Top 10 Global Business Events in 2024: Elon Musk's Big Bet, Broadcom's Rise, Google's Quantum Computing Chip Debut

The AI boom continues, NVIDIA's market value surpassed Microsoft for the first time in history, becoming the world's top company;
SpaceX's "chopsticks catching rockets" brings humanity closer to landing on Mars;
Google's quantum computing chip Willow debuts at year-end—could quantum computing be the next AI, just like a decade ago?

Looking back at the year that's about to pass, impactful business events have left a special mark on 2024.
The AI boom continues, with tech giants splurging on AI chips, propelling NVIDIA's market value to surpass Microsoft for the first time in history, making it the world's top company.
Tesla experienced "wild swings," with its stock rebounding 250% from its yearly low, driven by founder Elon Musk's all-in political gamble on Trump, which paid off handsomely.
Meanwhile, SpaceX quietly made progress in rocket technology, achieving the "chopsticks recovery" feat—a major milestone toward making Starship a fully reusable rocket system. Humanity might be closer than ever to landing on Mars.
Google dropped a bombshell at year-end with its quantum computing chip Willow. Could quantum computing be the next AI, just like a decade ago?
Broadcom painted a new competitive landscape for the AI chip market: in the coming years, ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) might gradually take market share from expensive GPUs in generative AI applications.
For every winner, there's a loser. As chip "new kings" like NVIDIA and Broadcom rise, Intel, the old-guard semiconductor giant, seems left behind by the times. With earnings bombs, CEO departures, and an inevitable breakup looming, Intel's fate appears sealed.
As the year draws to a close, Wall Street News reviews the top 10 global business events of 2024:

Tesla's stock rebounds 250% from yearly lows as Musk's gamble yields massive returns
Tesla's stock, rebounding 250% from its yearly low and up nearly 70% for the year, delivered a roller-coaster performance in 2024.
At the start of 2024, Tesla faced multiple headwinds: slowing global EV demand, price cuts in China and the U.S., and Hertz's sudden shift away from EVs.
Amid these pressures, Tesla's stock plummeted, dropping 25% in January alone and suffering a maximum yearly drawdown of 44%, nearly halving its value.

As the stock fell, Wall Street analysts turned bearish, arguing Tesla's once-strong growth was gone and its high valuation unjustified. Some even suggested replacing Tesla in the "Magnificent Seven" with Broadcom.
Musk himself faced troubles: a Delaware judge voided his $55 billion pay package, citing insufficient disclosure of performance targets and conflicts of interest among board members.

Media then attacked Musk's personal life, alleging drug abuse (cocaine, ecstasy, psychedelics), worrying SpaceX and Tesla executives.
Instead of sitting idle, Musk fought back. At Tesla, he stabilized sales with price cuts, froze the Model 2 (despite its advanced progress), and bet big on Robotaxis to restore confidence in Tesla's growth.

For his pay package, Musk rallied retail investors to approve $56 billion in compensation and moved Tesla's incorporation to Texas, dodging Delaware's courts.
But Musk's biggest gamble was political. Early in Trump's campaign, he donated heavily. After Trump's assassination attempt, Musk publicly endorsed him, joined campaign events, and went all-in on Trump.
This political bet paid off three months later: as Trump led polls and won in November, Tesla's stock soared, doubling in two months and hitting all-time highs.
While other Silicon Valley elites lined up to court Trump, Musk became an insider, influencing appointments and joining Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) to cut spending.
As Trump's top ally, Musk's political clout skyrocketed, unlocking Tesla's growth potential.
SpaceX's Mars dreams also advanced. Musk had said SpaceX's "Mars mission" was unlikely under Democrats but could thrive under Republican support.

