In a remarkable milestone, Nvidia $NVDA has overtaken Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, to become the third most valuable company in the world by market capitalization.

Nvidia Corp has claimed another milestone by overtaking Saudi Aramco in market value, making the chipmaker the world’s third-most valuable public company after Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The company ended Friday’s session at $2.06 trillion, closing above the $2 trillion mark for the first time. Only Apple $AAPL and Microsoft $MSFT are ahead of Nvidia, with market caps of $3 trillion respectively.

It took NVIDIA around nine months to attain the $2 trillion milestone from the $1 trillion market capitalization as of Jun 14, 2023. The share price momentum, which started at the beginning of 2023 with NVDA stock soaring 239% in the year, has continued in 2024. Year to date, shares of the company have surged 66.1%.

Nvidia’s meteoric rise is driven by its dominance in the fields of artificial intelligence, gaming, cloud computing, and autonomous vehicles. The company’s flagship product, the GeForce RTX series of graphics cards, has been in high demand among gamers and content creators, as well as data centers and enterprises that use them for AI applications. Nvidia’s revenue for the fiscal year 2024 was $82 billion, up 48% from the previous year.

Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm, the leading designer of chips for smartphones and IoT devices, in 2020 also boosted its position in the semiconductor industry. The deal, which was valued at $40 billion, gave Nvidia access to Arm’s vast network of customers and partners, as well as its intellectual property and R&D capabilities. Nvidia has pledged to maintain Arm’s open licensing model and neutrality, while investing in its UK headquarters and creating a new AI research center there.

Nvidia’s CEO and founder, Jensen Huang, has been widely praised for his visionary leadership and innovation. He has been named one of the world’s best CEOs by Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, and Harvard Business Review. He has also been recognized as one of the most influential people in technology by Time, Wired, and Bloomberg.

Nvidia’s success has also benefited its shareholders, employees, and communities. The company has returned over $20 billion to its shareholders through dividends and share buybacks since 2014. It has also created over 20,000 jobs worldwide and invested in education, research, and philanthropy through its Nvidia Foundation.

Nvidia is not only a leader in the field of artificial intelligence and graphics, but also a company that rewards its stakeholders for their trust and support. In the past seven years, Nvidia has distributed more than $20 billion to its shareholders in the form of dividends and stock repurchases, demonstrating its commitment to creating value and sharing success.

Nvidia also invests in its employees, offering competitive compensation, benefits, and opportunities for growth and development. Furthermore, Nvidia contributes to the social and environmental well-being of its communities, supporting various initiatives in education, health care, diversity, and sustainability.

What is Nvidia’s edge over other AI companies?

Nvidia is a leader in GPU computing, a supercharged form of computing that enables the most demanding applications in the world, such as 3D graphics, virtual reality, high performance computing, and artificial intelligence. Nvidia has evolved the GPU into a computer brain that can process massive amounts of data and perform complex calculations at unprecedented speed and efficiency.

Nvidia’s edge over other AI companies lies in its comprehensive and innovative platform that covers every aspect of AI development and deployment. Nvidia offers:

A full-stack platform for generative AI, which is a branch of AI that can create new content or data from existing ones, such as images, videos, text, or speech. Generative AI can be used for various applications, such as drug discovery, visual design, digital avatars, and more.

Nvidia’s platform includes generative model architectures, tools, and accelerated computing for training, customizing, optimizing, and deploying generative AI models. Nvidia has foundries for language, biology, visual design, and interactive avatars.

A suite of model-making services, pretrained models, cutting-edge frameworks, and APIs that simplify the development of custom enterprise-grade models with your own data and domain expertise. Nvidia offers state-of-the-art community- and NVIDIA-built foundation models, including Stable Diffusion, Llama 2, and Nemotron-3.

A scalable AI car platform that spans the entire range of autonomous driving. Nvidia DRIVE™ is used by 225 companies around the world to develop self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world .

