#SILICONVALLEY News

The end of business-class A.I. doomerism
maxread.substack.com If I’m being honest, my immediate reaction to the news that Sam Altman had been fired as C.E.O. of OpenAI was something like … relief? Not, to be clear, because of anything…

A Crime Against Humanity..
zerohedge.com A Crime Against Humanity... Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, “This is in my opinion, the worst thing that’s ever happened to our country in my lifetime in…

How Josh Kushner became a billionaire startup investor before age 40
fortune.com One year ago, Sam Altman was quietly preparing for a world-jolting event. His generative AI startup, OpenAI, was close to launching ChatGPT, the chatbot that would captivate…

It's Vinod Khosla's World
theinformation.com Hi, welcome to your Weekend. Next week will mark The Information's 10-year anniversary, and we'll be commemorating the last decade of tech by publishing a series of top 10…

The Top 5: Where to Host Your Silicon Valley Offsite
theinformation.com Tech companies have long been famous for their offsites. Though these are not always the most prudently planned events—recall WeWork’s lavish English countryside summer…

John Walsh: The Operative Who Paved the Way for Obama’s 2008 Win
politico.com Wash, who died last week at 65 after a battle with stomach cancer, ended up changing American politics with this theory, first upending the Massachusetts political world —…

Money in the bank or homeownership: What should this couple do?
siliconvalley.com Question: Regarding your November 25, 2023, column titled “This holiday advice is not the best recipe for wanna-be homebuyers” on The Mercury News and East Bay Times…

Uber is officially an adult company, in large part due to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
marketwatch.com The transition of Uber Technologies into a fully adult company, as it joins the S&P 500 index, is largely due to the leadership of Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. It was…

Who Is @BasedBeffJezos, The Leader Of The Tech Elite’s ‘E/Acc’ Movement?
forbes.com Forbes has learned that Guillaume Verdon, the founder of stealth AI startup Extropic and a former Google engineer, is behind the provocative Twitter account leading the…

Pentagon forges new high-tech agreement with Australia, United Kingdom, aimed at countering China
theglobeandmail.com From underwater drones to electronic warfare, the U.S. is expanding its high-tech military co-operation with Australia and the United Kingdom as part of a broader effort to…

Word Watch: “Genocide,” and Do We Have to Care About OpenAI?
wnycstudios.org After a seven-day ceasefire, fighting has resumed in Gaza. On this week’s On the Media, how the word “genocide” entered discussions of the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the…

These are the jobs most likely to be taken over by AI: report
nypost.com A new report sounded the alarm on the future of the workplace as humans know it, listing the jobs most likely to be thrown into peril because of advanced artificial…

When Uncle Sam puts his thumb on your brake pedal
techcrunch.com Welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Hello, you scrumptious specimen of a human being. Have you looked yourself in the mirror and…

Google reaches a $27M settlement with employees who accused the company of unfair labor practices in a 2016 lawsuit following the termination of a Nest staffer
semafor.com The settlement is a reminder of how the world changed, and then changed again, over the last seven years. When the complaint was first filed with the NLRB, I had been…

Silicon Valley billionaires behind ‘Forever California’ get heckled by locals at Solano County event
siliconvalley.com By Eliyahu Kamisher | Bloomberg A group of Silicon Valley billionaires led by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trader Jan Sramek have quietly bought up over $800 million…

OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla, who's 68, says he still works 80 hours a week and plans to keep investing for the next 25 years
aol.com None OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla said he still works 80 hours a week during an episode of "The Cerebral Valley Podcast." • None The 68-year-old billionaire said he plans on…

Semiconductor giant Broadcom will lay off 2,000 American workers after sealing $69B deal to take over VMware -
dailymail.co.uk Broadcom has announced nearly 2,000 job cuts at VMware just one week after it took over the cloud computing giant in a $69 billion deal. The layoffs were confirmed following…

Inside Apple’s chip lab, home to the most ‘profound change’ at the company in decades
cnbc.com Apple's soaring stock price over the past two decades has been driven by its iconic consumer devices. It started with the iPod and iMac. Then came the iPhone and iPad. And…

The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI
newyorker.com At around 11:30 a.m. on the Friday before Thanksgiving, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, was having his weekly meeting with senior leaders when a panicked…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Went on an 18-Month, $85 Million Real-Estate Shopping Spree
entrepreneur.com Years before the recent drama at OpenAI turned CEO Sam Altman into a household name, the former Y Combinator president went on an extraordinary 18-month, $85 million…

8 authors and their 8 gift book picks for this holiday season
techcrunch.com 8 authors and their 8 gift book picks for this holiday season TechCrunch talked to eight authors with ties to the startup community to see which books they would gift this…

Will the first cemetery built in San Jose since the 1880s come to Coyote Valley?
siliconvalley.com The latest in a long line of battles to develop Silicon Valley’s most coveted green space is finally coming to a head after years of anticipation. And this time, it may be…

Tech Layoffs: Broadcom Lays Off Over 1,200 in Bay Area After Buyout
sfstandard.com Broadcom, a Silicon Valley chipmaker with six decades of history under its belt, is laying off more than a thousand employees after finalizing a blockbuster acquisition of…
Codex Labs Announces the SGBNET Portal for Genetic Counselling and DECODE DNA Tests for Skin Conditions and Vitamin Deficiencies
benzinga.com San Jose, Calif., Dec. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Codex Labs, Silicon Valley's biotech skintech company announced the launch of its SGBNET platform. The platform includes…

An open letter to ChatGPT on its first birthday
aol.com Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here. You…

Henry Kissinger's puzzling connection to disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes
aol.com None Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger died Wednesday at 100. • None Once a board member at Theranos, he invested $3 million and recruited others who also opened…

