digital circus store SoundHound AI 's ( SOUN -0.93% ) shares surged by nearly 875% in 2024 mainly due to record third-quarter revenue performance and increasing adoption of the company's conversational AI solutions by major brands across industries. The stock also benefited significantly from a bullish report from Wedbush analyst Dan Ives , who raised the company's target price from $10 to $22. Palantir Technologies ' ( PLTR 2.09% ) stock posted remarkable gains of almost 385% in 2024, driven by unprecedented demand for its Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), strong financial performance, lucrative partnerships, and inclusion in the benchmark S&P 500 index. While SoundHound AI recorded a much stronger share price performance than Palantir, is it a better or even a comparable investment on a risk-adjusted basis? Let's find out. Reduced customer concentration risk SoundHound AI dramatically reduced its overreliance on a small customer base. While the largest customer accounted for 72% of revenue in 2023, the revenue exposure was reduced to only 12% in the third quarter of 2024. Furthermore, the top five customers now account for less than 33% of the company's revenue, far lower than the 90% revenue exposure in 2023. SoundHound is seeing increasing momentum in the automotive sector, especially in the electric vehicle (EV) space. The company signed contracts with four new EV players in the third quarter, two of which are using conversational intelligence solutions in real time. SoundHound expanded its contract with Stellantis across multiple markets, with seven of the latter's brands using its generative AI-enhanced digital assistant, SoundHound Chat AI. SoundHound AI is also making its presence felt in the Chinese market through partnerships with DayinTec and a major Chinese multinational technology company. Being the largest EV market with an estimated size of $376.4 billion in 2024, the Chinese EV market can be a major growth catalyst for SoundHound AI in the coming years. SoundHound is a market leader for phone ordering solutions in the restaurant industry. The company's phone ordering solutions handled over 100 million customer interactions. Multiple prominent brands are adopting SoundHound's drive-thru and phone ordering system. Finally, SoundHound's AI agent customer service solutions found a solid footing across industries like financial services, healthcare, insurance, and retail. This business segment accounts for over half of the company's revenue. Polaris model SoundHound AI built its multimodal, multilingual Polaris foundation model and trained it on billions of real conversations and over 1 million hours of audio across multiple languages. The model has helped improve accuracy and reduce hosting costs -- a solid competitive advantage for a conversational artificial intelligence company. Polaris is already powering almost one-third of all AI interactions for the company's restaurant customers. This trend is expected to strengthen in the coming quarters. Financial strength SoundHound AI's financial numbers speak volumes about its improving business momentum. The company expects its 2024 revenue to be between $82 million and $85 million and 2025 revenue to be in the range of $155 million to $175 million. The company expects to be adjusted EBITDA profitable by the end of fiscal 2025. SoundHound AI also boasts a strong balance sheet with $136 million in cash and $43.8 million in debt at the end of the third quarter. Can SoundHound AI be the next Palantir? Although SoundHound is an exceptional AI-powered company, its financial strength and target addressable markets differ significantly from Palantir's. SoundHound's revenue jumped by 89% year over year to $25.1 million, while Palantir's revenue was up by 30% year over year to $726 million. While the top-line growth rate of the former is higher, revenue is also much smaller on an absolute basis. Hence, it is obvious that SoundHound is a company experiencing early growth, while Palantir has entered a more stable and mature growth phase. SoundHound is not yet profitable and reported a generally accepted accounting principles ( GAAP ) operating loss of $33.7 million in the third quarter. On the other hand, Palantir is profitable and posted a GAAP operating income of $113.1 million in the third quarter. From an operational perspective, government agencies and large commercial organizations deploy Palantir's advanced data analytics and mining offerings mainly for complicated and mission-critical applications. Subsequently, these solutions are deeply entrenched in the client's operations, making it difficult to switch to the competition. The sticky customer base is a major competitive edge for Palantir. Contrarily, SoundHound's voice AI and conversational intelligence applications are used for cases such as restaurant ordering, automotive interface, and customer support. Although important, these are not integral to the functioning of the business. Hence, some clients can opt for competitors such as Amazon 's Alexa, Alphabet 's Google Assistant, Apple 's Siri, and Microsoft 's Cortana. While there is huge growth potential for SoundHound AI, it may not be able to replace Palantir in a smart investor's portfolio anytime soon.

