H&M uses the "Moneyball" strategy

The moth-eaten shirt wasn't a hit in Europe... For decades, H&M designers visited fashion shows and flipped through glossy magazines to spot what was on trend, then bulk-ordered cheaper versions for their stores. The result: the same “fast-fashion” styles delivered to H&M's nearly 5,000 stores, cookie-cutter style. That worked (until it didn’t).

• Wasted fabric: The cover-all-bases approach missed for many shoppers, leading to billions of dollars in unsold clothes piling up. H&M sales shrank the past 2 years, and shares plummeted 51% in the last 5 years.
• Discount rack: H&M had to aggressively slash prices (and even burn clothes it couldn't sell, donate, or Secret-Santa away).

Data = dollas... On Monday, H&M announced it's on track to increase profits for the first time in 4 years, thanks to a huge strategy shift. A couple years ago, H&M stepped up its analysis game, hiring hundreds of data scientists to help make savvier predictions of what clothes go to each store. American shoppers probably aren't into the same rompers as Russian shoppers are.

Multi-generational success is rare... The Celtics, Yankees, and Jedi all achieved it. Intel's sound logo reminded us during every commercial that Intel was inside our computers. But as PC sales disappeared, Intel is searching for its second wave of profits. So it just swiped its corporate card for a $2B acquisition of Israeli startup Habana Labs.

• 2016: Habana hid in "stealth mode" for 2 years, attracting $120M from venture capital to fund under-the-radar research and development.
• 2018: Habana unveiled Goya, a chip that processes almost 4x faster than NVIDIA, the market leader.
• Right now: Habana's spearheading Intel's efforts to power data centers with fancy machine learning (more on those below).

Machines can learn... courtesy of chips made of silicon. As the world puts all its computer files on Google Drive, iCloud, and Amazon Web Services, tech companies need to organize that data ASAP. Picture this: Search "dog" in your photos folder:

• The results are actually the pictures you took of dogs.
• Your phone's software learned that a 4-legged object with a sloppy tongue who's always smiling is a dog.
• Intel thinks this type of artificial intelligence powering will become a $25B industry by 2024.

• Beyond Pork: Tyson pumps out chicken nuggets — now it's been cleared to export chicken parts unpopular in the US (like feet) to China after a 5-year ban
• Ship-for-Tat: Amazon bans its sellers from using FedEx for ground shipments because it claims to be worried about FedEx's ability to deliver the holiday load on-time
• Join 'Em: Uber is reportedly selling its Uber Eats biz in India to a local competitor for a hearty $400M — if you can't beat 'em, implement the "Dominate or Exit Strategy"
• Accused: Apple, Google, and Tesla were 3 of the companies sued for contributing to child labor deaths in Congolese cobalt mines (it's a critical metal component in lithium ion batteries)
• Grounded: Boeing is America's biggest manufacturing exporter — shares fell 4% on official word that it's halting production of the 737 Max until it gets re-approved to actually carry humans

• Earnings from FedEx and Steelcase

Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Amazon, Uber, Alphabet, Tesla, and Apple.

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