Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 08/26 – The Big Cybersecurity Summit

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

Big tech offered some big cybersecurity commitments after that White House meetup. TSMC raising chip prices might mean gadget price increases across the board. Looks like everyone remembered they like PCs. Drone delivery hits a milestone in Australia. And another secretive startup that wants to create a battery revolution. Sponsors: Masterworks.io/ride Wealthfront.com/techmeme Links: Biden tells top CEOs at White House summit to step up on cybersecurity (Washington Post) World’s Largest Chip Maker to Raise Prices, Threatening Costlier Electronics (WSJ) Silicon Valley Exchange Lists First Two Companies in ESG Push (Bloomberg) Canalys: US PC sales up 17% YoY for quarter, even as tablet sales stagnate (TechCrunch) Wing approaches 100,000 drone deliveries two years after Logan, Australia launch (TechCrunch) Stealthy battery company backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos has a lot to prove (CNBC) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Thursday, August 26, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Big Tech offered some big cybersecurity commitments after that White House meetup. TSM is raising chip prices, which might mean gadget price increases across the board. Looks like everyone remembered they like using PCs. Dron delivery hits a milestone in Australia and another secretive startup that wants to create a battery revolution. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Well, I guess I got bum information. The White House meeting with the big tech platforms over cybersecurity actually happened yesterday, and big promises were made. Google said it will spend $10 billion over five years and train 100,000 IT and data workers. Apple pledged supply chain security improvements. Microsoft said it will quadruple cybersecurity spending to $20 billion over five years and spend $150 million to help federal state and

local governments improve their security. Quoting the Washington Post. The reality is most of our critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector and the federal government can't meet this challenge alone, President Biden said in his remarks before the summit, you have the power, capacity, and responsibility, I believe, to raise the bar on cybersecurity. Ultimately, we've got a lot of work to do, end quote. These challenges are compounded Biden added by the shortage of cybersecurity professionals. The White House estimates that roughly half a million cybersecurity jobs remain open amid an onslaught of cyber attacks. While an unusually public and ambitious gathering, the meeting was part of a broader Biden

administration effort to prioritize cyber attacks as a national security and economic threat. The administration announced that it would work with industry to develop new guidelines to help companies and government agencies build secure technologies and access the security of existing technology. Microsoft and Google, as well as insurance providers, travelers, and coalition committed to participate in this initiative, according to a White House news release. Individual executives addressed a wide range of pressing cybersecurity issues. Biden called on Microsoft chief executive Sachin Adela to discuss the steps that the tech industry could take to address cybersecurity while J.P. Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Diamond,

spoke about problems affecting financial services, including ransomware attacks, according to Hadi Partovey, the CEO of the Education Nonprofit Code.org, who attended the meeting, quote, we are in a cyber war, Partovi said. Nobody's declared war, but attacks are happening every day. I felt optimistic that the set of folks who came together have a commitment to work together, whether it's with government or their competitors, end quote. Apple CEO Tim Cook, IBM CEO, Arvin Krishna, and Sundar Pachai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, sat to Biden's right as he addressed the executives who were seated around a square table in the White House East Room. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and chief executives from major banks and insurance, energy, and water

companies were in attendance, according to a list provided by the White House. Representatives from nonprofit organizations focused on computer science education, including Girls Who Code, and several colleges were summoned to discuss efforts to bolster the cybersecurity workforce, end quote. Little aside here, since we talked about it on last night's Twitter space, Hadi Partovie was one of the very first people to agree to be interviewed by me when I started the internet history podcast. When I mentioned on the Twitter space that I have no idea why people even agreed to be interviewed by me early on, Hati was one of those nice people who did so, even though he had no good reason to do so.

Listen for that little trip down memory lane of my podcasting career on this weekend's bonus episode. sources are telling the Wall Street Journal that TSM plans to increase prices by around 10% for their advanced chips and around 20% for less advanced chips starting later this year or early next, which might sound like a boring headline, but you do realize this will probably make like every imaginable gadget slightly more expensive going forward. Apple is one of TSM's largest customers, and its iPhones use advanced microprocessing made in TSM foundries. It couldn't be determined how much more Apple would pay. A TSM spokeswoman declined to comment on prices, but said the company works closely with customers.

And Apple spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The price increases come in the wake of a global semiconductor shortage that has affected Apple and most carmakers, including General Motors and Toyota. In August, GM said it had to idle three factories in North America that make large pickup trucks, the company's biggest moneymaker. And last week, Toyota said it would curb production by 40% in September. The price increases have a two-fold purpose for TSM as it addresses the shortages. In the short term, higher prices push down demand and preserve supply for customers who have no other choice. Over the longer term, the higher income will help TSM invest aggressively in new capacity, according to analysts.