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NoneAuto industry leaders say U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs on Canadian goods would have devastating effects for the sector, forcing both Canadian and U.S. consumers to pay higher vehicle prices. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said it’s unreasonable to apply such a tax to vehicle parts, which may cross the border up to eight times before ending up in a finished vehicle. He noted the auto industry works with single-digit profit margins. “A tariff of 25 per cent is like talking about purple unicorns,” said Volpe in an interview. “I think we need to ignore the number, because cars would cease to be made by American companies if that came into effect.” Trump sparked backlash among Canadian business and political leaders after posting to Truth Social on Monday that he will sign an executive order imposing a 25 per cent tariff on all products coming to the United States from Canada and Mexico. The incoming president said such a tariff would remain in place until Canada and Mexico stop drugs and people from illegally crossing the borders. Global Automakers of Canada president and CEO David Adams said his organization had “obvious concerns” about the announcement. “A 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada — the largest trading partner of the United States — will negatively impact jobs and livelihoods on both sides of the border across a number of key sectors of our economies. This would also be the case for the automotive industry,” said Adams in a statement. “In our view, Canada must act swiftly and firmly to make the case that the U.S. and Canada are stronger and more competitive when we face the global challenges together, not apart.” Volpe said any cross-border tax would increase the cost of components and raw materials that go back and forth between the neighbouring countries. That would lead to a slowdown in production and a supply shortage, prompting higher prices for customers at dealerships. “Everybody would feel it,” he said. “First, the American consumer would feel it. But it wouldn’t take too long before it would be shared by everybody, meaning everybody in Canada and Mexico as well.” During the U.S. election campaign, Trump had promised to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports — a pledge that would reduce the size of the Canadian economy by around one per cent, resulting in $30 billion per year in economic costs, according to previous modelling by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. But asked if he would consider any tariff level digestible for the Canadian auto sector, Volpe replied, “Zero is the maximum.” “It’s simply because we’ve built this auto sector together,” said Volpe. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2024.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Carl Ribaudo, domestic tourism expert and author of “Strategy and Creativity Matter; Notes from the Road: Experiences, Insights, and Perspectives from Along the Way,” offers his take on the post-election travel forecast, economic impacts/drivers as well as trends for 2025. “We know that after an election regardless of which party secures office, more and more travelers select destinations that align with their political beliefs and vote with their dollars. Now more than ever, and given some of the pricing challenges we will see this with travelers staying closer to home in their drive markets, and a shorter booking window. “The travel industry under a Trump administration in 2025 could experience both opportunities through domestic tourism initiatives and infrastructure investment, while potential trade restrictions and fiscal policies could present challenges, depending on the administration’s direction with global partners and economic stability,” Ribaudo said. “Tax cuts and deregulation could stimulate travel spending, but also raise inflation concerns, while stricter immigration policies could impact inbound tourism from other countries.” Ribaudo’s recently published book is available now in paperback via Amazon . Going beyond the surface-level aspects of tourism consulting, Ribaudo delves into the deeper nuances, challenges, and lessons through engaging anecdotes and reflections. Drawing from an extensive career, the author shares insights from over 70 U.S. destinations, offering practical advice to understanding the industry and sharpening critical thinking strategies. Ribaudo, a thought leader and innovator in the tourism industry, creates scenario planning and economic modeling for destination marketing organizations. Additionally, he is involved in various services, including marketing research (as a partner in the Travel Analytics Group), strategy and planning, tourism economic analysis, and measurement. His interests include destination competitiveness, organizational change, and destination and organizational strategy design. Ribaudo is a trusted advisor to many CEOs and senior executives throughout the industry working with destinations like Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, Discover Vail and Travel Nevada. Designed to provide tourism executives with new ways of thinking competitively and challenge the status quo, Ribaudo’s “Notes from the Road” offers insight into why strategic plans often fail, developing strategy for a technology world, and managing the uncertain nature of tourism. Ribaudo also has a variety of published articles/whitepapers available on his website, ( https://www.smgonline.net/blog ) including: Topography’s Role in Shaping Destination Culture, Appeal, and Strategy. A Contrast between South Lake Tahoe and Carmel, CA Why Do Most Tourism Strategic Plans Fall Short? The Downside of Being Data Driven The Politics of Tourism, A Strategic Approach for DMOs For more details, or to schedule a speaking engagement, contact: Carl@smgonline.net .

