Tom Dotan

2 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Tom Dotan |Eric Newcomer

Once news of Meta’s investment in Scale broke, the myriad discussions rattling around the startup and AI world — and even among Scale’s own investors — could be boiled down to this: is this an Inflection, or is it an OpenAI? That is to say, did Meta invest approximately $15 billion in Scale to supercharge an outside startup while reaping some of the benefits and casting off its image as an AI stumbler (Microsoft-OpenAI).

3 weeks ago | newcomer.co | Tom Dotan |Eric Newcomer

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: The Trump-Musk breakup was inevitable, dramatic and — no matter your politics — deeply entertaining. What it portends for the future of the so-called “tech right” and its alliance with Trump is something that will likely play out in the coming months. But the question pinging around the many people who are invested in the constellation of companies that make up Musk Inc., has been: How bad will it be? Tesla is in real trouble.

1 month ago | newcomer.co | Eric Newcomer |Jonathan Weber |Madeline Renbarger |Tom Dotan

As Bridge founder Zach Abrams came to the stage yesterday at Breaking the Bank, I called him “the man of the hour.” Abrams’ decision to sell his stablecoin startup to Stripe for $1.1 billion has helped ignite global business interest in the low-cost, crypto-powered, money-moving technology among the traditional finance set. Visa is getting in on the action, planning to launch a stablecoin credit card with Ramp. Stripe has leaned in.

1 month ago | newcomer.co | Tom Dotan |Eric Newcomer |Madeline Renbarger

OpenAI steals Instacart’s CEO as Sam Altman’s negotiations with partner Microsoft are increasingly shaky. Secondary share sales have become the easiest way for VCs and LPs to land liquidity in this frigid exit market, but some can come at a steep loss compared to a startup’s 2021 valuation. Read on for exclusive data on the current prices for 60+ startups. We also have more details on OpenAI’s decision to call off its for-profit conversion, for now, in a win for Elon Musk.

2 months ago | newcomer.co | Tom Dotan |Madeline Renbarger

From Tom Dotan, our new senior correspondent, fresh off two years covering Microsoft for the Wall Street JournalAt Microsoft’s annual executive huddle last month, the company’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, put up a slide that charted the number of users for its Copilot consumer AI tool over the past year. It was essentially a flat line, showing around 20 million weekly users.