You know we might be in a bubble when you read through the SpaceX S-1 filing.

Scott Galloway has a history of calling out ridiculous IPOs and S-1s . . . remember WeWork? Galloway takes a look at the SpaceX S-1 and points out some amazing valuation claims. Galloway argues the proposed valuation is disconnected from current financials. At the low end of the reported target, SpaceX would trade around 94x sales, above even very high-multiple public tech names; his sum-of-the-parts math gets closer to $1 trillion, not $1.75–$2 trillion. He also criticizes the pitch’s huge $28 trillion TAM, including assumptions like near-universal Starlink adoption and enterprise AI markets far larger than today’s enterprise software market.

Galloway is basically explaining that the IPO asks public investors to pay today for a best-case, multi-decade outcome for SpaceX. Basically, investors will be funding Elon Musk’s grandest ambitions. And yes, Elon has done some amazing things with SpaceX and Tesla. And, Galloway has been famously wrong (as he admits repeatedly) about Tesla’s valuation. But the numbers are clear. Musk is making a massive bet, and the upside is already baked in here.

We’ll see if this has any impact on the IPO. Other analysts are making the same case when they drill down into the numbers.

You probably saw this amazing ad created by PJ Ace for Kalshi during the NBA Finals. It was a massive success for the Kalshi brand and generated a ton of buzz.

And it was created completely by AI.

For small companies and less well-known brands, generative AI offers an amazing tool if used propoerly with the assistance of creatives like PJ Ace, who has built an ad agancy that makes AI commercials for clients.

But for bigger and well-known brands, they need to be a bit more careful. Using AI in a way that’s not perceived as authentic can harm a valuable brand. The scruntiny is much greater, and you may risk a backlash.

This article offers some useful guidelines for marketing departments as they grapple with these issues, with a focus on the beauty industry.

As the beauty industry continues to evolve, brands are under increasing pressure to innovate while maintaining their audience’s trust. Generative AI has emerged as a powerful tool for ideation, content creation and campaign design.

But while generative AI’s potential is undeniable, the way it’s used in advertising demands careful consideration. Missteps can compromise a brand’s authenticity, damage brand values and erode consumer trust — outcomes that no brand can afford.

There’s some great stuff here, with warnings on avoiding “AI slop” and creating ads perceived to be “AI sterile.” Transparancy is key, and the author argues for a hybrid approach where real actors are used in addition to AI tools.

Meanwhile, if you’re a new or smaller branded, you caan afford to take more chances and make bold statements using AI. So give PJ a call . . .

As businesses make more investments in AI, we’re going to start seeing more “custom AI” builds. “Custom AI” is the practice of taking a general foundation or large-language model (LLM) and adapting it so that it better reflects a particular organization’s needs. It all start with using that organization’s date, and then emplying tactics such as fine-tuning, continued pre-training, model-distillation, domain‐specific training, etc. to provide the most relevant and useful output. Think of a law firm using their own contracts to train their proprietary model, or a company using all of their own product specifications in the AI used for customer services.

Amazon AWS details this in a recent release: “Custom Intelligence: Building AI that matches your business DNA.” It outlines how they help customers create custom models and how these models can be fine-tuned over time.

Intel has announced a massive investment in US manufacturing and in the state of Ohio.

Chip giant Intel plans to officially announce Friday that it will invest $20 billion to build two computer chip plants in Jersey Township in Licking County in what will be Ohio’s largest economic development project to date. State and local officials are set to gather in Newark this afternoon to celebrate the news.

The factories, called fabs, will employ 3,000 workers at an average salary of $135,000 per year. On top of that, the project is expected to create 7,000 construction jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs. And that’s just the start.

This is big news in so many ways. First, it’s a big step in bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States. This is welcome news for the long-term health of U.S. manufacturing, but also due to the current chip shortage being experienced in many industries.

It’s also a major win for the state of Ohio. Another state offered more incentives, but Ohio offered a more favorable regulatory environment along with an ideal site that offers the opportunity for expansion. The proximity of The Ohio State University is also a major plus, along with the many other respected universities in the state.

This will be Intel’s first new manufacturing site in 40 years. Intel has been expanding production in other U.S. plants but this represents a massive new commitment by the company. The project could eventually include eight factories and $100 billion in investment over the next decade when you factor in Intel and its suppliers and partners. The ripple effects will be huge across the state of Ohio. Construction is expected to start this year with 2025 as the target completion date.

Columbus, Ohio is already booming, and this offers an opportunity for the state capital to become a high tech powerhouse. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger explained that the site could eventually expand to 2,000 acres with eight fabs, with the new site becoming “the Silicon Heartland.” The benefits will ripple across the state as well. Depressed areas like nearby Akron/Canton could benefit as well, along with other parts of the state. But Columbus can now be a destination location for even more tech companies.

