🍎 Apple Goes Big With $500 Billion Dollar Investment In AI Manufacturing

In today’s newsletter we discuss Apple going big with a $500 billion dollar investment in AI manufacturing, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway crushed their Q4 earnings, ESPN is having their own sort of TikTok moment, Voletta Wallace the mother of the Notorious B.I.G. has died at 78 years young, and the SEC has dropped their investigation into the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

🍎 Apple Goes Big With $500 Billion Dollar Investment In AI Manufacturing

Apple has announced a $500 billion investment plan in the United States over the next four years. This initiative focuses on expanding domestic manufacturing, research, and development. 

Key elements of their investment plan include:

• Manufacturing Expansion:

  • A new server manufacturing facility will be built in Houston, Texas, to produce servers for Apple's AI technologies.

  • Apple will collaborate with manufacturing partners across the U.S.

  • A manufacturing academy will be established in Michigan.
    

• Job Creation:

  • The plan aims to create 20,000 new jobs in the U.S.

  • Hiring will emphasize research and development, silicon engineering, software development, and AI/machine learning.
    

• Technological Investment:

  • Increased funding for the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund.

  • Expanded research and development in areas like silicon engineering.

  • Growth of data center capacity in various states.
    

• Economic Impact:

  • Apple has emphasized its large contributions to US tax revenue.
    

• Strategic Context:

  • The investment comes amidst discussions about domestic manufacturing and trade.

  • Apple is also still expanding its supply chain outside of the US.
    

• AI focus

  • A large portion of the new manufacturing is focused on creating servers that will power Apple’s AI initiatives.
    

🏦 Business

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway crushed their Q4 earnings by reporting $47.4 billion in operating profit, which was a 27% increase from a year earlier. Always humble, Warren Buffett remarked in his annual letter to investors that “Berkshire did better than I expected.”.

On top of that understatement, in 2024 Berkshire Hathaway paid $26.8 billion dollars in taxes, which is the most of any U.S. company in history. For Berkshire Hathaway’s entire history they have now paid more than $101 billion dollars in income tax to the U.S, Treasury. WoW!

On that note Warren Buffett gave a little tongue-in-cheek advice to the federal government, saying "Spend it wisely".

👩‍⚕️ Entertainment

The already brilliant Emma Watson is adding another impressive title to her resume - she’s studying for her PhD at Oxford University to get her Doctorate Of Philosophy. Take that Lord Voldemort!

📹 Content Creators

ESPN is having their own sort of TikTok moment. When their new streaming service launches this Fall they’ll be including user-generated content along-side original programming. Great, now instead of ads I’ll have to sit through videos of people doing the Griddy at sporting events.

🎤 Music

In very sad news, the mother of the Notorious B.I.G., Voletta Wallace has died at 78 years young. That couldn’t have been an easy life, raising her son Christopher Wallace who’d go on to become the rapper the Notorious B.I.G., see him soar to success, only to be shot down in a hail of gunfire when he was murdered. Voletta Wallace leaves behind her two grandchildren from the Notorious B.I.G.: T'yanna who is now 31, who he had with his ex-girlfriend Jan Jackson, and C.J. who is now 28, whose mother is R&B singer Faith Evans.

🪙 Crypto

In another sign that the SEC has turned over a new leaf, they have just dropped their investigation into the NFT marketplace OpenSea. Now if only NFT could become cool again.

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.