Director of Research, AI & Cloud @ARKinvest
Disclosure: arkinv.st/2rxmMRG
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Articles by Frank Downing
The State Of AI Infrastructure: Demand, Costs, And Custom Silicon
Demand for accelerated compute has exploded in the three years since the launch of ChatGPT.
#477: Starship Advances SpaceX Toward ARK’s ~$2.5 Trillion Valuation, & More
Last week, AbbVie acquired Gilgamesh Pharmaceutical’s lead asset, bretisilocin, for up to $1.2 billion, signaling that large-cap pharma is beginning to recognize the strategic value of a rapid-acting serotonergic drug for depression.7 Importantly, Gilgamesh is a private company.
AI Will Determine The Future Of Software And Cloud Spending
Thanks to rapid cost declines and increasingly performant foundation models, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how developers write software and how software will drive productivity. Increasingly, developers are turning to AI-based solutions to accelerate the software development life cycle, including ideation, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance. Large language models have solved basic coding problems for some time.
#472: The Competition Between Tesla And Waymo Is Intensifying, & More
Under the leadership of Dr. Marty Makary5 and Dr. Vinay Prasad,6 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recalibrating the drug approval process. While encouraging faster clinical development and review timelines, the FDA’s agenda also is emphasizing scientific rigor and public trust.7 That balance played out last week. In an unprecedented showdown, Sarepta refused when the FDA requested that it suspend shipments of Elevidys,8 its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
#471: Retailers Should Prepare For AOO, Agent-Oriented Optimization, & More
Last week, after a headline-making hiring spree to kickstart its Superintelligence Lab, Meta disclosed details about its plans for the largest AI clusters on the planet. Scheduled for completion next year, Prometheus is likely to be the first AI data center to consume 1 gigawatt (GW) of power—more power than many small countries consume.
#468: Amazon Ads And Roku Forge A Landmark CTV Partnership, & More
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) with a vote of 68 to 30. Authored by Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee, the GENIUS Act is the first federal blueprint for dollar-pegged tokens.8 Its passage signals an important shift from courtroom trials to congressional rulemaking in the bipartisan conversation on stablecoins.
Anyone Can Code With AI | The Brainstorm EP 88
In this episode, Nicholas Grous and Frank Downing explore the transformative potential of agentic coding and AI-assisted software development. They conduct a live demo showcasing how coding agents can simplify the development process, making it accessible to non-technical users. The conversation delves into the implications of these technologies on the economy, the future of knowledge workers, and the democratization of software development.
Robinhood’s Super App With CEO Vlad Tenev
In this episode of FYI, ARK CEO Cathie Wood and Analyst Nick Grous sit down with Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder and CEO of Robinhood. Together they explore how Robinhood is redefining retail investing and financial services—from expanding access to private markets and tokenized assets to transforming its product ecosystem into a fintech super app.
#456: Waymo’s Safety Improves While Tesla Has The Data Advantage Ahead Of Its Robotaxi Launch In June, & More
Last week, Google announced the sixth-largest US tech merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction in history—and the largest in its own corporate history—when it acquired Wiz, a private cybersecurity company, for $32 billion in cash.13 The transaction follows a severely restrained M&A environment driven largely by restrictions imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
AI-Native Enterprises: The Future Of Work With Box CEO Aaron Levie
Welcome to FYI - For Your Innovation. In this episode, Brett Winton, ARK’s Chief Futurist, and Frank Downing, Director of Research, Next Generation Internet, sit down with Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box, to discuss the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on enterprise software. With nearly 20 years of experience leading a cloud-native company, Aaron shares his perspective on how AI is fundamentally reshaping productivity, software business models, and competitive dynamics.
Trump’s victory could signal the start of flourishing era for digital assets
Donald Trump became the first openly pro-crypto candidate to be elected president of the United States, joining 266 pro-crypto candidates in the House of Representatives and 18 pro-crypto candidates in the Senate. Come January, the number of pro-crypto members on both sides of the aisle in Congress will surpass the number of anti-crypto members.
#436: SpaceX’s Mechazilla Chopstick Makes Historic Starship Catch, & More
Founded by Dryden Brown in 2019, Praxis just raised $525 million, led by GEM Digital and Arh Lending,2 to build an internet-native city designed to foster technological and scientific innovation. Brown described Praxis as an urban hub for promising tech startups and entrepreneurs that will advance the Network State, a crypto-native movement inspired by Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase.
Chip-ing away at Nvidia's Dominance? | The Brainstorm EP 64
Are there any chip makers that can compete with Nvidia? This week, Next Generation Internet Director of Research Frank Downing, and Autonomous Technology and Robotics Director of Research Sam Korus discuss the S1 filing of Cerebras and what that might mean for the AI hardware space.