An end-to-end, cloud-native software platform that accelerates data science pipelines and streamlines development and deployment of production-grade AI applications. Nvidia AI Enterprise is compatible with VMware vSphere and supports popular frameworks and tools such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, RAPIDS, NVIDIA Triton Inference Server, and NVIDIA Jarvis.

A portfolio of strategic investments in emerging AI companies that are pushing the boundaries of innovation in various domains. Nvidia has stakes in Arm, SoundHound AI, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Nano-X Imaging, and TuSimple .

Nvidia is not only a provider of hardware and software for AI, but also a partner and enabler of AI-driven businesses and industries. By offering a comprehensive and innovative platform for generative AI, Nvidia empowers its customers to solve the world’s toughest challenges with creativity and intelligence.

In a seismic move aimed at reining in tech behemoths, the European Union has levied a historic fine of €1.84 billion (nearly $2 billion) against Apple, accusing the company of breaching antitrust regulations within the music streaming market on its iOS mobile platform.

This substantial penalty, announced by the EU Commission, marks one of the largest fines ever imposed in an antitrust case and signals a significant escalation in efforts to curb monopolistic practices in the digital sphere.

“The fine we impose today reflects both Apple’s financial power and the harm that Apple’s conduct inflicted on millions of European users,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s Competition Chief, noting that the total penalty represents 0.5% of the iPhone maker’s worldwide turnover.

From today, the Commission has also ordered Apple not to apply anti-steering provisions on music streaming apps. “From now on, Apple will have to allow music streaming developers to communicate freely with their own users — be that within the app, by email or any other ways of communicating,” said Vestager.

At the heart of the Commission’s decision lies Apple’s controversial anti-steering provisions, which have long been a point of contention among developers and competitors in the music streaming industry. These provisions effectively restrict music streaming apps, such as Spotify, from informing users about alternative subscription options outside of Apple’s App Store ecosystem. This, according to Vestager, has severely curtailed consumer choice and fostered an environment of unfair competition.

During a press conference unveiling the decision, Vestager minced no words in condemning Apple’s conduct, stating, “Apple’s rules ended up harming consumers. Critical information was withheld so that consumers could not effectively use or make informed choices.”

The Commission’s investigation was triggered by a formal complaint lodged by Spotify in March 2019, alleging that Apple’s stringent App Store policies stifled competition and innovation, thereby undermining user experience. Over the ensuing months, the Commission delved into the intricacies of Apple’s practices, honing in on the anti-steering provisions as a focal point of concern.

Despite Apple’s vigorous defense of its policies, citing a competitive marketplace and robust consumer choice, the EU Commission stood firm in its findings, underlining the need to safeguard consumer interests and foster a level playing field for all market participants.

“The Commission found that Apple’s rules result in withholding key information on prices and features of services from consumers. As such, they are neither necessary nor proportionate for the provision of the App Store on Apple’s mobile devices,” Vestager said, reiterating the Commission’s stance.

The monumental fine imposed on Apple comprises a base penalty of approximately €40 million for violating EU rules, supplemented by a substantial lump sum intended to redress the harm inflicted on consumers and serve as a deterrent against future transgressions. Notably, the fine represents a mere fraction of Apple’s global revenue, underscoring the severity of the violation.

In response to the Commission’s ruling, Apple issued a scathing rebuke, accusing EU enforcers of misconstruing the competitive landscape and failing to uphold the principles of fair competition. In a strongly worded blog post, the tech giant asserted, “What’s clear is that this decision is not grounded in existing competition law. It’s an effort by the Commission to enforce the DMA before the DMA becomes law.”

Apple further signaled its intention to challenge the decision, citing its longstanding commitment to fostering innovation and driving economic growth in the European market.

“While we respect the European Commission, the facts simply don’t support this decision. And as a result, Apple will appeal,” the company declared defiantly.

