Reports that $Apple (AAPL.US)$ has set a goal of producing a fully autonomous electric car by 2025 would have been enough to set the tech sector and Wall Street on fire with speculation about what an "iCar" might look like. But, when those reports from last week said the key to Apple's car plans is a breakthrough semiconductor platform, that fire of speculation turned into an almost uncontrollable blaze.
Apple (AAPL) as it historically does, is keeping its mouth shut about anything it might be doing on the car front. However, the potential for a new chip technology unlike any other in the auto sector illustrates the role that chip developers are playing in advancing changes in the auto industry. And recent comments from many bellwether chip company executives show how much automobiles are playing a role in their plans for new areas of diversification and growth.
$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ reported strong quarterly results on Nov. 17, and not surprisingly, the company's performance was largely driven by its gaming and data-center businesses. Revenue from automotive products was only $135 million, but that was an increase of 8% from a year ago. Nvidia (NVDA) also said that during the quarter, it lined up self-driving truck start-up Kodiak Robotics, British automaker Lotus, autonomous bus manufacturer QCraft, and EV startup WM Motor as customers to use Nvidia's Drive Orin platform for their next-generation vehicles.
In talking about Nvidia's (NVDA) results, Chief Executive Jensen Huang said that the automotive industry also provides an outlet for use of the company's Omniverse virtual technology platform.
"There are 100 million cars. We've heard that the new cars will all have -- will all be -- have the capability to have something like an Omniverse Avatar. And so there's 100 million cars to be $1,000 per car per year," Huang said.
Of course, Nvidia (NVDA) isn't alone among chip companies with plans of building big automotive businesses.
$Qualcomm (QCOM.US)$ has made autos one its primary areas of focus, and on Nov. 3, it reported $270 million in fourth-quarter revenue from automotive sales, a 44% increase from a year ago. At that time, Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm (QCOM) was working with automakers to create "a joint roadmap to build multi-tier, multi-generation, scalable and upgradable platforms for a long-term sustainable business."
Qualcomm (QCOM) wasted little time putting some meat on those auto-plan bones when, on Nov. 17, the company announced a deal to provide its Snapdragon system-on-a-chip technology to BMW for the German automaker's next generation of autonomously driven cars. At its investor day meeting that same day, Qualcomm said such deals should help it boost its automotive-chip revenue from $1 billion this year, to $3.5 billion in 2026.
"This is just the beginning," Amon said of the BMW deal. "It's an incredible opportunity to scale very fast in our auto pipeline."
Other automakers are building closer ties with many large chipmakers. Last week, $General Motors (GM.US)$ said it will work with Qualcomm and other chip companies on semiconductors for its cars, and $Ford Motor (F.US)$ announced a new partnership with $GlobalFoundries (GFS.US)$ centered around jointly developing chip technologies for Ford (F) vehicles.
Tom Caulfied, GlobalFoundries CEO, called the deal with Ford "a key step forward in strengthening our cooperation and partnership with automakers to spur innovation, bring new features to market faster, and ensure long-term, supply-demand balance."
At $Intel (INTC.US)$, the semiconductor giant's Mobileye self-driving car business reported its best-ever quarter in October, with sales of $326 million, or 39% higher than in the same period a year ago. On Intel's (INTC) earnings call, Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said that with Mobileye, Intel will soon deliver driverless robo-taxi service in conjunction with rental car company Sixt SE. Gelsinger added that Intel (INTC) expects the market for "automotive silicon" will reach $115 billion by the end of the decade "as AVs [autonomous vehicles] begin to move from the garage to the streets."
At the IAA Mobility Conference in September, Gelsinger said that the advancements in chip technology are turning the automobile into "a computer with tires," and left no doubt about how close chip companies and carmakers will work together in the coming years.
"We need you and you need us," Gelsinger said.

