From the continued easing by the new Bank of Japan Governor Ueda, and Buffett's positive comments on buying in Japan, the landscape has completely changed, hasn't it?
From the crisis of Silicon Valley Bank's bankruptcy to the complete resurrection of my assets, thank you.
I won't increase my purchases today, but if the price drops, I will implement the strategy of buying (learning to buy when the Nikkei drops).

What kind of company is Ark Investment
Ark Investment Inc. was founded in 2014 and is an institutional investor headquartered in Florida, USA. Cathy Wood, the founder of the company, prefixed the company name with ARK (arc), which means ark. The company's assets under management as of the end of December 2022 were 11.54 billion dollars, down 2.81 billion dollars from the end of the previous quarter.
As a result of repeated intensive investments in companies with “disruptive innovation,” the average annual investment return from 2014 to 2021 for the Arc Innovation ETF under the umbrella of the company rose to 39%, and a return rate of more than three times that of the S&P 500 during the same period was recorded.
Under such circumstances, the Wall Street Journal issued a report in 2022/12 stating that “the Ark Innovation ETF has fallen 63% since entering 2022 until now, and has fallen 78% from its peak in 2021/2.” Regarding poor management of ETFs under the company's umbrella, Mr. Wood defended his own investment strategy, saying “we have set an investment period of 5 years.”
Ark Investment portfolio top 10 (2022 4Q...

ChatGPT and Dall·E2 themselves are excellent AI models. However, looking back on past history, no matter how advanced they are in terms of technology, there is no doubt that companies that will catch up with OpenAI will appear one after another as time passes. However, even so, it seems that Microsoft values the “autonomy” of OpenAI and intends to strategically work on the “fruits” (research results) born from it into its own products.
The “additional investment on the scale of several billion dollars” announced in January 2023 seems to be an extension of the past two investments. There is no explanation of the investment scheme from Microsoft or OpenAI, but when various reports from overseas are synthesized, the investment scheme is as follows.
- Microsoft invested billions of dollars (up to $10 billion) over several years
- Microsoft will receive 75% of the profits generated by OpenAI until the return on investment is completed
- After the return on investment, Microsoft can acquire up to 49% of OpenAI's shares
In addition, OpenAI's various AI platforms have been ported to Microsoft's cloud platform “Azure”, and learning programs...

Where are Meta's growth opportunities?
ARPU in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere has been steadily increasing over the years, and Facebook penetration in these countries is still below 25%. If the population of Asia and Africa continues to increase, there is a possibility that ARPU in these regions will grow significantly.
Nonetheless, Meta must continue to invest heavily in research and development in order to continue to be a representative platform for social media.
Another growth factor is probably Reality Labs. In recent years, Meta has invested heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality hardware and software, such as virtual reality headsets such as Quest and online platforms such as Horizon World.
If this technology gets on track and becomes widespread, Meta can be a leader in this new economy and a cash-generating machine. Also, it is possible to re-establish its position as a “cool” enterprise that attracts young users. But will Reality Labs succeed? I still don't understand that.

Meta continues to increase the number of users across all platforms, but its growth rate is likely to remain very moderate.
Currently, Facebook has 2.96 billion monthly active users, which is equivalent to 37% of the world's population of 8 billion people. If you subtract 1.4 billion people in China, where Facebook is unlikely to penetrate, it means that nearly half of the world's population already uses Facebook.
According to Internet World Stats, Facebook has penetrated close to 80% of the population in Latin America and North America. Europe and Oceania also have penetration rates close to 65%. These countries have far higher consumption power compared to other countries in the world, but average advertising revenue (ARPU) per user has declined compared to the previous year.
Due to the rise of TikTok, users in these countries are spending a lot of time on TikTok instead of Facebook. Also, the younger generation is reluctant to open Facebook accounts and is considered more “old-fashioned.”
If the company were to improve the user experience and see how to attract the younger generation...

