Key takeaways

In 2023 — and entering 2024
— hardware is where it’s atThat was the headline from a discussion about trends in emerging
technology at the Bank of America Triangle Innovation Summit. CEOs
from three trailblazing firms discussed the potential of the newest,hottest technologies — and the implications for investors.
After years when advances in software stole the technology industry
spotlight — and hardware was relegated to the background — developments
in cutting-edge hardware are making news and attracting investor attention.
Rob Hays, CEO and president of Atom Computing, says,“When people interact with computing — their applications,their phones, their headsets — they don’t really think about thehardware too much.” In fact, manufacturers like Apple
specifically created products that focused on the user
experience, hiding the coding and mechanics. “The industry
created virtualization and container software architectures toabstract the hardware away from developers,” he says. “And I
think at that point, hardware sort of fell out of favor — or atleast out of sight, out of mind.”
A series of recent technological developments, combined withcurrent global conditions, has brought hardware to the fore
again for investors. Recent emerging developments include
artificial intelligence (AI), batteries, and super-powerfulquantum computers. Chris Hazard, CTO and co-founder ofHowso, calls these “foundational transformationaltechnologies — really hard problems we’re working on here.”
And those problems require a new set of tools andinfrastructure in order to be developed and explored.
The importance of these technologies is clear in the current
atmosphere of competing government initiatives and risinggeopolitical tensions, particularly between the U.S. and China.
There is nothing more foundational than chips:“At the end of the day, chips matter. Who has controlof those foundries and who has control of the IP
behind that has control over an enormous
amount of economic wealth and development andnational security for all of us around the world.”
Rob Hays, CEO/President, Atom Computing• Hardware is back in focus dueto the demand for increased
computing power after
developments in AI and otheremerging technology.
• An important, emerging area ofhardware is quantum computing,which is beginning to move out ofthe lab and into real-world uses.
• Experts believe at minimum, AI canbe a copilot to drive the next waveof productivity, helping with rotefunctions and mundane tasks. But
it has greater potential than that.

AI as a potential platform shift
Anyone who picks up a newspaper or turns on the news also
is aware of the buzz about AI.
Jes Lipson, founder and CEO of Levitate, says, “One of the reasonspeople are excited about AI is thinking about it as a potential
platform shift. Those sorts of platform shifts and technology only
come along so often.” Is AI going to live up to the hype?

“From what I’m seeing, at minimum AI will be areally strong kind of copilot that’s going to drive a lot ofproductivity across the world. It’s kind of equivalent to a
calculator or a Google search, those kinds of things thateventually you think, ‘How did I live without those?’”Jes Lipson, Founder/CEO, Levitate

Levitate’s platform offers AI-powered “keep in touch” marketingfor businesses to manage their customer relationships. “AI isgoing to be a large driver of GDP and productivity in theeconomy, and it’s going to affect every industry,” Lipson says.
Most current AI applications are smaller-scale, with moderate
impact: helping companies sort through customer data topersonalize messaging, performing A/B testing to optimize
marketing campaigns, or assisting healthcare operators withinsurance reimbursements, for instance.
“If you’re looking at it day to day, it feels very incremental,” says
Hazard. “But in hindsight, it’s going to look very disruptive.” Hesays Howso seeks to “rebuild AI from the ground up” to make it
more trustworthy.

in 2023 — and entering 2024 — hardware is where it’s at

AI may never achieve some of the lofty visions being tossed
about in news stories. “Probably my greatest worry is that people
look back and say, ‘Hey, that was a little bit overhyped.’ It’s likethe 80/20 rule, or idea that the last 1% of quality takes 99% of
the effort. We don’t know for sure if throwing more hardware atmaking AI better — if bigger models or new techniques — will
actually fully solve that or not,” Lipson says. “Will AI ever get
there? I think that still is an open question.”
But these executives agree that even at its current level, AI has
the potential to drive the next wave of productivity byautomating routine tasks and performing them faster. “Internallyfor software development, we’re using it for the mundane, thelow-end stuff. And that frees up the humans and their superior
minds to focus on the value-added creation,” Hays says.

“Who likes doing the mundane?
I certainly don’t. Will it disrupt a lot of jobs?
Absolutely. But on the other end, it will amplify
creativity and amplify people.”
Chris Hazard, CTO/Co-Founder, Howso

The rise of quantum computing
On the other end of the spectrum is quantum computing,which uses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems
beyond the capacity of “classic” computers. Quantum
computing, in development by companies including Hays’
Atom Computing, is beginning to move out of the lab ortheoretical phase and into real-world uses. These executives
say it has the potential to help organizations move faster on
big questions — discovering new drugs or helping solve
formerly impenetrable problems.

Big technology users are looking for a leap ahead incomputing power, the kind of advance that quantum
computing may represent. “You could talk to Amazon or
Google Cloud or Oracle Cloud or anyone, and they will tell
you that power and space to put in all these large GPU
boxes is extremely critical for them, and they just can’t
afford to do it. They can’t build out the power substations
and the warehouse-scale computers fast enough to go dothat. It’s really just not sustainable,” Hays says.

“So we need new hardware, new architectures.
And that’s where quantum computing comes in.
There’s a lot of new architectures that can comein and give us orders of magnitude more
performance at lower energy levels.”
Rob Hays, CEO/President, Atom Computing

Everyone is interested in the potential of quantum computing,and big names are investing — while the industry waits forthe big “aha” moment that moves this technology fromconcept to reality. “As soon as that big killer app comes,
everyone’s going to wake up and you’re going to know you’rethere. But the problem is, you don’t know when it’s coming or
where it’s coming from. I think five years from now, we’ll
probably have something like that ChatGPT moment where
you know, somebody does something amazing that was justnever done before.”
Beyond the long-term predictions and current excitement,
Hays says, “Hardware matters at the end of the day to deliver
all the software and applications people learn and depend on.”If you have questions, please contact your relationship manager.

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