|
Jul 08, 2025
|
|
|
|
|
Supported by
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Happy Tuesday! CoreWeave is buying Core Scientific in a $9 billion deal. OpenAI's stock-based compensation surges. Tech founders call on Sequoia Capital to denounce comments made by partner Shaun Maguire.
|
|
|
|
CoreWeave has agreed to buy Core Scientific in an all-stock deal worth about $9 billion, in a push to expand its artificial intelligence data center capacity. The transaction values Core Scientific’s stock at $20.40 per share, a 66% premium to the company’s share price of $12.30 on June 25, the last trading day prior to media reports of a potential transaction. CoreWeave last year tried to buy Core Scientific for $5.75 a share, or about $1 billion. Core Scientific rejected the proposal as too low and said it would focus on its existing partnership to host CoreWeave’s computing service operations.
|
|
|
|
Hundreds of entrepreneurs have signed an open letter to Sequoia Capital pushing the firm to denounce remarks made by partner Shaun Maguire, who accused New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of advancing an “Islamist agenda” and said he came “from a culture that lies about everything.” “It was a deliberate, inflammatory attack that promotes dangerous anti-Muslim stereotypes and stokes division,” said the letter, which was signed by Saudi fintech startup Tabby CEO Hosam Arab and Fadi Ghandour, founder of Wamda Capital, which made an early investment in ride-hailing company Careem. Mamdani won the Democratic nomination after promising city-run grocery stores and rent freezes. His policies have prompted some investors and bankers to warn his election could push taxpayers to leave the city. Maguire, who leads the firm’s investments in startups led by Elon Musk, frequently shares blunt views on politics, including defense of Israel’s war in Gaza and his support for Trump. Sequoia declined to comment. In a video posted Monday about his viral post on X, Maguire apologized for offending people with some of his remarks. The investor also updated his X biography by
stating that he was a Sequoia partner “for now,” clarifying later that the change was “a joke, for now.”
|
|
|
|
OpenAI has told investors that stock-based compensation increased by more than five times last year, to $4.4 billion, accounting for 119% of last year’s total revenue, The Information reported. The company projected stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue would drop to a still-high 45% this year before falling to below 10% by the end of the decade. The company made those projections before Meta Platforms hired several OpenAI researchers, prompting an OpenAI executive to promise the company would make pay packages for staff more rewarding. Stock
compensation doesn’t hit cash flow but it typically dilutes the value of investors’ shares. Meanwhile, OpenAI has also discussed a scenario in which employees will own roughly a third of the restructured company, while Microsoft would own another third. Other investors and the nonprofit that governs OpenAI would share the remaining equity, The Information reported.
|
|
|
|
Tesla shares closed down 6.8% at $293.94 on Monday after CEO Elon Musk said over the weekend that he was forming a new political party and continued to spar with President Donald Trump. Musk said in a Saturday X post that he would launch the “America Party” that would support congressional candidates who want to reduce government spending. On Sunday, Trump criticized Musk in a social media post, slamming his third-party plans and calling him a “TRAIN WRECK.” The duo have traded jabs in recent weeks over Trump’s signature budget bill, which Trump signed into law on Friday. The
bill removes subsidies for electric vehicles. Musk’s increased involvement in politics has coincided with slumping Tesla sales, with many investors urging him to spend more time focused on the electric carmaker. Tesla shares have fallen 27% so far this year.
|
|
|
|
Meta Platforms is hiring a researcher from Apple as part of an aggressive push to recruit artificial intelligence talent, after stumbles over the past year. Ruoming Pang, a distinguished engineer and the manager of Apple’s foundation model team, is joining Meta’s new AI organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Bloomberg reported. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overhauled his company’s AI efforts in recent weeks. The social media giant last month finalized a deal to invest $14.3 billion in Scale AI and hire its CEO Alexandr Wang as Meta’s Chief AI
Officer. It has also hired former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and former Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and is expected to partially buy out Friedman and Gross’ venture capital fund. Spokespeople for Meta and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
|
|
|
|
Amazon is teaming up with delivery startup Gopuff to offer same-hour deliveries of groceries and other household goods to U.K. shoppers, Amazon said in a statement Monday. Shoppers will be able to order products from Gopuff through Amazon’s website and app, and Gopuff will fulfill the orders from its own warehouses, the statement said. Amazon launched the Gopuff service in two U.K. cities in May, and is expanding to 14 additional cities, including London. Amazon has been pulling back from its own Amazon Fresh grocery service in many markets outside the U.S., and teaming up with other grocers to list their goods on Amazon instead. It already offers same-day delivery through U.K. grocers including Morrisons and Co-op. Amazon says the Gopuff deliveries will be even faster than the same-day deals, with some orders arriving in as little as 15 minutes.
|
|
|
|
| |
