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☆ Online grocery firm Instacart seeks up to $7.7 billion valuation in IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In the filing, Instacart said it is setting an offer price of between $26 and $28 for its IPO. Instacart said it would issue 22 million shares in total, comprising 14.1 million of newly issued shares from the company and 7.9 million shares from selling stockholders. Instacart said its total common stock outstanding will be 276 million shares or 279.3 million if underwriters exercise an option to purchase additional shares. At 276 million shares total, Instacart will likely secure a valuation of about $7.7 billion. Alongside TCV, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, and Valiant Capital Management, the fund would purchase up to roughly $400 million in the offering.

Persons: Instacart, Goldman Sachs Organizations: underwriters, PepsiCo, Norges Bank Investment Management, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Valiant Capital Management Locations: Sequoia

☆ Grocery delivery app Instacart aims for up to $7.7 bln valuation in US IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

As the Federal Reserve raised borrowing costs to tame inflation, several high-flying startups have had to raise funds at lower valuations. Instacart too has had to cut its internal valuation to as low as $10 billion in December in its long walk toward a Nasdaq debut. Instacart would join SoftBank's (9984.T) chip designer Arm and marketing automation firm Klaviyo, which are also gearing up for market debuts in September. Instacart and its selling shareholders are looking to raise up to $616 million by offering 22 million shares priced between $26 and $28 each, it said in a regulatory filing. Reporting by Niket Nishant and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun KoyyurOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Niket Nishant, Manya, Arun Koyyur Organizations: Federal Reserve, Nasdaq, Reuters, Instacart, Fed, Cornerstone, Norges Bank Investment Management, Norges Bank, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Valiant Capital Management, Manya Saini, Thomson Locations: United States, San Francisco, U.S, Ukraine, TCV, Sequoia, Bengaluru

☆ India’s fintech partygoers nurse a needed hangover
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Shritama Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MUMBAI, Sept 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India’s financial technology industry is suffering from overindulgence. And it was on full display at a sombre Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai last week. The South Asian country is the world’s third-largest fintech market by number of unicorns. Poster child Byju’s is squabbling with lenders as investors walk away and financial reports get delayed. Follow @ShritamaBose on XCONTEXT NEWSThe Global Fintech Fest organised by the National Payments Corporation of India and industry association Payments Council of India was held between Sept. 5 and 7 in Mumbai.

Persons: securitisation, ’, hesitatingly, Vishwas Patel, they’re, fintechs, Mukesh Ambani’s, Antony Currie, Katrina Hamlin, Thomas Shum Organizations: Reuters, Founders, Boston Consulting Group, Venture, Reserve Bank, One97 Communications, FSN, Commerce Ventures, Innoven Triple Blue Capital, XV Partners, Financial, National Payments Corporation of India, Thomson Locations: MUMBAI, Mumbai, India, fintech, Sequoia Capital’s India, Southeast Asia, Rwanda, Japan, Germany, Peru

☆ Instacart to target valuation of up to $9.3 billion in IPO, source says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Cheney Orr Acquire Licensing RightsSept 10 (Reuters) - Grocery delivery service Instacart is targeting a valuation between $8.6 billion and $9.3 billion in its initial public offering, according to a person familiar with the matter. The valuation range will be disclosed in an updated IPO regulatory filing on Monday, the source said on SundayInstacart declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on Sunday on Instacart's IPO valuation target. Unlike an IPO, no shares are sold in advance in a direct listing and investors can sell their shares directly to the public. For the six months ended June 30, Instacart last month reported revenue of $1.48 billion, up 31% from the same period last year.

Persons: Eric Cohn, Cheney Orr, Instacart, Andreessen Horowitz, Rowe Price, Anirudh Saligrama, Manya Saini, Niket, Echo Wang, Cynthia Osterman, Leslie Adler Organizations: Safeway, REUTERS, Arm Holdings Ltd, Reuters, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research, Thomson Locations: Tucson , Arizona, U.S, Bengaluru, Echo, New York

A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. Barclays (BARC.L), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), and Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T) are the lead underwriters for the offering. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are lead underwriters on the offering, the company said in its filing. Its shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KVYO". Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Bank of America are underwriters of the IPO, according to the filing.

