Top stories today:

1. OpenAI developing search engine: source
2. NVIDIA overtakes Alphabet, now #4 in market cap
3. Buffett trims 1% of Apple position, still 50% of portfolio
4. SpaceX launches Intuitive Machines's lander to the moon
5. Y Combinator updates Request for Startups, 1st time since 2018

0. Data and calendar

1. OpenAI developing search engine: source

• Unclear whether it would be separate from ChatGPT.

• Could be just a way to speed up ChatGPT's search capabilities, which currently uses Bing.

2. NVIDIA overtakes Alphabet, now #4 in market cap, 1 day after passing Amazon

• $1.825T: NVIDIA's market cap.

• +53% YTD.

3. Buffett trims 1% of Apple position, still 50% of portfolio

• Oil stocks Chevron and Occidental were bought in Q4.

5. SpaceX launches Intuitive Machines's lander to the moon

• Nova-C carries 6 NASA payloads and 5 commercial ones.

  • Feb. 22: target moon landing.

  • 1st since 1972.

• SpaceX has also reincorporated in Texas, from Delaware, as Elon encourages other companies to follow suit.

6. Y Combinator updates Request for Startups, 1st time since 2018

It is a very hardware and AI-heavy RFS, starting with applying machine learning to robotics (i.e. what companies like Tesla and Figure AI are doing):

7. HubSpot’s revenue +21% to $582M in Q4

HubSpot has seen exceptional revenue growth since launching in 2006

• GAAP operating margin is still negative, at -4% in Q4, vs. -3% in Q4 2022.

• Sales and marketing were 49% of revenue in Q4, a very high percentage for SaaS companies.

8. Amazon says it has largest text-to-speech AI model

• 1B-parameter autoregressive Transformer.

• Trained on 100K hours of public domain speech data.

• No release date announced. Could be used internally at Amazon.

9. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

10. Other headlines

AI

• Google launches internal tool, Goose, for devs to write faster code.

• Together AI raising from Salesforce, Coatue at $1B+, 33x ARR.

• Slack AI launches.

• AI brings back voices of children killed in shooting, uses ElevenLabs’s tech.

• GrowthSchool: become a ChatGPT & AI Genius with their workshop (worth $99)— free for first 100 people.*

• MindStudio: free webinar to start building AI apps in a single afternoon.*

*Sponsored.

Tech earnings

• Cisco's revenue -6% YoY to $12.79B in Q4, cutting 5% of staff (4K).

• Twilio's revenue +5% to $1.08B in Q4.

• Uber announces $7B buyback plan, stock +15%.

• TSMC stock +8% to $575B market cap in 1st day post-Lunar New Year break.

Tech

• Vision Pro starts seeing user returns, anecdotally.

• Microsoft Build 2024 to kick off on May 21.

• Masterworks: invest in shares of paintings by Banksy and Picasso.*

*Sponsored.

Tech & law

• EU Court: weakening E2E encryption undermines human rights.

• Meta reducing payments for fact-checkers on WhatsApp.

• NYC files lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap, YouTube.

Biotech

• Severe frostbite gets 1st FDA-approved medication.

• Ergothioneine clinical trial shows improved cognitive function.

Business

• UK’s GDP -1.4% annualized in Q4, entering recession.

• Airbus’s revenue +11% to $24.6B in Q4.

• Japan loses #3 economy spot to Germany as economy enters recession.

Crypto

• Genesis gets court approval to sell $1.6B in Grayscale trust shares.

• Pitchbook’s Q4 crypto report released.

• Sen. Warren may be challenged by John Deaton.

• EigenLayer becomes 5th largest DeFi protocol.

U.S. politics

• SALT tax cut for married couples fails in House, 195-225.

• Trump pushes $60B Ukraine aid as loan.

• Jack Smith asks Supreme Court to reject Trump immunity.

• F-35 jet order -18% in 2025 Biden budget request.

World

• Russia advancing on space-based nuclear weapons: U.S. letter.

• Putin says “predictable” Biden better for Russia than Trump.

• Hezbollah leader killed by U.S. using 6-bladed Ginsu weapon.

• 2 Iran gas pipelines explode, Iran calls it sabotage.

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