Quoted from iceman44:

I’m trying to understand all that and who the f ing winners are going to be.
What about Unity in the 3D rendering arena?
Who has the dominant AI engines?
My client says they run AI algos on Snow data in 30 minutes versus what would take 30 days before
And he says Data Robot, which is not public yet, is another monster that helps them with the “run time” on Microsoft Azure” and AWS
In other words it might cost $40 to run something because the servers shut down after it’s calculated versus $400 if it keeps on running!

Quoted from taylor34:

Roblox is almost worth as much as Nintendo. Ridiculous. And they're not even profitable.

Quoted from thechakapakuni:

You must not have kids under 10 nor Nieces or nephews. You would understand this clearly otherwise, just saying. With that said, I had no idea Roblox was public. I’m buying a boatload tomorrow. Thanks for the tip

Quoted from taylor34:

Roblox is currently valued at with a 50 Billion market cap on like a Billion in sales and lose money. I have an 11 year old who plays it constantly, but he also plays the switch and xbox. I'm not saying that they can't become a good investment at some point, but basically it would have to make 2 billion in profit, not just sales, for it to make any sense to me. I think the stock should be closer to $50 than $100.
Roblox is worth currently almost as much as EA and Take Two (GTA and Red Dead series) combined. They cater to a very select audience, which currently is under 13 and has no money, lol.

Quoted from Zablon:

if the last 5 years have taught us anything it's that a company doesn't have to make money for their stock to rocket...like..ever...

Quoted from thechakapakuni:

. I’m buying a boatload tomorrow

Quoted from thechakapakuni:

Not selling anybody, again just discovered this yesterday. You do what you want. Name me 3 current kid (under 15) video game phenomenons besides Roblox? I can name 1 other
https://investorplace.com/2021/06/roblox-rblx-stock-has-a-legitimate-shot-at-doubling-by-2022/

Quoted from DBLM:

Who knows what will happen with PSTH. Universal Music is a big deal but nothing like Stripe or the like. I would have to think that people are looking at this as a let down. The SPAC was for 20/share, so let’s see what happens.

Quoted from Oaken:

I like the target, I hate how much it looks like he paid for it.
Might be way off base but, it feels like it’s a value play at a growth price. In 2021, “growth price” has not been something you want to pin to yourself.
I’m sure Bill will be fine though.

Quoted from DBLM:

The story gets worse in my opinion. This is for buying a 10% of Universal Music Group with some of the funds, and that PSTH would look to tie up with another company with the rest. UMG is still looking to IPO later this year. Don't like this as all. Hard Pass!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/03/bill-ackmans-pershing-square-nears-biggest-ever-spac-deal-with-universal-music-source-says.html

Quoted from DBLM:

The story gets worse in my opinion. This is for buying a 10% of Universal Music Group with some of the funds, and that PSTH would look to tie up with another company with the rest. UMG is still looking to IPO later this year. Don't like this as all. Hard Pass!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/03/bill-ackmans-pershing-square-nears-biggest-ever-spac-deal-with-universal-music-source-says.html

Quoted from Oaken:

I know right? They are using approx $15 of the $20 spac money to buy shares of UMG. UMG is listed in EU as well, so that's fun. Warrants don't transfer and instead stick with psth as they try and find another target for the remaining $5 of $20. They then pull a warrant exchange because of splitting up the spac. What the hell?
oh, and the UMG thing isn't subject to a shareholder vote because of how they went about it, so suck it bagholders.
Not what I am looking for in my life.

Quoted from Oaken:

Ewww investorplace.

Quoted from Oaken:

I know right? They are using approx $15 of the $20 spac money to buy shares of UMG. UMG is listed in EU as well, so that's fun. Warrants don't transfer and instead stick with psth as they try and find another target for the remaining $5 of $20. They then pull a warrant exchange because of splitting up the spac. What the hell?
oh, and the UMG thing isn't subject to a shareholder vote because of how they went about it, so suck it bagholders.
and finally, the remaining PSTH company will no longer be a spac, since the UMG part satisfies that. Instead it is a SPAR. Avoids all that annoying (to Bill) new spac regulations. (ex: there is now no time horizon for the SPAR. they can hold the funds indefinitely)
Kinda seems like he did this to pull one over on both retail AND the SEC.
Not what I am looking for in my life.

Quoted from thechakapakuni:

UMG is a major music company but because it’s owned by the French Vivendi nobody gives a rats ass

Quoted from Oaken:

I know right? They are using approx $15 of the $20 spac money to buy shares of UMG. UMG is listed in EU as well, so that's fun. Warrants don't transfer and instead stick with psth as they try and find another target for the remaining $5 of $20. They then pull a warrant exchange because of splitting up the spac. What the hell?
oh, and the UMG thing isn't subject to a shareholder vote because of how they went about it, so suck it bagholders.
and finally, the remaining PSTH company will no longer be a spac, since the UMG part satisfies that. Instead it is a SPAR. Avoids all that annoying (to Bill) new spac regulations. (ex: there is now no time horizon for the SPAR. they can hold the funds indefinitely)
Kinda seems like he did this to pull one over on both retail AND the SEC.
Not what I am looking for in my life.

