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☆ Elon Musk and 'anti-Biden brain trust' bonded at exclusive Hollywood Hills dinner, report says
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewElon Musk, at an exclusive April dinner, commiserated with a group of billionaires about their distrust in Democratic politicians like Joe Biden, according to a new report by Puck. The outlet reported that Musk and venture capitalist David Sacks hosted the private event at Sacks' $23 million estate in the Hollywood Hills. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Related storiesRepresentatives for Musk, Sacks, and other dinner attendees identified by Puck did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. "In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party," Musk wrote in a tweet in May 2022.

Persons: —, Elon, Joe Biden, Puck, David Sacks, Sacks, Peter Thiel, Travis Kalanick, Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump, Biden, Musk, Michael Milken, Milken's, Milken, Trump, OpenSecrets, Don Lemon, Lemon Organizations: Service, Hollywood, Business, Democratic, Biden, Houston Chronicle, SpaceX hasn't, Trump, National Republican Congressional Committee, Democratic Party, Republican, The New York Times, CNN Locations: Palm Beach , Florida

☆ Bill Gates Is Still Pulling Strings at Microsoft, Overseeing AI Ideas
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

In fact, Business Insider has learned, Gates has been quietly orchestrating much of Microsoft's AI revolution from behind the scenes. The company, Nadella promised, would "continue to benefit from Bill's ongoing technical passion and advice to drive our products and services forward." According to two executives, Gates' memo treated as gospel, sparking Microsoft's push to take the lead in the AI arms race. Now, it seemed, OpenAI might offer Microsoft a way to help forge the AI future that Gates had long envisioned. According to two executives, Gates' words were treated as gospel, helping spark Microsoft's push to take the lead in the AI arms race.

Persons: Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Gates, Siri, They're, Clippy, Copilot, That's, Sam Altman, — Gates, Satya, Nadella, Steve Ballmer, Peter Thiel bashed, Bill, Melinda, Jeffrey Epstein, Nadella's, Rather, OpenAI, Kevin Scott, Scott, Altman, you'll, OpenAI's, Bing —, Bing, Steve, Sam, Kayla Wood, Frank Shaw, Shaw, —, Charles Lamanna, Jaime Teevan, Jeff Teper, Charlie Bell —, He's, Forbes, Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Bill G, Suleyman, aren't, hadn't, there's, Ashley Stewart Organizations: Microsoft, Agents, Business, Google, Wired, Street Journal, Rover, Steve Jobs, OpenAI, Amazon Web Services Locations: Tay, Gates, Clippy, Washington, Redmond , Washington, Seattle

☆ A longevity researcher is facing backlash for claiming to 'reverse aging.' Scientists say there's no consensus on what it means.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewHarvard researcher Dr. David Sinclair has found himself at the center of controversy within the longevity community. He's also earned his share of critics who say his research isn't always backed up by sufficient evidence. Animal Biosciences reissued a press release walking back the "reverse aging" claim. But scientists in the field say the issue is even more fundamental: There's no way to reverse aging, much less measure it. That means debates about the semantics of aging will only become more relevant to our daily lives.

Persons: —, David Sinclair, Sinclair, He's, Dr, Nir Barzilai, Matt Kaeberlein —, Matt Kaeberlein, Barzilai, it's, it'll, Andrea Maier, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel Organizations: Service, Business, Street Journal, Animal Biosciences, Newsweek, The Academy for Health, Academy for Health, Academy, National Institute, Aging, MIT Technology, National University of Singapore, Longevity

☆ Palantir CEO says its unconventional boot camps are drawing crowds and driving sales: 'It's like a rock concert'
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

It's been putting on boot camps to attract customers, per Bloomberg. CEO Alex Karp has likened them to "a rock concert;" they've included perks like racetrack drives. The data mining company, cofounded by PayPal Mafia member Peter Thiel, has been holding software boot camps to recruit new customers, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The company put on over 500 boot camps last year and expects to average five camps a day globally this year, according to Bloomberg. It's like, yeah, yeah, if you know somebody, we can get you backstage."

