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Snapchat Profits & Elon Raises
Fun fact: Snapchat and xAI are a couple weeks away from having the same market cap
Adam Hardej
April 29, 2024
Snapchat surprises markets to the tune of a 31% stock surge proving once again that everything is priced in, except when it’s not. Meanwhile, Elon raises $6B for his AI “startup” that will have a post-money valuation similar to Snapchat’s market cap. Also, Stripe likes crypto again.
Snapchat, Meta, and Google earnings: Digital ad market is finally on the mend, bouncing back from the ‘dark days’ of 2022
“After a brutal 2022, when brands reeled in spending to cope with inflation, and a 2023 defined by layoffs and cost cuts, the top digital advertising companies have started growing again at a healthy clip.”
Musk’s xAI Is Close to Raising $6 Billion from Sequoia, Others
“Elon’s Musk xAI is close to having billions of dollars more in its coffers to make its chatbot Grok a more fearsome competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Musk’s year-old startup is raising $6 billion at a valuation of $18 billion not including the investment, according to two people close to the deal. Sequoia Capital is one of the investors participating in the xAI round, according to one of the people, and it’s expected to close in the next two weeks, said the second.”
After 6-year hiatus, Stripe to start taking crypto payments, starting with USDC stablecoin
“On Thursday the company announced that it would let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with just one currency in particular, USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon. This will be the first time that Stripe has taken crypto payments since 2018, when it dropped support for Bitcoin due to it being too unstable.”
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Stonks are easy
Letters From The Editor
Misc. (short for miscellaneous)
Back To Basics
I think I’m over this whole “try to monetize the newsletter” thing. It was exciting to get some paid slots, but it’s hard to be consistent and realistically it’s a side-show compared to everything else at Sandhill (community and investment stuff). Depending on what you’re into, this should be a win for you (the reader).
In practice, I’ll go back to sending something weekly that looks similar to what you just read, but probably a bit heavier on the commentary. I wont’ try to play the “news curation” game as much besides telling you what I’ve been tracking/reading that week. I’ll keep sending the “we’re live” blasts also because a lot of you actually tune in from those.
This should allow me to focus more on the parts of this newsletter that are differentiated: My personal opinion (varying degrees of value). The guests we host for podcasts and panels (pretty consistent value).
Thank you to those that have stuck with me through this phase.
Thoughts? |
Talk soon,
Adam
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