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- Will's Weekly Roundup
"The best stock to buy may be the one you already own."
— Peter Lynch, Investor
Top stories this week:
Apple Vision Pro is now available for purchase.
Cannabis sales boomed in Dry January as people drank less.
Musk can not claim his $55 billion Tesla pay package.
Neuralink implanted its first device into a human brain.
Headlines
Headlines you missed (or need to see again)...
John Deere announced a strategic partnership with SpaceX.
Reddit is considering an IPO at a $5B+ valuation, 6x its $0.8B 2023 revenue.
Amazon canceled its iRobot acquisition, saying there is "no path" to regulatory approval.
JetBlue doesn't think its Spirit Airlines merger will go through.
VCs in the U.S. have $311B in unspent cash.
Imports, America now imports more from #1 Mexico ($439B) than #2 China ($393B).
Zyn dominates the US nicotine pouch segment with a 76% retail market share and 119% 6-year CAGR.
Tom Brady is merging his nutrition and apparel brands with training company Nobull.
Amex & Delta are launching a new line of co-branded credit cards.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, posted a record $213B profit.
iPhones represented 50% of global smartphone sales in 2023.
Pfizer beat earnings estimates, despite its declining Covid business.
Remote work increases your likelihood of being laid off by 35% compared to office-based colleagues.
Chamath Palihapitiya is no longer raising a $1B VC fund.
Hacked, 29% of hacked companies paid ransom in Q4, continuing a long-term decline.
Layoffs, Deutsche Bank will cut 3,500 (4%), PayPal will cut 2,500 (9%), and Okta will cut 300 employees (7%). Total tech layoffs summed to 25k in January, the highest since March but still small when compared to the total economy.
Podcasts Ads, Amazon, BetterHelp, Apple, HelloFresh, and Toyota were the top 5 podcast advertisers of Dec 2023.
Biden will require AI companies to inform the government of new AI models.
United Airlines looks to Airbus amid Boeing’s plane delivery delays.
xAI, Elon denied that xAI is raising $6B at a $20B valuation.
Prime members are now charged extra for ad-free streaming.
Watchlist
Startups and companies I’m keeping an eye on…
Dinnerfy creates personalized dinner menus for families and automatically orders the ingredients via Instacart.
Brick is a device that temporarily removes distracting apps/notifications from your phone.
Amie is a to-do list, email client, and calendar all in one app.
SonicVision is an AI model that can recreate the audio of a video.
MultiOnAI is an AI model that can take/complete actions in your browser.
Boring makes a mattress that is better than it seems at a price that makes sense.
Finvest is the easy way to buy US Treasury Bills.
Cargado makes software that simplifies cross-border trucking logistics.
Findr lets you search your mail, Notion, Slack and other platforms all at once.
Zum offers safe and efficient electric bus transportation for kids going to school.
Bland is an AI phone agency for cold calling, sales, and customer support.
PaidLeave is an AI chatbot that helps maximize your paid family leave up to $13k in New York and other select states.
Haven makes smart batteries for homes that pair with solar panel systems.
Parsio makes it easy to extract structured data from PDFs, emails, and other documents.
Top Picks
Specific articles and podcasts worth taking a look at…
Some suggested events for Peter Thiel’s all-drug Olympics. VERGE
23andMe’s fall from $6 billion to nearly $0. WSJ
The average 401k account balance by age. CNN
a16z’s Chris Dixon on the state of Crypto. PODCAST
33 charts that tell the story of the economy in 2024. YF
Unhappy workers cost US firms $1.9T. BBG
Visuals
Three visuals worth taking a look at...
Weekly Poll
How often do you use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Google Bard, or Bing Chat? Click the corresponding link to record your answer.
Last Week’s Poll Results: Only 27% of you think Apple will be forced to allow alternative app stores on iPhones and iPads in the US.
Outside Interests
Interesting internet finds…
Burritos, Johns Hopkins students invented edible tape to keep burritos closed while eating.
SpellCheck.xyz is like Wordle but for improving your spelling.
Robert Downey Jr. started a coffee company called Happy.
Resolutions, 43% of people reading this have already given up on their New Year’s resolutions.
NYT puzzles and games were played over 8 billion times last year.
Hamas, 80% of Hamas’s tunnels remain intact, according to Israeli officials.
SmartLess Podcast, hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, signed a $100 million deal with SiriusXM.
Deng Xioping lifted the most people out of poverty by introducing capitalism to China in the 1970s.
Trump’s potential conviction in mid-2024 could scare swing voters.
Joe Rogan’s podcast will no longer be Spotify exclusive.
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Newsletter researched/written by Will Sullivan
and edited by Andrew Coath.