Can AI Save Tech From Recession?

∆ Tech in the News

Guilty On All Counts - FTX founder/ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is convicted on all seven fraud and conspiracy charges and could face up to 110 years in jail.

AI Safety Institute The Biden admin announced the new joint public/private sector body to gauge the risks of advanced AI models and guide future rules.

Elon x Sunak - Elon Musk talked with the UK’s tech founder PM, Rishi Sunak on X, notably saying he agrees with the vast majority of AI regulations.

ScarJo Bot - Scarlett Johansson is suing an AI app developer for using her name and likeness via AI-generated images and voice in an online ad.

$30 p/mth "AI Copilot" - Microsoft launched its AI assistant “productivity tool” add-on for large 365 business subscribers, targeting $10B in ARR by 2026

˚The hottest thing in tech this week

Can AI Save Tech From Recession?

Tech executives are pinning their hopes on AI to create growth despite a gloomy economic outlook. How bad is it? Well, Apple is suffering its longest revenue decline in twenty years since before the launch of the iPod, as Chinese sales crash due to strong local competition. However, Apple reportedly hopes to offset this with plans to launch advanced health monitoring powered by AI for its Apple Watch and AirPods, as well as paid health coaching services in 2024.

In the PC market, the AMD and Intel CEOs also both see AI as “An Inflection Point”, and pin hopes of a PC market recovery on an “AI PC cycle” driven by forthcoming AI-chip-equipped computers. In Q3, AMD's PC-focused business posted its strongest growth in two years and Intel's PC unit decline was its slowest in eight quarters. Nvidia too has recently announced its plans for AI PCs.

We also recently covered how Microsoft’s Cloud business is booming off strong demand for its AI Copilot service (which just launched for $30p/m to 365’s enterprise clients.) Google and Amazon are also both betting big on AI to help drive their cloud and other revenues. And Defense tech giant Palantir just posted record earnings on high demand for its AI platform with users up 3x for July-Sep.

Can AI pull tech out of the doldrums, or are we all poor again?

News Bytes

• AWS Announces innovative “Capacity Blocks” pricing for ML Workloads

• Bullish fund tied to Nvidia is ‘23’s #1 performing ETF up 328.5%

• Intuit shutters Mint, pushes users to its AI-powered Credit Karma tool

• Seattle’s new genAI policy sets guardrails for city employees

  
  

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Nedge Computing Corp - A Deep tech startup enhancing Cloud-based remote computing (including in the growth category “edge networking”. Projected 50% CAGR reaching $55B ARR by 2030. Click to chat with CEO Peter Thomson.

Closed Deals:

Housing Super-App - Zillow acquired agents CRM service Follow Up Boss for $500M gaining new expertise and 100 new team members.

Golden Opportunity - Procurement management software startup Oro Labs raised a $34M Series B led by Felicis.

Ex-Twitter Team - Freeplay emerged from stealth with a $3.25M seed, offering prod-dev teams innovative tools for LLM-powered software prototyping.

Supercharging Sales - NYC's 1up.ai closed a $2.5M round, with 8-Bit Capital betting on its advanced LLMs streamlining knowledge for sales teams

Companies to Watch:

AI “Bootcamps” - Palantir’s stock surged on record earnings as demand surged for its AI platform, with users up 3x for the July-Sept period and interest in its AI workshops.

AI-Powered CRM - HubSpot acquired B2B data powerhouse Clearbit, enhancing its AI-driven CRM platform with rich company data, 1.5K+ business customers, and 400K users.

Defending Open Source -Startup Chainguard’s Series B raised $61M from Spark, Sequoia and Mantis VC to protect OS software for clients like HPE and Snowflake

Rural India Data Annotators - Google and Microsoft have backed Indian startup Karya to ethically leverage rural Indian women to train their AI tools.

The Funding Buzz (New)

Bee Partners - The San Fran firm exceeded its $50M target for its 4th fund investing in seed startups in DeepTech sectors like AI, ML, robotics, and synthetic biology. Bee has already seen a 40% YoY surge in deal flow.

Sandberg Bernthal Ventures - Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg launched a firm to use her personal capital to fund businesses in various sectors.

Snowflake Fund - The leading cloud data provider launched a $100M program with 10 VC firms for startups building apps on their platform offering recipients up to $1M in Snowflake credits on AWS.

Tools

Google - Launched genAI image tools for its US advertisers and merchants.

Stability AI - The latest tool on Stable Diffusion uses AI to generate 3D models.

MidJourney - Style Tuner lets you create and maintain a unique brand style

Dashtoon - Enables storytellers to leverage AI to create comics.

Brave - The Privacy-oriented browser introduced its native Leo AI assistant.

If you have a deal or company that you would like to host on our next issue, drop us a line at @ [email protected].

Thanks for connecting with us.

The Tech Buzz Team