OpenAI fires back at Musk, and Monzo raises a megaround

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is our Wednesday show, focused on startup and venture capital news that matters. If you are a founder or an investor, this one is for you! Here’s the day’s rundown: OpenAI fires back at Musk: In the wake of a lawsuit from former backer Elon Musk, OpenAI is bringing receipts and an argument that Musk wanted to run the company’s for-profit arm. Hard to argue against something that you wanted to run, yeah? Monzo raises megaround: Monzo’s latest round is proof that the worst of the fintech slump is behind us. All eyes on Ema: With $25 million and a launch from stealth, Ema’s work to bring AI to the enterprise is notable. But in such a crowded market, are many startups aiming too high on the stack? Accenture buys Udacity: The former unicorn’s final resting place is not what it had dreamed of before, but this deal does bring welcome liquidity to at least one venture-backed startup. A climate boost? An upcoming regulatory choice could unlock a massive wave of demand for carbon-tracking startups. And the latest from OpenView: The Information reports that OpenView is returning most of its latest fund to backers. A weird and slightly sad final chapter for the firm. For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:16.3	Hello and welcome back to Equity, the Tech Runch Podcast, where we unpack the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines.
0:18.4	This is Alex and today is March 6, 2024.
0:23.0	This is our Wednesday show where we dig into the critical startup and venture capital stories from the week thus far.
0:30.0	On the show today we have Open AI's latest legal drama, Monzo's new mega round, an AI
0:36.9	startup that we have our ion that you haven't heard of, Accenture buying Udacity,
0:41.6	a regulatory ruling coming later today that could have a big startup impact,
0:46.6	and in the Venture Corner, we'll close with the latest news on Open View Partners unwinding.
0:52.0	Let's go.
0:52.8	We're going to start with Open AI, the most valuable AI startup in the world today
1:01.1	because it intends to try to dismiss all claims made by Elon Musk's recent
1:06.5	lawsuit. And Open AI argued that the billionaire entrepreneur who was involved in the company's co-founding didn't have that much impact on its development or success.
1:18.0	In a blog post that included copies of several partially redacted emails,
1:23.1	Open AIs that that Musk only provided about $45 million
1:27.2	to it, despite higher initial commits,
1:29.9	and that once the company realized
1:31.7	it was going to need billions and billions and
1:34.8	billions of dollars and thus would require a for-profit arm, Musk tried to become the
1:39.7	for-profit arm's CEO and, variously, hold the majority of equity and, quote, initial board control.
1:47.0	Open AI, quote, couldn't agree to terms on a for-profit with Elon because we felt it was against the mission for any individual to have absolute for Tech Ranch notes is that the ChatGPT maker had breached its original contractual
2:05.4	agreements by pursuing profits instead of the non-profits founding mission to develop
2:10.6	AI that benefits humanity.
2:13.0	Now, this is a startup story several times over.
	...

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