SVB, SBF and (more) OpenAI: The 2023 chronicles, pt. 2

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the second of a two-part series looking back at 2023. Mary Ann and Alex called on two colleagues to help us chat through some of the year’s biggest events. Here’s what we got into! The decline, fall of SVB: It’s a bit hard to believe, but the chaos at Silicon Valley Bank happened earlier this year. Yes, much has happened since, but the sudden, and shocking collapse of what was effectively the family bank of tech sent waves throughout the global technology landscape. Venture was impacted. Public companies were impacted, and some startups actually got a boost! Chaos at OpenAI: Another weekend-powered period of high-drama in tech this year was the defenstration of Sam Altman from his role at OpenAI, only for the tide to entirely flip in short order, Altman back the co, and most of the folks who wanted him out gone themselves. This one is still developing, so we had Devin Coldewey on to help us understand what is coming next. SBF’s trial: It was long. It was tedious. It was occasionally very interesting. But in the end, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was found super-duper guilty for various financial crimes relating to his now-failed crypto exchange. We invited Jacquie Melinek back on the show to tell us more. You can find part one of our year-end roundup here if you need even more! And don’t forget, Equity has even more great stuff coming your way, so stick close to your favorite podcast app. Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPods, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok. 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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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we
0:15.0	unpack the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines. My name is Alex and I am
0:18.8	joined today by Senior Tech Much reporter on the FinTech Beat. It's Marianne
0:22.2	Zvedo. Marianne
0:23.1	hi how excited are you about our second tranche of look back equity content.
0:28.4	I'm really excited it's we've got some interesting things we're going to talk
0:32.0	about and it just blows my mind still that we're at the end of 2023
0:37.2	Yes, a very very long year that also wouldn't buy very very quickly, but it won't just be Marianne and myself.
0:42.7	We are going to bring in two guests from the Techunch team
0:45.3	to walk us through the particulars of some major news stories.
0:48.4	So on the pod today, looking back at the year,
0:51.5	we're talking about the S. V. Crash and the ensuing aftermath.
0:55.2	Then crypto goes to court. What happened with the SBF trial? What's up with CZ?
1:00.0	And where is crypto now? And then of course we'll wrap up with the unavoidable open AI saga
1:05.0	digging into the chaos at the leadership level of that particular concern
1:08.5	and where we are again as the year comes to a close.
1:11.2	But Marianne, let's spin the clock backwards to early in the year Silicon Valley Bank decided to make a number of financial moves that I read about and I thought
1:20.2	hey this is pretty interesting but not a big deal.
1:22.7	The rest of the world disagreed, and over the ensuing weekend, Silicon Valley Bank cracked
1:26.5	and fell apart.
1:27.8	So here is a clip from Equity at the time, featuring our friend, Natasha Moskarinis. Give it a listen.
1:35.4	Shall we pick up Friday in which everyone is losing their collective minds and
	...

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