Visualized: What is the Artificial Intelligence of Things?

​What is the Artificial Intelligence of Things?
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The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), known as the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), is expected to accelerate digital transformation.

In this graphic, the third and final in the Digital Evolution series sponsored by Global X ETFs, we dive into the world of AIoT platforms and zero in on their impact on certain industries.

AIoT Platforms
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AIoT platforms integrate AI programming into IoT devices such as sensors, smart TVs, security cameras, or thermostats. When deployed at scale, AIoT can become capable of everything from managing city traffic flow to improving hospital remote patient monitoring.

AI algorithms enable devices to gather and analyze massive amounts of data, extract valuable insights, and make intelligent decisions. This enhances the functionality and efficiency of existing IoT devices.

Real World Applications
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Here are some examples of the numerous applications of AIoT in today’s world:

Smart Homes: AIoT brings intelligence to our living spaces by enabling seamless automation, enhanced energy efficiency, and improved security. This includes smart thermostats that automatically adjust to their environment, or security cameras that detect unwanted intruders instead of cars, animals, or planned guests. 

Edge Computing: AIoT can enable a computer to shunt a portion of its processing requirements to another computer on the same network. This reduces latency, enhances security, and enables quicker decision-making. 

Healthcare: By integrating AI with medical devices, wearables, and healthcare systems, practitioners can gain deeper insights into patient health, improve diagnosis accuracy, and deliver personalized treatments.

Smart Cities: The capstone of AIoT applications, smart city technology empowers municipalities to optimize resource utilization, streamline traffic management, and enhance public safety. An example would be in Zurich, where sensors automate street lights to complement traffic flow, resulting in a 70% reduction in energy consumption.

Embracing a Connected World
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AIoT platforms are projected to grow at a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.7% between 2022 and 2027.

Read details below

Video Game Engagement, by Generation

​Video Game Engagement, by Generation
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By 2025, the number of gamers is estimated to reach 3.6 billion and generate a whopping $211 billion in revenue.

The video game industry’s success is fueled by enthusiasts who engage with gaming by playing, viewing, creating, and making gaming a part of their social life. So who are these gaming enthusiasts? 
 
This infographic, sponsored by Roundhill Investments, illustrates how players from different generations around the world engage with video games. Let’s get into it.

The Methodology
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For transparency, the data we used in the graphic above pulls from a survey conducted by Newzoo between February and May 2023 with 74,295 respondents across 36 countries. Here are the age ranges for each demographic according to Newzoo for reference. 

Gen Alpha (born 2010 or later / 10-13 years old)Gen Z (born 1995-2009 / 14-28 years old)Millennials (born 1981-1994 / 29-42 years old)Gen X (born 1965-1980 / 43-58 years old)Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964 / 59-65 years old)Generational Insights
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Gaming is the most popular form of video game engagement across all generations surveyed. However, when you dive in to each cohort, some interesting insights emerge.

### Gen Alpha & Gen Z

Of the Gen Alphas surveyed, 93% are video game players. However, both Gen Alpha and Gen Z are also the most likely groups to engage in video gaming in other ways, such as following gaming channels, and participating in online communities. This isn’t surprising, as they have grown up with technology as an integral part of their lives. 

### Millennials, Gen X, & Baby Boomers

Interestingly, the percentage of people engaging with these other forms seems to drop with age. So even though just under half of  baby boomers with access to the internet consider themselves to be gaming enthusiasts, that refers mostly to playing games, with just 5% of them engaging in other ways.

The Future of Gamingis Diverse
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With younger generations driving the future of gaming, new business models and technologies will continue to emerge to appease these audiences across a multitude of touchpoints and of course, continue to attract attention from brands outside of the industry.

Read details below

Visualized: How Long Does it Take to Double Your Money?

​Visualized: How Long Does it Take to Double Your Money?
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This was originally posted on Advisor Channel. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on financial markets that help advisors and their clients.

At first glance, a 7% return on your investment may not seem that impressive. Yet what if you heard that your money could double in roughly 10 years?

The above graphic takes the rule of 72 shortcut and uses the more precise logarithmic formula to show how long it takes to grow your money at different annualized returns.

Why it Pays to Know the Math
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Using the classic rule of 72, an investor can estimate how long it takes to double their money. At 7% annual returns, an investor would see $10,000 grow to $20,000 in about a decade by taking 72 and dividing it by 7%, the rate of return.

While the rule of 72 serves as a guide to estimating when your money will double, the more accurate way to arrive at this number is through a logarithmic equation.

In short, it divides the natural log of 2 by the natural log of 1 and adds this to the rate of return. We can see in the table below how leads to different results from the rule of 72:

Consider if an investor put their money in the S&P 500. Historically, it has averaged 11.5% returns between 1928 and 2022. In 6.4 years, their money would double, assuming these average returns.