Quoted from Monk:

Anyone know why OIH is halted today?

Quoted from PunkPin:

Psth will still be a spac with the remaining funds. The SPAR is a seperate 10b transaction you get buy in opportunity at 20 nav for each share of psth owned

Quoted from DBLM:

Ok, I can't sleep so will post the first part of the primer on Big Data and Analytics. In it's simplest form, you need 3 components to do anything analytical as represented by the diagram below: You need data in one to many databases (1), you need analytical tools that will access the data and do things with it (2), and you need a place to run all of this (3).
Databases: Take many forms. Prevalent databases are things like Oracle and DB2, which are great for storing backend data and doing queries. With the rise of analytics, you had the development of data stores that are tailored for these workloads. These started with Data Appliances like Netezza and Teradata, and now have systems like Snowflake, Greenplum, and others. This does not take into account Mainframe databases, which are incredibly prevalent. You also have specialized databases like GRAPH, NOSQL, and others for other types of data and functions.
Analytics: Runs a wide gamut of areas, but is generally broken down into descriptive analytics and predictive analytics. Descriptive analytics is typicaly where you are running STAT type functions, finding answers, and the like. Despite all of the buzz, most analytics are descriptive in nature! Tools here include things like SAS, SPSS (IBM) and the like. You also have your Business Intelligence tools here, which handle visualization, reporting, and light analytics. These include things like Tableau (SalesForce), Business Object (Oracle), Cognos (IBM), QLIK, etc. Predictive Analytics tools cover a wide range, but what differentiates them from descriptive is that they take inputs, run models many times, and try to predict outcomes. I will go into more detail later, but this covers tools like Palantir, C3.AI, Databricks, Data Robot, Watson, UIPath, and a whole lot more. You also have a lot of open source tools that people use here, including Python, Tensorflow, etc. Most analytics firms use combinations of these approaches based upon what is trying to be done. As you build, train, and run models, you are moving data back and forth to the Database(s).
Place to run all of this: This use to be on premise in racks or special built, refrigerator-sized appliances. With the cloud, some of this moved to the cloud (AWS, Azure, Google, etc). Based upon the work that you are doing or security requirements, moving large volumes of data to the cloud can be very expensive or prohibited. Legitmately, if you have large volumes of data it is more cost effective to send the drives to the cloud provider or get them to send an 18 wheeler to transport your data. That is where you are seeing a lot of hybrid approaches, where some data is in the cloud and some is on premise. The cloud providers also have proprietary tools, which is good if you are using all AWS for example, but is bad if you are trying to use multiple clouds and/or don't want vendor lock in. The two big cost components of running things in the cloud is the cost for running an application (say, Snowflake) plus the cost of the compute environment to run everything. iceman44, this is what your customer is talking about in trying to reduce the compute costs, because both of the components can add up fast.
Cloud is not always cheaper! In fact, it is often more expensive for analytics workloads compared to running them on bare metal. However, you can have reduced overhead, skirt organizations politics (typically, infrastructure teams are separate from the business teams, etc). Going to the cloud has a lot of facets.
Ok, this is enough for part 1 for tonight, and will set the groundwork for getting into more detail in the areas in the AM. But to give you food for thought: It is one thing to get an answer, it is completely another to operationalize an answer. This is a big stumbling area for AI/ML as we stand. We will get more into this later.
[quoted image]

Quoted from PunkPin:

Actually reading further it won't be considered a spac anymore but SPAR is still a separate deal

Quoted from kvan99:

Sweet Jesus man. that's one helluva write up.....thanks! So which one of these guys do we buy?

Quoted from SantaEatsCheese:

Just bought a little Visa (V). Looks like a pretty safe bet with a strong history of growth. Not going to get rich overnight, but looks like a steady double your money every 5 years play.

Quoted from SantaEatsCheese:

Just bought a little Visa (V). Looks like a pretty safe bet with a strong history of growth. Not going to get rich overnight, but looks like a steady double your money every 5 years play.

Quoted from KornFreak28:

Is that a typo and you actually bought more CCIV?

Quoted from SantaEatsCheese:

No no no... I actually sold a little CCIV to get it. Now that I am even/up on CCIV I am going to be slowly diversifying out of some of it.

