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Tesla is hiring people to do the robot

Plus: AMD signs $4.9 billion deal to challenge Nvidia

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Cash Nut
August 20, 2024

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In Today’s Edition 

  • Building 0 to 1 Products and the Inside Story of Figma Slides 

  • AMD signs $4.9 billion deal to challenge Nvidia's AI infrastructure lead 

  • General Motors announced it was laying off more than 1,000 employees 

  • Waymo is developing a roomier robotaxi with less-expensive tech 

  • A Personalized Brain Pacemaker for Parkinson's 

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🚀Startups Nuts

Mihika Kapoor, product lead at Figma, shares her journey of developing Figma Slides from concept to a featured product. She emphasizes the importance of building prototypes to generate excitement and buy-in, aligning products with company goals, and leveraging user feedback to refine ideas. Mihika also discusses her unconventional approach of not writing PRDs, preferring to use designs as the primary source of truth for product development.

Other News

  • Fortera, a San Jose, Calif., maker of low-carbon cement, raised $85m in Series C funding

  • Kong, an SF-based API platform, secured $80m of what could be a $100m round

  • Defcon AI, a McLean, Va., provider of modeling, simulation, and analysis for military applications, raised $44m in seed funding

  • Finture, a Singaporean digital bank and BNPL payment startup, raised nearly $30m in Series B funding

  • Eppo, an SF-based AI experimentation platform, raised $28m in Series B funding

🏭Business Nuts 

Tesla is employing people to wear motion capture suits to help train its humanoid Optimus robot. The position pays up to $48 per hour and requires walking for up to over seven hours a day while carrying up to 30 pounds and wearing a VR headset for extended periods. Employees must also be between 5'7" and 5'11" tall. Optimus may require millions of hours of data before it's fully ready to work in Tesla's factories.

AMD has agreed to buy ZT Systems, an artificial intelligence infrastructure group, for $4.9 billion in cash and stocks. The acquisition will help AMD accelerate the adoption of its AI data center chips, which compete with Nvidia's popular GPUs. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. It is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

Other News

  • China's Unitree Robotics $16,000 G1 model is ready for mass production - a video of it performing several moves, climbing stairs, and dealing with obstacles is available in the article.

  • General Motors announced it was laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees globally after a review designed to streamline its software and services division. 

  • Nearly 17,000 AT&T workers have gone on strike across nine states in the Southeast, accusing the telecom giant of "unfair labor practices." AT&T says it's taken steps to avoid service disruptions.

  • Perdue recalled more than 160,000 pounds of frozen ready-to-eat chicken nuggets and tenders for possible metal contamination.

📱Tech Nuts

Waymo's new driverless technology should be able to handle a wider array of weather conditions without requiring as many cameras and sensors. The upcoming Waymo-Zeekr has an accessible interior with a low step, a high ceiling, more leg room, and other features. The car system has a 360 view of obstacles and its sensors have wipers to clear them of most dirt and precipitation. Pictures of the sixth-generation self-driving car are available in the article.

Other News

  • Researchers and companies like FinalSpark are creating computers from lab-grown human brain organoids, which can be rented for $500 a month.

  • Apple plans to launch two versions of its fourth-generation AirPods this fall, one budget-friendly with basic features and another pricier model with active noise cancellation.

  • Google's Team Pixel influencer program required influencers not to feature Pixel products alongside competitor devices, risking removal from the program for showing preference to other brands.

  • A YouTube creator filed a class action lawsuit against Nvidia, alleging the company profited from his and others' videos without permission.

  • OpenAI has blocked multiple ChatGPT accounts connected to an Iranian influence campaign that created content related to the US presidential election, among other subjects. 

🎁Miscellaneous

A Personalized Brain Pacemaker for Parkinson's 

A recent study exploring an innovative approach to deep brain stimulation found that it cut in half the time patients experienced their most bothersome symptoms. The personalized therapy, called adaptive deep brain stimulation, tailors the amount of electrical stimulation to each patient's individual symptoms. Patients note feeling the difference instantly and most say it helped improve their perceived quality of life. The study was small, but it represents a significant step in creating personalized treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

🔥 Few tools many people are finding useful

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  • Shimmer - Click any image and the AI will curate your personal feed

🐦Joke of the Day

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