply and commodity prices soared.

Also, Russia’s own stock market plunged by nearly one-half and the Russian ruble fell to a record low against the dollar.

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TECH DIGEST – Google CEO Sundar Pichai has admitted he feels a little “jealous” of fellow tech titan Jeff Bezos’ much-anticipated space flight.

The Amazon founder and his brother, Mark Bezos, plan to fly on the first human flight of the New Shepard spacecraft, designed by Jeff’s space-exploration company, Blue Origin. Bidding for one of six seats on the ship reached almost $3 million, with nearly 6,000 participants from 143 countries.

The planned 11-minute trip is the company’s first scheduled space-tourism flight, set to blast the crew 62 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, and he said in a 2018 interview that it was his “most important work.”

In a sit-down interview with BBC journalist Amol Rajan, Google’s chief exec said he envied Bezos’ plans.

“Well, I’m jealous, a bit,” he said. “I would love to look at birds from space.”

The comment came as part of a wide-ranging conversation with Rajan, in which Pichai described artificial intelligence as “the most profound technology that humanity will ever develop and work on,” adding: “If you think about fire or electricity or the internet, it’s like that. But I think even more profound.”

Pichai also warned of threats to online freedom, revealed he currently drives a Tesla, and said he wished he had met Stephen Hawking before he died.

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TECH DIGEST – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Tuesday he would stand aside later this year as chief executive of the company he built from a startup into one of the world’s most valuable firms.

The world’s richest person based on his Amazon stake, Bezos said he will transition to the role of executive chair in the third quarter, handing over the CEO role to Andy Jassy, who heads Amazon Web Services.

The news came as Amazon reported a blowout holiday quarter with profits more than doubling to $7.2 billion and revenue jumping 44 percent to $125.6 billion as pandemic lockdowns caused online sales to explode around the globe.

In a letter to Amazon employees, Bezos said he would “stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives” but would pivot towards philanthropic initiatives, including his Day One Fund and Bezos Earth Fund, and other business ventures in space exploration and journalism.

“I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring,” Bezos wrote.

“I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.”

Bezos, 57, founded Amazon in his garage in 1994 and went on to grow it into a colossus that dominates online retail, with operations in streaming music and television, groceries, cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence and more.

His other businesses include The Washington Post newspaper and the private space firm Blue Origin.

His successor Jassy joined Amazon as a marketing manager in 1997 and in 2003 founded AWS, the cloud services division of the company which has been one of the most profitable but least-known units of the tech giant.

“He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence,” Bezos said of Jassy.

“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition,” he said.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives saw giving command of Amazon to Jassy as a “major step up in the clouds arms race with crosstown rival Microsoft.”

Bezos’s tenure at Amazon has been marked by a vast expansion globally and surges in profitability.

The company is based in Seattle, Washington, and is developing a second headquarters outside the US capital.

Amazon’s market value was some $1.69 trillion as of Tuesday, a tenfold increase from a decade ago, making it one of the world’s most valuable.

Bezos’s stake gives him a personal fortune worth an estimated $196 billion, slightly more than Tesla chief Elon Musk who had briefly captured the title of world’s wealthiest person.

Amazon has led other businesses by guaranteeing a minimum $15 per hour wage and has invested billions in Covid-19 mitigation, but it continues to face criticism over workplace conditions at its warehouse operations.

“The company Jeff Bezos started nearly three decades ago is under a cloud of scrutiny,” said Maurice BP-Weeks of activist group coalition Athena.

“Workers are speaking up, walking out, and organizing against miserable working conditions … Small businesses are banding together to challenge Amazon’s anti-competitive practices.”

The company employs more than one million people worldwide including 800,000 in the United States.

The transition comes with Amazon and other large tech firms under heightened scrutiny from antitrust enforcers in the United States and elsewhere for their dominance of key economic sectors, which has become even more pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

While Amazon has become the leading force in online commerce, Bezos has brushed aside criticism over its dominance of the sector.

He told a congressional hearing last year that Amazon accounts for less than four percent of retail spending in the United States and has a “range of retail competitors.”

The latest quarterly results showed growth across all business segments including its cloud computing as Amazon has expanded its streaming media offerings and grocery operations.

Neil Saunders of the research firm GlobalData said Amazon has boosted sales during the pandemic “off the back of its superior logistics network,” but also faces growing competition.

“We maintain our view that Amazon will emerge from the pandemic as a bigger and stronger business,” Saunders said.

“We welcome the leadership change, if only because it will allow Jeff Bezos to focus more on innovation and new ideas.”

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