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SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

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Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#41
post #12

Their massive early investment in Uber distorted their reality and they expected ride sharing to be incredibly successful in other markets when it's not even successful in the USA - it's a fraud that pays below minimum wage off the backs of people who cannot do math. It has never made money anywhere ... ARM has had a laziness problem ever since the Apple A1 chip - there's a reason why nobody uses their 6-yr old layou…

It's basically an inefficient, but effective way to siphon money from the poor and middle class and deposit it into the bank accounts of the wealthy by utilizing the equity the poor and middle class have in their vehicles.

Nobody's forced to work for Uber. It's not "siphoning" money from anybody. Drivers are driving for it because it's the best job available -- often because of the flexibility that lets them do it around other scheduled commitments. Take that opportunity away and they become worse off, not better.

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#42

Their massive early investment in Uber distorted their reality and they expected ride sharing to be incredibly successful in other markets when it's not even successful in the USA - it's a fraud that pays below minimum wage off the backs of people who cannot do math. It has never made money anywhere ... ARM has had a laziness problem ever since the Apple A1 chip - there's a reason why nobody uses their 6-yr old layou…

Ironically the one good thing the rideshades did was to get taxis to install credit card readers. Taxis are often half the price of an Uber these days.

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#43
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alongside Bill Hwang, who famously lost $20 billion by excessive leverage. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-08/how-bill-...

Made the $20B through excessive leverage, too.

Tale old as time, they never quit when they're ahead.[1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Livermore

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#44
post #7
post #6

It's not "loss". The money of SBV (Saudis?) has changed hands and now belongs to whatever startups or funds they had invested in.

And from there a lot of it presumably has flowed into cloud and advertising spend.

Which basically means most of it went into rents paid to SV land holders.

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#45
post #42

Their massive early investment in Uber distorted their reality and they expected ride sharing to be incredibly successful in other markets when it's not even successful in the USA - it's a fraud that pays below minimum wage off the backs of people who cannot do math. It has never made money anywhere ... ARM has had a laziness problem ever since the Apple A1 chip - there's a reason why nobody uses their 6-yr old layou…

Ironically the one good thing the rideshades did was to get taxis to install credit card readers. Taxis are often half the price of an Uber these days.

Which location?

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll have Apple's (likely immense) license fees for at least a decade - Apple won't make another architecture change anytime soon. And the rest of ARM's business... it's not like there are any alternatives. China hasn't managed to create a competitor, and even if they do it may very well be sanctioned and so useless to the US and EU. Intel/AMD's x86 is a dead end for the high-efficiency, low power market that ARM…

ARMs behavior lately is pushing a lot of riscv investment, my prediction is that Apple will migrate away from ARM 10years from now to something they can self-control, like riscv with some Apple-only extensions

Apple has shifted its processor technology every 11 years for its desktop machines.

But it has kept with ARM on iPhone for the last 15, so...

Anyhow, it is hard to predict with accuracy that far out.

That said, the first indications of a shift would be Apple adopting the RISC-V chip on the low end, things like the Apple Watch and Air Pods. Apple Watch has been using a 7N ARM chip since 2018 at nearly the same speed -- it seems like it doesn't need to be getter faster at each generation like the iPhone or MacBooks do. If adoption happens in this peripheral areas, then it is likely to move upstream to other devices over time.

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#47
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically an inefficient, but effective way to siphon money from the poor and middle class and deposit it into the bank accounts of the wealthy by utilizing the equity the poor and middle class have in their vehicles.

It doesn't get the wealthy especially rich either, looking at the losses. Who gets rich on Uber and similar apps are all the programmers that visit this website, we make good money on all those schemes. We get paid really well. We are who really gets the best deal in all this. (Now I need to hide away before the flying shoes hit me.)

The wealthy got rich at the IPO stage at the expense of the public, much like most tech IPOs.

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do wonder if ARMs business model works long term. Imagination Technologies crashed the exact same way.

They'll have Apple's (likely immense) license fees for at least a decade - Apple won't make another architecture change anytime soon. And the rest of ARM's business... it's not like there are any alternatives. China hasn't managed to create a competitor, and even if they do it may very well be sanctioned and so useless to the US and EU. Intel/AMD's x86 is a dead end for the high-efficiency, low power market that ARM…

> They'll have Apple's (likely immense) license fees for at least a decade [...]

I thought Apple has a special magic license, as they were one of the founding members of ARM?...

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#49
post #45
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically the one good thing the rideshades did was to get taxis to install credit card readers. Taxis are often half the price of an Uber these days.

Which location?

Not OP but it is often the case around London, UK. Half price isn't an exaggeration! Better cars usually too.

Re: SoftBank Vision funds post record $39B annual loss

#50
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. Would like to see an economic / accountant analysis of this.

Go look it up, it's been done before. Uber basically required you buy a new car in certain circumstances, and don't pay enough to keep up with gas, repairs, and value loss of running a car around.

Uber allows 16 year old cars in my city. If you're driving a paid-off 5+ year old Honda or Toyota, I think Uber's paying enough for you to turn a decent profit from driving for them.

https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/boston/vehicle-requirements...

It probably isn't paying enough for you to buy a brand new car with a loan and drive that around for them. But they're not making you do that, either...

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