About Boardroom

Boardroom is a sports, media and entertainment brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman and focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment. Boardroom’s flagship media arm features premium video/audio, editorial, daily and weekly newsletters, showcasing how athletes, executives, musicians and creators are moving the business world forward. Boardroom’s ecosystem encompasses B2B events and experiences (such as its renowned NBA and WNBA All-Star events) as well as ticketed conferences such as Game Plan in partnership with CNBC. Our advisory arm serves to consult and connect athletes, brands and executives with our broader network and initiatives.

Recent film and TV projects also under the Boardroom umbrella include the Academy Award-winning Two Distant Strangers (Netflix), the critically acclaimed scripted series SWAGGER (Apple TV+) and Emmy-nominated documentary NYC Point Gods (Showtime).

Boardroom’s sister company, Boardroom Sports Holdings, features investments in emerging sports teams and leagues, including the Major League Pickleball team, the Brooklyn Aces, NWSL champions Gotham FC, and MLS’ Philadelphia Union.

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By Michelai Graham
Boardroom's Tech Reporter
August 27, 2023
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Tech Talk is a weekly digest by Boardroom’s Michelai Graham that breaks down the latest news from the world’s biggest tech companies and the future of industry-shaping trends like AI.

Guess who’s back? It’s me, Lady Cyborg, making a swift return during what seems like hell week for OpenSea following their policy update on creator royalties and a former product manager at the company landing a three-month prison sentence for NFT insider trading.

A peek into today’s edition: 

  • Nvidia‘s big earnings wins
  • Threads’ web version has arrived
  • More (bad) updates from the world of X

Chipmaker Nvidia Beat Estimates With $13.5B in Q2 Revenue

AI computing leader Nvidia‘s stock soared as much as 6% earlier this week after the chipmaker beat revenue estimates in its Q2 earnings report. Nvidia generated $13.5 billion in revenue, and $10.32 billion of Nvidia’s Q2 revenue came from action in its data center, which is up 171% year-over-year. The tech company’s gaming sector attracted $2.5 billion of that revenue. Nvidia’s positive revenue track comes from a significant increase in business for chip buyers using its tech for generative AI purposes. Nvidia’s graphics processing units have been pivotal to the AI boom, especially for corporations investing in the tech giant’s supercomputers, which are powered by 256 of its chips.

The company’s success comes after it hit a $1 trillion valuation in May. Nvidia said it expects to attract about $16 billion in revenue for Q3, much higher than the $12.61 billion analysts estimate.

Threads Finally Gets a Web Version

Meta finally launched the web version of Threads this week, letting users access the new microblogging platform from any web browser. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, shared the news in a Threads post (thread?) and stated that the website was available to everyone. Loads of users flocked under the post to report that they were having trouble logging onto the web version. Users should know some functions aren’t available outside of the mobile app, like editing your profile. Meta is working out the kinks and improving Threads web features.

More Meta news bites:

  • Meta updated its return-to-office mandate, requiring employees to work onsite three days a week.
  • The Big Tech giant agreed to comply with European laws, which require chronological order offerings for content on Facebook and Instagram.

SoftBank-Owned Chipmaker Arm is Going Public

It’s been a slow run for tech IPOs in 2023, but this company is coming in to try to change the narrative with the biggest IPO of the year thus far. Arm, a British computer chip maker and software design company, filed for a Nasdaq listing. Softbank bought the company in 2016 for $32 billion, and it’s expected to retain voting control over Arm after it goes public. Arm reported $2.68 billion in revenue in its most recent earnings report, and the company is expected to go into its IPO with a $60 billion to $70 billion valuation. Arm’s share price will be set in mid-September ahead of its public offering.

The public offering comes after Softbank’s deal to sell Arm to Nvidia early last year fell through due to antitrust concerns.

X is Getting Rid of News Headlines and Snippets

In his latest attempt to oppress journalism on X/Twitter, Fortune reported that Elon Musk has decided to remove headlines and text snippets from news articles when shared via links on the platform. Articles will now only appear with their lead images. Musk confirmed the update to Fortune and said he’s bidding ado with news headlines and subtext “to help reduce the vertical pixel space that articles take,” cut down on clickbait, and improve the social network’s overall aesthetic. This is such a low blow in Musk‘s war on news outlets and gives them the extra work of having to type headlines and subheads out now.

Elsewhere in X’s ecosystem, a temporary glitch on the platform broke all links and images posted before December 2014. X is still working to fix the bug and claims no images or data were lost in the process, but we won’t know that for sure until after the weekend concludes. The platform is also still experiencing backlash after Musk tweeted that X/Twitter is removing the block feature in favor of a mute function only for feeds, though the block button will still be functional for DMs. There is an interesting note under Musk’s tweet now that says X would be in violation of app store policies if the feature is removed, which could result in the app being taken down. Let’s keep an eye on that.

In Other News: PlayStation Get Portable, YouTube Tackles AI Music, & More

  • Sony‘s new remote handheld player, dubbed the PlayStation Portal, will arrive later this year with a $200 price tag and be able to stream PS5 games.
  • Since sharing a set of principles for AI-generated music on its platform, YouTube announced an AI Music Incubator with Universal Music Group to gain input from the record label’s network. Elsewhere, YouTube is also testing a search function that lets users hum to identify songs. Watch out, Shazam.
  • Charles Martinet, the video game voice actor behind Mario since Nintendo’s Super Mario 64, is retiring after 27 years and pivoting to the role of Mario Ambassador to travel and promote the popular character.
  • In an effort to clear its merger forward in the UK, Microsoft cut a 15-year deal with Ubisoft to sell its cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard PC and console games. The proposal will only be approved if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision goes through.
  • Snapchat is expanding with a generative AI feature called “Dreams” that allows users to upload photos to be generated into new images with fanciful or imaginative backgrounds.
  • IBM is selling off its weather unit to tech-focused private equity firm Francisco Partners, which includes The Weather Channel mobile app and websites, Weather.com, Weather Underground, and Storm Radar. As part of the deal, IBM can continue accessing the weather data to power some of its AI models.

Michelai’s Bet of the Week Presented By FanDuel

Despite the desirable $130 price point, I’m going to strongly bet that the new Atari 2600+ dropping in November won’t sell even half the units that the Atari 2600 sold, which was about 30 million.