Buckle Up, Orion Is Taking Us To The Metaverse | The Brainstorm EP 63
Are Meta's Orion glasses enough to convince you to exist in the metaverse? This week, Director of Research, Next Generation Internet Frank Downing, and Associate Portfolio Manager Nick Grous discuss Meta's recent product launches at Meta Connect, focusing on their AI initiatives, particularly the Llama language models, and the integration of AI into their hardware products like the Ray-Ban glasses.
#431: OpenAI's o1 Outperforms Other LLMs By "Stopping To Think," & More
The output of existing large language models (LLMs) is likely a “gut” response from a disembodied symbolic system that blurts out the first content that seems to answer the question. Unfortunately, whether human or LLM, the first answer to a question might not be the most enlightened. A thoroughly reasoned answer can take both thought and time.
The Evolution Of AI: Insights From Manu Sharma Of Labelbox
In this episode of FYI, Brett Winton, ARK’s Chief Futurist and Frank Downing, ARK’s Director of Research, Next Generation Internet, welcome Manu Sharma, founder of Labelbox. The conversation examines the rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) since the introduction of ChatGPT, highlighting how Labelbox has adapted from basic data labeling to sophisticated AI alignment using Ph.D.-level experts.
The Future of AI Chips with Tenstorrent's Keith Witek
On this episode of FYI, ARK’s Chief Futurist Brett Winton and Next Generation Internet Director of Research Frank Downing sit down with Keith Witek, the Chief Operating Officer of Tenstorrent. With over 20 years in the chip industry, Keith shares his insights on the rapidly evolving AI chip landscape, the significance of RISC-V1 architecture, and the strategic moves that set Tenstorrent apart from industry giants like NVIDIA.
#418: Robinhood Has Acquired The Bitstamp Crypto Exchange, & More
Last Thursday, Robinhood announced that it had acquired1 the European centralized crypto exchange, Bitstamp, for $200 million in cash. Founded in Slovenia in 2011, Bitstamp is among the oldest crypto exchanges, with more than 50 active licenses to operate across the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Asia. In addition to retail spot crypto trading, Bitstamp services institutions as a prime broker, institutional lender, and staking provider.
#415: Google’s AlphaFold3 Could Revolutionize Drug Design, & More
During its Spring Update, OpenAI showcased GPT-4o, a natively multimodal model that spans text, voice, audio, and video with improved performance across most benchmarks. The new model will power an enhanced ChatGPT voice experience that is able to adapt its tone to different situations and facilitate use cases like real time translation. The more lifelike ChatGPT voice assistant allows users to interrupt and direct the model dynamically, setting a new standard for interactivity.
#413: Humanoid Robots Could Transform Small Manufacturing Companies, & More
Why are humans designing humanoid, or generalizable, robots? Versatility is the answer. In contrast, a wrench excels at one task, tightening nuts and bolts, and not much else. It is not versatile or capable of performing a diverse number of tasks. Based on data from the US Census Bureau, ARK’s research suggests that most people involved in US manufacturing are employed by small firms, as shown below.
Transformative AI in Medical Physics with Dr. Issam El Naqa
On this episode of FYI, Director of Next Generation Internet Research Frank Downing and Analyst Ali Urman interview Dr. Issam El Naqa, the founding chair of the Department of Machine Learning at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. El Naqa shares his journey from electrical engineering to spearheading innovative uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical physics and oncology.
#409: Regulation Can Kill Innovation, As Detailed In ARK’s New Research On The Nuclear Industry, & More
The Bitcoin community is delighted by BitVM,7 a new technology that could enable Ethereum-like smart contracts on Bitcoin by allowing any computation to be verified on the Bitcoin blockchain, thus offering Turing completeness through Bitcoin's raw scripting language. Criticism of the Lightning Network—Bitcoin's original layer 2 scaling solution—has mounted over the years because of its slow development and limited capabilities.
#408: Epic Games Is Transforming The Development Of Entertainment Content, & More
Last week, Elon Musk statedxiv that Tesla is no longer constrained by compute for Artificial Intelligence (AI) training as it aims for full autonomy.
February 2024 Report
Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data. Topics Addressed in The Bitcoin Monthly February 2024 Report include: Market Summary Spot Bitcoin ETF Balances Increase, As Does Bitcoin Volatility Is Bitcoin's Safe-Haven Appeal Increasing? We hope you find this commentary useful.
#402: Token Extensions On The Solana Blockchain Are Unleashing Opportunities For Developers, And More...
Last week, the CEOs of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck (MRK), and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) testifiedvi before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The debate centered on why the US is paying the highest prices in the world for many drugs, including Bristol Myers Squibb’s Eliquis, Merck’s Keytruda, and Johnson and Johnson’s Stelara.
January 2024 Report
Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data. Topics Addressed in The Bitcoin Monthly January 2024 Report include: Market Summary Spot Bitcoin: The Largest ETF Launch In History The Ripple Effect In Economic Trends We hope you find this commentary useful.
