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While Musk hasn't formally endorsed Trump, one reason Silicon Valley heavy-hitters could be gravitating toward a convicted former president is a desire to see less regulation on tech development in America. AdvertisementCuban, a vocal opponent of Trump who has expressed his support for Joe Biden, told Business Insider in an email that he views the support from Silicon Valley and Wall Street billionaires for Trump as "self-serving." "So unless it's very light touch, which is unlikely at this point, the more influence they have over Ai regulation the better the opportunity to advantage themselves." "It's still very early to be imposing regulation," Sacks said. That's not to say every Silicon Valley player investing in AI and Trump hopes to see an unrestrained, Wild West of artificial intelligence development.
Persons: , Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Shaun Maguire, Trump, David Sacks, Biden, Puck, Sacks, hasn't, Mark Cuban, Joe Biden, Cuban, BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, Maguire, Sacks didn't, Garry Tan, Y, That's, Chamath, Palihapitiya, Musk, Rishi Sunak Organizations: Service, Silicon, Trump, Business, Sequoia Capital, Venture, Wall, acc, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Wildlife Service, British Locations: Russia, Ukraine, San Francisco, America, Silicon Valley, Cuban
Read previewOpenAI CEO Sam Altman wasn't fired from his position as Y Combinator president in 2019, the startup accelerator's cofounder Paul Graham said on Thursday. "People have been claiming YC fired Sam Altman. Both outlets reported that Altman was asked to leave the organization for favoring his personal interests over Y Combinator's. AdvertisementRepresentatives for Altman and Y Combinator did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours. "We do not accept the claims made by Ms Toner and Ms McCauley regarding events at OpenAI," Taylor and Summers wrote.
Persons: , Sam Altman wasn't, Y, Paul Graham, Sam Altman, That's, Graham, OpenAI, Sam, Jessica, Jessica Livingston, Altman, he'd, 3YvBDH7oqV — Paul Graham, Graham's, Y Combinator, Combinator, OpenAI's, Helen Toner, who'd, Toner, Tasha McCauley, Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, McCauley, Ms Toner, Ms McCauley, Taylor, Summers, Toner's, Mr Altman Organizations: Service, YC, Business, we'd, Wall Street, The Washington Post, BI, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has faced a lot of negative press recently, impacting his once-clean image. Not least among the controversies was the collapse of OpenAI's safety team. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementOpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been hit with a bout of bad press in the past few weeks, which has cast a shadow over his once-squeaky-clean image. There was also the abrupt breakdown of OpenAI's safety team, which raised doubts about the company's commitment to responsible AI development.
Persons: Sam Altman, Paul Graham, , Scarlett Johanssen Organizations: Tech, Service, Business
He attended the University of Virginia, where he met his Reddit cofounderAlexis Ohanian in 2014. Vince Talotta/Toronto Star via Getty ImagesWhile at university, Ohanian met Steve Huffman, who would be his Reddit cofounder. But when I arrived at my dorm at the University of Virginia, Steve was playing Gran Turismo 2, and I was like, 'Hey, what's up?' We lived together all four years of college, then almost five years after," Ohanian told Inc in 2012. "You guys need to build the front page of the internet," Graham told them, according to Inc.
Persons: Alexis Ohanian, Vince Talotta, Ohanian, Steve Huffman, Steve, Huffman, Paul Graham, Graham Organizations: University of Virginia, Toronto Star, Getty, Gran Turismo, Inc
In today's big story, we're looking at the push for WFH Fridays and how that plays into the "quiet vacationing" phenomenon . The big storyAnti-office FridaysHector Roquet Rivero/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BIWith all due respect to summer Fridays, we've found a year-round replacement: WFH Fridays. But WFH Fridays' staying power remains to be seen. Which brings us back to WFH Fridays. The end result could be employers saying abuse of WFH Fridays means they need you back in the office… for good.
