ByteDance revenue hits $80B, Bard incorporates PaLM, Saudi Arabia discloses VC ties

The Information sources: TikTok parent company ByteDance generated >$80B in revenue last year (+30% y/y); TikTok generated ~$10B in revenue, roughly 12% of ByteDance’s total, growing 2.5x y/y - Link

Google updated Bard by incorporating PaLM into its stack, enabling it to answer math and logic problems better; Google also stated that Bard would soon have coding abilities - Link

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has disclosed investments in venture firms like a16z, Craft, Coatue, ICONIQ, KKR, and others - Link

At a recent conference in Miami, Adam Neumann and Ben Horowitz praised Saudi Arabia as a “startup country” while on stage with Marc Andreessen and hinted that Neumann’s startup Flow could launch in Saudi Arabia - Link

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Stephen Wolfram joined Jason for an all-encompassing conversation about AI, covering the history of neural nets (7:53) and how modern AI emulates the human brain (19:33). This leads to an in-depth discussion about the pace at which AI is evolving (43:46), the “Post-Knowledge Work” era (58:45), the unintended consequences of AI (1:03:52), and more! - Link

Spotify has shut down Spotify Live (fka Locker Room and Green Room), a Clubhouse-like app it bought as part of its €57M Betty Labs acquisition in March 2021 - Link

Boxed, a NY-based online bulk retailer that specializes in wholesale grocery deliveries, filed for Ch 11 bankruptcy on Sunday; Boxed went public via SPAC in December 2021 - Link

Tesla announced it delivered ~422.9K vehicles globally (+36% y/y), its most ever, as the company cut prices to boost demand - Link

Paris voted to ban shared e-scooters, forcing companies like Lime, Dott, and Tier to vacate the city; 89% of residents voted against keeping e-scooters in the city - Link

Tech companies in Israel raised a combined $1.7B in Q1 2023, with 40% going to three companies; the lowest since Q3 2018 - Link

This Week in Startups

E1711: Stephen Wolfram on AI’s rapid progress & the “Post-Knowledge Work Era”

E1710: Crypto’s de-platforming and the balkanization of AI with Vinny Lingham

E1709: Startup pitch competition: Jason invests $25K live!

E1708: Alibaba's six-way split, Disney cuts its metaverse team, Substack's raise & more

E1707: First Citizens acquires SVB, the daunting reality of AI & Refiberd CEO Sarika Bajaj

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