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NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . In today's big story, we're looking at how the latest GDP data has shifted the expectations of where the economy is headed. Now, the economy will need some type of event (see: bubble popping) for rate cuts to become an option anytime soon, Miskin said. Energy price shocks could bring the world economy to a "vulnerable moment," chief economist Indermit Gill warned.
Persons: , TikTok, they're, you'd, Jia Feng, It'll, Insider's Madison Hoff, It's, Jerome Powell, Anna Moneymaker, BI's Filip De Mott, Jamie Dimon, Matt Miskin, Miskin, Mark Zuckerberg, C, Cox, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Goldman Sachs, Guess what's, Indermit Gill, Alphabet's, Redmond, Tyler Le, Doug McMillon, execs, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Business, Service, Reserve, stagflation, JPMorgan, Wall Street, John Hancock Investment Management, Galatioto Sports Partners, Bank, Google, Big Tech, Microsoft, Health, Linkedin, YouTube, ExxonMobil Locations: Chevron, New York, London
They don't replace the tech giants — they just get bought by the tech giants. A new paper by two leading scholars suggests that these days, Big Tech doesn't have to resort to buyouts to crush aspiring startups. At this point, Big Tech looks at promising startups the way evil alien empires in science fiction look at helpless planets. The data that Big Tech shares — or doesn't share — can play an instrumental role in shaping a startup's work. Finally, the big companies use their clout on Capitol Hill in an effort to impose stricter regulations on the startups they're ostensibly trying to help.
Persons: that's, That's, Joe Biden, Mark Lemley, Matt Wansley, they're, Wansley, Who, Lemley, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Barbara Ortutay, Florian Ederer, Elon Musk, OpenAI, Marc Andreessen, watchdogs, Ederer, Anthropic, Adam Rogers Organizations: Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Federal Trade Commission, Justice Department, Big Tech, Stanford University, Cardozo School of Law, Google, Facebook, Star, Yale, London Business School, Tech, Boston University, titans, IBM, Dells, Business Locations: Silicon Valley,
Some VCs are over the Sam Altman hype
  + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +8 min
In late 2023, when OpenAI sought $300 million from investors, CEO Sam Altman chose a different approach. In some corners of this clubby world, over $7 coffee and artisanal cocktails, the meteoric rise of OpenAI and Sam Altman is giving way to an inevitable backlash. "He's a kingmaker," a Silicon Valley startup founder and angel investor who knows Altman. Sam Altman and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment. A certain somethingMany of the VCs who spoke with BI said Altman has a certain something.
Persons: , OpenAI, Sam Altman, Altman, they'd, I've, Ali Ghodsi, Altman's, Ghodsi, Steve Jobs's, Paul Graham, he's, Sam, Jack Altman, It's, it's, Elon, Alexander the Great, Adam Neumann Organizations: Service, NEA, Business, Altman's, The Washington Post, The, YC, BI, WeWork Locations: Sequoia, Silicon Valley, The, San Francisco
Rep. Mike Gallagher, center, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, speaks at a news conference following a GOP caucus meeting at the Republican National Committee offices in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28, 2023. He is joined by fellow Republicans Rep. Elise Stefanik, left, and Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Sequoia Capital China, Qualcomm Ventures and three other venture capital firms plowed at least $3 billion into Chinese tech companies that support Beijing's military and its repression of minorities in Xinjiang, a U.S. congressional report alleged on Thursday. Reuters could not reach the venture capital firms for comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Persons: Mike Gallagher, Elise Stefanik, Steve Scalise, Biden Organizations: Chinese Communist Party, Republican National Committee, Washington , D.C, Sequoia Capital China, Qualcomm Ventures, Representatives, Republican, GGV, GSR Ventures, Walden International, U.S, Embassy Locations: Washington ,, Sequoia Capital, Xinjiang, U.S, China, People's Republic of China, Washington
That's far less than in the previous years — the share of U.S. dollars in total VC funds raised was around 15% for the years 2018 to 2021, the data showed. China investments, China exitsWashington and Beijing in 2022 resolved a long-standing audit dispute that reduced the risk of Chinese companies having to delist from U.S. stock exchanges. "With U.S. IPOs no longer being a viable exit strategy for China assets, investors should target local exits in their respective capital markets—in other words, China exits for China assets, and U.S. exits for overseas assets," Liao said. The 20 largest VC deals for China-headquartered companies in 2013 were predominantly in e-commerce and software services, according to PitchBook data. ... the venture capital scene has become even more state-concentrated and focused on government priorities.
