Apple: What a long, strange trip it’s been

Tech took the lead this week, as it often does. But what more can we say about Apple becoming the first company to ever hit a $3.5 trillion market cap? How about something like “what have you done for me lately?” From Forbes:

Apple still needs a further 12% rally to actually broach $4 trillion, perhaps feasible considering its share price is up 20% over the last month, but it did become the first company in history this week to ever score a $3.5 trillion or greater market cap, with recent positive momentum stirred by bullishness about upcoming iPhone sales due to the smartphones’ upcoming integration of generative artificial intelligence.

It’s difficult to say what’s driving this surge. There is exuberance in Big Tech (irrational or not) and all of the Mag 7 stocks have seen bursts of energy. AI hype and hope must be a factor. While there are some things to cheer about in Apple’s expected product upgrades this year, nothing seems paradigmatic — apart, of course, from tee-ing up the AI future.

AAPL’s most recent trough was a mere 18 months ago — centuries in AI years. It’s up 24% YTD — one of six companies that have outpaced the S&P 500, all Mag 7 (only TSLA has not).

You didn’t know about it — on purpose! — but just about every AT&T customer was impacted by a breach in 2022. Even landline users (yes, they still exist) who communicated with mobile customers, which is kind of impossible not to any more.

It could have been worse. Per TechCrunch:

AT&T said the stolen data “does not contain the content of calls or texts,” but does include calling and texting records that an AT&T phone number interacted with during the six-month period, as well as the total count of a customer’s calls and texts, and call durations — information that is often referred to as metadata. The stolen data does not include the time or date of calls or texts, AT&T said.

Why didn’t we know about it? This is where it gets a little interesting ….

AT&T itself didn’t even know about it until April 19 — less than three months ago. And since then the company and law enforcement intentionally kept it under wraps. TechCrunch again:

An FBI spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch on Friday that after the phone giant contacted the agency to report the breach, AT&T, the FBI and the Department of Justice agreed to delay notifying the public and customers on two occasions, citing “potential risks to national security and/or public safety.”

That sounds seriously ominous. I don’t think AT&T and law enforcement can leave it at that.

But — who do we get mad at? Cybercrime is rampant and despite best efforts — AT&T was using Snowflake at the time — things like this will continue to happen. We may just have to think of this as the new normal.

When X decided to turn the blue check into a cash register, the reaction was swift and pretty much negative. It even became a badge of honor to actually not to have this particular badge of honor when Elon Musk gifted a few boldface names.

Talk about the law of unintended consequences. But who knew it would also be about the law?

Enter the reliably prickly European Union, which says that X’s paid verification violates EU rules on online transparency. As LinkedIn News summarized:

The social media platform's decision to allow anyone to pay for "verified" status "negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with," they argued. Under the bloc's new Digital Services Act, X could face fines of up to 6% of its total revenue — which topped $5 billion in 2021, the last full year that it published that information.

It’s a shot across the bow on a service that to put it mildly has seen better days. It can’t possibly be keeping Elon Musk awake at night to have vexed the EU, but the larger question is valid: You can pay for prominence, but not provenance.

The news released the Kraken on LinkedIn. Members were generally in the “it’s about time” from of mind. Thanks to marco scialdone , Jenny Gilleece , and Hemant Patil