March 5, 2024

Beefy

Hi there,

Here is this week's Hot or Not.

Hot: Altman vs. Musk

Last week, Elon Musk sued Sam Altman and OpenAI for breach of contract.

Musk — an OpenAI founder and disrupter of many industries — is alleging that the startup’s alliance with Microsoft is putting profit ahead of its OG mission: developing AI that “benefits all of humanity.”

The brawl quickly moved to Twitter, as tech brawls do, where Altman resurfaced an old thread to “salute” his former colleague.

Source: Twitter

This isn’t the first time Altman and Musk have butt threads (nice one, eh?). 

Since departing OpenAI, Musk has taken multiple shots at the company as he has built a competitor (xAI).

Want to learn more about Elon’s time at OpenAI and his AI safety concerns? Download this report.

CBI customers can dig into the relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft here.

Not: Amazon aggregators

Thrasio has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It had raised $3.4B in equity and debt and was once valued at $10B.

It was the biggest and most valuable of the Amazon aggregators — companies that roll up (acquire and aim to grow) brands that sell on Amazon and other online marketplaces. 

Capital to the space has dried up and a resurgence is unlikely.

The demise of the space may also impact several frequent debt providers to the space. These include folks like Victory Park Capital, Truist, BlackRock, and JPM Chase.

We dig into the outlook for Amazon aggregators here.

Hot: Stripe valuation

Last week, Stripe struck a stock-sale deal for employees.

The deal values Stripe at $65B.

While this is down 32% from its peak valuation in March 2021, it marks a 30% increase from a year ago.

Dive into valuation data for Stripe and its competitors here.

Not: LLM risks

Musk isn’t the only one concerned with the rapid development of genAI.

Many are worried about the security risks associated with large language models (LLMs) underpinning the genAI boom.

These include things like confidential leaks and data poisoning.

Some researchers were even able to trick LLMs into generating a step-by-step plan to destroy humanity. Yikes.

We dive into these risks and the tools rising to combat them in this report.

Hot: AI weather forecasting

AI models are getting better at predicting the weather.  

Google’s DeepMind, for example, released its GraphCast model in November, which reportedly creates more accurate 10-day weather forecasts than current methods. Nvidia’s FourCastNet model meanwhile can predict extreme weather events weeks in advance.

Startups are also tackling better, faster weather forecasting, which has implications for industries from insurance to construction. 

Insurers, for example, are turning to solutions for predicting and managing extreme weather risk.

CB Insights customers can track AI companies targeting weather forecasting and intelligence using this search.

Not: Apple EVs

Apple is winding down its electric car project. Rumors swirled for roughly a decade around the project. 

Where is Apple heading now that EVs are not a thing for it? It says it will redeploy that team to generative AI but it’s unclear how people working on a car can just jump into the GAI/LLM game.

Although Apple is famously secretive, its acquisitions, partnerships, and investment activity provide a window into the future.

Find out what that looks like in this free report.

I love you. 

Anand 

@asanwal 

P.S. Our experts recently discussed our genAI predictions on a live webinar. If you weren’t able to attend, you can download the session here.

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