Without a doubt, the biggest news of the last couple of weeks has centred around Elon Musk. It started with a tweet where he asked his followers if they thought that Twitter followed free speech principles. Over 2 million responded, with 70% indicating it didn't, and some asked him to buy Twitter. A week or so later he purchased 9.2% of Twitter. This triggered a swathe of wild speculation. Elon then rejected an offer to sit on the board because this would limit his ability to purchase more stock. A week or so later he offered to buy all of the remaining Twitter shares for US$54.20 (1,840 baht) a share, above the current market price and well above pundits' sell price only a little while earlier. The Left went crazy. The board started talking about introducing a financial "poison pill" share approach to both increase the number of and dilute the value of Twitter shares to make it more difficult for Musk to purchase more than 15% of Twitter.
- If the above example was changed to shares of Company X, then this would all be potentially a methodology and response to a company takeover, though typically such a takeover offer is rarely as beneficial to the stockholders. Elon's reasoning is that Twitter is the world's centre for the exchange of ideas and as such should be open, while remaining within the law, to allow all kinds of free speech. Twitter has shown itself instead to be a place of censorship of ideas, in particular any that do not conform to a particular ideology. This means the platform has no concept of free speech, and we can find similar ideas elsewhere in places like North Korea and China.
- Worse, as has become more common on social media platforms, the person once highly praised by the Left, Elon Musk, is now being deeply investigated to change him into Elon Muck and be cancelled. All because he wanted to increase, not limit, the concepts of openness and freedom of speech. The shareholders of Twitter will now decide, and may have by the time you read this, if they are going to sack the board for their lack of fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders by their actions and responses to the offer. There is a lot more to come with this story and the impacts could be huge. Elon Musk also, in what I assume was a troll moment, offered to buy CNN for a low number.
- Stop using Messenger. For the first time, I saw direct evidence of filtering at the person-to-person message level. I'd read an interesting analysis of the Ukraine-Russian situation written by someone who worked at the US State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism and a veteran who provided training to the US military's special operations community for 24 years. I posted the link for my brother to read but the message was blocked by Messenger's filters which determined it was not suitable for the Messenger Community. So, a link to an article, written by an expert in the field, was blocked by a social media site in a direct message because it went against their current narrative. In a couple of months' time when it becomes established fact, I bet you still couldn't send such a link and I will receive no apology.
- Chips in your heads. Well, not quite. Intel's Loihi neuromorphic chips simulate the way the brain works. The question is how are they going to leverage this? One option is to add them to CPUs and improve AI performance, but another is to offer chips as a cloud service. Intel has been working on these for a few years, so they will need to get something back for all that effort. The chip's construction is interesting in the way it uses energy and processes information. The potential is great if they can leverage the technology into commercial solutions. That aside, chips in your head are coming in the not too distant future.
- Taiwan won't be building 2nm chips until late 2025 for phones, and elsewhere by 2026. By comparison, Intel will have its 1.8nm technology processing starting in late 2024. If Intel actually gets the product out, this could put them ahead of Taiwan in the CPU landscape for a change. Given this is still two to three years away, things may turn out differently. It is also important to remember that size does not necessarily directly translate to performance. As usual, all this means things are still getting smaller and more powerful.
- Finally for this week, chip supplies and the associated supply chain are still in trouble. This translates across all industries, so if you are expecting your product to arrive quickly, I would reassess your expectations. Apple and Samsung are already expected to ship fewer units this year. Also, ports like Shanghai are parking lots for ships, which is another indication that the supply chain is not moving well, if at all.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.