If they were to put this money in a savings account, where the average savings rate is 0.6%, it would take 120 more years for their money to reach this potential.

In real terms, which takes inflation into account, an investor would see their money lose value if they parked it in a savings account. Historically, inflation has averaged 3.3% over the last century.

Historical Asset Returns
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Here’s how often different assets double, based on historical returns between 1928 and 2022:

Source: NYU Stern. *Represents Baa corporate bonds, which are considered investment grade. **Includes reinvested dividends.

We can see that 3-month T-Bills, often considered among the safest assets, doubled about every 21 years. Often, investors consider this a place to put cash that is low-risk and highly liquid.

Interestingly, real estate assets had returns of 4.4%, doubling roughly every 16 years.

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Charted: How Long Does it Take Unicorns to Exit?

​How Long Does it Take For Unicorns to Exit?
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For most unicorns—startups with a $1 billion valuation or more—it can take years to see a liquidity event.

Take Twitter, which went public seven years after its 2006 founding. Or Uber, which had an IPO after a decade of operation in 2019. After all, companies first have to succeed and build up their valuation in order to not go bankrupt or dissolve. Few are able to succeed and capitalize in a quick and tidy manner.

So when do unicorns exit, either successfully through an IPO or acquisition, or unsuccessfully through bankruptcy or liquidation? The above visualization from Ilya Strebulaev breaks down the time it took for 595 unicorns to exit from 1997 to 2022.

Unicorns: From Founding to Exit
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Here’s how unicorn exits broke down over the last 25 years. Data was collected by Strebulaev at the Venture Capital Initiative in Stanford and covers exits up to October 2022:

Overall, unicorns exited after a median of eight years in business.

Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Indeed are among the unicorns that exited in exactly eight years, which in total made up 10% of tracked exits. Another major example is Zoom, which launched in 2011 and went public in 2019 at a $9.2 billion valuation.

There were also many earlier exits, such as YouTube’s one-year turnaround from 2005 founding to 2006 acquisition by Google. Groupon also had an early exit just three years after its founding in 2008, after turning down an even earlier acquisition exit (also through Google).

In total, unicorn exits within 11 years or less accounted for just over three-quarters of tracked exits from 1997 to 2022. Many of the companies that took longer to exit also took longer to reach unicorn status, including website company Squarespace, which was founded in 2003 but didn’t reach a billion-dollar valuation until 2017 (and listed on the NYSE in 2021).

Unicorns, by Exit Strategy
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Broadly speaking, there are three main types of exits: going public through an IPO, SPAC, or direct listing, being acquired, or liquidation/bankruptcy.

The most well-known are IPOs, or initial public offerings. These are the most common types of unicorn exits in strong market conditions, with 2021 seeing 79 unicorn IPOs globally, with $83 billion in proceeds.

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World Risk Poll: How Long Can People Survive Without Income?

​How Long Can People Survive Without Income?
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In the wake of natural disasters or economic shocks, a person could quickly be left without income, which is why financial security is such an important aspect of resilience. 

In this graphic, sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, we explore their latest survey, World Risk Poll 2021: A Resilient World? to see how financially secure people from country to country really are. 

Assessing Financial Security
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In 2021, Lloyd’s Register Foundation partnered with Gallup and polled 125,000 people from 121 countries, asking how long people could cover their basic needs without income. Responses were classified by those who could survive for more than a month, a month or less, less than a week, and those who didn’t know or refused to say. 

Here is a ranking of those who could cover their needs for the longest length of time without income: 

And the shortest length of time:

A Cause for Alarm
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The study found that generally, those who could cover their needs the longest came from developed economies, and those who could cover their needs for the shortest length of time came from developing economies where financial security is more tenuous. 

With all that said, the volume of people around the globe who struggle financially is the true cause for alarm. The study found that a staggering 2.7 billion people could only cover their basic needs for a month or less without income, and of that number, 946 million could survive for a week at most.

Tackling Financial Insecurity
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Urgent action is needed to tackle this disparity in income and lack of financial security, especially in developing economies. If left unchecked, this undermines global resilience in the face of climate change, natural disasters, and any number of other shocks. 

In the fourth and final part of this series, we’ll explore the World Risk Poll 2021: A Changed World? Perceptions and Experiences of Risk in the COVID Age and learn how the world views climate change.

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The Incredible Historical Map That Changed Cartography

​The Incredible Historical Map That Changed Cartography
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This map is the latest in our Vintage Viz series, which presents historical visualizations along with the context needed to understand them.

In a one-paragraph story called On Exactitude in Science (Del Rigor en la Ciencia), Jorge Luis Borges imagined an empire where cartography had reached such an exact science that only a map on the same scale of the empire would suffice.

The Fra Mauro Mappa Mundi (c. 1450s), named for the lay Camaldolite monk and cartographer whose Venetian workshop created it, is not nearly as large, at a paltry 77 inches in diameter (196 cm). But its impact and significance as a bridge between Middle Age and Renaissance thought certainly rivaled Borges’ imagined map.

