Today’s top stories:

1. The white-collar recession affecting professionals today.

2. Perplexity launches AI shopping assistant.

3. Nvidia’s Q3 revenue increases 94% YoY to $35B.

4. Thrive Capital’s investment philosophy has earned it a mythical status.

5. Adani Group faces $250M bribery charges by the US government.

6. DOJ orders Google to sell its Chrome browser.

Market Pulse

🗓️ Economic Calendar

🔥 Top Stories

1. White-collar job hunters face 222 applicants per role in brutal tech freeze 📉

White collar recession

The deets in 30 seconds:

• Job market split into two tiers: strong for low-wage, weak for six-figure roles.

• Tech hiring down drastically: IT (-27%), QA (-32%), engineering (-26%).

• Healthcare hiring up 10%, driven by staffing shortages.

• Average job search extends to 66 days, up from 52 days in 2021.

• Companies now receive 222 applications per opening.

• Some recovery showing: tech job posts up from 144,000 to 223,000.

💡 How it impacts you:

• AI tools becoming more important for job searches.

• Need for strategic use of platforms like LinkedIn.

• Longer hiring processes becoming standard.

• Mass application tools raising data privacy concerns.

• Paid job search tools becoming necessary.

🔮 Industry prediction:

Job hunting about to enter its "Hunger Games" phase - where AI tools and personal branding become your survival kit.

• Who's Moving:
  🏃‍♀️ Leading: Healthcare and security sectors
  🚶‍♂️ Following: Traditional industries adjusting hiring
  ⌛ Waiting: Tech giants with hiring freezes

• What's Next:
  Now: "See More Disease" epidemic in hiring
  6 Months: AI reshaping job application strategies
  1 Year: Return to pre-pandemic hiring levels with new rules

⚡ The bottom line: Tech's job market is pulling a "2008 housing market" move - except instead of underwater mortgages, we've got overqualified programmers playing musical chairs with shrinking seats. 🤷‍♀️ 

2. Perplexity launches AI shopping assistant with one-click checkout 🛍️

The deets in 30 seconds:

• New AI-powered shopping platform combines product research and purchasing in one place.

• One-click "Buy with Pro" checkout available for US Pro users with free shipping.

• Visual search tool "Snap to Shop" lets users find products through photos.

• Platform includes Shopify integration for real-time product information.

💡 What this could mean for you:

• Take photos of products you see in real life to find them instantly online.

• Skip the endless review reading with AI-condensed product comparisons.

• Unbiased AI recommendations rather than sponsored product listings.

• Free shipping on all "Buy with Pro" purchases.

🔮 Industry prediction:

AI shopping assistants becoming the "Spotify Wrapped" of retail – personalized, engaging, and changing how we discover products.

• Who's Moving
  🏃‍♀️ Leading - Perplexity
  🚶‍♂️ Following - Amazon, Google Shopping
  ⌛ Waiting - Traditional retailers

• What's Next 
  Now - Visual search and AI recommendations
  6 Months - Wide-scale merchant adoption
  1 Year - AI shopping assistants become standard for online retail

3. Nvidia's quarterly revenue soars 94% to $35.1B as AI chip demand explodes 🚀

The deets in 30 seconds:

• Revenue hit $35.1B, up 94% year-over-year; data center chip sales grew 112% from last year.

• Forecast shows 70% growth to $37.5B next quarter.

• Stock dropped 2% after hours despite tripling this year.

💡 How it impacts companies using AI: 

• Cloud services might get pricier as providers pay more for chips.

• Enhanced AI capabilities could improve threat detection.

• More powerful chips enable better encryption.

🔮 Industry prediction:

AI chips becoming like Netflix subscriptions - everyone needs their own, and sharing isn't an option anymore.

• Who's Moving: 

  🏃‍♀️ Leading - Nvidia (the box office hit)
  🚶‍♂️ Following - AMD, Intel
  ⌛ Waiting - Traditional hardware makers

• What's Next: 

  Now - Severe chip shortages

  6 Months - New players enter the market

  1 Year - AI chip manufacturing becomes national priority

4. 💰 Thrive Capital bets $1bn on OpenAI as venture firm rewrites investment playbook

Thrive Capital over the years

The deets in 30 seconds:

• Thrive Capital invested over $1bn in OpenAI's recent $7bn funding round.

• Company now valued at $150bn, up 5x in 18 months manages $25bn with only nine investing partners.