Persons: Palantir, It's, Alex Karp, —, Peter Thiel, Morningstar, Malik Ahmed Khan, Rishi Jaluria Organizations: Bloomberg, Service, PayPal Mafia, AIP, RBC Capital Markets Locations: Pontiac , Michigan

☆ Peter Thiel says AI will be 'worse' for math nerds than for writers
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Lauren Edmonds | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Peter Thiel discussed artificial intelligence on Wednesday's episode of "Conversations with Tyler." Thiel said Silicon Valley is "biased" toward math and a "rebalancing of our society" is overdue. AdvertisementPeter Thiel believes the expansion of artificial intelligence will be "worse" for math aficionados — not wordsmiths. Palantir, a company he cofounded in 2003, provides artificial intelligence models to world militaries like Ukraine and Israel. Business Insider outlined 10 roles that artificial intelligence will most likely replace as the sector grows in March 2024.

Persons: Peter Thiel, Tyler, Thiel, —, Tyler Cowen, Mark Muro, Muro Organizations: Service, PayPal, Getty, Brookings Institution Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Silicon Valley

☆ The rich are getting second passports, citing risk of instability
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Robert Frank | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Wealthy U.S. families are increasingly applying for second citizenships and national residences as a way to hedge their financial risk, according to a leading law firm. The wealthy are building these "passport portfolios" — collections of second, and even third or fourth, citizenships — in case they need to flee their home country. "The U.S. is still a great country, it's still an amazing passport," said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners. Instead, many wealthy Americans are shopping around for an added visa or citizenship program to supplement their U.S. passport. According to Henley, the top destinations for supplemental passports among Americans are Portugal, Malta, Greece and Italy.

Persons: Robert Frank, citizenships, Dominic Volek, Peter Thiel, Eric Schmidt, Volek, Henley, It's Organizations: Henley & Partners, ., Henley, Malta, Visa Locations: Wealthy, New Zealand, Cyprus, Portugal, Malta, Greece, Italy, Europe, European, Germany, France, U.S

☆ Spain is about to make it much harder for wealthy foreigners to buy their way into residency
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Shubhangi Goel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Spain plans to end "golden visas" for non-EU citizens investing €500,000 in real estate. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementSpain will no longer hand out "golden visas" to foreigners willing to pay big bucks for them. AdvertisementIn the last year, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Greece have all shut down or tightened their golden visa programs for similar reasons. In 2018, New Zealand banned foreigners from buying existing homes following a housing affordability crisis, similar to Spain and Portugal's current situation.

Persons: —, Pedro Sánchez, Sánchez, it's, Peter Thiel, Meghan Morris Organizations: EU, Service, European Union, Associated Press, OECD, Investment, Henley & Partners Locations: Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Europe, New Zealand

☆ DJT SPAC: Trump Media's Stock Price Is Probably Going to Crash
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Donald Trump's newly public social-media company is not the next Nvidia — or Meta or Google or whatever has happened with X/Twitter. It seems, let's say, unlikely that his media company's stock price is going to stay so high forever. AdvertisementFor one thing, TMTG, which owns the conservative Twitter copycat Truth Social, makes basically nothing. Truth Social and any other business Trump Media and Technology Group spins up is pretty much guaranteed to appeal just to Trump fans. Might Trump and Truth Social be different, at least on the stock front?

Persons: Donald Trump's, Trump, Peter Thiel, Peter Kafka, aren't, Don Jr, Emily Stewart Organizations: Nvidia, Trump Media, Technology Group, Hasbro, Trump, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Republicans, White, GameStop, AMC, Business Locations: SPAC

☆ Enhanced Games Are Olympics With Steroids, Pay; Meet the Founder
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Several countries pay bonuses to medal winners, and high-profile athletes may get brand deals and sponsorships, but many Olympic athletes live quiet lives. AdvertisementD'Souza suggested he received funding for the Enhanced Games in the "single-digit millions" but declined to specify the amount. So far, it's unclear what kind of talent Enhanced Games will attract. He said that at the Enhanced Games, athletes would get comprehensive health checkups to monitor the effects of "whatever enhancement protocols" they're on and ensure they're fit to compete. D'Souza said he planned to announce more details about the Enhanced Games this summer — right around the Paris Olympics.

Persons: Aron D'Souza, gymgoers, D'Souza, Thomas Bach, Bach, Uber, Christian, Christian Angermayer, Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase's, Peter Thiel, Angermayer, Srinivasan, Thiel, Hulk, Charles Harder, Harder, didn't, Sargon, Peter, VCs, Thiel hasn't, he's, James Magnussen, James, he'd, Marta Nawrocka, BI's Gabby Landsverk, Jim Walden, Grigory Rodchenkov, it's, who'd Organizations: International, Olympic, IOC, West Germany's Olympic, The New York Times, Business, Apeiron Investment, University of Melbourne, Gawker Media, BuzzFeed, Gawker, Abrams, Australian Financial, US, Doping Agency, UFC, Drug Free, NFL, NBA, MLB, Testing Agency, ITA, CNN, FBI, Sports, Gaming Initiative, Paris Locations: Miami, Lausanne, Switzerland, Oxford, Australian, Russia

☆ I lost 150 pounds on the paleo diet. Now I do CrossFit competitions.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Jane Ridley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

She did the paleo diet and took a part-time cleaning job at the gym to cover her fees. She lost 150 pounds and takes part in CrossFit competitions. I've lost 150 pounds, my dress size has decreased from a 20 to a two, and I participate in CrossFit tournaments. Card enjoyed vacation before she started exercise and the Paleo diet. I follow the paleo diet that's popular with high-profile people like LeBron James and Peter Thiel.

Persons: Barbara Card, —, I'd, I've, Card, Cameron, I'm, LeBron James, Peter Thiel Organizations: Service, Barbara, Business

☆ Sam Altman's mission to increase human lifespan with a $180 million shipping container experiment at Retro Biosciences
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Called Retro Biosciences, the startup's goal is simple yet supremely ambitious: Add 10 healthy, enjoyable years onto the back end of our lifetimes. But Retro Biosciences actually fits quite neatly into Altman's futuristic worldview. Retro BiosciencesRetro Biosciences sits about 30 miles south of OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters, where ChatGPT was hatched. Joe Betts-LaCroix is the CEO of Retro Biosciences. There are things we already know work super well to improve human longevity, like exercise, diet, faith, and social support.

Persons: Sam Altman, he's, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Altman, Instacart —, Joe Betts, LaCroix, isn't, Betts, Retro's, spry, Yamanaka, Shinya Yamanaka, it's, they've, Sora, Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Bezos, Yuri Milner, Billionaire Peter Thiel, He's, Aubrey de Grey, Christian Angermayer, biogerontologist Daniel Promislow, Altman's, Matt Buckley Organizations: Business, OpenAI, Biosciences, Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Extension, Apple, Stanford University, Retro, Bezos, Labs, Billionaire, Cambrian, Retro Biosciences, Bloomberg Locations: geroscience, Silicon Valley, OpenAI's San Francisco, Meta, Golden City, Retro.bio, Redwood City , California, San Diego

Stocks have been on a tear, but analysts can't agree on which names they like going forward. Analysts are becoming increasingly divided on names such as Tesla and International Business Machines — which have struggled recently despite the broader market rally. Against this backdrop, CNBC Pro set out to find the stocks in which analysts are most divided. is largely favored by Wall Street, receiving buy ratings from 40% of analysts covering the stock, and sell ratings from just a fifth. Other stocks analysts are divided on include sports apparel retailer Lululemon , which still has buy ratings from 50% of analysts covering the stock, and United Rentals , which has a 50-50 split in analysts' buy and sell ratings.

