Loading summary
Transcript2 lines
- [00:04]
Brian McCullough
Welcome to the Techmeme Ride Home for Monday, March 24th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today 23andMe files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy are mergers and acquisitions officially back on the menu for Silicon Valley? Are cameras coming to the Apple Watch devs? Does your experience line up with your peers and how Broadway is using AI Live translation to reach new audiences. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech genetic testing company 23andMe has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to, quote, maximize the value of its business and Co founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki is stepping down. Quoting Bloomberg the Chapter 11 plan is the latest chapter in the saga of the personalized DNA testing company that was valued at $3.5 billion when it went public in 2021. Co founder Anne Wojciecki's efforts to take the struggling company private were rejected by a committee earlier month. The company has $277.4 million in assets and $214.7 million in liabilities. Court documents show it received a debtor in possession financing commitment of up to $35 million from JMB Capital Partners. According to the statement, 23andMe is best known for its at home gene testing kits that use a customer's saliva to dig into their ancestry. The company was briefly valued at $6 billion after going public in 2021, but has since plummeted to $50 million after fail. It settled a lawsuit for $30 million in September that alleged the firm had failed to protect the Data of almost 7 million customers during a data breach in 2023 and announced in November that it was cutting 40% of its workforce. 23andMe says that it intends to continue operating its business throughout the bankruptcy proceedings and that customers access to data and subscriptions won't be affected. We have had many successes, but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today, wojcicki said. There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23andMe through an EVOL model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering. End quote. Quoting H. Hackenbecker on X Anyone here who has used the 23andMe DNA analysis service, you need to log in now and delete your data before the company declares bankruptcy and an unknown outfit ends up with their genetic records database, end quote. So I don't have to tell you that this is updating my MA watch list in a big way. According to CB Insights Q1, 2025 saw 11 startup sales worth $1 billion or more, totaling a record $54.5 billion. That is significantly up from a mere two acquisitions worth $1 billion or more in Q1 of 2024, totaling $3.2 billion. So healthy for the startup ecosystem. Quoting Bloomberg Startup acquisitions have boomed so far this year, capped by last week's massive $32 billion deal for cybersecurity startup Wiz, a signal that Silicon Valley is optimistic about the Trump administration's antitrust policies and that venture backed companies may finally have a way to cash out. There have been 11 startup sales of more than $1 billion announced so far this year, cumulatively worth $54.5 billion, a total that easily surpasses previous records for comparable quarterly totals, according to data compiled by CB Insights. Google's agreement to buy Wiz marks the largest ever deal for a VE venture backed startup. The news came on the heels of a spate of other major announcements. This month alone, SoftBank Group agreed to buy chip designer Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion, Scopely agreed to buy Niantic's gaming business for $3.5 billion, and PepsiCo made a deal to buy soda startup poppy for almost $2 billion. Artificial intelligence related deals in particular have been on a tear. Earlier in March, Coreweave agreed to buy AI business Weights and Biases for a reported $1.7 billion and ServiceNow acquire AI firm Moveworks for $2.85 billion. You're going to see a lot more things announced, said Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures who is on the board of two companies that were acquired recently, including Ajint, which sold to private equity firms for a reported $1.5 billion in February. @ one point, there was a quote, mismatch between where the buyers thought the value was and where the sellers did, murphy said. But because startup deals have been so scarce for so long, it's easier to match make now, end quote. The surge in transactions marks a significant boon for Silicon Valley's investment community and provides much needed respite following years of scarcity that had burdened the sector. As we've been talking about, IPOs and significant startup acquisitions virtually disappeared for the last five years or so, depriving investors and even acquiring companies of cash flow. I can tell you that multiple factors have now transformed the landscape, one of which is ironic because the IPO market is not exactly booming yet. Selling companies are more likely to pull the trigger on getting acquired because because MA deals offer the best chance now to get an exit. But StubHub has filed for an IPO with plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange and reported a $2.8 million loss on $1.77 billion in revenue in 2024, versus a $405 million profit on $1.37 billion in revenue in 2023. So not really tech, but another attempt quoting Axios One big difference on the spend side was sales and marketing expense, which climbed to $828 million in 2024 from $518 million the year prior. StubHub reports more than 40 million tickets sold on its platform last year by more than a million sellers. It didn't disclose an IPO target, but the New York Times previously reported that it could seek to raise more than $1 billion. This could be a bellwether for how investors feel about the live events industry. StubHub rival Vivid Seats has seen its stock price fall by more than 45% and reportedly is seeking a buyer. SeatGeek remains private despite prior plans to go public via a blank check merger and then via an IPO. End quote from the let's all eat Nvidia's launch file Sources say South Korean chip startup Furiosa AI rejected an $800 million takeover offer from Meta, opting to grow independently instead. Quoting Bloomberg Furiosa AI is one of only a handful of Asian startups that have attracted Meta, led by June Paik, who previously worked at Samsung Electronics and Advanced Micro Devices, it