Quoted from DBLM:

Ok, I can't sleep so will post the first part of the primer on Big Data and Analytics. In it's simplest form, you need 3 components to do anything analytical as represented by the diagram below: You need data in one to many databases (1), you need analytical tools that will access the data and do things with it (2), and you need a place to run all of this (3).
Databases: Take many forms. Prevalent databases are things like Oracle and DB2, which are great for storing backend data and doing queries. With the rise of analytics, you had the development of data stores that are tailored for these workloads. These started with Data Appliances like Netezza and Teradata, and now have systems like Snowflake, Greenplum, and others. This does not take into account Mainframe databases, which are incredibly prevalent. You also have specialized databases like GRAPH, NOSQL, and others for other types of data and functions.
Analytics: Runs a wide gamut of areas, but is generally broken down into descriptive analytics and predictive analytics. Descriptive analytics is typicaly where you are running STAT type functions, finding answers, and the like. Despite all of the buzz, most analytics are descriptive in nature! Tools here include things like SAS, SPSS (IBM) and the like. You also have your Business Intelligence tools here, which handle visualization, reporting, and light analytics. These include things like Tableau (SalesForce), Business Object (Oracle), Cognos (IBM), QLIK, etc. Predictive Analytics tools cover a wide range, but what differentiates them from descriptive is that they take inputs, run models many times, and try to predict outcomes. I will go into more detail later, but this covers tools like Palantir, C3.AI, Databricks, Data Robot, Watson, UIPath, and a whole lot more. You also have a lot of open source tools that people use here, including Python, Tensorflow, etc. Most analytics firms use combinations of these approaches based upon what is trying to be done. As you build, train, and run models, you are moving data back and forth to the Database(s).
Place to run all of this: This use to be on premise in racks or special built, refrigerator-sized appliances. With the cloud, some of this moved to the cloud (AWS, Azure, Google, etc). Based upon the work that you are doing or security requirements, moving large volumes of data to the cloud can be very expensive or prohibited. Legitmately, if you have large volumes of data it is more cost effective to send the drives to the cloud provider or get them to send an 18 wheeler to transport your data. That is where you are seeing a lot of hybrid approaches, where some data is in the cloud and some is on premise. The cloud providers also have proprietary tools, which is good if you are using all AWS for example, but is bad if you are trying to use multiple clouds and/or don't want vendor lock in. The two big cost components of running things in the cloud is the cost for running an application (say, Snowflake) plus the cost of the compute environment to run everything. iceman44, this is what your customer is talking about in trying to reduce the compute costs, because both of the components can add up fast.
Cloud is not always cheaper! In fact, it is often more expensive for analytics workloads compared to running them on bare metal. However, you can have reduced overhead, skirt organizations politics (typically, infrastructure teams are separate from the business teams, etc). Going to the cloud has a lot of facets.
Ok, this is enough for part 1 for tonight, and will set the groundwork for getting into more detail in the areas in the AM. But to give you food for thought: It is one thing to get an answer, it is completely another to operationalize an answer. This is a big stumbling area for AI/ML as we stand. We will get more into this later.
[quoted image]

Quoted from DBLM:

Thanks. That is just to set the foundation of what this space means. The area that AI/ML struggles with is that it is incredibly hard and expensive, it is hard to operationalize the data back into your business processes, and that most corporate data pools are pretty poor. Because of this, I have moved into a slightly different arena as as seller because this is where the market is moving to. My cartoon below shows some of the problems with AI/ML from a process flow. Just follow the numbers. This is grossly simplified as you have to get into topics such as data governance, DevSecOps, modernization, security, etc, etc, but this is the right level for a pinball forum.
To answer your question directly, in this general space, I like MSFT, Salesforce, PLTR, SNOW. This is not financial advice and is instead based upon where their tech is. Microstrategy was interesting, but their whole Bitcoin tie up muddies the waters for me. UIPATH is in the Robot Process Automation space, which has nothing to do with robots, but is related. Databricks is one to watch when it comes out. Data Robot is interesting, but I like other technologies better.
Once again, this is not investing advice and is not an endorsement of any company or approach.[quoted image]

Quoted from iceman44:

Fantastic summary Matt! Very helpful

Quoted from iceman44:

My buddy loves Data Robot. I’ll have to ask about Databricks too
I got schooled by one of my younger clients today who works at Crowdstrike.
Learning a lot about these important sectors!
Current valuations? That’s another issue.

Quoted from Oaken:

Psth
Now ackman is strongly implying that if you take this leap of faith with him now, you will have continued access to his “sparc(s)” going forward.
Every sparc you invest in will give you warrants to re-up for the next sparc. Or something like that.
Bullish case is infinite ipo price deals.
Bearish case is infinite money pit.
Have to keep paying the ante to see the next offer.
SEC, what say you?

Quoted from WeirPinball:

Hmmm... trust Ackman? I vote no

Quoted from jorge5240:

I am riding PSTH to the end. But I have a small amount invested and this is all a learning experience for me at this point.
My baby is DKNG.

Quoted from jonesjb:

I wonder if AMC might be worth investing in.

Quoted from jonesjb:

This aged well.

Quoted from jonesjb:

This aged well.

Quoted from Roostking:

I assume you ended up no longer wondering, and invested?

Quoted from kvan99:

I wonder if it's worth shorting AMC now

Quoted from iceman44:

Tom Lee's BULLISH case for 4,400 on S&P by end of June. Energy is leading the way. Don't fight the facts.[quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from SantaEatsCheese:

No no no... I actually sold a little CCIV to get it. Now that I am even/up on CCIV I am going to be slowly diversifying out of some of it.