One of ‘the Wonders of Venice’
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Venice was the undisputed commercial power in the Mediterranean, whose trade routes connected east and west, stretching to Flanders, London, Algeria, and beyond.

This network was protected by fleets of warships built at the famous Arsenale di Venezia, the largest production facility in the West, whose workforce of thousands of arsenalotti built ships on an assembly line, centuries before Henry Ford.

The lion of St Mark guards the land gate to the Arsenale di Venezia, except instead of the usual open bible in its hands offering peace, this book is closed, reflecting its martial purpose. Source: Wikipedia

The Mappa Mundi (literally “map of the world”) was considered one of the wonders of Venice with a reputation that reached the Holy Land. It is a circular planisphere drawn on four sheets of parchment, mounted onto three poplar panels and reinforced by vertical battens.

The map is painted in rich reds, golds, and blues; this last pigment was obtained from rare lapis lazuli, imported from mines in Afghanistan. At its corners are four spheres showing the celestial and sublunar worlds, the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), and an illumination of the Garden of Eden by Leonardo Bellini (active 1443-1490).

Japan (on the left edge, called the Isola de Cimpagu) appears here for the first time in a Western map. And contradicting Ptolemaic tradition, it also shows that it was possible to circumnavigate Africa, presaging the first European journey around the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488.

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What’s New on VC+ in September

If you’re a regular visitor to Visual Capitalist, you know that we’re your home base for data-driven, visual storytelling that helps explain a complex world.

But did you know there’s a way to get even more out of Visual Capitalist, all while helping support the work we do?

VC+ is our members program that gives you exclusive access to the weekly visual insights that leaders at Fortune 500 companies use to stay ahead.

Along with The Trendline newsletter twice a week and our monthly special dispatches, you’ll also get access to our VC+ Archive—unlocking hundreds of our in-depth briefings and insights in one place.

Sign Up Now Here’s what VC+ members can look forward to for the rest of this month:

New to VC+ in September 2023
----------------------------

### “Markets This Month: September Edition”

SPECIAL DISPATCH: Everything You Need to Know for This Month in the Markets

This Special Dispatch exclusive to VC+ subscribers provides a high-level summary of the month’s key events and most important market trends. It’s our way of cutting through the noise and sending you the data that matters most for the markets this month.

September’s edition will include:

An economic calendar of the biggest data and earnings releases to be aware ofA handful of essential charts diving into the state of the marketsAnd a collection of insightful links worth reading, watching, and listening toComing Tuesday, September 19th, 2023 (Get VC+ to access)

### “Breaking Down BRICS”

SPECIAL DISPATCH: A Deep Dive Into BRICS’ History and Its Growing Future

With the BRICS group announcing its addition of six new member nations, this special dispatch dives into the origins of the group and breaks down the implications of the expanded membership.

From the group’s dominance in natural resources to how it seeks to reshape international trade, the visuals in this dispatch explore BRICS’ future impact on the world’s economic and political landscapes.

Read details below

Charted: The Exponential Growth in AI Computation

​Charted: The Exponential Growth in AI Computation
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Electronic computers had barely been around for a decade in the 1940s, before experiments with AI began. Now we have AI models that can write poetry and generate images from textual prompts. But what’s led to such exponential growth in such a short time?

This chart from Our World in Data tracks the history of AI through the amount of computation power used to train an AI model, using data from Epoch AI.

The Three Eras of AI Computation
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In the 1950s, American mathematician Claude Shannon trained a robotic mouse called Theseus to navigate a maze and remember its course—the first apparent artificial learning of any kind.

Theseus was built on 40 floating point operations (FLOPs), a unit of measurement used to count the number of basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) that a computer or processor can perform in one second.

FLOPs are often used as a metric to measure the computational performance of computer hardware. The higher the FLOP count, the higher computation, the more powerful the system.Computation power, availability of training data, and algorithms are the three main ingredients to AI progress. And for the first few decades of AI advances, compute, which is the computational power needed to train an AI model, grew according to Moore’s Law.

Source: “Compute Trends Across Three Eras of Machine Learning” by Sevilla et. al, 2022.

However, at the start of the Deep Learning Era, heralded by AlexNet (an image recognition AI) in 2012, that doubling timeframe shortened considerably to six months, as researchers invested more in computation and processors.

With the emergence of AlphaGo in 2015—a computer program that beat a human professional Go player—researchers have identified a third era: that of the large-scale AI models whose computation needs dwarf all previous AI systems.

Predicting AI Computation Progress
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Looking back at the only the last decade itself, compute has grown so tremendously it’s difficult to comprehend.

For example, the compute used to train Minerva, an AI which can solve complex math problems, is nearly 6 million times that which was used to train AlexNet 10 years ago.

Read details below

Ranked: The 20 Best Franchises to Open in the U.S.

