January 10th Newsletter

Before we unpack this week’s actions, click here for our deck highlighting the financials from selected public companies.

Happy New Year! Here's to a strong start in 2025. JPMorgan is mandating full office returns, following similar moves by AT&T and Amazon. In the Macro lens, November's job market hit a six-month high in openings, particularly in Business Services. Employers added 256K jobs in December and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.1%. Meanwhile, the LA wildfires have forced 360K evacuations, scorched 29K acres, and could become the most expensive wildfire event in history, with costs reaching $57 billion. An East Coast port strike was averted with a new agreement, easing supply chain concerns. On the tech front, Apple resolved its $95M Siri privacy lawsuit, and Meta pivoted by dropping Fact-Checking and appointing Joel Kaplan as global policy head to deepen political ties. In AI, Blackstone committed $300M to DDN, a leader in AI-driven data intelligence, reflecting the sector's ongoing momentum, which saw $56B in funding across 885 deals last year.

We have a new section (scroll down) covering CES Highlights. Check it out!

We have recently published a new series called Company Spotlight, please access it here and let us know if you have any companies that you would like to see next.

Top 5 AI highlights

[1] 🤖 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman states that OpenAI is close to achieving AGI. By 2025, he foresees AI agents reshaping the workforce. Beyond AGI, OpenAI targets superintelligence to spur progress. Committed to safety, it seeks a gradual rollout to benefit society. Despite the growth, OpenAI is losing money on its $200 ChatGPT Pro plan, reporting $5 billion in losses against $3.7 billion in revenue. Having raised $20 billion, it eyes price hikes for profitability, projecting revenue of $11.6 billion for 2025 and $100 billion by 2029. Read more of the Blog and details on the loss.

[2] 💡 Chinese startup Deepseek has built a cutting-edge AI model, Deepseek-V3, for just $5.6 million, challenging tech giants like Google and OpenAI. Scoring 80/100 on AI benchmarks, it rivals top models, excelling in coding (92%) and math (85%). Using a Mixture of Experts (MoE) design, it trained efficiently on 2,048 GPUs over 57 days, redefining the traditional costly approach to training LLMs. This breakthrough highlights a shift toward resource-efficient AI development, enabling smaller firms to compete with established players and reshaping the AI landscape. Learn more on Substack.

[3] 🏢 Microsoft will invest over $80 billion in AI-enabled data centers globally in fiscal 2025, with over half for U.S. projects. The plan supports AI infrastructure, workforce training, and U.S. leadership in AI. Microsoft aims to train 2.5 million Americans in AI skills in 2025, addressing workforce readiness and inequality. It advocates public-private collaboration and global partnerships to compete with China. Elsewhere, Microsoft paused the second phase of a Wisconsin data center for review. Amazon plans an $11 billion expansion in Georgia, while Trump announced a $20 billion foreign investment for new U.S. data centers.  See more on Microsoft, Amazon, and Trump’s announcement.

[4] 💰 Anthropic, led by Lightspeed, is raising $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $15.7 billion, making it the 5th most valuable startup. This follows Amazon’s $4 billion investment in November 2024. With rivals like Elon Musk’s xAI recently raising $6 billion, LLM developers are in a heated race to secure funding for compute-intensive AI advancements. Anthropic’s partnership with Amazon Web Services underscores efforts to scale quickly and remain competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Details on TechCrunch.

[5] 🖼️ Getty Images’ $3.7 billion acquisition of Shutterstock merges two struggling giants to combat AI’s disruption of the visual content industry. With Getty losing 73% and Shutterstock 50% of their market value since 2022, the deal consolidates resources to drive efficiency and profitability. By combining Getty’s expansive content library with Shutterstock’s contributor platform, the merger aims to restore growth and relevance. More on Bloomberg.

Founder’s Corner

Half of startup M&A exits were at a super early stage!

