NordenBladet – As technology giants like Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), and Meta (formerly Facebook) prepare to report their quarterly earnings, artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to once again be a prominent topic of discussion. In the previous quarter, these companies garnered attention for their AI initiatives, resulting in stock price increases based on the promise of future earnings. However, investors are now looking for concrete evidence of the impact of AI on the companies’ profits and operations.
Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are set to reveal their financial results for this quarter and provide updates on their AI strategies. The first half of 2023 witnessed a surge in interest surrounding AI, partly sparked by the launch of ChatGPT in November. Microsoft and Alphabet have actively explored ways to revolutionize search through AI technology, and their strong focus on AI during previous earnings calls generated excitement in the market.
AI’s significance was further emphasized when Nvidia, a chipmaker, highlighted its potential to significantly boost earnings for the next quarter beyond initial expectations. This led to a rally in tech stocks, with AI becoming a prevalent theme in research notes, and even companies like Coca-Cola expressing interest in leveraging AI.
Market experts believe that enthusiasm for AI will continue to grow in the coming years, and investors are looking forward to seeing how companies attribute their growth to AI initiatives. For instance, Microsoft’s AI innovations have prompted Goldman Sachs to increase the tech giant’s price target. However, concerns persist over whether technology stocks have been overvalued amid the AI craze, as investors have shown a willingness to sell tech stocks if earnings reports fail to meet expectations.
AI remains a central topic as technology companies announce their quarterly earnings, and investors are eager to see tangible results from the promises made earlier. The market outlook for AI is positive, but companies will need to demonstrate the real impact of AI on their bottom line to maintain investor confidence.
NordenBladet – A cutting-edge testing facility has recently been launched in the Ülemiste City business area of Tallinn, offering an exceptional environment for the Baltic and Nordic regions to experiment with and assess the effectiveness of emerging technologies. This state-of-the-art facility is inviting both local and international companies to put their new solutions to the test or validate their services within a realistic urban setting.
“The purpose of Ülemiste City that has been developed into a smart business area from scratch within two decades is to become a testing platform for new green urban solutions. As a compact business environment, we can offer testers access to our infrastructure, a community of 16 000 members, different support services and our know-how in development,” said the Chief Innovation Officer of Ülemiste City, Ursel Velve. “The resulting synergy between science and business and the smart implementation of new sustainable technologies is what makes Ülemiste the most unique environment in the Nordic region for different testing purposes – the TestCity.”
According to Ursel Velve, Ülemiste City invests in creating an ecosystem where testing is a natural part of product development and service design, keeping the focus on the green transition as well as the health and smart city innovation. She says that Ülemiste City is different from other North-European testing environments because of its more significant and more versatile selection of services supported by the actual urban environment in a limited area functioning as a mini-city model.
“Ülemiste Test City, Tallinn and Estonia offer a physical testing environment at the level of a business campus, city as well as a compact small state, supported by data and modern technologies necessary for making leadership decisions as well as talents interested in technology who can contribute to the value chain from the beginning till the end,” said Ursel Velve. She added that Test City’s value also lies in bringing together businesses of different sizes and areas of activity, facilitating the creation of new services and business models.
Several services have undergone a testing process within the framework of the Test City concept. Logistics firm DPD recently tested package delivery with Clevon’s robot courier CLEVON 1. Auvetech Modern Mobility has also tested their self-driving demand-based transportation service on the campus, Fyma its artificial intelligence-based mobility data solution, R8 Technologies its artificial intelligence-based energy management of buildings, Kone Insight its building usage statistics service, Ringo its reusable food packaging service and Active Health its health management platform.
Skeleton Technologies is expanding its test lab in Ülemiste Test City. The company’s board member Ants Vill said they would like to test Skeleton’s technologies more widely in Estonia. “We highly value the level of local engineering, which is extremely competitive in the global context today, and we wish that there would be more engineering professionals in Estonia to enable us to create more value through the development and implementation of deep technology to combat global climate change,” he added.
