*By Carlo Versano*
Once every decade, there's a seismic shift in technology ー usually in the form of a new innovation ー that reshapes how we live, said venture capitalist Gene Munster.
"There's always little waves going on in tech, but every 10 years or so there's a big wave that hits," Munster, a managing partner at Loup Ventures, said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar.
There was the smartphone in the mid-aughts, following the widespread adoption of the world wide web. Before that, the PC. Munster said we're now in the early stages of the latest changes in tech: the emergence of A.I., robotics, autonomous vehicles, and augmented and virtual reality. Our lives, he said, will be manifestly different. And Munster's firm recently launched a new ETF to expose investors to that theory.
The Loup Frontier Tech ETF will contain a basket of relatively small, highly innovative tech companies with market caps in the $500 million to $2 billion range, Munster said. [The fund](http://www.innovatoretfs.com/pdf/LOUP_Factsheet.pdf), which launched in late July, was built to reward companies with revenue growth and positive cash flow.
For now, Munster wants to prioritize smaller stocks, but there's one major exception: the ETF does hold shares of Tesla.
Why does the $50 billion-plus company fit the strategy? Munster said Tesla, despite its public dramas, has "the greatest product road map of any tech company." He added that CEO Elon Musk has built a business that is uniquely positioned to leverage renewable energy, the storage of that energy, and the combined trends of zero-emissions and autonomy in automobiles.
Munster's belief that virtual and augmented reality are technologies that will "fundamentally change how humans interact with each other" is not widespread ー VR, after all, has struggled to gain broad adoption, and Snap, which built its first app on the basis of AR, has seen its share price cut in half since its IPO last year. But the Loup Frontier Tech ETF includes stocks like Micron Technology, which makes chips for VR headsets. That kind of diversification ー plays on gaming and autonomy side by side ー is what distinguishes his ETF holdings from typical sector-based funds, Munster said.
One tech giant which may be marking its own seismic shift is Apple. Munster, who was previously a top analyst of the stock at research firm Piper Jaffray, believes the company is on the verge of transitioning from a hardware operation into a service-based company with its App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud. That change will propel the stock higher as investors shift from a "boom-bust" mentality based on the product cycle to a more solid conception of "Apple as a Service."
And what about Apple, flush with all that cash, making a play for Tesla?
Munster said it isn't out of the question. Both companies have a shared ideology based on a love of design; and Apple has long been trying to enter the EV market with its Project Titan electric car.
"It's always been a fairy tale that Apple and Tesla are going to find a way to get together," he said.
For full interview [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/gene-munster-captures-tech-growth-with-new-etf-launch).
John Deere is getting on board the autonomous vehicle craze with its own self-driving tractors. The farming and forestry equipment manufacturer made the announcement at the 2022 CES convention in Las Vegas. Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer at John Deere, spoke to Cheddar about the shift to self-driving to agriculture and how it will help farmers produce even more food as the world's population continues to grow. "It's all about trying to do more with less in farming," he said. "Labor's already a problem on the farm, and it's only getting to be more of a problem in the future. And we really view autonomy as a way to solve that problem."
It is 'game on' for sports bettors in the state of New York, as mobile betting kicks off on four major betting operating platforms this Saturday. The state, with over 20 million residents, will be the most populous state with legal online sports betting. Max Bichsel, VP of US Business for EmpireStakes.com joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Far too often, Americans are forced to navigate a tangled web of outdated government websites, offices way out of their reach, and hours of time 'on hold' to access the simple government services they depend on. A recent executive order, signed by President Biden, is intended to improve, streamline and modernize the 'customer' experience when accessing government services. Mina Hsiang, the administrator of the United States Digital Service, joins Cheddar News to discuss how the tech workforce is impacted by this executive order.
Cheddar has been following all things innovative, fascinating, and downright cool from CES 2022. Watch the full episode, hosted by Cheddar's Ken Buffa and Michelle Castillo.
Private equity firms in 2021 spent $401.71 billion in U.S. tech investments — doubling 2020's level of $196.34 billion. As tech becomes increasingly interwoven into our lives amid the pandemic, investors grow bullish on the sector, especially software-as-a-service companies. How will 2022 stack up to 2021, and is there potential for parts of the tech sector to sink this year? John Jannarone, Editor in Chief at IPO-Edge, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss 2021's record year of deals, how potential interest rate hikes will impact tech investments in 2022, the fastest-growing IPOs, and more.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivered disappointing fiscal third-quarter results for 2022. Shares initially dove more than 9% in premarket trading on the news but finished the day up nearly 8%. Bed Bath & Beyond has been a meme-stock target for online investors in the past -- so was meme-stock mania a factor in the recent stock movement for the company? Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the subreddit WallStreetBets, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more, as his forum helped spark the meme stock phenomena. He also discussed some decentralized finance services and trends for the retail investor to watch for in 2022.
Digital medical care provider Pear Therapeutics rang the closing bell on the Nasdaq Friday and President and CEO Dr. Corey McCann, joined Cheddar to talk about how the company plans to grow the business of software-based therapeutics and how the first FDA authorized prescription digital therapeutics company will go about treating illnesses like insomnia and addiction. "These really are pieces of software. In many cases, they're apps and in the cases of our addiction products, these are based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT," he said. "These products change the patient's brain circuitry to help them be abstinent, to help them stay in treatment, and that's exactly what we see in randomized clinical trials and that's what we see in the real world." He also addressed the ongoing mental health crises brought on by the pandemic. **copy updated to remove IPO information as Pear Therapeutics went public in December**
