🏠 Microsoft wants in

The hottest company on the market

AuthorAuthor

Jason Levin & Stephen Flanders
January 11, 2023

Gm.

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AI

Microsoft Wants To Invest In OpenAI

Just last Friday, we covered the ChatGPT and Bing integration, the latest development in Microsoft's extensive partnership with OpenAI.

Well it appears that Microsoft is hungry for seconds.

And those seconds are a bit larger than most people's seconds, as Microsoft is seeking to invest $10 billion into the fledging AI superpower.

The deal values OpenAI at $29 billion, and would give Microsoft 75% of OpenAI's profits until the investment is recouped. After recoupment, Microsoft would own 49% of OpenAI, with 49% controlled by other investors and 2% by OpenAI's nonprofit parent.

Obviously, this is a big deal for Microsoft, but it's a massive deal for OpenAI. $10 billion is a lot of bread. Just imagine what OpenAI can do with that money.

They could...

  1. Recreate Skynet.

  2. Train an AI to spam the internet with terrible dad jokes.

  3. Use machine learning to create a VR simulator that lets you experience what it would be like to be a piece of bread being toasted in the toaster.

  4. Turn people into cyborgs.

  5. Proabably takeover the world.

The possibilities are endless!

SOCIAL APPS

Instagram Goes Back to Normal (For Now)

This might just be the best news of the year.

Instagram is removing the Shop tab from the navigation and bringing back the old + sign in the center. I'm shook.

Seriously, every time I try to post on Instagram I press the wrong button. I thought I was just going insane, but it turns out everyone else missed the old format too.

Listening to their Power Users

I am not an Instagram power users, but Kim Kardashian and Kyle Jenner sure are.

Last year, Jenner posted "make Instagram Instagram again" and to stop "trying to be TikTok". Jenner said what we were all thinking.

Is Friend-to-Friend Social Network Coming Back?

In a recent piece, Late Checkout founder and Reddit advisor Greg Isenberg wrote that he predicts the rise of friends-to-friend social networking.

Over the last two years we’ve seen BeReal take off as a pure friend-to-friend network with ~60M users.. Not about creators, or massive audiences, or short-form video (more on that in a second) — just interacting with people you know.

Another product like BeReal that incentivizes friend-to-friend experiences will take off in 2023 only it will be 5-10x bigger.

Greg Isenberg, My Predictions for 2023

Is Greg right?

It's impossible to say. Hit us a reply and let us know what you think.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: $12 billion: The amount of assets that Binance has lost in just the last 60 days. That's an awful lot of cheddar.

Story we're watching: YouTube will start sharing ad revenue with shorts creators on February 1st. Will this be the push that creators need to prioritize shorts over TikTok?

Rabbit hole: The Prophet of the Revolt (The Pull Request)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

  • A Princeton student created an app that can tell whether an essay was AI-written. Back to Chegg we go.

  • Apple is working on an all-in-one cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth chip.

  • It's not just a meme anymore, ChatGPT is literally being used as a therapist. And apparently, it's a pretty good one.

  • China's first Mars mission isn't doing too hot.

THREE LIES AND A HEADLINE

News is so weird these days. Three of these headline are fake stories from The Onion while one is actually true. Can you spot the truth amongst the fakes?

A. Explosive Prince Harry Memoir Reveals William Used Too Much Tongue When They Kissed

B. Elon Musk Unveils New Cybertruck Concept Design

C. Neurologists Confirm Nightmares Persist After Death

D. Zap Yourself With Electricity To Get Into Shape

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

🤝 Just spoke with the writers behind Bulletproof, a newsletter focused on giving investors access to startups before they're huge.

⏯ It's ok to slow down for a moment. Nat Eliason says so.

🐲 Do you have a personal moat? Erik Torenberg, founder of On Deck and Village Global, explains why you need one and how to build it.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers. Congrats!

THREE HEADLINES ANSWER

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