Top stories today:

1. Anthropic launches Claude 3, outperforming GPT-4, Gemini Ultra
2. Apple fined €1.84B by EU for App Store practices
3. Macbook Air gets M3 chip, support for 2 monitors
4. Bitcoin briefly tops 68K, nearing all-time record of 69K
5. China announces 2024 targets: 5% GDP growth, 3% CPI
6. Bezos surpasses Elon as world’s #1 richest, as Tesla stock -7%
7. China smartphone sales -7% YoY, with Apple overtaken by Vivo

0. Data and calendar

1. Anthropic launches Claude 3, with better testing scores than GPT-4, Gemini Ultra

• But no image or video generation, yet.

• 200K context window as the default, but devs can request access to a 1M context window model, as they can for Google’s Gemini.

Claude 3 Opus, its strongest version, has its API costing 2.5x more than GPT-4 Turbo, while Claude 3 Haiku costs similarly to GPT-3.5

Our view: LLM performance may be plateauing with current techniques

• Anthropic’s and Google’s latest models only slightly beat OpenAI’s on some metrics. We’re not seeing anything revolutionary.

• GPT-4 was launched on Mar. 14, 2023, and likely created ~6 months prior, before undergoing testing.

OpenAI soon after announced "Read Aloud" on ChatGPT's app

A marginal feature:

2. Apple fined €1.84B by EU for alleged anti-competitive App Store practices

It is one the 3rd largest fines the EU has ever given to a tech company under existing rules:

• EU says Apple restricted Spotify and others from informing users of payment options.

• Fine equals 0.5% of Apple's revenue, including a €40M base penalty and a €1.8B deterrent.

• Apple to appeal decision, saying “no evidence of consumer harm” and “no evidence of anti-competitive behavior.”

4. Macbook Air gets M3 chip, support for 2 monitors

• Wi-Fi 6E support.

  • M2 Macbook Air -$100, now starting at $999.

  • Mar. 8 launch date.

• We reported yesterday about this potential announcement. Now we await updates to the iPad Pro, iPad Air, Pencil, Magic Keyboard, and maybe more.

  • March or April announcement date expected.

5. Bitcoin briefly tops 68K, nearing all-time record of 69K reached in 2021

Bitcoin ETF assets neared $50B

Coinbase again had issues, briefly showing user balances as 0

• Coinbase stock still +11% for the day, reaching a $56B market cap.

6. China announces similar economic targets for 2024: 5% GDP growth, 3% fiscal deficit, 3% CPI

7. Bezos surpasses Elon as world’s #1 richest, as Tesla stock -7% after poor China sales

Tesla shipments from its Shanghai factory were -16% MoM, -19% YoY to 60.3K vehicles

• Broader EV, hybrid sales were -9% YoY in China.

8. China smartphone sales -7% YoY, with Apple -24%, being overtaken by Vivo as #1 in market share (18%)

9. AI job listings are rising, as broad IT job listings fall

Jobs that involve AI, for most roles, pay more

10. Founders Fund sees partner Sam Blond leave, after Keith Rabois

Read more: Techcrunch.

Our view: Founders Fund will continue to be one of the top-performing VC funds

• A lethal combination of Peter Thiel + concentrated, anti-consensus, and right investment philosophy.

• Disclaimer: we're indirect investors in Founders Fund.

11. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

2 controversial but interesting videos:

12. Other headlines

AI

• MiniMax, Chinese AI startup, raising $600M+ at $2.5B+.

• Microsoft responds to NYT in lawsuit, calls it “doomsday futurology.”

• AMD doesn’t get permission from govt. to sell latest chip to China.

Tech

• X, Elon aiming to refinance $12.5B debt package.

• ByteDance revenue +43% YoY to $30.9B in Q3.

• Pixel phones get upgraded call screening.

• Instagram now allows for DM edits up to 15 mins after send.

• citizenM has 14 tech-ready hotels stateside for the best night's sleep of your life.*

• BetterHelp: professional online therapy to help you win at work.*

• HubSpot: download the 2024 State of Marketing Report, for free.*

*Sponsored.

Tech earnings

• GitLab stock -22% with weak guidance, even as revenue +33% to $164M.

• Semrush stock -13% as revenue +21% to $83M.

Tech & law

• Former Twitter execs sue Elon for $128M over alleged unpaid severance.

• Google settles lawsuit with Singular, preparing for more antitrust suits.

Biotech

• Opill, 1st OTC birth control, to be available within weeks in U.S.

• Lilly partners with U.S. manufacturers to increase production of Zepbound.

• Sleep leads to lower longevity: Mendelian randomization-based study.

Business

• Lachlan Murdoch aims at 5M subscribers for new sports streaming JV.

• JetBlue, Spirit call off $3.8B merger, JetBlue to pay Spirit $69M.

• Ken Griffin’s move to Miami: a look at.

Crypto

• MicroStrategy will offer another $0.6B in convertible notes to buy BTC.

• USDT market cap reaches $100B.

• Uniswap: making it easier to buy, sell and trade tokens on Ethereum.*

*Sponsored.

U.S. politics

• Supreme Court rules 9-0 Trump can appear on presidential ballots.

• Biden to cap credit card late fees to $8B, reducing revenue by ~75%.

• Super Tuesday is today, with 36% of GOP delegates up for grabs.

• Trump’s tax cuts increased investments, reduced govt. revenues: study.

• Ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to felony perjury.

• Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira agrees to accept 16-year sentence.

World

• UN report: “convincing evidence” Hamas raped, tortured.

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