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Check(ers) Mate

Shoprite, South Africa’s largest retailer, released its 2024 full-year results last week. The company reported total revenue of R240.7 billion, reflecting a 12% increase year-over-year. Their trading profit also saw an increase of 12.4%, reaching R13.4 billion, which translates into a trading margin of 5.5% for the year. Shoprite’s gross profit rose by 11.7% to R57.8 billion, resulting in a gross margin of 24.0% for the year. 

Shoprite has been expanding. They have been continuously striving to capture a larger and larger share of the retail market. Since 2021, the group has increased its number of stores by 25.7%, reaching a total of 3,639 outlets. Their Xtra savings loyalty card membership has also surged by 10.7 million members since 2021 to 31 million members at the end of their 2024 financial year. This has greatly aided their data-driven AI strategy to better understand and serve their customers. The expansion and insights have resulted in their sales growing by 43% compared to the 2021 levels.  

The brands under Shoprite’s umbrella include Shoprite, Usave, Checkers, Uniq, Medirite, and others. Shoprite caters to both affluent and low-income customers and is present in rural and urban areas alike. The graph below illustrates how Shoprite perceives its brands and their positioning in South Africa. Notably, last year, Checkers, Shoprite’s premium brand which yields slightly higher margins, was the fastest growing brand in the premium supermarket space. The growth was fuelled by the success of their delivery service Checkers Sixty60. 

RSA Store Positioning and Numbers

Source: https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/docs/results-presentation-2024.pdf

Shoprite employs a hub-and-spoke model. When establishing a supermarket like Shoprite or Checkers in a new area, they subsequently set up other branded stores nearby, such as their pharmacy chain Medirite or clothing store Uniq, creating a complementary shopping ecosystem that attracts customers to these auxiliary outlets. 

Last week, Shoprite’s share price fell by just over 3%, amid market expectations for slightly stronger results. Shoprite trades at a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of around 24, which is higher than Pick ‘n Pay’s PE ratio of -11 (due to major write-offs) and Woolworths’ (Woollies) PE ratio of 18. This indicates the premium investors are willing to pay to hold Shoprite shares.  

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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Nvidia: Priced to Perfection

Nvidia: Priced to Perfection

Over the past two years, Nvidia’s stock price has increased nearly 700%, bringing its market capitalization to $2.9 trillion as of Friday. This remarkable growth has made Nvidia one of the largest companies in the world, trailing only behind industry giants like Apple and Microsoft. 

Nvidia’s success is largely driven by the sale of its high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI platforms, which are crucial for training data-intensive AI workloads. As companies and organizations increasingly focus on developing artificial intelligence models, they seek processing power and energy efficiency—areas where Nvidia’s GPUs are currently unmatched in the market. 

Last week, Nvidia’s Q2 2025 results were among the most anticipated of this earnings season. The company reported an impressive $30 billion in revenue for the quarter, marking a 122% year-over-year increase. Operating income also saw significant growth, rising 174% year-over-year to $18.6 billion. 

Nvidia’s gross margin came in at 75.1% for the quarter, down from 78.4% in the previous quarter but up from 70.1% in the same period last year. Despite this slight dip compared to the previous quarter, both gross and operating margins have been on a strong upward trajectory since early last year, driven by the immense demand for Nvidia’s AI platforms. The graph below shows the change in Nvidia’s margins since the beginning of last year. 

Operating Margins

The slight downturn in margins this quarter was primarily attributed to delays in the launch of their new AI platform, Blackwell, which is now expected to ship in Q4 this year. During the earnings call, CEO Jensen Huang reassured investors that Nvidia remains committed to releasing new platforms on a yearly rhythm, emphasizing the company’s focus on delivering faster and more energy-efficient chips. 

Despite Nvidia’s impressive performance, several questions remain. How much additional efficiency is AI bringing to companies adopting the technology? Will the major tech players, who are heavily investing in Nvidia’s platforms, continue to spend at this rate? And could other companies be developing chips that might eventually surpass Nvidia’s offerings? 

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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Snowflake Melting?

Snowflake Melting?

Snowflake is strategically positioned to leverage the growing importance of high-quality data in powering AI applications, including both machine learning and generative AI. The premise is simple: the better the input data, the more effective and accurate the AI output. 

Snowflake enables organizations to manage and structure their data in the cloud, offering secure and efficient data querying and sharing capabilities. Snowflake has recently invested in integrating a generative AI layer into its platform. This innovation allows users to interact with their data without needing specialized coding knowledge. 

