What I wrote last week
Even with a loss of $2.6 billion, Uber had a great quarter
Business
($) America’s New Energy Crisis. A worrying report on the state of the energy supply in the US. Demand continues rise and unfortunately, so do oil prices. Projects to produce green alternatives take a long time to be completed and integrated into the national grid. “As U.S. power supplies tighten, developers are struggling to build these projects quickly enough to offset closures of older plants, in part because of supply-chain snarls. Another reason: It takes longer to approve their connections to the existing electricity grid. Such new requests neared 3,500 last year compared with roughly 1,000 in 2015, according to research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Typical time needed to complete technical studies needed for that grid approval is now more than three years, up from less than two in 2015. One renewable-energy developer, Recurrent Energy, filed more than 20 of these grid-connection requests last year in California, a state that needs more clean power to replace several gas-fired power plants as well as a nuclear plant slated for retirement in the coming years. It took the company seven years to get approval and construct a separate battery storage project in that state.”
($) JPMorgan Is Building a Giant Travel Agency. “It bought a booking system, a restaurant review company and a luxury travel agent. It is building its own airport lounges and a force of thousands of travel agents. A new website will launch in the coming months. JPMorgan estimates that its customers account for one of every three dollars spent on leisure travel in the U.S., though those customers book only a tiny amount on the Ultimate Rewards website. With the new offerings, JPMorgan executives believe the bank could capture $15 billion in bookings in 2025, five times what it handled before the recent buildup. That would make it the third-biggest travel agent in the country, based on 2021 volumes, according to industry publication Travel Weekly. The plan has risks. Travel-rewards giveaways have proved expensive for JPMorgan and other banks, and they haven’t always led to the lasting relationships the banks hoped for. JPMorgan also has important corporate partnerships with airlines and hotels that expect the bank to send customers their way. Some of those partners have already complained about the success of Sapphire taking away customers from their cards. The bank is already seeing early signs of that luxury demand. The average price Chase customers are paying for hotels is more than double the industry average, the bank said.”
From legroom to airfare: How JetBlue’s takeover of Spirit could change air travel. If you don’t know how expensive it is to travel domestically in the US, take a trip to Europe and try to fly within the continent. I was really shocked the first time I booked a domestic flight here. I am still shocked sometimes nowadays. There is competition between major airlines, but prices are still high because there is no regulatory pressure on a handful of airlines that fly customers. I don’t know if this merger will help anything. Having another major may drive air fares down. But it could as well join the fun and charge a lot.
US, Japan reaching for a 2-nm chip breakthrough. The race to secure semiconductor supply for the future amidst the political threat from China is more intense than ever. I don’t think China, regardless of whether Xi will be in charge, will give up Taiwan, home to TSMC. It’s not only because TSMC is THE fab of the most advanced chips in the world, but it’s also because China believes Taiwan belongs to them and has no rights to independence. Any nation’s leader will not fulfill their duty if they don’t think about hedging this risk. US and Japan are doing the right thing here. Better late than never.
Ad tracking rules could become much stricter in Europe; Apple’s ATT vindicated. Companies that rely on ads dollars should really pay attention. “This is the single, most important, unambiguous interpretation of GDPR so far. It backs up the approach of Apple.”
($) Netflix Is Scrambling to Learn the Ad Business It Long Disdained. “One of Netflix’s goals was to secure a big “minimum guarantee”—a promise that it would get a large influx of ad revenue to limit its financial risk, say people familiar with the discussions. Netflix also hunted for a senior leader with advertising expertise, mindful that it knew little about the business of selling ads. The company approached at least two top Comcast executives for a senior role while the partnership negotiations were continuing with their employer, angering the top brass at the cable giant, some of the people said. Mr. Hastings has set lofty financial ambitions for the ad business. He and other company executives have told investors and ad industry executives privately in recent months that Netflix will eventually be able to charge advertisers about $80 for every 1,000 views of an ad by helping them target specific audience segments, people familiar with the discussions said. That would put Netflix among the most expensive destinations for ads, alongside top NFL television programming. Creating an advertising-supported tier isn’t the only about-face the company is making in its quest to revive growth. After years of treating password-sharing by customers as a marginal problem—Mr. Hastings said in 2016 he loved the practice—Netflix plans to begin charging households a sharing fee sometime in 2023.“
Chip Makers Have a Message for Car Makers: Your Turn to Pay. The ever-growing demand for chips turns the negotiation tables around. Chip manufacturers now command more bargaining power than they ever have. Car producers have no choice but either put up or shut up. As every car company is now racing to bring electric vehicles and trucks to the market, they won’t shut up.
Other stuff I find interesting
Some wonderful photos of my country taken by an award-winning photographer
US regulators will certify first small nuclear reactor design. I understand that there are concerns over safety and nuclear waste, but nuclear is perhaps the best tool at our disposal to generate clean energy at scale to accommodate the ever increasing demand. I wonder how and/or if this step would help increase the use of nuclear power
Who Is Collecting Data from Your Car? An eye-opening read on the vehicle data world
Tails, You Win. Now that I think about it. Love is just pure dumb luck. The person that you fall in love with happen to love you back. If you manage to fall in love and spend the rest of your life with the same person, creating happy moments and sharing wonderful children and grandchildren, that’s as taily as tails get.
Biden wants an industrial renaissance. He can’t do it without immigration reform. As an immigrant myself, I can tell you that if I had known what I do now, I would not have come to the US. The immigration process here is very talent-unfriendly. The country pours billions of investments into technology, yet the immigration system is antiquated and undoes all the good that such investments bring. To secure the future of the US, the government needs to massively and quickly reform its immigration
Hidden menace: Massive methane leaks speed up climate change. It’s horrifying to learn that we are pumping an incredible amount of this polluter into the air while knowing that it can speed up climate change significantly.
The U.S. made a breakthrough battery discovery — then gave the technology to China. I could hardly believe what I read. A promising battery technology took a dozen US scientists, 6 years and millions of taxpayers’ money to be developed. Then, the Department of Energy transferred the technology to a company based in China where it is currently further developed and produced
Stats
HALF of the nation’s clean power is generated by nuclear energy
OnlyFans has 200 million registered users
Globally, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled while 22% is mismanaged
Minh Quang Duong 