The artificial intelligence revolution may just be getting started, but it’s having a real impact, particularly in large companies as you can see from this video. Deloitte is using artificial intelligence to automate more routine tasks, freeing up their employees to focus on tasks that leverage their skills as opposed to eating up time.

This makes them much more productive, with better results that take less time. Yet it’s also a trend that will threaten many jobs, which will be a challenge for society even if companies draw large benefits.

In the interview above Meg Whitman explains the strategy that led HP to decide to break up. Her main point revolves around the concept of the need for companies to be nimble to react quickly to the fast-changing tech marketplace.

Her company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has just spun off its services business as well and is now focused on growth areas like the “Internet of Things.”

After the Windows 8 debacle, Microsoft needed to clean up Windows. If you watch the video above outlining the history of Windows, you’ll recall (or learn) that this is familiar territory for Microsoft. After each successful version like XP or Windows 7, Microsoft has had a knack for coming out with garbage like Vista or Windows 8.

Fortunately they usually end of cleaning up their mess, which seems to be the case again based on the initial reviews of Windows 10. Based on our own limited experience today, if you’re currently stuck with Windows 8 you should definitely upgrade as soon as possible, particularly since it’s free!

We covered a post back in February on how SEO services can contribute towards the growth of online business. Social media is an important aspect of any search engine optimization strategy, and with all the recent changes going on in the functioning of search engine algorithms, presence on social media is more important than ever.

Social media may look like a mere term from far away, but it can make a huge impact. There are more people present on social media at any particular hour than the number of those watching television commercials, TV shows and other forms of advertisements combined. A 2012 social media marketing industry report revealed that 60 percent of a company’s marketing department is spending all working hours to increase social media presence.

The use of social media has also increased by a whopping 230% since 2007, powered by smartphone applications that allow people to use the platforms from anywhere and at any time.

Here are top 3 reasons why online businesses will live and die by their presence on social media modern age:

1. Consumers use it for research

Consumers, shoppers or anyone looking to buy products and services from an online company will turn towards social media for research. They’ll look over at the platforms where the company is present, check the comments of existing customers to see what they have to say about the products, check out videos and tutorials, and most importantly, see if there are any offers and discounts on what they’re looking for.

A survey conducted by Lies Damned Lies Statistics revealed U.S retailers considered social media as important as online shopping itself. Consumers are greatly influenced by social media, and a single positive or negative comment coming from Facebook or a Tweet can greatly influence their spending decision.

2. It builds reputation

Online businesses can use social media to build their reputation. New customers are likely to be influenced by a business that have a decent amount of following on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites compared to a business that doesn’t even have an account present.

Through presence and engagement, social media can be used to build reputation. It’s also possible that competitors may try to defame the reputation by paying someone to leave anonymous comments, but that’s also manageable through online management services like the ones listed in this LinkedIn Reputation.com overview.

3. Direct relation with customers

Social media allows internet based businesses to build direct relationships with new and existing customers. No longer is a customer required to pay for expensive phone calls on a landline number or wait for weeks to get a reply from a customer service representative, while companies no longer have to ask customers to wait in line or give a specific date on when their queries will be answered.

Social media has brought both customers and businesses together. Customers now get almost instant replies to their queries left on social media, and businesses are able to engage directly and build relationships. It’s also cost effective, as online companies don’t have to pay for market research to gather customer data and interest; they’re now directly able to communicate with customers and answer their questions, ask their likes and dislikes and consider their suggestions.

Any online business should consider social media it’s not next to impossible to achieve long-term business success without being present socially.

Microsoft is making a huge push today to promote the new Windows 8 operating system along with the Surface tablet. It’s a huge bet for Microsoft, as the try to take on Apple directly and get into the game in the tablet market, while still retaining its stranglehold on the corporate PC market.

We’ll see what happens. Radical upgrades often don’t work well for Microsoft. Remember Vista? I do. It was a complete disaster. Then Microsoft righted the ship with Windows 7, where execution was more important than bells and whistles. So we’ll see how consumers react, and then we’ll see how businesspeople react. The tablet revolution does have the potential to shake things up a bit in the workplace.

Still, we’ve reached a point where the changes affect how we use computing services and devices, but does it change other areas of business much? So much has already changed in the past 30 years that there might be areas immune to advances in the devices we use. Businesses still use brochures for some types of promotion despite PowerPoint, though they might use online printing and ordering brochures at UPrinting in order to save money. Even at the Microsoft event, you can be sure they have printed posters and displays to go along with the big tech screens.

We just seem to have reached a point where these upgrades make a big difference in some areas, but others just stay the same.