In its Q2 2025 results, Snowflake reported a 28.9% year-over-year increase in revenue, reaching $869 million. However, despite this growth, the company’s gross margin declined slightly to 72%, down from 74% in the same period last year. Additionally, Snowflake recorded an operating loss of $355 million; 41% of the company’s revenue. This was marginally down from an operating loss margin of 42% last year. 

One of the persistent challenges for Snowflake, as with many smaller tech companies, is the competition for top-tier talent. Unlike Big Tech with their vast financial resources, Snowflake must find alternative ways to attract and retain skilled professionals. Stock-based compensation has been a key strategy, offering equity in the company as a significant part of an employee’s compensation package. While this approach is effective in attracting talent, it comes with the risk of diluting the company’s share base, reducing each share’s claim on future earnings.  

Snowflake faces the delicate balancing act of incentivizing its workforce with equity while managing the potential long-term impacts on shareholder value through dilution. Navigating this fine line is crucial for Snowflake as it continues to scale. Snowflake’s share price dropped by around 10% after the announcement of their results, reflecting shareholder’s desire to see a better balance between shareholder returns and stock-based-compensation. 

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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Moving ON - Weekly Stocktake with Danyaal

Moving ON

On Holdings, owners of the On Cloud sports brand best known for its distinctive running shoes, recently released its Q2 2024 results. The company reported a revenue of CHF 567.7 million, marking a 28% increase year-over-year. Operating income rose by 20% to CHF 47.3 million. The brand has a strong presence in the U.S., where 65% of last quarter’s sales originated, showing a growth of over 24% compared to the same period last year. Although the Asia-Pacific region was the fastest-growing market with nearly 74% growth, it only accounted for 10% of the company’s net sales for the quarter. 

The bulk of On Holdings’ revenue (95%) comes from its shoe sales, which grew by nearly 27% year-over-year. As a relatively small brand compared to giants like Nike and Adidas, On Holdings faces both opportunities and challenges. The company has significant potential for growth by expanding into new regions and diversifying its product range.  

One of On Holdings’ recent innovations is a new shoe that is sprayed onto a person’s foot, weighing just 158g for the women’s version. Helen Obiri, a renowned Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner, trained in these shoes for the recent Olympics and was so impressed that she wore them during the Paris Olympics marathon, where she won a bronze medal. This reflects On Holdings’ strategy of collaborating with athletes to design products that cater specifically to their sports. 

ON Holdings

On Holdings does however operate in a highly competitive market, facing rivals ranging from smaller brands like Deckers, which owns the popular Hoka brand, to industry giants like Nike and Adidas. Fashion trends can shift rapidly, and consumer preferences are fickle, posing a constant challenge. For now, On Holdings is capitalizing on current trends, but the landscape could change quickly. 

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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Weighing In

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are leading pharmaceutical companies known for their innovative diabetes and obesity treatments. Both companies have developed drugs—Tirzepatide by Eli Lilly and Semaglutide by Novo Nordisk—that mimic the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) hormone. 

Originally designed for type-2 diabetes to control blood sugar by increasing insulin release, these GLP-1 drugs were later found to significantly aid in weight loss. In a recent study, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound has been shown to reduce patient weight by 21%. Associated with obesity, are a variety of other health issues – including cardiovascular diseases. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy treatment decreased the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events by 20%. 

Both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are investing heavily in research and development, and in manufacturing capacity. For their recent quarter, Novo Nordisk increased their R&D spending by 127% to DKK 16.2 billion (1 USD = 6.95 DKK on 30 June 2024). This accounted for 24% of revenue, roughly in line with Eli Lilly’s R&D to revenue ratio. Both companies are pushing to gain an edge over each other and the other competitors in the industry. 

The pharmaceutical industry requires extensive testing of drugs and treatments before they can be sold to patients. Some of these treatments, especially the ones related to cardiovascular diseases, can take multiple years for the treatments to be approved by the relevant authorities.  

They also require large sample sizes to show the extensiveness of their research. As it stands, Novo Nordisk currently has 45000 participants in trials or about to be in trials for Semaglutide. Eli Lilly has slightly more participants in trial for Tirzepatide. 

Even though other pharmaceutical companies may know how GLP-1 agonists work. They may not have the required resources in terms of capital and time to go after Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s market share.   

Last week, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly released their Q2 2024 results. Novo Nordisk’s revenue was up 25% year over year to DKK 68 billion, while net income was up only 3% to DKK 20.1 billion. This was mainly due to the increase in R&D spending. Eli Lilly on the other hand had revenues of $11.3 billion, up 36% year over year. Its net income increased 68% to $3 billion. this was primarily driven by increased manufacturing capacity and pricing power.  