• Firm concentrates funds in 10-15 companies vs traditional VC spread.

• Notable investments include Stripe ($70bn valuation) and Instagram.

• Strategy revolves around loyalty through crises, closeness to founders and funding select few companies.

🔮 Industry prediction:

VC firms about to have their "Nokia vs iPhone moment" – adapt to mega-rounds or fade into irrelevance.

• Who's Moving:

  🏃‍♀️ Leading. -Thrive Capital (the boutique going luxury)
  🚶‍♂️ Following - Tiger Global, Coatue Management
  ⌛ Waiting - Traditional VCs stuck in small-check strategy

• What's Next:

  Now - Mega-rounds dominate AI funding

  6 Months - More VCs pivot to concentrated bets
  1 Year - Two-tier VC market emerges - mega-players and specialists

5. India's largest conglomerate faces $250M bribery charge as stocks dive $30B 🎯

The deets in 30 seconds:

• US charged Gautam Adani and Exces. with orchestrating $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for solar energy contracts.

• Adani Group's market value dropped $30 billion following charges.

• Criminal charges include obstruction of justice through deletion of evidence and lying to DOJ, SEC, and FBI.

• SEC filed parallel lawsuit identifying Adani Green Energy as the firm involved in alleged bribes.

• Adani Group denied allegations and canceled planned $600 million bond sale.

💡 How it impacts you:

• Investment portfolios with exposure to Indian markets face increased volatility.

• Clean energy project companies could see stricter compliance measures.

• International businesses may reassess partnerships with Indian conglomerates.

• Pension fund investments through firms like CDPQ require closer scrutiny.

♻️ What this could mean for the renewable energy industry:

• The renewable energy sector is about to get more attention than a solar panel in a desert heatwave 🌡️ - expect stricter compliance checks and slower project approvals worldwide.

• Looks like "green energy" just got a different meaning in India - and not the environmental kind we were hoping for 💸. This could make investors think twice before jumping into emerging market renewable projects.

6. DOJ wants Google to sell Chrome in historic $49B breakup push 🔨

The deets in 30 seconds:

• DOJ filed a 23-page proposal demanding Google divest Chrome browser along with a 10-year oversight period.

• Google must stop exclusive deals with Apple and Samsung.

• Company needs to report monthly search ad auction changes.

• Android divestiture mentioned but not primary focus.

• Google's search ads brought in $49.4B (75% of Q3 ad revenue).

💡 How it impacts you:

• Changes to how search works across devices.

• Optionality for default search engines on phones and browser choice.

• New data collection and tracking practices (potentially reduced).

• Enterprise Chrome management could change.

🔮 Industry prediction:

Tech breakups about to have their "Game of Thrones final season" moment – everyone's watching, but nobody knows if they'll like the ending.

• Who's Moving:

  🏃‍♀️ Leading: DOJ (wielding the antitrust hammer)
  🚶‍♂️ Following: Microsoft, Apple, Samsung
  ⌛ Waiting: Smaller browser makers

• What's Next: 
  Now: Legal battle heats up like a viral TikTok challenge
  6 Months: Tech giants scrambling like influencers after a platform change
  1 Year: Browser market looking like a streaming service lineup - fragmented but diverse

⚡ The bottom line: The DOJ just pulled a "parent taking away the favorite toy" move on Google's $49B search empire, but the tech giant's giving "you can't ground me" energy with its appeal plans.

🗞️ Speed Reads

🤖 AI & Tech

AI to help understand the fabric of reality: Demis Hassabis and James Manyika.

A lab in China released a reasoning model that competes with OpenAI’s o1.

MS Teams to let you clone your voice for meetings.

OpenAI’s o1 model has deceptive powers, AI expert says.

Chinese tech groups are building teams in the Bay Area.

💼 Startup & Business

New car sales in the EU improved in October.

Salesforce plans layoffs at Own, the data management startup it bought.

White-collar jobs could be in a recession.

🏢 US Politics

22-page police report shows Pete Hegseth assaulted a woman.

House Ethics Committee voted against releasing report on Matt Gaetz.

🌏️ Global Affairs (non-US)

German economy continues to deteriorate.

BOJ considers December rate hike and sees progress in inflation.

China advisers look for a 5% economic growth in 2025 amid strong stimulus.

India’s economy has slowed down in the September quarter.

💫 Mind Candy

OpenAI loses ground to Anthropic in LLM marketshare this year

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