Insurers and healthcare middlemen are making it harder for everyday Americans, including many living with chronic diseases, to access the prescription drugs they need. Fortunately, Congress and President Joe Biden can address the problem by passing two bipartisan reforms during the current "lame duck" legislative session. For Democrats, this is a chance to build on the historic progress already made toward healthcare access and affordability for all Americans. At issue are middlemen known as "pharmacy benefit managers" -- or PBMs. PBMs act on behalf of insurance companies to negotiate with drug manufacturers and administer "formularies," or lists of which medications the insurer covers and what patients owe out of pocket. PBMs use their control over formularies to extract price concessions from drug companies in the form of rebates and discounts. Since drug makers want their products to be covered by insurers, they have a strong incentive to comply with PBMs' demands. In 2023 alone, the total value of rebates, discounts, and other payments to PBMs and insurers may have been as high as $334 billion. These savings could meaningfully reduce prescription drug costs for millions of patients. But in practice, many health plans simply keep rebates and discounts for themselves while continuing to charge patients based on the nominal "list price" of a drug, rather than the much lower "net price," which accounts for discounts and rebates. Consider a privately insured patient with diabetes. Let's assume the list price of the insulin she needs to survive is $1,000 per month, and her plan's coinsurance obligation is 25%. Let's also assume her insurer/PBM negotiates a 75% rebate off the insulin's price -- a 70-80% rebate is standard for many insulin brands. That'd leave the insurer/PBM paying a "net price" of $250 for the drug. But under current rules, the patient's health plan could still charge her based on the $1,000 per month list price of the insulin, meaning she'd owe $250 at the pharmacy counter. In this scenario, the sick patient would be covering 100% of what her health plan paid for the medicine. That isn't how insurance is supposed to work. This hypothetical example is no outlier. It's the reality for thousands of Americans with diabetes. One study found that people with diabetes could save $3.7 billion per year on their medications if insurers and PBMs passed rebates and discounts through to patients. A more fundamental issue is that in today's distorted market, PBM compensation is directly tied to how much medicines cost. The rebates, discounts, and fees PBMs collect are typically calculated as a percentage of a drug's list price. Since PBMs get to keep a portion of these payments for themselves, they naturally gravitate toward the most expensive drugs. While this setup works well for PBMs, it harms patients. Because PBMs make more money on expensive medicines, they're incentivized to select the costliest drugs for insurance plan coverage, even when cheaper alternatives exist. Over time, this inevitably leads to higher patient costs at the pharmacy counter. PBM practices hit the 129 million Americans living with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses particularly hard. Around half of patients living with chronic diseases already skip doses or forgo treatment for cost reasons -- much higher than the overall rate of medication "nonadherence" among all adults. When patients don't take their medications as directed, whether it's because of cost or other reasons, manageable conditions can snowball into costly and life-threatening emergencies. By refusing to pass savings along to patients and pushing people toward the most expensive drugs, PBMs and insurers could be inadvertently making the problem of non-adherence worse. The good news is that Congress seems to be waking up to this reality. Two bipartisan reforms have been gathering momentum in recent months. One bill would delink PBM compensation from drug prices and the other would require health plans and PBMs to share rebates and discounts with patients. Both bills have already passed the Senate Finance Committee. For Democrats, this is a chance to demonstrate our commitment to equitable and affordable health care. PBM reform would help ensure our most vulnerable citizens, already reckoning with a cost of living crisis, aren't forced to choose between medication and other necessities. It's also an opportunity to build on Democrats' recent work to advance healthcare affordability through