Sponsored by

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:

• Where Sam Altman Spends His Millions 💵

• Is History Going to Repeat Itself? 🔮

• Asteroids ☄️

• Trending Tools ⚒️

Where Sam Altman Spends His Millions 💵❤️

What’s the 1st word that comes to mind when we say Sam Altman?

Hands up if you said OpenAI. And well, you wouldn’t be wrong. He has become the face of the generative AI movement. 

However, Altman is also a remarkably active angel investor and it seems that whatever he’s investing in, seemingly converts to lots and lots of money.

This comes after Reddit made waves by going public at $34 a share, catapulting its valuation to a $6.37B. And what's that mean for Mr. AI? (Anger Investor, not Artificial Intelligence)

A whopping $413M. That’s his return on a $5OM investment made back in 2014. 

His angel wings have fluttered over 100 investments since 2010, showing a keen eye for not just artificial intelligence, but also for munchies like lab-grown meat and the fountain of youth.

The man’s investing in companies like its collectibles in video games.

In addition to all this, he hasn’t forgotten his roots, OpenAI. Several of the companies he’s bankrolled also have relationships with the AI giant. 

• Humane has concocted this "AI Pin" you can wear.

• Slope is building a platform that's doing the heavy lifting in B2B payments automation

All these companies have whispered that OpenAI's models are partly the muscle behind their tech.

But wait, there's more! Altman isn't just about the AI life. He's also placed some pretty hefty bets on saving the planet and maybe making us all immortal along the way. 

He threw a staggering $375M into Helion, a nuclear fusion startup aiming to solve all our energy woes.

He’s also backed Retro Biosciences by a hefty $180M, who are on a mission to make us live longer through the magic of cellular reprogramming.

Despite a slight dip in dealmaking in 2023, Altman's investment game remains strong, focusing primarily on the seeds of tomorrow.

And the main part is, he knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

PS: Refer 1 person to access the complete list of Sam Altman’s investments using this link: https://www.thetakeoff.co/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

Get smarter on AI.

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join early adopters reading The Rundown– the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up with one click

Is History Going to Repeat Itself? 🔮

In the 1800s, the UK saw a railroad bubble driven by intense speculation in railway shares, which reached its peak in 1847. The belief that railways would revolutionize transportation and trade, and the availability of cheap credit led to investments in the sector equal to a staggering $4 trillion in today’s money.

At its height, the bubble saw the formation of hundreds of new railway companies, many of which were based on unrealistic plans for lines that would never be built. The Railway Mania came to an end in 1847 which led to a financial crisis in the UK, and many investors lost heavily. 

However, the bubble also had a number of positive long-term effects, including the development of a nationwide railway network that helped to boost economic growth. 

History Repeats Itself ?

There is a familiar ring to this moment in history, perhaps most recently incarnated in the Internet Boom and Bust two decades ago.

The CapEx cycle then was spent on fiber optic cable to build out huge amounts of capacity ahead of expected demand for internet services.

Again, the capital spend was of epic proportions. Irrational exuberance led to limitless capital and debt being made available to build for the future.

The bursting of the bubble did result in investors losing substantial amounts of money, but the legacy infrastructure enabled the Internet wave to take hold. 

The big question being asked today is whether the surge in AI infrastructure investment will end up the same as these previous investment cycles. 

Big Tech Charging Ahead

Big Tech is already opening their wallets and investing heavily to build out the AI infrastructure to not miss out on a disruptive technology that could be bigger than the Internet was 20 years ago. 

A common theme for the Mega Cap Tech Cos in 2024 is the expected increase in CapEx for investments in AI infrastructure and tooling.

Analysts believe that the AI hype will avoid the Boom and Bust cycle. Investments in AI infrastructure are significantly greater than the returns produced by it right now, but its monetary addition is expected to ramp up much more quickly given its fast adoption cycle by both businesses and consumers. 

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

In the cosmic fintech galaxy, Y Combinator's Winter '24 cohort sees fintech stars dim to 8% from a luminous 24% in '22. Meanwhile, funding for these tech companies slips 16%. 💸📉 

Sam Altman hands over the reins of OpenAI's Startup Fund to Ian Hathaway, dodging potential corporate snags post his CEO comeback. 🤝💡

AI giants hit a data drought, with OpenAI mining YouTube audio for GPT-4's smarts, sparking legal and ethical debates. 📚⚖️

⚒️ Trending Tools ⚒️

💻️ Reform - The fastest way to develop modern logistics software

🦜 PingParrot - AI Powered Chatbot for Your Website

📽️ Komodo - The fastest way to record and edit videos

📈 Sales popup - Sales popups that increase your conversion rate

📰 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.

That’s it from us today folks! If you liked what today’s edition, here’s a message from our loving and hard-working team below:

“ We all crave the essentials in life - food 🥑🍕, shelter 🏠, and clothing 👕🩳- and we're no exception! Our must-haves? An ever-growing squad of adoring subscribers like you and for more of those lovely subs, we're counting on you to spread the word! So, blast that newsletter across the universe! ”