Global Market Comments
July 17, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE LEADER OF THE PACK),
(GOOGL)
The future is coming a lot faster than anyone expected.
Waymo, once the top-secret Alphabet autonomous driving subsidiary, has beaten all comers to the punch.
The desert state of Arizona granted a permit for it to commence with their autonomous fleet as a commercial entity and the business has rolled out to select riders.
This permit means that Waymo’s futuristic robo-taxi can charge passengers for profit.
The vehicles started testing in 2017 and were monitored with a human safety engineer inside. This is a big deal from a regulatory point of view.
First mover advantage is pivotal in dictating an agenda and setting the rules of the road in the world of innovation.
The desperation of being first to market was epitomized by an email that former top engineer Chris Urmson sent Alphabet founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, “We have a choice between being the headline or the footnote in history’s book on the next revolution in transportation. Let’s make the right choice.”
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOG), is the preeminent force in the quest for mass market driver-less vehicles.
Before Waymo was coined, Google's self-driving-car research was an internal program referred to as Project Chauffeur. The project was created in 2009, hidden from the public eye to keep its technology safeguarded from intruders.
Alphabet invested at least $1.1 billion between 2009 and 2015 to grab the undisputed lead position of this newly created industry.
Most industry analysts estimate that commercialization of level 4 self-driving vehicles will occur sometime around 2020.
The time sensitivity is palpable as Waymo has a chance to flood American streets with its technology before GM (GM) or Uber can get off the starting blocks.
Waymo outmuscled its opponents reaching a Level 3 standard in 2012.
Level 4 is the grade that automakers wish to proceed with. Although not fully Level 5 automated, Level 4 technology can operate under controlled factors without a driver.
The Fiat Chrysler minivans tricked out with Waymo technology have been racking up test miles in Phoenix, Arizona to the tune of around 5 million on Level 4 technology.
Arizona has been a fertile breeding ground for driver-less car development since 2015 when Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order giving authority to state agencies to “undertake any necessary steps to support the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles on public roads within Arizona.”
The success or failure in Arizona will go a long way to test the quality and sustainability of this new phenomenon.
It helps a lot that Phoenix streets are laid out in a simple grid that the current level of artificial intelligence finds easy to recognize and understand.
Waymo is essentially Uber with no driver.
Drivers cost money. Waymo hopes to remove the highest input in ride sharing transport - the driver itself.
Uber routinely shells out driver subsidies equating to around 72% of quarterly gross revenue.
Waymo plans to expand its coverage to other locations.
Google CFO Ruth Porat has gone on record saying “We do continue to explore a range of options beyond the program we’re piloting in Phoenix, including ride sharing and personal use vehicles, logistics, deliveries, and working with cities to help them address public transportation objectives.”
The first commercial operation has been groundbreakingly successful in Arizona and is crucial to enhance consumer sentiment for reliable driver-less vehicles.
The accumulated data will be vital to prove Waymo’s safety record.
If all goes smoothly, Waymo’s autonomous vehicles and technology will spread like wildfire to other locations.
The potential success will fundamentally change the way people live their lives.
Up to 10 million employed drivers are set to be on the chopping block in America.
That includes about 3.5 million professional truck drivers who earn between $30,000-$45,000 per year along with 2 million Uber/Lyft drivers participating in the gig economy at $7.25 an hour.
The mass adoption of autonomous vehicles will eliminate a huge chunk of the American workforce, while redrawing additional income streams to Alphabet (GOOG).
Insurance companies would take a direct hit with the future pipeline of drivers irrevocably thwarted from learning how to drive.
If the preliminary data comes up roses, parents will not allow their 16-year-old kid to learn how to drive and instead throw them into a Waymo to be chauffeured to school.
Also, the tragic 40,000 annual fatalities caused by motor vehicle crashes will drop off a cliff.
The pick up in productivity would be astounding as workers will no longer need to drive themselves anymore, cutting costs and allowing additional time to work while in transit.
The unintended consequences will change the world while making the leaders of the space richer. A deeper underlying effect is that it will strengthen (GOOG)’s credentials going forward to apply A.I. in other spheres.