Ark: Coinbase and Robinhood compete to tokenize financial markets
By Lorenzo Valente, Frank Downing, and Raye Hadi, Ark Invest; Translated by Golden Finance Ethereum Layer 2 solutions are execution environments designed to enhance Ethereum's scalability through off-chain transaction processing and leverage its strong security through on-chain transaction settlement. These blockchains, built on Ethereum, have their own ecosystems—including applications, liquidity, and users—and pass compressed transaction data to Ethereum's Layer 1 for settlement verification.
Decoding Crypto Infrastructure with Blockdaemon
On this episode of FYI, we dive into the intricacies of crypto infrastructure with Konstantin Richter, the CEO and founder of Blockdaemon, and Chris Sharp, Blockdaemon's Chief Technology Officer (CTO). They cover Blockdaemon's journey, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the early crypto market. Konstantin and Chris share insights into the evolving belief in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, reflecting on their growing acceptance in mainstream finance.
Rapidly Digesting Documents Using AI with Humata’s Cyrus Khajvandi and Dan Rasmuson
On today’s episode, Director of Next Generation Internet Research Frank Downing and Chief Futurist Brett Winton are speaking with Cyrus Khajvandi and Dan Rasmuson, the brains behind the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Humata. Backed by OpenAI's foundation-aware technology, Humata seeks to transform how we interact with the written word in the workplace. We'll delve into the tech, highlight the unique challenges it addresses, and discuss the broader impact on productivity.
#395: The FDA Has Approved America’s First Gene-Editing Therapy-Casgevy, & More
Two weeks ago, the Institute for Intelligent Computing and Alibaba Group published an image-to-video model called Animate Anyone.[xv] The model transforms an input reference image and a pose sequence into a video. Unlike in previous image-to-video research, Animate Anyone introduced a feature extraction network called ReferenceNet that captures details from the original reference image in each video frame generated.
#392: OpenAI’s Improved ChatGPT Should Delight Both Expert And Novice Developers, & More
Last week, bitcoin futures traded[ii] on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) hit two major milestones. First, the open interest in bitcoin futures surpassed 100,000 BTC, hitting an all-time high. Second, the CME surpassed Binance as the exchange with the highest open interest in bitcoin futures: CME’s 113,000 BTC at 27.7% of the market compared to Binance’s 104,000 at 26.7% of the market.
October 2023 Report
By: Frank Downing, Yassine Elmandjra, Julian Falcioni, David Puell, Dan White, CFA Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data. Topics Addressed in The Bitcoin Monthly October 2023 Report include: Market Summary Technical Resistance And On-Chain Resistance Cleared Interest Rate Reset Now?
#388: Is Microsoft Really Losing Money On GitHub Copilot?, & More
In hopes of enhancing cognitive treatments and capabilities for neurological disorders, Elon Musk’s “Neuralink” is developing brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that link the human brain with computers. Building on the work of other technologies like deep brain stimulation (DBS), electrocorticography, and machine learning, Neuralink provides high-resolution, low-latency monitoring of brain activity.
September 2023 Report
By: Frank Downing, Yassine Elmandjra, Julian Falcioni, David Puell, Dan White, CFA Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data.
Decentralized Data and AI Workloads with Hammerspace CEO David Flynn
On this episode of FYI, we’re joined by David Flynn, the mind behind Hammerspace, a privately owned company working in the realm of data storage and management. On this episode, ARK Director of Next Generation Internet Research Frank Downing, and CEO and CIO Cathie Wood dives deep into a world where data isn’t just stored, but orchestrated.
Orchestrating Enterprises with Data and AI with Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar
On today’s episode of FYI, we delve into the world of Palantir, the data integration and analytics company, as we discuss their platforms and their application across numerous industries. Joining Next Generation Internet Director of Research Frank Downing, and CEO Cathie Wood on the show is Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s Chief Technology Officer. Together, they explore the power of ontology, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), and the immense potential of Large Language Models (LLMs).
#385: OpenAI Will Integrate DALL·E 3 With ChatGPT, & More
Last week, Ford highlighted[12] its use of Markforged’s continuous carbon fiber 3D printed parts for robotic “pick and place” grippers, which has resulted in savings of ~$3.2 million thus far. Ford anticipates that 3D printing will impact 20% of its general parts inventory, reducing total inventory costs by 10%, or $100 million.[13] Ford has based those estimates on its existing tooling and spare parts, but creating end-use parts from scratch with 3D printing is likely to lower costs much more.
September 13, 2023 — The Brainstorm with Nick Grous & Sam Korus - ARK Invest
If you know ARK, then you probably know about our long-term research projections, like estimating where we will be 5-10 years from now! But just because we are long-term investors, doesn’t mean we don’t have strong views and opinions on breaking news. In fact, we discuss and debate this every day. So now we’re sharing some of these internal discussions with you in our new video series, “The Brainstorm”, a co-production from ARK and Public.com.
