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POLAND – 2023/07/31: In this photo illustration an AMD logo seen displayed on a smartphone with stock market percentages on a laptop screen. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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U.S. chip design firm Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday unveiled new processors to power artificial intelligence-enabled PCs as it seeks to gain leadership in the AI PC race against rivals like Nvidia and Intel.

AI PCs are personal computers equipped with processors designed to perform AI tasks, such as real-time language translation and summarization.

Referring to them as the most powerful chips yet for business PCs, AMD said the Ryzen Pro 8040 series processors for laptops and the Ryzen Pro 8000 series processors for desktops are built with the advanced 4-nanometer technology.

These processors are expected to power PC models from brands including HP and Lenovo from the second quarter of 2024, AMD said in a press release Tuesday.

These new AMD chips will compete against Nvidia’s and Intel’s chips that are specifically designed for AI PCs.

Like Nvidia, AMD doesn’t fabricate its own chips. Instead, it outsources the manufacturing of its chips to semiconductor foundries, mainly to the world’s largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

TSMC currently produces 3-nanometer chips and plans to commence mass production of 2-nanometer chips in 2025. Typically, a smaller nanometer size yields more powerful and efficient chips. 

In January, AMD announced the next-generation Ryzen 8000G series desktop processors which are able to provide “immense power and dominant performance for intensive workloads including gaming and content creation.” The 8000G series is built on the 4-nanometer process.

AMD and Intel have talked up AI PCs as a new era for the industry. Last year saw an AI boom after ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022.

AMD CEO Lisa Su: Everyone will want an AI PC as the technology progresses

U.S. consulting firm Gartner estimates shipments of AI PCs will consist of 22% of all PCs in 2024. The research firm expects 54.5 million units of AI PCs to be shipped by the end of the year.

“The rapid adoption of on-device GenAI capabilities and AI processors will eventually become a standard requirement for technology vendors,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner.

However, this could present challenges to vendors as they would face difficulties “differentiating themselves from competitors” and increasing revenue, said Atwal.

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Morgan Stanley banker sees 10 to 15 more tech IPOs in 2024, and a ‘better year’ in 2025

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Morgan Stanley banker sees 10 to 15 more tech IPOs in 2024, and a 'better year' in 2025

What's next for the IPO market

Following a long period of waiting, “the IPO market’s back.”

That’s according to Colin Stewart, Morgan Stanley’s global head of technology equity capital markets. In an interview with CNBC’s “TechCheck” on Monday, Stewart said 10 to 15 more tech companies could go public before the end of 2024, with an even “better year” in store for 2025.

“It’s been a long two and a half years, where we’ve had really nothing,” Stewart said. Recent initial public offerings have priced high and traded well, which “bodes well for the future,” he added.

The lull began in 2022, when soaring inflation and rising interest rates pushed investors out of risk, slashed tech valuations and led many tech companies to delay their plans to go public. It was a sharp contrast to the prior two years, which saw a record number of deals, including some at astronomical revenue multiples.

The IPO market cracked open in September, with the debuts of Instacart and Klaviyo. But the first real signs of momentum came last month, as Reddit became the first IPO for a major social media company since Pinterest in 2019 and data center connectivity chip company Astera Labs rocketed on its first day of trading.

Both stocks remain well above their IPO price, with Astera up about 145% as investors pour money into all things tied to artificial intelligence.

Morgan Stanley was the lead banker on the Reddit and Astera IPOs, positioning itself to collect roughly $37 million in total fees.

Wall Street rival Goldman Sachs led the latest venture-backed tech IPO last week. Rubrik, which develops data management software, jumped 16% in its New York Stock Exchange debut.

Bipul Sinha, CEO, Chairman & Co-Founder of Rubrik Inc., the Microsoft backed cybersecurity software startup, waves a flag while posing with employees during the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 25, 2024.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Stewart, who’s had a hand in some of the largest offerings of the last few decades, said it usually takes six months to take an IPO to the finish line. That means companies currently considering an IPO are likely to hold off until 2025 to avoid intersecting with the U.S. presidential election in November, he said.

