Top stories today:

1. Meta’s revenue +27% YoY to $36.5B in Q1, as Reality Labs burns $3.85B
2. TikTok ban bill signed by Biden, starting 360-day clock to divest or ban
3. Devin maker Cognition reportedly raises $175M at $2B
4. Micron getting $6.1B grant from Chips Act

0. Data and calendar

1. Meta’s revenue +27% YoY to $36.5B in Q1, as Reality Labs burns $3.85B

The -$3.85B net loss for Reality Labs slightly narrowed from prior quarters, yet still represents 11% of revenue

Their daily active users continue to grow steadily, now at 3.24B

Weaker guidance on revenue and a higher guidance on CAPEX led the stock -15%

• Q2 revenue guidance: $36.5B - $39B, with the midpoint below the expected $38.3B.

• 2024 CAPEX guidance: $35B - $40B, up from $30B - $37B.

  • Increase in 2025 is expected as well.

• “AI is already helping us improve app engagement, which naturally leads to seeing more ads and improving ads directly to deliver more value,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the earnings call.

3. TikTok ban bill signed by Biden, starting 360-day clock to divest or ban

TikTok parent ByteDance is being traded at $214B in private markets:

• TikTok is estimated to be worth $20B and $100B+, depending on who’s valuing it (bidders vs. ByteDance insiders).

• Beijing has suggested it would block a sale, citing export control rules and national security grounds.

• U.S. courts could also block the ban, likely on 1st Amendment grounds.

4. Devin (coding assistant) maker Cognition reportedly raises $175M at $2B

Making it the #10 most valued generative AI startup:

• Just 1 month after its $350M-valuation Series A, both led by Founders Fund.

  • Founders Fund has been careful with generative AI investments, citing frothy valuations.

• Our view: Devin v2 must have something revolutionary to justify the $2B price tag for a company with ~$0 revenue.

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

6. Micron getting $6.1B grant from Chips Act, U.S. confirms

• As reported last Thursday.

• $7.5B in loans.

• $125B in planned investments by Micron, for 4 factories in NY and 1 in ID.

7. Founders Fund takes “minority stake” in crypto accelerator Alliance DAO

Imram Khan, co-founder of Alliance DAO, sat down with 4 members of Founders Fund for practical interviews. Below is the interview with Sam Blond on go-to-market strategy:

• Alliance DAO has invested in 200+ startups over 12 cohorts, including Arbitrum, Immutable X, Axie Infinity, and Tensor.

• Initialized Capital also has a minority stake.

• Investors in Alliance’s funds include Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Mark Cuban, Jump Capital, and others.

8. U.S. total fertility rate drops to 1.617 in 2023, record low

9. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

10. Other headlines

AI

• Run:ai acquired by NVIDIA for $700M.

• Snowflake launches Arctic open LLMs, says more efficient than Llama 3.

• Augment, AI coding assistant, comes out of stealth with $227M raise.

• TSMC aims to build 1.6nm chips by 2026.

• SK Hynix’s revenue +144% to $9B in March quarter.

• Apple launches OpenELMs, open source small language models.

Tech

• IBM will buy cloud company HashiCorp in $6.4B, as revenue +1% to $14.5B.

• Threads reaches 150M MAUs, vs. 550M DAUs for X.

• Rubrik prices IPO at $32, raising $752M, valuing the company at $5.6B.

• Betting markets on U.S. elections, global crises may be banned by CFTC.

• WhatsApp adds global support for passkeys on iOS.

• Windows 11 Start menu ads rolling out globally.

Biotech

• Caloric restriction's links to longevity: NYT explainer.

• Pivya approved by FDA — new antibiotic for hard-to-treat UTIs.

Business

• Non-compete ban quickly lead to lawsuits from business groups.

• Boeing burns $4B of cash in Q1 amid accidents fallout.

• Chipotle's revenue +14% to $2.7B in Q1, full-year guidance lifted.

• McKinsey under criminal probe over OxyContin-related consulting.

• BHP proposes takeover of Anglo American valuing miner at $39B.

• NFL quarterbacks getting shorter, lighter, faster.

• Chess: 17-year-old wins Candidates tournament, could become World Champion.

Crypto

• Samourai Wallet co-founders arrested on money laundering charges.

• Worldcoin selling $2.5M-$7.5M/week in WLD tokens to fund network growth.

U.S. politics

• Airlines in U.S. will soon have to refund cash if they cancel or delay flights.

• Meadows, Giuliani, but not Trump, indicted in AZ election case.

World

• Russia vetoes UN resolution preventing nuclear weapons in space.

• Blinken lands in China, calls for “level playing field” for U.S. companies.

• Ukraine using secretly provided longer-range ATACMS missiles.

• Hamas releases video of heavily injured American-Israeli hostage.

• Israel preps Rafah invasion in phases, evacuating neighborhoods.

• China’s local governments imposing frugal life to cut costs.

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