Hi Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like a hidden Easter egg in your favorite video game - surprising, delightful, and adding an extra layer of fun to your tech news consumption.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• It’s MSFT’s World and we’re just living in it 📈

• PS5 Back on Top 🎮

• Asteroids ☄️

• Trending Tools ⚒️

It’s MSFT’s World and we’re just living in it 📈

Welcome to earnings report season - the corporate world’s version of report car day. 

Instead of kids biting their nails in front of their parents, companies sweat themselves in front of Wall Street Wolves. However, there’s one company that’s not sweating AT ALL.

BC -> Before ChatGPT

Microsoft hit the jackpot when it came to timing the AI revolution. Their $13B investment in OpenAI has been nothing short of a revenue rainmaker, with record-breaking revenue figures that would make any CFO’s heart flutter. 

It’s tempting to think of Microsoft and its big AI play in quasi-biblical terms, with B.C. standing for “Before ChatGPT”. The company’s stake in OpenAI seems to be just that revelatory. 

On Cloud 9

And while we’re looking skyward, let’s talk about Azure. Just like how AWS has become the profit machine for Amazon, Azure is doing the same for Microsoft. 

Azure has cemented itself as a solid runner-up in the cloud wars and is now seriously gunning for the throne using the AI inflection. It recorded a strong 31% YoY growth with AI growth accounting for 7 percentage points.

More than 65% of the Fortune 500 now use Azure OpenAI service. Much of the AI spend is at the enterprise, where a 50% reduction in customer support or a 75% increase in engineering capacity filters billions to the bottom line. 

Copilot - Take the Wheel

Apart from boosting AI revenue through cloud, Microsoft has arguably taken the most aggressive approach to monetizing GenAI in the software space. 

Satya released numbers stating that MSFT Copilot is already a $500M ARR product that’s growing 35% QoQ. 

Github revenue accelerated to over 45% YoY fueled by the surge in Github copilot adoption, which now has a paid subscriber base of 1.8M subscribers. 

More than 90% of the Fortune 100 are now GitHub customers, showcasing its widespread acceptance and utilization within large enterprises. This metric is indicative of GitHub's robust market penetration and its critical role in enterprise software development environments.

This is not a pipe dream. This is not theoretical. GenAI is making a large financial impact right now for an already massive company. 

PS5 Back on Top 🎮

It’s been quite a ride for the gaming consoles this past year, with the market shooting up by 10% in 2023.

This comes after a few hiccups in 2022 due to those pesky supply chain issues which saw an 11% decrease in the market from 2021. 

But they’re back, baby! 

The Boss is Back

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new boss in town.

Sony surpassed Nintendo to become the largest player in 2023, owing to the PS5’s popularity and finally, its availability all around the world. 

Finding a PS5 used to be like finding a Charizard card, but now, they’re everywhere, flying off the shelves like its predecessor, the PS4. 

They’ve acquired a whopping 49% market share, leaving Nintendo and Xbox in the muds. 

Software is Eating the World

And it’s not all hardware for these companies. In fact, on the software front, it’s raining cash for console developers, especially for Sony and Microsoft with nearly 70% of their revenue coming from software and services.

The PS5’s popularity is estimated to keep Sony in the leading position in 2024. The competition is expected to intensify with Microsoft’s portfolio refresh but that is expected in the 2nd half of 2024.

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Freshworks snaps up Device42 for $230M, beefing up its IT asset management game. As founder Girish Mathrubootham exits the CEO role for the executive chair, Dennis Woodside steps up to the helm. 🤖💼

Anthropic launches "Team," a new enterprise plan for its Claude 3 AI models, catering to sectors like healthcare and finance. This plan features high-priority access, enhanced user controls, and a whopping 200,000-token context window. 📈🤖

LinkedIn dives into the gaming world, offering daily puzzle challenges to boost engagement and network interaction. The new feature tracks scores and connects players within professional circles, all in a bid to keep users hooked and interacting on the platform. 🎮👔

⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

💼 Vitae - Lets you create resume and cover letter using AI

🤖 Querypal - Get AI powered answers from your company knowledge

📊 1Flow - Launch targeted in-product surveys in seconds using AI

🎨 Mockey - 5k+ cool AI mockup templates

📰 Recommended Reading 📰

AI Jane: Artificial intelligence investment journalist building an easy to read ai investing email newsletter. Get smarter about investing in ai in 5 minutes.

The Aurorean: This newsletter scours 100+ sources so you don’t have to. The Aurorean is your guide to discover the essential news, research, beauty and humor in science every week.

The EV Universe: Keep up with the electric vehicle industry.

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