Dear Reader,
It has been a fantastic day at the Legacy Investment Summit in Carlsbad, California. Thanks to all the readers who stopped by to say hello last night at the reception.
The hardest part about presenting each year is picking the topic. With only 30 minutes to speak, I can only cover so much ground in the incredible world of technology.
This year, I did my best to pack in as much as possible. For those who viewed my presentation, I’m sure it was a lot to digest.
But this year is truly different. I see 2019 as the year of convergence of several technologies into something quite extraordinary. It’s something that will have a radical impact on our near future. Something that will change our daily lives, mostly in great ways.
The conference is in full swing, and we still have another day of presentations to enjoy.
But for now, let’s turn to our insights…
It happened; we just reached quantum supremacy… the point at which a quantum computer can outperform the most powerful classical supercomputer on Earth. The event is so significant, I had to change my presentation to incorporate the news.
Days ago, the Financial Times leaked a quantum research report from Google. A reporter received the report posted on NASA’s website… hours before it was taken down and disappeared. We don’t know who ordered the report to be pulled.
The report detailed tests that Google ran on its 53-qubit quantum computer. In those tests, it gave the quantum computer a task that would take the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Summit, 10,000 years to complete.
The quantum computer finished in three minutes and 20 seconds. Beyond amazing. A 10,000-year task made trivial by one computer.
That means we have crossed the point of no return. The quantum age has arrived. And the implications are immense…
For starters, all cryptography is now at risk. Every form of cybersecurity we use today needs to be redesigned… soon.
In less than two years – probably sooner – Google will go from a 53-qubit to a 256-qubit quantum computer. That’s significant because nearly every form of encryption used by governments, militaries, corporations, blockchains, and even e-commerce websites is 256-bit encryption.
A 256-qubit quantum computer will be able to crack that encryption in seconds. This is a power no entity should have… And now Google has it.
The good news is that encryption is just software. It can be upgraded. Databases, blockchains, and websites can all be made quantum resistant. Now it’s a race to do so.
On the positive side, quantum computing will enable us to solve many problems that we can’t solve today, even with our best supercomputers.
I’m talking about things like weather predictions, molecular analysis, genetic analysis, nuclear fusion, cosmology… Quantum computing will be a supercharger for the artificial intelligence (AI) we need to tackle each of these things.
This is the day the world changed forever. Years from now, we’ll remember where we were when we learned that the quantum age had begun.
Ginkgo Bioworks just raised a whopping $290 million in its Series E venture capital round. The company now has a $4 billion valuation… and is on track to go public within the next 12 months or so.
Ginkgo Bioworks is an incredible company that I have followed for years now. This is a synthetic biology company that creates custom-built organisms to order. Here’s what I mean…
Ginkgo Bioworks focuses on genetic programming. Its underlying premise is that organic cells are programmable… just like computers. The difference is that Ginkgo Bioworks programs DNA instead of software. And there is a wide range of applications for this technology…
One of Ginkgo’s major partnerships is with pharmaceutical giant Bayer. Bayer hired Ginkgo to create environmentally friendly plant seeds. These were seeds that did not exist until Ginkgo “created” them by programming the seeds’ DNA.
Note that this is different from genetic editing technology like CRISPR. Ginkgo doesn’t cut out or replace strands of DNA. It programs the DNA to operate in a specific way.
Another great example of synthetic biology would be to create oil-eating algae. Ginkgo Bioworks could create algae that are genetically designed to eat oil. Then, when the next oil spill happens, we just turn the algae loose. They can do the cleanup work cheaper and more efficiently than we can.
Going forward, Ginkgo Bioworks is looking to get into the pharmaceutical industry… electronics… clothing… and even the food industry. It’s just incredible to think about what can be done with this tech.
So let’s keep Ginkgo Bioworks on our watchlist. This is one of the most exciting companies in biotech right now. And it may make a terrific investment for us after it goes public.
Yesterday, we talked about how Facebook wants to put a camera and microphone in our homes with its Portal TV product. Well, Chinese tech giant Huawei is taking that a step further…
Many will recognize Huawei as the Chinese company at the heart of the U.S.-China trade negotiations. It has a history of shady dealings like stealing data and intellectual property from U.S.-based technology companies and U.S. consumers. And now the company wants to get into consumers’ living rooms…
Huawei just announced a 4K TV with AI built right in. Huawei’s TV utilizes facial recognition, tracking capabilities, and voice commands.
That’s right… Huawei wants its TV to know who its owners are… listen to their conversations… and follow their movements throughout their own homes. The TV will report all this back to company headquarters, of course. And Huawei is marketing this as an amazing, convenient product.
This is Facebook’s Portal TV on steroids. I’m sure readers recognize that this is a terrible idea. No one should buy TVs with facial recognition and tracking devices in them… especially not from companies that have proven that they can’t be trusted.
Of course, it is unlikely Huawei will be able to release these TVs in the United States. But it will market them hard in China and other parts of the world. If consumers have any concerns about their privacy, they should avoid a product like this at all costs.
Regards,
Jeff Brown
Editor, The Bleeding Edge
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
