In this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo and Becca Szkutak dissect a bill which aims to regulate AI at the model level. Naturally, some VCs and founders as well as students and professors are in an uproar about it. But we have to ask, is regulation in the name of safety such a bad thing? Short answer: It depends.
Then the trio got into the deals of the week, including OpenAI’s potential new investment in webcam maker Opal. We also discussed some major changes at the executive level within OpenAI and what that could mean about what’s going on internally. Becca then wanted to talk about a new startup called why?! , which was founded by ex-Clubhouse employees and aims to be a networking, messaging and dating app all in one. And Kirsten wanted to drill down on electric vehicle maker Lucid’s new $1.5 billion capital infusion from the Saudi wealth fund.
We then shifted gears to talk about just how many new unicorns were born in the U.S. this year so far and the surprising diversity of sectors they were in. And lastly, we dug into a couple of notable M&A deals in the fintech space, including one this week in which Payoneer scooped up a five-year-old Singaporean startup called Skuad for $61 million in cash as well as Stripe’s latest buy.
Equity is a show about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. New episodes drop at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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