Persons: , Hector Roquet Rivero, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, we've, Insider's Juliana Kaplan, Noah Sheidlower, It's, Taiyou Nomachi, millennials, they've, BI's Kelsey Vlamis, haven't, it's, Momo Takahashi, Goldman Sachs, SEB Research, That's, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Isabel Fernandez, OpenAI, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Altman, Y Combinator, Tyler Le, Mark Cuban, Vivek Ramaswamy, Burger King, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Grace Lett, Laine Napoli Organizations: Service, Business, Workers, Companies, RBC Capital, Pujol, BI, Microsoft, Google, Bloomberg, Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors Locations: Dublin, Germany, Meta, BuzzFeed, New York, London, Chicago
AI startups are reviving the SAFE funding mechanism to secure investments without dilution. SAFE notes enable quick fundraising for nascent AI startups amid the sector's rapid growth and hype. 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 . AdvertisementFinancial wizardry is nothing new in the venture world, but the rise of AI startups has prompted a return to the funding mechanism known as a SAFE.
Persons: Y, Organizations: Service, SAFE, Business
Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham said you should work for startups, not big companies. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementFamed entrepreneur and Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham says it's wise to work for startups over big companies — even if they're more likely to fail. Working for big companies might be "safer," the investor shared on X, but the connections forged with startup colleagues can cue up future success. "In ten years they'll be running everything," Graham wrote of startup employees, "even if the startup tanks."
Persons: Paul Graham, , Y, Graham Organizations: Service, Business
Artificial intelligence startup Scale AI said Tuesday that it has raised $1 billion in a Series F funding round that values the enterprise tech company at $13.8 billion — almost double its last reported valuation. 12 on this year's CNBC Disruptor 50 list, has now raised $1.6 billion to date. Existing investors including Y Combinator, Nat Friedman, Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Coatue, Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, Nvidia, Tiger Global Management, Greenoaks, and Wellington Management also participated in the round. Scale AI is playing a key role in the rise of generative artificial intelligence and large language models, with the data — whether it is text, images, video or voice recordings — needing to be labeled correctly before it can be digested and used effectively by AI technology. Scale AI has evolved from labeling data used to train models that powered autonomous driving to now helping to improve and fine tune the underlying data for nearly any organization looking to implement AI, powering some of the most advanced models in use.
Persons: Elad Gil, Y Combinator, Nat Friedman, Alexandr Wang Organizations: CNBC, Accel, Cisco Investments, Intel Capital, ServiceNow Ventures, AMD Ventures, WCM, Color Genomics, Meta, Ventures, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Nvidia, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management Locations: San Francisco, AGI
Apriora's tech uses conversational AI to conduct job interviews. The startup, which just graduated from Y Combinator, raised a $2.8 million seed round. We got an exclusive look at the presentation Apriora used to raise its seed funding. AdvertisementJob seekers are already using ChatGPT to prepare for job interviews, and one startup is working to even the playing field by bringing AI tools to hiring managers. Apriora, a startup that uses conversational AI to conduct job interviews, just announced its $2.8 million seed funding round led by 1984 Ventures.
Persons: Y, , Dan Gross Organizations: Service, 1984 Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Business Locations: HOF Capital
Brex: 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50
  + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com   time to read: +2 min
Since SVB, Brex has continued to invest in differentiated services, including AI-powered tools to help streamline expense reporting, booking and management capabilities, accounts payable and procurement management. Within 36 hours, Brex signed up nearly 4,000 companies, taking in close to $2 billion in deposits. It has since backtracked on that position, and has doubled down on its roots serving tech startups. The spend management space has become more crowded, with fellow Disruptors Ramp and Navan, as well as Expensify, Mesh Payments, Airbase and Center competing for market share. Tech companies laid off more than 191,000 workers in 2023 — a trend that has continued into 2024.
Persons: Brex, Henrique Dubugras, Pedro Francheschi, Francheschi, Ben Gammell, PitchBook Organizations: Ribbit, DST, San, Airbase, Center, Tech Locations: Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Navan
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024. On Friday, advanced nuclear fission company Oklo, for which Sam Altman serves as chairman, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Oklo's business model is based on commercializing nuclear fission, the reaction that fuels all nuclear power plants. "I don't see a way for us to get there without nuclear," Altman told CNBC in 2023. It's not Altman's only foray into nuclear energy or other infrastructure that could power large-scale AI growth.
Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, Oklo, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jacob DeWitte, hasn't, we've, DeWitte, It's, Helion, OpenAI Organizations: Economic, New York Stock Exchange, AltC, U.S . Air Force, Microsoft, Amazon, CNBC, U.S . Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, DeWitte, Nvidia Locations: Davos, Switzerland, Idaho, OpenAI's San Francisco, U.S, Saudi Aramco, Rain
Plus, the pandemic and the shift to working from home have made millennials and Gen Z lonelier than ever, thanks in part to doomscrolling. "I believe the conventional 'make friends' apps too closely mimic the dating model, which can feel awkward and high-pressure for making friends," he said. The group hosts "reading parties" at bars and event spaces with the goal of helping people connect through reading. Dinner With Friends, a group that throws dinner parties, has worked on sponsored events with brands like Bumble and Geneva. Dinner With Friends founder Anita Michaud said brands typically either sponsor entire dinners or provide products — like canned cocktails — for the dinner parties.
Persons: , they've, Danial Hashemi, Sydney, Z, millennials, Cliff Lerner, Lisa Oreshkina, Saneblidze, Tom Worchester, Andreessen Horowitz, Victor Pontis, Luma, Liz Chick, Gen, Mira Hobbs, ReCreate's Chick, Anita Michaud, Peter Boyce II, Boyce, Maitree Mervana Parekh, Marlon Nichols, they're, it's, Ben Bradbury Organizations: Service, Business, Sydney Bradley, Big Tech, Tech, Timeleft, Reading, Facebook, VC, Wine, Bumble, New, Acrew, MaC Venture, Reading Rhythms Locations: New York City, Los Angeles, New York, Brooklyn, Squarespace, Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco, Geneva
But seriously folks ... it's just an iPad ad. AdvertisementThere's been a huge backlash to the ad Apple put out this week to promote its updated iPads. In the ad, a hydraulic press squishes a piano, trumpet, books, paint cans — and then reveals the new iPad Pro. A YouTube channel dedicated to hydraulic press crush videos has more than 9 million followers. Let's say OpenAI made an ad crushing up books, newspapers, and magazines and then revealed the ChatGPT logo.
Persons: Apple, it's, , There's, Steve wouldn't, Paul Graham, Steve Jobs, Let's, It's, OpenAI, they've Organizations: Service, Apple, YouTube
download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. The tech giant unveiled its latest iPad models on May 7. The ad certainly made a statement, just probably not in the manner that Apple intended. "Maybe hire Ridley Scott again next time instead," read one X post referencing the award-winning director behind the "1984" ad. Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
Persons: , Tim Cook's, 6PeGXNoKgG, Tim Cook, Joe B, Transue, Cook, Roger Rabbit, Apple, Ridley Scott, Y, Paul Graham, Graham, would've, Steve Jobs, Steve wouldn't, Jobs, Apple didn't Organizations: Service, Business, Venture, Apple, BI Locations: Cupertino
Trump's hush-money trial is set to heat up
  + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +7 min
In today's newsletter, we're looking at the first week of former President Donald Trump's criminal trial and what's at stake. What's on deck:This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. AdvertisementFormer President Donald Trump's hush-money trial — the first-ever criminal trial of a former president — got underway this week with jury selection . We did get a preview of Trump's potential defense: " Some accountant " handled the paperwork he's on trial for, Trump told reporters. AdvertisementThe trial is focused on 34 felonies alleging the Trump Organization's business records were falsified to hide other crimes.
Persons: , Donald Trump's, CHARLY TRIBALLEAU, Drew Angerer, Tyler Le, Trump, Stormy Daniels, Daniels, Zelei, Loretta Mester, John Williams, Rebecca Zisser, David Lieb, Sundar Pichai, Demis, Google's, BI's Ben Bergman, Eddie Mulholland, Alyssa Powell, Samsung execs, Taylor Swift's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Getty, Trump, Cleveland Fed, York Fed, , Bank of America, Google, Android, Bankers, Jefferies, Investor Conference, Samsung, Korea Economic, Disney, Warner Bros, American Express, Procter, Gamble, Poets Department Locations: Israeli, Iran, Israel, Florida, Korea, New York, London
Lieb, having a background in semiconductors and not server management, reached out to his fellow Y Combinator founders for support. After a year and a half of advising at the accelerator, he's stepping up as a group partner, Y Combinator tells Business Insider exclusively. It was never released, but many of the ideas would later come back in the form of Google Photos. From there, he reached into the Y Combinator alumni network to find other promising upstarts. David Lieb, second from left, speaks to a group of Y Combinator founders.
Persons: David Lieb, Lieb, Alex Polvi, Combinator —, Garry Tan, Jared Friedman, Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel, Sam Altman, it's, Y Combinator, " Lieb, Dan Lieb, Y, Xoogler, Patrick, John Collison's, Mixpanel, Jake Mintz, Forbes, Kevin Systrom, Flock, Andy Huibers, Mary, 72m2YgJZq8 — David Lieb, Ryan Peterson, He's Organizations: Apple, Business, Investors, Google Locations: Cloudkick, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Flexport
In today's big story, we're doing a deep dive into the golf tournament at one of the most exclusive clubs in the world . Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesHarvard University alumni, Goldman Sachs partners, Birkin bag owners — those exclusive groups are nothing compared to an Augusta National Golf Course membership. The Masters Tournament, the first of four men's major golf tournaments, kicks off today , write Business Insider's Madeline Berg and Taylor Rains. Since it's almost impossible to check out Augusta National otherwise, the Masters has become a staple of the billionaire's social calendar. Augusta National runs a lottery system for them.
Persons: , Mike Ehrmann, Goldman Sachs, Birkin, Madeline Berg, Taylor, it's, Cork Gaines, aren't, Joe Ciolli, didn't, Chelsea Jia Feng, Bill Smead, Brad Porter, Elon Musk's, Y, Paul Graham, Alyssa Powell, Larry Ellison, David Ellison, Larry Ellison's, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Business, Service, Getty Images Harvard University, Augusta, Waste, bros, Augusta National, Renaissance Technologies, Sigma, Robotics, Amazon Robotics, xAI, Paramount, Oracle, Google, JPMorgan, SpaceX Locations: Augusta, swag, Chelsea, D.E, Shaw's Valence, New York, London
Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham said there's one word in an email that hints it was written by AI. AdvertisementThe word "delve" has been getting a lot of attention online over the last few days. That's because Y Combinator founder Paul Graham said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that using the word "delve" in an email pitch is a sign ChatGPT wrote it. The chart shows instances of "delve" used in articles like peer-reviewed journal papers and preprints from 1990 to 2024. According to AI Phrase Finder, which used a dataset of 50,000 ChatGPT responses, "delve" is in the top 10 words used by ChatGPT.
Persons: Paul Graham, , it's, Y, ChatGPT, 2i3GUgynuL — Paul Graham, @paulg, Graham isn't, Graham, Philip Shapira, Shapira Organizations: Service, Google
download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementKat Hunt never wanted to work from home. Hunt, whose job is in finance in Portland, Oregon, needed a place for some team members to gather in New York City. Hunt wanted a spot that wasn't your typical WeWork or similar. Courtesy Kat Hunt and Radious"I was allowed to work from home, but I never wanted to," Hunt said.
Persons: , Kat Hunt, Hunt, Radious, Amina Moreau, Moreau, Combinator, Ryan Masiello, That's, Googlers, Clelia Warburg Peters, It's Organizations: Google, JPMorgan, Service, Earth Finance, San, Francisco's Pier, Ventures Locations: luxe, Portland , Oregon, New York City, Portland, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Portland , Milwaukee, San Francisco Bay, New York, Mountain View , California, Francisco's
The dearth of dealmaking shows that, despite a rebound in tech stocks last year and continuing hype around generative AI, venture capitalists are still largely on the sidelines. The Federal Reserve has indicated that cuts to its benchmark interest rate are likely coming in 2024, but for the moment they remain steady. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday it will take a while for policymakers to evaluate the current state of inflation, keeping the timing of potential interest rate cuts uncertain. There were 2,882 venture deals in the first quarter, the lowest since the third quarter of 2017, according to PitchBook. According to PitchBook, Reddit and Astera made up 73.4% of the total exit value in the U.S. in the first quarter.
