What we’re reading (2/7)
“Why A 175-Year-Old Glassmaker Is Suddenly An AI Superstar” (Wall Street Journal). “The company that once made glass bulbs for Thomas Edison lost money on fiber-optic cables for nearly 20 years. Now, in the global race to build enough computing power for a future driven by artificial intelligence, Corning’s cables have become the connectors of choice. The Cinderella story for a relatively unflashy but high-tech component has been a boon to the 175-year-old company, and a lesson in how being willing to lose money on new ideas for a long time can pay off. Corning stock is hovering around its all-time high, boosted by a recently announced $6 billion deal with Meta to supply fiber-optic cable for the company’s rapidly growing array of AI data centers.”
“The AI Boom Is So Huge It’s Causing Shortages Everywhere Else” (Washington Post). “Electricians are getting harder to find, and some construction projects are on hold. Smartphones are expected to get pricier for potentially years to come. And promising innovations are being starved of investment funding. Those are just some of the domino effects from the technology industry’s insatiable spending on artificial intelligence, which is diverting resources and attention from other sectors of the economy.”
“America’s Rare-Earths Solution Is Hiding In Plain Sight” (New York Times). “China does have the world’s largest reserves of rare earths, and it mines more of them than any other nation. But that does not mean it has a monopoly on geological supplies of these and other critical minerals. The United States has plentiful reserves of its own, both in the ground and hiding in plain sight in mine waste, industrial scrap and discarded electronics. Rather than rushing to open new mines or making policy based on the assumption that China holds all the cards, America could go a long way toward meeting its growing demand for such minerals by harvesting those readily available sources.”
“Costco’s CEO Is An Unlikely Risk Taker” (CNN Business). “‘Costco’s got a really good bipartisan reputation. Everyone loves it. It’s cheap as hell and treats its workers well,’ said Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor of business and society at the NYU Stern business school. ‘They know the lane they’re in, and they have not really wavered.’”
“Is This Crypto’s Fimbulwinter?” (Paul Krugman). “[L]et me give you three reasons this crypto winter may be different…First, Bitcoin and to a lesser extent other cryptocurrencies have long been sustained by their cult followings, investors with a deep emotional attachment to its future…I doubt that investors will have the same mystical belief in Strategy shares that they used to have in Bitcoin itself, which means that faith will no longer put a floor under prices. Second, the best case for Bitcoin has always been the argument that it can in effect become digital gold. After all, gold, like Bitcoin, is an asset that is awkward to transfer and isn’t useful as a means of payment in the modern world…But over the past few months we’ve been experiencing a lot of turmoil and uncertainty, leading to widespread talk about a ‘debasement trade’ in which investors doubt whether dollars are still the safe haven they used to be. And the verdict so far is that the future replacement for gold is … gold. Investors have piled into the yellow stuff even while dumping Bitcoin, which is acting like a speculative tech stock rather than a safe haven…Most importantly — and ironically, given the libertarian ideology that used to be pervasive in the crypto world — crypto has become very much a political asset.”
