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| The Daily Pitch |
| VC, PE and M&A |
| Your edge on global private capital markets |
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| A tech skeptic's AI video startup wants to change Hollywood |
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By Rosie Bradbury, Senior VC Reporter
Naeem Talukdar is far removed from San Francisco's AI frenzy, living just outside Toronto. But his AI video generation startup, Moonvalley, may be quietly transforming Hollywood with its self-styled "ethical" approach.
Moonvalley's model, Marey, is trained exclusively on a studio's properly licensed data, and the company has landed "just under a dozen" deals since its beta release.
"We have people who have previously been vocally, completely against the technology come to our studio in the last few weeks, asking, 'Ok, how do we start thinking about this?' " Talukdar said.
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Two years after the SAG-AFTRA and WGA union strikes, the industry is embracing AI faster than ever. But with around $150 million from investors such as Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, Moonvalley's resources pale in comparison to those of rivals like OpenAI.
The business model
Moonvalley charges licensing fees and per-inference fees, but the potentially much bigger prize is the cut from the project's box office sales or streaming revenue.
"If the studios can get revenue by having these models work for them, and they're now also implicated in these data training conundrums, then the unions can fight with the studios for whatever money might be made off of that," said Brett Halperin, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington focusing on AI in Hollywood.
The AI founder maverick
Talukdar actually describes himself as somewhat of an AI skeptic. After studying computer vision at the University of Toronto, he traveled and worked odd jobs.
As AI boomed after OpenAI's release of ChatGPT, his own penchant for science fiction—like Star Trek's holodeck—gave him new inspiration. "This is tech that can be used to transform the human experience, or completely degrade it," Talukdar said.
Shifting sands in Hollywood
"Studios and streamers work in the creative community, so they don't want to be perceived as anti-creator," said Aaron Campbell, partner in entertainment law at Sheppard Mullin.
Marey proposes an approach akin to the way coding agents have made software developers more efficient, rather than eliminating them.
Still, not all rules and laws have been set yet. Screenwriters and authors are already requesting provisions prohibiting their work from being used to train AI models in their film or TV distributor contracts, according to Campbell. "It's probably one of the next battlegrounds." |
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| A message from Morgan Stanley at Work |
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| As the IPO market reopens, are you transaction ready? |
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• HR tech specialist Deel raised $300 million at a $17.3 billion valuation, a 42% jump from its last valuation and a signal that investors haven't been put off by the company's high-profile legal dispute with rival Rippling. Full story
• Ardian has closed its largest infrastructure platform to date on $20 billion, as US and Asia-Pacific investors increasingly seek exposure to the asset class. The platform includes the Paris-based PE firm's flagship Ardian Infrastructure Fund VI, which is 90% larger than its predecessor and was completed in two years. Read more
• Blackstone is targeting a modest step-up in size to $5.5 billion for its fifth tactical opportunities fund, according to documents prepared for the Louisiana Teachers' Retirement System. Generally, fundraising for special situations funds shows a strong correlation with broader market volatility. Find out more
• Harvard alumni and friends donated over $600 million to the university's endowment this year, the highest total in the school's history, according to a financial report. The influx comes as the university faces funding cuts, a legal fight with President Donald Trump and a new federal tax. Complete story
• A federal excise tax aimed at universities is already influencing how Stanford's endowment spends money. The tax, along with federal funding cuts to research, means more money used now to fund university operations. Read more |
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| How supply chain startups turn a data deluge into real-time decisions |
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By Jonathan Geurkink, Senior Analyst, Emerging Technology
Global logistics spending now exceeds $10 trillion annually, and in the US alone it's over $2 trillion.
As the industry increasingly leans on AI to boost productivity and reduce costs, investors are backing proven startups building tools to handle the heaps of unstructured data swirling around the supply chain.
While goods tend to move from producers to consumers in supply chains, the data and information that enable that flow moves in multiple directions. Customs documentation, invoices, trucking and shipping capacities, weather, and IoT tracking sensors generate volumes of data. Because it's unstructured, it moves laboriously—if at all—across the supply chains.
Traditional firms are starting to see results from using AI. In a flat revenue environment, logistics giant C.H. Robinson saw EBITDA surge more than 35% for the trailing 12 months as it implemented AI agents to boost broker productivity and optimize freight shipping. |
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Even technology-forward retailers like Amazon are doubling down on AI. The company has built more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications across its operations to drive a strategic reduction in the company's workforce over the coming years, according to CEO Andy Jassy.
Amazon is also using gen AI mapping tools to hasten deliveries and reduce costs in what is frequently the most expensive leg of supply chains, the final 50 feet to the customer's door.
The impact on Amazon will be sizable: Its workforce includes 1.6 million employees globally, with 1.2 million workers in fulfillment and operations, and the company plans to hire 250,000 seasonal employees for the fourth quarter. More broadly, there are over 900,000 trucking companies just in the US, employing more than 3.5 million drivers.
The logistics industry will undoubtedly continue to weave in more AI tech as it navigates an increasingly complex environment. The pandemic demonstrated the fragility of global supply chains, and changes to tariffs and trade have added new challenges. |
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Smart reads that caught our eye today.
• Luxury vehicle maker Aston Martin has been losing an average of $60,000 per car for more than a decade. That makes the brand an expensive project for the consortium that rescued it from probable bankruptcy in 2020. [Financial Times]
• Companies that move goods into and around the US are bracing for a new tariff—this time on trucks and truck parts. The 25% levy would kick in Nov. 1, and the lack of detail has the industry worried. [The New York Times]
• From sports betting to AI and crypto, America Is hot with speculative fever. And Washington is encouraging it, with the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates and the Trump administration cutting regulations. [The Wall Street Journal] |
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