​Ranked: The 20 Best Franchises in the U.S.
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The U.S. is famous for chain restaurants, franchised shops, and brand name hotels. One thing these franchises aim for is consistency in store feel, customer service, product offerings, and prices, no matter which state you’re in.

This visualization uses Entrepreneur’s annual Franchise 500 Ranking to showcase the best franchises in the U.S. worth owning, from Dunkin’ Donuts  to Snap-on Tools.

The Best and How They Were Selected
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The report assessed five broad categories to score the country’s famous chains:

Costs & fees: including franchise fee, total investment needed to open one store, and royalty feesSupport: including training times, marketing support, operational support, franchisor infrastructure, financing infrastructure, and litigationSize & growth: including open & operating units, growth rate, and closuresBrand strength: including social media, system size, years in business, years franchisingFinancial strength & stability: including franchisor’s audited financial statementsA franchise was only considered if it was actively seeking new franchisees and must have already had at least 10 units operating.

Here’s a closer look at the top 20:

The number one franchise, Taco Bell, has been in business since 1964 and has 7,900 locations as of 2022, spanning beyond the U.S. to Canada, Australia, Europe, and other regions of the world. The average cost of investment to be a franchisee is between $576,000 to $3.4 million.

While most of the top 20 are in the food service industry, there is also one hotel, one shipping company, and a few hardware and home goods stores that make the list.

Ace Hardware (#7), for example, which specializes in home improvement goods, is actually an international franchise with close to 6,000 units. Kumon (#6) is an education center and is the only non-U.S. franchise on the list.

The Feasibility of Being a Franchisee
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To get a better sense of the costs needed to start a franchise, let’s take a look at one of the most famous convenience stores in the world.

Read details below

Ranked: The Highest Paid CEOs in the S&P 500

​Ranked: The Highest Paid CEOs in the S&P 500
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Many of the world’s most valuable companies are listed on the S&P 500, the benchmark index for the U.S. stock market.

For this reason, it is no surprise to see that CEOs of these key companies have multi-million dollar compensation packages. But what do these pay packages comprise? And do these CEOs always receive the compensation they are awarded? Or does it increase and decrease with stock market fluctuations?

In today’s infographic, we use data published by The Wall Street Journal to show the highest paid CEOs of S&P 500 companies in 2022, and delve into what their compensation includes.

The 20 Highest Paid CEOs
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The compensation packages of CEOs of S&P 500 companies comprise not just salaries, but bonuses, stock awards, and other incentives.

Here are the CEOs of S&P 500 companies that were awarded the highest pay packages last year, and the sectors they belong to.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, topped the list with an awarded pay package valued at around $226 million, which was over 800 times Google’s median employee compensation. His pay package included his annual salary of $2 million, a sum of $6 million for his personal security and stock awards valued at $218 million.

Meanwhile, Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino’s awarded pay package shot up to $139 million in 2022 from almost $14 million the previous year. This included stock awards initially valued at $116 million. Tech companies Apple and Broadcom were not far behind. While Apple CEO Tim Cook’s compensation package was valued at $99 million in 2022, Broadcom’s president and CEO Hock Tan was awarded $61 million.

Other CEOs that made it to the list include global insurance giant AIG’s CEO, Peter Zaffino, and Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings. While Hastings received a $10 million hike last year, he stepped down from this role in January 2023.

Rising Median CEO Income Hits a Wall
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Over the last decade, the median pay awarded to CEOs across S&P 500 companies has doubled.

In 2021, this number hit a high of $14.7 million.

However, in 2022, the median CEO compensation package hit a wall for the first time in a decade as it slightly fell to $14.5 million.

Read details below

Charted: Market Volatility at its Lowest Point Since 2020

​Market Volatility at its Lowest Point Since 2020
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This was originally posted on Advisor Channel. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on financial markets that help advisors and their clients.

Market volatility has been remarkably low in 2023, apart from the brief shock following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year.

In fact, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX)—a primary gauge for measuring U.S. equity volatility—has fallen to lows not seen since before the pandemic.

This graphic shows how today’s market volatility compares to the last two decades, and the factors that may explain its steadiness, based on data from CBOE.

How is Market Volatility Measured?
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The most widely used index to track market volatility is the VIX.

In short, it measures the market’s expectation for price changes in the S&P 500. When investor uncertainty is high, the VIX spikes. For this reason, it serves as a barometer of fear in the market and often has a negative correlation to returns. For instance, when the VIX hit a peak on March 16, 2020, the S&P 500 fell 12% in one day.

Market Volatility: All-Time Highs and Lows
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To put today’s market volatility in context, here are the market’s peak periods of volatility, through highs and lows:

We can see in the above chart that the VIX skyrocketed in 2020 and 2008 at the height of recession fears.

