Strategic Foresight - Insights in Business and Technology

  The AI Threat to Indian IT Services: Can TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech Keep Up with Accenture and IBM? The Indian IT services industry, a global powerhouse valued at $199 billion in FY24, has long been the backbone of digital transformation for enterprises worldwide. Giants like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech have thrived by offering cost-effective, workforce-driven solutions. However, a seismic shift is underway, driven by artificial intelligence (AI), and it’s not just a technological evolution—it’s a competitive threat. Industry leaders Accenture and IBM are setting the pace in the AI services space, leveraging bold strategies and substantial investments, while Indian IT firms scramble to adapt. With Accenture’s latest earnings report showing a 5.8% revenue dip in Q2 2025 amid US policy shifts, the stakes are higher than ever. Here’s how this battle is unfolding and what it means for the future. The AI Juggernauts: Accenture and IBM Lead the Ch...

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 ...

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...

  The Future of Enterprise AI: Palantir's AIP Palantir's AI Platform (AIP) is revolutionising how enterprises harness data's power. By integrating, analysing, and visualising vast datasets, AIP enables organisations to uncover valuable insights and make informed decisions. What Does Palantir AIP Offer? At its core, Palantir AIP is an ontology-driven platform. This means it uses a structured knowledge graph to represent concepts, entities, and their relationships. This foundational layer allows AIP to: Integrate diverse data sources: Seamlessly combine data from various sources, including structured and unstructured data. Visualise complex relationships: Use powerful visualisation tools to explore connections and patterns within data. Support decision-making: Provide actionable insights to drive strategic decisions and optimise operations. Opportunities for Service Providers For service providers, Palantir AIP presents a wealth of opportunities: Skill Development: Invest in ...

  Cloud-Native in 2025: A Comprehensive Overview of Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges Introduction As we approach 2025, cloud-native architecture has evolved from a cutting-edge approach to a mainstream strategy for enterprise digital transformation. This blog post explores the key trends, strategic importance, benefits, challenges, and future trajectory of cloud-native technologies. Key Trends Shaping Cloud-Native Ecosystem 1. Cost Optimization: FinOps Takes Center Stage Cloud-native architectures are becoming increasingly complex, making cost management crucial. The emergence of FinOps (Financial Operations) is transforming how organizations approach cloud spending. Key developments include: Tools like OpenCost providing granular visibility into Kubernetes spend Projects such as OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, and OpenSearch enabling precise resource consumption tracking Organizations focusing on reducing overall spend without compromising performance 2. Developer Produ...

Palo Alto Networks - Leader in Cyber Security   Key Indicators  Market Cap – 73.07 Bn EV – 72.95 Bn Debt - $2.26Bn P/B – 41.79 (Goodwill from M&A)  P/E (Trailing) – 184.99 (Growth)  P/E (Forward) – 44.44 (Growth) Economic Moat: Wide (product, innovative)    Palo Alto Network provides network security solutions. The company's solution offerings spread across network security, cloud-native application protection, security operations, and endpoint security and are available across multiple key industries. Cybersecurity has 5 stage lifecycle - Identify, Protect, Detect, Recover and Restore. This cyclical process is essential for protecting an organisation from cyber threats. It helps to ensure that corporations are constantly prepared and able to respond to evolving threats. Dominating Growth Strategy Since Nikesh Joined as CEO in 2018, Palo Alto Networks has grown with a CAGR of 24.9% with market cap. surging by $48Bn to $73.1Bn. This growth is spurre...

 Generative AI - Changing the World, Key Players and Their Progress - Part One  

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) - The Chipmaker That Runs The World Key Indicators   Domain: Semiconductors  Comp. (Chip Manf) – Samsung, SMIC, GFS, UMC Growth Segment – HPC AI Chips (Up) Economic Moat – Wide Cyclical - Yes Key Customers (Total 530+) TSMC's revenue is made up of 26% from Apple and 7% from Nvidia. Apple has a 10-year partnership with the chip maker.  Apple designs chips for iPhones and Mac computers, while Google designs Tensor Chips for Pixel smartphones. Qualcomm and MediaTek design processors for Android phones. Nvidia designs Gaming and Artificial Intelligence (AI) processors and AMD and Nvidia design advanced processors for Tesla.  TSMC chips are also used by major cloud providers like AWS, MSFT, Google, Oracle, and IBM for data centres, networking, and software. Broadcom designs chips for broadband and wireless markets.   TSMC is able to offer its customers its manufacturing capabilities in the areas of Smartphones, High-Performance Comput...

 Oracle's Evolution - Database Leader to AI Innovator   Market Cap – 290.15 Bn EV – 369.18Bn Debt - $88.94Bn (High), Cash – $12.08Bn  P/B – 122.43 (intangibles in the book)  P/E (Trailing) – 31.05 (Growth)  P/E (Forward) – 19.43 (Growth) Economic Moat: Wide (product sales, under threat)    Domain: Enterprise Software and Database Comp. (Business Apps) – IBM, SAP, Workday, MSFT, Salesforce Comp. (Database) – MongoDB, MySQL, Cassandra, AWS, Azure, IBM  Growth Segment – OCI (Up)  Oracle's Facing Headwinds - In the Age of No SQL The emergence of Digital Transformation in the early 2010s has brought multiple challenges to Oracle's relational database segment. Today, it is facing stiff competition from both commercial and open-source vendors. It must constantly innovate and create new products and services to stay ahead of the database market. Despite the challenges, it is rising to the occasion by developing its own cloud-native database prod...