Persons: Stocks, Russell, Elon Musk, Goldman Sachs, Mark Delaney, Tesla's, Palantir, Mariana Perez Mora, Alex Karp, Peter Thiel Organizations: Tesla, Machines, Dow Jones Industrial, Nasdaq, CNBC Pro, Elon, FactSet, Monday, EV, Software, U.S ., Defense, Bank of America, CNBC, Israel, Tech, IBM, Wall, United Rentals Locations: Friday's, Israel

☆ A clip that's seemingly of the CEO behind Devin, the 'first AI software engineer,' at a math event is wowing viewers
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewOn Tuesday, Scott Wu's startup Cognition launched what it claims to be the world's "first AI software engineer," Devin, creating quite the buzz — and a little discomfort — in the tech community. The autonomous AI developer, Cognition claims, is the first of its kind to write code, fix bugs, and train AI models, among other tasks, all on its own. Today we're excited to introduce Devin, the first AI software engineer. Devin is… pic.twitter.com/ladBicxEat — Cognition (@cognition_labs) March 12, 2024Cognition claims that Devin can radically change how software engineers do their jobs. And reactions to the capabilities of Devin — which Cognition claims can resolve 13.86% of coding issues found in open-source projects on GitHub — seem mixed.

Persons: —, Scott Wu's, Devin, Wu, Reddit, He's, Wu didn't, Peter Thiel's, Scott, Neal, …, Kyle Shevlin, Athagist, Devin —, Aravind Srinivas, Evan You, they'd, I'd, Bro, isn't Organizations: Service, Twitter, Raytheon, Business, Cognition, Harvard University, LinkedIn, Fund, Bloomberg Locations: Singapore

☆ Palantir CEO Alex Karp says he loves 'burning the short-sellers' who bet against 'great companies' to fund their cocaine habits
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and Ken Griffin's hedge fund Citadel are among the names who've bet against Karp's company, per MarketBeat. Karp also acknowledged in his CNBC interview that some Palantir staff had left due to its vocal support for Israel. Disclosure: Palantir Technologies CEO Alexander Karp is a member of Axel Springer's shareholder committee.

Persons: —, Palantir, CNBC's, Alex Karp, who'd, Karp, Goldman Sachs, Ken Griffin's, We've, it's, Peter Thiel —, Alexander Karp, Axel Springer's, Axel Springer Organizations: Service, Business, US Army, Refinitiv, Barclays, Citadel, CNBC, Israel, Hamas, Palantir, Insider Inc Locations: Tel Aviv, Israel

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance's TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S. "It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok." There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China," Mnuchin said. Last week, Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital was a lead investor in a $1 billion capital raise to stabilize New York Community Bancorp. That administration also took an antagonistic stance toward TikTok, which ultimately resulted in ByteDance striking a data partnership with Oracle .

Persons: Steven Mnuchin, ByteDance's, ByteDance, Mnuchin, CNBC's, Masa, Joe Biden, Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, Keith Rabois, TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, Wang Wenbin, Bobby Kotick, Donald Trump, Trump Organizations: U.S, Liberty Strategic Capital, Vision Fund, Senate, Lawmakers, China Foreign Ministry, Financial Times, Street, Activision, Community Bancorp, Oracle Locations: Liberty, ByteDance, U.S, China, TikTok, New

☆ Software engineers are getting closer to finding out if AI really can make them jobless
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A startup backed by Peter Thiel has released the "first AI software engineer." A little-known startup called Cognition Labs stunned software engineers this week when its team of coding whizzes unveiled what it calls "the first AI software engineer." AdvertisementHowever, Cognition's AI software engineer appears to have an aptitude that's a notch above. Of course, the startup has been pretty careful with how it presents its AI software engineer. These reactions are understandable at a time when software engineers are feeling the heat.

Persons: Peter Thiel, Devin, —, Peter Thiel's, Scott Wu, Kyle Shevlin, Athagist, Keynes, Oliver Twist, kAKj7ZeBob — Kyle Shevlin, Evan You, Aravind Srinivas marveled, Mark Zuckerberg Organizations: Service, Software, Cognition Labs, Cognition, Informatics Locations: Singapore

☆ Palantir CEO says his outspoken pro-Israel views have caused employees to leave company
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Alex Koller | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In this article PLTR Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowPalantir CEO Alex Karp said some staffers at his software company have exited due to his public support for Israel. I'm sure we'll lose employees," Karp said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC's "Money Movers." "If you have a position that does not cost you ever to lose an employee, it's not a position." Karp was responding to a question from anchor Sara Eisen about personnel turnover at the company resulting from its controversial stances. Peter Thiel, co-founder and chairman of Palantir Technologies Inc., speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2019.