By contrast market volatility hit all-time lows during 2017, when corporate profitability was high and the S&P 500 was in the middle of the second-longest bull run in history:

When investors have muted reactions to the market’s outlook, often market volatility is lower—reflecting mixed reactions to the market instead of a unanimous, surprise reaction to economic data or other factors that could sway investor behavior.

2023’s Volatility in Context
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In June, the VIX declined to 12.9, the lowest point since January 2020. Since then, it has hovered near these levels as investors scale back recession fears, and factor in the likelihood of the U.S. economy achieving a soft landing. To date, the S&P 500 is up almost 17%.

Many factors are influencing the market’s relative calmness. Inflation has been moderating, falling at 3.7% in August, down from a peak of 9.1% seen in June last year.

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Mapped: The Migration of the World’s Millionaires in 2023

​Mapping the Migration of the World’s Millionaires 2023
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Just like everyone else, High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) traveled less than usual during the pandemic, and as a result their migration numbers trended downwards. But millionaires and billionaires are on the move again and it is anticipated that 122,000 HNWIs will move to a new country by the end of the year.

Henley & Partners’ Private Wealth Migration Report has tracked the countries HNWIs have moved from and to over the last 10 years; this map showcases the 2023 forecasts.

In this context, HNWIs are defined as individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million USD.

The Countries Welcoming New Millionaires
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The top 10 countries which are likely to become home to the highest number of millionaires and billionaires in 2023 are scattered across the globe, with Australia reclaiming its top spot this year from the UAE.

Here’s a closer look at the data:

Only two Asian countries make the top 10, with the rest spread across Europe, North America, and Oceania.

Despite historic economic challenges, Greece is projected to gain 1,200 High Net Worth Individuals this year. One reason could be the country’s golden visa program, wherein wealthy individuals can easily obtain residence and eventually EU passports for the right price—currently a minimum real estate investment cost of 250,000 euros is all that’s required.

Many of the leading millionaire destinations are attractive for wealthy individuals because of higher levels of economic freedom, allowing for laxer tax burdens or ease of investment. Singapore, which expects to gain 3,200 millionaires, is the most economically free market in the world.

The Countries Losing the Most Millionaires
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China is anticipated to lose 13,500 High Net Worth Individuals this year, more than double as many as the second place country, India (6,500).

Here’s a closer look at the bottom 10:

In a number of these countries, strict regulatory bodies and corrupt governments can hinder the ease with which HNWIs can manage their own money.

In Russia, many wealthy individuals are facing personal tariffs and trade restrictions from Western countries due to the war in Ukraine. China’s crackdowns on Hong Kong have made it a less attractive place for business.

Read details below

Ranked: The World’s 50 Top Countries by GDP, by Sector Breakdown

​Visualized: The Three Pillars of GDP, by Country
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Over the last several decades, the service sector has fueled the economic activity of the world’s largest countries. Driving this trend has been changes in consumption, the easing of trade barriers, and rapid advancements in tech.

We can see this in the gross domestic product (GDP) breakdown of each country, which gets divided into three broad sectors: services, industry, and agriculture.

The above graphic from Pranav Gavali shows GDP by country, and how each sector contributes to an economy’s output, with data from the World Bank.

Drivers of GDP, by Country
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As the most important and fastest growing component of GDP, services make up almost 60% of GDP in the world’s 50 largest countries. Following this is the industrial sector which includes the production of raw goods.

Below, we show how each sector contributes to GDP by country as of 2021:

Industrial sector includes construction. Agriculture sector includes forestry and fishing. *Data as of 2019.

In the U.S., services make up nearly 78% of GDP. Apart from Hong Kong, it comprises the highest share of GDP across the world’s largest economies. Roughly 80% of American jobs in the private sector are in services, spanning from healthcare and entertainment to finance and logistics.

Like America, a growing share of China’s GDP is from services, contributing to almost 54% of total economic output, up from 44% in 2010. This can be attributed to rising incomes and higher productivity in the sector as the economy has grown and matured, among other factors.

In a departure from the top 10 biggest countries globally, agriculture continues to drive a large portion of India’s GDP. India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat and rice, with agriculture accounting for 44% of the country’s employment.

While the services sector has grown in India, it makes up a greater share in other emerging economies such as Brazil (58%), Mexico (59%), and the Philippines (61%).

Growth Dynamics
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Services-led growth has risen faster than manufacturing across many developing nations, underpinned by productivity growth.

This structural shift is seen across economies.

Read details below

Charted: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers in 2022

​Charted: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers in 2022
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In 2022 oil prices peaked at more than $100 per barrel, hitting an eight-year high, after a full year of turmoil in the energy markets in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Oil companies doubled their profits and the economies of the biggest oil producers in the world got a major boost.

But which countries are responsible for most of the world’s oil supply? Using data from the Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute, we’ve visualized and ranked the world’s biggest oil producers.