the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislation. But this isn't just a Democratic issue. A recent poll revealed that nearly two-thirds of voters would favor candidates who pass such legislation. PBM reform is that elusive combination of good policy and smart politics. PBM reform is a golden opportunity for Congress to deliver on a critical kitchen-table issue that impacts millions of Americans. Let's hope they take it. Kenneth E. Thorpe is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Health Policy at Emory University and the chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease.AMMAN — The Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP), directed by Thomas E. Levy and Mohammad Najjar, is a deep-time investigation of society in the Faynan region of Southern Jordan, said Assistant Professor of Anthropological Archaeology Matt Howland at Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kansas. "This means that we are interested in the long- term occupation of the region, ranging from the Neolithic period, to the region’s peak occupation and copper production during the Iron Age, to the Middle Islamic period, when copper was also produced," Howland said A lot of the excavations conducted by the ELRAP were focused on the relationship between copper production and social complexity, and helped show how the mining and manufacture of copper helped a local complex society develop in the Early Iron Age in Jordan, Howland continued. The professor added that his research focuses mainly on the use of spatial and 3D technologies to investigate the ancient past and share results of this research with the public. Howland worked with Levy during his undergraduate studies at Penn State University and his PhD studies at the University of California San Diego. "I developed research projects using GIS, a technology used for digital mapping, to investigate Iron Age societies in the Southern Levant. In my Ph.D. dissertation, I investigated Iron Age trade networks based in the Faynan region of Southern Jordan, and how high-status elites in Faynan controlled the manufacture and export of copper across the entire Southern Levant and beyond," Howland said. Since the team no longer actively excavates, it is interested in sharing some of the results with the general public, especially including the people of Jordan, who have always been very hospitable hosts and partners in the project. Several years ago, the ELRAP team developed an Arabic-language StoryMap to share some of the results relating to the Iron Age archaeology and heritage of Faynan with Jordanians. "Now, our new project shares 3D models that help tell the story of the Iron Age and Middle Islamic archaeology of Faynan on the website Sketchfab. Users can explore the models on this website in Arabic according to their own interest in the history and archaeology of Faynan," Howland elaborated. "We want users, especially Arabic-speaking Jordanians, to be able to explore the 3D data we have collected in the field during years of archaeological survey and excavation in the region without having to look through English-language and pay walled journal articles," the professor added. In this work, the team found it very important to work collaboratively with Jordanians to help tell the story of the archaeology of Faynan, and, luckily, they were able to collaborate with not only co-director Najjar, but also a librarian Samya Kafafi from American Centre of Research and a Jordanian student Omar Khalil from Wichita State University. The link between Faynan and Howland goes back to 2012 when he spent two months excavating the site. Howland immediately found the Faynan region to be extremely beautiful and the Bedouin people who live there to be very hospitable and friendly. Also, the archaeology of Faynan is very exciting, and is an underappreciated cultural heritage resource. "The many amazing archaeological sites in Faynan help to tell an incredible story about the development of a local complex society that was at the centre of a flourishing trade network in the Iron Age, just like the Nabateans later on in history, the professor said. "Since my own career and research has benefitted so much from research in Faynan, I want to share some of what I have learnt with the people of Jordan, and collaborate with them to help raise awareness about their amazing cultural heritage. Digital projects in Arabic, like our current project on Sketchfab, are one small way of doing that," Howland underlined.

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