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

Weighing In Read More »

Big Tech, Big Spend, Big Question

Over the last two weeks, mega-cap stocks such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft released their quarterly results. The theme was AI, particularly how much the cloud service providers were paying to build up their capacity and try to win the AI race. Investors were concerned that the cloud service providers were spending too much without clear indications of the large-scale end use cases of AI, the value derived from it, and whether businesses and people would be willing to pay for these products and services. 

Due to the long time it takes to build these data centers and the logistical challenges in securing land, buildings, and chips, the big cloud providers stated that demand still exceeds supply for their AI capabilities. Additionally, they mentioned that the data centers being built offer optionality; if generative AI doesn’t take off, the data centers can be repurposed for other uses; although it will be at a lower operating margin. 

The graph below shows the difference in capital expenditure by the big tech firms this year. Everyone but Apple has significantly increased their spending to build up their capacity for generative AI workloads—whether for training or inferencing. During the earnings calls, all the big tech CEOs indicated they would continue to spend at these increased levels to ensure they don’t miss out on the generative AI opportunity. 

Capital Expenditure

At the moment, the company seeing a real and significant increase in revenue and earnings is Nvidia, the designer of the high-powered chips used to train and inference the data workloads for generative AI. Nvidia is expected to release their results on the 28th of August. The search is on for the companies that will utilize AI within their own operations to give themselves the edge and gain market share in their own industry and possibly beyond. 

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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Spotlight on Spotify

Spotify, one of the leading streaming services, released its Q2 2024 results last week. Revenue for the quarter was €3.8 billion, up 20% year on year. Spotify also reported an operating profit of €266 million, an improvement from the operating loss of €247 million recorded a year ago. 

Spotify generates its revenue through two streams: its premium subscription and advertisements through its ad-supported subscription service. In the recent quarter, there were 626 million monthly active users, with 62% of these users utilizing the ad-supported subscription. However, revenue generated from advertisements only accounted for 13.6% of Spotify’s total revenue. Moreover, the ad-supported gross margin was 13.4%, and in some previous quarters, it has even been negative.  

Spotify’s gross margin increased from 24.1% a year ago to 29.2% for the recent quarter. Despite this increase, the gross margin remains relatively low compared to other tech companies. For instance, Netflix, which funds a good portion of its own content for television, reported a gross margin of 57% for its most recent quarter. 

Spotify’s low gross margin is primarily due to the high fees required by music labels. These labels generally hold the rights to the music streamed on the platform. In 2020, 78% of streams on Spotify’s platform came from four major record labels: Sony, Warner, Universal, and Merlin. Losing any of these deals could result in a significant loss of monthly active users, who might switch to other music streaming services, such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, or YouTube Music, with relative ease. 

Spotify also uses AI algorithms to creates playlists and recommendations based on listeners’ preferences and play history. Anecdotally, this is better than competitor’s app recommendations. 

In addition to the low gross margin, Spotify pays sales commission fees to Apple and Google, which host their apps in their respective app stores. Apple’s policy is to take a 30% commission on all in-app purchases in the first year an app is on its store, reducing the fee to 15% in subsequent years. Spotify is reliant on these app stores as they are the primary platforms through which people access their music on Apple or Android devices. This resulted in Spotify’s operating margin reducing to 7% this quarter.   

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

Spotlight on Spotify Read More »

With a Side of Chips, Please

With a Side of Chips, Please

ASML and TSMC released their Q2 2024 results last week. These relatively unknown companies have developed key technologies that help create semiconductors, making our electronic devices smaller, more powerful, and more energy efficient.  

TSMC, a semiconductor fabrication company, manufactures the actual semiconductors, while ASML builds the lithography machinery used in the fabrication process. Lithography involves using light to etch the circuits on silicon. Some consider ASML’s lithography machinery to be the most complex technology ever created. If scaled out, the machine could shoot a laser to the moon and hit a target the size of a golf ball. 

For the quarter, TSMC reported a revenue of NT$673.5 billion (with $1 equalling NT$32.5), up 32.8% year on year, and an operating income of NT$286.5 billion, up 36.3%. High-performance computing, including revenue from manufacturing Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) used in AI models, accounted for 52% of TSMC’s Q2 revenue, growing 28% quarter on quarter. The second-largest segment for TSMC was revenue from smartphones, which accounted for 33% of the revenue but decreased by 1% quarter on quarter. 

