📣 OpenAI raises $6.6B at $157B valuation pre-money

We’re the Techonomy Barista, and we serving a rich blend of tech trends and market bends. ☕

Today’s edition focus a bit more on OpenAI due to the amount of activity happening with the company internally and externally that we couldn’t ignore. 🤷‍♀️ 

Here’s what we’re covering today:

1. US Fed leading rate cuts globally.

2. OpenAI successfully raises $6.6B at $157B valuation pre-money.

3. New leadership at OpenAI to take company into future.

4. Microsoft launches Voice and Vision in newly-designed Copilot.

5. OpenAI predicts AI Agents will be mainstream in 2025.

Markets

Economic Calendar

1. US Fed drives global rate cuts despite uncertainty going into new year 🌐 

Fourth quarter interest rates expectation globally.

Key takeaways:

• Fed projects additional 0.5% rate cut by end of year and 1% over 2025, leading global monetary policy easing.

• Most G7 countries expected to follow suit in easing monetary policy.

• Japan and Brazil are tightening policy instead with Russia still very high.

• US presidential election in November adds uncertainty to economic outlook.

• Trump said he will not reappoint Powell as Fed Chair.

How it could impact the US economy:

• As mentioned before, lower interest rates mean cheaper mortgages and car loans - a good time to upgrade your ride or buy a new home. 🏠🚗

• Savings account yields may drop, so consider exploring other investment options to grow your money. 🫰

• The Fed's hints to rate cuts in Nov and potentially Dec signals a new era of central bank activism. It's like the monetary policy pendulum is swinging back – from "higher-for-longer" to "lower-and-quicker."

• With the US election looming, we might see more plot twists in this economic soap opera than in a telenovela. Grab your popcorn, the economy could get interesting in 2025. 🍿

2. OpenAI secures $6.6B in funding, valuation soars to $157B 🚀

Key takeaways:

• OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in new funding, achieving a $157 billion valuation pre-money.

• Thrive Capital led the round with a $1.3 billion investment, while Microsoft contributed $750 million.

• Other major investors include Khosla Ventures, Fidelity, Nvidia, Tiger Global, and SoftBank.

• OpenAI plans to use the funds for AI research and increasing computing capacity.

• The company sought exclusivity asking investors to avoid backing rivals.

What this could mean for the AI industry:

• ChatGPT will get smarter, faster, and potentially more expensive as OpenAI pumps resources into research and development. 🤖 

• OpenAI's massive valuation might inspire a wave of AI startups, leading to novel solutions to advance several fields including health care and science. 🧪 

• This update puts Google, Anthropic, Meta and Musk’s xAI in hot pursuit of OpenAI and the race for AGI supremacy. 🚀 

3. OpenAI's remaining researchers shape the future of AI at the company 🧠

Key takeaways:

• Jakub Pachocki replaced Ilya Sutskever as chief scientist, focusing on scaling and practical implementation.

• Mark Chen became chief research officer, leading "frontiers" research and model capabilities expansion.

• Jerry Tworek, Noam Brown, Shenjia Zhao, Hongyu Ren, Kevin Lu, and Szymon Sidor were all crucial in developing the o1 models.

• Wojciech Zaremba, a co-founder, contributed to making Strawberry usable for o1 model launches.

• Nick Ryder leads pre-training, while Alec Radford gained fame for authoring the original GPT-1 research paper.

What this could mean for the AI industry:

• The race for more advanced, multi-modal AI models is heating up and every time researches leave OpenAI, they seem to want to start new companies. 🤷‍♀️ 

• The top talent that leaves are usually offered high salaries by competing firms like Google, Amazon, Anthropic, Meta and xAI. 💰️ 

• It’s not all money though, it’s a difference in philosophy and vision as researches reside across many points on the e/acc and EA spectrum.

4. Microsoft redesigns Copilot with new voice and vision.

Key takeaways:

• Microsoft unveils a major overhaul of Copilot, adding voice and vision capabilities.

• New features include a virtual news presenter, ability to see what users are looking at, and natural voice interactions.

• Copilot's interface is redesigned across mobile, web, and Windows app with a more personalized, card-based layout.

• The update introduces Copilot Daily for audio news summaries and Think Deeper for complex question-answering.

• New features are rolling out gradually, with some initially limited to specific regions or Copilot Pro subscribers.

What this could mean for you:

• The vision capabilities could make online shopping and research more efficient by allowing AI to analyze web content.

• The race for more human-like AI interactions is intensifying, with voice and vision becoming key battlegrounds. 🎭

• Again, as AI assistants become more integrated into daily life, expect increased focus on ethical AI development and transparent privacy policies. 🔒

5. AI agents set to hit mainstream by 2025, OpenAI predicts 🤖

Key takeaways:

• OpenAI anticipates AI-powered assistants will become mainstream by 2025.

• Tech giants like Google and Apple are racing to bring AI agents to consumers.

• OpenAI revealed increased access to its new model series o1, with improved reasoning capabilities.

• The company introduced GPT-4o with advanced voice capabilities for real-time interactions through its API.

• As we covered recently, OpenAI is pursuing a $6.5bn funding round at a $150bn valuation.

What this could mean for you and the AI industry:

• Expect some of your daily tasks to be delegated to an AI assistant, freeing up time for more important activities. 🤖 

• Voice interactions with AI could become more natural and sophisticated, changing how you interact with technology.

• The race to dominate the AI agent market is heating up, with major players vying for supremacy. Expect a flood of new AI assistants that can do everything from ordering your groceries to ghostwriting your breakup texts. 💔 

Other stories:

AI

Anthropic hires lesser known OpenAI Co-Founder Durk Kingma.

You can now ask Meta’s smart glasses where you parked your car.

Amazon’s new Fire tablets are powered by GenAI.

Tech

The new ‘summary cards’ in Gmail finds info buried in your emails.

Non-subscription Microsoft Office 2024 and Windows 11 is out now.

Gemini Live is now free for everybody.

Startup

Poolside, an AI coding startup, raises $500M.

Early GenAI startup, Tome, lays off 30% in second round of layoffs.

Dementia care startup Rippl raises $23M.

Business

Samsung to cut thousands of jobs in AU, NZ and SEA.

US dockworkers strike, halting half the nation's ocean shipping.

No signs of US labor market deterioration as job openings rebound.

September sales for Volvo cars rises 1%.

US Politics

Musk funded right-wing political non-profit years before he endorsed Trump.

3 things testing Harris and Trump: Hurricane Helene, the port strike and the Middle East.

Top Economies (non-US)

Jinping is worried bout the economy but what do Chinese people think about it?

Japan will keep Nuclear and boost Renewables in its Energy mix.

European Central Bank rate cut in October is now certain.

India’s economy shows not enough jobs and not enough workers.

Fascinating / Funny

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