PAID CONTENT

THIS CONTENT WAS PAID FOR BY AN ADVERTISER. THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF NASDAQ, INC. LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES.

Innovation
Answered

Uncover how some Invesco QQQ companies are answering their industries' biggest questions with innovations that are defining the future.

Health Care
Reimagined Play

A New Era of Health Care: The Trends and Technologies Reshaping an Industry

Over the last few years, we have experienced what some call a golden age for health care, as new medical innovations flourish at an unprecedented rate of growth. Hundreds of billions of dollars¹ are being invested into research and development (R&D), once again filling the pipeline with potentially life-changing technologies and treatments.

As we move into this new era of health care, three areas are attracting attention from innovators, inventors and investors: robotic-assisted surgery, computational pathology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and next-generation genetic sequencing.

Robotic-Assisted
Surgery

When the first robotic arms debuted on automotive assembly lines in the 1960s, they were crude instruments capable of performing just a few repetitive tasks.

Today’s robots are anything but. Having made the leap from factories to hospitals, robotic arms are saving lives in the operating room. Robotic-assisted surgery, or RSA, gives surgeons more flexibility, control and precision.

This area is innovating rapidly, particularly with “single-port” surgery. By requiring a single incision, single-port surgery reduces the risk of infection in patients, causes them less pain and speeds their recovery.² Intuitive Surgical, a company founded over 25 years ago, is seeing great success with its da Vinci SP system. Used by surgeons in over 10 million procedures³, it is proving especially helpful for head and neck surgeons and urologists, whose work involves very narrow areas.

Robotic-assisted surgery (RSA) is also central to the rapidly advancing business of telesurgery, also known as remote surgery. Working from a high-definition view of the patient, surgeons can control robotic arms remotely from their computer. Telesurgery is not only bringing quality medical care to remote populations; it’s also saving lives on the battlefield.

Advanced telesurgery also relies on cutting-edge advancements in medical imaging technology and integrated workflow platforms. The Edison AI Orchestrator from GE HealthCare, for example, provides shared, secure, cloud-based access to medical images, which can help reduce friction and speeds decision-making in clinical, diagnostic and surgical environments.

AI-Based
Computational Pathology

Since pathology’s earliest days in the 1800s, cancer has been diagnosed by analyzing tissue samples on slides. This hasn’t changed much in 200 years. What has changed in recent years, however, is who’s looking at the samples. Or, rather, what: More and more, AI is diagnosing cancer.

Powered by AI, computational pathology (CPATH)⁴ is transforming how laboratories and diagnostic centers work.⁵ Using advanced pattern recognition, machine learning and other powerful AI technologies, cancer and other diseases can be diagnosed far more quickly and affordably than by the proverbial human hand.

Of course, the industry is well aware that artificial intelligence is only as good as its source data. AstraZeneca is using big data to train its AI-powered digital pathology technology. The goal is twofold: to enhance patient selection for treatments and trials and to create more personalized treatments for cancer and other diseases.⁶ In the 12 months ending in June 2023, AstraZeneca’s R&D totaled more than $10 billion.⁷

Computational pathology is also leading to increased interconnectivity in health care; no matter their geographic location, researchers can immediately exchange and compare findings, and even collaborate simultaneously. Much of this is made possible by advances in command center and digital portal technologies, including those produced by GE HealthCare.

Next-Generation Genetic Sequencing

Some kids decide to become scientists while staring up at the stars on a clear summer night. Others become fascinated by what’s inside us: the cells, molecules, even specific strands of DNA that help determine the individual.

Consider: Building upon the standard and traditional DNA sequencing technologies developed in the late 1970s, next-generation genetic sequencing is a 21st-century innovation that is transforming how medical science diagnoses, treats and even prevents many diseases. Cancer researchers, for instance, are detecting tumors earlier with help from powerful, new next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. On the prescriptive side, genetic insights are helping patients make highly personal decisions on their reproductive health journeys.⁸

Next-generation genetic sequencing also plays an important role in monitoring for infectious disease outbreaks. By helping to identify novel pathogens, NGS may help prevent the next global pandemic.⁹

Traditionally, NGS has been costly and time-consuming. However, commercial platforms, such as those from Illumina, are making the technology more widely available. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, for instance, is using insights from sequencing to go after novel targets and in some cases is even using CRISPR gene-editing technology to treat diseases, including with the first approved CRISPR-based medicine, CASGEVY, and Amgen is creating new drug treatments from biological sources.

Next-generation genetic sequencing helps power these innovations.

As the health care industry continues to evolve, the continued innovation coming from leading companies in the space will reshape the future of the industry.

