What I Read This Week...

China is leading the global EV transition. Since the beginning of 2017, China has sold over 18 million EVs, nearly half the world’s total and more than 4x the number sold in the U.S. so far. By 2026, over 50% of all new passenger vehicle sales in China are expected to be electric, compared to a little over a quarter in the US.
Just 60% of student loan borrowers with payments due in October made their payments by mid-November, leaving nearly 9 million borrowers who did not pay despite debt payments restarting. While a 12-month on-ramp period after the multi-year student loan moratorium will protect borrowers until the fall, delinquency, default, and mandatory collections could ensue thereafter.
Apple recently published a new research paper on AI titled “LLMs in a Flash”, offering potential solutions to running large language models directly on user hardware. While Microsoft and Google’s models are delivered via the internet from their vast cloud computing platforms, this research indicates that Apple is focused on developing AI models that can run directly on a customer’s iPhone.

Chamath Palihapitiya