Persons: Carlo Allegri, T Rowe Price, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Instacart, Fidji Simo, confidentially, Klaviyo, Morgan Stanley, Chibuike Oguh, Lance Tupper, Michelle Price, Aurora Ellis Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Arm Holdings, Japan's Softbank, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Apple, Nvidia, Devices, Intel, Samsung Electronics, AMD, Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Barclays, JPMorgan, Mizuho Financial Group, underwriters, Nasdaq, Norges Bank Investment Management, Norges Bank, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Valiant Capital Management, Facebook, Reuters, Summit Partners, Citigroup, VNG Corp, HK, Temasek, UBS, Bank of America, Thomson Locations: New York, U.S, Russia, Ukraine, Baltimore, TCV, Sequoia, Canadian, United States, Chi Minh City, Singapore

☆ Sam Altman thinks Silicon Valley has lost its culture of innovation
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI's Sam Altman thinks Silicon Valley no longer has an innovation culture. "Before OpenAI, what was the last really great scientific breakthrough that came out of a Silicon Valley company?" Get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley — delivered daily. "There used to be great research that happened in companies in Silicon Valley, Xerox PARC being the obvious example. To this, Altman responded by saying Silicon Valley did have a product innovation culture, but he felt it missed the mark on groundbreaking research.

Persons: OpenAI's Sam Altman, Sam Altman, Altman, Nicolai Tangen, I'm, Marc Andreessen, Andreessen, Horowitz, Matt Miller, Altman's OpenAI, ChatGPT, OpenAI Organizations: Service, Xerox PARC, Norges Bank Investment, Sequoia Capital, Biosciences Locations: Wall, Silicon, Silicon Valley, China, California, OpenAI

☆ SentinelOne scraps Wiz partnership nearly a week after bid interest
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 30 (Reuters) - SentinelOne (S.N) said on Wednesday it had terminated a partnership with cybersecurity startup Wiz, citing "lack of execution". The termination comes less than a week after Wiz said it was considering a bid for SentinelOne, which offers artificial intelligence-backed cybersecurity products. SentinelOne, launched in Israel in 2013, also said the partnership has not been productive for its business. Wiz, founded in 2020 and backed by Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and Blackstone, offers products to detect and respond to threats to cloud systems. Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Wiz, Zaheer Kachwala, Maju Samuel Organizations: SentinelOne Inc, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, SentinelOne, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Blackstone, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, Israel, Bengaluru

☆ OpenAI launches ChatGPT Enterprise, the company's biggest announcement since ChatGPT's debut
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

OpenAI on Monday announced its biggest news since ChatGPT's debut: It's launching ChatGPT Enterprise, the AI chatbot's business tier, available starting Monday. ChatGPT Enterprise includes access to GPT-4 with no usage caps, performance that's up to two times faster than previous versions, and API credits. One key differentiator between ChatGPT Enterprise and the consumer-facing version: ChatGPT Enterprise will allow clients to input company data to train and customize ChatGPT for their own industries and use cases, although some of those features aren't yet available in Monday's debut. When asked how ChatGPT Enterprise compares with Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft's enterprise AI chatbot, an OpenAI representative told CNBC, "This is an OpenAI product independent of Microsoft. The biggest obstacle to ChatGPT Enterprise's development was figuring out how to prioritize features, Lightcap told CNBC.

Persons: OpenAI, Brad Lightcap, Lightcap, Estée Lauder Cos, Andreessen Horowitz, Brian Burke, ChatGPT, Bard chatbot, Bing, Claude 2, Sam Altman, — Organizations: Monday, ChatGPT, CNBC, ChatGPT Enterprise, Beta, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, Gartner, Fortune, Google

☆ A mystery company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires has purchased tens of thousands of acres of land for more than $800 million to build a new city near San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A company called Flannery Associates has been purchasing land in a county near San Francisco. The company, Flannery Associates, has spent $800 million to purchase thousands of acres of farmland in Solano County, which sits northeast of San Francisco, court documents obtained by Insider show. But the spending price has since soared, with Flannery spending up to $15,000 per acre, lawyers for Flannery Associates said in court documents. Attorneys for Flannery Associates and the landowners did not respond to a request for comment outside of working hours. AdvertisementAdvertisementMusk recently purchased 3,500 acres of land outside of Austin, Texas, to build a town he intends to call "Snailbrook."