Persons: China’s renminbi, Athit Perawongmetha, Kyle Stanford, China —, Liao Ming, Stocks, Liao, Didi, Beijing's, Camille Boullenois Organizations: Reuters, Reuters BEIJING — Venture, Liao Ming, U.S, Sequoia, Prospect, Capital, New York Stock Exchange Locations: U.S, Bangkok, Thailand, Reuters BEIJING, China, Sequoia, Washington, India, Japan, Greater China, Beijing, New York, Hong Kong, U.S . Washington
The startup Robin AI, recently closed its Series B funding round, which Singapore investment company Temasek led. Headquartered in London, Robin uses Anthropic's latest large language model, Claude 2.1, and offers an "AI co-pilot" to help lawyers draft and revise contracts. The startup raised a $10.5 million Series A in January 2023 and a $2.5 million seed round in 2021. Although funding for legal tech startups fell in 2023, according to Crunchbase, a handful of startups have raised new rounds of cash. Check out the eight-slide pitch deck Robin used to raise its $26 million Series B funding round.
Persons: Robin, Claude 2.1, Richard Robinson, Robinson, Darrow Organizations: Business, Temasek, AFG Partners, Google Locations: Singapore, London, what's, Asia
VCs threatened to sue OpenAI's board, and some jockeyed to get in on whatever new situation might replace the fizzled startup. And in OpenAI's case, Altman was brought back as CEO and all the employees stayed. AdvertisementUntil this moment, the consensus was that Altman came through this crisis looking even more powerful and crucial to OpenAI's future. 'The company will be totally fine without me'Silicon Valley just realized that the fate of the world's most important AI company rested in the hands of just one person. The startup's near-death experience unsettled the companies and developers that have come to rely on OpenAI's artificial intelligence platform.
Persons: OpenAI, Altman, , Sam Altman, VCs, OpenAI's, Wesley Chan, Claude, Guillermo Rauch, Rauch, pinged Rauch, , Bret Taylor, Madeline Renbarger Organizations: Service, Microsoft, FDIC, FPV Ventures, Google, Services Locations: Silicon Valley, It's
The Hugging Face website on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. "We should encourage all companies to build on disruption-proof AI technology that only open source can offer." To be clear, big bets made on open source AI pre-date last Friday when news first broke of Sam Altman's removal as OpenAI CEO, and those bets include an open source AI model controlled by one dominant tech company, Meta Platforms ' Llama. Open source and AI governanceFormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt is behind Mistral AI, another open source rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT. A third open source AI startup, Poolside AI, recently pulled in $126 million co-led by French telecom and internet billionaire Xavier Niel and U.S. VC firm Felicis Ventures.
Persons: Gabby Jones, Eric Schmidt, Sam Altman, Microsoft —, Mike Gualtieri, Forrester, Marc Benioff, Delip Rao, Sam Altman's, Thomas Wolf, We've, Wolf, Linus Torvalds, Paul Drews, OpenAI's, Arthur Mensch, Mistral, Xavier Niel Organizations: Nvidia, Bloomberg, Getty Images Tech, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Twitter, Google, Meta, IBM, Intel, Sequoia Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Mistral, alums, Lightspeed Venture Partners, French, . VC, Felicis Ventures Locations: New York, France
He opposed Stability's argument that it should be able to train AI using copyrighted works for free. Generative AI models like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion are trained using enormous amounts of information scraped from the internet, including art, song lyrics, and books. "To be clear, I'm a supporter of generative AI. The fact that criticisms like Franceschelli's are now being echoed by the people actually building generative AI models suggests that Newton-Rex's resignation could be a defining moment for AI. "I'm sure I'm not the only person inside these generative AI companies who doesn't think the claim of 'fair use' is fair to creators.