The company has said it plans to spend a total of $100 billion over the next three years on new factories and equipment, as well as research and development. It is expanding its production capacity in Nanjing, China, and has started construction on a $12 billion facility in Arizona. Chips are only one of many costs that go into a car or smartphone, but TSM's price increases could eventually filter down to consumers next year unless brand-name companies decide to absorb the higher costs, end quote. Right, the point of this is, your next phone might be ever so much more expensive, or else it will have less features than it otherwise would have, had as brands cut things in an attempt to keep prices roughly the same. The long-term stock exchange, a Silicon Valley-based rival to the New York Stock Exchange, says that Twilio and Asana will list their shares on Thursday, today the first companies to list on this new exchange, quoting Bloomberg. Twilio, a $63 billion cloud-based software company and Asana, a work management platform valued around

$12 billion will list their shares on the long-term stock exchange Thursday, LTSE said in a statement. The exchange led by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Eric Rees caters to environmental, social, and governance investing because of its stricter protocols and long-term approach. Backed by venture capital firms, it won approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2019. When we work with companies, we help them understand they will win the public trust and gain access to ESG investors and others that are, looking for a signal that this is what they should invest in, Reese said in an interview. Companies on the new exchange agree to abide by listing standards. Among them are requirements

to publish information on strategic planning and to align executive and board compensation with performance. Twilio and Asana, which are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, have executives who were early investors in LTSC, Reese said, end quote. Alphabet's wing is nearing a milestone. 100,000 drone deliveries two years after its drone pilot program launched in Logan, Australia. The drones fly up to six miles and deliver items weighing up to three pounds. Items like, well, quoting TechCrunch, of the existing deliveries, more than half were completed in Logan over the course of the last eight months. The first week of August, for instance, found customers place orders for 4,500 deliveries, which works out to,

about one every 30 seconds during Wings' delivery window. The numbers include 10,000 cups of coffee, 1,700 children snack packs, 1,200 hot chooks, roasted chicken, apparently in Australia, 2,700 sushi rolls, 1,000 loaves of bread, and more. The drones have a range of six miles, limited by their battery life. That means the trips are fairly short, so there's not a lot of issue with foodstuffs staying hot or cold, in spite of the package, which resembles a happy meal being transported outside the drone. The primary limitation the company says is weight, with capacity to carry up to three pounds. Apparently the system has had no issues carrying extremely fragile objects like eggs. The drones cruise at around 100 to 150 feet in the air and lower down to about 23 feet when

they reached their destination. From there, a tether lowers the package to the ground and unhooks it. No one is required to be present to receive the package, end quote. There's a video in the piece showing this delivery process if you're interested, and check out the pictures of the drone, because it's a design I've never seen before, but looks hella cool. We know that COVID times were good times for the PC industry, what with folks working from home, thus needing new devices. Well, maybe that little hiccup just served to remind people that they actually like PCs, because apparently the strength in the PC market is continuing for now. According to Canales, USPC sales in Q2 of 2021 were up 17% year over year, with 36.8 million total units sold.

Notebooks were up 27%, desktops were up 23% while tablet sales were actually down 1%. Quoting TechCrunch. HP retained top spot for the second straight quarter with 21.9% of the market, up over 20% from the previous year. Apple remained in the second spot with 20.6% share. It's worth noting, however, that Apple's growth fell by around 2.8% for the year. Dell was in third place with 15.6% followed by Lenovo with 12.4%. If you're looking at yearly growth rate, Samsung had the highest with over 50%, but that translated into just over 6% market share.

Brian Lynch, research analyst at Canalus, is optimistic that the pandemic-fueled growth we have been seeing in this market throughout 2020 and 2021 will continue and that consumer refreshes could be on the horizon as the economy continues to rebound. The commercial and education segments have exploded, triggering tremendous refresh potential. The U.S. economy has bounced back well from its pandemic woes, and small businesses are recovering, which will lead to a wave of purchasing from the segment, Lynch said in a statement. Overall, there were 36.8 million units sold, and that includes notebooks, which were up 27 percent, desktops, which were up 23 percent, and tablets, which were basically stagnant with growth actually down 1 percent.