 ASML generated €6.2 billion in revenue for the quarter, down 9.5% year on year, with an operating income of €1.8 billion, down 19%. Net bookings for the quarter were €5.6 billion, up 23.7% year on year. Some of ASML’s latest lithography machines sell for €350 million each, making the purchase not a trivial decision for their fabrication manufacturer clients. This results in ASML having lumpy earnings. ASML views 2024 as a transition year, guiding revenues and earnings to be similar to 2023, and expecting 2025 to be stronger as customers ramp up capacity.  

Despite TSMC’s strong results and ASML’s mixed results, both companies’ share prices decreased during the week. President Biden mentioned considering increased restrictions on selling semiconductors and semiconductor equipment to China, due to their dual-use nature in both civilian and military applications. Presidential candidate Trump also mentioned wanting Taiwan (where TSMC is based) to fund more of its own military operations. 

 ASML is held in the Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund, and in the offshore portfolios of our clients. ASML maintains an effective monopoly on lithography equipment, with no other companies currently matching their success. Such a monopoly inevitably attracts competition: companies may challenge ASML directly or seek to develop alternative technologies to achieve similar outcomes. 

Security Held In:
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Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
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Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
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Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Key Indicators
Index / Fund / Rate
Start of Year
Last Week
This Week
% Change YTD
Index / Fund / Rate
Start of Year
188.33
Last Week
215.49
This Week
213.08
% Change YTD
13.14% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
JSE ALSI
Start of Year
76 893
Last Week
81 686
This Week
79 923 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
3.94% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
NASDAQ Composite
Start of Year
15 011
Last Week
18 398
This Week
17 727 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
18.09% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
S&P 500
Start of Year
4 770
Last Week
5 615
This Week
5 505 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
15.41% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
Prime Lending Rate
Start of Year
11.75%
Last Week
11.75%
This Week
11.75%
% Change YTD
0.00%
Index / Fund / Rate
USD/ZAR
Start of Year
18.30
Last Week
17.97
This Week
18.28 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
-0.11% Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
Index / Fund / Rate
EUR/ZAR
Start of Year
20.17
Last Week
19.63
This Week
19.91 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
-1.29% Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
Index / Fund / Rate
Brent Crude ($'barrel)
Start of Year
76.97
Last Week
85.00
This Week
82.88 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
7.68% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Source: Iress

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

With a Side of Chips, Please Read More »

JP Mor-Gains

JP Mor-Gains

Earnings season has started, and JP Morgan has released their Q2 2024 results. Net revenue for the quarter was $50.2 billion, up 22% year on year, while net income for the quarter was $18.1 billion. On May 6th, JP Morgan announced that it would exchange its Visa Class B-1 stock for Visa Class B-2 and Class C common stock, resulting in a one-time net gain of $7.9 billion for the company. After removing this net gain, contributions to JP Morgan’s Foundation, and discretionary security losses, JP Morgan’s adjusted net income stood at $13.1 billion. 

Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO, noted significant achievements, including the opening of 450 thousand net new checking accounts and a 14% increase in investment assets, reaching $1 trillion. However, he also pointed out that lower-income customers are showing slight signs of stress due to high interest rates and persistent inflation, which have reduced their savings from pandemic levels. 

Dimon emphasized that JP Morgan remains cautious in the current market, citing the geopolitical situation as potentially the most dangerous since World War II. He also mentioned the uncertainty surrounding the full effects of the quantitative tightening carried out in 2022. Despite these challenges, JP Morgan’s robust balance sheet, with a standardized capital ratio of 15.3%, demonstrates the bank’s ability to handle a wide range of environments. 

After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023, Lunar Capital began acquiring JP Morgan stock in the Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund and for our offshore portfolio clients. Our view was that as smaller banks are under strain, the better-run banks, such as JP Morgan, would gain new customers and deposits. This increased market share and reduced competition provides an additional boost to the quality bank’s revenues, margins and profits. 