Persons: Flannery, Marc Andreessen, Laurene Powell Jobs, Catherine Moy, Jan Sramek, Goldman Sachs, Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz of, Reid Hoffman, Moritz, Y, We're, Bill Gates, Elon Musk Organizations: Service, Silicon, The New York Times, Flannery Associates, Street Journal, Travis Air Force Base, Air Force Base Google, ABC, Times, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn, Solano County Google, The Times, Tech Locations: San Francisco, Wall, Silicon, California, Solano County, Fairfield, Real, Austin , Texas, Colorado

☆ Instacart files to go public on Nasdaq to try and unfreeze tech IPO market
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Instacart, the grocery delivery company that slashed its valuation during last year's market slide, filed its paperwork to go public on Friday in what's poised to be the first significant venture-backed tech IPO since December 2021. In May, Instacart said it was leaning into the generative AI boom with Ask Instacart, a search tool that aims to answer customers' grocery shopping questions. Instacart will try and crack open the IPO market, which has been mostly closed since late 2021. In March of last year, Instacart slashed its valuation to $24 billion from $39 billion as public stocks sank. Apoorva Mehta, Instacart's founder and executive chairman, plans to transition off the board after the company's public market debut, according to a 2022 release.

Persons: Instacart, Fidji Simo, haven't, Japan's SoftBank, Uber, They've, Simo, Mark Zuckerberg, Apoorva Mehta, Barry McCarthy, Snowflake, Frank Slootman, Andreessen Horowitz's Jeff Jordan, Shipt, Goldman Sachs, Nick Giovanni Organizations: Nasdaq, PepsiCo, Maplebear Inc, Target, Walmart, Meta, Walmart Grocery, Google, Sequoia Capital, DJ Capital Partners, Norges Bank Investment Management, TCV, D1 Capital Partners, Valiant Capital Management Locations: what's

☆ It's the return of the tech IPO. Instacart says it's profitable — and this may be the necessary secret ingredient for a hot market debut in 2023.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Melia Russell | Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech startups Instacart and Klaviyo filed to go public, marking the return of the tech IPO. Instacart and others going public are profitable, a bar others may have to meet to be successful. That's when software company HashiCorp and cloud tech company Samsara went public. Instacart revealed profits of $428 million in 2022 and $242 million for the first six months of 2023. AdvertisementAdvertisementThat Instacart and Klaviyo are profitable could make them attractive to investors who became skittish in the downturn.

Persons: Klaviyo, Instacart, Tom Loverro, Loverro, IPOs, hasn't, Joe Kaiser, Kaiser, Cava Organizations: Morning, IPOs, P, Sequoia Capital, D1 Capital Partners, Summit Partners, Mercato Partners, Nasdaq, Enterprise Locations: Cava

☆ Fin Capital has become the most prolific fintech investor in the world. Behind the scenes, there's been a phishing attack, whistleblower complaints, and a wave of exits.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

It was August 2021, during the waning months of the frothy startup bull market, and Fin Capital was on the ascent. The message was a phishing attack — Fin Capital had been hacked. But there is dispute over how Fin Capital handled the attack and its aftermath. Still, as other firms have sharply pulled back on investing in the downturn, Fin Capital has done the opposite. It's unclear whether the whistleblower complaints that former Fin Capital employees filed with the SEC are being investigated.

