Disney Succession Mess

Plus: Why Tunnels Could Build Tomorrow’s Cities 

Author

Cash Nut
September 07, 2023

In Today’s Edition

  • Envisics secures $50M at a $500M valuation for its in-car holographic tech

  • Venture capital firm 500 Global has successfully closed a $143 million fund aimed at supporting startups in Southeast Asia

  • Disney's wildest ride: Iger, Chapek and the making of an epic Succession mess

  • Apple spending “millions of dollars a day” on developing conversational AI as it seeks to massively improve Siri

  • How to build an enterprise LLM application: Lessons from GitHub Copilot

  • Why Tunnels Could Build Tomorrow’s Cities

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🚀Startups Nuts

Envisics secured $50M for holographic in-car tech. The tech will be smaller, more affordable, and have enhanced video capabilities. Envisics already has partnerships with several auto manufacturers. Challenges include gaining traction in the automotive tech market and the lack of success in the AR tech market. Envisics' first products, including HUDs, will be released this year. The HUDs will display essential safety, vehicle status, and navigation info. Strengthening its partnership with Envisics will enable Hyundai Mobis to deliver an intuitive, safe, and convenient HMI to drivers worldwide.

500 Global has secured $143 million for their Southeast Asia early-stage fund, "Plate 500 SEA III," which aims to invest in startups focused on rural digitalization, sustainable cities, healthcare, food security, and financial inclusivity. The fund will support 100 startups in pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages with initial investments ranging from $250,000 to $500,000. 500 Global has already backed over 340 companies across Southeast Asia, including Grab and Carsome.

🏭Business Nuts

This article tells the inside story of the transition between CEOs for Disney over the last few years. Bob Iger announced that he would step down as Disney's CEO in February 2020, picking Bob Chapek as his successor. Iger's plan would have him stay at the company as an executive chairman for 22 months. Chapek was fired in November 2022 and Iger became CEO again, with an extended contract through to 2026. Chapek says that his tenure at Disney was 'three years of hell'.

Streaming company Roku announced another round of layoffs will affect 10% of its workforce, or 360 people. In addition to other cost-cutting measures, the company raised its guidance for its third-quarter revenue and EBITDA.The company cut about 200 employees in March and then another 200 employees in November.

📱Tech Nuts

Apple is reportedly spending millions of dollars a day on AI product research with the goal of creating a Siri that can automate tasks involving multiple steps. Most of the budget is dedicated to model training, which requires a lot of expensive hardware. The company has been working on large language models for four years, but it is unclear what it has achieved with its multi-year lead. Apple's internal chatbot apparently boasts greater capabilities than OpenAI's GPT-3.5 model, but is less intelligent than GPT-4.

This article discusses how to build and scale applications that use large language models. It took GitHub three years to develop GitHub Copilot from idea to production. The team used a three-stage plan for development: they identified an impactful problem space for their LLM application, created a smooth AI product experience, and then got the application ready and usable for general availability. Further resources on developing LLM applications are provided at the end of the article.

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🎁Miscellaneous

This article looks at the evolution of the tunneling industry and current opportunities for disruption. Instead of complaining when stuck in LA traffic, Elon Musk thought downwards and wondered why the hundreds of meters of real estate underground were unused. A lot of infrastructure for public transport globally is already built underground. Building underground could help humans deal with weather issues and provide much-needed room for human population growth.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

😎Fun Fact

Cows have best friends and can become stressed when they're separated

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