I found a neat chart showing how long some of the companies whose products and services have become so embedded into our daily use took to become valued at 1 trillion U.S. dollars. It would be hard to imagine our lives without Amazon, or Google, Meta, and all the IT apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Microsoft). I don’t drive an EV yet, but Tesla's emergence has been astounding.

 

 

When I’m asked about AI, my view is that it is similar to where e-commerce was 20 years ago. Sure, we all recognized that there was going to be a shift in the economy but had no idea of the scale or scope of it. In the chart above, it took over 10 years for Amazon to become a 1 trillion dollar company. Nvidia: did it in less than half this time.

 

So, it's hard to know exactly what will become of AI, but it would be fairly foolish to ignore its potential and what the world will look like in 20 years. Amazon went from selling books on-line to becoming the largest retailer on earth. It's difficult to fathom the immense size of some of these companies: with profits larger than any province, or state, and bigger than most countries.

 

While on the topic of size, on a different scale, I am going to be going on a cruise that takes us along the West Coast from Vancouver to Alaska in the middle of next week. As much as all the advancements in technology have changed our lives as alluded to, it will be the first time since I can recall that for many days, we will be without cell coverage. I’m leaving Avril to be in charge; she has the “helm”.

What I will do with my family, without access to social media or shopping online: we shall see, but I’m looking forward to it.

 

Of course, I won’t be gone before the Wimbledon finals this weekend. The greatest tennis tournament of the year: Jasmine Paolini is going to prevail on the women’s side, and my new favourite men’s player, Carlos Alcaraz, to win the men’s (his 2^nd Wimbledon win before the age of 22). This is fitting, as the last person to do this was another one of my all-time favourites: Boris Becker.

 

Have a great weekend.