Security Held In:
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Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
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Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
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Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Key Indicators
Index / Fund / Rate
Start of Year
Last Week
This Week
% Change YTD
Index / Fund / Rate
Start of Year
188.33
Last Week
216.71
This Week
215.49
% Change YTD
14.42% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
JSE ALSI
Start of Year
76 893
Last Week
80 797
This Week
81 686 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
6.23% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
NASDAQ Composite
Start of Year
15 011
Last Week
18 353
This Week
18 398 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
22.56% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
S&P 500
Start of Year
4 770
Last Week
5 567
This Week
5 615 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
17.73% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
Prime Lending Rate
Start of Year
11.75%
Last Week
11.75%
This Week
11.75%
% Change YTD
0.00%
Index / Fund / Rate
USD/ZAR
Start of Year
18.30
Last Week
18.18
This Week
17.97 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
-1.80% Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
Index / Fund / Rate
EUR/ZAR
Start of Year
20.17
Last Week
19.72
This Week
19.63 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
-2.68% Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
Index / Fund / Rate
Brent Crude ($'barrel)
Start of Year
76.97
Last Week
86.98
This Week
85.00 Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
% Change YTD
10.43% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Source: Iress

Click here to access your account to view statements, obtain tax certificates, add or make changes to your investments.

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Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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AI: The Energy Saga

AI: The Energy Saga

Generative AI relies on supercomputers to perform complex calculations and answer increasingly intricate questions. It is thus highly dependent on advanced semiconductors (chips), large data sets and powerful algorithms (models). The energy requirements of these processors, which are typically housed in datacentres, are enormous and require stable and secure power sources.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy for data centres, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence accounted for roughly 2% of global energy demand in 2022. The IEA forecasts that the energy demand could almost double from 460 TWh in 2022 to about 800 TWh by 2026. However, these estimates may vary significantly depending on the actual demand for generative AI products and services over the next two years.

Cloud computing giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet are heavily investing in their data centres to enhance their capabilities for running complex AI applications. This involves training and inferencing (producing outputs) with AI models. Consequently, their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions have risen. According to Alphabet’s 2024 Environmental Report, their greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 48% since 2019. The growing demand for AI, combined with Alphabet’s termination of some clean energy projects, has led to this overall increase in its emissions.

Why haven’t companies simply expanded their energy capacity? Data centres require a stable energy supply that can be adjusted instantly. Renewable energy is not always reliable due to its dependence on unpredictable elements. Nuclear power can provide the needed stability, but building nuclear plants takes more than five years. In contrast, gas-fired plants take about two years to build.

The cloud providers are exploring various ways to increase their access to stable energy sources. Earlier this year, Amazon bought a data centre from US power generator Talen Energy, located next to a nuclear power station. The data centre will be powered with energy from the station.

Microsoft on the other hand, signed a power purchase agreement with Brookfield Asset Management, to support the development of 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy and to secure their energy requirements and offset their carbon footprint.

At the core of these new data centres are semiconductors responsible for all processing tasks. Nvidia claims that their flagship Blackwell Platform will enable organizations to “build and run real-time generative AI on trillion-parameter large language models at up to 25x less cost and energy consumption than its predecessor.” No wonder everyone is racing to get their hands on these chips.

Security Held In:
Security
Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Security
Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Security
Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Security
Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Security
Lunar Capital BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund
Lunar Capital Offshore Portfolio Clients
Key Indicators
Index / Fund / Rate
Start of Year
Last Week
This Week
% Change YTD
Index / Fund / Rate
Start of Year
188.33
Last Week
214.18
This Week
216.71
% Change YTD
15.07% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
JSE ALSI
Start of Year
76 893
Last Week
80 244
This Week
80 797 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
5.08% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
NASDAQ Composite
Start of Year
15 011
Last Week
17 733
This Week
18 353 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
22.26% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
S&P 500
Start of Year
4 770
Last Week
5 460
This Week
5 567 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
16.72% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Index / Fund / Rate
Prime Lending Rate
Start of Year
11.75%
Last Week
11.75%
This Week
11.75%
% Change YTD
0.00%
Index / Fund / Rate
USD/ZAR
Start of Year
18.30
Last Week
18.17
This Week
18.18 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
-0.66% Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
Index / Fund / Rate
EUR/ZAR
Start of Year
20.17
Last Week
19.47
This Week
19.72 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
-2.23% Lunar Capital stocktake arrow down
Index / Fund / Rate
Brent Crude ($'barrel)
Start of Year
76.97
Last Week
84.87
This Week
86.98 Lunar Capital increasesymbol
% Change YTD
13.01% Lunar Capital increasesymbol
Source: Iress

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Our email address is: [email protected]

Disclosures
Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd is a registered Financial Services Provider. FSP (46567)
Read our full Disclosure statement: https://lunarcapital.co.za/disclosures/
Our Privacy Notice: https://lunarcapital.co.za/privacy-policy/
The Lunar BCI Worldwide Flexible Fund Fact Sheet  can be read here.
This stocktake is prepared for the clients of Lunar Capital (Pty) Ltd. This stocktake does not constitute financial advice and is generated for information purposes only.

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