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- Elliott takes $1.9 billion stake in Southwest Airlines
Elliott takes $1.9 billion stake in Southwest Airlines
Plus: WeWork’s former New York City HQ has a new owner
Cash Nut
June 11, 2024
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In Today’s Edition
Many Y Combinator Startups Only Want Tiny Rounds
WeWork’s former New York City HQ has a new owner
Microsoft will have three updated Xbox console options ready
Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to ban Apple devices
Apple WWDC 2024: the 13 biggest announcements
OpenAI hires former Nextdoor CEO
Solar-Powered Planes Take Flight
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🚀Startups Nuts
In 2024, many Y Combinator startups are opting for smaller seed rounds of $1.5 million to $2 million with higher valuations, often avoiding traditional institutional investors. This trend, driven by a desire to give up less equity, is challenging for VCs who typically seek a minimum 10% ownership, and it may lead to startups being undercapitalized for future growth stages.
Other News
Mistral AI, a French AI company, has closed its €468m equity funding round at a €5.8bn valuation
Battery Smart, an Indian battery swapping network, raised $65m in primary and secondary Series B funding
Stake, a Dubai-based real estate investment platform, raised $14m in Series A funding
Astrocade, an SF generative AI gaming startup co-founded by Fei-Fei Li, raised $12m in seed funding
Whizz, an NYC e-bike subscription service for last-mile delivery, raised $12m in Series A funding
🏭Business Nuts
Activist Elliott Management has a $1.9 billion stake in Southwest Airlines and plans to push for leadership changes at the struggling company. The stake makes Elliott one of Southwest’s largest shareholders. Southwest has struggled with challenges including Boeing’s 737 Max delivery delays.
Other News
WeWork’s former New York City HQ has a new owner: Industrious, a coworking rival, signed a 10-year lease for the 240k square feet of office space across 16 floors in Tower 49.
Microsoft will have three updated Xbox console options ready for the holidays. The Xbox team also teased that a handheld gaming console is in development.
Virgin Galactic brought four tourists to the edge of outer space on its VSS Unity space plane’s seventh and last commercial flight. The company is rolling out new “Delta” spacecrafts in 2026.
Moderna said its combination covid and influenza vaccine, which is being tested on 8k patients in a phase-three trial, is more effective than standalone shots.
Tokyo Disney Resort opened its $2B expansion featuring new Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan attractions. The theme park expects all the hoopla to draw ~29m visitors this year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies. Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI at its annual developers conference, and Musk called the collaboration “an unacceptable security violation.”
Nvidia shares begin trading around $120 after chipmaker executes planned 10-for-1 stock split; Nvidia shares traded near $1,200 before the split.
📱Tech Nuts
Apple announced AI features and major updates across its operating systems at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. Apple's AI system, Apple Intelligence, will put powerful generative models at the core of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It will enable new capabilities across Apple's native apps, such as the ability to generate images or summarize text. Apple Intelligence will be available for free on the iPhone 15 Pro and on iPads and Macs with an M1 or later chip. Other announcements at the event include more customization in iOS 18, RCS support for the iPhone, a Passwords app to keep track of logins, and a Calculator app for iPadOS 18.
Other News
Apple's new Apple Intelligence system will use Private Cloud Compute to ensure any data processed on its cloud servers is protected in a transparent and verifiable way. Many of Apple's generative AI models can run entirely on a device powered by an A17+ or M-series chip.
OpenAI hires former Nextdoor CEO as its first chief financial officer, appoints a chief product officer
Meta plans to use public social media posts from its European users to train its large language models. Despite strict EU data privacy laws, Meta said it will use public posts from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to train its Llama models.
🎁Miscellaneous
Solar-powered planes could lead to new alternatives for aerial surveillance and telecommunications. Aviation giants, telecommunication companies, venture investors, and the military are already spending millions of dollars developing the technology. These planes never need refueling and can stay in the air as long as the sun is shining. Advances in battery technology have finally made it feasible to power a solar plane through the night.
💡What else are we reading and seeing?
How to Build an AI Data Center
Orange juice falls prey to inflation
The AI Arms Race to Combat Fake Images Is Even — For Now
9 morning routines to get your day off to the right start
Top 12 AI tools for financial analysts: 2024 edition
The importance of developing and maintaining your social fitness
7 reasons you stop improving
😎Fun Fact
On this day Today, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington were first two women to become generals in the US Armed Forces (1970)
🔥 Few tools many people are finding useful
OpenArt - An AI-powered creative platform that allows users to explore multiple versions of their images without complex prompts
Munch - Helps to create short clips from long-form videos to maximize social media exposure
Spiritme - AI-video platform for creating personalized videos with digital avatars
Active Recall - Online content summarized and interlinked
Afforai - Collect, cite, annotate papers & research with AI
🐦Joke of the Day
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