¹ “U.S. R&D Increased by $51 Billion in 2020 to $717 Billion; Estimate for 2021 Indicates Further Increase to $792 Billion,” National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 11/28/23.
² “Single-Port Surgery,” Cleveland Clinic, 11/28/23.
³ “Intuitive reaches 10 million procedures performed using da Vinci Surgical Systems,” Intuitive, 12/14/21.
⁴ “Computational pathology definitions, best practices, and recommendations for regulatory guidance: a white paper from the Digital Pathology Association,” National Library of Medicine, 11/28/23.
⁵ Cui, M., Zhang, D.Y., “Artificial intelligence and computational pathology,” Lab Investigation, 101, 412–422, (2021), 11/28/23.
⁶ “Transforming cancer diagnostics with computational pathology,” AstraZeneca, 12/9/22
⁷ “AstraZeneca Research and Development Expenses 2010-2023”, MacroTrends, 11/28/23.
⁸ “Illumina Sequencing Methods,” Illumina, 11/28/23.
⁹ “Illumina Sequencing Methods,” Illumina, 11/28/23.

Cyber
Safety Play

From Defense to Deterrence: Three
Ways AI is Transforming Cybersecurity

Judging by the headlines, 2023 will be remembered as the Year of Artificial Intelligence. From chatbots to writing assistants, machine learning to digital art, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we work, play and create.

Artificial intelligence is also transforming another industry: cybersecurity. Using powerful new AI platforms and tools, cybersecurity experts are building innovative tools to preemptively identify and defeat malware, safeguard information technology (IT) supply chains and secure our digital networks and devices.

Disarming Malware Before It Attacks

As more of our devices connect to the internet — and to each other — potential points of entry for criminals grow in number and complexity. Cybersecurity experts call such entry points an attack surface: vulnerabilities that allow hackers to insert malicious software, or malware.

With new, more powerful types of malware being detected every day, top cybersecurity experts are turning to artificial intelligence to identify, isolate and neutralize threats before they cause any harm.

Consider zero-day exploits, when cybercriminals use previously undocumented vulnerabilities to penetrate systems without warning. Because these vulnerabilities, by definition, are unknown to researchers and cybersecurity professionals, malware carrying a zero-day payload is largely immune to traditional cyber defenses such as antivirus software and signature detection.

These exploits are big business. In fact, most major security breaches in recent years can be traced to zero-days, and they’re the malware weapon of choice for State-sponsored actors.

Armed with new, AI-powered cybersecurity tools, researchers have successfully predicted zero-day malware attacks by flagging previously unseen relationships and threat patterns. The results are promising — Palo Alto Networks reports that Nova, the latest version of their network security software, can stop 26% more such attacks than traditional digital sandboxing.¹

Safeguarding IT Supply Chains for Everyone

Oil, grain, auto parts, toilet paper and most other tangible goods are moved around the world using highly complicated supply chains. Like their physical counterparts, IT supply chains are complex and vulnerable to disruption and attack.

At issue? Upstream software components, typically housed on a cloud server and delivered via third-party service providers.

That’s not to say software development kits, APIs (application programming interfaces) and other third-party code sources are inherently bad; indeed, most modern apps can’t operate without them. But the prevalence of third-party code makes it more important than ever to verify that cloud-sourced software is free from contaminants.

The risks include ransomware, spyware, viruses and other malware, as well as human errors such as buggy code and incorrect hardware configurations. One line of bad code may seem benign, but even a single typo can be catastrophic to a downstream environment of client machines and networks.

Here, again, artificial intelligence is driving innovation. It’s now possible for security experts to identify and manage supply chain risks before they reach client networks. Always-on AI-based tools essentially X-ray all inbound software for malware, errors and other items of concern. Given a clean bill of health, secure apps are issued an NTIA-compliant software bill of materials² – essentially, a stamp of approval, issued by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, that all components have been verified as safe – and the AI continues to monitor for ongoing compliance.

In the event of a breach, the same AI can immediately isolate compromised code and shunt it away from the network at large, avoiding or reducing downtime for the downstream environment.

Securing Digital Devices at the Edge

As a buzzword, “Internet of Things” (IoT)³ has cooled in recent years, but we are in fact surrounded by IoT, just as the experts predicted. Internet-enabled phones, tablets, alarm systems, TVs and medical devices fill our homes, and most modern industrial processes depend on IoT devices.

These digital environments, known as “edge computing,” are particularly vulnerable to cyberattack. At home, we may fail to follow best “cyber hygiene” practices by reusing passwords, for example. In the field, when devices are overlooked during security audits, their outdated firmware can accumulate vulnerabilities.

With edge computing, the list of potential attack vectors is nearly endless.

Fortunately, it’s now possible to deploy artificial intelligence to handle these edges. Cisco’s Edge Intelligence product suite, for example, helps safeguard IoT and multi-cloud environments on local networks, closer to the action, even on the devices themselves. Similarly, Qualcomm’s EA5165N, known as “Gloria,” is a high-performance AI edge box designed for on-premise processing. These and other edge-based AI products help neutralize threats before they can penetrate an organization’s central network.

With these collective cybersecurity innovations, companies continue to reimagine how to protect their organizations, data and more.

¹ 1 Palo Alto Networks press release, “Palo Alto Networks Announces PAN-OS 11.0 Nova to Keep Organizations One Step Ahead of Zero Day Threats,” 11/16/2022
² National Telecommunications and Information Administration
³ The network of physical objects that have the ability to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet

Engines of Innovation Play

The Next Chapter
of Semiconductor Innovation

Globally, the value of the semiconductor industry is expected to reach $1 trillion¹ by 2030. That’s because semiconductors are the backbone of modern life. Conspicuously, they’re inside our laptops, smartphones and TV sets. They’re also responsible for many of the most important innovations in clean energy, artificial intelligence and medical science.