Persons: Ed Newton, Rex, , Newton, I've, Andreessen Horowitz, Giorgio Franceschelli, Franceschelli, it's, Rex's, I'm Organizations: Service, Stability, Meta, Google, Business
More importantly buyers – in the form of private equity firms – are starting to line up. "Growth is clearly harder so we'll see a lot of M&A because PE funds are trying to grow their business and so are looking at early-stage tech businesses." This increased interest means private equity is set to play an enlarged role in Europe's startup ecosystem. Rollups, where private equity firms buy up a bunch of small businesses in an industry and consolidate them into a larger company, are also on the acquisition hunt. Crucially, private equity funds are unlikely to approach deals for companies that are not yet profitable, or unlikely to become so in the short term.
Persons: Alex Prokofjev, Claire Trachet, It's, Pedro Barros Organizations: Business, Venture, Bain, KKR, PE, Target Locations: London, Paris
SoftBank-backed gifting startup Sendoso laid off an undisclosed number of employees in its latest round of job cuts on Tuesday. This is the fourth time in the last 16 months that Sendoso has axed its headcount: the marketing startup in June 2022 laid off around 100 employees from its then 700-employee workforce, Insider previously reported . Sendoso most recently raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Better, which went public in August via a long-delayed SPAC deal, conducted another round of layoffs last month . Do you have information about job cuts at tech startups?
Persons: Sendoso, SoftBank, it's, , Samantha Stokes, Madeline Stone Organizations: LinkedIn, U.S, Sendoso, SoftBank Vision, Greensill, Stock Locations: Ireland, sstokes@insider.com, mstone@insider.com
REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado/ Acquire Licensing RightsOct 3 (Reuters) - The global cryptocurrency market remains badly scarred following the tumultuous collapse of crypto exchange FTX and other big players last year, with crypto prices, volumes and venture capital investment well below their 2021 peaks. BITCOIN BLUESBitcoin, by far the biggest cryptocurrency and the chief barometer for crypto market sentiment, has bounced back about 37% since Nov. 1. Reuters Image Acquire Licensing RightsCRUMBLING MARKET CAPAfter peaking at $3 trillion in November 2021, the value of the overall crypto market plummeted through 2022, hitting a two-year low of $796 billion as FTX imploded. Yet the relative calm in crypto markets is not necessarily a good thing, said some market participants, noting that many investors are attracted to crypto precisely because of its volatility, which offers opportunities to make quick profits. Reuters GraphicsVC CRYPTO BETS TUMBLEVenture capital (VC) investments flooded into crypto during its boom year of 2021, and even through 2022.
Persons: Damian Williams, Samuel Bankman, David, Dee, Delgado, Sam Bankman, FTX, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, bitcoin, Ben Laidler, Usman Ahmad, Anders Kvamme Jensen, Robert Le, CCData, Noelle Acheson, Hannah Lang, Elizabeth Howcroft, Tom Wilson, Michelle Price, Andrea Ricci Organizations: REUTERS, Capital, Silvergate Bank, BlackRock, Reuters, Zodia, Chartered, Reuters Graphics, U.S, Venture, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, New York, Singapore, London, Washington
Insider Today: Big banks are screwed
  + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +8 min
It's the latest example of the pressure big banks are under to keep their place atop Wall Street. Before the announcement, the bank's share price was down almost 9% this year, trailing all of its fellow big bank peers in the US except Bank of America. Citi's overhaul represents how big banks are scrambling to stay on top of a financial world passing them by. CEO Jamie Dimon recently quipped he "wouldn't be a big buyer of a bank" in reference to proposed regulations requiring big banks to keep more money on the sidelines. Whether it's fintechs or so-called shadow banks, there's no shortage of players looking to offer services previously dominated by big banks.
