Let's discuss the long-awaited passing of a $52 billion CHIPS Act to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the US, a new shining star in the THNQ and ROBO indices, and Health Catalyst's role in helping hospitals reduce costs, increase revenue, and drive efficiencies through tech-enabled services.
Please enjoy these insights from our research team.
THNQ: $52B CHIPS Act to Boost the US AI Sector
The long-awaited $52 billion bill to strengthen US chip manufacturing was passed this week by the Senate after almost two years of legislative discussion. To increase domestic semiconductor manufacturing for self-sufficiency, the CHIPS Act offers tax credits and subsidies that will diversify semi production away from Asian countries. While not making an immediate impact in the near term, the subsidy bill should help spur innovation and capabilities in technologies such as AI, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and AR/VR. The reshoring trend has already begun throughout the world in the past few years, but the global semiconductor chip shortage emphasized the need for the US to establish a reliable supply chain.
While the semi industry needs far more than $52 billion in subsidies for US market share to meaningfully improve, this is a very strong indication that the industry could see further investment and government support. The CHIPS Act should bolster the entire US semiconductor chip industry against countries like China and will even benefit THNQ index members such as Nvidia and AMD despite their outsourcing strategy. Index member TSMC is also well positioned to benefit directly if they continue to build their fabs in US territory.
ROBO: Samsara's Rise as a Leader in Connected Cloud Operations
A new addition to THNQ and ROBO indices, Samsara (NASDAQ: IOT), a pioneer in connected cloud operations, has seen a rapid ascent into market leadership. With more than 20,000 customers, Samsara has proven itself to provide a high return on investment to customers wanting to get data, insight, and recommendations for real-world environments using proprietary IoT, video analytics, and AI. Its customers, which span across construction, government, global logistics, food and beverage, and manufacturing, obtain better operations management, leading to reduced costs and emissions, better customer service, higher revenue, and lowered administrative and compliance overhead through automation. While the lion’s share and the initial growth story comes from vehicle and fleet telematics and tracking, the company continues to innovate new products and verticals, leading to increased net revenue retention rates and opportunities. Samsara ultimately plays into multiple tailwinds and can succeed in either bull or bear market conditions, with plenty of opportunities to grow further in the US and abroad.
Recent highlights include bringing on industry veteran Jeffrey Hausman as chief product officer, joining from ServiceNow where he was SVP and GM of operations management. Samsara recently obtained the following as customers: Coach USA, a major US provider of automotive, travel, and financial services, and two Fortune 500 companies: one of the largest home improvement retailers in the United States and one of the world’s top-10 global retailers. Best of all, they even raised their full-year outlook on earnings and revenue.
HTEC: Health Catalyst: A Tech Catalyst for Change in Healthcare
We hear so much about what a mess healthcare is—fraught with inefficiencies, medical errors, and a widening gap between the demand for medical services and the medical staff available to provide them. Health Catalyst offers a glimmer of hope by providing tech-enabled services to help hospitals reduce costs, increase revenue, and drive efficiencies.
Health Catalyst is a healthcare tech company that provides data analytics and other services to hospitals to help them generate measurable improvements in patient care and profitability. Their secret sauce is their proprietary data operating system, which analyzes data from over data 300 sources around a hospital to identify areas for improvement. For example, the company used its analytics to identify ways to better transition patients from hospital to home at discharge. Doing so led to a reduction of 420 patient readmissions, and saved Allina Health $3.2 million.
This is just one of many projects Health Catalyst helped implement with this long-term customer. Over the last decade, Health Catalyst has helped Allina generate over $100 million in savings. In another recent example, the company helped WakeMed Health & Hospitals, a leading health system in North Carolina, generate a 16% increase in outpatient visits by improving patient satisfaction. This uptick drove a $25 million increase in revenue. Health Catalyst is able to address whatever needs are pertinent to individual customers, and they can evolve over time. The company constantly evolves to keep up with the changing needs of a hospital Thus, we view this company as a very strong asset, particularly over the long run.