“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” – Said Founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
July 15, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(HOW SOFTBANK IS TAKING OVER THE US VENTURE CAPITAL BUSINESS),
(SFTBY), (BABA), (GRUB), (WMT), (GM), (GS)
The man with the 300-year vision - Softbank’s Masayoshi Son.
He is the sole force exerting stultifying pressure on the venture capitalists of Silicon Valley.
What a ride it has been so far.
His $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund has put the Sand Hill Road faithful in a tizzy – utterly revolutionizing an industry and showing who the true power resides with.
He has even gone so far as to double down on his exploits by claiming that he will raise additional $100 billion fund every few years and spend $50 billion per year.
This capital logically would flow into what he knows best – technology and the best technology money can buy.
Lately, Son said it best of the performance of the Vision Fund saying, “Results have actually been too good.”
So good that after this June, Son changed his schedule to spend 3% of his time on his telecom business down from 97% before June.
His telecommunications business in Japan has turned into a footnote.
It was just recently that Son’s tech investments eclipsed his legacy communications company.
Son vies to rinse and repeat this strategy to the horror of other venture capitalists.
The bottomless pit of capital he brings to the table predictably raises the prices for everyone in the tech investment world.
Son’s capital warfare strategy revolves around one main trope – Artificial Intelligence.
He also strictly selects industry leaders which have a high chance of dominating their field of expertise.
Geographically speaking, the fund has pinpointed America and China as the best sources of companies. India takes in the bronze medal.
His eyes have been squarely set on Silicon Valley for quite some time and his record speaks for himself scooping up stakes in power players such as Uber, WeWork, Slack, and GM (GM) Cruise.
Other stakes in Chinese firms he’s picked up are China’s Uber Didi Chuxing, China’s GrubHub (GRUB) Ele.me and the first digital insurer in China named Zhongan International costing him $500 million.
Other notable deals done are its sale of Flipkart to Walmart (WMT) for $4 billion giving SoftBank a $1.5 billion or 60% profit on the $2.5 billion position.
In 2016, the entire venture capitalist industry registered $75.3 billion in capital allocation according to the National Venture Capital Association.
This one company is rivalling that same spending power by itself.
Its smallest deal isn’t even small at $100 million, baffling the local players forcing them to scurry back to the drawing board.
The reverberation has been intense and far-reaching in Silicon Valley with former stalwarts such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers breaking up, outmaneuvered by this fresh newcomer with unlimited capital.
Let me remind you that it was once considered standard to cautiously wade into investment with several millions.
Venture capitalists would take stock of the progress and reassess if they wanted to delve in some more.
There was no bazooka strategy then.
SoftBank has promised boatloads of capital up front even overpaying in some cases in order to set the new market price.
Conveniently, Son stations himself nearby at a nine-acre estate in Woodside, California complete with an Italianate mansion he bought for $117.5 million in 2012.
It was one of the most expensive properties ever purchased in the state of California, even topping Hostess Brands owner Daren Metropoulos, who bought the Playboy Mansion from Hugh Hefner in 2016 for $100 million.
If you think Son is posh – he is not. He only fits himself out in the Japanese budget clothing brand Uniqlo. He just needed a comfortable place to stay and he hates hotels.
SoftBank hopes to cash in on its $4.4 billion investment in WeWork, an American office space-share company, proclaiming that WeWork would be his “next Alibaba.”
The company plans to shortly go public.
Son continued to say that WeWork is “something completely new that uses technology to build and network communities.”
Other additions to SoftBank’s dazzling array of unicorns is Bytedance, a start-up whose algorithms have fueled shot form video content app TikTok.
The deal values the company at $75 billion.
They have been able to insulate themselves from local industry giants Tencent and Alibaba.
Son has revealed that the Vision Fund’s annual rate of return has been 44%.
Cherry-picking off the top of the heap from the best artificial intelligence companies in the world is the secret recipe to outperforming your competitors.
At the same time, aggressively throwing money at these companies has effectively frozen out any resemblance of competition. Once the competition is frozen out, the value of these investments explodes, swiftly super-charged by rapidly expanding growth drivers.
How can you compete with a man who is willing to pay $300 million for a dog walking app?
This genius strategy has made the founder of SoftBank the most powerful businessman in the world.
Son owns the future and will have the largest say on how the world and economies evolve going forward.
