In early July, Nvidia became America’s #1 chipmaker by market cap, surpassing its much older rival, Intel, for the first time.

Today, Nvidia is worth $300B while Intel is worth $210B. And with reports that Nvidia is set to acquire UK-based chip designer ARM from Softbank for $40B, that gap might grow even bigger.

Nvidia built its advantage by riding the right trends

Founded in 1993, the Santa Clara-based firm has seen its value increase ~22x in the past 5 years. This is largely thanks to several major  developments:

• Demand for gaming and AI
  Nvidia began as a producer of graphics processing units (GPUs), which are now heavily used in the gaming industry, and for AI computing.
• The transition to “fabless” chip making
  Unlike Intel, Nvidia doesn’t own any chip fabrication plants. Instead, the firm designs its chips and outsources production to specialized foundries, like the $385B Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TMSC).

Along with Microsoft, Intel was synonymous with the PC 

Founded in 1968, Intel came to dominate the PC market in the 1990s and early 2000s.

However, the success of Intel’s PC business hamstrung efforts to effectively compete in the lower margin (but much faster growing) smartphone chip market. With PCs on the decline, Intel’s growth has become reliant on high-end data centers

Two further blows hit in 2020:

1. Intel’s next gen of chips has encountered major delays
2. Apple replaced Intel chips with ARM for its new Macbook lines

Why Nvidia’s ARM deal could be huge  

ARM’s energy-efficient designs have been used to create 160B chips — and buying the firm would boost Nvidia’s position in smartphones, tablets and internet-of-things (IOT) hardware. 

However, the Wall Street Journal notes some potential deal roadblocks: 

• British politicians didn’t love Softbank’s $32B acquisition of ARM in 2016 and may not love it this time, either
• There are concerns the deal may negatively impact the escalating US-China chip wars

We have a more pressing question. If the deal happens, which portmanteau is better: NvARM or Armidia?

Yes Theory — founded in 2015 by Thomas Brag, Matt Dajer, and Ammar Kandil —  is the content company behind one of YouTube’s most popular channels.

With 5.8m subs and 1.8B views, it has inspired millions (including Will Smith) to “seek discomfort in their lives.”

In collaboration with Headspace, the team launched the Yes Theory podcast to further spread their inspirational message.   

We recently caught up with the guys to ask some questions: 

What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year? 

“The Untethered Soul,” by Michael Singer.

What’s the best purchase under $100 you made in the past year? 

Spikeball (Editor’s note: We support this).

Who’s the most interesting person you know?

Wim Hof [a Dutch extreme athlete who holds the Guinness World record for swimming under ice]. He pioneered the Wim Hof Method, which is a combination of breath work, cold exposure, and meditation as a way to practice mental strength. He fully demonstrated to me my own capacity to push myself way past what I thought my limits were.

What’s the best piece of advice someone ever gave you? 

“The true path to creativity is to put yourself in situations that are unusual to you, that break your routine and take your mind and body outside of its comfort zone.”

That is from Peter Younkin, my college professor in entrepreneurship back at McGill University. It planted the seed for what would become Yes Theory.

(Editor’s note: Trung, a McGill alum, says: “Let’s go fam!!”).

Do you have a request for a startup? 

I think an intentionally non-politically biased, independently owned news organization, solely focused on facts that would be trusted by all major sides to report on the big events in the world without sensationalism would be great. Further, being transparent on who wrote the articles and what their beliefs are could be a way to nurture trust with the audience.

Ever forget who the 4th Beatle is? Well, there’s an app for that.

Note-taking and productivity startups have been on a fundraising tear in  recent months. In April, Notion raised $50m ($2B valuation) and, in August, Coda pulled in $80m ($636m valuation). 

Now Roam Research has joined the pack — raising a $9m seed round at a $200m valuation, The Information reports.

Founded by Conor White-Sullivan and Joshua Brown, the 11-person note-taking startup launched only last fall.

Their secret sauce? Bi-directional linking

That lets you seamlessly connect different notes and ideas together in a network.

White-Sullivan tells The Information that this structure fits the “brain better than [files, folders, and Word documents.]”

Past Trends lecturer Nat Eliason says Roam is superior to other note-taking apps because of how easy it is to create links and pages — plus your notes aren’t all individually siloed away.

The startup is already profitable   

And many of its subscribers are power users that happily share templates and best practices on Twitter with the hashtag #RoamCult. 

The idea for Roam Research was rejected 5x by startup accelerator Y Combinator. But White-Sullivan kept grinding.

As for the 4th Beatle? **Checks Roam notes**… good ol’ George Harrison.

Take a look at the largest companies on the London Stock Exchange:

• Unilever (consumer)
• AstraZeneca (pharma)
• BHP (mining)
• Royal Dutch Shell (energy)
• GlaxoSmithKline (pharma)

Notice the complete lack of UK Big Tech? You’re not the only one.

The UK really wants a Google or Amazon

Last week, amid talks that the UK would leave the EU in a “no-deal Brexit,” the country’s top policy adviser, Dominic Cummings, informed his staff that he is figuring out ways the UK “can build [$1T] tech companies.”

Without the trade constraints of an EU deal, the UK could aggressively provide state aid to its tech industry.

The track record of government-led tech in Europe is… not good  

Less than inspiring efforts by the EU include an attempt at creating its own search engine (Quaero) and a massive supercomputer research project (The Human Brain Project). 

Tech journalist Azeem Azhar writes that if the UK goes down the path of massive state support for tech, other nations could respond and close their markets off to foreign competition. 

The net result: “many national markets would essentially be closed, making the path to the ‘four comma club’ harder than ever.”

Our Ultimate Guide to Supporting WFH Employees

We got you a surprise for being so good the past few months.

What is it? Oh, just a sweet little guide we pulled together with Fully to help your company create the world’s best damn WFH program. 

Here’s what’s inside:

1. A list of the best furniture, software, and hardware to help max out employees’ productivity at home.
2. Ideas for perks to keep your team happy and healthy.
3. A link to Fully’s service that will handle everything you need to get your own furniture WFH Stipend Program up and running.

Check it out for yourself right here: