Down Round

Mohamed Ali Rashid, former Apollo partner, acclaimed for significant contributions, faced controversy over billing personal expenses including a lavish Hamptons vacation, leading to a SEC investigation. Over three years, Rashid accrued $290,000 in unauthorized expenses, resulting in a $240,000 fine, $189,000 disgorgement, $25,000 interest, and a one-year industry ban. Apollo paid $52.7 million over the governance issue. Rashid's story illustrates the dramatic highs and lows in private equity.

Well folks, it's happening again. The US is threatening to ban TikTok. A bill is currently worming its way through Congress which would ban the app unless it fully divested itself from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company. This led TikTok to engage battle stations, and launch probably the stupidest PR campaign in recent history.

In this episode, we talk TikTok, make predictions about a ban, and pontificate on its effect on politics and culture.

Links

• TikTok Prompts Users to Call Congress to Fight Possible Ban – NY Times
• As TikTok Ban Looms, ByteDance Battles Oracle For Control Of Its Algorithm – Forbes
• TikTok Struggles to Protect U.S. Data From Its China Parent – WSJ

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The fabled Apple car – also known as Project Titan – is no more. After working on it for the last 10 years and blowing $10 billion, the company internally announced that it would scrap the project and reassign many of its staff to generative AI.

In this ep, we talk about the Apple car project: why it was originally imagined, what it sought to do, and why it ultimately didn't work out. 

Links

• How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built – Bloomberg

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One less discussed angle of the rise of AI and widely available LLMs is the relationship dimension. From ChatGPT's personalisation features to AI chatbots on Meta platforms, through to porn and sexbots, many people are using AI for companionship. It's big business too, with The Information reporting that pornbot providers are one category of AI company which are growing without the need for external investment.

To unpack the weird world of AI companionship, some of the rising companies in the space, and what it means for society, we're joined by comedian Tom Cashman. (You can watch his brand new special here.)

Links

• One Class of AI Startups That Can Thrive Without Funding: Porn Chatbots – The Information
• Snapchat’s new AI chatbot is already raising alarms among teens and parents – CNN
• ‘Sometimes, It Feels Real’: Character.AI Gives Humans the Chatbots They Desire – The Information
• Meta’s new AI lets people make chatbots. They’re using it for sex. – Washington Post

 

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Nvidia, the graphics card company turned into AI chip powerhouse, posted its earnings at the end of last week. Surprising no one, they were huge – propelling the company even higher up the charts of the most valuable companies on Earth.

In this ep, we unpack the earnings and what they mean, as well as talking about Nvidia's future, and even incompetently attempting to put forward a bear case.

Links

• Nvidia posts revenue up 265% on booming AI business – CNBC

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Reddit is going public. After a false start a couple of years ago, the online message board is undergoing the IPO process, setting markets up for the biggest social media IPO since Pinterest in 2019. 

The company has filed its S1, which for the first time lets the world peek into Reddit's books, also revealing what it thinks are its biggest risks and opportunities. Join us as we pick through the document for revealing nuggets.

Links

• Reddit S-1

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The gaming world was ablaze over the past few weeks over reports that Xbox was throwing in the towel and letting some of its biggest exclusive titles go to its eternal rival, the PlayStation. It riled up the Xbox ultras and raised questions about how committed Microsoft is to console gaming – despite its monster $75B acqusition of Activision-Blizzard.

It ended up being a little less dramatic than anticipated. But it still raises questions about Microsoft's strategy in gaming, and how the world's biggest company is approaching the rapidly growing -- and increasingly unstable --  gaming market.

Links

• Microsoft is slowly building to a future where ‘every screen is an Xbox - The Verge
• Microsoft: four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch – The Verge
• Sony’s value reportedly dropped by $10 billion following ‘disappointing’ PlayStation financials

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Last week, OpenAI announced Sora, its text-to-video model. Only a few people have their hands on it, so all we have to go off are example videos provided by OpenAI. But it looks good – and like a leap forward for AI video creation.

This has raised lots of questions. How does it work? How much crap is about to flood our internet feeds? And is Hollywood doomed? All these questions and more are answered to a base level of satisfaction in this episode.

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The word on the street is that Sam Altman, the once embattled and now seemingly fine CEO of OpenAI, is currently out in the market trying to raise money for a new microchip-related venture. The amount of money he's raising? Seven trillion dollars, which is about 10% of global GDP. In this episode, we discuss the insane computing requirements of a company like OpenAI, and why Sam might be looking to find a new friend other than Nvidia.

Links

• Sam Altman Seeks Trillions of Dollars to Reshape Business of Chips and AI – The Wall Street Journal
• OpenAI Shifts AI Battleground to Software That Operates Devices, Automates Tasks – The Information

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One of the big crazes of the last few years was consumer genetic testing. Through services like 23andme and AncestryDNA, regular punters could find out their ethnic background, link up with distant cousins, and find out what mysterious blood illnesses they were genetically predisposed to get.

But there is trouble in paradise. 23andme has lost a staggering 98% of its value from its peak, and it has people asking: can you build a real, sustainable business from someone spitting into a tube and mailing to to a lab? We dive in.

Links

• 23andMe’s Fall From $6 Billion to Nearly $0 – The Wall Street Journal

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