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A Week for the History Books Plus Billion Dollar Raises and Losses
Noel Moldvai
July 25, 2024
Good Afternoon! What a week it has been for the history books.
This week is marked by $5B+ deals and $5B+ losses.
Plus, there is some spicy drama happening in Silicon Valley on the political and X fronts. Enjoy.
TL;DR
Alphabet pours $5B into Waymo, Cruise scraps the Origin and Elon’s bet on autonomy
Musk to discuss $5 billion xAI investment with Tesla board
CrowdStrike disruption direct losses to reach $5.4B for Fortune 500, study finds
Silicon Valley is divided over the election. Here’s which tech titans support Donald Trump—and which ones are pulling for Kamala Harris
Alphabet Invests $5B into Waymo
Alphabet announced a $5 billion investment in Waymo, its autonomous vehicle subsidiary. The multi-year funding will be gated, with Waymo needing to meet specific milestones to unlock the funds. This internal funding approach contrasts with previous rounds involving external investors, highlighting the challenging fundraising environment for autonomous vehicle companies.
Musk to Discuss $5B Investment into xAI
Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to discuss a $5 billion investment in AI startup xAI to enhance Tesla's self-driving and robotaxi projects. The investment aims to overcome technical and legal challenges, bolster AI infrastructure, and integrate xAI’s Grok chatbot. This follows xAI’s recent $6 billion Series B funding.
CrowdStrike Outage — $5.4B in Losses
A global IT outage linked to CrowdStrike is estimated to cost the Fortune 500, excluding Microsoft, $5.4 billion in direct losses. Cyber insurance will cover only 10-20% of these losses. The healthcare sector faces the largest impact at $1.94 billion, while airlines have the highest per-company costs. The outage underscores the need for comprehensive risk management.
Silicon Valley is Divided Over the Election
Despite reports of Silicon Valley leaning right, many tech leaders endorse Kamala Harris after Biden’s decision not to run. Notable endorsements include LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Netflix’s Reed Hastings. Harris faces mixed reactions due to her past tough stance on tech giants. Meanwhile, some tech figures support Trump, including Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk.
How do you see the endorsements from Silicon Valley impacting the upcoming election?
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Until next week!
Cheerio,
-Noel