From technological leaps to socio-economic shifts, we unwind the key highlights of this year that will define the landscape of 2024 and the years ahead.
- Ferrari sells just 10,000 cars per year, compared to 8.4 million sold by Volkswagen. Bloomberg
- US manufacturing wages were 40x more expensive than those in China in 1997, today that number is only 4x. Haver Analytics
- At one point in 2018, TikTok bought 25% of all the ads on Facebook's iOS (Apple) network. Reuters
- As of 2022, streaming represents 67% of the global music industry revenue, up from only 3% in 2010. IFPI
- 83% of the top 100 generic medicines have no US manufacturing source. Cortellis
- The US has gotten a D grade or worse from the American Society of Civil Engineers for 19 straight years, until last year. ASCE
- Visa is accepted in 170 of the world’s 195 countries. Visa
- Construction spending related to manufacturing in the US has gone parabolic after years of stagnation, especially in real terms. Census Bureau
- Today large cap pharma sits on an estimated $838bn of dry powder, enough to buy 83% of the biotech index. Tema
- The industrial sector used to be 14% of the S&P 500 index in 1980, today it represents just 8%. Bloomberg
- Mining investment needs to go back to historic highs to hit net zero commitments. Wood Mackenzie
- In the last ten years $1.3 trillion has been invested in technology venture capital in OECD countries. OECD
- More people now search for Loro Piana shoes than Tod’s. Google Trends
- The number of new drugs approved by the FDA in 2022 was double the amount approved in 2010. FDA
- In 1985, Michael Jackson, acquired ATV Music Publishing, which gave him the copyrights to nearly 250 Beatles songs. Billboard
- In 2001 it cost $100 million dollars to sequence the human genome, today that cost is <$1,000 dollars. NHGRI
- An AI server uses 8x more working memory (DRAM) and 3x storage memory (NAND) than a classic server. Lam Research
- TSMC’s (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) Fab 18 in Taiwan produces a quintillion transistors every six months. That is more units than has ever been produced in all other factories everywhere in the history of the world. Wired
- It took five days for ChatGPT to hit 1 million users, a feat Instagram achieved in 2.5 months and Netflix three and a half years. Business Insider
- “A luxury brand must have far more people who know it and dream it than people who buy it.” Jean-Noël Kapferer in ‘The Luxury Strategy’ Luxury Strategy
- Panama Canal water levels hit the lowest point in two decades this summer forcing some ships to offload up to 40% of their cargo. Panama Canal
- There are just 200,000 Birkin bags in circulation, since the first one was produced in 1984. Bloomberg
- In 1920 there were 180 class I railroads in North America – today there are just six. AAR
- According to the latest estimates US corporates need to refinance $3.1 trillion of debt in the next five years. Moody’s
- Walmart crossed 100,000 sellers on its marketplace. Marketplace Pulse
- Everything highlighted in red is an ad. Tema