🕶️ SpaceX rockets to $350B—Musk is on his way to trillionaire status!

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Six bullets of updates

1. 🌿 DOE races to approve $14.7B in clean energy loans before Trump, boosting jobs and green initiatives across the U.S.

2. 🎙️ Spotify Wrapped 2024 debuts an AI-powered podcast by Google's NotebookLM, featuring 26.6B-stream superstar Taylor Swift.

3. ⚖️ Delaware judge voids Elon Musk's $56B pay package, despite Tesla shareholders' approval, sparking an appeal.

4. 🛍️ Cyber Monday saw Adobe's record $13.3B U.S. online spend, marking a 7.3% rise amid massive holiday discounts.

5. 🤖 Vambe pivots to conversational AI, skyrocketing ARR from $20K to $1M and raising $3.85M in funding.

6. ⚡ Revel to double EV charging at JFK with 24 fast chargers, boosting its NYC charging network expansion.

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Musk’s $350 billion rocket: is a trillionaire next?

SpaceX is in discussions to sell insider shares that could raise its valuation to $350 billion, a significant increase from the previous valuation of $255 billion. This would position SpaceX as the highest-valued private startup, bringing Elon Musk closer to becoming the world’s first trillionaire. The valuation jump is driven by the company’s ambitious projects like Marslink and its key role in NASA’s Artemis program.

The sale would provide liquidity for early investors while attracting new ones. SpaceX’s growing dominance in space exploration, along with Musk’s other ventures like Tesla and xAI, is driving his wealth and influence, further solidifying his place as a major figure in technology and space. Read more.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Today! Crash Course in Financial Modeling | Dec 5 | Webinar

2. EdTech | Dec 9 | Paris

3. From Pitch Deck to Funding | Dec 12 | Webinar

4. Entrepreneur First Bangalore - Core | Dec 12 | Webinar

5. Networking for Tech Startups/Founders/Investors/Developers | Dec 15 | Meetup

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Meet the new Notion AI – Your All-in-One Workspace Assistant

Discover the new Notion AI! 

Seamlessly search across Notion, Slack, and Google Drive, all in one place. With powerful, one-click skills and no prompting required, the new Notion AI can tackle tasks like revising your writing, summarizing PDFs, and even generating to-do lists from your project updates.

Whether you need a quick project recap, recipe ideas based on what’s in your fridge, or just a reliable writing assistant, Notion AI is here to help.

Save time and enhance productivity with an assistant that’s smarter, more capable, and truly private.

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These companies just raised money

1. 💸 Veeam reaches a $15B valuation after a $2B secondary sale, gearing up for an IPO and exploring AI-driven acquisitions.

2. 🤖 Yurts raises $40M to develop secure AI chatbots for the DoD, aiming to outpace rivals like Ask Sage and Primer.ai.

3. 🌎 ZeBrands lands a $53M syndicated loan from HSBC & Sabadell, fueling growth in the Latin American market.

4. 🚀 SatVu secures £20M to launch thermal satellites, delivering "the world's thermometer" for climate action.

5. 🎯 SpinLaunch secures $11.5M, eyes more funding, and aims to revolutionize space with its kinetic launch system.

6. 💡 Ex-Microsoft employees raise $4M to launch Lica, an AI tool that transforms screen recordings into polished product videos.

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Privacy plot twist: the rule that could shake data brokers

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a rule to block data brokers from selling Americans’ personal information, such as Social Security numbers, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The rule aims to close loopholes exploited by data brokers, holding them to the same standards as credit bureaus and background check companies. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra emphasized the need to address “widespread evasion” of federal privacy laws and protect sensitive consumer data from being sold without oversight.

The proposal comes amid growing scrutiny of data brokers profiting from personal information and follows President Biden’s executive order to curb such practices. While the rule strengthens privacy protections, its future under the Trump administration, which has pledged deregulation, remains unclear. The proposal is open for public comment until March 2025.

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How we narrowly survived Y2K

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