Technology
The Industrial Internet of Things as the Next Big Growth Driver?
The Industrial Internet of Things as the Next Big Growth Driver?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is often marketed as a consumer-based technology phenomenon that will combine the potential of low-cost sensors and big data with wide-scale internet connectivity.
The promise of this consumer-focused vision of IoT is to change how we interact with daily objects in our lives. When people talk about the IoT, they often bring up ideas such as the connected home, automobiles, or health – concepts that will change how we live on a personal level.
But flying under the radar is a less sexy sub-sector of the IoT that could ultimately prove to be the most transformative – the marriage of the internet of things with industrial applications such as mining, oil and gas, infrastructure, aviation, locomotives, cities, farming, manufacturing, and power generation.
It’s been coined the “Industrial Internet of Things” (IIoT) by giants like GE, AT&T, Cisco, Intel, and IBM– and today’s infographic from RS Components shows that the economic growth stemming from this industrial internet revolution could be game-changing.
Industrial Internet of Things
The opportunity behind the IIoT is massive, and it’s measured in the trillions of dollars.
GE, for example, expects that by 2030 that it will add $10 to $15 trillion to global GDP, and that it could raise average income significantly throughout the world.
Like previous industrial revolutions, the IIoT will allow for greater automation of previously human-intensive work, creating greater productivity per man-hour invested.
Some potential applications:
Smart Farming: Making use of the vast amounts of information from crop yields, soil-mapping, fertilizer applications, weather data, machinery, and animal health, to improve yields and cut costs in the modern farming environment.
Smart Manufacturing: Using the industrial internet to create a fundamental shift in how products are invented, manufactured, shipped and sold. Intelligent networks will power the value chain – connecting people, processes and data and generating new best practices.
Smart Cities: Cities could stand to benefit significantly from connecting people, processes, data, and things together. City assets such as libraries, transportation systems, power plants, water supply networks, waste management systems, law enforcement, hospitals and other community services could feed off each other. Local governments will understand what is happening on micro and macro levels, and how the city is evolving.
Smart Energy: Power generation can be improved by combining sensors, big data, and connectivity. Imagine wind farms that make slight mechanical adjustments to capitalize on the small changes in wind velocity or direction, to be more efficient – this is only scratching the surface of what is possible.
Markets
Charted: What are Retail Investors Interested in Buying in 2023?
What key themes and strategies are retail investors looking at for the rest of 2023? Preview: AI is a popular choice.

Charted: Retail Investors’ Top Picks for 2023
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?
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.
Investment Strategy | Percent of Respondents |
---|---|
Dividend Investing | 50% |
Artificial Intelligence | 36% |
Total Stock Market Index | 36% |
Renewable Energy | 33% |
Big Tech | 31% |
Treasuries (T-Bills) | 31% |
Electric Vehicles | 27% |
Large Cap | 26% |
Small Cap | 24% |
Emerging Markets | 23% |
Real Estate | 23% |
Gold & Precious Metals | 23% |
Mid Cap | 19% |
Inflation Protection | 13% |
Commodities | 12% |
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…
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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