develops semiconductors for AI inferencing or services. The eight year old company's second generation processor, rngd, pronounced Renegade, is designed to challenge products from industry leader Nvidia as well as fellow startups Grok, Sambanova and Cerebras. Meta is investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure, seeking to better compete in a fast moving race against the likes of OpenAI and Google, as well as startups such as Hangzhou based Deepseek. In mid January, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta would spend as much as $65 billion this year, including outlays to build a large data center and expand its AI workforce. Only a week later, Zuckerberg told investors that Meta anticipates eventually spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure. Furiosa AI plans to raise capital before eventually pursuing an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. It's expected to close an extended Series C fund in about a month, which is on track to exceed the targeted amount, they said. The startup, which has about 150 employees, including 15 in its Silicon Valley office, is currently providing samples of its chips to customers including LG AI Research, the AI arm of LG Group, and Saudi Aramco, the people said. They are part of a broader pipeline of about a dozen customers engaged in sampling during the first half of this year, they said. End quote Google is rolling out new real time AI video features, including the ability to see screens and camera feeds for Gemini Advanced subscribers. Quoting the Verge, the features come nearly a year after Google first demonstrated the Project Astra work that powers them. A Reddit user said the feature showed up on their Xiaomi phone as spotted by 9to5Google today. The same user posted the video below demonstrating Gemini's new screen reading ability. It's one of the two features Google said in early March would start rolling out to Gemini Advanced subscribers as part of the Google One AI Premium plan later in the month. The other Astra capability rolling out now is live video, which lets Gemini interpret the feed from your smartphone camera in real time and answer questions about it. In the demonstration video below that Google published this month, a person uses the feature to ask Gemini for help deciding on a paint color to use for their freshly glazed pottery. Google's rollout of these features is a fresh example of the company's big AI assistant lead, as Amazon is preparing the limited early access debut of its Alexa upgrade and Apple has delayed its upgraded Siri. Both are supposed to have capabilities similar to the ones Astra is starting to enable now. Meanwhile, Samsung still has Bixby, but Gemini is nevertheless the default assistant on its phones. Mitopure has sure been helping me with my energy levels. Mitopure is a precise dose of the rare postbiotic urolith. It works by promoting an essential cellular cleanup process that clears out dysfunctional mitochondria, AKA your cell's battery packs. Mitopure is the only Urolithin, a supplement on the market clinically proven to target the effects of age related cellular decline. With regular use you'll see and feel the difference in the form of improved energy levels, better workouts, faster recovery, more endurance and more, all of which will help you achieve your health and fitness goals. P.S. mitopure is shown to deliver double digit increases in muscle strength and endurance without a change in. Mitopure promotes cellular renewal and mitochondrial health to address common signs of aging. At the root, cellular health is the foundation of well being and longevity. Mitopure recharges your cells supporting any goals by helping all of your systems work better. This is your year to be your best, most energized, most revitalized. You timeline is offering 10% off your order of mitopure go to timeline.com ride that's T I M E L I N E.com ride if someone would have told me that there are science backed ingredients that could help me feel 15 years younger in a matter of months, I would not have believed it. Then I tried Qualia Senolytic as we age, everyone accumulates senescent cells in their body. Senescent cells cause symptoms of aging such as aches and discomfort, slow workout recoveries, sluggish mental and physical energy you know, associated with that middle age feeling. Also known as zombie cells, they are old and worn out and not serving any useful function for our health, but they are taking up space and nutrients from our healthy cells. Much like pruning the yellowing and dead leaves off a plant, Qualia Senolytic removes those worn out senescent cells to allow for the rest of them to thrive in the body. You only need to take it two days a month. Qualia has really increased my energy levels and made me more productive. So join me. Resist aging at the cellular level by trying Qualia senolytic go to qualialife.com ride for up to 50% off and use code RIDE at checkout for an additional 15% off. For your convenience, Qualia's analytic is also available at select GNC locations near you. That's Q U a l I a life.com ride for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring today's episode. Mark Gurman Apple Scoop Monday his sources say Apple plans to build its own AI models for visual intelligence and add cameras to the Apple Watch quote. A central idea behind these devices is using onboard cameras and microphones to support artificial intelligence and provide context on a wearer's surroundings. With the iPhone 16 launch last year, Apple started to inch into this territory. The new Visual Intelligence feature, which is tied to the Camera control interface, relies on AI to help users learn more about the world around them. For those unfamiliar, the feature works like this. If you long press the camera button, you're taken to a new interface where you can take a picture of something and have it analyzed by either ChatGPT or Google search. It can also summarize or translate text and identify certain objects, landmarks, or animals. Today, the feature is a bit under the radar, partly because it only works with the iPhone 16. It should get a bigger boost with the release of iOS 18.4 next month. That's when Apple will bring the feature to the iPhone 15 Pro and make it accessible via both the Control center and Action button for the first time, Apple's ultimate plan for visual intelligence goes far beyond the iPhone. The company wants