November 15th Newsletter

Stocks rose consecutively post-election until Tuesday, Bitcoin topped $90,000 for the first time Wednesday as a result of Trump’s pro-crypto agenda, and the U.S. dollar jumped to a one-year high. The October CPI reports a 0.3% increase over last month raising the 12-month core CPI rate by 3.3%, and the October PPI reports a +2.4% YoY rise. As Trump assembles his second-term team, he announced Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a slight nod to the meme cryptocurrency. Tesla, following Trump’s re-election, reaches its trillion-dollar label again. Lately, as a result of setbacks in performance for the next version of ChatGPT, Claude, and other LLM models, developers have shifted focus to post-training performance rather than pre-training performances.

"In 15 days, ChatGPT will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of its public debut"

Top 5 AI highlights

[1] 🚀 OpenAI's new AI agent, Operator, which is expected to be launched in January, signals a shift toward action-oriented tools—a direct competitor to Claude Computer Use, which was released 3 weeks ago. With traditional LLMs facing setbacks, developers are pursuing agents that handle real tasks, like booking flights, on behalf of users. This showcases OpenAI’s effort to deliver practical, hands-on AI applications. Read more here.

[2] 🤖 X is rolling out its AI chatbot Grok to free users. Users can make limited queries with the Grok-2 models and access image analysis. This expansion aims to increase Grok’s user base and enhance competition with other models. More information here.

[3] 📚 Google’s NotebookLM, the AI-powered note-taking service, has seen explosive growth with user numbers jumping 300% in September alone and 201% in October. Launched in July 2023, the tool helps users collect and analyze research data in summary and podcast form, making it popular among students and researchers. Details here.

[4] 💻 Amazon Web Services (AWS) is offering $110 million in credits for researchers to use its custom AI chip, Trainium, in cloud data centers. In addition, it plans to publish Trianium’s instruction set architecture so customers can program the chips directly which is what Nvidia’s chips need. Lastly, Amazon will likely launch its in-house AI inferencing chip Inferentia later this year. More here.

[5] 🦾 Salesforce plans to hire 1,000+ workers to sell its new generative AI product, Agentforce, which launched two weeks ago. The tool, priced at $2 per conversation, automates tasks like customer support and sales development, competing with companies like Microsoft and ServiceNow. Read here.

Founder’s Corner

Insights from Chris O’Neill, former CEO of Evernote

What we read and listened to this week

• 23andMe to cut 40% of the workforce and halt therapy development amid falling revenue and security breaches. (WSJ)

• Chegg’s downfall accelerates as students flock to ChatGPT, the stock price is down 99% since its highs in 2021. (Sherwood)

• Chipotle appoints Scott Boatwright as permanent CEO, previously serving as interim CEO, aiming for growth amid challenging consumer demand. (CNBC)

• Mattel pulled “Wicked” fashion dolls after packaging misprints directed customers to inappropriate websites instead of the movie site. (CNBC)

• Meta Fined €798M by EU for Anti-Competitive Practices. (FT)

• Southwest Airlines offers employee buyouts at 18 airports due to Boeing delivery delays and staffing adjustments. (BBG)

• Venture capital faces pressure as investors seek returns; private equity increasingly buying tech firms generating liquidity for investors. (WSJ)

• Wonder Group, led by Marc Lore, will buy Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway for $650 million. Just Eat Takeaway previously bought Grubhub in 2020 for $7.3 billion. (Axios)

Special Section: Q3 Earnings Highlights

• Disney's stock rose 9% after reporting a +14% YoY rise in revenue and becoming the first film studio to cross $4 billion globally in 2024. (CNBC)

• Home Depot’s quarterly sales grew 6%, driven by an acquisition and hurricane-related demand. (CNBC)

• Sony reports Q2 revenue up 9% YoY to ~$19.45B, operating profit up 73% YoY to ~$2.96B, and PS5 sales at 3.8M units. (AP News)

• Spotify shares surged 7%, after surpassing gross margin expectations with +31.1% YoY and has achieved 640 million monthly active users. (WSJ)

• Shopify reported Q3 revenue growth of +26% YoY, with $2.162 billion, and a +24% YoY on Gross Merchandise Volume. (CNBC)

AI M&A and Fundraising news

November 13:

• Workflow: Automated design software startup, raised a $3M pre-seed round.

November 12:

• Deeproute: Autonomous driving system developer, raised a $100M funding round.

• Fastino: Specialized AI models for businesses, raised a $7M pre-seed round.

• LocalStack: Local-cloud development environments, raised a $25M Series A round.

• Lume AI: Data mapping automation, raised a $4.2M seed round.

• PointFive: Cloud cost optimization startup, raised a $20M Series A round.

• Pond: Decentralized AI startup, raised a $7.5M seed round.

• ScaleOps: Cloud resource management, raised a $58M Series B round.

• Writer: Generative AI platform for enterprises, raised a $200M Series C round at a $1.9B valuation.

• Vatn Systems: Autonomous underwater vessel development, raised a $13M seed round.

November 11:

• Acai Travel: Platform assisting customer service agents at travel agencies and hotels, raised a $4M seed round.

• Cogna: AI for enterprise software writing, raised a $15M Series A round.

• Conflixis: Data and risk intelligence for hospitals, raised a $4.2M seed round.

• Deckmatch: AI analysis of startup pitch decks, raised a $3.1M seed round.

• Northflank: Simplified cloud app deployment and management, raised a $16M funding round.

November 8:

• GMI Cloud: AI-based GPU cloud services, raised an $82M Series A round.

• Embed Security: AI-powered security alert investigation, raised a $6M funding round.

• Ulysses: Developer of autonomous underwater drones, raised a $2M pre-seed round.

• UnifyApps: Unified Enterprise AI Agent platform, raised a $20M Series A round.

• Upwind: Tools to secure cloud infrastructure, raising a $100M Series B at an $850M-$900M valuation.

Attached to this email, you’ll find a summary of this week’s highlights and the financial performance of select public companies, providing you with a snapshot of recent market movements.