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In Today’s Edition 

• Anthropic to Raise $750 Million in Menlo Ventures-Led Deal

• The hyperloop is dead for real this time

• Google might already be replacing some Ad sales jobs with AI 

• Nike sinks 10% after it slashes sales outlook, unveils $2 billion in cost cuts

• Beeper says it’s done trying to bring iMessage to Android after month-long ‘cat and mouse’ game with Apple

• Cancer-fighting CAR-T cells could be made inside body with viral injection

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🚀Startups Nuts

Anthropic to Raise $750 Million in Menlo Ventures-Led Deal

Anthropic, an AI startup competing with OpenAI, is in talks to secure $750M at a pre-funding valuation of $18.4B, Reuters reports. Google and Amazon have also each pledged multi-billion-dollar investments in the company in recent months, making it one of the best-funded AI startups. The latest funding round, which has not been finalized, would be led by venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. Sources told Reuters that Anthropic's valuation before the funding round is $18.4B, or more than four times its $4.1B valuation from March.

The hyperloop is dead for real this time

Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation startup that promised to whisk us through nearly airless tubes at airline speeds, is shutting down, The company is selling off its assets, closing down its offices, and laying off employees. It will formally close at the end of the year, at which point all of its intellectual property will shift to its majority stakeholder, major Dubai port operator DP World. It was a dream too impossible for this world.

🏭Business Nuts 

Google might already be replacing some Ad sales jobs with AI 

Google is restructuring its Ads business because of its new AI tools. The tools remove the need for a lot of work, increasing ad revenue profit margins. A growing number of advertisers are adopting Google's AI tools, eliminating the need for employees who specialize in selling ads for particular Google services. Details about the reorganization are expected to be announced next month.

Nike sinks 10% after it slashes sales outlook, unveils $2 billion in cost cuts

Nike said it plans to cut $2 billion in costs over the next three years. Nike now expects full-year reported revenue to grow approximately 1%, compared to a prior outlook of up mid-single digits. In the current quarter, which includes the second half of the holiday shopping season, Nike expects reported revenue to be slightly negative as it laps tough prior year comparisons, and sales to be up low single digits in the fourth quarter. As part of its plan to cut costs, Nike said it’s looking to simplify its product assortment, increase automation and its use of technology, streamline the overall organization by reducing management layers and leverage its scale “to drive greater efficiency.

📱Tech Nuts

Apple Develops Breakthrough Method for Running LLMs on iPhones

Apple researchers have made a key breakthrough in deploying large language models on Apple devices with limited memory by using an innovative flash memory utilization technique. The method uses windowing and row-column bundling to minimize data transfer and maximize flash memory throughput. It allows AI models to run up to five times faster on standard processors and up to 25 times faster on graphics processors. The technology sets the stage for iPhones to run complex AI assistants on-device.

Beeper says it’s done trying to bring iMessage to Android after month-long ‘cat and mouse’ game with Apple

Beeper has no plans to continue making iMessage work on Android if Apple decides to knock down its latest workaround. Despite implementing multiple fixes, Beeper claims that each workaround is met with Apple's opposition, affecting the service's credibility. The latest workaround involves using a jailbroken iPhone and a Mac or Linux computer. Beeper acknowledges the complexity and acknowledges that Apple's actions may be challenging to defend. The company has made its software open source and is shifting focus to its long-term goal of building a top-tier chat app. Lawmakers have requested a Department of Justice investigation into Apple's potential anticompetitive treatment of Beeper. Despite uncertainties, Beeper remains determined to pursue its broader objectives.

🎁Miscellaneous

Cancer-fighting CAR-T cells could be made inside body with viral injection 

CAR-T treatment involves removing T cells from a patient, engineering them to target cancer cells, and reintroducing them to the patient's body. It has yielded dramatic recoveries from advanced forms of some blood cancers, but the technology is out of reach for many people due to its cost and difficulty. A new study suggests that the treatment can be administered through an injection of a virus that infects T cells. There are plans to request authorization from the US FDA next year to begin human trials of the technology.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

• The Year in Computer Science

• The hyperloop is dead for real this time

• Discovery is the original sin of the modern age

• Short sellers lost close to $178 billion in 2023 

• Citi will close its global distressed debt unit

• Apple’s $1 trillion rally will be tough to live up to in 2024

• The misery index says the worst is over

• Big companies will raid government for future CEOs

• 12 books every entrepreneur should read in 2024 

😎Fun Fact

The world's first recorded stock exchange was established in Amsterdam in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company

🔥 Hot Book of the Day

If you took the economic might of Amazon, and added the penetration of Facebook, the ubiquity of Google, and the cultural significance of YouTube, you might have something starting to resemble Alibaba. 

Commonly mischaracterized as a kind of Chinese eBay for businesses, Alibaba and its interlinked network of products and services have exploded into global markets, disrupting conventional businesses and creating previously unimaginable opportunities for millions of small businesses worldwide. 

This book reveals the Tao of Alibaba—the company’s “secret sauce”—a consciously cultivated ethos and spirit that has enabled Alibaba to weather tough times and setbacks, and persist toward a common mission.

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Wong distills his nearly two decades of experience inside the company to show readers how to align their organization’s capabilities with performance-maximizing tools in order to achieve success.

But most importantly, the Tao of Alibaba teaches the pursuit of greater purpose and meaning, steering entrepreneurs to view their ventures as a vehicle for having profound and lasting impacts on their communities.

Ultimately, the lessons shared in The Tao of Alibaba will serve as timeless tools for any entrepreneur seeking to configure their organization toward purpose and impact.

“Alibaba is not just a company; it’s part of the infrastructure of modern life for billions of people around the globe.”

🐦Joke of the Day

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