Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition we are tackling the following:

🚘 Waymo leads U.S. robotaxi market in 2024, but Tesla and Zoox close in.
📉 PharmEasy experienced significant decline value at about $456M.
🤖 OpenAI and Microsoft's have a solid internal 'AGI' definition.
🕵️‍♂️ 15 North Koreans hacker sanctioned by South Korea for crypto thefts.
🔥 Larry Ellison’s net worth has increased by more than $75B this year.

TECH

• Waymo dominated U.S. robotaxi market in 2024, but Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox loom

  • Waymo led the U.S. robotaxi market, providing 150,000 trips per week across cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin.

  • General Motors exited the robotaxi sector in December, shuttering its Cruise division after investing over $10B.

  • Tesla planning a fully autonomous version of its ‘Full Self-Driving’ software for the Model 3 and Model Y in Texas and California in 2025.

• Leaked Documents Show OpenAI Has a Very Clear Definition of ‘AGI’

  • According to leaked documents obtained by The Information, the two companies came to agree in 2023 on what AGI means.

  • Interestingly, AGI ‘will be achieved’ once OpenAI has developed an AI system that can generate at least $100 billion in profits.

  • OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit under the guise that it would use its influence to create products that benefit all of humanity.

• Larry Ellison wraps up banner year as Oracle’s stock rallies most since dot-com boom

  • Ellison’s net worth has increased by more than $75B this year, largely due to Oracle ramping up its position in the artificial intelligence market.

  • The company signed large deals with ‘Mag 7’ companies including Meta and OpenAI.

  • “Oracle produced a different product than what you can get elsewhere with GPU computing,” said Paras Jain, CEO of startup Genmo.

BUSINESS

• PharmEasy Experienced Significant Decline Value At About $456M

  • Once valued at $5.6 billion, PharmEasy's valuation has plummeted to approximately $456 million, marking a substantial decrease.

  • Investor Henderson said in a filing that it valued its stake of 12.9 million shares in the startup at $766,043.

  • This decline reflects broader challenges in the online pharmacy sector and raises concerns about the sustainability of high valuations.

• Hundreds of American Airlines flights delayed after glitch briefly grounded planes

  • During the Christmas rush American Airlines briefly grounded U.S. flights on Tuesday.

  • The carrier said a technical problem stemmed from a hardware issue with a third-party platform.

  • The ground stop lasted about one hour but more than 900 American flights were delayed.

• Stock market today: Stocks edge lower after a holiday pause for US markets

  • Stocks edged lower on Wall Street Thursday morning after U.S. markets reopened for trading after the Christmas holiday.

  • The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%. The benchmark index is coming off a three-day winning streak.

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 23 points, or 0.1%, as of 11:14 a.m. Eastern time.

CONTENT

• How Future Civilizations Could Change the Laws of Physics

  • Adam Brown is a founder of BlueShift which is cracking maths and reasoning at Google DeepMind and a theoretical physicist at Stanford.

  • Discussed; destroying the light cone with vacuum decay, holographic principle, mining black holes.

  • Also, what it would take to train LLMs that can make Einstein level conceptual breakthroughs.

• Project Astra: Exploring a Universal AI Assistant with Greg Wayne

  • Project Astra is an AI assistant designed to integrate vision, audio, memory, context, and reasoning.

  • Current functionalities include object recognition, contextual assistance, and memory-based interaction.

  • The focus is on improving proactive assistance, memory, reasoning, and natural interaction through features like full-duplex audio.

• How To Focus On The Right Problems

  • Y Combinator’s Dalton and Michael share advice for how to break through the noise and zero in on solving the problems that matter most.

  • By focusing on a few critical areas be it product, sales, or operations founders can achieve results that surpass the competition.

  • Founders who set clear goals and prioritize essential tasks inspire their teams to do the same.

WORLD

• 15 North Koreans Hacker Sanctioned By South Korea For Crypto Thefts

  • South Korea has imposed sanctions on 15 North Korean individuals and one organization for their involvement in thefts and cybercrimes.

  • These agents allegedly generated funds for North Korea's nuclear weapons program through illicit cyber activities.

  • Notably, the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacker collective, has been linked to significant crypto heists, including the $600 million Ronin hack.

• Finland Police Investigate Role Of Foreign Ship After Power Cable Outage

  • An undersea power cable, Estlink-2, connecting Finland and Estonia, experienced an outage on December 25, 2024.

  • Estonian network operator Elering confirmed sufficient capacity to meet power needs despite the disruption.

  • This event follows recent concerns over Baltic undersea infrastructure, including damaged data cables between Finland and Germany.

• Japan Stocks Rise As Government Sets To Propose Record Budget

  • Singapore reported a contraction in manufacturing output for November, declining by 3.5% year-over-year.

  • Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong markets were closed for the Boxing Day holiday.

  • Japan's Nikkei 225 index experienced a slight uptick, reflecting cautious investor sentiment amid global economic uncertainties.

AND MORE…

• Netflix NFL Ratings: Christmas Games Set Streaming Record But Trail 2023 Broadcast Numbers

  • Netflix’s two games averaged 24.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen fast national ratings.

  • Nielsen and Netflix say 65 million people watched at least a minute of the streamer’s NFL presentation.

  • The NBA's annual Christmas showcase also grows substantially, with all five games up year to year.

• E-mart, Alibaba Plan Online-Shopping Joint Venture

  • Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. agreed to form a joint venture for its South Korean operations with E-Mart Inc.’s e-commerce platform.

  • The pair are planning to better compete in the country’s fast-paced online retail sector.

  • Both Gmarket and AliExpress Korea will continue to operate their platforms independently.

• Bluesky Is Testing A Trending Topics Feature

  • The decentralized social network, has begun testing a ‘Trending Topics’ feature to enhance user engagement.

  • Sources at Bluesky say trending topics are currently available, but only in English.

  • While Bluesky has just introduced the trending topics feature, third-party Bluesky clients like Greysky already implemented it last year.