It may be a long time before you can own a truly self-driving car. But chipmakers are placing bets that you will. On Tuesday, the Japanese chipmaker Renesas, the second-largest provider of semiconductors for the automotive industry, said it will acquire San Jose based chipmaker Integrated Device Technology (IDT) for $6.7 billion, in part to prepare for autonomous vehicles. IDT has not historically provided chips for cars, but it does have sensor and wireless technologies that could help Renesas compete in the market for chips for autonomous vehicles. "Renesas and IDT have complementary technologies," says Objective Analysis analyst Jim Handy.

The trio of phones will boast other features, such as facial-recognition technology, but their display size stands out--their average screen area, without accounting for a facial-recognition system that juts into the top of the display, is 23% larger than last year's three new phones and 28% bigger than the two models unveiled in 2016. Note: Screens on iPhone X and newer have facial-recognition systems that cut into the display. At a time when people are buying fewer new phones, bigger size brings two advantages. It helps Apple buoy prices and profit margins because it can sell larger phones at a greater markup than it pays suppliers for the larger screens. And it encourages people to use their phones more, helping momentum of Apple's services business, which includes app-store sales and subscriptions to video services like Netflix and HBO.

Corporate earnings are set to rise more than 20%. Productivity gains in excess of 5% of global GDP are possible. And $650 billion of new industrial spending is likely. It examines how advances in information technology are tilting the landscape. Spoiler alert: Investors need to get ready.

Graphics processor maker NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) recently reported its second-quarter fiscal 2019 results, with some fantastic outcomes. The company's total sales were up 40% from the year-ago quarter to $3.12 billion, which outpaced analysts' consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. NVIDIA's earnings of $1.76 per share also surpassed Wall Street's expectations of $1.66 per share and were up 91% year over year. Management has done a fantastic job of growing the company's top line, and the second quarter was no exception -- sales from the company's data center, gaming, professional visualization, and automotive segments all set records. To understand NVIDIA's growth and what investors can expect in the months ahead, we have to look beyond the numbers, though.

Above the Trend Line: your industry rumor central is a recurring feature of insideBIGDATA. In this column, we present a variety of short time-critical news items grouped by category such as M&A activity, people movements, funding news, financial results, industry alignments, customer wins, rumors and general scuttlebutt floating around the big data, data science and machine learning industries including behind-the-scenes anecdotes and curious buzz. Our intent is to provide you a one-stop source of late-breaking news to help you keep abreast of this fast-paced ecosystem. We're working hard on your behalf with our extensive vendor network to give you all the latest happenings. Be sure to Tweet Above the Trend Line articles using the hashtag: #abovethetrendline.

The healthcare ecosystem is experiencing seismic shifts stemming from new socio-economic realities, a new science landscape, and the consumerization of healthcare--all being rapidly pushed forward by advances in data, digital and technology. Incumbents have a tremendous opportunity to lead the market into a new era focused on truly delivering more effective, efficient and affordable healthcare. AI can help you generate insights from vast amounts of data in real-time, creating new intelligence that can power innovative patient treatments, better care, more efficient operations and new business growth. And as one of the largest health and life sciences professional services providers globally, we can deliver increased speed-to-value through innovative contracting, partnerships, and scalable AI- and analytics-powered services. Expand business growth through improved medication adherence and patient retention (e.g., through our Patient Experience Manager)

The global insurance industry will grow more strongly than the global economy in 2018 and 2019, Munich Re predicts in its latest outlook. "This year and next, we expect global premium to grow by more than €460 billion in all. This is equivalent to average annual premium growth of 5.3% (in real terms, i.e., adjusted for inflation: 3.7%), whereas global GDP is expected to grow by only 4.9% (3.3% in real terms). Life insurance, in particular, looks set to return to strong annual premium growth of 5.6% (3.9% in real terms) after a weak 2017. Property-casualty insurance is benefiting from the currently favorable economic environment. In this segment, we are expecting annual growth rates of close to 5% (3.3% in real terms). Emerging countries are the primary growth drivers, but somewhat stronger growth rates in high-volume industrialized countries are also contributing to this positive development."

Roundup Here's your quick roundup of AI news beyond what we've already written about this week. Crypto-mining is bust for Nvidia: Nvidia reported strong growth in its second quarter financial results, emitted this week, in areas expected like the data center and gaming – but not for cryptocurrency mining. The demand for GPUs grew 40 per cent from last year to account for $2.66bn in sales, we're told. Popular online titles such as Fortnite and PUBG have helped Nvidia in the gaming department, which grew 52 per cent in terms of revenue to $1.8bn. The boom in deep learning is also accelerating its data center business by 83 per cent, to $760m, where its graphics cards are used as math accelerators.

Owning a car means having the freedom to venture at your own pace… it also means a great deal of expenses, and surprisingly a study found that it might be cheaper to Uber in these major cities than to own a car. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has brought Uber back to basics, refocusing on delivering profitable ride-hailing. Uber wants to be more than your first choice for a ride-sharing service: It wants to infiltrate your life, just as Amazon does. The ride-hailing company, now nine years old, is generating revenue growth, and reinvesting that into a variety of expansive ventures – from scooters and bikes to flying taxis. Uber generated $2.8 billion in revenue last quarter, up 63 percent from the same period a year ago when revenue was about $1.7 billion.

The San Francisco-based company's second-quarter revenue rose 63% from the prior year to $2.8 billion, while gross bookings, a measure of the overall demand for its ride and delivery services, jumped 41% to about $12 billion, according to a financial statement released by Uber. The company narrowed its loss to $891 million in the second quarter from $1.1 billion a year ago. The loss was, however, wider than the $550 million loss in the first quarter of this year, not including a $3 billion gain from the sales of its southeast Asian and Russian operations. The company is spending more money on new businesses such as food delivery and scooters, according to an Uber spokesman. Mr. Khosrowshahi, who replaced ousted Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick last August, has worked to cut expenses at the ride-hailing company in preparation for an initial public offering. This year, he has sold divisions such as the money-losing U.S. car leasing business to Fair.com and its southeast Asian operations to rival Grab Inc.