Representative of Enterprise Estonia Joonas Vänto stated that all kinds of test environments, labs or incubators that gather innovation also attract talent. “In terms of location, Ülemiste City is truly great. It is a business district within the city where new technologies could be tested. Estonia increasingly attracts forward-looking international companies which in turn increases the interest of foreign workforce in our opportunities. We see that Estonia in cooperation with the city of Tallinn and Ülemiste City is becoming a talent magnet where people want to work,” he noted.
Ülemiste City (https://www.ulemistecity.ee/en) located in Tallinn’s international traffic junction is the biggest business area in the Baltics developed by Mainor Ülemiste and Technopolis Ülemiste. The City’s 36 hectare-area includes 167 000 square metres of rentable office spaces. The area hosts more than 500 businesses and provides a work, home and living environment for nearly 16 000 people.
Ülemiste City, focused on a research-based and open economy, is having an ever-increasing impact on the entire Estonian economy, having taken up third place in the country’s business areas within the past few years. The total turnover of the 500 companies occupying the business area in 2022 was about 2 billion euros, of which one billion was made up by export.
Ülemiste Test City in numbers:
over 500 enterprises
167 000 m² of office spaces
44 226 m² of green areas
16 000 people working, studying of living in the area – about 15% of staff are from about 70 foreign countries
The annual turnover of the business area’s enterprises is 2 billion euros
Over 50% of Ülemiste City’s enterprises cooperate with research and development institutions; 70% of enterprises develop innovative products and services
More than 1/3 of Estonia’s IT-export is produced in Ülemiste City
9 successful Test City projects
The first health technology accelerator Health Founders within the Baltics
Featured image: The most unique testing environment for new technologies in the Baltic and Nordic regions opened in the Ülemiste City business area in Tallinn is welcoming local and foreign companies to test their new solutions or validate their services in a natural city environment. (Ülemiste City)
NordenBladet – Skeleton Technologies, an Estonian company that specializes in the production of supercapacitors, is building a new factory in Leipzig, Germany. The factory is set to be larger than the company’s current production facility in Dresden and will significantly increase production capacity.
The German government and the state of Saxony are providing over 50 million euros to support the construction of the new factory. The investment is part of Germany’s efforts to achieve its green revolution goals and reduce dependence on Asia and America. The new factory will enable Skeleton Technologies to produce up to 12 million supercapacitors and superbatteries per year and reduce production costs.
The company has recently signed agreements with major companies such as Shell, Honda, Siemens, and CAF, which has increased its demand for production. Skeleton Technologies’ development unit is located in Tallinn, Estonia.
Source: NordenBladet.ee Featured image: Taavi Madiberk (Skeleton Technologies)
NordenBladet – Forus International, a company owned by Estonian businessman Urmas Sõurumaa, has acquired the Autolevi car-sharing platform, founded by Tauri Kärson, Simo Sulev, and Robert Sarv in 2013. The purchase price has not been disclosed, and the transaction is subject to approval from the Competition Authority.
Autolevi’s sales revenue last year was €109,300, and it employed two people in the last quarter. Based on the last transaction price, the company’s value was €290,000. Funderbeam investors will be paid €0.56 per unit if the deal is approved. Autolevi’s founder and CEO, Tauri Kärson, said the last price of Autolevi’s instrument on Funderbeam was €0.46, which implies a 21% yield compared to the last market price.
Autolevi has 45,000 users in Estonia, Latvia, and Finland and a selection of over 2,200 vehicles, according to its website. In 2022, users rented out their cars worth more than half a million euros through the platform, and this number is increasing steadily. With the help of Autolevi, car owners can earn more than €1,000 of additional income per month by renting out their vehicles, as cars typically sit idle for 90% of the time while owners must pay for leasing and insurance in full each year.
The car rental market in Estonia is underserved, despite having over 600,000 private cars and 630,000 driver’s license holders. By reducing the number of private cars on the streets, shared car services such as Autolevi can help alleviate issues like pollution, traffic congestion, and parking problems. Autolevi wants to make its service available through an app, in addition to its current web-based platform, with the help of Forus International. In 2017, Autolevi was among the top 20 startup companies in Estonia, and its development has been supported by early angel investors and more than 200 Funderbeam supporters.