The stock price of Meta Platforms (META.US) $ fell to half price last year due to repeated involuntary quarterly financial results. Investors are looking for signs of recovery in the current earnings report. We are also looking forward to the latest information on whether brands that have suspended many campaigns have begun to spend more money on advertisements.
In the previous quarter, Meta's total revenue fell 4.47% from the same period last year, and net profit fell 52.2% from the same period last year to 4.39 billion dollars.
Market analysts anticipate further disruptions due to online advertising as concerns about a potential recession remain high. In a survey of 50 ad buyers announced by Cowen this month, it was stated that companies expected a mere 3.3% increase in spending in 2023, showing “the weakest ad growth outlook in the past 5 years.”
Last year, these companies increased their spending by 7.5%.
“Two-thirds of ad buyers have factored in the recession as part of the budgeting process, citing macro-factors such as inflation and consumer softening,” Cowen said.
The good news is that companies spend on advertising to continue to attract customers...

In the company's 3Q (July-September) financial results for the fiscal year ending 2022/12, sales were 27.71 billion dollars, down 4% from the same period last year, and adjusted EPS was 1.64 dollars, down 49% from the same period last year. Although sales slightly exceeded market expectations (27.38 billion dollars), EPS fell well below market expectations (1.89 dollars). Daily active users (DAU) rose 3% to 1.98 billion people in line with market forecasts, and monthly active users (MAU) increased 2% to 2.96 billion people, slightly exceeding market expectations (2.94 billion people). Sales per user (ARPU) fell below market expectations (9.83 dollars) at 9.41 dollars.
On the sales side, sales of the main advertising division declined 4% (27.24 billion dollars). The number of ad views increased 17%, but the average unit price of advertisements decreased 18%. By region, while European advertising revenue fell sharply with the same 16% decrease, the Asia-Pacific region fought well with the same 6% increase. In terms of profit and loss, research and development expenses, SG&A expenses, and marketing expenses all swelled, and operating profit was reduced by almost half.
Sales forecasts for the 4Q (October-December) are 30 billion to 32.5 billion dollars (11 billion compared to the same period last year...

Global EV sales trends and forecasts for '22
According to the summary of the research company MarkLines, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) sold in 22 in 11 major countries+3 Scandinavian countries, which combines battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), was 9.731 million units, up 64% from the previous year. It is said that the ratio of 14 countries to global EV sales will be about 90%. Of these, the number of new EVs sold in China in '22 was 6.887 million units, a 93% increase from the previous year, and it is calculated that 7 out of 10 EVs sold in 14 countries will be sold in China.
Above all, the increase in the share of EV sales in new car sales in 14 countries is remarkable. Looking at the sales share of EVs in new car sales on a monthly basis, what was 7.8% as of 20/12 and 15.0% as of 21/12 rose to 22.5% as of 22/12. Looking at an annual pace, the EV sales share of the 14 countries that accounted for new car sales in '22 was 16.6%, up 6.3% from the previous year.
Under such circumstances, according to the research company LMC Automotive, the sales share of BEVs in global new car sales in '22 is Europe...

Ahead of the 4Q 2022 earnings announcement, the company disclosed the EV production and delivery numbers for the full year 2022 and the 4Q 2022. The EV production and delivery numbers for 4Q 2022 were 439,701 units, an increase of 44% compared to the same period last year, and 405,278 units, an increase of 31% compared to the same period last year. The EV production and delivery numbers for the full year 2022 were 1,369,611 units, an increase of 47% compared to the previous year, and 1,313,851 units, an increase of 40% compared to the previous year.
In the 4Q 2021 earnings announcement, the company's guidance for the full year 2022 stated that the EV delivery numbers were expected to increase by over 50% compared to the previous year. However, during the 3Q 2022 earnings announcement in October, the company's management indicated a downward revision in the growth rate of the full year 2022 delivery numbers, which would be less than 50% compared to the previous year. At the same time, the production numbers for the full year 2022 were expected to maintain a 50% increase. As a result, both the EV production and delivery numbers for 2022 were below the company's plan.
The company's first large-scale EV truck, the Semi, was delivered to PepsiCo in the US on December 1st of last year. During the 3Q 2022 earnings announcement, CEO Musk stated that they are aiming to achieve sales of 0.05 million Semi trucks in North America by 2024.