$General Motors (GM.US)$ and $Ford Motor (F.US)$ have given no indication that they are considering a spinoff of their electric vehicles businesses, but that could change in a market where $Tesla (TSLA.US)$trades with a market cap of over one trillion dollars, $Rivian Automotive (RIVN.US)$ skyrockets past a $100B valuation on its first day of trading and $Lucid Group (LCID.US)$ sits with a market cap of over $75B well ahead of mass deliveries.
Datatrek makes the point that traditional automakers are at a huge competitive disadvantage relative to electric vehicle pure plays when it comes to accessing capital markets. Companies like Tesla (TSLA), Rivian Automotive (RIVN) and Lucid Group (LCID) have an easier route to low-cost capital by issuing shares into red-hot demand. At the moment, that investor demand is seen supported by market expectations that General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) will not break off their electric vehicle businesses into separate pure-play EV companies.
The breakup road for GM and Ford to take is pretty straightforward, per Datatrek. First, the companies would create an EV "newco" to include parts of the EV business like R&D, product design, parts sourcing and assembly. The next step would be to hire a CEO and CFO from the tech world, but with experience in design and manufacturing, and then staff the rest of the organization from the top-performing ranks of existing management. A strong, independent board and an outside chairperson would also be a positive, especially if the have venture capital and technology chops. Finally, GM (GM) and Ford (F) would fire off a sale of 19.9% of the new pure-play EV companies in an initial public offering to bring in as much as $10B and leave plenty of room for investor interest. Even tricky issues like how to deal with the UAW and distinguishing brands (F-150 ICE vs. F-150 Lightning) could have clever workarounds if the Detroit giants make the move.
"It is not that Ford and GM can't compete in EVs or AVs – they can. It is that their chances improve materially if they can have an equity currency that goes toe – to – toe with Tesla and (now) Apple," reasons Datatrek on the scenario.
Other auto industry analysts have observed that GM's Cruise subsidiary in particular could have an easier time striking key partnerships if free of the old Detroit roots.

$Yunhong International Units 1 Cl A Ord Shs 1/2 Red Wt And 1 Rt (ZGYH.US)$, who's CEO is also behind the Trump media SPAC $Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC.US)$, plans to dissolve and liquidate.
SPAC Yunhong International, which is run by Patrick Orlando, will dissolve after it was unable to consummate a deal within the required timeframe, according to a 8-K filing.
Wuhan, China-based Yunhong went public in 2019 with a stated goal of looking to acquire a consumer/lifestyle business in Asia, later amended to exclude China.
Yunhong briefly reached a deal earlier this year to take battery and hydrogen-fuel-cell company Giga Energy public at a $7.4B valuation, with plans to operate in China. However, Giga canceled the merger some four months later when a deadline to close expired.
$Yunhong International C/Wts 31/01/2027 (To Pur Com) (ZGYHW.US)$ soared on Oct. 22, jumping 265% after Trump's Media and Technology Group announced it would go public through a combination with DWAC.
Orlando is also the CEO of SPAC $Benessere Capital Acquisition Corp (BENE.US)$.
The Yunhong news was reported earlier by Bloomberg.
Orlando's dealings with Trump have come under scrutiny in the wake of a New York Times article last month that claimed there might be potential violations of securities laws in regard to the DWAC SPAC. Earlier this week Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler yesterday requesting that the agency investigate the transaction.

$Top Glove (BVA.SG)$ what?! top glove PE(ttm) is 2+ only? this is way too low. got problem? no one willing buy?

