Tech News Now: Nvidia delivers 'game-changing moment,' Google launches Gemma, and more
Here's all the tech news you need to know today.
Good morning and welcome to Tech News Now, TheStreet's daily tech rundown.
I've been covering Nvidia's blowout earnings since they started last year, and my eyes still popped out of my head at the revenue numbers the chipmaker posted yesterday. The Nvidia story seems far from over.
In today's edition, we're covering Nvidia's enormous earnings beat, Reddit's reported content licensing deal with Google, Google's launch of a new artificial intelligence model, the fixing of ChatGPT and criticism of Meta's AI training practices.
Tickers we're watching today: (NVDA) .
Check out our coverage yesterday of Pindrop, a cybersecurity firm that has developed an AI tool designed to detect and flag deepfake audio in real time.
Let's get into it.
Related: How the company that traced fake Biden robocall identifies a synthetic voice
Nvidia delivers 'game-changing moment'
Shares of Nvidia, which spent all of last year surging to mountainous heights, spiked around 11% in premarket trading following another enormous earnings beat from the semiconductor giant.
Nvidia reported revenue of $22.1 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, a 265% year-over-year increase that, in the words of Wedbush's Dan Ives, crushed Wall Street's expectations of $20.4 billion.
The company's data-center division — which was a focus for investors heading into the report — reported sales of $18.4 billion, 409% year-over-year growth.
The company again guided strongly for the current quarter, forecasting revenue of $24 billion, far beyond Wall Street's expectations.
“Fundamentally, the conditions are excellent for continued growth in 2025 and beyond,” CEO Jensen Huang said.
Related: Nvidia to Wall Street: Artificial intelligence is just getting started
Nvidia analysts respond: 'The story is intact'
Deepwater's Gene Munster said that in the near term, the stock is up because of strong revenue guidance; long term, the "story is intact."
"The business is powering along despite the headwind from China restrictions," he said. "The reason is we are still early in the first wave of the AI infrastructure wave, selling to hyperscalers and AI startups."
Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, called Nvidia "the most impressive company" he's ever seen.
Even at its current valuation — the stock closed at $674 a share yesterday — Gerber thinks the stock is "wildly undervalued."
Ives wrote in a note that this "robust" quarter from the chipmaker proves his view that the "AI revolution is just starting." He called it the "biggest moment for the market and tech sector in many years."
"This was a game-changing moment for the tech bulls and puts jet fuel in the tech bull market thesis," Ives said.
Nvidia's massive growth comes as concerns about the environmental impact of AI remain unaddressed. Sasha Luccioni, AI researcher and ethicist, highlighted the ongoing lack of "information about the manufacturing process" of Nvidia's chips, asking the company to report the carbon footprint of its graphics-processing units.
Related: Artificial Intelligence is a sustainability nightmare - but it doesn't have to be
Reddit's $60 million licensing deal is with ... Google
Reddit's $60 million licensing deal with an unnamed AI company — first reported Tuesday by Bloomberg — is reportedly with Google (GOOG) , according to Reuters.
The contract with the tech giant is valued at about $60 million annually, a source told Reuters.
Neither Reddit nor Google was immediately available for comment.
W/ the new Reddit data licensing deal, some important questions remain:
-How will they treat content that infringes the copyright of others?
-Is user consent accounted for?
-Do users have a way to opt out?
-Is all user content since 2005 included?https://t.co/TB0dw16tjt— MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) February 21, 2024
The licensing deal comes as the social media platform is looking to make its initial public offering, a move that sources told Reuters could come this week.
With copyright issues a central component of such licensing deals, it's worth noting that Reddit's terms of service make clear that users grant the company a "worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content ... in all media formats and channels now known or later developed anywhere in the world."
Open, not open-source: Google's Gemma
Google on Wednesday introduced two new open, not open-source, AI models christened Gemma. The models were built from the same research that underpins Google's larger Gemini models.
Open, Google DeepMind researcher Lucas Beyer said, means that the model is directly accessible; it's not behind an application-programming interface. Open-source, on the other hand, allows for open access (with the opportunity to modify and redistribute) the source code.
ChatGPT going haywire + Google launching a new, accessible LLM = a great day for open-source AI
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