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Microsoft Copilot is now available on Android

Plus: Why Startup M&A in 2024 Will Rebound 

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Cash Nut
December 27, 2023

In Today’s Edition 

  • 38% of VCs disappeared from dealmaking in 2023 

  • Why Startup M&A in 2024 Will Rebound 

  • No last-minute reprieve, US ban on some Apple Watch sales now in effect

  • MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin bet produces 300% gain for investors in 2023

  • Microsoft Copilot is now available as a ChatGPT-like app on Android 

  • Will scaling work?

  • Can Flow Batteries Finally Beat Lithium?

🚀Startups Nuts

Acutely felt at the later stage, active investor count is on the decline. With “active investor” defined as making more than two investments in a year, are these funds just taking a break, or are they “zombie funds”?

Market volatility and regulatory watchdogs have doused the M&A flames of 2023. Unpredictable sales forecasts have shifted focus internally. Regulatory pressures will remain in 2024, but market volatility and sales should stabilize, setting the stage for more acquisitions.

🏭Business Nuts 

Apple is banned from selling the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 in the US. The Biden administration had 60 days to grant a reprieve from the ban, but it refused to do so. Apple strongly disagrees with the decision and it is taking all measures to return the devices to customers as soon as possible, including filing an appeal against the ruling from the US International Trade Commission. The company had preemptively halted sales of the devices from its website on December 21 and in physical stores from December 24.

MicroStrategy’s stock has soared 337% in 2023, outpacing almost all U.S. companies valued at $5 billion or more. The growth has been fueled by the company’s bitcoin holdings, which the company started accumulating in 2020. The vast majority of MicroStrategy’s value now comes from bitcoin, though it still has a software business.

📱Tech Nuts

Microsoft Copilot is now available as a ChatGPT-like app on Android 

Microsoft has launched a dedicated Copilot app for Android. It offers access to Copilot without the need for the Bing mobile app. Copilot has access to OpenAI's latest GPT-4 model and image generation through DALL-E 3. There's no indication yet of an iOS version, but it is likely to be right around the corner.

If scaling is successful in getting better and more general performance from large language models, then we should expect powerful AIs before 2040, but if it doesn't, then the path to artificial general intelligence seems much longer and more intractable.

🎁Miscellaneous

Flow batteries use two chemical solutions containing ions that react to push electrons through a circuit. They beat lithium batteries in performance and safety and they scale up more easily. Conventional flow battery packs have very low energy density and are bulky, making them impractical. A new type of energy-dense fluid has been created that has enabled new types of flow batteries that appear to beat lithium-ion batteries for use in EVs and larger systems. Nanoelectrofuel is reusable, fireproof, and easy to clean in case of a spill, making it an attractive alternative to lithium or petrol.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

  • U.S. and China race to shield secrets from quantum computers

  • Jeff Bezos on Generative AI: “They’re not inventions. They’re discoveries

  • Research: The Growing Inequality of Who Gets to Work from Home

  • The 2024 economy could be shockingly normal

  • Bezos taps Amazon vet to speed up space company Blue Origin

  • EV startups are running out of cash

  • 2024 is shaping up to be the year of the streaming bundle

  • How to deal with difficult colleagues at work

😎Fun Fact

The world's first known check was written in 1659, made payable for £400

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🐦Joke of the Day

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