After a few months where streaming video's share of television viewing was on the march, it took a back-to-school pause - and now broadcast is the one making up ground in TV's traditional fall season.
Streaming's share has been at 28% for a few months, but broadcast television inched up 2 percentage points in September and another 2 in October to tie it at 28%, according to "The Gauge" from Nielsen, its monthly macro look at TV delivery platforms.
It attributes the gain to two fall phenomena: the new fall TV lineup (particularly general drama) and live sports (up 22% from September). Those two genres accounted for 35% of the time viewers spent watching broadcast programming in October, Nielsen says.
Broadcast took its gains from Cable and Other, which fell to 37% and 6% share respectively. ("Other" TV use includes such uses as watching video discs and gaming.)
Of the 28% share taken by streamers, $Netflix (NFLX.US)$ and $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$ $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ had been tied at 6 percentage points apiece, but Netflix ticked up to 7% of total viewing, thanks in large part to minutes viewed jumping 5.5% during the period, a credit to its hits like Squid Game, You and Maid.
Behind it in share were Hulu (DIS, CMCSA), at 3%; Amazon Prime Video $Amazon (AMZN.US)$, at 2%; and Disney+ $Disney (DIS.US)$, at 1%.
Total minutes viewed across Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ each declined about 2.5%. Hulu viewership dipped 0.3%. YouTube viewership, boosted by YouTube TV, rose 2.2%.
The "Other Streaming" category includes linear streamers like Spectrum $Charter Communications (CHTR.US)$, DirecTV $AT&T (T.US)$ and Sling TV $Dish Network (DISH.US)$, and it's held steady at 9% of overall TV share, but viewership in that category is growing by double digits.
In Nielsen's weekly streaming ratings, meanwhile, Netflix continued to make hay, sweeping the entire top 10 in overall programs - but fresh off a new season, You ousted Squid Game as the No. 1 program, streaming 2.682 billion minutes to Squid Game's 1.682 billion.
They were followed on the overall chart by Netflix's Maid (865 million minutes), Shameless (851 million), CoComelon (748 million), Locke & Key (637 million), In the Dark (608 million), Seinfeld (595 million), The Blacklist (586 million) and NCIS (540 million).
As usual, Netflix also swept the acquired-series sub-chart, led by Shameless, CoComelon, In the Dark and Seinfeld. And it took the top five spots on the originals chart, though Hulu (DIS, CMCSA) broke through there at No. 6 with Only Murders in the Building (386 million), and Apple TV+ $Apple (AAPL.US)$ at No. 9 with Ted Lasso (291 million).
The movies chart was once again where Disney racked minutes: Disney+ led the chart with Black Widow (269 million minutes) and Hocus Pocus (237 million). Those were followed by three Netflix films - The Forgotten Battle (216 million), Going in Style (210 million) and Night Teeth (188 million) before three other Disney+ films: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (168 million), Luca (150 million) and Moana (134 million).

Recently, metaverse has become the hottest topic to which mooers are paying close attention. Standing on the cusp of virtual social networking, social media giant Facebook has changed its name to lead the latest trend. $Meta Platforms (FB.US)$ Events are happening every day in moomoo. Which trends are mooers riding?
To embrace the new trend, @moomoo Academy is changing its name. We are still committed to sharing the most advanced investment ideas and knowledge, launching activities to gather your views, and posting the outstanding ones in the account for all of you. Here is where mooers' wisdom is accumulated, and gamification strategies are adopted to make teaching more engaging!
Let's get together to brainstorm and choose a new trending name for @moomoo Academy. Here, we have three proposals:
1. Meta Moo
Learning is like playing a game where you work hard to defeat the monsters to get to the higher levels. Intuition developed from the past investing experience becomes a vital part of an investor's toolkit. Immerse yourself in moomoo and explore the virtual gamification elements of social interaction.
2. moomoo Idea
Collect every idea you have when you are investing, and finally, construct your unique investment logic. Here, we are presenting the investment insights shared by you, our dear friends.
3. mooers Strategy
Share your investment strategies and experiences with all mooers so that beginners can learn from the experienced and mooers can interact with their counterparts. You are improving as you are communicating.
Hunting moment! Cast your precious vote in the name-changing survey of @moomoo Academy.
We are calling on mooers to be part of the name changing event and become the content producers of the new account. Name changing is so cool, and we want you to be part of it. Please remember that all suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
If you have a better name, please leave it in the comment below!

$Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$  tomorrow the BTC up