Meanwhile, the Commission wasted no time in implementing remedial measures, ordering Apple to immediately cease applying anti-steering provisions on music streaming apps. Additionally, under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will be subject to stringent regulations aimed at preventing the recurrence of anticompetitive behavior. Penalties for non-compliance under the DMA could potentially escalate to 10% of Apple’s annual turnover.

“From now on, Apple will have to allow music streaming developers to communicate freely with their own users — be that within the app, by email or any other ways of communicating,” Vestager stated.

Despite the Commission’s resolute stance, the decision has not been without its detractors. Critics argue that the case against Apple has been marred by shifting narratives and narrow interpretations of harm, with some questioning the proportionality of the remedies imposed.

Cristina Caffarra, an economics expert advising Apple, raised doubts about the coherence of the Commission’s case.

“They failed for years to craft a theory of harm that made any sense about the App Store,” she said.

Amidst the swirling controversy, the EU’s enforcement action represents a significant milestone in efforts to regulate the tech industry and safeguard competition in the digital marketplace. The impacts of this decision are likely to reverberate far beyond the confines of the music streaming market, shaping the future of digital commerce and consumer rights in the European Union and beyond.

Some Apple, car employees to be cut, many will shift to Artificial Intelligence

Meanwhile, Apple has announced that it will reduce its workforce in the car division, as part of a strategic shift to focus more on artificial intelligence and software development. The company did not disclose the exact number of employees affected, but sources familiar with the matter said that hundreds of engineers and managers will be laid off or reassigned to other projects.

The move comes as Apple faces increasing competition and challenges in the automotive industry, where rivals like Tesla, Google and Amazon are investing heavily in self-driving technology and electric vehicles. Apple has been working on its own car project, codenamed Titan, since 2014, but has struggled to define its vision and direction.

The company has also experienced several leadership changes and internal conflicts in the car division, which have hampered its progress and innovation.

Apple said that the decision to cut some car employees was not a sign of giving up on the car project, but rather a way to streamline its operations and prioritize its resources. The company said that it will continue to explore the potential of autonomous systems and software platforms for the future of mobility.

Many of the affected employees will be offered new roles in the artificial intelligence department, where Apple is developing Siri, Face ID, machine learning and other technologies that are core to its products and services.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly expressed his interest and optimism about the car market, calling it “the mother of all AI projects”. He has also hinted that Apple has some “exciting things” in the works but has not revealed any details or timelines.

Analysts and investors have speculated that Apple could launch its own car, partner with an existing automaker, or provide software and hardware solutions for other car companies.

Apple is known for its secrecy and high standards of quality and innovation, which have made it one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world. However, some critics have argued that Apple has lost its edge and creativity in recent years and has failed to deliver breakthrough products that can match the success of the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The car project is seen by many as a test of Apple’s ability to reinvent itself and enter new markets.

Apple Inc. is reportedly winding down its electric car plans, ending a decade-long foray into the automotive industry, according to Bloomberg. The tech giant had been working on a self-driving vehicle project called Project Titan since 2014 but faced multiple challenges and leadership changes along the way. The company had scaled back its ambitions from building a full-fledged car to focusing on the software and hardware components of autonomous driving.

However, Bloomberg sources said that Apple has now decided to abandon the project altogether, as it did not see a clear path to profitability or market leadership. Apple has not officially confirmed or denied the report, but some analysts have speculated that the company may still be interested in partnering with existing carmakers or exploring other mobility services in the future.

Apple’s exit from the electric car race would leave more room for competitors like Tesla, Google’s Waymo, and Amazon’s Zoox, who have been investing heavily in the field and have made significant progress in developing and testing their vehicles. Apple’s stock price fell slightly after the news broke but recovered quickly as investors focused on the company’s core businesses of smartphones, tablets, computers, and services.

Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has recently faced a series of regulatory challenges in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crypto market. The exchange has been accused of contributing to the devaluation of the naira, Nigeria’s currency, by offering peer-to-peer (P2P) trading services that bypass the official exchange rate.

