Silicon Valley sobriety
硅谷清醒
The age of the unicorn is over
独角兽时代落幕
Don’t expect AI to bring it back
别指望它借人工智能之势回归
BUSINESS HAS never been better for America’s tech giants. After slumping in 2022, the combined market value of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft has surged by 70%, to over $10trn, since the start of 2023 amid the hype over artificial intelligence (AI). The technology has also propelled others into the industry’s upper echelons. On February 21st Nvidia, an AI-chip champion, reported that its sales rocketed by 265%, year on year, in the quarter to January. Its market value has risen from around $500bn a year ago to $1.7trn, making it America’s fifth-most-valuable firm. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and other AI builders such as Anthropic have shot to fame, scooping up billions of dollars in funding.
美国科技巨头的生意从未如此红火。经过2022年的低迷后，在人工智能（AI）概念大热之下，自2023年初以来，Alphabet、亚马逊、苹果、Meta和微软的总市值飙升70%，突破十万亿美元。AI技术还助推其他公司跻身行业前列。2月21日，AI芯片领军者英伟达发布报告称，截至1月的财季其销售额同比飙升265%，市值从一年前的约5000亿美元上升至1.7万亿美元，成为美国市值第五高的公司。开发ChatGPT的OpenAI以及Anthropic等其他AI公司一举成名，收获数十亿美元融资。
- slump （价格、价值、数量等）骤降，猛跌，锐减
- surge 形容物价、利润、数量等“急剧上升、飞涨、激增”，多指在一段稳定或平静的时期内发生的短暂突然的大幅度增加（参见：小词详解 | surge）
- hype 电视、广播、互联网等媒体中言过其实的“促销广告、促销讨论”或者说“大肆的宣传、炒作”（参见：小词详解 | hype）
- propel 表示“推动、驱动、推进”，常用被动语态，侧重指通过施加能产生运动的外力从而驱动或推动某物稳定、持续地向前（参见：小词详解 | propel）
- echelon 职权的等级；阶层
- fame 名声；声誉；名气（参见：小词详解 | fame）
- scoop 获取，赢得（一大笔钱或丰厚的奖品）
Thousands of smaller AI firms have popped up, too. Enough that a small Caribbean island called Anguilla, whose internet domain suffix is “.ai”, now generates around a third of its government’s budget from licensing it out, according to Rest of World, an online publication. In the latest sign of madness returning to Silicon Valley Adam Neumann, the ousted founder of WeWork, an office-sharing firm that declared bankruptcy in November after years of losses, made a bid on February 5th to retake the reins of the firm.
同时另有成千上万小型AI公司涌现。据线上科技媒体Rest of World报道，加勒比海上一个名叫安圭拉（Anguilla）的小岛因为互联网域名后缀是“.ai”而受益，现在其政府预算约有三分之一来源于授权该域名的收入。办公室共享公司WeWork在多年亏损后于去年11月宣布破产，被赶下台的创始人亚当·诺伊曼（Adam Neumann）于2月5日出价回购该公司——这是硅谷再陷疯狂的最新例证。
- pop （让人意外地）突然出现；冷不防冒出
- oust 表示“驱逐、革职、罢黜”，多指通过行使武力或必要的强制措施将某人从某个位置或地方赶出去或驱逐出去，但也包括行使法律赋予的权力合法地剥夺某人对某物的占用（参见：小词详解 | oust）
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | founder 有风险，创业需谨慎
- the reins 控制；主宰；掌管