Persons: Logan Allin, Fin Capital, Allin, you've, Gene Price, Frost Brown Todd, who'd, It's, fiduciaries, Capital, Tom Allin, Obama, Forbes, you'll, he'd, Peter Thiel ., Henry Kravis, Roelof Botha, Thiel, Kravis, Botha, fintech, Pipe's cofounders, Peter Ackerson, Ackerson, Andreessen Horowitz, fundraisings, Ben Bergman, bbergman Organizations: Fin, Sequoia, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Fin Capital, Francis Yacht Club, Constellation, titans, KKR, Sequoia Capital, Caplight, FT Partners, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Locations: York, Los Angeles, Fin, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, fintech, Sequoia

☆ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman describes Elon Musk's devastating exit: 'I had to reorient a lot of my life and time'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he had to "reorient a lot of my life and time" after Elon Musk left the company. Elon Musk's 2018 departure from OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — rocked the artificial intelligence organization, according to a sweeping new report from The New Yorker. It is estimated that Musk poured between $50 million to $100 million of his own funds into OpenAI, The New Yorker reported. In 2018, Musk left the company's board. When he stepped down, Musk also backed out of his commitment to continue funding OpenAI, a source told The New Yorker, which left Altman scrambling.

Persons: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Musk, Musk's, Elon Musk's, OpenAI, ChatGPT —, Altman, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Tesla, Semafor, Hoffman, ChatGPT, Andreessen Horowitz, ChatGPT's, company's Organizations: Elon, Morning, Yorker, New Yorker, Microsoft, Sequoia, K2 Global Locations: OpenAI, New Yorker

Signage and cars are displayed in honor of SentinelOne, a cybersecurity firm’s IPO, outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2021. SentinelOne has hired investment bank Qatalyst Partners to advise on discussions with potential acquirers, including private equity firms, the sources said. Private equity firms have been prolific investors in the cybersecurity sector. In November 2021, an investor consortium led by private equity firm Advent International acquired McAfee Corp for $14 billion. Tech-focused private equity firm Thoma Bravo has also been a serial acquirer in the sector, having bought Ping Identity, ForgeRock, Sailpoint Technologies and Magnet Forensics Inc, among others.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, SentinelOne, Qatalyst, SentinelOne's, Daniel Loeb's, Morgan Stanley, Thoma, Milana Vinn, Anirban Sen, Conor Humphries, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, SentinelOne, Qatalyst Partners, CrowdStrike Holdings, U.S ., Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Advent International, McAfee Corp, Tech, Thoma Bravo, Sailpoint Technologies, Magnet Forensics, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, View , California, New York, Israel, cybersecurity

☆ Tech investors face 'new era' of China restrictions after Biden order limits funding in A.I., chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Biden administration's executive order restricting U.S. private equity and venture capital investments in Chinese technology finally landed on Wednesday. For U.S. tech investors who'd already grown wary of the budding cross-Pacific rivalry, the ruling is the clearest signal yet that the world's second-biggest economy is off limits. Biden is specifically targeting investments in technologies like semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence on concern that China's advancements in those areas run counter to U.S. national security interests. U.S. investors have been steadily retreating from China due to a combination of a weakening economy and the fraught geopolitical environment. "Most investors want to avoid being seen as acting against U.S. national security interests."

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, We've, Elena McGovern, Neil Shen helming, Eric Reiner, Adam Hickey, Mayer Brown, Steve Sarracino, that's, Activant, There's Organizations: Biden, Capstone, Chinese Communist Party, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia, Vine Ventures, Justice Department's, who's, U.S, Activant, Investors Locations: Belen , New Mexico, U.S, China, Sequoia China, Israel, Latin America, Germany, South Africa, The U.S, ByteDance

☆ US-China investments: New Biden executive order deals 'major blow' to Chinese startups
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Biden administration announced Wednesday it would restrict investments by US venture capital and private equity firms, as well as joint ventures, in Chinese artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors. The executive order applies to investments in the cities of Hong Kong and Macao, as well as mainland China. She said the new edict suggested that Washington was “trying to ‘decouple’” US and Chinese venture capital, despite the administration’s insistence that it is not trying to halt trade with China. US venture capital investment into China has plummeted about 80% over the past year, according to PitchBook data. And the investment restrictions were long in the works.

Persons: Biden, they’ll, ”, Edith Yeung, Washington, Yeung, Kyle Stanford, Kaidi Gao, Tomohiro Ohsumi, “, Gao, Washington —, Xi Jinping, Gina Raimondo’s Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, CNN, Race Capital, ”, PitchBook, Bloomberg, Getty, Investors, Washington, Sequoia Capital, Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, US Locations: Hong Kong, China, Macao, Silicon, United States, “ Washington, US, ”, Shanghai, chipmaking, Stanford, Beijing

☆ India gives partial relief on tax to online gaming firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Nikunj Ohri | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, Aug 2 (Reuters) - India has decided to levy taxes on online gaming companies on the total funds deposited to play online games and not on every bet, federal Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday, offering some relief to the industry. Last month, India decided to impose a 28% tax on funds that online gaming companies collect from their customers for every bet, shocking the nascent $1.5 billion industry which is backed by global investors. More than 100 gaming companies and top investors like Top Tiger Global and Peak XV, previously known as Sequoia Capital India, wrote to government asking it to reconsider the decision. Sitharaman said the government aims to impose the tax from Oct. 1 and a review of the decision would be undertaken in the next six months. Some industry watchers said the 28% tax is still higher for smaller players to survive.

Persons: Nirmala Sitharaman, Sitharaman, Sudipta Bhattacharjee, Nikunj Ohri, Jan Harvey, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Top Tiger, Sequoia Capital, Goods, Services Tax Council, Sitharaman, Khaitan, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, Sequoia Capital India

☆ Union Square Ventures slashed the value of 7 of its funds by 26%. Insiders say this will be the 'start of a cascade' of lower valuations for VC funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Union Square Ventures is widely considered to be one of the top performing venture firms of all time. USV marked down seven of its funds by nearly 26% this year, a far steeper writedown than other firms. Union Square Ventures — an early backer of Robinhood, Coinbase, and Etsy— is widely considered to be one of the top performing venture firms of all time. Venture firms are required to value their holdings at fair market value, but assessing the value of illiquid assets leaves considerable room for discretion. USV's 2004 fund returned more than $305 million in cash from a $22 million UTIMCO investment, with an IRR of 66%.

Persons: USV, —, VCs, Vincent Harrison, Combinator, Fred Wilson, Wilson Organizations: Square Ventures, Union Square Ventures, UTIMCO, University of Texas, Venture, Bay, Sequoia, Twitter, Zynga Locations: Robinhood, Texas, USV

☆ Sequoia picks the right moment to ditch deadwood
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The $85 billion venture firm downsized the commitments it expects its investors to make to vehicles targeting cryptocurrency and its own peers, the Wall Street Journal reported. With those investors, known as limited partners, now less pressed to flee private markets, it’s a smart time for Sequoia to help them shift into more promising opportunities. As last year's downturn tanked their public investments, LPs found themselves relatively overinvested in still-highly-valued private markets, forcing them to pull back from the likes of venture funds. As public markets recover – the S&P 500 Index (.SPX) is up almost 20% this year – this “denominator effect” is fading, a Capstone Partners survey suggests. And with LPs once again keen on private markets, they may be more likely to stick around, despite Sequoia’s self-admitted mistakes on investments like now-bankrupt FTX.

Persons: Sequoia’s, Anita Ramaswamy, ’, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Sharon Lam Organizations: YORK, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Capstone Partners, Twitter, Walmart, BT boss’s, Thomson Locations: Sequoia

☆ China's Leapmotor unveils new manufacturing platform, wants others to use it
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SHANGHAI, July 31 (Reuters) - Chinese electric vehicle maker Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology (9863.HK) unveiled on Monday a new platform it developed in-house for making vehicles, which its chief executive said it wants to license to other automakers. The company hopes to sell the platform to other automakers via tech licensing agreements, he said. "We hope Leapmotor will not only be an EV brand but also a licensor of core technologies," Zhu said. Leapmotor, which employs more than 2,000 engineers, sold 44,500 units in the first half, 14% fewer than a year ago. ($1 = 7.1512 Chinese yuan renminbi)Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Robert Birsel and Tomasz JanowskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Zhu Jiangming, Leapmotor, Zhu, Tesla, Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh, Jacqueline Wong, Robert Birsel, Tomasz Janowski Organizations: Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology, HK, Companies, Shanghai Electric Group Corp, Sequoia Capital, Volkswagen, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Sequoia Capital China