Persons: Jerome Powell, PitchBook, Astera, Gary Tann Organizations: PitchBook, Federal, Astera Labs Locations: U.S, Rubrik
The full-blown mania in artificial intelligence is bringing tech workers and startups back to San Francisco. Last June, the startup accelerator moved its headquarters from Mountain View into its new digs at the Pier 70 shipyard. Y Combinator partners record an episode of the Lightcone podcast in a production studio complete with professional cameras and lighting fixtures. Y CombinatorRemoving 'friction'For 17 years, Y Combinator set its base in Mountain View. The new San Francisco outpost was born from a desire to get founders in person again post-pandemic.
Persons: , Jared Friedman, hasn't, Y Combinator Friedman, Y, Friedman, Carlos Avila Gonzalez, Bart, Lindsay Amos Organizations: Service, Volkswagen, Business, Chase, San, Rail, San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area, YC Locations: San Francisco, Mountain View, San, bayside, View, Mission Bay, Bay, North Beach
Healthtech startup Pelago just grabbed a fresh round of funding to power its own push. The Series C was an upround for Pelago, said Dr. Yusuf Sherwani, cofounder and CEO. Sherwani said the Series C round may be Pelago's last capital raise before it hopes to IPO. With the Series C funding, Pelago plans to launch a program in the second quarter of the year to refer members who don't complete substance use disorder treatment to inpatient facilities. Check out the 16-slide pitch deck Pelago used to raise a $58 million Series C.
Persons: , Atomico, Yusuf Sherwani, Sherwani, Pelago, Phillips, we've Organizations: Service, Octopus Ventures, Business, Mental Health Services Administration, Healthcare, Centers for Disease Control, MetLife, GE Appliances, Pelago Locations: Pelago
Under cathedral ceilings and soaring stained glass windows, Garry Tan clutched a microphone as he greeted a crowd of political centrists, including San Francisco’s mayor, local prosecutors and police brass. “Welcome to the church of turning San Francisco around!” said Mr. Tan at a fund-raiser he was hosting for local Asian American female political candidates just days before the Super Tuesday elections this month. For a man evangelizing for change in San Francisco, owning a condo that used to be part of a church comes in handy. Last year, he scooped up the $3.95 million space near the city’s palm-tree-studded Dolores Park to hold events like this one — events he hopes will shift San Francisco from its idealistic progressivism toward nuts-and-bolts centrism. Mr. Tan’s day job is chief executive of Y Combinator, the accelerator for tech start-ups that has helped create household names including Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart and Reddit.
Persons: Garry Tan clutched, , Tan, Y Organizations: Francisco’s Locations: San Francisco, Dolores, Francisco
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
And so last fall, Collin kicked off a search for a new board director, to fill in her knowledge gaps. Now, Collin says she will step down as chief executive of Front after her hunt for a board director took an unexpected turn. She will move into an executive chair role on April 15, when O'Connell takes up the mantle as chief executive, Front tells Business Insider exclusively. Known for her sharp wit and radical candor, Collin started the business out of college in her native France. Advertisement"We're at a scale now where the CEO can't come in and sort of wave the proverbial magic wand and make things happen," said Mohammed Attar, Front's chief product officer.
Persons: Mathilde Collin, Collin, Dan O'Connell, O'Connell, Garry Tan, Paul Buchheit, Jack Altman, Kyle Vogt, Cruise, Jeff Lawson, Mohammed Attar, , Josh Stein, Stein Organizations: Service, Business, Dialpad, Front Locations: San Francisco neighborhood, France, Dialpad
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