First Solar, Tempe, Arizona, recently commissioned what it dubs ‘the largest thin-film R&D center in the Western Hemisphere.’ The company — the U.S.’s largest solar panel manufacturer — has sited its Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation in Lake Township, Ohio, which is just south of Akron. The 1.3-million-ft² facility includes a pilot manufacturing line for producing full-sized prototypes of thin film and tandem photovoltaic (PV) modules. The Nolan Center is expected to create about 300 new jobs by 2025. The company has been using a manufacturing line at its Perrysburg, Ohio, factory near Toledo for late-stage product development, but this manufacturing line limits development flexibility. The new R&D facility is designed to accelerate innovation cycles, enhancing First Solar’s research and development capabilities.

The new R&D facility is part of the company’s $500 million investment in R&D infrastructure. The company also expects to commission a perovskite development line in its Perrysburg campus later this year. First Solar says it has invested nearly $2 billion in R&D. It operates R&D labs in Perrysburg, Santa Clara, California, and Uppsala, Sweden.

R&D World Index: A week of mixed fortunes

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending July 19, 2024, closed at 3775.67 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up -4.12% (or 162.16 basis points).

Eight RDWI members gained value last week from 0.23% (IBM) to 10.03% (Roche Holdings AG). Seventeen RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.13% (Cisco) to -9.59% (Eli Lilly & Co.).

DARPA’s OPEN Program Targets Supply Chain Innovation

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Ballston, Virginia, announced last week that it had chosen Exiger, New York City, and MetalMiner, Chicago, to aid in developing a supply-chain-focused R&D program. The Open Price Exploration for National Security (OPEN) program is designed to strengthen the supply chain and homeland defense by creating a technology that offers accessible information on pricing and supply, demand, and capacity. Exiger, a commercial risk AI company will work to leverage its conceptual computing services and experience overseeing multi-layered supply chains with MetalMiner’s knowledge of the commodities market to develop technology throughout the OPEN program.

Novartis Raises Profit Guidance

RDW Index member Novartis, Basel, Switzerland, announced last week that it had raised its profit guidance for a second time this year after second-quarter profits and sales rose and outpaced analysts’ expectations, boosted by revenue from its blockbuster treatments. The company now expects its core operating profit for 2024 to grow in the mid to high teens from the low double-digit to mid-teens range it previously expected. The company had already upgraded its 2024 forecasts following its first-quarter results.

Meta Eyes a Stake in EssilorLuxottica

RDW Index member Meta Platforms, Menlo Park, California, announced last week that it is in talks to acquire a 5% stake in eyewear company EssilorLuxottica, Paris, for about $5 billion. This investment is relatively small for Meta, given that its market value is about $1.2 trillion. The eyewear is an important part of Meta’s hardware strategy, which would allow users to take photos and listen to music with the frames of their glasses. Meta looks to build its ambitions to create a metaverse where users interact simultaneously with a 3-D version of the internet.

OpenAI’s GPT-4o Mini is 60% via the API

OpenAI, San Francisco, announced last week the availability of a smaller and less expensive version of the technology that powers ChatGPT. Called GPT-4o mini, the new technology is 60% cheaper to use than the version that powered ChatGPT, called GPT-3.5 turbo. The mini also scores higher on tests OpenAI uses to measure intelligence and effectiveness. Google and startups Mistral and Cohere have also released smaller models this year. Microsoft has offered a family of small models named Phi that is one-hundredth the size of the model behind ChatGPT. Many generative AI startups are now focusing on small models that are cheaper to build since they are typically trained on smaller batches of data. The OpenAI GPT-4o mini will be available to corporate customers this month.

Microsoft Under Scrutiny for Inflection AI Deal

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority announced last week that it is investigating Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, ties with Inflection AI, Palo Alto, California. Microsoft hired Inflection’s co-founder and most of its employees and agreed to pay the startup $650 million as part of a licensing fee to resell its technology. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also investigating Microsoft to determine if the company structured the deal to avoid a government antitrust review of the transaction.

Company	Ticker	Exchange	2020 R&D billion$	07/12/24	07/19/24	7/12/24 to 7/19/24	1/1/22 to 7/19/24
Alphabet/Google	GOOGL	NASDAQ	27.303	186.62	179.39	-3.87%	23.85%
Microsoft	MSFT	NASDAQ	17.198	453.70	437.11	-3.66%	29.97%
Volkswagen AG	VWAGY	OTC	17.259	12.55	12.03	-4.14%	-58.80%
Apple	AAPL	NASDAQ	18.667	230.54	224.31	-2.70%	26.32%
Facebook/Meta	META	NASDAQ	13.874	498.12	476.79	-4.28%	41.75%
Intel	INTC	NASDAQ	14.503	34.50	32.98	-4.41%	-35.96%
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	NYSE	13.750	149.88	154.69	3.21%	-9.58%
Roche Holdings AG	RHHBY	OTC	14.143	35.69	39.27	10.03%	-24.03%
Merck & Co.	MRK	NYSE	11.381	127.76	125.77	-1.56%	64.10%
Novartis	NVS	NYSE	9.387	111.70	106.13	-4.99%	21.33%
Toyota	TM	NYSE	10.724	207.59	197.15	-5.03%	6.39%
Pfizer	PFE	NYSE	8.336	28.92	29.97	3.63%	-49.25%
Alibaba	BABA	NYSE	6.006	79.65	75.27	5.50%	-36.64%
GM	GM	NYSE	6.727	49.01	48.30	-1.45%	-17.62%
Honda	HMC	NYSE	8.806	32.59	31.43	-3.56%	10.47%
Ford	F	NYSE	9.340	14.03	13.98	-0.36%	-32.69%
AbbVie	ABBV	NYSE	13.949	170.28	172.32	1.20%	27.27%
Sanofi SA	SNY	NYSE	7.750	51.33	50.62	-1.38%	1.04%
Cisco	CSCO	NASDAQ	6.331	47.38	47.32	-0.13%	-25.33%
Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	NYSE	7.130	40.46	42.64	5.39%	-31.61%
Astra Zeneca PLC	AZN	NYSE	6.056	79.22	78.71	-0.64%	35.12%
IBM	IBM	NYSE	5.368	182.83	183.25	0.23%	37.10%
Oracle	ORCL	NYSE	6.928	144.77	138.56	-4.29%	58.88%
Eli Lilly & Co.	LLY	NYSE	8.606	948.40	857.47	-9.59%	210.43%
Stellantis NV	STLA	NYSE	5.309	20.31	20.21	-0.49%	3.43%
Total			269.522	3937.83	3775.67	-4.12%	33.90%
ICT			115.6	1858.11	1794.98	-3.40%	23.82%
Automotive			59.8	336.08	323.10	-3.86%	-5.50%
Biopharmaceutical			83.6	1743.64	1657.59	-4.94%	61.21%

Elon Musk’s Texas two-Step: X and SpaceX relocate headquarters

Elon Musk announced last week that he is moving the headquarters of the social media platforms X and SpaceX from California to Texas. Musk’s announcement was made following California Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of a law to prevent schools from informing families if their children identify as gay or transgender. Musk cited this law and others that preceded it as the reasons for the headquarters moves.

Google plan to acquire Wiz for $23 billion falls through

RDW Index member Google/Alphabet, Mountain View, California, announced last week that it is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz, New York City, for about $23 billion. Those talks, however, have stalled. The deal would have helped boost Alphabet’s efforts in cloud computing, an important and growing business in which the company has lagged behind its competitors. Wiz is one of a few companies outside the AI industry to raise investments in 2024. Wiz is backed by a few prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The Wiz acquisition would have been Google’s largest-ever purchase.