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Musk's Twitter Takeover Causes $13B Headache for Banks
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Kristoffer Lindström
August 21, 2024
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TECH BRIEF
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has revised its projections for 2024 revenue growth after better-than-expected quarterly results, driven by increased global AI spending. The chipmaker for Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp, TSMC now sees sales growth exceeding their previous guideline of mid-20%. TSMC expects AI to drive larger chip sizes on the edge in devices like smartphones and PCs, with advanced packaging gaining significance as well. TSMC's 2-nanometer and A16 technologies are making strides in addressing the demand for energy-efficient computing, and TSMC expects their gains to be higher than both 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer yields in the initial years, with volume production scheduled for 2025.
Publishing giant Conde Nast forms a multi-year partnership with OpenAI allowing the AI company to use its content within AI-powered products like ChatGPT and the upcoming SearchGPT. This revenue-generating move allows Conde Nast to secure its intellectual property. The collaboration forms part of a wider trend with OpenAI inking partnerships with other media organizations. While such collaborations are seen as offering new revenue streams, some outlets accusing AI firms of copyright infringement show resistance.
Meta is revamping its ad platform for Facebook and Instagram, introducing AI-powered campaign optimization for more precise customer targeting. New features include a Conversion Value Rules tool, an optional attribution setting for incremental conversions, and enhanced analytics integration with external platforms. These updates are seen as Meta's response to digital advertising's changing landscape, where AI-driven features and cross-channel integration become increasingly essential.
Microsoft has launched three new models in its Phi AI series: Phi-3.5-mini-instruct, Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct, and Phi-3.5-vision-instruct, catering to basic reasoning, superior reasoning, and vision tasks respectively. These models, available for commercial use and modification under a Microsoft-branded MIT License, have been commended for their high performance, even surpassing other AI providers such as Google, Meta, and OpenAI in certain tests.
Google will once again defend itself in a class-action lawsuit regarding its data collection practices, especially of its Chrome Sync feature. Previously dismissed by a lower court, the case was reinstated by a federal appeals court, anchoring on whether users fully understood Google's privacy policies. Google maintains its users' awareness of data collection upon acceptance of the company's privacy policy.
Liz Wessel gives in-depth advice on pitching to VC partner meetings. Her tips include understanding the meeting dynamic, leveraging the point partner, managing time effectively, and delivering pitches with energy and confidence. She emphasizes the importance of navigating interruptions, painting a comprehensive picture of the company's details, and storytelling.
GPT-4o now offers a fine-tuning feature that allows developers to customize the model to increase performance for their applications. Developers can access 1M free training tokens daily through September 23. Two successful cases include Cosine's Genie, which achieved a state-of-the-art 43.8% score on the SWE-bench benchmark, and Distyl, who secured first place on the BIRD-SQL benchmark. Training costs are $25 per million tokens.
Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, financed by a $13 billion loan, has become the most disastrous merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008-09 financial crisis. The burden of the unsold debt is weighing heavily on the balance sheets of involved banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.
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Bolt Targets $450M Fundraise at $14B Valuation Amid Retail Tech Race - Fintech Bolt seeks to raise $450M, maintaining its $14B valuation, with part of the funds expected as marketing credits from UK's The London Fund. The company’s software platform that simplifies online transactions is used by 80 million consumers worldwide.
AI Construction Startup Trunk Tools Raises $20M For Document Automation - Trunk Tools, an AI construction startup founded by Sarah Buchner, recently raised $20 million in Series A funding. The platform organizes heavy construction documentation and identifies project issues.
Defcon AI Raises $44M to Transform Military Logistics with Advanced Software - Defcon AI, a software startup addressing complex military logistics, has secured a $44M seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The company also reports strong demand from private sectors.
Eppo Bags $28M Series B to Boost AI and Marketing Experiments - Eppo, an experimentation platform, raised $28M in a Series B round led by Innovation Endeavors for product development, focusing on AI and marketing experiments.
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