Featured image: Urmas Sõõrumaa (NordenBladet)
Source: NordenBladet.ee
NordenBladet – Coop Bank (CPA1T.TL), an Estonian stock-listed company, has challenged a consumer protection decision and taken it to court instead of paying out €17 in interest to a customer. Last year, a Coop Bank customer complained to the Consumer Dispute Committee, stating that they had entered into a children’s savings account agreement with the bank. However, after the agreement was terminated and the bank changed the interest rate to be less favourable to the customer, the bank only transferred the principal sum to the customer, but not the accumulated interest of €17.21.
The bank argued to the Consumer Dispute Committee (Tarbijavaidluste komisjon) that, under its standard terms and conditions, the premium interest accumulated on the children’s savings account and the interest calculated on a daily basis during the validity of the agreement were not payable if the customer terminated the agreement before the deadline. However, the bank did not provide any explanation to the committee as to why it had changed the interest rate. This turned out to be harmful to the depositor, as the monthly interest calculated on the same deposit amount was smaller than before.
The Consumer Dispute Committee ruled that the agreement should be fulfilled based on the principles of good faith and reasonableness, taking into account practices and norms. The committee did not accept the unilateral change of essential terms of the agreement, especially regarding the interest rate. According to the committee, the infringement of the rights of the child (on whose behalf the savings account was opened) compared to other depositors is contrary to the principle of good faith and unacceptable.
The committee also pointed out that the deposited money belonged to the depositor (the child), so the debit of the savings account in favour of the bank for €17.21 was done without legal basis and to the detriment of the depositor’s rights. As a result, the committee decided that the customer’s claim should be satisfied.
According to the Consumer Protection Act, parties have the right to go to court if they disagree with a decision. Coop Bank has exercised this right and decided to appeal the decision of the Consumer Dispute Committee. The bank’s communications manager, Katre Tatrik, stated that Coop Bank does not agree with the committee’s conclusions and wants the court to decide on the validity of the disputed term. As a result of the bank’s decision to go to court, it has not paid out interest to the customer, as the decision of the Consumer Dispute Committee has not yet been enforced.
Photo: Excerpt from the promotional video
Source: NordenBladet.ee
NordenBladet – The S&P 500 has been experiencing a corrective phase as it enters a downtrend on its weekly chart. After a strong move in January, the S&P 500 has entered a bearish environment, and it is uncertain how much of the gain from January will be lost. Every significant increase in 2022 has been given back, which has many bulls worried.
Market sentiment was wildly bullish the previous week, which is a good contrarian indicator, and if the January lows are taken out, the bulls will have reason to be concerned. The Moving average convergence/divergence (MACD or MAC-D) is starting to roll over on the longer time frame, and the price action could be back in the channel created by the bottom pane of the Ulcer Index (UI).
On the economic front, there are renewed questions about the speed of the global economy and persistent inflation. February’s findings for manufacturing and services economies reported by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) will be released and will be weighed against the final S&P Global February Purchasing Managers’ (PMI) data for Japan, China, the eurozone, and the U.S. Should the data point to the Fed having to do more to knock back inflation, the debate over the market’s valuation multiple is likely to continue.
This week is also packed with quarterly earnings from major retailers such as Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lowe’s, Kohl’s, Kroger, and Costco. Investors will be focused on excess inventory levels and margins as well as additional thoughts on the shape of the consumer. Investors will also be looking at what Salesforce sees for corporate spending and the dollar-related headwinds given the greenback’s February rebound.
The week is also full of investor conferences, including Deutsche Bank’s, Chevron’s, and Goldman Sachs’. On March 1, Tesla will host its investor event, which could have ramifications across the larger EV space. Finally, data privacy continues to be a key issue in 2023, and a new report from cybersecurity company Imperva found that 75% of stolen data is personal data, which offers the most long-term value to hackers.
