| Here’s your daily business briefing. - 📱 ChatGPT on iPhone: WWDC 2024
- 🔍 Deep Dive: AI boosts U.S. millionaire count by 500K
- 🎾 Warner Bros. Discovery lands 10-year U.S. French Open deal
Thanks for reading! Shriram
p/Shriram | |
| 1 | | Apple announced its AI strategy, "Apple Intelligence," at its annual developer conference, integrating OpenAI's ChatGPT into its devices and revamping Siri to interact with various apps and enhance privacy features. Despite the unveiling, Apple shares fell by almost 2% as investors anticipated more innovative AI features to rival those of Microsoft and Google. More: - Apple showcased its latest AI features during the event, including ChatGPT integration, set to roll out later this year with a focus on privacy and no user data logging.
- The AI functionalities will rely on a blend of on-device processing and cloud computing, exclusively accessible on the newest iPhones, including the iPhone 15 Pro.
- Apple intends to employ its proprietary chips in data centers to bolster security and circumvent the elevated expenses associated with Nvidia's chips.
- Apple unveiled iOS 18, introducing a customizable home screen, a "lock an app" feature, and expanding the Vision Pro headset to more countries, including China and Japan.
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What the numbers say: Globally, the millionaire population expanded by 5.1% to reach 22.8 million, amassing a total wealth of $86.8T. In the U.S., 500,000 new millionaires were added in 2023, marking a 7.3% growth to 7.43 million, with combined wealth rising to $26.1T, a 7% increase from the previous year. The number of individuals worth $30M or more surged by 7.5% to 90,700, with their total fortunes hitting $7.4T. Relevance: The surge in U.S. millionaires, driven by the stock market rebound, government spending, and the AI boom, underscores economic resilience and growth potential. Wealthy investors are shifting to more aggressive growth assets, showing confidence in continued economic expansion despite inflation and geopolitical challenges. More data: Wealthy investors decreased cash holdings from 34% to 25% and increased fixed income from 15% to 20% and real estate from 15% to 19%. Stock holdings hit a 20-year low at 21%, with private equity and private credit expected to receive the largest inflows, while over 75% of the ultra-wealthy plan to switch their primary wealth management firm in 2024. | | | |
| 3 | | Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT Sports signed a 10-year deal to exclusively broadcast the French Open in the U.S. starting in 2025, worth about $65M annually. Eurosport, also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, has broadcast the French Open to 55 countries since 1989. More: - Matches will air live on TNT, TBS, TruTV, and Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming platform, Max.
- Previously, NBC, Peacock, and Tennis Channel broadcast the tournament in the U.S. through a sublicensing deal.
- TNT Sports intends to have an on-site presence at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris, including studio and announcing teams.
- Warner Bros. Discovery's acquisition of French Open rights complements its sports portfolio, which includes NHL, NASCAR, U.S. Soccer, and College Football Playoffs.
- Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating with the NBA to extend their partnership, focusing on a different game package than NBCUniversal's.
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| 4 | | Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI concluded its Series B funding round, securing $644M led by General Catalyst, which valued the company at $6B. Founded by former Meta and Google's DeepMind alumni, Mistral AI seeks to compete with leading AI models such as OpenAI's GPT-4o and Meta's Llama 3. More: - Mistral AI has made its pre-trained and fine-tuned models, including Mistral 7B and Mistral 8x22B, available under open-source licenses to foster accessibility and collaboration in AI development.
- Its more sophisticated models, such as Mistral Large, are offered as private API-first products for business use.
- Mistral AI provides a free chat assistant named Le Chat and has formed distribution alliances with cloud services providers such as Microsoft Azure.
- The Series B round, with $502M in equity and $141M in debt, attracted investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, and Salesforce Ventures, among others.
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| 5 | | The WNBA is experiencing a surge in viewership, with an average of 1.3 million viewers per game this season compared to 462,000 last season. May witnessed the highest first-month attendance in 26 years, with about 400,000 fans attending games, largely attributed to popular players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, whose rising stardom has also fueled a 236% increase in merchandise sales. More: - Viewership in the season's first week more than doubled among young girls and individuals under 35.
- Year over year, viewership among people of color increased by 60%, indicating a broader and more diverse audience engaging with the games.
- The 28th season of the league, commencing on May 14, marks the most-watched in WNBA history on television networks.
- Tick Pick reported a 435% spike in total WNBA game tickets sold in May compared to the previous year, with the Indiana Fever experiencing a staggering 4,493% increase, driving up average ticket prices by 60%.
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| 6 | | The childcare sector experienced heightened difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, with closures of daycares and remote schooling adding pressure on working parents. A scarcity of caregivers and available slots has raised costs for families, contributing to an estimated annual loss of $122B in earnings and productivity in the U.S., up from $57B in 2018. More: - California is the state in the U.S. with the largest estimated economic cost of the childcare crisis, at $17B.
- Childcare workers in California, represented by Child Care Providers United, push for higher reimbursement rates to fully cover care costs and enhance working conditions.
- State Senator Nancy Skinner and other lawmakers prioritize early childcare and education, pushing for increased spending and maintaining reimbursement rates to support families and the workforce.
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 | Freelance Writer | | Shriram is pursuing Master’s in Business with Marketing at Warwick Business School. He worked as a Senior Consultant in Tech and Political Consultancies before his Masters. He is passionate about Tech, Marketing, Strategy, Anthropology and Politics. He is also the Postgraduate Ambassador for Warwick Business School. | | This newsletter was edited by Shriram Jeevakumar | |
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