Boyden California Insights

Sales of Nvidia’s GPUs are soaring as AI and big data applications widen, signalling change for the semiconductor industry, and potential trouble for Intel.

Investment firm Silver Lake has closed a new $15 billion buyout fund for technology deals, as private equity continues to focus on the technology sector.

The American retail behemoth is redoubling its ecommerce strategy with Store No. 8, an in-house incubator for tech start-ups and partnerships.

With the $26.2 billion acquisition complete, an older and wiser Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella is taking a different approach to integration this time around.

The war for tech talent is raging in Silicon Valley, with big public companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google not only offering sky-high salaries, but increasingly robust equity packages. Stock-based compensation in particular has ballooned in recent years. Such enticements are making it increasingly difficult for start-ups to compete for talent, while also driving up the amount of funding they need to raise, potentially squelching innovation in the region.

On the ever-changing personal technology landscape, a new class of devices is emerging: “hearables”, or smart earbuds and headphones, and smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Echo. Both use artificial intelligence to allow users to communicate with machines by voice, and have multiple uses, generally working in tandem with virtual assistants like Siri and Cortana. Analysts predict a sizable market, and competition is heating up among technology companies worldwide.