Persons: that'll, isn't, Mike Kemp, Insider's Jennifer Sor, Jane Fraser, Fraser, Fraser isn't, she's, Michael Corbat, Citi's reorg, Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, Rebecca Ungarino, Wells, Charlie Scharf, JPMorgan — isn't, Jamie Dimon, it's, Robert Nickelsberg, Morgan Stanley, — isn't, Arantza Pena Popo, Nicole Zaridze, Elon Musk, Post Malone, , Hunter Biden, Garrett Ziegler, Paul Morigi, Biden's, Joey Hadden, I've, Dan DeFrancesco, Naga Siu, Hallam Bullock, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Service, Citigroup, Getty, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Independence, Apple, Post, SEC, Trump, Wikimedia, Motors, Ford, Nintendo Locations: Wall, Silicon, Seattle, New York City, China, Boxabl, Michigan, San Diego, London, New York
Founders say VCs are increasingly demanding detailed data and visibility into their startups before considering a deal. But some in the industry say that for early stage startups, a reliance on data can create an illusion of certainty. Half a dozen early stage startup founders tell Insider that gone are the days when a good idea and flashy pitch deck were enough to close a deal. He described it as looking for "the golden playbook for investing in early stage startups." For his part Hasan says that when speaking to potential investors, he views an obsession with financials and data as a red flag.
Persons: Miguel Guerrero, Guerrero, He's, Fahad Hassan, Hasan, Keyvan Firouzi, Firouzi, Jason Calacanis, it's, Dorothee Grant, Avante Price, James Cham, Cham, Hassan Organizations: IRL, Activant, Stanford, Carta, Investors, Bloomberg Beta Locations: New York
Fintech funding has been on a decline from 2021's peak levels, but VCs see signs of a rebound. VCs are itching to get back to dealmaking as they see early signs of a rebound in the fintech industry. Cash-strapped founders who didn't want to fundraise in a down market and get valuations slashed are running out of options and time. They dominated the fintech market in the past several years, but the shine is wearing off, Shriner said. Fintech VCs will get to spend more time on due diligence, looking beyond so-called "vanity metrics," Fernandez said.
Persons: Cash, didn't, Mark Peter Davis, Davis, We're, Tripp Shriner, Robert Ruark, Ruark, B2C, VCs, Shriner, — crowdedness, Stephanie Choo, Marcos Fernandez, KPMG's Ruark, Fintech, Fernandez Organizations: Interplay, Investors, Point72 Ventures, KPMG, Tiger, Portage Ventures, Fiat Ventures Locations: dealmaking, VCs, overvaluations
They named drug discovery and the emerging 'techbio' sector as areas of interest. COVID-19 fueled huge interest in health-tech startups, with VCs pouring a record $25.1 billion into health and biotech startups in 2021. Startups in the space are bringing new applications of tech to fields such as drug discovery, bioengineering, and patient care. VCs are still betting on drug discoveryEven though funding into drug discovery startups has significantly stalled this year, at just $126 million, startup valuations have picked up since 2022. Health-tech VCs won't splurge cashWhile COVID-19 did give healthtech startups a chance at the spotlight, they were still overshadowed by their counterparts in fintech and software-as-a-service.
Persons: techbio, healthtech Organizations: Morning, VCs, pharma, Big Pharma Locations: fintech, Munich, Germany, Europe
Startups are facing a "Mass Extinction Event" — and most people can't even see it. That's according to Tom Loverro, a general partner at IVP, who said: "The Mass Extinction Event for startups is underway." In our full analysis, we dive even deeper into this "Mass Extinction Event," including signs that can be gleaned from the fates of WeWork, Zume, and Plastiq. Investors shut out of traditional funding rounds are finding another way to snap up shares in buzzy AI startups. In an email to Twitter employees, Linda Yaccarino said it's her mission to turn Twitter into "the world's most accurate real-time information source."
Persons: Hallam Bullock, Alistair Barr, Melia Russell, Tom Loverro, Loverro, spigot, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk Pascal Le Segretain, Michael M, Elon, Bezos, Andreessen Horowitz, Read, they're, Steve Jobs, Linda Yaccarino, it's, Matt Mikka's, YouTuber, we've, Shona Ghosh Organizations: London . Venture, Getty, Venture, Tech, Twitter, Tesla Locations: London, San Francisco
Startups raised a ridiculous amount of money in recent years through 2021. Startup failure rate is beginning to increase, from artificially low levels in 2021, and there could be a wave of capitulation in the next year where an unusually large number of startups shut down. There was a frenzy of investment, where startups raised massive amounts of money and some businesses got funding that maybe shouldn't have. The money spigot has run dryNow, the money spigot has run dry (except if you're an AI startup). There was so much money raised in recent years that startups have a lot of runway to survive.
