Researchers at Lumen Technologies claimed they identified three US internet service providers (ISPs) that were hacked over the summer.
Tag: science
NVDA Dumps And Pumps After Smashing Q2 Expectations But Guidance Is A “Mixed Bag”
NVDA Dumps And Pumps After Smashing Q2 Expectations But Guidance Is A “Mixed Bag”
For the second year in a row, Nvidia has been the world’s most important company, rising more than 150% YTD to a staggering $3.1 trillion market cap, massively outperforming the Nasdaq, and putting it within spitting distance of becoming the world’s largest company (it is currently #2 behind AAPL).
And while the stock price gains have largely been driven by regular raises of the company’s forward earnings expectations…
… the question arises: how much more earnings growth is there? We already laid out Wall Street’s expectations for what to expect earlier, but with with whisper numbers at nosebleed levels relative to already euphoric guidance and estimates, it’s no surprise why the options market is expecting a 10% swing after hours.
A quick look at the past: the company’s second quarter wasn’t perfect – the company stopped short of completely denying reports that there are problems with its forthcoming Blackwell product lineup. Analyst reports have dismissed any issues as immaterial given the overall level of demand for existing products – the chip line called Hopper – but management will face questions on the topic.
As a reminder, this is what Nvidia said earlier this month: “As we’ve stated before, Hopper demand is very strong, broad Blackwell sampling has started, and production is on track to ramp in the second half. Beyond that, we don’t comment on rumors.”
And so, amid skyhigh expectations for the current quarter, even loftier expectations for the company’s guidance with questions about its main product line, here is what NVDA reported moments ago for the second quarter:
- Q2 Rev. $30.0B, beating estimates of $28.86B, beating not only the upper end of the guidance ($27.44BN-$28.56BN) but also above the JPM whisper number of $29.85BN
- Q2 Data Center Revenue $26.3B, beating exp. $25.08B
- Q2 EPS $0.68, beating exp. $0.64
- Q2 Gross Margin 75.7%, beating exp. 75.5%
The revenue trend, as expected, is impressive especially at the Data Center level where all the growth is.
While the Q2 earnings were impressive, beating both estimates and the even loftier whisper numbers across the board, there was just a touch of weakness in the company’s guidance: NVDA projected Q3 revenue will be $32.5 million, +/- 2%. While this was above the average estimate was $31.9 billion, it was below JPM’s whisper of $32.95BN and certainly below the most optimistic sellside prediction of $37.9 billion.
Perhaps anticipating the potential market revulsion to the modest guidance disappointment, NVDA tried to appease investors by announcing a massive new $50 billion buyback .
The company also tried to preempt questions about its reportedly troubled Blackwell chips, saying “samples are shipping to our partners and customers” and says that it expects to ship several billion dollars of Blackwell revenue in Q4 even as it admits in its earnings release that it needs to improve Blackwell production, to wit:
We shipped customer samples of our Blackwell architecture in the second quarter. We executed a change to the Blackwell GPU mask to improve production yield. Blackwell production ramp is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter and continue into fiscal 2026. In the fourth quarter, we expect to ship several billion dollars in Blackwell revenue. Hopper demand is strong, and shipments are expected to increase in the second half of fiscal 2025.
While initially NVDA shares bounced on the big beat, the since dipped on the disappointing guidance, sliding as much as 6% after hours, and have since whiplashed by the results as the stock is still fighting for direction, swinging between gains and losses as traders digest the earnings. As a reminder, options markets had priced in a swing of 10% after hours, so for now the reaction is positive tame relative to expectations.
Developing
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 16:37
Children in Congo suffering after mpox outbreak
The country has seen over 450 deaths, and approximately 75 percent of cases observed by medics involve children under the age of 10.
Germany promises to enact mass deportations of migrants
“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported.”
Gab CEO refuses to comply with German demand to investigate user over comments about ‘fat’ MP
GAB CEO Andrew Torba called it “one of the more ridiculous foreign data requests that Gab received.”
SHEA BRADLEY-FARRELL: Escalation in Ukraine could lead to a nuclear conflict
The further we escalate, the more desperate all leaders will act.
SCOOP: US Attorney has empaneled Grand Jury to consider criminal charges in Trump assassination investigation
“The records that you have requested are within the scope of a grand jury subpoena issued to CCAC by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.”
Super Micro Shares Plunge 15% After Company Delays 10-K, One Day After Hindenburg Alleges Accounting Manipulation
Super Micro Shares Plunge 15% After Company Delays 10-K, One Day After Hindenburg Alleges Accounting Manipulation
Shares of Super Micro Computer are down over 15% heading into the cash open after the server company said it would be delaying its 10-K filing for FY 2024. The delay comes one day after short seller Hindenburg Research alleged “fresh evidence” of accounting manipulation at the company.
“Additional time is needed for SMCI’s management to complete its assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024,” a filing from the company read.
Yesterday shares plunged as much as 8% but finished the session only down 2%. Will they repeat the BTFD trend today…
In a report released on its website Tuesday morning, the short seller alleged that the semiconductor/server company, which has seen its stock skyrocket over the last few years during the AI bubble, could be engaged in accounting manipulation and self dealing among family members.
Among other points, Hindenburg wrote:
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Our 3-month investigation, which included interviews with former senior employees and industry experts as well as a review of litigation records, international corporate and customs records, found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.
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Less than 3 months after paying a $17.5 million SEC settlement, Super Micro began re-hiring top executives that were directly involved in the accounting scandal, per litigation records and interviews with former employees.
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A former salesperson told us: “Almost all of them are back. Almost all of the people that were let go that were the cause of this malfeasance.”