Ranked: Oil Production By Country, in 2022
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The U.S. has been the world’s biggest oil producer since 2018 and continued its dominance in 2022 by producing close to 18 million barrels per day (B/D). This accounted for nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

Almost three-fourths of the country’s oil production is centered around five states: Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, and Colorado.

We rank the other major oil producers in the world below.

Behind America’s considerable lead in oil production, Saudi Arabia (ranked 2nd) produced 12 million B/D, accounting for about 13% of global supply.

Russia came in third with 11 million B/D in 2022. Together, these top three oil producing behemoths, along with Canada (4th) and Iraq (5th), make up more than half of the entire world’s oil supply.

Meanwhile, the top 10 oil producers, including those ranked 6th to 10th—China, UAE, Iran, Brazil, and Kuwait—are responsible for more than 70% of the world’s oil production.

Notably, all top 10 oil giants increased their production between 2021–2022, and as a result, global output rose 4.2% year-on-year.

Major Oil Producing Regions in 2022
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The Middle East accounts for one-third of global oil production and North America makes up almost another one-third of production. The Commonwealth of Independent States—an organization of post-Soviet Union countries—is another major regional producer of oil, with a 15% share of world production.

What’s starkly apparent in the data however is Europe’s declining share of oil production, now at 3% of the world’s supply.

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Charting the Depths: The World of Subsea Cables

​Charting the Depths: The World of Subsea Cables
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Data may be stored in the “cloud,” but when it comes to sending and receiving data, a lot of that action is actually happening along the depths of the ocean floor.

Hidden beneath the waves, these subsea cables account for approximately 95% of international data transmission.

These maps, by Adam Symington, use information from TeleGeography to show the distribution of subsea cables around the planet.

Wired for Connectivity
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It’s estimated that there are nearly 1.4 million kilometers (0.9 miles) of submarine cables in service globally. They ensure emails, content, and calls find their way, linking colossal data centers and facilitating worldwide communication.

Currently, there are 552 active and planned submarine cables:

Submarine cables harness fiber-optic technology, transmitting information via rapid light pulses through glass fibers. These fibers, thinner than human hair, are protected by plastic or even steel wire layers.

Cables usually have the diameter of a garden hose, but often with added armor near the shore. Coastal cables are buried under the seabed, hidden from view on the beach, while deep-sea ones rest on the ocean floor.

Length varies widely, from the 131-kilometer CeltixConnect cable, connecting Dublin, Ireland, and Holyhead, UK, to the sprawling 20,000-kilometer Asia America Gateway cable, connecting San Luis Obispo, California, to Hawaii and Southeast Asia:

Asia America Gateway. Image: TeleGeography

With the current technology, cables are designed to last 25 years at least but are often replaced because of damage. Nearly two-thirds of cable damage is caused by fishing vessels and ships dragging anchors.

The Bottom Line
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Traditionally dominated by telecom carriers, the makeup of the subsea cable market has shifted over more recent decades. Tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon now heavily invest in new cables.

With data demand surging, at least $10 billion is expected to be invested in subsea cables worldwide between 2022 and 2024, driven by cloud service providers and content streaming platforms.

Even with the growth of satellites in telecom, cables still can carry far more data at a much lower cost than satellites. In fact, according to TeleGeography, satellites account for less than 1% of all U.S. international capacity.

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Who Owns the Most Satellites?

​Who Owns the Most Satellites?
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Nearly 7,000 satellites orbit the Earth, serving vital functions such as communication, navigation, and scientific research.

In 2022 alone, more than 150 launches took place, sending new instruments into space, with many more expected over the next decade.

But who owns these objects? In this graphic, we utilize data from the Union of Concerned Scientists to highlight the leaders in satellite technology.

SpaceX’s Dominance in Space
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SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is unquestionably the industry leader, currently operating the largest fleet of satellites in orbit—about 50% of the global total.

The company has already completed 62 missions this year, surpassing any other company or nation, and operates thousands of internet-beaming Starlink spacecraft that provide global internet connectivity.

Starlink customers receive a small satellite dish that self-orients itself to align with Starlink’s low-Earth-orbit satellites.

 
Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.In second place is a lesser-known company, British OneWeb Satellites. The company, headquartered in London, counts the UK government among its investors and provides high-speed internet services to governments, businesses, and communities.

Like many other satellite operators, OneWeb relies on SpaceX to launch its satellites.

Despite Starlink’s dominance in the industry, the company is set to face intense competition in the coming years. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to deploy 3,236 satellites by 2029 to compete with SpaceX’s network. The first of the fleet could launch as early as 2024.

The Rise of China’s Space Program
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After the top private companies, governments also own a significant portion of satellites orbiting the Earth. The U.S. remains the leader in total satellites, when adding those owned by both companies and government agencies together.

American expenditures on space programs reached $62 billion in 2022, five times more than the second one, China.

