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OpenAI eyes $150B valuation 💰

Plus: Zuckerberg's live show 🏟️

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Cash Nut
September 12, 2024

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In Today’s Edition 

  • OpenAI Fundraising Set to Vault Startup's Valuation to $150 Billion

  • Microsoft hires former GE CFO Carolina Dybeck Happe as new operating chief

  • Mastercard agreed to buy Somerville

  • Oracle is designing a data center that would be powered by three small nuclear reactors

  • Klarna's aggressive cost-cutting measures and focus on AI

  • Mark Zuckerberg Tapes a Podcast With 6,000 Friends 

🚀Startups Nuts

OpenAI is in talks to raise $6.5 billion from investors at a valuation of $150 billion. It is also in talks to raise $5 billion in debt from banks in the form of a revolving credit facility. The discussions are still ongoing and the terms could change. The financing will support the need for computing power and other operating expenses. OpenAI is aiming to allow employees to sell some of their shares in a tender offer later this year.

Other News

  • F2G, a British developer of therapies for life-threatening rare fungal infections, raised $100m

  • Inflammatix, a Sunnyvale, Calif., molecular diagnostics startup focused on acute infection and sepsis, raised $57m in Series E funding

  • Habitat Health, a SF-based provider of home care support for older adults, raised more than $50m

  • Aembit, a Silver Springs, Md.-based provider of non-human identity and access management solutions, raised $25m in Series A funding

  • Polly, an SF-based provider of mortgage capital markets software, raised $25m

  • Nirvana, a health-care bill transparency startup, raised $24.2m in Series A funding

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🏭Business Nuts 

Carolina Dybeck Happe will join Microsoft from GE after its aviation and energy companies went public earlier this year. She will report to CEO Satya Nadella as the company works to mobilize around artificial intelligence. Dybeck Happe will join Microsoft’s senior leadership team alongside finance chief Amy Hood, cloud and AI engineering leader Scott Guthrie and other executives.

Other News

  • Bicara Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of dual-action biologics, increased the number of shares being offered in its IPO, to 14.7m from 11.9m. The price range remains $16-$18. The Phase 1 biotech plans to list on the Nasdaq (BCAX). It's raised over $300m in VC funding.

  • Angel Studios, a film studio behind "Sound of Freedom," agreed to go public at an implied $1.6b via a merger with Southport Acquisition Corp. (OTC: PORTW), a SPAC led by Jeb Spencer (TVC Capital) and Jared Stone (Northgate Capital) that was supposed to focus on financial software.

  • Mastercard agreed to buy Somerville, Mass.-based threat intelligence firm Recorded Future from Insight Partners and Pantheon for $2.65b.

  • General Mills agreed to sell its U.S. and Canadian yogurt units to French dairies Groupe Lactalis and Sodiaal, respectively, for $2.1b.

  • US inflation numbers looked good in August, easing to 2.5%, a new three-year low. The encouraging data adds another signal that interest rates will come down during next week’s Fed meeting.

📱Tech Nuts

Oracle is designing a data center that will require more than a gigawatt of power. It will be powered by three small modular nuclear reactors. Oracle has already received building permits for the reactors but hasn't publicly disclosed the location of the data center or future reactors. There are currently three operational small modular reactors in the world, with experts in the industry generally agreeing that the technology won't be commercialized in the US until the 2030s

Other News

  • Oracle recently introduced new types of clusters to be available for AI training through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the most powerful of which offers up to 2.4 ZettaFLOPS of AI performance.

  • Klarna's aggressive cost-cutting measures and focus on AI are part of a broader trend where companies across various sectors are implementing AI-driven solutions to enhance efficiency and reduce costs.

  • A Hawaii newspaper company is using AI-generated anchors for one paper’s social accounts, a move its unionized journalists call “digital colonialism.” And yes, they’re very awkward to watch.

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🎁Miscellaneous

Mark Zuckerberg recorded a podcast about artificial intelligence, the metaverse, and how he outmaneuvered the rest of Silicon Valley to keep his company winning at a live event with more than 6,000 attendees who paid $50 or more for a ticket. The event included appearances from Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify; and Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia. Tech billions and top executives have been increasingly opting to tell their stories in the friendly spaces of podcasts and YouTube streams rather than in traditional media interviews as they allow guests more leeway to expound on their pursuits and passions. The democratization of media has allowed anyone to have a personal talk show, and those in powerful positions now have a wide array of options to choose from when they want to reach the public.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

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