Walmart's new packaging

JetZero aims to be the SpaceX of aviation

Author

Cash Nut
June 01, 2023

In Today’s Edition

  • How JetZero aims to be the SpaceX of aviation

  • BYJU’S Creditors Call Off Negotiations To Restructure Its $1.2 Bn Loan

  • Many Walmart shoppers will soon see new packaging as the retailer tries to cut waste

  • Nordstrom tops Wall Street’s first-quarter sales expectations, even as shoppers spend less

  • OpenAI's plans according to Sam Altman

  • Apple preps first Mac with M2 Ultra chip and M2 Max desktop ahead of WWDC

  • Longevity enthusiasts want to create their independent state

🚀Startups Nuts

JetZero's blended wing body aircraft could be the first major redesign of a commercial passenger jetliner to enter production. Its lighter weight and superior aerodynamics deliver the same speed and range as existing midbody jetliners on half the fuel. The design could help the airline industry hit emission goals while lowering operational costs. JetZero is aiming for an early-2030s entry to service as commercial jetliners for airlines. Renders of JetZero's wing body aircraft are available in the article

The talks were reportedly called off after the creditors moved to court accusing BYJU’S of hiding $500 Mn of funds raised. BYJU’S raised $1.2 Bn term loan B in 2021 and negotiated with the creditors to restructure the loan. Recently, some creditors filed a lawsuit in the US, accusing BYJU’S Alpha of hiding about $500 Mn.

🏭Business Nuts

Walmart is trying to reduce waste using paper mailers and technology that makes custom-fit cardboard boxes. The nation’s largest retailer will allow customers to skip plastic bags when retrieving curbside pickup orders. Target and Amazon have also looked for ways to reduce packaging and cater to customers who care more about sustainability.

Nordstrom topped fiscal first-quarter sales expectations, even as it reported a drop in spending across most categories. The higher-end department store also reiterated its outlook for the full year. Nordstrom expects revenue to fall 4% to 6% and adjusted earnings per share to range between $1.80 and $2.20 for the fiscal year, excluding the impact of winding down its stores and online business in Canada. The company’s shares rose about 7% in after-hours trading.

📱Tech Nuts

OpenAI is currently extremely GPU-limited and this is delaying a lot of its short-term plans. In the near term, the company plans to make GPT-4 cheaper and faster, create longer context windows, finetune its API, and make a stateful API that remembers conversation history. OpenAI plans to introduce GPT-4 multimodality in 2024. Plugins are probably not coming to the API anytime soon as their usage suggests that they don't have product-market fit yet. OpenAI's internal data suggests that making models larger will continue to yield performance.

Apple is expected to announce several new Macs at the WWDC 2023 keynote on Monday. The company is testing two Mac desktops with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips ahead of the event. The M2 Ultra will have a 24- or 76-core CPU, 60-core GPU, and up to 192GB of RAM. Apple will begin accepting the Mac Studio and M2 MacBook Air into its trade-in program starting next week. The first M3 Macs are not expected to be ready until the end of the year.

🎁Miscellaneous

A group of longevity enthusiasts wants to create their own independent state to study treatments to slow down or reverse aging. They believe that companies should not be held back by laws that limit how they develop and test drugs. Lowering the requirements for testing longevity treatments in humans could accelerate the development of the technology. The group is considering creating a 'longevity state' in Rhode Island or somewhere in Latin America. There are no firm plans for the state yet as the organizers want any decisions to be made collaboratively.

💡What else are we reading and seeing?

  • Would Large Language Models Be Better If They Weren’t So Large?

  • Sam Bankman-Fried sets the stage to blame FTX’s massive fraud on a law firm’s advice

  • Amazon workers walk out over 'lack of trust' in leadership

  • The world’s biggest ad agency is going all in on AI with Nvidia’s help

😎Fun Fact

The concept of compound interest was reportedly referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world" by physicist Albert Einstein.

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