Tech Giants Explore Mergers, Investments Amidst AI Push and Social Activism
Several major tech companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, Amazon, and OpenAI, were reportedly engaged in discussions regarding potential mergers and significant investments, while Medium took a stand on social issues by allowing employees to participate in a national strike.
Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla, were in early-stage talks for a potential merger, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters. Two scenarios were being considered: a merger between SpaceX and Tesla, or a combination of SpaceX and xAI, which already owns Musk's social media platform X. Reuters reported that a merger between SpaceX and xAI could occur before a planned SpaceX IPO this year, potentially bringing together products like the Grok chatbot, the X platform, Starlink satellites, and SpaceX rockets under one corporation. Company representatives from SpaceX and xAI had not discussed this possibility.
Meanwhile, Amazon was reportedly in talks to invest $50 billion in OpenAI, a company already valued at $500 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. This investment could potentially raise OpenAI's valuation to $830 billion. The Journal noted that Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, was leading the negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. OpenAI was reportedly seeking $100 billion in additional investment and had also held discussions with sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, as well as Nvidia and Microsoft, according to The New York Times.
In other news, Ethos Technologies, a San Francisco-based insurtech platform backed by Sequoia, debuted on the Nasdaq on Thursday under the ticker symbol "LIFE." The company and its selling shareholders raised approximately $200 million in the offering, selling 10.5 million shares at $19 each, according to TechCrunch. Ethos operates a three-sided platform where consumers can buy policies online in 10 minutes without medical exams. The company claims over 10,000 independent agents use its software to sell policies, and carriers like Legal & General America and John Hancock rely on it for underwriting and administrative services.
Apple reported its quarterly earnings on Thursday, exceeding expectations with $143.8 billion in revenue, a 16% year-over-year increase. During Apple's earnings call, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring questioned CEO Tim Cook about the monetization of AI initiatives, noting that many competitors had already integrated AI into their devices.
On a different note, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine gave the company's employees permission to take the day off on Friday to participate in a nationwide general strike protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Activists behind the strike were calling for no work, no school, and no shopping amid a push to defund ICE, which has escalated raids in U.S. cities. In a Slack message shared with Medium staff, Stubblebine said all employees were free to participate in the strike however they saw fit.
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