Mostly Borrowed Ideas Deep Dives, MBI Deep Dives

MBI Deep Dives

Mostly Borrowed Ideas Deep Dives

MBI is the abbreviation for “Mostly Borrowed Ideas”. Why “Mostly Borrowed Ideas?” As a generalist, I do not have a background in any particular sector. I enjoy navigating across industries, businesses, and countries to learn, understand, and connect the dots. In any case, most ideas and innovations are incremental in nature. Very few of us are smart enough to come up with truly original or groundbreaking ideas. I am Abdullah Al-Rezwan. I was born and brought up in Bangladesh. I went to University of Dhaka for my undergrad and majored in Finance. After working three and half years in Equity Research (Sell-side) covering Financial Sector in Bangladesh, I left Bangladesh to pursue my MBA in the US. I graduated within top 10% of the class from Cornell University's two-year MBA program and worked on the buy-side following my graduation. During my time at Cornell, I won two stock pitch competitions and also became finalists in four other competitions. I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as a generalist in the US large cap team at Madison Investments and covered a wide range of companies from UnitedHealth to Amazon and Boeing before US immigration reality paused my career in investment management. As my work authorization expired, I moved to Canada in January, 2021. Then in early 2022, I was able to return to the US.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Alphabet maintained their low double digit revenue growth. For the 10th consecutive quarters, Google network’s revenue went down.</li><li>Cloud revenue growth decelerated from 35.0% YoY in 3Q’24 to 30.1% in 4Q’24.</li><li>I will note, however, that Google usually discloses every quarter that GCP grew at higher rate than overall Cloud, but in this call, they mentioned “GCP grew at a rate that was much higher than cloud overall”. </li></ul>

Alphabet maintained their low double digit revenue growth. For the 10th consecutive quarters, Google network’s revenue went down.Cloud revenue growth decelerated from 35.0% YoY in 3Q’24 to 30.1% in 4Q’24.I will note, however, that Google usually discloses every quarter that GCP grew at higher rate than overall Cloud, but in this call, they mentioned “GCP grew at a rate that was much higher than cloud overall”. 

Podcast On the Business of Semiconductors, The Circuit

The Circuit

Podcast On the Business of Semiconductors

A Podcast On the Business of Semiconductors. With Jay Goldberg and Ben Bajarin

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>Microsoft's focus on AI resulted in throwing themselves under the bus to keep the AI train going.</li><li>Microsoft's decision to maintain CapEx numbers for AI semis may not align with street expectations.</li><li>Microsoft's shift away from AI for small and medium businesses indicates uncertainty about the utility of AI for a large part of the customer base.</li></ul>This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

Microsoft's focus on AI resulted in throwing themselves under the bus to keep the AI train going.Microsoft's decision to maintain CapEx numbers for AI semis may not align with street expectations.Microsoft's shift away from AI for small and medium businesses indicates uncertainty about the utility of AI for a large part of the customer base.This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only.

Episode 103: Earnings - MSFT, META, AAPL, INTC - The Custom ASIC Debate!

External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

<ul><li>Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has surged to the top of AI-related downloads on both domestic and overseas iOS App Stores over the weekend, showcasing its super-efficient open-source model (~10k A100) running on a cost-effective compute infrastructure. </li><li>This milestone has immediately ignited intense debate around the trade-offs between big and small models, open vs. closed-source approaches, and cost-efficient vs. premium infrastructure.</li><li>The impact of DeepSeek’s emergence has also sent shockwaves across global markets. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has surged to the top of AI-related downloads on both domestic and overseas iOS App Stores over the weekend, showcasing its super-efficient open-source model (~10k A100) running on a cost-effective compute infrastructure. This milestone has immediately ignited intense debate around the trade-offs between big and small models, open vs. closed-source approaches, and cost-efficient vs. premium infrastructure.The impact of DeepSeek’s emergence has also sent shockwaves across global markets. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Semiconductors - Thematic Investing and Megatrends: Views on DeepSeek

<ul><li>Almost one and half years ago, I wrote about “The Curious Case of Big Tech”, in which I highlighted that much of the big tech was actually “deep value” investments back in 2013.</li><li>In fact, I also mentioned “Meta, and Amazon are currently trading at lower OCF multiple than they were trading back in 2013”.</li><li>Both Meta and Amazon have comfortably outperformed both S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq 100 since then (not claiming any causal relationship, of course).</li></ul>

Almost one and half years ago, I wrote about “The Curious Case of Big Tech”, in which I highlighted that much of the big tech was actually “deep value” investments back in 2013.In fact, I also mentioned “Meta, and Amazon are currently trading at lower OCF multiple than they were trading back in 2013”.Both Meta and Amazon have comfortably outperformed both S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq 100 since then (not claiming any causal relationship, of course).

Big Tech's Deteriorating Earnings Quality

Founder at Stock Spin-off Investing, Stock Spin-Off Investing

Richard Howe

Founder at Stock Spin-off Investing

Stock Spin-Off Investing

Generate attractive returns by taking advantage of inefficiencies in the stock spin-off market.

Stock Spin-offs

Event-Driven

<ul><li>Aptiv PLC (APTV), an automotive technology supplier, announced on January 22, 2025, that it plans to split into two distinct companies.</li><li>Aptiv will spin-off its electrical systems business.</li><li>The RemainCo will concentrate on technological components, including sensor-to-cloud solutions and autonomous driving software.</li></ul>

Aptiv PLC (APTV), an automotive technology supplier, announced on January 22, 2025, that it plans to split into two distinct companies.Aptiv will spin-off its electrical systems business.The RemainCo will concentrate on technological components, including sensor-to-cloud solutions and autonomous driving software.

United States

Meta Platforms Inc. operates as a social technology company. The Company builds applications and technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. meta Platform is also involved in advertisements, augmented and virtual reality.

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Meta (META US)

Alphabet 4Q'24 Update

Alphabet maintained their low double digit revenue growth. For the 10th consecutive quarters, Google network’s revenue went down.

MBI Deep Dives

Episode 103: Earnings - MSFT, META, AAPL, INTC - The Custom ASIC Debate!

Microsoft's financial numbers remained steady with a focus on AI investment and potential growth in other areas of the business.

The Circuit

Semiconductors - Thematic Investing and Megatrends: Views on DeepSeek

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has surged to the top of AI-related downloads on both domestic and overseas iOS App Stores over the weekend, showcasing...

CMB International

Big Tech's Deteriorating Earnings Quality

Almost one and half years ago, I wrote about “The Curious Case of Big Tech”, in which I highlighted that much of the big tech was actually “deep...

MBI Deep Dives

Weekly Update (APTV, MRP, MEDXF)

Aptiv PLC (APTV), an automotive technology supplier, announced on January 22, 2025, that it plans to split into two distinct companies.

Richard Howe

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