🤖 OpenAI, and Your AI Girlfriend?

Good Morning Kings & Queens! "The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”

— J. Robert Oppenheimer

MARKET UPDATE

Shares of popular meme stocks Gamestop, AMC and Blackberry rallied even further on Tuesday, riding the meme stock frenzy.

TODAY’S BIG HEADLINES

• OpenAI, and Your AI Girlfriend?

• Sam Altman-Backed Nuclear Energy Startup Goes Public Via SPAC

• Alibaba is Buying Up AI Startups Everywhere

• Robots Making Salads Are a Real Moneymaker

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OpenAI, and Your AI Girlfriend?🤖

One Giant Leap for Botkind: In a move that’s got Silicon Valley buzzing louder than a faulty server, OpenAI has just pulled the wraps off their latest brainchild, the “GPT-4o”. This isn’t just another upgrade, folks. It’s like they’ve strapped a rocket to a skateboard and fired it off into the stratosphere of cutting-edge tech.

The Upgrade Lowdown: Picture this - a model that’s faster than a caffeinated coder, with upgrades across text, vision, and audio. And the cherry on top? It’s free for everyone to use, including access to ChatGPT’s app store! Paid users, fear not, you’ll still enjoy up to five times the capacity limits. If you haven’t seen it yet, OpenAI has released several demo videos on YouTube that are as eye-catching as a neon sign in a power outage.

AI Girlfriend, Anyone?: The big reveal is a voice mode upgrade that’s so advanced, it could give Scarlett Johansson’s character in ‘Her’ a run for her money. This AI can read your facial expressions and translate spoken language in real time. It’s like having a personal assistant that’s part psychic, part linguist, and all genius. Some of the improvements are really quite incredible, including being able to look at what the phone’s camera is seeing and have it respond to what’s visible on-screen, letting the user interupt the model while speaking and adapt dynamically.

Google Can Sleep Easy: Despite the whispers that OpenAI was about to step on Google’s turf with a search engine competitor, it seems they’re sticking to what they do best - pushing the boundaries of AI technology. Plus, GPT-4o’s API access is now half the price and twice as fast as GPT-4 Turbo. Talk about value for money!

ENERGY & INDUSTRIALS

Sam Altman-Backed Nuclear Energy Startup Goes Public Via SPAC🔓

Powering SkyNet: In a move that’s got Chamath Palihapitiya looking over his shoulder, Sam Altman-backed nuclear energy startup Oklo has gone public via SPAC. This comes off the back of the company recently looking to hire a data center lead as it looks to power "AI and cloud computing".

Oklo Energy: Oklo is a nuclear fission startup that’s just started trading on the NYSE under the ticker “OKLO” after its board agreed a merger agreement with Sam Altman’s SPAC known as AltC Acquisition Corp, and its debut generated $306 million in gross proceeds for the company. They’re designing and building mini fission reactors that are as compact as a studio apartment but pack a punch like a traditional nuclear plant. For context, these mini-reactors have just 15 megawatts of capacity compared to the traditional 1K megawatt capacity nuclear plants.

Reality Check: Oklo might be the new kid on the block, but they’ve got a few hurdles to clear. For starters, Oklo generates no revenue, has no nuclear plants deployed, and isn’t expected to have one live until 2027. It’s a bit like investing in a unicorn - it sounds magical, but you’re unlikely to see a return anytime soon.

The SPAC-tacular Problem: SPACs might be the easy route to going public, alleviating the processes and red tape involved in a traditional IPO process, but they’ve got a track record that’s as shaky as a three-legged table. Nearly 25% of companies that went public via SPAC since 2019 have seen over 90% declines., erasing $46B in market value. Who knew that making profits was key to long-term share price gains?

Wall Street Whispers: The SPAC initially soared like a rocket by 70% on the news of the merger, but since its market debut, shares of Oklo have dropped faster than a hot potato, down over 37%. It seems the investors aren’t quite ready to bet their chips on this one, despite the hype surrounding the AI industry.