Looking ahead at the impact of this evolving technology, here’s where to expect some of the most significant innovations — and how Nasdaq-100 companies are driving those shifts.

Clean Energy

By harnessing, converting, storing and moving electricity at increasingly efficient rates, semiconductors are vital to the growth of renewable energy. Solar panels, for example, rely on these microchips, as do electric vehicles and their charging stations.

Texas Instruments is proving to be a leader in embedded processing for innovative electric vehicle (EV) systems. For example, in October 2022, TI debuted an EV charging station reference design using the AM62 family of Arm-based processors. This family of low-cost, lower-power processors enables critical features such as embedded intelligence, graphics and display support. With these features, AM62 processors can help automotive engineers continue to innovate their EV designs that include human-machine interfaces.

Innovations in clean energy are also accelerating within the semiconductor industry itself. To improve recyclability and reduce overall electronic waste, Intel is working on reducing the size of main boards and incorporating more bio-based printed circuit boards. The company has set a goal for the next-generation Falcon Shores chip to deliver five times the performance per watt and client and server microprocessors to be 10 times more energy efficient by 2030.

If the industry wishes to truly lead, however, it must also address carbon emissions in the manufacturing process. Here, Intel is setting new standards for innovation. Over the past decade, the California-based chipmaker has improved its carbon intensity by reducing direct emissions; in the second quarter of 2022, the company announced plans to invest $300 million to improve energy efficiencies at production facilities. This is one of many ways Intel plans to achieve its overarching goal: net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Artificial Intelligence

If the past decade was defined by advancements in mobile technology, the future belongs to artificial intelligence. Nearly every industry, in one way or another, will benefit from AI-powered tech such as machine learning and natural language processing.

To deliver the processing power required by these algorithms, semiconductor designers must develop entirely new architectures.

Advanced Micro Devices is well known for its graphics cards and premium PC processors that are perennial favorites among gamers. But it’s AMD’s family of EPYC data center processors and Instinct accelerators that is driving the innovation in AI. Powering many of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, AMD products are being used to push the boundaries of scientific discovery in areas like energy, climate research and vaccine research and development using AI. For example, the fastest supercomputer in the world, the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is powered by AMD technology and using cutting edge AI to analyze viruses² at the molecular level.

AMD is uniquely positioned help customers across industries develop and deploy applications with multiple forms of AI, due to its broad product portfolio and experience serving embedded markets. At CES 2023³, the company detailed new products that broaden its AI product portfolio from the device to the edge and the cloud, including the first dedicated AI hardware in an x86 processor, a new AI inference accelerator and the first data center APU for AI and high performance computing.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is another industry that benefits enormously from silicon. The rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT)⁴, in particular. By incorporating highly sophisticated sensors and intelligent cameras into manufacturing processes, IoT-enabled devices can help companies cut costs across the board.

Qualcomm is among the top innovators in this field. Their application processors are purpose-built to integrate smart digital appliances with industrial equipment and advanced robotics, which helps manufacturers spot inefficiencies and bottlenecks at even more granular levels. On-device intelligence, powered by the Qualcomm AI Engine, can actually help predict machinery failures before they occur.

The same fast, power-efficient and highly connective technologies used in Qualcomm Technologies’ suite of Snapdragon platforms are at the center of their solutions designed to advance areas such as manufacturing. Their platforms for IoT are optimized for high-performance, low-power computing and on-device AI processing to power a new era of intelligent, connected products such as smart cameras for monitoring production lines, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and more.

Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced wireless connectivity technology will also play an essential role in creating smarter factories. Their latest tech innovations and partner initiatives enable end-to-end 5G private networks by bringing powerful 5G performance together with streamlined deployment and operation. These networks will provide ultra-responsive and ultra-reliable connections to enable intelligent automation and real-time data access across operations.

Looking further ahead, Qualcomm Technologies will benefit from growing opportunities in extended reality, or XR, which refers to virtual reality, augmented reality and other immersive, digital experiences. For manufacturers, XR can help⁵ reduce human error, assist during training and upskilling, and foster collaboration between workers. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 5G Platform is the first XR platform to put the power of artificial intelligence and 5G into a single solution. And the company’s Snapdragon AR2 platform will unlock a new generation of sleek, highly capable glasses to help accelerate new spatial computing experiences, positioning it perfectly in the marketplace for manufacturers who are investing in their digital futures.

¹ McKinsey article, “The semiconductor decade: A trillion-dollar industry,” 4/1/2022
² AMD + Ornel case study, “ORNL CoMet team explores complex biological systems with AMD InstinctTM GPUs”
³ AMD press release, “AMD Highlights Future of High-Performance and Adaptive Computing During Opening Keynote of CES 2023,” 1/4/2023
⁴ The network of physical objects that have the ability to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet
⁵ Infopulse article, “The Place of Extended Reality in Digital Transformation Strategy for Manufacturing: Use Cases and Benefits,” 6/16/2022

Innovation Answered