☆ Sequoia Capital Slashes Crypto Fund as It Downsizes Amid Startup Crunch
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Berber Jin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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Persons: Dow Jones Locations: sequoia

☆ OpenAI's ChatGPT app now available for Android
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

OpenAI, the buzzy AI startup backed by Microsoft , debuted the Android version of its ChatGPT app on Tuesday. The app's rollout follows the iOS app's debut in May, which marked the first time it was available outside of OpenAI's website. The Android app is available in the U.S., India, Bangladesh and Brazil. The news comes as the AI arms race heats up among chatbot leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft , Google and Anthropic. In an effort to encourage consumers to adopt generative AI into their daily routines, tech giants are racing to launch not only new chatbot apps, but also new features, such as visual search.

Persons: it's, OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Sequoia Capital Locations: OpenAI's, U.S, India, Bangladesh, Brazil

NEW DELHI, July 21 (Reuters) - Tiger Global, Peak XV and Steadview Capital are among 30 foreign and domestic investors asking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review a 28% gaming tax, saying the levy would adversely impact $4 billion in prospective investments, a letter showed. India last week announced the tax on the funds that online gaming companies collect from their customers. Games such as fantasy cricket have become increasingly popular in recent years, but have also raised concerns about addiction among players. Tiger Global and Peak XV, previously known as Sequoia Capital India, have invested in Indian gaming companies such as Dream11 and Mobile Premier League. Over 100 gaming firms wrote a letter recently to the finance ministry with a similar request, saying the tax will stifle foreign investment and put $2.5 billion already invested in the sector at risk.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Aditya Kalra, Chris Thomas, Tanvi Mehta, Savio D'Souza, Kim Coghill, Muralikumar Organizations: Tiger, Steadview, Indian, Reuters, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Mobile Premier League, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, Sequoia Capital India, New Delhi

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent letters to four separate U.S. venture capital firms, including Qualcomm's venture arm, expressing "serious concern" about their investments in Chinese tech startups. The letters, which were made public on Wednesday, were sent to GGV Capital, GST Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Walden International. Qualcomm Ventures, for example, made 13 investments in Chinese A.I. Walden, a smaller firm, was identified as a particularly significant backer of Chinese AI companies. He said at the time he found there was "broad support" among venture capitalists and others to keep U.S. asset managers from investing in Chinese AI firms.

Persons: Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Janet Yellen, Antony Blinken, Gallagher, Krishnamoorthi, SenseTime, GGV, Didi, Megvii, Abu, Walden, Intellifusion, Neil Shen helming Organizations: U.S, Capitol, Chinese Communist Party, GGV, Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Walden International, Wisconsin Republican, Treasury, New York Times, Qualcomm, Tiger Global Management, Tiger Global, Denglin Technology, Georgetown's Center for Security, Emerging Technology, Macquarie Group, GSR Ventures, Center for Security, Horizon Robotics, Silicon Valley, CNBC, U.S . Commerce Department, Street, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Locations: Illinois, China, U.S, Silver, Denglin, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Megvii, Sequoia China

Moritz, 68, will now focus on Sequoia Heritage, a $15 billion wealth management fund that he helped launch in 2010. The fund will be independent from Sequoia Capital, with focus on a diversified range of assets, according to the letter. A spokesperson for Sequoia Capital confirmed Moritz's exit and declined to comment on details. Sequoia Capital has been going through a generational transition as partner Roelof Botha took on the firm's global leadership position in July 2022. Economic challenges and geopolitical tensions have made venture capital fundraising and investment difficult, and eaten into global venture funds' returns.

Persons: Michael Moritz, Moritz, Roelof Botha, OpenAI's, Mike Vernal, Krystal Hu, Kanjyik Ghosh, Nilutpal, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Will Dunham Organizations: Sequoia Capital, Reuters, Sequoia Heritage, Google, PayPal, Sequoia, Venture, Silicon, Thomson Locations: Sequoia, United States, Europe, New York, Bengaluru

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