Persons: Alex Karp, We've, Karp, it's, Sara Eisen, Palantir, Eisen, Peter Thiel, Kiyoshi Ota Organizations: Israel, Ministry, Israeli Ministry of Defense, New York Times, Palantir Technologies Inc, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: Israel, Gaza, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Japan

☆ 'Olympics on steroids' CEO says they'll have stewards on call in case of overdosing athletes
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Joshua Zitser | Rachel Hosie | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThe CEO of the Enhanced Games — dubbed the "Olympics on steroids" — said there will be on-site stewards prepared to deal with any drug overdoses at the sporting event. "It's a risk-management framework," said Aron D'Souza, who founded the Peter Thiel-backed sporting event, in a conversation with Business Insider. The controversial sporting event, which organizers say could be held for the first time next year, is pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in athletics. "The Enhanced Games promote themselves as the 'Olympics of the future' and state that they will 'pay athletes fairly,'" she told BI. But Backhouse said she is most concerned about the message the Enhanced Games sends to the next generation of athletes.

Persons: —, Aron D'Souza, Peter Thiel, that's, D'Souza, Sue Backhouse, Backhouse, D'Souza's Organizations: Service, Business, Doping Agency, Reuters, NFL, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University

☆ How much Sam Altman stands to gain from a Reddit IPO
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Madeline Berg | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Here's how much Altman's Reddit stake could be worth — and why it's not as much as some say. Business Insider estimates that OpenAI CEO Altman owns a maximum of just about 1.66 million shares of Reddit. Using the company's estimated price per share of $31 to $34, Altman's stake in Reddit could be worth between $51.4 million and $56.4 million. Neither Reddit nor Altman would comment on the exact number of shares that Altman owns. For instance, Hydrazine Capital II owns nearly 9.9 million shares of Reddit.

Persons: Sam Altman, —, Altman, Reddit, OpenAI, Peter Thiel Organizations: Service, News, Business, Apollo, bioscience, Facebook, Google Locations: Reddit

Former President Donald Trump and his allies on the Republican National Committee want to convince Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to speak at the GOP convention in July, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. It is not clear if Trump or his allies have raised the idea with Musk. Musk previously voiced support for the Republican presidential candidacy of Florida Gov. "He said the other day, 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,' " Trump said at that rally. Thiel also said in that interview that Trump's presidential administration, which spanned January 2017 to January 2021, was "crazier" and "more dangerous than I thought."

Persons: Trump, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Tesla, Joe Biden, sitdown, Nikki Haley, Trump's, Peter Thiel, Ronna McDaniel, Michael Whatley, Musk, Lara Trump, Biden, Ron DeSantis, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, I've, Musk baselessly, Thiel, Trump . Thiel Organizations: SpaceX, Tesla, Washington , DC, Republican National Committee, GOP, CNBC, Republican, Trump, Super, PayPal, Republican National Convention, RNC, Representatives, Florida Gov, Trump White, Democrats, U.S, Capitol, Truth, Biden, Facebook, Trump . Locations: Washington ,, Milwaukee , Wisconsin, Palm Beach , Florida, Carolina, Florida, United States, Paris, Texas, Georgia

☆ The tech CEO who quietly built a bigger fortune than Tim Cook
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Former Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman has achieved vast wealth as a non-founding tech exec. Bloomberg pegs his net worth at $3.7 billion — higher than both Tim Cook and Satya Nadella. 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 . AdvertisementThe wildly successful and outspoken tech executive who just stepped down as CEO of Snowflake may not be as well-known as Apple's Tim Cook or Microsoft's Satya Nadella — but he's wealthier than both.