China, however, has sped up its space program over the last 20 years and currently has the highest number of satellites in orbit belonging directly to government agencies. Most of these are used for Earth observation, communications, defense, and technology development.

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Mapped: Most Searched-For Electric Vehicles by Country

​The Most Searched-For Electric Vehicles By Country
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The EV revolution has been in full swing over the last few years, with new electric vehicles reaching milestones in range and affordability.

But as with traditional automobiles, countries around the world have different favorite models.

So which electric vehicle is each country’s inhabitants interested in? GRIDSERVE pulled together a database of the most searched-for electric vehicles by country in 2022.

Using Google Keyword Planner, they gathered the volume of online searches for 317 EVs across more than 200 countries and mapped the most popular results in each location.

The Most Googled Electric Vehicles By Country in 2022
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Lexus’ first fully electric car, the Lexus RZ, was the most searched-for model in a whopping 47 countries, more than one-fifth of the entire dataset.

The car’s unusual steering—a yoke that isn’t physically connected to the tires—could certainly make it worth a quick Google to see what all the fuss is about.

The Tesla Model 3 came in strong at second place as the top search in 35 countries, with the Kia EV6 ranked third.

Here’s the full database of the most searched for EV in each country, along with the search volume.

Aside from popular global brands, GRIDSERVE’s database also highlights regional automakers. For example, Croatian manufacturer Rimac Automobili’s Nevera was the most highly searched-for electric vehicle in multiple Balkan countries. In India, the country’s own Tata Nexon dominated search volume.

And Vietnamese brand VinFast’s electric vehicles were the top EVs of interest in neighboring Cambodia and 12 other countries across the world (though not Vietnam itself, which searched more for the Lexus RZ).

In China, where Google isn’t the most-used search engine, results favored the Tesla Model 3. But Tesla was distinctly outsold by Chinese automaker BYD in 2022.

It’s also worth noting that most of the top searches were for a sedan or crossover SUV, but not all. In the British crown dependencies Guernsey and Isle of Man, the most searched EVs were an electric minivan (Guernsey) and van (Isle of Man).

The Most Googled Electric Vehicle In the U.S.

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200 Years of Global Gold Production, by Country

​Visualizing Global Gold Production Over 200 Years
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This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.

Although the practice of gold mining has been around for thousands of years, it’s estimated that roughly 86% of all above-ground gold was extracted in the last 200 years.

With modern mining techniques making large-scale production possible, global gold production has grown exponentially since the 1800s.

The above infographic uses data from Our World in Data to visualize global gold production by country from 1820 to 2022, showing how gold mining has evolved to become increasingly global over time.

A Brief History of Gold Mining
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The best-known gold rush in modern history occurred in California in 1848, when James Marshall discovered gold in the Sacramento Valley. As word spread, thousands of migrants flocked to California in search of gold, and by 1855, miners had extracted around $2 billion worth of gold.

The United States, Australia, and Russia were (interchangeably) the three largest gold producers until the 1890s. Then, South Africa took the helm thanks to the massive discovery in the Witwatersrand Basin, now regarded today as one of the world’s greatest ever goldfields.

South Africa’s annual gold production peaked in 1970 at 1,002 tonnes—by far the largest amount of gold produced by any country in a year.

With the price of gold rising since the 1980s, global gold production has become increasingly widespread. By 2007, China was the world’s largest gold-producing nation, and today a significant quantity of gold is being mined in over 40 countries.

The Top Gold-Producing Countries in 2022
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Around 31% of the world’s gold production in 2022 came from three countries—China, Russia, and Australia, with each producing over 300 tonnes of the precious metal.

North American countries Canada, the U.S., and Mexico round out the top six gold producers, collectively making up 16% of the global total. The state of Nevada alone accounted for 72% of U.S. production, hosting the world’s largest gold mining complex (including six mines) owned by Nevada Gold Mines.

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Mapped: How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?

​How Much Does it Take to be the Top 1% in Each U.S. State?
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There’s an old saying: everyone thinks that they’re middle-class.

But how many people think, or know, that they really belong to the top 1% in the country?

Data from personal finance advisory services company, SmartAsset, reveals the annual income threshold at which a household can be considered part of the top 1% in their state.

Some states demand a much higher yearly earnings from their residents to be a part of the rarefied league, but which ones are they, and how much does one need to earn to make it to the very top echelon of income?

Ranking U.S. States By Income to Be in the Top 1%
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At the top of the list, a household in Connecticut needs to earn nearly $953,000 annually to be part of the one-percenters. This is the highest minimum threshold across the country.

In the same region, Massachusetts requires a minimum annual earnings of $903,401 from its top 1% residents.

Here’s the list of all 50 U.S. states along with the annual income needed to be in the 1%.

California ($844,266), New Jersey ($817,346), and Washington ($804,853) round out the top five states with the highest minimum thresholds to make it to their exclusive rich club.

