FTI Consulting News Bytes – 14 June 2024

FTI Consulting News Bytes

This week, we start by looking at the world’s first “immersive” phone call, thanks to Nokia’s technological advancements. We then turn to the highlights from London Tech Week, and our own impressions of this year’s event. Next, we explore the recent developments at OpenAI following a partnership announcement with Apple, which has already ruffled some feathers. Elsewhere, Mistral AI secured an impressive €600 million from high profile investors as the company is vying to take on OpenAI. Finally, we look at Raspberry Pi’s strong debut and what this means for London’s market.

This week’s news

A new first for phone calls

In a world first, Nokia reimagined the future of telephone conversations, with the success of its “immersive” phone call, according to Reuters. Taking place between CEO Pekka Lundmark and Stefan Lindström, Finland’s Ambassador of Digitalisation and New Technologies, the call used new technology called “immersive audio and video” to improve the quality of a call with three-dimensional sound, making interactions more lifelike. In an interview, Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Technologies said that “it is the biggest leap forward in the live voice calling experience since the introduction of monophonic telephony audio used in smartphones and PCs today.” Nokia highlighted that the call was made using a regular smartphone over a public 5G network, and that the technology is part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard.

FTI takes on London Tech Week

This week saw the gathering of London’s annual technology summit. Discussions between the public and private sectors covered the status quo of London’s tech scene and investment in the UK, AI, ClimateTech and sustainability, FinTech and more. Attendees and speakers at the new Olympia venue included speakers from companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Depop, Strava, and Monzo, as well as several members of our own team. Charlie Palmer, FTI’s Global Head of TMT shared his views: “Very exciting to be at the opening sessions of London Tech Week 2024, hosted at a fantastic new venue. In his opening address, Sadiq Khan made it clear how London has improved connectivity and is attracting investment, particularly from big tech companies. I also particularly enjoyed the fireside chat with the inspirational Alex Kendall of Wayve – autonomous driving and other robotics is closer than we think thanks to their work.” Jamie Ricketts, Managing Director at FTI in London, added: “London Tech Week is a litmus test of London’s tech leaders. What they’re thinking, where they’re heading. I could have spent all day listening to Linda Griffin (VP Global Policy, Mozilla) on the dynamic between tech and regulation. And to David Savage (Nash Squared) on his session on tech funding. The big issues are not new but they are evolving and LTW has its finger on the pulse.” 

Apple’s OpenAI deal draws Musk’s ire  

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled a landmark arrangement with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Apple’s devices. The Financial Times reported on the company’s annual developers conference, noting Tim Cook’s comments who said that this partnership will feed into “Apple Intelligence” – the company’s own proprietary generative AI features. Elon Musk was quick to react to the news, calling the collaboration “an unacceptable security violation”, and threatened to ban all Apple devices from his companies, according to CNBC. Privacy and security concerns will remain high on the agenda as regulators seek to understand risks and find ways to govern AI. However, OpenAI seems to be on the front foot as it expands its global affairs team and aims to employ up to 50 experts by the end of the year. The extent to which OpenAI will inform the regulatory approach to AI remains to be seen.  

Wind of change

French startup Mistral AI has raised €600 million from investors including Nvidia and Salesforce, the Wall Street Journal reports. Whilst few details were given about the deal, sources suggest this Series B funding round valued the company at €5.8 billion. The Wall Street Journal further highlights that the capital injection “underscored investors’ willingness to pour funds” into “promising” AI startups, as Mistral AI looks to gain scale in the market currently “dominated” by OpenAI and “Silicon Valley giants”. Indeed, for a firm which is just more than a year old Mistral AI has raised impressive sums of money even in early funding rounds, and is on a clear path towards becoming Europe’s AI champion. Watch out, OpenAI.

Everyone wants a slice of the Raspberry Pi

The Financial Times this week reported that shares in British microcomputer maker Raspberry Pi jumped more than a third on its first day of trading in London. On Tuesday, the company confirmed an offer price at the top end of a range of 260p to 280p, implying a market valuation of about £542 million. Commenting on the news, the outlet contended that the demand for the stock is a “shot in the arm for a London market struggling to attract interest from high-growth technology companies, which mostly prefer to list in New York.”

Top Tweets of the Week

• Zoe Kleinman, Technology Editor at BBC News: Labour’s Peter Kyle is giving a keynote speech at London Tech Week. He says the party would keep the gov department @SciTechgovuk and also make it a “digital centre for government” which I think means putting it in charge of implementing new digital systems internally.
• Mark Gurman, Chief Correspondent at Bloomberg: Samsung is combining two North American research centers focused on artificial intelligence technology and hiring an ex-Apple Inc. executive to run the new group
• Sara Fischer, Media Correspondent at Axios: 👀@LinkedIn testing an AI assistant — Premium members may have started seeing prompts below articles to learn more about certain companies or topics — Prompts lead users to an AI-generated chat assistant that’s powered by Bing and LinkedIn data
• Tesla Hype: Elon Musk to appear at Cannes Lions Seminar as guest speaker

Number of the Week

€500m – The amount that  video game and app developer Voodoo paid for photo-sharing platform BeReal.