to put the feature at the core of future devices, including the camera equipped AirPods that I've been writing about for several months. Along the way, Apple wants to also shift visual intelligence towards its own AI models rather than those from OpenAI and Google. But Apple's vision for AI wearables goes even further. The company is working on new versions of the Apple Watch that include cameras. As with the future AirPods, this would help the device see the outside world and use AI to deliver relevant information. These models are likely still at least generations away from hitting the market, but they are on the roadmap. As part of the plan, Apple is considering adding cameras to both its standard Series watches and Ultra models. The current idea is to put the camera inside the display of the series version, like the front facing lens on an iPhone. The Ultra will take a different approach, with the camera lens sitting on the side of the watch near the crown and button. Apple is probably considering this approach because the thicker Ultra has more room to work with. It would mean that an Ultra wearer could easily point their wrist at something to scan an object. A Series watch user, meanwhile, would have to flip over their wrist. End Quote Engineers and devs out there how does this line up with your experience? A survey of 730 software engineers reveals that 75% have tried AI, 35.6% are AI optimists and 38.4% AI pessimists. Freelance coders use AI more often and 50% pay for AI tools Coding Wired 27% of coders use AI like at all times. Early career coders have a higher likelihood of being pro AI and baby coders most of all. Three quarters of people who've been coding for less than a year call themselves AI optimists. The most anti AI group. It's not the grizzled late career vets, it's mid career coders. Nearly half of them identify as AI pessimists. As it was analyzing these results, ChatGPT offered unprompted an explanation. This group likely feels the greatest tension about AI's impact on jobs. Job security. More than half of employers, per survey results, pay for AI services. In those cases, more than 2/3 of employees use them. 4% of full time programmers use AI without their employer's knowledge. Upper management does not understand what AI is and thinks it will solve untold problems. Junior devs rely on it too much without understanding their code first. According to one respondent the more experienced you are, the more you go beyond browser interfaces and apps. Nearly one in three veteran coders 20 plus years integrate AI tools directly into their code floating environments. End quote finally today, an Off Broadway theater in New York is offering AI powered live translations in 60 languages to attract new audiences using AI tech from startup Wordly. Quoting Semaphore, attendees for Perfect Crime, performed at the Theater center and the longest running play in New York, can scan a QR code and search an online translation platform. They can then select one of languages and listen to the live translation through headphones. During the show, the murder mystery about a psychiatrist accused of killing her husband can be heard in Arabic, Afrikaans, Polish and other languages, reflecting one of the many ways AI is becoming part of daily life. The translation's text also appears on the user's phone for individuals who are hard of hearing or wish to follow along that way. With a majority of Perfect Crimes attendees being tourists visiting New York, roughly 25 to 30 people use the service across eight shows each week, allowing for the theater to sell tickets to those who may not have bought them without the offering. According to Katherine Russell, general manager of the theater who stars in Perfect Crime. Theatergoers have selected a wide range of language options with no specific language dominating, she said. The actors apparently use microphones that feed directly into a translation system, eliminating background noise and side conversations. This free service for audience members uses technology from Wordly, a Silicon Valley startup chosen after producers tested various AI translation options. The system works by capturing voices through a soundboard to a computer Conn to WordLead's Cloud. It transcribes audio into text, then uses transformer models specific to each language to translate it within three to five seconds. Translations appear on users devices. The technology can be optimized to prevent names like Apple or Rose from being translated literally. Wordly typically serves industry conferences and global businesses looking to streamline multilingual meetings. Recently, they've expanded to churches, schools and city councils. During California wildfires earlier this year, Los Angeles county used Wordly to translate press conferences. The theater center negotiated a partnership to use Wordly at no cost, though the service typically runs about $100 per hour, meaning a two hour performance would cost around $200 per show, according to Wordly. Their translations achieve 95 to 100% accuracy. The company is working to expand language offerings, including French, Creole and indigenous languages, while adding more voice options beyond the current single male and female choices. One limitation is that the translation doesn't capture the speaker's vocal nuances. Pitch changes emphasis and undulation, lacks the melodic quality of live actors. In testing, the technology apparently sounds natural but falls short of cutting edge conversational voice demos while outperforming robotic sounding voice assistants like Siri. Just a quick reminder that if you're listening to this show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please tap on the settings and turn on automatic downloads for this show so that you never miss an episode. Settings then automatic downloads. Thanks. Talk to you tomorrow.
- [18:56]
AT&T Business
And now a next level moment from ATT Business. Say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of pillows and they need to be there in time for International Sleep Day. You've got at and T5G so you're fully confident, but the vendor isn't responding and International Sleep Day is tomorrow. Luckily, AT&T5G lets you deal with any issues with ease so the pillows will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly, especially you. AT&T5G requires a compatible plan and device coverage not available everywhere. Learn more@att.com 5G Network.