🕶️ Altman vs. the board: bombshells on pricing and power moves

Six bullets of updates

1. 🕵️‍♂️ New evidence shows Adrian Dittmann, thought to be Elon Musk, is a real person from Fiji, solving a 2023 mystery.

2. 🔥 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman blasts former board after being fired; reveals $44/month ChatGPT pricing consideration.

3. 🌐 Open source in 2025: AI challenges, geopolitics, and sustainable data centers headline the evolving landscape.

4. 🚀 Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice steps down after 3.5 years, leaving behind a $5.3B valuation and IPO uncertainty.

5. 📉 Job search struggles rise: it now takes six months to find work; November's unemployment hit 4.2%, up from 3.7%.

6. 💻 Chinese hackers infiltrate U.S. infrastructure for possible cyberattacks, impacting over 100 sites, including Guam.

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Will the IPO door finally reopen in 2025?

The venture capital landscape for 2025 kicks off with mixed signals of optimism and caution. Institutional investors are consolidating their bets on established players in Silicon Valley, while AI continues to dominate as the industry's golden child. Experts like Nekeshia Woods forecast a surge in private market investments, fueled by wealthy individuals seeking better returns, with AI companies likely to undergo consolidation through acquisitions. Meanwhile, Gabby Cazeau anticipates a revival of the IPO market, bringing much-needed liquidity and the potential start of a new bull run. However, challenges loom, such as AI startups struggling to move beyond experimental budgets and hesitant LPs delaying capital commitments.

Emerging trends include the rise of solo GPs and angel funds, fostering investment in early-stage startups and diverse teams, as noted by Triin Linamagi. However, market uncertainties could stall significant M&A and IPO activity until late 2025. Other themes include a shift toward profitability-focused investments and leaner teams achieving impressive revenue milestones using AI tools. Unexpected possibilities, such as OpenAI becoming a for-profit entity to facilitate a record-breaking acquisition by Microsoft, highlight the unpredictable nature of this evolving ecosystem. While opportunities abound, caution and adaptability remain key in navigating 2025's venture capital dynamics. Read more.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Social Media TechWalk | Jan 8 | NYC

2. Crash Course in Financial Modeling | Jan 9 | Online

3. Early-Stage B2B SaaS Founders & Funders | Jan 10 | Online

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These companies just raised money

1. 🤖 RoboForce secures $10M to deploy robots in solar projects, targeting labor shortages that delayed 53 GW in 2024

2. 🚚 Trucks VC launches its largest fund yet, a new $70M pool for early-stage transportation startups.

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AI’s new frontier: is OpenAI really ready for superintelligence?

In a blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed confidence that the company is ready to build superintelligent AI, surpassing the current focus on artificial general intelligence (AGI). He envisions superintelligent systems accelerating scientific discovery and driving immense prosperity. Although OpenAI has a specific definition of AGI as highly autonomous systems that outperform humans in valuable economic tasks, Altman is more focused on the potential of superintelligence, which could revolutionize industries. Despite AI's current limitations, such as hallucination errors and high costs, Altman believes OpenAI can overcome these challenges and revolutionize the workforce in the near future.

However, as OpenAI shifts its focus toward superintelligence, concerns arise regarding safety. While OpenAI acknowledges the risks of a superintelligent AI going rogue and the challenges in controlling such systems, the company has faced criticism for not prioritizing safety enough. Altman’s leadership has also seen the departure of key AI safety researchers, who cited growing commercialization as the driving factor behind their exit. OpenAI is currently undergoing restructuring to attract more investment, but the question remains whether it can balance innovation with the necessary precautions for a safe transition to superintelligence.

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WhatsApp’s SECRET Business Model (it’s not reading your texts)

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