On the other end of the spectrum, the top one-percenters in West Virginia make a minimum of $367,582 a year, the lowest of all the states, and about one-third of the threshold in Connecticut. And just down southwest of the Mountain State, Mississippi’s one-percenters need to make at least $381,919 a year to qualify for the 1%.

A quick glance at the map above also reveals some regional insights.

The Northeast and West Coast, with their large urban and economic hubs, have higher income entry requirements for the top 1% than states in the American South.

This also correlates to the median income by state, a measure showing Massachusetts households make nearly $90,000 a year, compared to Mississippians who take home $49,000 annually.

How Much Do the Top 1% Pay in Taxes?
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Meanwhile, if one does make it to the top 1% in states like Connecticut and Massachusetts, expect to pay more in taxes than other states, according to SmartAsset’s analysis.

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Charted: What are Retail Investors Interested in Buying in 2023?

​Charted: Retail Investors’ Top Picks for 2023
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U.S. retail investors, enticed by a brief pause in the interest rate cycle, came roaring back in the early summer. But what are their investment priorities for the second half of 2023?

We visualized the data from Public’s 2023 Retail Investor Report, which surveyed 1,005 retail investors on their platform, asking “which investment strategy or themes are you interested in as part of your overall investment strategy?”

Survey respondents ticked all the options that applied to them, thus their response percentages do not sum to 100%.

Where Are Retail Investors Putting Their Money?
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By far the most popular strategy for retail investors is dividend investing with 50% of the respondents selecting it as something they’re interested in.

Dividends can help supplement incomes and come with tax benefits (especially for lower income investors or if the dividend is paid out into a tax-deferred account), and can be a popular choice during more inflationary times.

Meanwhile, the hype around AI hasn’t faded, with 36% of the respondents saying they’d be interested in investing in the theme—including juggernaut chipmaker Nvidia. This is tied for second place with Total Stock Market Index investing.

Treasury Bills (30%) represent the safety anchoring of the portfolio but the ongoing climate crisis is also on investors’ minds with Renewable Energy (33%) and EVs (27%) scoring fairly high on the interest list.

Commodities and Inflation-Protection stocks on the other hand have fallen out of favor.

Come on Barbie, Let’s Go Party…
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Another interesting takeaway pulled from the survey is how conversations about prevailing companies—or the buzz around them—are influencing trades. The platform found that public investors in Mattel increased 6.6 times after the success of the ‘Barbie’ movie.

Bud Light also saw a 1.5x increase in retail investors, despite receiving negative attention from their fans after the company did a beer promotion campaign with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Given the origin story of a large chunk of American retail investors revolves around GameStop and AMC, these insights aren’t new, but they do reveal a persisting trend.

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What’s Driving U.S. Stock Market Returns?

What’s Driving U.S. Stock Market Returns?
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In many ways, U.S. stock market returns in 2023 have defied expectations. Strong U.S. economic activity, a robust labor market, and consumer spending have helped spur investor optimism. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 is up roughly 12%.

Given this unexpected strength, the above graphic, sponsored by New York Life Investments, explores key factors fueling stock market returns in 2023.

Market Breadth
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Generally speaking, the concept of market breadth shows how many stocks are participating in the rise or fall of an index.

Wider Breadth: More stocks are rising, often indicating lower risk as gains are widespread. 
Narrower Breadth: Fewer stocks are rising, potentially presenting higher risk as gains have a steep impact on the index.

Earlier in 2023, just seven stocks drove virtually all of the S&P 500’s returns. By July, the top 10 companies made up 34% of its gains. Here’s how S&P 500 market breadth compares to historical trends:

YearPercent of Stocks Outperforming theS&P 500 Index2023*25%202257%202148%202033%201946%201845%201743%201651%201547%201452%201352%201247%201148%201058%200959%200849%200745%200649%200551%200457%200354%200261%200167%200063%199931%199829%199742%199642%199540%Source: Bloomberg Finance LP, 06/20/2023. *Data as of June 12, 2023.

While market breadth has been very narrow so far this year, the good news is that it has improved with gains spreading across a growing number of sectors.

Top S&P 500 Sectors
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In 2023, the following sectors are driving market returns. Number have been rounded:

S&P 500 SectorYTD Return5-Year Annualized ReturnCommunication Services+44%+8%Information Technology+43%+19%Consumer Discretionary+33%+8%Industrials+10%+7%S&P 500 Index+18%+9%Source: S&P Global, 08/31/2023.

Big tech stocks have powered the market’s rise, supported by the AI frenzy. Additionally, strong consumer spending has helped lift the Consumer Discretionary sector.

Overall, we can see the top three performing sectors are cyclical, meaning they rise and fall with the business cycle.

Corporate Earnings
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Even with many companies beating earnings expectations, year-over-year S&P 500 profits declined 5.2% in Q2 2023, its worst performance since 2020.

Below, we show how earnings growth breaks down by sector. Numbers have been rounded.

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