OpenAI’s 3D Internet Play

Alpha
August 09, 2024

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TECH IN THE NEWS

Fed Up - Donald Trump suggests the US president should have “at least a say” over interest rates, a view contrary to the current orthodoxy.

Strawberry Fields - A new LMSYS Test arena AI model is rumored to be OpenAI's highly anticipated Q, codenamed ‘Strawberry' reasoning model. Sam Altman fueled the hype by tweeting a picture of a Strawberry he grew.

Watchdogged - The U.K.'s CMA opened a probe into whether Amazon's investment in Anthropic qualifies as a merger and could harm competition.

GARM-on - An advertiser cartel is shutting down after X sued it alleging its advertiser boycott unlawfully withheld billions in ad revenue.

Ripple Settles - Banking-focused cryptocurrency company Ripple Labs won a favorable settlement of $125M for securities violations, far less than the $2B sought by the SEC in the long-running case.

Palantir Azure - The defense and cyber intelligence giant will offer its AI Platform on Microsoft’s cloud platforms for federal agencies.

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THE HOTTEST THING IN TECH
OpenAI’s 3D Internet Play

The race to define the next generation of the internet is heating up, with tech giants like OpenAI, Meta and Google betting big on the convergence of AI and 3D tech in the “3D internet”. So where is hardware king, Apple?

OpenAI Backs Webcam Company Turned AI Startup

News just broke that the OpenAI Startup Fund is leading a $60M round into Opal, a hardware startup behind the high-end Tadpole webcam. Opal plans to work closely with OpenAI researchers to prototype AI-enabled devices powered by OpenAI models that people can use as “creative tools.” OpenAI execs are reportedly most interested in integrating their new voice AI models into Opal’s devices. Opal is backed by YouTuber Casey Neistat and TikTok siblings Charli and Dixie D’amelio, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Kindred Ventures are expected to back the round.

Meta's AI Multiverse Bet

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, recently predicted that AI-powered smart glasses will gain hundreds of millions of users once the price of devices is around $300. Meta's partnership with EssilorLuxottica, on its Ray-Ban Smart glasses is already the envy of rivals like Google. Meta is reportedly also now in talks with Indian telecom giant Jio to license its Horizon VR software, potentially powering a new VR device for the massive Indian market.

Beyond Entertainment

Meta's focus is on entertainment and social experiences, but the potential for productivity and utility-focused 3D internet applications is also huge. Google is exploring this potential and is engaged in talks with EssiLux on a new Ray-Ban model powered by Gemini. Additionally, it’s partnered with both Magic Leap* and Samsung on XR hardware. Its Project Astra demo at I/O in May showed off a vision for AI-enhanced 3D internet tasks in everyday life across both entertainment and productivity.

*Speaking of Magic Leap, it just sacked its entire sales & marketing team, and despite receiving $750M from Saudi PIF, it now admits it needs to raise again by end of month. Wouldn’t be too surprising if an M&A offer emerges.

Apple Enters the Game

So far, Hardware king Apple is noticeably absent from the smart glasses race, focusing instead on its iPhone, VisionPro and Airbuds products. This decision might stem from Apple's desire to control its entire product ecosystem and reluctance to partner externally. This could be a missed opportunity if smart glasses do turn out to be the killer AI app due to easy integration with existing eyewear habits leading to mass adoption. Regardless, the 3D internet is poised to transform our digital lives, and so it offers a whole new area of innovation and investment potential to explore.

We have partnered with UlapX to offer businesses a free initial AI readiness consultation to understand how your company can use Explainable AI to unlock more ephemeral and secure deployments in the 3D internet arena.

“I would guess that display-less AI glasses at the $300 point are going to be a really big product that, like tens of millions of people, or hundreds of millions of people eventually are going to have, and you're going to have super interactive AI that you're talking to…“

— Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals

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Robotics for Agricultural Efficiency - Pittsburgh - Built & deployed robotic hardware for the largest U.S. tree nurseries, reducing costs and increasing efficiency by 50x. Hardware and AI data layer. Beginning to scale globally. Post-revenue, at capacity. (Seed+)
Quant Trading Software Company - New Jersey - Large-scale automated day-trading algorithm designed for volatile U.S. equity markets. Profitable through extensive backtesting and live simulation. Seeking equity investment for software company.
Cricket for the Modern World - India - Physical and virtual ecosystem fostering cricket experiences for enthusiasts and upcoming pros. Data-driven, locally proven, globally scaling. (Seed)
AI Agent Employees - New York - Sophisticated workflow automation for businesses towards fully autonomous organizations. Previously-exited founder. Backed by Tribe & Kenetic. (Seed)
Outbound B2B Campaign AI Co-Pilot - Lexington, MA - Turn any CRM into an AI optimized sales agent for personalized customer campaigns. Founder previous exit to PE. Notable Angel on board. Top Hubspot App. Post revenue. (Seed)
Therapy for Baldness - Los Angeles, CA - Developed by ex-Kythera R&D Leader. Virtual development model and world class team seeking to fund POC study. (Seed)

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Lockheed Martin Software Engineer, ex-Rutgers Junior Full Stack Developer. Secret clearance. Expertise in C++, PHP, SQL. Rutgers BA in Computer Science.

TRENDING TOOLS AND BUZZY TECH
Tools

Nothing - $399 Phone 2a Plus available in US as part of a beta program.

Airbnb - Pilots co-hosting connecting homeowners and BnB managers.

Mistral - Model customization Agents to simplify genAI app development.

Tech

Google DeepMind - Develops a ‘solidly amateur’ table tennis robot.

Major Disease Prediction - Model beats existing prediction methods.

Megaconstellation - China launches first satellites of Starlink rival project.

Terraforming Mars - Scientists propose low-cost plan, inject dust particles.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

“Hyper-Scale” Defense Tech Unicorn - Costa Mesa startup Anduril closed a $1.5b Series F valuing it at $14b co-led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital with new backers like Fidelity and Baillie Gifford.

Advanced AI Models - Beijing Text AI Model startup Moonshot raised $300M at a $3.3b valuation from Tencent, Garong, and previous investor Alibaba.

AI Email Protection - San Francisco startup Abnormal Security raised a $250M Series D at $5.1b led by Wellington Management, with Greylock, Menlo, Insight Partners, and CrowdStrike.

Deals & Companies to Watch:

AI Reasoning - Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s Palo Alto AI startup Harmonic, is in talks to raise $50M at a $250M valuation from Sequoia, Index and other investors.

Glean - The AI agent workplace productivity startup’s subscription revenue hit $55M, eyeing $100M by year-end. It is now in advanced talks to raise $250M at ~$4.5b, double its previous valuation.

HP x Juniper - the UK approved HP’s potential $14b acquisition of California networking company, Juniper Networks barring US objections.

Klarna - The Swedish BNPL giant is in talks with investment firms about a secondary offering to test its $7b valuation ahead of its IPO next year.

Funding Buzz Watch:

TPG - The asset manager has "topped up" its Life Science Innovations fund, bringing total raised to $580M to back startups advancing breakthrough tech in oncology, autoimmune, cardio diseases and more.

Flint Capital - The Boston firm closed its third fund at $160M to back early and late stage IT, cybersecurity, fintech and digital health startups