"We are unicorn hunters." - Said Founder and CEO of SoftBank Masayoshi Son
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
July 12, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(CLOUD SECURITY ON THE MARCH)
(OKTA), (ZS), (CRM), (AMZN)
Take a look at these beauties that I recommended at the beginning of December 2018.
At that time, Okta (OKTA) was trading at $62 and Zscaler (ZS) was at $40 on the button – fast forward to today and Okta is now over $136 and Zscaler victoriously sitting at $82.
Oh, how do times change!
That was my reaction watching their performance for the past 7 months giving belief to my assessment that second-tier cloud companies will have a field day this year.
Cloud companies aren’t going away anytime soon, please tattoo that on your forehead.
There isn’t a hotter topic circulating the gossip winds these days than digital security pressured by geopolitics.
Okta is the best in show for identity management – a snazzy term for managing employees’ passwords.
Okta’s products are built on top of the Amazon Web Services cloud.
Coincidentally, Okta was erected in 2009 by a team of former Salesforce (CRM) executives. Salesforce is one of my favorite cloud-based software companies, offering a blueprint for success to other up-and-coming software companies.
Current Okta CEO and founder Todd McKinnon previously served as the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Salesforce.
Other founders include Okta COO Freddy Kerrest who also meandered through the corridors of Salesforce.
I can tell you that you could do much worse than starting a new software company with a collection of Salesforce upper echelon talent.
This all-star team is behind the insatiable growth of Okta whose revenue has grown over 600% since establishing itself.
Okta’s first-quarter results didn’t disappoint with revenues of $125 million—a rise of 50% year-over-year beating the consensus of $117 million.
Subscription revenues comprised 94% of sales and the company expects sales of $130 million amounting to a rise of 37% year-over-year.
Okta’s subscriber base has risen over 500% in the past 5 years and annual contract value of over $100,000 has expanded 60% annually.
The company still loses money but hopes to make some headway on this issue with projected EPS estimated to grow 25% annually in the next five years.
This year spawned a massive divergence between tech who has legs and tech who will be dragged down to the depths of the ocean floor by the heavy weight of regulation, overwhelming competition, or just flat out poor management or inferior product development.
Zscaler echoed similar positive sentiment of Okta by recording a quarter to remember growing revenue by 61% year-over-year while calculated billings grew 55% year-over-year.
In addition to the top line growth, operating margins improved 14% points year-over-year to 8%.
The quarterly results demonstrate the leverage in cloud security business models and the ability to drive growth and profitability.
String together a third consecutive quarter of profitability is just part of the battle, Zscaler will continue to aggressively invest for significant market opportunity that lie ahead.
Cloud security potential means going after a $20.3 billion Total Addressable Market in calendar 2019.
Let me divulge a tad bit about the competitive landscape and why Zscaler is brilliantly positioned for success.
As organizations increasingly make the shift to the cloud, traditional firewall and VPN vendors are finally acknowledging that the legacy security appliances can secure the new digital enterprise and are attempting to build a security cloud using single tenant software designed for on-premise appliances just like you can't create a Netflix service by stacking thousands of DVD players in the cloud.
You can't offer an inline high-performance security cloud by spinning up a bunch of virtual machines in a public cloud. This is a defensive strategy of cloud imitators which, in our view, serves the self-preservation of the vendor, not the needs of the customers.
Zscaler has a significant competitive advantage as a result of the technology, architecture and maturity of cloud security platform including one, Zscaler was born in the cloud, for the cloud just like Salesforce and Workday.
Two, Zscaler has a purpose built globally distributed multi-tenant cloud for fast user experience, unlike imitation cloud, Zscaler requires no back hauling from front doors to a central computing data center of a public cloud.
Three, Zscaler performs SSL inspection at scale as a purpose-built proxy for better security.
Lastly, Zscaler continues to deliver zero trust network access that provides application access without network access reducing business risk unlike firewalls and VPNs.
The duo of Okta and Zscaler are the bright lights of the cloud generation and leading the digital economy in digital security.
"Software is like Lego. You can make anything with it, but it may not be appropriate." - CEO of IMC Worldwide Stuart Sherman
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
July 10, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(THE LOPSIDED WORLD OF TECH)
(FB), (GOOGL)