#10 Edition of The Daily Grind

In today’s newsletter:

• Gen-Z in boardrooms: Brands are trying to understand youngsters by hiring Gen-Z advisory panels

• Chip industry’s first quarterly revenue increase since 2021: Semiconductor industry sees 3.8% revenue growth in Q2 2023.

• Bill Gates $100 million bet

• and a ton more….

Gen-Z in Boardrooms:

According to Inc. brands are assembling Gen-Z advisory panels in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge over other brands with a new generation of consumers.

Gen-Z had an estimated $360billion in disposable income in 2021, and their share of the market is estimated to increase to 48% by 2030.

Proof is in the pudding:

• PR agency Ascend has Gen-Z board members advise clients on the buying habits and mindsets of the younger generation.

• Wellness company Moon Juice assembled a Gen-Z board of more than 20 members in November 2022.

• Dcdx is a Gen-Z consulting firm that helps brands build advisory panels and create marketing strategies.

• Investment firm Able Partners assembled a Gen-Z board to support and advise its portfolio companies.

Gen-Z boardrooms don’t feel like a fleeting trend. Corporate boards are growing younger as boomers retire. In 2022, the average age of board members at Russell 1000 companies dropped for the third straight year to 61.8.

Major companies are embracing the shift — PR giant Edelman launched its “Gen Z Lab” last year, complete with 100 employees and even a ZEO.

Chip industry’s first quarterly revenue increase since 2021:

The semiconductor industry saw a 3.8% increase in revenue to $124.3 billion in the second quarter, ending a five-quarter decline:

• This growth aligns with historical patterns, averaging a 3.4% increase in Q2 revenue from Q1 from 2002 to 2022.

• Notably, the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market exceeded historical trends, growing by 15% in Q2, compared to the usual 7.5% increase in the second quarter.

• Omdia reported that this growth is a positive development, marking the end of the longest period of declines since tracking began in 2002.

• However, the semiconductor market's current revenue is at 79% of what it was a year ago ($160 billion in Q2 2022), and it will take time to return to late 2021 revenue levels.

• Nvidia led the turnaround, contributing $2.5 billion to the $4.6 billion industry-wide revenue growth in Q2. Nvidia's growth was fueled by demand for generative AI, where it dominates.

• The data processing segment, driven by AI chips in servers, grew by 15% in Q2 and represented 31% of semiconductor revenue.

• The wireless segment (primarily smartphones) declined by 3% due to weak end-demand, while the automotive semiconductor sector continued to grow, up 3.2%.

• Nvidia's rapid growth elevated it from the ninth largest semiconductor company by revenue a year ago to the third-largest at the end of Q2.

Overall, eight of the top ten semiconductor firms contributed to the growth, highlighting that the turnaround is not limited to a specific sector of the market

SNIPPETS

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust bought 1.7m shares of Anheuser-Busch, worth ~$95m, last quarter. In February, Gates bought ~$1B in Heineken Holding.

• Microsoft will buy credits from startup Heirloom Carbon for the removal of up to 315k metric tons of carbon dioxide over 10 years, a $200m+ deal that will help the company neutralize its carbon emissions.

• JP Morgan is exploring blockchain-based deposit tokens. The goal? Speed up cross-border payments and settlements.

• The FBI says Lazarus (a North Korean hacking group) was behind the recent $41M hack of Stake.com

• Riot Platform (a leading Bitcoin miner) earned $31.7M last month by NOT mining Bitcoin. Getting paid to not do your job? Pretty cool. *sends screenshot to boss*

• Morgan Stanley is rolling out a new AI bot to help manage financial documents. It’s also developing a tool that could one day assist financial advisers and clients with creating meeting summaries, suggesting next steps, and more.

• YouTube is testing longer but less frequent ads.

• iPhone users apparently spend 7x more on apps than Android users.

COOL SHIT

• The podcast of the day is Episode #436 from My First Million. It's about creating the perfect pitch deck to raise money from investors.

• Find your next read using your mood.

• The history of song titles.

• Marketing Against the Grain’s Kipp and Kieran discuss how OpenAI changed the enterprise AI business with ChatGPT Enterprise, how to build unique use cases by partnering with the best large language model, and what two things will kill your business.