Top stories today:

1. Apple’s revenue -4% to $90.4B in Q1, net profit -2% to $23.6B
2. 238K new jobs expected for April, out today at 8:30 AM
3. Coinbase’s revenue +115% to $1.6B, as tx. revenue +187% to $1.1B
4. Block’s gross profit +22% to $2.09B, as it vows to buy more Bitcoin
5. Meta spending $30B in NVIDIA chips, suggests Chief AI Scientist

0. Data and calendar

1. Apple’s revenue -4% to $90.4B in Q1, net profit -2% to $23.6B

Revenue fell most in China and the entire Asia Pacific, as CEO Tim Cook calls China “the most competitive market in the world”

Only Europe saw growth:

Apple announced a (world-)record $110B stock buyback and a 4% dividend increase, sending the stock +6% in the after-market

• Half of Fortune 100 companies have bought Vision Pro units.

• Tim Cook had vague promises on AI: “We have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple's unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration, groundbreaking Apple silicon with our industry leading neural engines, and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create.”

2. 238K new jobs expected for April, out today at 8:30 AM

• Average hourly earnings: exp. 0.3% MoM / 4.0% YoY, from 0.3% / 4.1% in March.

  • Similar to inflation numbers, meaning real wages are flat.

• Unemployment rate: exp. 3.8%, from 3.8% in March.

4. Coinbase’s revenue +115% to $1.6B, as transaction revenue +187% to $1.1B

• Operating income was $760M, vs. -$124M in Q1 2023.

• AUM of $330B, from $193B.

• Market cap of $56B, with the stock -4% in the pre-market.

  • To think about: how much would FTX be worth today if SBF and his team hadn’t taken $8B+ of client assets for his private hedge fund Alameda?

5. Block’s gross profit +22% to $2.09B, operating income $250M, as it vows to buy more Bitcoin

• 10% of gross profits from Bitcoin products to be invested into Bitcoin.

  • $80M of Bitcoin gross profit in Q1, +59% YoY.

  • Large 3% margin of the $2.73B in Bitcoin sold.

• Already a $573M BTC stack, from an original $220M purchase price.

6. Meta spending $30B in NVIDIA chips, suggests Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun

• Meta has purchased ~1M NVIDIA chips, ~500K ongoing and ~500K before, according to the interviewer, which LeCun didn’t deny.

• 15T parameters in the Llama 3 models, which LeCun thinks won’t increase much over time, at least not via text (maybe via video, which is one potential way LLMs can scale further).

• V-JEPA could be the future of AI — it’s their algorithm that “learns by predicting missing or masked parts of a video.”

• Even a 10x improvement in LLMs may not be enough to create new physics or biology knowledge.

7. Global smartphone shipments +6% YoY to 297M in Q1, as Apple leads in revenue, Samsung in units

8. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

9. Other headlines

AI

• Japan unveils international framework for AI regulation.

• Llama 3 forked to increase context window to 16K.

Tech earnings

• Booking’s revenue +17% to $4.41B, stock +2%.

• Cloudflare’s revenue +30% to $379M, under projections, stock -14%.

Tech

• Apple reduces App Store fees for devs in EU.

• Peloton has 5th round of layoffs, as CEO quits.

• Altruist, wealth management startup, raises $169M at $1.5B.

• Starlink persists in unauthorized regions, despite shutdown warnings.

• TikTok tells U.S. ad execs it will fight ban, “we are not backing down.”

• X: blocking will no longer hide replies, aiming to curb bad content.

Tech & law

• U.S. v. Google: judge questions both sides during closing arguments.

• WhatsApp tells India it may leave if new “traceability” requirements remain.

Biotech

• Amgen “encouraged” by experimental weight loss drug MariTide.

• Karius, AI-powered blood-testing startup, raises $100M led by Khosla.

• Epigenetic clock challenges: view from programmed aging advocate.

Business

• Buffett bought Apple stock as he looked for large companies at <15 P/E.

Crypto

• MicroStrategy introduces plan for Bitcoin-based decentralized identity.

• Friend Tech launches airdrop, makes token available for trading.

• Tether partners with Chainalysis on transaction surveillance.

• Kraken provides Bitcoin pricing data for $24B worth of ETFs.

U.S. politics

• Trump trial: tape between him and Cohen is played to jurors.

• IRS to increase audits, focusing on those earning $400K+/year.

World

• Turkey cuts economic trade with Israel.

  • Inflation accelerates to 70%.

• UK’s Labour party wins seats, suggesting win in next general elections.

• U.S. moving aircraft from UAE to Qatar bases after pushback.

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