(Global, January 5, TMT2024) Today's highlights: Microsoft is expected to surpass Apple to regain the first place in the U.S. stock market capitalization, Microsoft will equip computer keyboards with Copilot keys, Huawei's folding phone shipment target may increase to up to 10 million units, Nokia and Honor signed a 5G patent license agreement, Intel established a new artificial intelligence company Articul8 AI, and Universal Pictures will surpass Disney in box office revenue in 2023.
Microsoft is expected to overtake Apple to regain the first place in the U.S. stock market capitalization
As Apple's stock price continues to fall at the start of the new year, the gap between the company's market capitalization and Microsoft has narrowed to its narrowest level since November 2021, meaning Microsoft is one step closer to regaining the title of the most valuable company in the United States. As of Thursday's close, Microsoft's market capitalization was $2.73 trillion, about $100 billion short of Apple's $2.83 trillion. Since the 14 trading days ending November 17, 2021, Apple's market capitalization has never been lower than Microsoft's. Since November 22, 2021, the gap in market capitalization between the two companies has never been so small. Apple's stock price has fallen for the fourth consecutive session, with a cumulative decline of 6% in four days. Apple's stock rating was downgraded for the second time this week, and analysts have become more cautious about its outlook.
Microsoft will equip computer keyboards with the Copilot key
For the first time in nearly 30 years, the keyboard layout of Windows personal computers (PCs) has undergone major changes, and users will be able to call up Microsoft's AI (artificial intelligence) assistant with one click. Microsoft announced on its official website on January 4 that it will introduce the Copilot key for Windows 11 PCs. The Copilot key will be at the heart of the PC keyboard, along with the Windows key, and it will be pressed to invoke the AI assistant Copilot in the Windows 11 operating system, answering the user's questions, helping the user draw, write emails, summarize text, and more, which Microsoft hopes will allow AI to seamlessly participate in the user's daily life.
Huawei's folding phone shipment target may increase to a maximum of 10 million units
The Economic Daily quoted supply chain sources as saying that Huawei has set a very positive target for folding screen mobile phones this year, from 2.6 million units last year to 7 million to 10 million units, a maximum increase of three times. According to supply chain sources, Huawei has vigorously "scavenged" the CMOS image sensor (CIS), a key component, which is mainly supplied by mainland manufacturer Haowei.
Nokia and Honor signed a 5G patent license agreement
Nokia announced on January 4 that it had signed a new patent cross-licensing agreement with Honor covering both companies' fundamental inventions in 5G and other cellular technologies. The terms of the agreement are confidential between the parties. According to the statement, this is Nokia's fourth major smartphone deal signed in the past 12 months.
Lei Jun presented the Million Dollar Annual Award
Lei Jun announced that the first major event at the beginning of 2024 will be to award the million-dollar annual technology award to Xiaomi engineers. This is Xiaomi's highest-level internal award, rewarding a team of less than 10 people who have made key breakthroughs in major technological innovation projects. The two teams of "Xiaomi Surging OS Architecture" and "Integrated Large Die-casting Technology" won this year's Million Dollar Award, and they made important contributions to Xiaomi's realization of the closed loop of "people, vehicles, and home ecology".
Qualcomm unveils a new headset chip
Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip, which is capable of supporting 4.3K resolution per eye at a 90Hz refresh rate. Compared to last September's version, the XR2+ Gen 2 chip has a 20% and 15% higher CPU and GPU clocks, respectively, and is capable of supporting 12 or more simultaneous cameras, as well as a powerful onboard AI system. Qualcomm just released the XR2 Gen 2 chip in September last year and used it on the Meta Quest 3. Samsung and Google will use the new chip to launch the "leading XR device experience".
Intel launches a new artificial intelligence company, Articul8 AI
Intel announced a partnership with an investment firm to form a new AI company, Articul8 AI, aimed at providing generative AI services to enterprise customers. The new company is an independent company that will provide enterprise customers with a full-stack, vertically optimized, and secure generative AI software platform. The new AI company is built on intellectual property and technology developed by Intel.
Mobileye股价一度下跌29%
Shares of Mobileye Global, an Israeli self-driving technology provider, fell as much as 29% after its full-year revenue outlook fell well below Wall Street expectations. Mobileye is Israel's largest publicly traded company by market capitalization, producing chips for vehicle driver assistance systems. The company expects revenue to decline by about 50% year-over-year in the fiscal first quarter. The company's customers include Porsche and Volkswagen, among others. Demand for automotive chips has been stronger than other areas in the electronics industry, but this may no longer be enough to support high levels of chip shipments as overall automotive demand slows. Intel still owns about 88 percent of Mobileye.
The custom ChatGPT store goes live next week
OpenAI has released an email to all custom GPT developers, and the "Custom GPT Store" will be launched next week. This is a blockbuster product released by OpenAI at the first developer conference last year. Users only need to submit conversation instructions, additional knowledge data, and then choose whether they need multimodal functions such as web search, data analysis, and image generation, and they can quickly develop ChatGPT assistants in specific fields such as law, finance, and healthcare.
OpenAI has been exposed to paying publishers too little for content
Two executives in recent talks with OpenAI said OpenAI is offering $1 million to $5 million a year in licenses to some media companies to use news articles to train their large language models. That's a small number even for small publishers, which could make it difficult for OpenAI to reach a deal. Apple is also trying to reach an agreement with publishers, and Apple wants to be able to use the content for future AI products in any way the company deems necessary.
Google will disable cookies
Google began a limited test to limit the use of cookies by 1% of users using its Chrome browser. Google plans to remove cookies for all Chrome users by the end of the year.
Universal Pictures' box office revenue in 2023 surpasses Disney's
Universal Pictures is the highest-grossing studio in 2023, reaching $4.907 billion, surpassing Disney's $4.827 billion. Universal Pictures released more than 20 films last year, including "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" grossed more than $1 billion worldwide during its theatrical release, and "Oppenheimer" grossed more than $954 million worldwide, both of which are among the top three global box office grossing in 2023. Disney's films released last year include "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3", live-action "The Little Mermaid", "Raiders of the Lost Ark 5", etc., "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is one of the highest-grossing films, with a global box office revenue of $845 million.
Former Bosch semiconductor plant manager will become president of TSMC's European subsidiary
Bessenberg, CEO of Saxony Silicon Valley, a local semiconductor association in Dresden, Germany, confirmed on LinkedIn that Christian Koitzsch, former director of Bosch Semiconductor Manufacturing in Dresden, will be appointed as TSMC European Semiconductor Manufacturing in the new year Company, ESMC), he is expected to be responsible for the construction of TSMC's new plant in Dresden, which is expected to start construction in the second half of this year.
Microsoft Windows accounts for nearly 73% of desktop systems
According to StatCounter's latest statistics for December 2023, by the end of 2023, 7 out of every 10 desktop operating systems (72.72%) were Microsoft's Windows, and its market share increased compared to November. Apple's macOS dropped to 16.38% from 21.01% in November. In terms of market share, the market share of desktop operating systems is Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS, and FreeBSD. The market share of each version of the Windows operating system is Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows XP, and Windows 8.