Blockchain Foundry Inc. (CSE: BCFN)
Develops and commercializes blockchain-based business solutions and provides consulting services to corporate clients seeking to leverage blockchain technology in their businesses.
Earlier this week, noted Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the tech giant would team up with Hyundai (OTCPK:HYMLF) and its subsidiary Kia for production assistance on the Apple Car.
Late yesterday, CNBC sources confirmed that Apple is close to finalizing a deal with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture the vehicles at a Kia plant in West Point, Georgia.
Sources say Apple wanted to work with an established automaker with a North American manufacturing presence who would allow Apple to handle the software and hardware for the fully autonomous vehicle. Hyundai would want in on the deal due to its focus on mobility as the future.
Local media reports and Bloomberg suggested that Apple will invest $3.6B as part of the collaboration. Apple reportedly aims to produce 100,000 vehicles annually by 2024 at the Kia plant before ramping up to 400,000 vehicles.
JPMorgan analyst Samit Chatterjee notes that the production amounts represent less than 1% and 3% of the global luxury vehicle market and 1% and 4% of the BEV market, according to IHS Markit estimates for 2024-25, which are “reasonable demand targets.”
Chatterjee says the potential $3.6B investment would be one of Apple’s “most significant investments” for Apple, topping the $3B acquisition price for Beats. But the analyst says the potential $70-100B TAM profit for hardware alone would more than justify the initial investment.
Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty writes that “applying a market share figure to the current EV market forecast is likely to vastly underestimate the size of Apple’s car business in the future” since Apple tends to expand whatever market it chooses to enter.
Wedbush’s Daniel Ives says investors might prefer the partnership approach for the Apple Car “given the margin and financial model implications down the road, coupled with the strategic product risk around such a gargantuan endeavor.”
Apple shares are up 1% to $135.30.
Apple analyst Kuo expects the Car to feature Hyundai’s E-GMP electric vehicle platform, which was unveiled in December.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) has a new, multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud (GOOG, GOOGL) that will involve moving mountains of its data to the cloud service.
Twitter’s platform ingests trillions of events, runs tens of thousands of jobs on more than a dozen computing clusters, and processes hundreds of petabytes of data every day.
It will move its off-line analytics, data processing and machine learning workloads to Google’s Data Cloud. That will include use of BigQuery, Dataflow, Cloud Bigtable and machine learning tools.
The new arrangement is an extension of a 2018 deal between the companies: Twitter’s “Partly Cloudy” strategy.
Digital Turbine (NASDAQ:APPS) is up 16.7% premarket after an upgrade to Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann, from Neutral.
The firm boosted its price target to $73 from $31.50. That target implies 13% further upside.
Shares in Digital Turbine have jumped 333% over the past six months, and rose 891% over the past year.
Street analysts are Bullish on the stock, while Seeking Alpha authors are Very Bullish. It has a Quant Rating of Neutral.
The company’s shares jumped postmarket last night after its quarterly earnings showed revenue growth of 146%, and it boosted its operating margin by more than 1,000 basis points to 23.2%.
It also guided to the upside for the full year.
Ladenburg Thalmann had cut its rating on the stock to Neutral last July.
