It’s official: video call platform Skype, once one of the world’s most popular websites and an icon of the 2000s internet era, is no longer be available.
▶️ Founded in 2003, Skype quickly became one of the largest video and voice call carriers globally, counting 52 million active users just two years after launch. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion, integrating the service with its other products like Xbox and Windows devices. ▶️While the rise of other video conferencing services like Zoom during the pandemic — as well as the introduction of Windows 11 in 2021, which had Microsoft’s Teams app integrated by default — can be pointed to as the beginning of the end for Skype, Google Search data suggests that the platform had been losing ground for some time. ▶️Skype will now be replaced with the free version of Microsoft Teams, with users maintaining their message history, group chats, and contacts — but, per The Verge, Skype’s domestic and international call carrier services will be lost with the move. Source: Chartr
The latest earnings reports offer some reassurance that capital spending (capex) remains strong, says Melius’s Reitzes.
Hyperscalers haven’t cut back on their investments, which is good news for AI-related stocks like Nvidia, Broadcom, and Arista Networks. Source: HolgerZ, Melius Research
Apple has bought back $693 billion in stock over the past 10 years, which is greater than the market cap of 488 companies in the S&P 500
Source: Charlie Bilello
The bigger the base... 🚀
Uber remains a play an the Autonomous vehicle investment theme Source: Trend Spider NB: This is NOT an investment recommendation
These two areas of Africa have roughly equal populations, 2020
Source: OnlMaps @onlmaps on X
SOLAR UPGRADE: NEW PANELS ARE 1,000X STRONGER, THINNER THAN A HUMAN HAIR
Scientists in Germany just cooked up a solar panel sandwich that makes today’s tech look like a flip phone. By stacking ultra-thin layers of exotic crystals, they created solar cells 1,000 times more powerful than silicon—and way more durable. These featherweight panels don’t even need complex wiring and could someday power cities using way less space, money, and sunlight. Source: Bright Side of News, Mario Nawfal on X
UAE PICKS AMERICA OVER CHINA IN THE GLOBAL AI ARMS RACE Abu Dhabi’s tech giant G42 is going all-in on the U.S.—not Beijing—as it races to become one of the world’s most powerful players in
With a $1.4 trillion investment plan aimed squarely at the U.S., the UAE is signaling a strategic pivot: America is its partner of choice for AI dominance. G42, backed by the oil-rich emirate and chaired by national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, has quietly launched “G42 USA” in Delaware and is expanding rapidly into American cloud services, chipmaking, and AI infrastructure. The company just pumped $335 million into U.S. chipmaker Cerebras, after cutting ties with Chinese suppliers like Huawei to meet U.S. national security demands. It already counts Microsoft, Silver Lake, and Ray Dalio’s firm among its investors. People familiar with the matter added that some of G42’s subsidiaries — which include AI applications, cloud computing and data centre companies — are expected to make announcements about US business plans in the coming months.
European equity markets are still doing well
Source: J-C Parets
