HPE in the NEWS

 Front page of the San Jose Mercury-News yesterday--News Flash, HP builds world's fastest computer!!!

Well, it didn't exactly say that.  It said that Lawrence Livermore Labs built the world's fastest computer, announced at the prestigious SuperComputer Conference in Atlanta by Robert Neely, head of LLL's weapons group.   In the fifth paragraph, it has this appealing (to me) sentence: "The $600 million behemoth, built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise using chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), is the latest chart-topper in the global race to build faster computers."

Well, doggone!   ACM and IEEE co-sponsor the Supercomputer Conference, and HP has exhibited for years there.   I've got many friends for whom this is THE conference, even more than SIGGRAPH.  And as an old ACM President, I always feel a certain bit of pride over the achievements ballyhooed at this event.  But, mygawd, HPE has just built the bestest of the best, AGAIN.  Wow.   

Here is the Merc blurb: https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=939756d6-8601-45c8-8c49-0948f2f80343&appcode=SAN252&eguid=0553042f-3143-4b14-b8a5-6ec7f3312223&pnum=1#

Seems to be tho that someone at HP should be out shouting about this.   Have you seen anything?

Kinda seems like AMD and HP are missing a marketing try here, or have you heard that Intel is up for sale (gawd, can you imagine?), and NASDAQ took them off the list of top companies.  Have you heard that Nvidia stock is up 1400% in a year, and that HP capitalization is worth less than current revenue?

Let's put this in perspective:   Nvidia announced quarterly revenue and profits today, a whopping $35 billion up from $31 billion estimate, so the stock slid 3% to a mere $3.58 trillion in capitalization (some 25x current revenue).   Intel's current run rate (remeber that they used to build high-end computer chips?) is $50 Billion per year, and their capitalization is $103 Billion.  So Nvidia is valued 35 TIMES more than Intel.  Whew!

Of course, a current quarter of $13 Billion in revenue, with a LOSS of $18 Billion, might be driving this stock price.   Intel Cap/Rev = 2.0; Nvidia Cap/Rev = 25.0.  The news in Oregon two weeks ago was that 8 VPs of Software and 10 Intel Fellows were axed, AXED, which is a stunning disastrous denouement for Intel's pride.

AMD (recall they have been also-ran to Intel ever since Jerry Sanders got in the infamous legal battle with Intel over rights to second-source Intel forty some years ago) has a market cap of $223 billion, more than 3 TIMES Intel right now.  Their quarterly revenue was $6.8 Billion, with 14% net earnings.  Doing the numbers, AMD Cap/Rev = 10.

So, how about HPE? And, we might ask, IBM and even HPQ.   Recall that it was 2007, when HP hit $120B in annual revenue, and passed IBM as the biggest computer company on the globe?   You don't remember that?   Hummn.

HPE, the builder of this whizbang new "Fastest Computer in the World," had quarterly revenue of $7.8 Billion, and 15% net profit (unheard of profit per HP history), and a market cap of $27.5 Billion.   So HPE is valued at Cap/Rev = 1.0, the worst High Tech story out there for current investors.  What the 'ell?

HPQ market cap is $35 Billion, on quarterly revenue of $14 BIllion, 5% net profit.  So, they have an even worse investment profile than HPE, at Cap/Rev = 0.68.   These, you recall, are the printer and PC guys.

IBM?  Market cap of $198 Billion, just under AMD, and Nvidia is ONLY 17 TIMES bigger.   Their quarterly revenu is $15B, with Negative 2.2% profit.   So their ratio, Cap/Rev = 3.3.

We could go over the Dell and Cisco stories, with similarly glum results.  But, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and friends all seem to be doing okay.  Is there a moral here?  Gawd knows. I don't. 

Anyway, words to the wise at HPE.  TRUMPET YOUR SUCCESS.  Don't let it hide in the fifth sentence of someone else's story.