What we read and listened to this week

• A survey by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday revealed that 41% of employers plan to downsize their workforce as AI automates tasks, while 77% aim to reskill workers by 2030. (WEF)

  

  Top Fastest Growing and Declining Jobs for 2024

• Avataar’s AI tool, Velocity, automates product video creation from links, empowering brands like HP and Lowe's with scalable, high-quality storytelling, signaling AI's transformative role in e-commerce and marketing (TechCrunch)

• BG2POD features Dylan Patel on the AI Semiconductor landscape (YouTube)

• China-linked hackers infiltrated U.S. infrastructure and telecom networks, raising cybersecurity and geopolitical concerns. (WSJ)

• Disney merges Hulu+ Live TV with Fubo, gaining a 70% stake; Fubo stock jumps 250% after the announcement. (CNBC)

• Howard Marks released a new memo this week sharing his thoughts about whether current market conditions constitute a bubble. (OakTree)

• JCPenney merges with Forever 21 owner, forming $9B Catalyst Brands with 1,800 stores inclusive of brands Aeropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Forever 21, Lucky Brand (CNN)

• McDonald’s launches new “McValue” menu, featuring a “Buy One, Add One for $1” deal, including breakfast items, to attract budget-conscious customers amid rising prices. (CNN)

• Nvidia invested $1B in AI startups in 2024, boosting growth while facing antitrust scrutiny. (FT)

• Stanford University launched STORM, an AI tool for generating Wikipedia-like reports with citations, aiding students, researchers, and creators. (Stanford)

Special Section: AI’s role at CES 2025

[1] Haliday Glasses: “Proactive” AI assistant and a near-eye display that shows information directly in the user’s field of view

[2] Nvidia: 

• Cosmos: Family of open-source foundational AI models that can be used to train humanoids, industrial robots, self-driving cars

• Data center super chip: powered by 72 Balckwell GPUs, 1.4 exFLOPS computing power, and 130 billion transistors.

• Project DIGITS: a $3,000 personal AI supercomputer capable of running 200B parameter AI models

[3] Omi: An AI wearable friend companion that can listen to, summarize, and get information out of your conversations by monitoring brain waves.

[4] Omnia: A 360 degrees AI-powered body-scanning health mirror, that scans the heart, lungs, sleep, body, and metabolic composition.

[5] Samsung Vision AI: Turn your TV into an interactive AI Assistant

[6] Sony and Honda Afeela: EV with a Level 2-plus driver assist and AI-powered in-car assistant

[7] TCL AI Me: World’s first modular AI companion robot

AI M&A and Fundraising news (Dec 20 — Jan 8)

• Anthropic: AI research company, in talks to raise $2B at a $60B valuation.

• Blackflip: generative AI startup, raised $30M.

• Boon: AI tools for commercial fleets, raised $20.5M.

• Carecode: Brazilian healthcare AI startup, raised a $4.3M Pre-Seed.

• Decart: GenAI research lab, raised $32M.

• Deciphex: AI-powered digital pathology, raised €31M.

• Fazeshift: AI agent for accounts receivables, raised a $4M Seed.

• Fermata: AI-power pest detection, raised a $10M Series A.

• Grove AI: Clinical trial management and intelligence, raised a $4.9M Seed.

• Hippocratic AI: AI tools for Healthcare professionals, raised a $141M Series B.

• Imagoworks: An AI digital dentistry solution provider, raised a $15.6M Series C.

• Jentic: AI integration layer startup, raised a $4.3M pre-seed round.

• Jones: AI-driven insurance risk management, raised a $15M Series B

• KoBold Metals: AI for copper exploration startup, raised a $537M Series C.

• Mili: AI-powered meeting assistant for Wealth Management, raised a $2M seed.

• Mindgard: AI security startup, raised $8M.

• OmniOps: AI infrastructure technology provider, raised $8M.

• Rembrand: AI platform for virtual product placement, raised a $23M Series A.

• SoSoValue: AI-driven platform for Crypto, raised a $15M Series A SAFE round.

• Tenor: AI-driven leadership development platform, raised a $5.4M Seed

• VitVio: AI-driven platform uses computer vision for surgery, raises a $2M Pre-Seed.

• xAI: AI research company, raised a $6B Series C.