Strategic Foresight - Insights in Business and Technology

The Four Horsemen of AI Warfare: Why Palantir, Axon, Cloudflare, and CrowdStrike Are Reshaping Global Security The future of warfare isn't coming; it's already here, and it's powered by artificial intelligence. Forget tanks and fighter jets – the real battleground is digital, and four companies are leading the charge: Palantir, Axon, Cloudflare and CrowdStrike. They're not just participating in the AI arms race; they're defining it. 1. Palantir: Owning the Intelligence Backbone Why it Matters: Palantir isn't just selling software; it's embedding its AI-powered platforms like Gotham and Foundry into the very fabric of military and intelligence operations. From Project Maven's battlefield intelligence to the Space Force's satellite analytics, Palantir is the architect of AI-driven decision-making in high-stakes environments. For the Enterprise and AI: Palantir's AIP is rapidly becoming the standard operating system for enterprise AI. It offers ...

Superloops Growth Strategy Analysis Superloop employs a balanced growth strategy combining organic expansion and strategic acquisitions, with current emphasis shifting toward organic scaling Growth Strategy Breakdown Strategy Type Components Examples/Evidence Impact Organic Growth (Primary Driver) - Customer acquisition (+62.6% YoY) - Market share gains (nbn up to 6.3%) - Product innovation (FTTP contracts, higher ARPU plans) - Wholesale partnerships (Origin, Leaptel)  - 37,000 net new Consumer customers in HY25 - 30.6% organic revenue growth - $20M marketing investment (FY22-FY23)  Accounts for ~70% of recent growth Inorganic Growth (Strategic Supplement) - Targeted acquisitions (Exetel, Uecomm) - Uecomm acquisition adds 2,000km fibre - Origin migration: 130k customers - Exetel synergies ($5M+/year)  Accelerates infrastructure/customer base growt...

Aussie Broadband H1FY25 Results: Business & Enterprise Growth Shines Aussie Broadband (ABB) has released its interim results for the first half of the 2025 financial year, showcasing a period of steady growth and strategic expansion. While the residential NBN business continues its upward trajectory, the real story lies in the impressive growth of the business and enterprise segments. Metric Result Significance Overall Revenue $588m (+7%) Steady growth EBIT 37% increase Significant improvement NBN Market Share 7.8% (target 10%) Shows Aussie's growing market presence Residential Revenue $327m (+15%) Core business remains strong Residential Gross Margin 31% (slight increase) Marginal improvement in profitability Business Segment Revenue $54m (+13%) Rapid growth in business segment Business Segment Customer Growth ~50% ...

Telstra's Dual Strategy: Investor Lens Telstra's first half FY25 results have delivered a strategic surprise that signals management's growing confidence in the company's financial strength. With a clean 6% increase in underlying earnings, Telstra has not only raised its dividend as expected but also announced a significant share buyback program. This dual approach to shareholder returns marks a new chapter for a telecommunications giant that has dramatically transformed recently. Segment Performance: Mobile Leads with World-Class Margins   Mobile dominance continues:  The Mobile division delivered 4% earnings growth, exceeding analyst expectations despite only four months of price increases and disruption from the 3G network shutdown. Why it matters:  With Mobile (>40% market share) accounting for over 60% of total EBITDA and maintaining an extraordinary 47% margin (among the highest globally), this segment remains Telstra's crown jewel. The division's abi...

How DeepSeek's Challenge Actually Strengthened NVIDIA's Market Position The emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, initially sent shockwaves through the market, raising fears of disruption to NVIDIA's dominance in the AI chip market. DeepSeek's claim of developing an advanced AI model with significantly lower computing costs triggered a sharp market correction, wiping out nearly $750 billion from NVIDIA's market capitalization in a week. However, this seemingly negative event has, paradoxically, strengthened NVIDIA's long-term market position.     The Initial Shock and the Correction: The initial market reaction was swift and decisive, with NVIDIA's stock price dropping by 6% while the Nasdaq remained relatively flat. This correction, while painful in the short term, has resulted in a more attractive valuation for NVIDIA. The forward P/E ratio has compressed from a lofty 40x six months ago to a more reasonable 32x. This reset makes NVIDIA more appea...

Deep Seek's GPU Infrastructure Initially acquired 10,000 GPUs in 2021 Estimated to have grown to around 50,000 GPUs in total Used 2,000 H800 GPUs specifically for V3 model pre-training Share infrastructure with their quantitative trading fund operations Initial Export Control Framework US government initially restricted two parameters : Computing power (FLOPS) Interconnect bandwidth between GPUs This two-factor restriction created an opportunity for optimisation H800 GPU Restrictions and Adaptations H800 was China's version of the H100 GPU Two key restriction factors from the US government: Chip compute (FLOPS) Interconnect bandwidth H800 was designed with: Full FLOPS capability (same as H100) Restricted interconnect bandwidth Deep Seek developed specialized SM (Streaming Multiprocessor) scheduling techniques to work around interconnect limitations Managed to achieve full GPU utilisation despite interconnect restrictions Export Control Evolution First Phase: Dual restric...

 Let's break down how Snowflake, Palantir, and Databricks work together in the AI world, using a technology stack analogy and real-world examples. The AI Technology Stack Think of building an AI-powered company like building a house. You need a solid foundation, a smart design, and skilled builders. Foundation (Data): Snowflake Layman's Terms: Snowflake is like the concrete foundation of your AI house. It stores all your data in one organized place, making it easy to access and use. It's not just storage; it's like a super-organized library where any information can be found instantly.   Technical Function: Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehouse. It allows companies to store vast amounts of structured and semi-structured data, making it readily available for analysis and AI model training. It handles the messy work of data organization and access.   Example: Imagine a retail company. Snowflake stores all their sales data, customer information, inven...