#383: Is SpaceX’s Domination Of Transporting Mass To Orbit Just Getting Started?, & More
Building upon its library of open-source AI models, Meta recently released[12] an open-source expert AI coding assistant, Code LLaMa,[13] the performance of which is roughly equal to OpenAI’s GPT 3.5. To achieve those results, Meta fine-tuned its newest open-source large language model, LLaMa 2, on a code-specific dataset, and then reinforced it with synthetic data generated by the model itself.
The Bitcoin Monthly: August Report
This monthly report is co-authored by Will Clemente, Co-Founder of Reflexivity Research. Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data. Topics Addressed in The Bitcoin Monthly August 2023 Report include: Market Summary Volatility Returns Rates, Revisions, And Retail We hope you find this commentary useful.
#378: Did Scientists Just Discover A Room-Temperature Superconductor?, & More
Last week, CoreWeave, a former crypto mining company turned GPU-focused cloud service provider, led by Magnetar Capital, Blackstone, and other firms. CoreWeave will use the funds to expand its infrastructure—primarily AI accelerators supplied by one of its strategic investors, Nvidia. Interestingly, the AI accelerators will serve as collateral for the loan.
The Bitcoin Monthly: July Report
By: Frank Downing, Yassine Elmandjra, Julian Falcioni, David Puell, Dan White, CFA Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data. Topics Addressed in The Bitcoin Monthly July 2023 Report include: Market Summary Low Bitcoin Volatility: Breakdown Or Breakout? Fed Tightening: A Leading Indicator Of Price Deflation?
#376: Will AI-Enabled User-Generated Content Undermine The Bargaining Power Of Creatives?, & More
1. Will AI-Enabled User-Generated Content Undermine The Bargaining Power Of Creatives? The Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined[1] more than 11,000 film and television writers on the picket line this month to stage the first strike by writers and actors since 1960. In the sixties, creators and creatives demanded[2] a share in the incremental revenue that big studios were generating from the rise of TV.
#375: As AI Costs Decline, Anthropic Is Upgrading Its Language Model, & More
Last week, the outcome of a significant legal case inched the crypto community closer to regulatory clarity. District Judge Analisa Torres issued a summary judgment[3] in the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case[4] that accused Ripple of selling $1.3 billion worth of unregistered securities through several methods. Judge Torres’ judgment elucidated which of Ripple’s XRP sales constituted unregistered securities offerings.
Big Ideas Monday Mini: Public Blockchains
Welcome to the Big Ideas Monday Miniseries, brought to you by the For Your Innovation Podcast. Big Ideas is meant to enlighten investors on the long-term impact of innovation. This annual research report seeks to highlight the technological breakthroughs evolving today and creating the potential for super-exponential growth tomorrow. We believe that innovation is taking off now, corroborating our original research and boosting our confidence that ARK’s strategies are on the right side of change.
#374: Meta’s Threadt?, & More
1. Meta’s Threadt? Last Wednesday, Meta launched[1]Threads, a text-based social media app integrated with Instagram. Users create a new Threads account via their existing Instagram accounts, enabling seamless, authenticated onboarding for Instagram’s 2+ billion[2] monthly active users. Threads allows users to post texts up to 500 characters, in addition to links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long.
Big Ideas Monday Mini: Artificial Intelligence
Welcome to the Big Ideas Monday Miniseries, brought to you by the For Your Innovation Podcast. Big Ideas is meant to enlighten investors on the long-term impact of innovation. This annual research report seeks to highlight the technological breakthroughs evolving today and creating the potential for super-exponential growth tomorrow. We believe that innovation is taking off now, corroborating our original research and boosting our confidence that ARK’s strategies are on the right side of change.
The Bitcoin Monthly: June Report
Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data. Topics Addressed in The Bitcoin Monthly June 2023 Report include: Market Summary Bitcoin Finds Support From Strong Holders And Improved Institutional Sentiment Is The Global Economy Heading Toward Recession? We hope you find this commentary useful.
#370: What Are The Prospects For Apple’s New Vision Pro?, & More
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Coinbase3 with operating an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agent, a move telegraphed by its Wells Notice4 in March. The new case follows the SEC’s recent actions against other prominent players that list similar assets—Kraken,5 Bittrex,6 and Binance,7 for example.
The Bitcoin Monthly: May Report
By: Frank Downing, Yassine Elmandjra, Julian Falcioni, David Puell, Dan White, CFA Considering the market’s fast pace of change, ARK publishes The Bitcoin Monthly, an earnings report that details relevant on-chain activity and showcases the openness, transparency, and accessibility of blockchain data.
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