MEGA CAPS

Alibaba is Buying Up AI Startups Everywhere🤝

Lights, Camera, Transaction!: Alibaba (BABA), the Chinese ecommerce Godzilla, is currently sprinting to become China’s heavyweight champion of AI investments. They’re cooking up deals that are as uncannily similar to the Microsoft (MSFT) and OpenAI alliance as dumplings are to dim sum. But wait, there’s a plot twist! The tech titan’s profits took a nosedive by 85% yesterday, causing its share price to drop faster than a hot pot sticker.

Learning from the Masters: Alibaba’s strategy is as straightforward as a chopstick - dish out cloud network credits to China’s sizzling AI startups, getting them hooked on their platform while Alibaba quietly builds up stakes in these companies like a silent dragon hoarding gold. These startups include the likes of Moonshot, Zhipu, MiniMax, and 01.ai, all of whom are trying to whip up their own Chinese version of a ChatGPT-like product. Amazon (AMZN), another tech titan, is also following this recipe, having built up a sizable stake in the AI firm Antrhopic, the puppet masters behind the Claude chatbot.

Diversification or Bust: With their ecommerce business taking more hits than a piñata at a birthday party, thanks to rivals like PinDuoDuo, JD.com, ByteDance and Temu, and the Chinese economy slowing down like a rickshaw in rush hour, it’s no wonder Alibaba is branching out in search of fresh fortunes.

Earnings Round-Up: Here’s the lowdown on Alibaba’s latest quarterly earnings, served up hot and spicy:

• Revenue came in at 221.9 billion yuan ($30.7 billion) versus 219.66 billion yuan expected.

• Net income came in at 3.3 billion yuan, down 86% year on year.

• One positive however, was Alibaba’s international commerce business, which logged a revenue increase of 45% year on year to 27.4 billion yuan.

• The all important cloud computing unit brought in revenue of 25.6 billion yuan, up just 3% year on year, the same growth rate seen in the previous quarter.

CONSUMER DISCRETIONARIES

Robots Making Salads Are a Real Moneymaker🥗

Salad Days are Here: The urban salad sensation Sweetgreens (SG) dropped their quarterly earnings on Friday, and the market reacted like it had just discovered the secret sauce, sending the stock skyrocketing by 34%. The secret ingredient? Robot-powered kitchens and a shift towards healthier foods.

Infinite Gains: Just to put things into perspective, the leafy green salad maker’s stock has shot up an eye-watering 240% over the past twelve months. Despite a history of losses, profits have been climbing up the beanstalk, reaching a profit margin of 18%, up from 14% in the prior year. This resulted in a net loss of $26.1 million, a decrease from the prior year’s $33.7 million. The credit goes to the company’s robot-powered “Infinite Kitchens”, which were rolled out last year.

Future Domination: Sure, fitting one of these fully automated kitchens might cost a pretty penny upfront, but the long-term payoff is as satisfying as a perfectly tossed salad. These robots can automate as much as 70% of the food preparation process. Sweetgreens has updated its full year guidance and revealed plans to open 23-27 new stores, install seven more automated kitchens, and retrofit another three or four. And in a move that puts them in direct competition with Chipotle (CMG), they’re planning to drive into the drive-thru market and have even added steak to their menu. Now that’s what I call a meaty development!

MORE NEWS

Additional market-moving events🌎

Waymo Investigation: The US has launched a prove into Alphabet’s Waymo, over "unexpected behaviours” from self-driving vehicles. (Reuters)

AI Chips on the Horizon: London-based chip licensing firm ARM are set to begin developing dedicated AI chips in 2025, with the first prototype aiming to have been built by spring 2025. (Reuters)

Follow the Leader: Google has unveiled “Project Astra” its latest chatbot tech, as well as how the company are infusing artificial intelligence throughout its catalogue of products. (Fortune)

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