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Top stories today: - Apple said to launch iPhone SE upgrade, iPhone "Air" in 2025
- Former YouTube CEO dies at 56 after 2-year battle with cancer
- Trump campaign says foreign hackers got access to internal documents
- ChatGPT worldwide traffic -0.4% MoM to 2.5B visits
- Crypto VC funding at $5.4B YTD, stable vs. 2023
- U.S. Series A, B funding +34% in H1 but concentrated in healthcare, AI
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0. Data and calendar |
 | All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT). |
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 | All times are ET. |
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1. Apple said to launch iPhone SE upgrade, iPhone "Air" in 2025 |
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iPhone SE, low-end model, will get first upgrade since 2022. iPhone Air will have a far thinner design on the model that sits between iPhone 17 and 17 Pro. 4 models in iPhone 17 series, including "Air" version. Separately, bigger iMac is something "Apple is exploring."
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2. Former YouTube CEO dies at 56 after 2-year battle with cancer |
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Susan Wojcicki died on Friday evening. Non-small cell lung cancer affected Wojcicki. YouTube CEO position was held by her between Feb. 2014 and 2023. Wojcicki's son, Marco Troper, died of accidental drug overdose in May.
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4. Trump campaign says foreign hackers got access to internal documents, media so far hasn't published them |
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From Jul. 22, Politico has gotten emails with documents from Trump's internal operation. Washington Post also received a 271-page document about VP nominee Vance. Potential political vulnerabilities were noted in confidential document. Campaign spokesperson confirmed incident and pointed to a Microsoft report. Microsoft has said Iranian hackers tried to breach a "high-ranking official" email.
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5. ChatGPT worldwide traffic -0.4% MoM to 2.5B visits |
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Its traffic is still higher than all competitors (Gemini, Character, Claude, Perplexity, etc.) combined |
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6. Crypto VC funding at $5.4B YTD, stable vs. 2023; no exits so far in 2024 |
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7. U.S. Series A, B funding +34% in H1 but concentrated in healthcare, AI |
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Series A deals +19% to $14B, Series B +89% to $17.4B. 2/3 of larger Series A rounds in H1 were in healthcare/biotech, followed by AI.
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Series A funding +18% YoY to $14.0B in H1, led by rounds above $50M ($6.7B) |
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xAI's $6B megaround boosted Series B fundraising, which totaled $17.4B in H1 |
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8. San Francisco delinquency rate among commercial loan securities 7x to 42% |
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Largest increase across U.S.'s top 25 metro areas. Weekend hotel occupancy -22% since 2019, vs. -4% nationwide.
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9. Microsoft spread its AI investments since OpenAI board dispute |
Microsoft's share price has been on the rise since its OpenAI bet in 2019: |
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$13B has so far been invested by Microsoft in OpenAI. Sam Altman's firing from by board in late November shocked Nadella. Mistral, Inflection, G42 among Microsoft's AI bets since OpenAI's dispute. Phi-3 also debuted in Feb. as Microsoft's answer to GPT-4.
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Microsoft has increased AI investments despite moving focus from OpenAI |
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10. Foreign investors pull out record $15B from China in Q2 |
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11. Paris Olympic gold medals has record $900+ in materials, with gold at all-time high |
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Gold medal is 6% gold, 92.5% silver. $1.5M: what one of Jesse Owen's 1936 gold medals fetched in an auction in 2013.
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12. Interesting videos, posts, and memes |
 | Gmail Creator Paul Buchheit On AGI, Open Source Models, Freedom |
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 | Yen Carry Trade, Recession odds grow, Buffett cash pile, Google ruled monopoly, Kamala picks Walz |
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13. Other headlines |
AI |
Elon accused of shifting resources to xAI from other companies in suits. AGI development could boost with supercomputing network, scientists hope. JPMorgan Chase rolls out AI assistant for employees backed by ChatGPT. DevRev, product development AI startup, raises $100M at $1.15B.
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Tech |
Trump's Truth Social Q2 revenue -30% to $837K, $16.4M net loss. CrowdStrike accepts "most epic fail" award for global IT outage. Cisco may cut another 4K jobs this week. Balderton Capital raises $1.3B to back European startups. China test-flies biggest-yet cargo drone with 2-metric ton capacity. Anti-terror tech group raises concerns over X membership. Oyo, India's Airbnb competitor, sees valuation -75% to $2.4B.
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Tech & law |
Ex-Twitter board member who oversaw sale sues X over $20M in pay. FCC proposes disclosure for robocallers when they use AI. Ireland says X's AI training on EU data between May 7–Aug. 1 will be paused. X targeted with 9 privacy complaints for quiet AI training using EU data. Venezuela, Russia block Signal in crackdown on internal dissent.
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Biotech |
Lykos's MDMA treatment for treating PTSD rejected by FDA. Ozempic's new reported side effect: better sex. Merck acquires Curon's CN201 bispecific antibody for $700M to take on Amgen.
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Business |
Disney to invest $60B in parks and resorts over 10 years. BofA accused of ignoring internal rules that could prevent 100-hour workweeks. Hindenburg claims India regulator chief held stake in Adani's offshore funds.
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Crypto |
Celsius sues Tether, seeks $3.5B over BTC collateral sell-off. Ripple starts testing stablecoin on ETH, XRP ledger. IRS shares new crypto tax firm, asks for industry input.
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U.S. politics |
Harris matches Trump's proposal of "no tax on tips." Harris, Walz SF fundraiser attracts $12M from gathering of ~700 people. JD Vance: mass deportations should "start with 1M." Elon interviews Trump tonight at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT.
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World |
Iran's attack on Israel said to be "within days." Venezuela's Maduro receives amnesty offer from U.S. for ceding power. Ukraine accuses Russia of starting fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. UN cybercrime treaty, criticized for human rights issues, backed by ~200 nations. Turkey restores Instagram after 9-day countrywide ban.
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Reviewed by Diogenes
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August 12, 2024
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