Persons: Frank Slootman, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, He's, —, Nadella, Cook, Slootman, Snowflake, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Palmer, Katie Warren, Sridhar Ramaswamy Organizations: Snowflake, Bloomberg, Service, ServiceNow Inc, Data, Google Locations: Netherlands

☆ CEO of 'Olympics on steroids' says the Games will see 50-year-olds breaking world records, but 1 heart attack could 'destroy the whole thing'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThe CEO of the Enhanced Games said the competitive sporting event, dubbed the "Olympics on steroids" by some, will witness older athletes shattering world records. But Aron D'Souza cautioned in an interview with Business Insider that one meth-induced heart attack could "destroy the whole thing." D'Souza said record-breaking sporting feats would make the Enhanced Games "the dominant sporting event in the world." D'Souza also said that the Enhanced Games would try to push back against rule-breaking with financial incentives, like base salaries and health insurance. In a response to Coe's comments, the Enhanced Games said in a statement provided to BI that it showed that it had "hit a nerve."

Persons: —, Aron D'Souza, D'Souza, Peter Thiel, It's, they're, Lord Sebastian Coe, Lord Coe Organizations: Service, Business, Doping Agency, Reuters Locations: Australian

☆ No, Sam Altman doesn't actually own half a billion dollars of Reddit stock
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Madeline Berg | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Reddit filed for an IPO, revealing nearly 10% of its shares are owned by entities related to Sam Altman. AdvertisementLast week, not long after Reddit made moves toward a public listing, headlines began to appear about an unexpected figure: Sam Altman. For example, Hydrazine Capital II is listed as owning nearly 9.9 million shares of Reddit. But Altman, at most, owns 5% of Hydrazine Capital II's holdings, or 492,720 of its Reddit shares. AdvertisementThe various entities point to a side of Altman — Altman the investor — that has receded from view since he has become known to the public as OpenAI's CEO.

Persons: Reddit, Sam Altman, Altman, —, tech's, Reddit's, that's, he's, Chris Harvey, Altman — Altman, ADVs, Peter Thiel, Cruise, Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian Organizations: Service, Business, Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey, Apollo, Apollo Projects, SPV, SEC, Investors, University of Michigan, Helion Energy, Facebook, Google Locations: Altman

☆ Peter Thiel doubles down on his program to pay kids not to stay in school
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

That's the message billionaire Peter Thiel is sending as he extends a fellowship program that offers $100,000 to students willing to skip college and develop a company instead. The PayPal founder started the program in 2010 with an initial group of 24 young people. Thiel has said he originally started the venture to prove that the American college system is not for everyone. Thiel told the Journal he decided to extend the program in part because he thinks American universities are now overly "woke," inspiring him to encourage young people to steer clear. "Our view is it's still an outside game, getting people out," Thiel told the outlet.

Persons: Peter Thiel, Thiel, That's, Larry Summers, Vivek Wadhwa, Wadhwa Organizations: PayPal, American, Stanford University, Harvard, Tech, Washington Post, Ivy

☆ Bridgit Mendler went from Disney star to space startup CEO with $6.3M in funding—it started with an accidental college major
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bridgit Mendler's path from Disney Channel star to space startup CEO started with — quite literally — an accident. The 31-year-old is the CEO and co-founder of Northwood Space, a company based in El Segundo, California that aims to mass-produce ground stations — otherwise known as the antennae that communicate with space satellites. "While everybody else was making their sourdough starters [during the Covid-19 pandemic], we were building antennas out of random crap we could find at Home Depot ... and receiving data from [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] satellites," Mendler told CNBC on Monday while announcing her startup. "I'm studying anthropology," Mendler told ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2015. While at Harvard, she served as co-president of the Harvard Space Law Society, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Persons: —, Charlie, Mendler, ABC's, Jimmy Kimmel, Griffin, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel's Organizations: Disney Channel, Northwood, National Oceanic, Administration, CNBC, University of Southern, USC, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Media Lab, Harvard Law School, Harvard, Harvard Space Law Society, Founders, Humba Ventures, Elon, SpaceX, Technologies, Northrop Grumman Locations: El Segundo , California, University of Southern California, Northwood

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