The Nigerian government has also restricted access to Binance’s website and arrested two of its executives in the country. We will explore the implication of Binance shutting P2P to crypto in Nigeria, and what it means for the future of crypto adoption in the country.

What is P2P Trading and Why is it Popular in Nigeria?

P2P trading is a feature that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly from each other, without intermediaries or third-party platforms. Users can set their own prices and payment methods and use escrow services to ensure the security of the transactions. P2P trading is popular in Nigeria for several reasons:

It offers an alternative way to access cryptocurrencies after the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) banned local banks and financial institutions from facilitating crypto transactions in 2021. It provides a hedge against the frequent devaluation of the naira, which has lost more than 50% of its value against the US dollar since 2015.

It enables users to access foreign exchange at market rates, which are often higher than the official rates set by the CBN. It empowers users to participate in the global crypto economy and access various opportunities such as remittances, e-commerce, gaming, and DeFi.

According to data from UsefulTulips.org, Nigeria is the leading country in terms of P2P volume globally, with more than $500 million traded in 2023. Binance is one of the main platforms that offer P2P trading services in Nigeria, along with other players such as Paxful, LocalBitcoins, and Remitano.

Why is Binance Facing Regulatory Pressure in Nigeria?

Binance’s P2P trading services have attracted the attention of the Nigerian authorities, who have expressed concern that the platform is undermining the stability of the naira and facilitating illicit fund movements. Some of the regulatory actions taken against Binance include:

In February 2024, Binance imposed a price cap on Tether (USDT) tokens traded on its Nigerian P2P platform at 1,802 naira per USDT, following a directive from the CBN. This sparked outrage among users who accused Binance of manipulating the market and limiting their freedom. Binance later lifted the cap and claimed that it was due to an automatic system pause.

In March 2024, Binance removed the naira from its P2P market, effectively shutting down its P2P trading services in Nigeria. The exchange did not provide any official explanation for this decision, but some speculated that it was due to regulatory pressure or security issues.

Also in March 2024, two Binance executives were arrested in Nigeria and their passports were confiscated by the Nigerian police. The executives had traveled to Nigeria to address the country’s ban on crypto exchange websites and to meet with local stakeholders. They were released after a few days but remained under investigation.

The implication of Binance shutting P2P to crypto in Nigeria is significant for both the exchange and its users. For Binance, it means losing a large and loyal customer base that generates substantial revenue for the platform. It also means damaging its reputation and credibility as a global leader in crypto innovation and inclusion.

For Nigerian users, it means losing access to one of the most popular and reliable platforms for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It also means facing more challenges and risks in accessing crypto services from other platforms or sources.

What is the Future of Crypto Adoption in Nigeria?

Despite the regulatory hurdles and uncertainties, crypto adoption in Nigeria is unlikely to stop or decline anytime soon. Nigerians have shown remarkable resilience and creativity in finding ways to access and use cryptocurrencies for various purposes. Some of the factors that will continue to drive crypto adoption in Nigeria include:

The high demand for foreign exchange and alternative assets amid economic instability and currency devaluation. The large population of young and tech-savvy people who are eager to explore new opportunities and solutions offered by crypto.

The vibrant and supportive crypto community that educates and empowers users through various channels such as social media, podcasts, webinars, meetups, and events. The emergence and growth of local crypto startups and initiatives that provide innovative products and services tailored to the needs and preferences of Nigerian users.

Crypto adoption in Nigeria is not dependent on any single platform or entity, but rather on the collective efforts and actions of the users themselves. Binance’s exit from the Nigerian P2P market may be a temporary setback, but it is not a fatal blow. Nigerians will continue to find ways to access and use cryptocurrencies, and to contribute to the development and growth of the crypto industry in the country and beyond.

Binance’s woes in Nigeria continue to mount, but they also present an opportunity for the exchange to demonstrate its leadership and resilience in the crypto space. By engaging with regulators, improving its governance and transparency, and enhancing its security and customer protection measures, Binance may be able to overcome its challenges and regain its trust and reputation in one of its most important markets.