Persons: Tom Loverro, Klarna, Loverro, VCs, spigot, pare, We'll, Melia Russell Organizations: Venture, Street Journal, Tiger Global
The pair chose to reinvest their earnings, and lessons from their experiences, in burgeoning creators through an accelerator fund. "The right creators are good and investments," said McLaughlin, who is co-CEO of Mythical Entertainment. They both have a vision to grow their business and to lead their business," McLaughlin said. VC firm Slow Ventures has also launched a creator fund and has taken a keen interest in the business of those in the creator economy. Providing creators like Mogilko with capital gives them the ability to grow quickly at a time when they can leverage their existing social media virality.
Alex Iosilevich, Kevin Tsujihara, and Jeff Bewkes raised $360 million to invest in media, entertainment, and gaming. "Today it's television, tomorrow it's virtual reality," Alex Iosilevich, a longtime media banker and investor, told Insider. The trio announced April 27 that they raised $360 million for their first private equity fund to invest in media, entertainment, and gaming companies. Bewkes was chairman and CEO of Time Warner; he left as part of AT&T's 2016 acquisition of the company. With the market for subscription-based streaming services getting saturated, streaming companies will have to look more aggressively for new audiences through overseas expansion, ad-supported tiers, and new entertainment content.
Alex Iosilevich, Kevin Tsujihara, and Jeff Bewkes raised $360 million to invest in media, entertainment, and gaming. "Today it's television, tomorrow it's virtual reality," Alex Iosilevich, a longtime media banker and investor, told Insider. The trio announced April 27 that they raised $360 million for their first private equity fund to invest in media, entertainment, and gaming companies. And Iosilevich's resume includes more than a decade of media dealmaking at UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays. With the market for subscription-based streaming services getting saturated, streaming companies will have to look more aggressively for new audiences through overseas expansion, ad-supported tiers, and new entertainment content.
Google, Amazon, Meta, and other tech companies have monetized confusion, constantly testing how much they can interfere with and manipulate users. Abandoning the core productIn the 2000s and early 2010s, tech companies actually produced new, interesting products. This fueled Silicon Valley's explosive growth: Companies saw their valuations soar, revenue growth was exponential, and new users were joining by the boatload. There are ways to integrate new technology into a core product that doesn't end in disaster. Netflix was able to iterate on their core product — letting people watch movies — in a way that actually made that experience better.
It's just over a week from Federal regulators announcing they would be bailing out depositors of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Now, the FDIC said Sunday that New York Community Bancorp's Flagstar Bank will take on nearly all of Signature Bridge Bank's deposits. Credit Suisse, whose problems long preceded SVB's downfall, to be fair, is getting acquired by Swiss rival UBS. Silicon Valley Bank was the bank for tech. The people backing venture capitalists, known as limited partners, share their thoughts on how VCs handled the crisis at Silicon Valley Bank.
Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse have stolen most of the headlines, but between others like First Republic Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank, there's plenty to digest. People walk by the New York headquarters of Credit Suisse on March 15, 2023 in New York City. The scandal-hit lender has been feeling the pain since Silicon Valley Bank sparked the bank crisis. Venture capitalists have never been more divided, with accusations flying over who killed their beloved Silicon Valley Bank. Bank of America strategists laid out 23 names that still offer upside despite the drag of SVB and Credit Suisse.
Big banks to the rescue
  + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +6 min
Goldman Sachs' decision to charge employees for coffee might not be that outrageous after all! The largest US banks — headlined by Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo — just pledged a total of $30 billion in deposits to First Republic Bank. As detailed in a release announcing the news, the 11 banks, which also included Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, believe the move "demonstrates their overall commitment to helping banks serve their customers and communities. I can't imagine the big banks looking to pull the rug out from First Republic four months from now, but this money was a deposit, not a donation. Read more about how big banks came to the rescue of First Republic with $30 billion in deposits.
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