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According to a lawsuit filed in April 2024, Super Micro waited only 3 months after the SEC settlement before restarting “improper revenue recognition,” “recognizing incomplete sales,” and “circumvention of internal accounting controls”.
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Even after the SEC settlement, pressure to meet quotas pushed salespeople to stuff the channel with distributors using “partial shipments” or by shipping defective products around quarter-end, per our interviews with former employees and customers.
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One former salesperson described pushing products to distributors based on made-up demand forecasts, completing a partial shipment, then later coming up with an excuse for why the rest didn’t happen. “And now you have a problem. Accounting problem maybe.”
“Beyond fresh questions around its revenue accounting, we found that Super Micro’s relationships with both disclosed and undisclosed related parties serve as fertile ground for dubious accounting,” the report says.
“For example, disclosed related party suppliers Ablecom and Compuware, controlled by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s brothers, have been paid $983 million in the last 3 years. Ablecom is also partly owned by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang and his wife.”
It continues: “The relationships seem oddly circular. Super Micro provides components to the entities which assemble them and sell them back to Super Micro. They also rent warehousing and factory space to Super Micro even though it has its own sprawling factory.”
“Multiple former employees and channel partners confirmed that after-sales service is undermining Super Micro’s ability to retain customers. One former salesperson said: ‘It’s their Achilles heel. It’s just horrible.’,” Hindenburg wrote.
“All told, we believe Super Micro is a serial recidivist. It benefitted as an early mover but still faces significant accounting, governance and compliance issues and offers an inferior product and service now being eroded away by more credible competition,” the report says.
You can read the full report here.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 09:35
WHO Launches Global Monkeypox Strategy, Including Strategic Vaccinations
WHO Launches Global Monkeypox Strategy, Including Strategic Vaccinations
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a global strategy to halt the transmission of mpox, formerly called monkeypox. The plan, announced on Aug. 26, will entail a “strategic vaccination” campaign.
The U.N. health agency, which declared a public health emergency of international concern two weeks ago, said that the plan will last six months—September 2024 to February 2025—and will receive $135 million in funding.
“Strategic vaccination” efforts will target people at the highest risk such as “close contacts of recent cases and healthcare workers, to interrupt transmission chains,” the agency said.
The WHO plan will focus on “implementing comprehensive surveillance, prevention, readiness, and response strategies; advancing research and equitable access to medical countermeasures like diagnostic tests and vaccines; minimizing animal-to-human transmission; and empowering communities to actively participate in outbreak prevention and control,” according to a statement.
Officials say that a subvariant of the virus has caused global concern because it seems to spread more easily through routine close contact.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the Aug. 26 statement that the mpox outbreak, which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “can be controlled and can be stopped.”
“Doing so requires a comprehensive and coordinated plan of action between international agencies and national and local partners, civil society, researchers and manufacturers, and our Member States,” he said.
More Cases Confirmed Outside Africa
The Philippines has confirmed two more mpox virus infections of the milder Clade II variety, its health ministry said on Aug. 26, bringing the number of active cases to three.
“We continue to see local transmission of mpox Clade II here in the Philippines, in Metro Manila in particular,” Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa said in a statement.
He added that newly confirmed cases were a 37-year-old male in Metro Manila who had a rash on his body and was brought to a government hospital and a 32-year-old male from the capital who had lesions on his skin.
The Philippines announced last week that it had detected a case of the mpox virus’s milder variant in a 33-year-old male who had no travel history outside the Philippines.
The Philippines has had 12 laboratory-confirmed cases since July 2022. The World Health Organization earlier this month declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, for the second time in two years, because of an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had spread to neighboring countries.
Since January 2023, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reported more than 27,000 suspected mpox cases and more than 1,300 deaths.
The disease leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can be fatal. Children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, are all at higher risk of complications.
Other countries outside the African continent that have confirmed mpox cases in recent days include Sweden and Thailand.
“We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I,” Swedish Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed said at a news conference at the time.
No Lockdowns
Earlier in August, a WHO official stressed that mpox would not cause lockdowns or closures or restrict other activity.
“Are we going to go in lockdown in the WHO European region, it’s another COVID-19? The answer is clearly: ‘no,’” Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said days after the WHO declaration was issued.
“Two years ago, we controlled mpox in Europe thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men.”
In an update around the same time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that mpox currently poses a low risk to the United States and that no cases of Clade I mpox have been found in the country.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 03:30
New York State Anesthesiologist Pleads Guilty To Chloroforming, Assaulting Kid’s Nanny While She Slept
New York State Anesthesiologist Pleads Guilty To Chloroforming, Assaulting Kid’s Nanny While She Slept
A New York State anesthesiologist has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually abusing his family’s nanny while she was sleeping in his home.
60 year old Paul Giacopelli was indicted in March, and pleaded guilty last Wednesday, according to the NY Post. His lawyer commented that he has “assumed responsibility for his crimes, and now is focused on tending to his family.”
The Post report says that the victim would sometimes stay overnight at his house when watching his children so he could work at the hospital. She said there were four times in 2023 where she fell asleep, “woke up to a rag being held over her face, smelled chemicals and blacked out”, the Post writes.
After setting up a hidden camera, she caught Giacopelli assaulting her. She then brought the video to local police and he was questioned.
Giacopelli confessed to filling a rag with Sevoflurane, an anesthetic agent, according to the Post report. He also said he had a “chloroform fetish” and confessed to sexually assaulting the victim.
He said she was an easy target because she was a “heavy sleeper”.
Giacopelli also admitted to taking drugs, including fentanyl, from the hospital to his home, testimony revealed.
The state Board for Professional Medical Conduct has since barred him from practicing medicine. Giacopelli is set to be sentenced on November 20 and is expected to receive four years in state prison.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 08/27/2024 – 20:30