Best of Markets with Madison: Technology

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has its own AI lab, which created the Llama model. Photo / Jonathan Raa, NurPhoto via Getty Images

Technology dominated investor portfolios and significant returns last year and this is expected to be no different with ongoing artificial intelligence developments.

Five of the world’s most highly valued companies are all technology stocks - Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta - and many are on a mission to make AI more mainstream.

Meta has its own AI lab, Alphabet’s Google has the Gemini AI assistant, and Microsoft has invested billions into OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.

Nvidia produces the computer chips that power AI models such as ChatGPT.

While they may be going all in on AI, Meta is relaxing the focus on other areas of its business, with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announcing the end of moderation across its platforms this month - possibly a signal of more lax regulation for tech giants under a Donald Trump-led administration.

Before he is inaugurated on January 20, President Joe Biden may have a final tech-related move up his sleeve - banning TikTok in the United States.

The United States Supreme Court seems poised to uphold a law that would see the video sharing banned if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, failed to divest it by January 19.

US-China tech war

As the divest-or-ban bill was passed in the US over national security concerns, Markets with Madison interviewed the technology adviser behind it all, Jacob Helberg.

“I think it would make sense for any democracy that wants to preserve the vibrancy and the integrity of its public discourse domestically to look at restricting and requiring the divestiture of this company,” the former commissioner of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission created by Congress said.

Helberg is a senior adviser to the Alex Karp, the chief executive of Palantir, a security software business founded by Peter Thiel.

President-elect Trump had designated him under secretary of state for economic growth.

Watch Helberg discuss TikTok and the US-China technology war in this episode of Markets with Madison below.

AI everything

The advent of artificial intelligence breakthroughs supercharged technology company valuations in 2024 as they race to achieve super intelligence in computers.

Most of the big technology giants are investing in their own internal labs producing AI assistants, or making major investments into external companies such as OpenAI.

To better understand the AI effort under way, Markets with Madison travelled to Las Vegas to ask Amazon’s head of AI directly.

“We will continue to invest in this, because it’s such an exciting time but it’s also such early days in the technology cycle,” Amazon Web Services head of AI and data Swami Sivasubramanian said.

Watch the episode about big tech’s AI investments in this episode of Markets with Madison from Las Vegas.

Nuclear fusion

In Wellington’s hills exists one of the country’s most interesting technological experiments - the beginnings of a nuclear fusion reactor.

Privately-owned start-up OpenStar Technologies is attempting to crack commercialised fusion for the first time.

“This is like humans discovering fire again,” OpenStar founder and chief executive Ratu Mataira told Markets with Madison.

“And that will unlock huge business applications, but also really good societal outcomes. Families won’t worry about continuing to pay the power bill to keep their houses warm.”

The company hit a breakthrough last year, achieving plasma in its steel chamber.

This episode of Markets with Madison takes you inside the experiment and explores how the technology could transform our economy.

Get investment insights from executives and experts on Markets with Madison here on the NZ Herald, on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

Sponsored by CMC Markets.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this programme is of a general nature, and is not intended to be personalised financial advice.

We encourage you to seek appropriate advice from a qualified professional to suit your individual circumstances.

Madison Reidy is the host of the NZ Herald’s investment show Markets with Madison. She joined the Herald in 2022 after working in investment, and has covered business and economics for television and radio broadcasters.