The S&P 500 has entered a corrective phase, and it is uncertain how much of the gains from January will be lost. Economic data and earnings releases this week will impact the market’s valuation, and investor conferences will give insights into various sectors. Data privacy continues to be a significant concern for the future.
NordenBladet – Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit by shareholders who claim they were defrauded over four years with false and misleading statements about the safety and effectiveness of the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, alleges that the company concealed how its technologies created a serious risk of accidents and injuries, which led to a decline in the share price several times, including after investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The suit, led by shareholder Thomas Lamontagne, seeks unspecified damages for Tesla shareholders from Feb. 19, 2019 to Feb. 17, 2023, and CFO Zachary Kirkhorn and his predecessor Deepak Ahuja are also named as defendants.
Tesla’s share (TSLA) price closed yesterday (27 February) up $10.75, or 5.5%, at $207.63, but the stock has lost about half its value since peaking in Nov. 2021.
Photo: An excerpt of Tesla’s stock performance over the past year. Chart taken 27.02.2023. Source: Finance.Yahoo.com
Tesla’s investor day on March 1 will feature Musk promoting the company’s artificial intelligence capability and plans to expand its vehicle lineup.
NordenBladet – Tesla’s German plant in Brandenburg near Berlin has reached a production of 4,000 cars per week, quadrupling from May, according to a company statement.
The plant, which hit the production target three weeks ahead of schedule, could have an annual output of over 200,000 vehicles. The maximum capacity planned for the Brandenburg plant is 500,000 cars per year, nearing 10,000 per week, the company said.
Tesla planned to ramp up production from the plant to 4,000 in the week of March 13 and to over 5,000 by the end of June. This would allow the company to use a larger share of its Shanghai production for markets outside Europe, including Thailand, where it has just launched sales.
Tesla’s investor day on March 1 will feature Musk promoting the company’s artificial intelligence capability and plans to expand its vehicle lineup.
NordenBladet – The promised trading period has arrived for LHV managers and insiders. During the week, three members of LHV Group’s management board have sold the bank’s shares (LHV1T.TL), according to the register of persons related to stock exchange issuers. Board members Indrek Nuumele, Andres Kitter and Martti Singi have sold a large amount of shares.
Behind the big puts is the desire to free up cash for options.
Erki Kilu, who currently heads the UK branch of LHV, sold LHV shares for the largest sums, Äripäev reports. Kilu sold 400,000 shares at an average price of 3.77 euros per share, or a little more than 1.5 million euros in total. Kilu recognized that there were two things behind the large sales amount, firstly, to free up money for options and secondly, the CEO of LHV’s UK branch moved to London this year and needed free money to set up there.
On Friday, LHV announced to the stock exchange the size of the dividend, which had decreased compared to the previous year. Last year, 0.21 euros were paid out, this year it is planned to pay 0.19 euros per share.
Opening photo: LHV Bank, Tallinn (NordenBladet) Source: NordenBladet.ee
NordenBladet – Billionaire investor Charlie Munger, who has been vocal about his disdain for cryptocurrencies, also has a stock that he loves – Costco. At the annual shareholder meeting of the Daily Journal, Munger expressed his addiction to Costco, stating that he would never sell his shares.
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) stock exchange statement for the last year. The screenshot has been taken 17. February 2023, 19:55 Source: Finance.Yahoo.com
Despite Berkshire Hathaway selling 4.3 million shares in Costco in 2020, Munger has held onto his personal stake in the company, which was worth about $95 million as of November 2022.
Munger believes that if everything in America were working as well as Costco, it would be a blessing for everyone. Munger’s stake in Costco is second only to CEO Craig Jelinek’s stake. The stock has performed well in 2023, rising 11% year-to-date compared to the Dow Jones’ 2.2% increase.
However, not all of Munger’s investments have been successful, as he recently named Alibaba as one of his biggest investment blunders, saying that he had been charmed by their position in the Chinese internet and failed to realize that they were still primarily a retailer.
Featured image: Billionaire investor Charlie Munger (NordenBladet)
