Hi, people, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), Ztoog’s publication that highlights a few of the extra noteworthy moments in tech over the previous few days. The vacation season is nigh upon us, however the tech business waits for nobody — on the horizon are IBM, AMD and Intel conferences, plus the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The information cycle gained’t die down anytime quickly, and relaxation assured we’ll proceed doing our greatest to maintain you knowledgeable.
But I’m getting forward of myself. A good quantity occurred this week, together with Amazon’s re:Invent convention, a ransomware disaster at Fidelity, Sam Altman officially returning to OpenAI, Neuralink elevating cash, and SpaceX buying a parachute firm. Also, Tesla officially launched the Cybertruck, Black Friday numbers got here in, Evernote imposed caps on its free plan, and Teenage Engineering unveiled its newest gadget. We cowl all that — and extra — on this version of WiR.
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Amazon reinvents — once more: Amazon’s annual re:Invent convention, which focuses on the tech big’s AWS enterprise, was considerably subdued this 12 months. But AWS CEO Adam Selipsky talked a giant recreation, taking low cost pictures at rivals, from Google and Microsoft to OpenAI. Among the extra notable unveilings was a $195 skinny consumer that appears (suspiciously) comparable to a Fire TV Cube, a business-oriented AI chatbot referred to as Q and three new serverless choices. Christine has a roundup of the remainder of the bulletins.
Massive breach at Fidelity: Last Tuesday, Fidelity National Financial, or FNF, an actual property providers firm that payments itself as the “leading provider of title insurance and escrow services” and “North America’s largest title insurance company,” introduced that it had skilled a cyberattack. Lorenzo writes that, since then, owners with mortgages and potential consumers buying properties with FNF or one in every of its many subsidiaries have been left confused and involved, not figuring out precisely what’s taking place — or what to do.
Altman returns to OpenAI: Sam Altman is officially again as OpenAI’s CEO after a tumultuous week and change. And OpenAI officially has a brand new board of administrators — plus a non-voting board observer, courtesy of Microsoft — changing most of the board that tried to oust Altman in the days main up to Thanksgiving.
Neuralink raises money: Neuralink, the Elon Musk–based firm creating implantable chips that may learn mind waves, has raised an extra $43 million in enterprise capital, in accordance to a submitting with the SEC. Founded in 2016, Neuralink has devised a stitching machine–like machine able to implanting ultra-thin threads that join to electrodes inside the mind. But Neuralink is underneath growing scrutiny for what critics allege are a poisonous office tradition — and unethical analysis practices.
SpaceX buys parachutes: SpaceX is thought for its vertical integration, however one part it’s been outsourcing is parachutes — till earlier this month, when the firm quietly purchased parachute vendor Pioneer Aerospace for $2.2 million after its father or mother firm went bankrupt. Aria stories that it’s the second identified acquisition for SpaceX, which acquired small satellite tv for pc startup Swarm in 2021 for a $524 million principally inventory deal.
The Cybertruck launches — for actual: Tesla moved ahead on Thursday with the long-awaited launch of its Cybertruck electrical pickup throughout a day presser. Harri notes that the boxy automobile is Tesla’s first new mannequin since 2020, when it began delivering the Model Y.
Black Friday growth: A rush of deep reductions and the progress of versatile cost choices have been the drivers behind $9.8 billion in on-line gross sales in the U.S. on Black Friday — a document determine for the day. According to Adobe Analytics, gross sales have been up by 7.5% on final 12 months’s numbers — a determine that Ingrid writes ought to present some shock vacation cheer to retailers, which have been seeing total sluggish progress.
Evernote hobbles its free plan: Days after Evernote began testing a free plan with entry to just one pocket book and 50 notes with restricted customers, the firm has now made this its new default free plan. The note-taking app stated that this transformation will likely be relevant for all new and present free customers beginning December 4.
Teenage Engineering releases a groovebox: Teenage Engineering’s new $300 groovebox has no enterprise being this cute, Harri writes — and I can’t disagree. Called the EP-133 Ok.O.II, it’s a mix drum machine, synthesizer and sampler — an appropriately supersized improve to Teenage Engineer’s pint-sized PO-33 Ok.O.
ChatGPT turns one: OpenAI’s viral AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT turned one this week. Initially a fundamental free-to-use, web-based and chat-focused interface on high of one in every of OpenAI’s present fashions, GPT-3.5, ChatGPT would go on to change into the firm’s hottest product . . . ever — and the fastest-growing shopper app in historical past. I wrote one thing to mark the event.
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In want of a podcast to fill the time? You’re in luck. Ztoog has a full roster to maintain you occupied.
This week on a throwback episode of Equity, Alex chats with Anu Hariharan, who beforehand led YC Continuity, about what makes a “great” founder and how these founders are efficiently guiding their corporations towards cash-flow positivity. Hariharan not too long ago partnered with two of her former colleagues and former Brex government Lucas Fox to launch a brand new fund, Avra, which goals to elevate about $350 million and function a program that some are referring to as a “YC for growth.”
Over on Found, the crew was joined by Neil Batlivala from Pair Team, which is constructing the infrastructure that’ll assist the most susceptible populations get the scientific and social care they want by means of the coming Medicaid enlargement. Dom and Becca talked to Neil about how his earlier well being tech expertise led him to begin an organization solely centered on connecting care amenities like meals pantries and shelters to scientific coaching and care by means of Medicaid funding.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed Optimism’s CEO and co-founder Jing Wang and chief progress officer Ryan Wyatt. Optimism is an Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain that focuses on scaling and velocity, whereas additionally reducing prices for customers.
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TC+ subscribers get entry to in-depth commentary, evaluation and surveys — which you already know in the event you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, contemplate signing up. Here are just a few highlights from this week:
The 2024 IPO cohort comes into focus: Many different unicorns are probably going to be watching how the upcoming Shein and Reddit IPOs carry out, since they’ll just about show how excessive private-market valuations translate to the public markets, Alex writes.
Fastest inexperienced playing cards in the event you’re from India or China: Sophie Alcorn, the founding father of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley, writes about how founders from India or China can get inexperienced playing cards as shortly as doable when dealing with deadlines from buyers or companions — together with by means of VC networks and sources.
Tepid cybersecurity funding: If you checked out enterprise capital funding traits in the cybersecurity market, you may assume that the sector was struggling, Alex writes. What’s the motive? There’s not one, however a number of.