The prime minister may have seen off the challenge for the moment – but what will be the cost to his leadership? Peter Walker reports Ever since Andy Burnham abandoned Westminster to become Greater Manchester’s first ever mayor in 2017, he has been dogged with questions about returning to parliament for the top job. He never hid his ambition to become prime minister one day – he couldn’t, really, ...
The prime minister may have seen off the challenge for the moment – but what will be the cost to his leadership? Peter Walker reports Ever since Andy Burnham abandoned Westminster to become Greater Manchester’s first ever mayor in 2017, he has been dogged with questions about returning to parliament for the top job. He never hid his ambition to become prime minister one day – he couldn’t, really, given that he tried and failed twice to become Labour party leader. But he insisted time and again that he was perfectly happy back in his beloved north, and had no plans to get back to London. Then on Saturday night, he finally cracked. He wrote to Labour’s ruling body to ask for permission to stand in Gorton and Denton, promising a “hopeful and unifying campaign”, in what he admitted was a risky move. Winning the byelection was not a given and he would have to give up being the mayor if he succeeded. But instead he was blocked by the committee, including Keir Starmer, from standing at all. Continue reading...
amgun/iStock via Getty Images Meta (NASDAQ: META ) stock has returned 9.1% since my last report outperforming the S&P 500’s gain. In my view, the company remains a one-trick pony on ads but the company is good at what it is doing augmented through injection of artificial intelligence. Meta will be reporting Q4 2025 earnings on the 28 th of January. In this report, I discuss the risks and opportuni...
amgun/iStock via Getty Images Meta (NASDAQ: META ) stock has returned 9.1% since my last report outperforming the S&P 500’s gain. In my view, the company remains a one-trick pony on ads but the company is good at what it is doing augmented through injection of artificial intelligence. Meta will be reporting Q4 2025 earnings on the 28 th of January. In this report, I discuss the risks and opportunities for Meta, the expectations for Q4 and I update my price target. Meta’s Different Approach Towards Monetizing AI The Aerospace Forum Traditionally, Amazon ( AMZN ), Alphabet ( GOOG ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) are seen as the Tier 1 global hyperscalers. Sometimes Meta appears in that list to and sometimes it does not. That, however, is not driven by their Capital Expenditures. The CapEx over the past 12 months is just 11% lower than what Microsoft has spent on capital expenditures. Where Meta substantially differs is that it has no AI centered or front-end AI product that is currently being capitalized in a substantial way. Instead, the company leverages AI to improve ad-targeting, optimization and content discover. By doing so, the company tries to better pair ads with eyes and thereby improve ad revenue. So, the company leverages AI on their free platforms with ads. The company does have front end applications in search bars that include AI-driven recommendations and suggestions, Meta AI Assistant and AI-driven content creation tools. Meta is playing with the idea to introduce paid plans for Meta AI Assistant , which I believe is the most promising front-end or product to capitalize on. The company can also inject paid AI agents in their social media and media platforms, which could be particularly interesting for businesses which often take appointments and orders through one of Meta’s apps. So, Meta is not engaged in the Cloud & AI arms race that we see with Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon but it has free platforms and AI injections that can be capitalized on. Non-AI gro...
amgun/iStock via Getty Images Meta (NASDAQ: META ) stock has returned 9.1% since my last report outperforming the S&P 500’s gain. In my view, the company remains a one-trick pony on ads but the company is good at what it is doing augmented through injection of artificial intelligence. Meta will be reporting Q4 2025 earnings on the 28 th of January. In this report, I discuss the risks and opportuni...
amgun/iStock via Getty Images Meta (NASDAQ: META ) stock has returned 9.1% since my last report outperforming the S&P 500’s gain. In my view, the company remains a one-trick pony on ads but the company is good at what it is doing augmented through injection of artificial intelligence. Meta will be reporting Q4 2025 earnings on the 28 th of January. In this report, I discuss the risks and opportunities for Meta, the expectations for Q4 and I update my price target. Meta’s Different Approach Towards Monetizing AI The Aerospace Forum Traditionally, Amazon ( AMZN ), Alphabet ( GOOG ) and Microsoft ( MSFT ) are seen as the Tier 1 global hyperscalers. Sometimes Meta appears in that list to and sometimes it does not. That, however, is not driven by their Capital Expenditures. The CapEx over the past 12 months is just 11% lower than what Microsoft has spent on capital expenditures. Where Meta substantially differs is that it has no AI centered or front-end AI product that is currently being capitalized in a substantial way. Instead, the company leverages AI to improve ad-targeting, optimization and content discover. By doing so, the company tries to better pair ads with eyes and thereby improve ad revenue. So, the company leverages AI on their free platforms with ads. The company does have front end applications in search bars that include AI-driven recommendations and suggestions, Meta AI Assistant and AI-driven content creation tools. Meta is playing with the idea to introduce paid plans for Meta AI Assistant , which I believe is the most promising front-end or product to capitalize on. The company can also inject paid AI agents in their social media and media platforms, which could be particularly interesting for businesses which often take appointments and orders through one of Meta’s apps. So, Meta is not engaged in the Cloud & AI arms race that we see with Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon but it has free platforms and AI injections that can be capitalized on. Non-AI gro...
AMD is offering its new Ryzen 7 9850X CPU as part of bundle that includes a Cooler Master CPU cooler and V-Color DDR5 memory in China. TL;DR: AMD has partnered with Cooler Master and V-Color to launch a Ryzen 7 9850X CPU bundle in China, including a Cooler Master air cooler and 32GB DDR5-6000 memory. This kit aims to offer PC gamers an affordable upgrade amid rising DDR5 prices, enhancing value. P...
AMD is offering its new Ryzen 7 9850X CPU as part of bundle that includes a Cooler Master CPU cooler and V-Color DDR5 memory in China. TL;DR: AMD has partnered with Cooler Master and V-Color to launch a Ryzen 7 9850X CPU bundle in China, including a Cooler Master air cooler and 32GB DDR5-6000 memory. This kit aims to offer PC gamers an affordable upgrade amid rising DDR5 prices, enhancing value. PC component bundles have been around for a long time, but are often tied to retailers putting together packs of essential parts needed for an upgrade or new build. From motherboards to coolers, CPUs, and memory, bundles make sense when you're looking to pick up two, three, or more parts at a time. What makes this latest bundle interesting is that it looks like AMD has partnered with Cooler Master and V-Color to offer a CPU kit (sans motherboard) for PC enthusiasts and gamers in China - via @unikoshardware on X. The bundle pairs AMD's brand-new Ryzen 7 9850X gaming CPU, which was announced earlier this year at CES 2026, with Cooler Master's HYPER 612 APEX PRO air cooler and 32 GB of V-Color's Manta XFinity RGB DDR5-6000 memory. According to reports, the bundle was announced at a recent Cooler Master press event, but there's no word on a potential price. With the current memory crisis affecting retail DDR5 pricing, the hope is that this bundle offers consumers a more affordable way to pick up 32GB of V-Color DDR5 memory with their new CPU. Interestingly, AMD notes that its Ryzen 7 9850X CPU doesn't require faster and more expensive DDR5 memory to unlock its full gaming performance potential. "DDR5-6000 to DDR5-4800 memory yields less than a 1% drop of FPS," the company has confirmed. Still, DDR5-600 is widely considered the sweet spot for Ryzen, and with the current memory crisis, V-Color's Manta XFinity RGB DDR5-6000 memory now retails for around $500, a massive increase over its $200 MSRP. If the goal is to offer more affordable memory as part of a bundle, hopefully, we see...