SpaceX achieves "chopsticks recovery," bringing Musk's Mars dream closer?
While Musk gained political leverage, SpaceX made quiet progress in rocket tech.
In June, Starship achieved its first soft ocean landing in four test flights, with flawless performance. The rocket launched from Boca Chica, Texas.
A new hot-stage separation worked perfectly, and the Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico—its first controlled return.
After 66 minutes, Starship re-entered the atmosphere. Despite severe flap damage and lost heat tiles during blackout, it splashed down in the Indian Ocean, achieving test goals.
By October, SpaceX made history in its fifth test flight with "chopsticks recovery."
The goal was to catch the booster mid-air. Live footage showed the 232-foot (71-meter), 33-engine Super Heavy descending slowly toward the launch tower after separation.
After multiple decelerations, the slightly tilted booster was "hugged" by the tower's mechanical arms—smoothly completing this high-difficulty catch. This marked a key milestone toward fully reusable rockets.
Dubbed "chopsticks" for their long, narrow shape, the arms' catch was likened to "chopsticks grabbing a rocket."
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SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster landings are now routine, but transport delays hinder rapid reuse. "Chopsticks" solves this by enabling on-the-spot refueling and checks, slashing launch prep time.
With this success, Musk inches closer to his "unmanned Mars mission" promise.
Historic first! NVIDIA surpasses Microsoft as world's most valuable company. As AI stocks surged, a new tech king emerged. On June 17, NVIDIA's market cap overtook Microsoft's, claiming the top spot.

Since 2020, NVIDIA's stock has soared 22x, fueled by its AI chip dominance (80% share in data center GPUs).

Demand from OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta supercharged growth. H100 delivery times stretched to 36-52 weeks.
Wall Street sees GPU investments as just starting. AI's multiplier effect means every $100 in cloud spending generates $30-$40 in AI revenue—amplifying GPU investments.

With complex tech (e.g., Grace Hopper 100 chips have 35,000 parts and weigh 35kg), NVIDIA's moat is wide. Despite rivals designing AI chips, NVIDIA's lead looks unshakable.
Quantum chip emerges—the next AI?
Google dropped a bombshell at year-end: quantum chip Willow.
Per Google, Willow completed a benchmark calculation in under 5 minutes—a task that would take a supercomputer over 10^25 years (longer than the universe's age!).

Unlike Google's 2019 "quantum supremacy" claim for Sycamore, Willow is framed as "beyond classical computing."
Willow has 105 qubits, excelling in error correction and random circuit sampling (RCS). In RCS tests, it solved a problem in minutes that would take a supercomputer 10^25+ years.

Google's news sent quantum stocks soaring: D-Wave (+74%), Rigetti (+78%), Quantum Computing (+100%+), and others up 523%.

To investors, quantum computing now mirrors AI a decade ago—a frontier for outsized returns.
Despite hype, quantum computing remains early-stage. Search interest lags AI, and corporate mentions are sparse.
AI's shift from training to inference: ASICs and Broadcom rise
As 2024 ended, AI markets convulsed—NVIDIA faded, Broadcom emerged.
On December 12, Broadcom posted record Q4 revenue, profits, and chip sales, fueled by AI. CEO Hock Tan predicted $60-$90 billion in custom AI chip (ASIC) demand by 2027, with two new "hyperscale" clients.
Tan said:
"We now have three hyperscalers with multi-gen AI XPU roadmaps, each planning to deploy 1M XPU clusters by 2027."
Analysts saw this as an ASIC mega-narrative: $60-$90 billion by 2027 implies near-doubling yearly AI revenue (ASICs + networking). Broadcom expects ASICs to rival or surpass GPUs.
The report sent Broadcom's stock up 38% in two days, topping $1.2 trillion in market cap. ASICs became the focus.

Broadcom's surge echoed NVIDIA's 2023 boom. But as Broadcom rose, NVIDIA fell—Wall Street eyed ASICs' threat to GPUs in inference workloads.
Apple Vision Pro: Even fans balk at high price
After the iPhone, what's Apple's next hit hardware?
In early February, Vision Pro launched. Servers crashed in 5 minutes; stores sold out in 30. The last such frenzy was the 2007 iPhone.