Canales attributed this drop to the education market moving away from tablets and the fact that many people bought tablets when they were stuck at home but won't be refreshing quickly. In spite of this, Apple remains firmly in charge in the tablet market with a 45% share, while Amazon is well back in second place with 22% followed by Samsung with 18%. Finally today, interesting stealth sort of startup of the day. Form Energy announced it closed a $240 million series D round. and when you hear the investors behind Form Energy as well as what Form Energy is trying to do, I think you'll see why I find this interesting. Quoting CNBC, A secretive startup called Form Energy says it's developing and scaling the production of a new type of rechargeable battery

that can store electricity for 100 hours. Form Energy's core technology is based on three cheap and readily available materials, iron, air, and water. The battery works with a process the company calls reversible rusting, in which the battery charges and discharges by converting iron back and forth into rust. By using these inexpensive materials, the company aims to have its batteries cost less than $20 per kilowatt hour, which experts say is up to one-tenth of the cost of more common lithium-ion batteries in use today. In order for carbon emissions to hit net zero by mid-century, meaning that the globe is absorbing as much greenhouse gases as are being emitted,

solar and wind capacity will need to quadruple, and investments in renewable energy will need to triple by 2030. according to comments from United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez. For that to happen, there must also be a ramp-up of long-duration battery storage. There has to be a way to provide electricity when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. That's the market form energy is attempting to serve. One notable funder is Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which includes tech celebrities Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Reed Hoffman, and Richard Branson as investors. In one of his blog post, Bill Gates touted the importance of Form Energy's work, writing that it was, quote,

a new class of batteries that would provide long-duration storage at a lower cost than lithium-ion batteries, end quote. Until recently, the company had been operating under the radar. In October 2019, CEO Matteo Jaramilo, a former Tesla vice president, noted his own reticence to speak with the media. Quote, as you've may be seen, there isn't a lot of press about us, and we've tried to tamp down anything other than what's necessary. He told CNBC at the time, speaking at the Tough Tech Summit in Boston, in the backyard of the company's headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts. There's just a fraught history with battery startups over the last 15 years, which is why that hesitancy in general. The industry is a little weary, I would say, end quote.

Form has released no public data to verify the performance of its long-duration battery technology. The company prefers the term multi-day storage to differentiate it from other companies working on shorter long-duration batteries. The essential ingredients in Form's battery are, as mentioned, iron, air, and water, all readily available and low cost. To charge, an electric current converts rust back to iron, and the battery breathes out oxygen. To discharge, the battery takes in oxygen from the air and converts the iron to rust. Each battery is filled with a non-flammable electrolyte liquid, similar to the electrolytes used in double A batteries, and is about the same size of a washing machine, form energy says.

Thousands of the washing machine-sized battery modules are clumped together in power blocks, and depending on what is needed, tens to hundreds of power blocks can be connected to the electrical grid. The idea behind the technology is not new, quote, you can get something to rust. Obviously, rust happens all the time, Jaramilo told CNBC, to better control that process and to control it at its least cost, most performing points is an altogether separate matter, end quote. Experts agree that the technology has promised, quote, there is obvious economic potential if iron can substitute for expensive precious metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium, says Stefan Riklstein, an accounting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, whose recent work

includes studying the cost of competitiveness of low-carbon energy solutions. But the information disclosed thus far leaves open the key question, what is the unit cost of storing and discharging electricity in relatively few rather than daily cycles each year, he added? Form Energy's first utility partner, Minnesota-based Great River Energy, describes their work together as a pilot project that could be, quote, an important contribution to grid reliability and energy affordability should they achieve commercial success, a spokesperson says. Great River Energy is working with Form Energy to implement a one-megawatt battery storage pilot project in Cambridge, Minnesota. Form Energy's battery technology depends on having access to iron,

and a swath of Northern Minnesota is called the Iron Range for its extensive iron deposits. Form Energy aims to have its battery cost less than $20 per kilowatt hour, the company tells CNBC, if the company can deliver on that cost goal, it would be a meaningful advance, experts say. By comparison, lithium-ion batteries cost between $100 and $200 per kilowatt hour, explained Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. If the cost is actually $20 per kilowatt hour, that would be a breakthrough and allow the rapid, large-scale transformation of all electricity worldwide to clean, renewable wind-water solar electricity, Jacobson said.

Battery tech at the $20 per kilowatt hour price point, quote, would eliminate the need for natural gas or any other type of combustion fuel for backup power, Jacobson told CNBC. It would break any chance of nuclear power from playing a role in an energy future. It would end coal, fuel oil, and natural gas as fuels for electricity generation, end quote. As they say, big if true. I did it, y'all. That PlayStation 5 drop on Walmart.com.

yesterday, I got one. I haven't told the kids yet, nor my wife, but I think it might be delivered today. I don't have a lot of experience with Walmart delivery. Walmart says it's going to be delivered tomorrow, but UPS says it's on the truck and out for delivery now. Pretty chuffed about that. Hopefully by the time you hear this, Max and I will be playing Spider-Man. Talk to you tomorrow.