The Bot Brief

"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come."     

- Victor Hugo

Bots In the News:

The Bot Index gained 1.11% in last week’s trading. While there were no double-digit gainers within the bots, there was a notable decline in one of Japanese components. OMRON Corp. fell 20% which, according to local reports, “the Japanese electronics maker cut its fiscal-year earnings guidance, citing weaker investment activities for chips and electric vehicles and China's economic slowdown.

Omron said after Monday's market close that it expects net profit to fall 98% to Y1.50 billion ($10.1 million) for the year ending March, down from its previous projection of Y18.0 billion in net profit.

It projected fiscal-year revenue to drop 7.5% to Y810.00 billion, down from its previous forecast of Y850.00 billion.

Omron said weak demand for semiconductor-related investment is weighing on its industrial automation business, and demand for capital investment for EVs and rechargeable batteries would be lower than previously projected.

A slowdown in the Chinese economy would also weigh on demand for general-purpose equipment and other products, it said.

For the nine months ended Dec. 31, net profit dropped 84% to Y7.85 billion as revenue fell 4.7% to Y607.985 billion.”

The gainers were led by NVIDIA Corp. with its 9% increase for the week. Continuing interest in AI helped boost both NVIDIA and Google stocks. Google has been recently cited as a new but powerful contender for AI ascension. Its stock gained 4.65%.

Recovery bounces were noted in the low priced Accuray Inc. stock that gained 7.75%, Rockwell Automation who rose 5.78% and iRobot increased 5% from its disastrous recent history following the termination of the Amazon takeover offer.

Recent Bot Buzz:

There has been a lot of buzz regarding a newer startup company Perplexity. This AI offering has garnered a significant war chest from a host of angels and luminaries such as Jeff Bezos and corporate sponsors including NVIDIA Corp. In a late offering the company raised $73,6 million, putting the current valuation at $520 million.

According to the company’s pitch book, “Perplexity is a developer of an artificial intelligence-based search engine platform designed to provide large language models and search engines. The company’s platform allows to the building of safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence and provides an open-source environment that is readily available to the public, enabling clients to develop skills and obtain knowledge in software development.”

The Bot Brief is a weekly newsletter designed for economists, investment specialists, journalists, and academicians. It receives no remuneration from any companies that may from time to time be featured in the brief and its commentaries, analysis, opinions, and research represent the subjective view of Balcones Investment Research, LLC. Due to the complex and rapidly changing nature of the subject matter, the company makes no assurances as to the absolute accuracy of the material presented.