What I Read This Week…

Nvidia reports another quarter of record revenues and profits, Intel reveals a new secretive project funded by the CHIPS Act, and new economic measures show little improvement in American well-being

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Caught My Eye…

• Nvidia beat all expectations while reporting record profits and revenues in its most recent earnings release. The company’s revenue for the quarter reached $26.04 billion, almost four times the $7.19 billion reported in the same quarter last year and marking an unprecedented six consecutive quarters of revenue growth. What is causing this continued trend? Nvidia's data center revenue has continued to surge due to growing demand for AI training and inference. While traditionally dominated by cloud service providers, this demand for Nvidia’s chips extends to consumer internet companies, government AI initiatives, and even the automotive and healthcare sectors - each representing multi-billion-dollar markets.

• Of the $39 billion allocated for chip manufacturing on U.S. soil by the CHIPS Act, $3.5 billion is earmarked for chipmaker Intel to create a ‘secure enclave’ facility that would exclusively produce chips for the U.S. military. What's the issue? Evidence suggests that the Department of Defense, the primary customer for these chips, has not requested the creation of this enclave and may even oppose the plan. Experts also warn that this sizable allocation of the CHIPS Act could strain a fund that is already too small to meet the needs of U.S. semiconductor manufacturers, which risks favoring large corporate players at the expense of fostering a broader ecosystem of chipmakers.

• Sustained GDP growth and robust equity markets seem to suggest that the economy appears strong, but consumer confidence remains low. What is going on? Some economists believe that traditional measures like GDP are failing to capture the true wellbeing of Americans. To overcome this limitation, the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy (CORE) introduced the ‘CORE Score’, a new measure of well-being which considers economic security, opportunity, health, and political voice. Initial findings reveal stark regional disparities and suggest little improvement in American well-being since 2005 as sustained gains in health have been offset by declines in economic security.

Other Reading…

• SoftBank Targets $9bn a Year in AI Investments While Hunting Bigger Deals (FT)

• Summers: Inflation Reached 18% In 2022 Using The Government’s Previous Formula (Forbes)

• How the Big Mac Index Relates to Overall Consumer Inflation (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)

• The Plastic Chemicals Hiding in Your Food (Consumer Reports)

• Putin Ready For Ceasefire In Ukraine On Current Frontlines, Report Says—Here's What Russia Would Gain (Forbes)

• The Summer of Cicadas Can Teach Us to Be Kinder (NY Times)

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