Seventeen years later, Apple still seeks "the next iPhone." But Vision Pro isn't it.
After initial hype, demand cooled. High prices, weak adoption, and slow app growth hurt. By October, rumors said Apple would halt production, pivoting to a cheaper 2025 model.
Vision Pro was Apple's biggest new-category bet in years. But it trails Meta, which sells cheaper headsets.
As TF International's Ming-Chi Kuo predicted, Vision Pro's post-novelty demand hinges on clear use cases.
Apple's decade-long car dream ends—is it too late to pivot to AI?
Beyond Vision Pro, Apple quietly axed its 10-year car project in 2024.
Reports said Apple canceled its EV plan, shifting ~2,000 staff to AI. The move ended billions in spending.
Apple's car efforts began in 2014 (Project Titan). It poached talent from Google, Mercedes, and Tesla but waffled on strategy, causing executive exits and delays.
By late 2022, Titan stalled as Apple realized full autonomy (no steering wheel) was unfeasible. Then, 2023's AI boom forced a pivot, dooming the car.
OpenAI's $7 trillion chip plan: Reshaping global semiconductors?
While leading generative AI, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman aims to remake chipmaking.
Reports say Altman seeks $5-$7 trillion to boost global chip capacity. The plan involves OpenAI, investors, chipmakers, and utilities partnering to build foundries run by existing players, with OpenAI as a key client.

Altman didn't deny "$7 trillion" but called AI investments necessary for infrastructure and global services.
The figure dwarfs semiconductors: 2023 chip sales were $527 billion (projected to hit $1 trillion by 2030). SEMI estimates 2023 chip equipment sales at $100 billion.
$7 trillion is 10% of global GDP—enough to buy NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC, Broadcom, ASML, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, Arm, and Meta, with $300 billion left.

One netizen quipped: "Unless OpenAI is certain its tech will reshape the world, AI is in a massive bubble."

Crypto's turning point: SEC approves spot Bitcoin ETFs
After 2023's slump, crypto rebounded in 2024.
In a rare retreat, the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, greenlighting 11 funds.
Proposed since 2013, spot ETFs were long rejected over volatility, investor protection, and manipulation fears.
But Grayscale's August 2023 court win forced the SEC's hand. Judges ruled its ETF denials "arbitrary and capricious."
The real boost came from Trump. To woo crypto voters, he pledged to:
- Add Bitcoin to U.S. reserves
- Fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler
- Form a Bitcoin presidential council
- Encourage mining-friendly power policies
Some Republicans pushed further: sell gold reserves to buy 1M Bitcoin (~$90 billion).
As Trump won, Bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time.

Amid crypto euphoria, Bridgewater's Ray Dalio warned of debt crises favoring "hard money" like gold and Bitcoin.
Intel's fall: Biggest tech layoffs of 2024, stock down 60%
As NVIDIA and Broadcom rose, Intel faltered. 2024 brought chaos:
An August earnings bomb: Q2 revenue fell YoY; Q3 guidance pointed to an 11% drop; EPS turned negative; dividends paused for the first time since 1992.
Post-Q2, Intel crashed 26%—its worst day since 1974 (31%). The selloff dragged Nasdaq down 2.4% and hit global chip stocks.

To cut costs, Intel announced layoffs of 15%+ (16,000+ jobs)—2024's biggest tech cuts per Layoffs.fyi.
Analysts blame R&D lags, especially in data centers. Rival AMD doubled its x86 server CPU share to 40% (from <5% in 2020).
Troubles mounted as CEO Pat Gelsinger exited after three years. Clashes with the board over market share and NVIDIA's lead led to his departure.
Once seen as Intel's savior, Gelsinger had vowed to restore its chipmaking lead. His exit may spur a strategy shift—halting advanced nodes and splitting manufacturing from foundry operations.