As for valuations, Stewart said the market has retreated from the peak days of 2021, and multiples in software and other parts of technology are now back to levels seen in 2018 and 2019. Stewart described 2021 as an “amazing year” but also “exhausting.”

“What’s happened in the last six to 12 months is that the market has gotten more comfortable with paying for growth again,” Stewart said. “We’re not back to the levels of 2021, but we are getting a fair price for growth. And I think at those prices, you’re starting to see companies say, ‘You know, it’s actually not bad to be a public company.'”

Still, the most valuable, late-stage companies have yet to hit the exits. That list includes Elon Musk’s SpaceX along with Stripe and Databricks.

While Stewart said he’d “love to take them public,” he acknowledged that the challenge for the bigger names is “they’ve got scale, they’ve got growth, investors are giving them lots of capital” and they’re investing toward the future.

“Right now the IPO is not on their near-term horizon, unfortunately,” he said. “But when it does come they’ll be blockbuster.”

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Embattled grocery startup Getir exits the U.S. and Europe, will refocus on Turkey

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Embattled grocery startup Getir exits the U.S. and Europe, will refocus on Turkey

Companies such as Getir and Gorillas promise to deliver items to shoppers’ doors in as little as 10 minutes.

Angel Garcia | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Grocery delivery startup Getir announced on Monday that it is quitting international markets including the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S., marking a major setback for the once hyped online grocery industry.

The Istanbul, Turkey-based firm said in a statement that it was withdrawing from its U.S. and European markets and would now refocus its financial resources on Turkey.

The company said it raised a new investment round led by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and venture capital firm G Squared “to bolster its competitive position in its core food and grocery delivery businesses in Turkey.”

Getir said it generates 7% of its revenues from the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S.

“Getir expresses its sincere appreciation for the dedication and hard work of all its employees in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.,” the company said.

Pandemic grocery hype fades

Struggling space

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Tesla jumps 10% in premarket trading after passing key hurdle to roll out full self-driving in China

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Tesla jumps 10% in premarket trading after passing key hurdle to roll out full self-driving in China

SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Award 2020 on Dec. 1, 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

Britta Pedersen | Getty Images

Shares of Tesla rose sharply in U.S. premarket trading on Monday after the electric car maker passes a significant milestone to roll out its full self-driving technology in China.

The company’s share price spiked more than 10% just after 7:30 a.m. ET, as investors reacted to news surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s visit to China.

Tesla on Sunday said that local Chinese authorities removed restrictions on its cars after passing the country’s data security requirements.

The move raised expectations that Tesla’s driver-assistance software Full Self Driving (FSD) would soon be available in the country, which is the largest market for electric vehicles.

While Tesla’s electric cars are some of the most popular vehicles in China, they have reportedly been banned from some government-related properties due to data security concerns.

Separately, the Biden administration earlier this year announced a probe into whether imported cars from China pose national security risks due to their ability to potentially collect sensitive data.

FSD is an upgrade to Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistant. Tesla has offered its FSD technology in China for years, but with a restricted feature set that limits it to operations, such as automated lane changing.

Data security concerns have been a key obstacle preventing Tesla from achieving a full rollout of the system in China.

Tesla also reportedly scored a deal with Baidu that would give Musk’s firm access to the Chinese internet giant’s mapping and navigation technology for Tesla’s FSD feature.

The agreement would allow Tesla to tap into Baidu’s mapping service license, which is a requirement for intelligence driving systems to operate on public roads in China, Reuters reported, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

CNBC was unable to independently verify the report. Tesla and Baidu were not immediately available for comment.

With the license, which foreign companies can only clinch in partnership with local Chinese firms, Tesla will be allowed to legally operate FSD on Chinese roads, and its fleets will be able to gather data about traffic, road signs and routes.

The breakthrough for Tesla toward bringing its FSD self-driving technology to China marks a key win for the firm at a time when it is facing hefty competition in the Chinese market. Local rivals such as Warren Buffett-backed electric vehicle maker BYD, Nio, and Xpeng have ramped up their competition with Tesla in recent years.

BYD was temporarily the largest electric vehicle maker globally, producing more than 3 million new energy vehicles in 2023. The firm recently lost its crown as world’s largest EV maker, after a 43% plunge in sales in the first quarter.

– CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report

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