43. Crypto Tailwinds, Carta Crisis, Massive Layoffs Fuel AI Startups | theCUBE Pod
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2024-01-12

On this week's edition of #theCUBEPod, #theCUBEResearch analyst John Furrier and Dave Vellante talk about the momentum with #crypto, and the opportunity recent layoffs in tech present for the opportunistic world of #AI #startups.

New episodes every Friday. Subscribe for weekly tech analysis.
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ge_TNsSX
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gGYj5sUQ
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g5NaFcRu

New episodes every Friday!   
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLenh213llmcYe7nXWic9QsnHUD5fqbEwu

Check out the current episode of theCUBE Pod https://siliconangle.com/2024/01/16/on-thecube-pod-metas-ai-shift-and-thoughts-on-this-weeks-massive-layoffs-thecubepod/

This week in tech:

With the #CES consumer electronics show as usual setting the news year in motion, the technology industry got busy again this week.

The biggest deal, and biggest surprise, was #HPE making a $14 billion bid for #JuniperNetworks, for better or worse looking to challenge #CiscoSystems for networking leadership as AI workloads force many enterprises to rethink their compute, data and network architectures.

Meantime, enterprise and consumer tech companies have resumed cost-cutting, specifically people-cutting, as they seem to think the economy’s successful soft landing (so far) still might present growth challenges. These won’t be the last layoffs either.

And CES demonstrated anew, as if we didn’t already know, that AI remains job one. After a year of hype and hope about the potential of #generativeAI, this may be the year enterprises actually dive in and start to implement AI throughout their operations.

Here’s a sampling of this week’s news:
https://siliconangle.com/2024/01/12/hpe-bids-juniper-layoffs-surge-ai-dominates-ces/

In the cloud and enterprise:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise surprised us this week with plans to acquire Juniper Networks. More than anything, it looks like a bid by HPE to become a stronger force in networking as it becomes an ever more important component of the evolving cloud computing business where AI increasingly will make fast interconnections between the cloud and the edge critical.

Analysts appeared mostly to see the benefits more than the challenges. As theCUBE Research analyst Dave Vellante put it: “While we don’t see this move as a dramatic growth driver for HPE, the acquisition will improve the quality of HPE’s earnings, bolster its free cash flow and further support strong momentum in its networking business, giving it more ammunition to compete with market leader Cisco and other networking pure plays.”

That said, $14 billion is a mighty big chunk of change for something that, for the time being, doesn’t radically change the competitive dynamics, as Cisco remains dominant in networking. And the debt HPE will incur to do the deal could reduce how much it can spend on R&D and other innovation, and also limit other acquisition opportunities. But CEO Antonio Neri at least is showing he can make big bets.

To see John and Dave in action, follow theCUBE's live event coverage at https://www.thecube.net/

For daily news for CIOs, check out our parent publication at https://siliconangle.com/

People mentioned in this podcast:
Steve Mullaney, former president and CEO of Aviatrix Systems
Jake Kaldenbaugh, managing partner at CloudStrategies
Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst at ZK Research
Shelly Kramer, managing director and principal analyst with theCUBE Research
Andy Jassy, president and CEO of Amazon
John Chambers, CEO of JC2 Ventures
Charles Fitzgerald, consultative strategist and investor
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms
Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel
Hock Tan, president and CEO of Broadcom
Jas Tremblay, GM for data center solutions group at Broadcom
Bob Picciano, member of the advisory board from SolarWinds Worldwide
Ginni Rometty, co-chairman of OneTen, former CEO of IBM
Rob Thomas, SVP, software and CCO of IBM
Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management
Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase
Gary Gensler, chairperson, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Henry Ward, CEO of Carta
Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of HPE, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya
Leo Apotheker, former CEO of HP and co-CEO of SAP
Alan Cohen, general partner at DCVC
Arun K. Subramaniyan, founder and CEO of Articul8 AI
Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS
Rebecca Knight, host of theCUBE
Jesse Rothstein, economist
Mark Bowling, chief risk, security, and information security officer of ExtraHop
Stu Miniman, director of market insights for hybrid platforms at Red Hat
Doug Henschen, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research
Casey Newton, founder at Platform News 
Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic Inc. and co-founder of WordPress
Keith Rabois, former general partner at Funders Fund
Alex Freedland, returning CEO of Mirantis
Jason Calacanis, internet entrepreneur
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
George Gilbert, principal analyst at TechAlpha Partners

#theCUBE