How Lisa Su Saved AMD

Plus: Zuckerberg unveils Meta's newest VR headset days before Apple reveals its own

Author

Cash Nut
June 02, 2023

In Today’s Edition

  • Janus Henderson Further Cuts PharmEasy’s Valuation To $2.7 Bn

  • Spacetech Startup Pixxel Bags $36 Mn Funding From Google, Others

  • Lisa Su Saved AMD. Now She Wants Nvidia's AI Crown

  • Lululemon shares surge after reporting 24% sales growth, raising full-year guidance

  • Zuckerberg unveils Meta's newest VR headset days before Apple reveals its own

  • Hubble Network wants to connect a billion devices with a space-based Bluetooth network

  • Zapping the brain during sleep helps memories form

  • The death of self-driving cars has been greatly exaggerated

🚀Startups Nuts

Janus Henderson has cut the online pharmacy’s valuation twice in two weeks, having first marked its valuation to about $2.8 Bn. The New York-based investment firm Neuberger Berman also trimmed the valuation of the epharmacy startup to $4.4 Bn recently. The markdown comes when PharmEasy reportedly breached a loan covenant in its loan agreement with Goldman Sachs.

The funding round also saw participation from existing investors investors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, GrowX, Sparta, and Athera. Pixxel will use the fresh capital to build a high-resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation and for development of its AI-powered analytics platform Aurora. Pixxel plans to launch 6 satellites in 2024 and 18 other satellites by 2025.

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🏭Business Nuts

AMD was floundering when Lisa Su took over as CEO in 2014. Su was able to take advantage of missteps by Intel and signed deals with many large customers, bringing the company out of trouble and even overtaking rival Intel in market capitalization. AMD now plans to produce chips to break Nvidia's near-monopoly on the processors that power generative AI technologies. The company plans to have AI in every one of its products in five years. This article talks about Su's time at AMD and her plans for the company for the next few years.

Lululemon beat on the top and bottom line in its fiscal first quarter. The athletic apparel retailer now expects to see full-year revenue of $9.44 billion to $9.51 billion, up from a previous range of $9.31 billion and $9.41 billion. China revenue alone grew 79% from the year-earlier period, when the country was still reeling from Covid restrictions and closures. While the company largely caters to higher-income consumers who tend to fare better against macroeconomic pressure, retailers across the industry have cited a pullback in discretionary spending and higher-ticket items.

📱Tech Nuts

Mark Zuckerberg posted a teaser for Meta's Quest 3 headset on Instagram on Thursday. The Quest 3 will launch in the fall for $499. Meta appears to still be spending heavily on the metaverse. Its Reality Labs unit reported an operating loss of $3.99 billion in the company's first quarter while generating $399 million in revenue. The price for the Quest Pro headset that launched last October has been dropped from $1,499.99 to $999.99. A link to the teaser video is available in the article.

Seattle-based startup Hubble Network wants to launch a satellite network that any Bluetooth-enabled device from anywhere in the world can connect to. It aims to build out a constellation of 300 satellites to provide real-time updates for any sensor or device with a Bluetooth low-energy chip. Hubble's technology allows radio signals to be detected around 1,000 kilometers away. The company plans to launch an initial batch of four satellites in January 2024.

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🎁Miscellaneous

Researchers at UCLA and Tel Aviv University have found a way to improve people's memories by stimulating the brain with gentle electric pulses during sleep. The researchers suspected that the part of the brain where memories are initially stored communicates with another part of the brain during sleep as part of the process of memory consolidation. The study confirmed the communication between the two parts of the brain and demonstrated a way to strengthen the connection. The team is now exploring whether AI can help identify brain activity linked to specific memories.

Seven years ago, hype about self-driving cars was off the charts. Several self-driving projects have shut down their efforts since. Many people now view self-driving technology as an expensive failure. However, a handful of well-funded projects have continued to work on the technology. This article looks at the current leaders in the self-driving industry, Waymo and Cruise, the state of the industry, the challenges the industry faces, and the future of the industry. It also covers Tesla's Full Self Driving technology

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

  • Open Source AI Has a New Champion

  • The big question of how small chips can get

  • How a carmaker’s mistake created the ultimate internet challenge

  • Goldman CEO Loves Summer Camp So Much He’s Expanded His Portfolio

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😎Fun Fact

The term "millionaire" was first coined in 1826 by French author Augustin-Jean Fresnel to describe individuals with a net worth of one million francs.

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