Ford expects vehicle prices to go down, more incentives in 2024
freep.com Ford Motor Co. sees its vehicle prices in 2024 coming down to levels comparable to 2019, with more incentives and smaller dealer markups, Chief Financial Officer John Lawler…

US AI start-up Pika Labs and its Chinese founders create buzz across Pacific
scmp.com AI video start-up Pika Labs sparks rally in stock of Chinese company helmed by father of co-founder, a Stanford dropout US artificial intelligence (AI) video generator…

Anduril’s New Drone Killer Is Locked on to AI-Powered Warfare
wired.com After Palmer Luckey founded Anduril in 2017, he promised it would be a new kind of defense contractor, inspired by hacker ingenuity and Silicon Valley speed. The company’s…

Benchmark, the storied venture firm, sees “traps” in today’s AI funding frenzy: “Don’t be Microsoft”
techcrunch.com Yesterday in Helsinki, this editor interviewed four of the six general partners at Benchmark, the nearly 30-year-old, Silicon Valley firm that’s known for some notable bets…
XPENG Announces Vehicle Delivery Results for November 2023
benzinga.com New monthly record of 20,041 vehicles delivered in November 2023, a 245% increase year-over-year GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XPeng Inc. (("XPENG" or…

Anduril unveils a jet drone that can explode
latimes.com Anduril’s Roadrunner jet drone can hit its target (and destroy itself on impact) or return to its launch spot for another attempt. What if a missile could jet toward a…

Meta AI Chief Yann LeCun On His Open Source Mission And The ‘Surprise’ Of ChatGPT
forbes.com In an exclusive interview leading up to the 10th anniversary of Meta’s AI lab, LeCun reflects on the artificial intelligence boom as the tech giant introduces new tools for…

3 Stocks To Give You 10%-Plus Yield
finance.yahoo.com The tech industry experienced a surge that is expected to continue booming with artificial intelligence (AI) advancement. But some sectors also recorded poor returns. DISH…

Ten strategies for replacing Twitter from people who used to work there
platformer.news Behold the glorious cover of Extremely Hardcore Today, we’re thrilled to share an announcement that has been in the works all year. Zoë’s book about Elon Musk’s takeover of…

If You Can Only Buy One Machine Learning Stock in December, It Better Be One of These 7 Names
investorplace.com Investors would be wise to add the best machine learning stocks to their portfolios soon Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence. It is focused on enabling…

Opponents of secret California tech city heckle its billionaire backers at meeting with shouts of 'shill' and 'smooth talker'
fortune.com A group of Silicon Valley billionaires led by former Goldman Sachs Group trader Jan Sramek have quietly bought up over $800 million worth of Northern California farmland to…

The Brew’s Weekly News Quiz: December 1
morningbrew.com Morning Brew delivers quick and insightful updates about the business world every day of the week from Wall St. to Silicon Valley.

Meta goes to war with FTC over right to profit from kids' personal data
theregister.com Meta has filed a lawsuit challenging the Federal Trade Commission's authority to regulate the social advertising giant. If the Facebook parent succeeds in its claims, the US…

These Stocks Were Left Behind In November’s Historic Rally
forbes.com The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average just completed their best month of the year thanks to investors’ growing risk appetite, but a few notable stocks were forced to…

'This is a sales pitch': Billionaires trying to build secret California city get heckled by locals
financialpost.com A group of Silicon Valley billionaires led by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trader Jan Sramek has quietly bought up over US$800-million worth of Northern California…

Bay Area tech layoffs soar to brutal heights with huge VMware job cuts
siliconvalley.com PALO ALTO — Tech industry job cuts in the Bay Area have reached two new grim milestones with the disclosure that the Broadcom purchase of VMware will spawn well over 1,000…

Hostility Slaps Silicon Valley Bigwigs Trying to Build a New City
nytimes.com In a rural area of sheep and wind turbines, a group of Silicon Valley investors has bought more than 50,000 acres where they hope to build a new city from scratch. At the…

OpenAI Director Who Helped Oust Altman Now Key Player in Startup's Future
finance.yahoo.com Two days after Sam Altman reached an agreement with OpenAI to return as its chief executive, he spent part of his Thanksgiving with Adam D’Angelo, one of the company’s board…

JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon says he isn't afraid of China, but would leave if the US government told him to
aol.com None JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon said at NYT's Dealbook conference the bank would leave China if ordered to. • None Dimon said that an invasion of Taiwan would mean "all bets…

Microsoft's top brass still don't seem to know what the heck happened with Sam Altman and OpenAI
aol.com None Microsoft has put billions into OpenAI, but it still doesn't know why its board fired Sam Altman. • None Microsoft president Brad Smith dismissed the idea that the…

What is a jumbo loan and when do you need one?
aol.com None Jumbo loans come in larger amounts, typically for more expensive properties. • None The size of a jumbo loan varies by geographic location, but is generally more than…

What the chaos at OpenAI says about the future of the industry
cjr.org The now-he’s-in, now-he’s-out drama of the past couple of weeks at OpenAI, arguably the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, feels almost like an episode of the…

Therese Poletti's Tech Tales: One year after its public launch, ChatGPT has succeeded in igniting a new era in tech
marketwatch.com It was called an “iPhone moment” for artificial intelligence, likened to the development of the World Wide Web for the internet, dubbed a Cambrian explosion, equated to the…

The cofounder of Allbirds has some advice for startups looking to IPO: make money ahead of going public
aol.com None Allbirds was one of the last startups to go public in 2021's IPO biltz. • None Since then, investors have raised the bar for money-losing companies seeking to list. •…