Can AI Make the PC Cool Again? Microsoft Thinks So
Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PCs, Build 2024, ScarJo suing OpenAI, OpenAI/Apple P'ship, Genesis Settles New York case, Neuralink approved + Latest deals + Open Deals
Dear Tech Buzz Reader,
There are only a few spots left for the Real Intent membership – Tech Buzz readers get a 40% discount. We want to make sure all Tech Buzz business owners had a chance to test them out before they end the discount.
∆ Tech in the News
Not Her - Scarlett Johansson has lawyered up after OpenAI used a similar voice for the GPT-4o voice assistant after she declined to license hers.
"Proactive Intelligence" - Apple and OpenAI are set to announce at WWDC in June a partnership to bring Chat-GPT tools to iOS 18
Genesis Settles - The Crypto lender agreed to pay up to $2B to investors the New York AG's office alleged were defrauded by its fund managed by the Winklevoss twins.
Going Deeper - The FDA approved Neuralink to implant the brain interface in a second patient. The chip will be implanted deeper to prevent the neural connection threads from retracting as they did last time.
Driving EU AI Growth - Google will invest $1.1B to expand its renewables-powered data center in Finland to drive EU AI business growth.
The Hottest Thing in Tech this Week
Can AI Make the PC Cool Again? Microsoft Thinks So
AI PCs are the next big thing!! Microsoft is leading this trend via its new "Copilot+ PCs" with built-in AI hardware and minimum spec requirements sufficient to run small multi-modal language models locally. Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, & Samsung are all launching Copilot+ PCs with Intel and AMD processors with Microsoft predicting 50M units sold over the year. Apple is expected to unveil its own AI-ready series at June’s WWDC event.
So What is an AI PC?
To brand itself as "Copilot+" a PC must have 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and a neural processor capable of powering on-device AI tasks. What sort of abilities are we talking here?
Inbuilt new version of Copilot Assistant for Windows;
Upgraded Windows Search to answer requests or perform tasks;
Recall feature logs every action taken with "photographic memory";
Recall ensures privacy by processing data locally not in the cloud;
Copilot+ coaches users in real-time tasks (eg Playing Minecraft).
AI Powering Growth
Market analyst firm Canalys predicts that 19% of all PCs shipped this year will be AI-capable, 60% by 2027, and 100% by 2030. Microsoft will also offer AMD's AI chips through its Azure cloud service, providing an alternative to Nvidia’s GPUs and Google’s TPUs in the data center AI chip market.
What it means for investors: Satya Nadella’s decade as CEO has seen Microsoft 10x its value. He is now betting it all on AI to continue this growth via AI PCs, an OpenAI partnership and backing promising AI startups.
Get our Deep Dive on Perplexity AI and how AI Search is adding value to Enterprises, Professionals, and Investors » Get Premium Deep Dives
“When the paradigm shifts, do you have something to contribute? There is no God-given right to exist if you don’t have anything relevant.”
— Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Go Premium to get the Perplexity AI DEEP DIVE featuring:
Full AI search market analysis
Full Business case and competition comparison
How companies are using Perplexity to add value
Job Candidates (For Employers)
Request an intro to candidates - jobs@thetech.buzz
Lockheed Martin Software Engineer, ex-Rutgers Junior Full Stack Developer. Secret clearance. Expertise in C++, PHP, SQL. Rutgers BA in Computer Science.
Deloitte VP Strategy, ex-FedEx Kinko's Sr Director, ex-Bain Sr Associate Consultant, ex-Goldman Sachs Jr Advisor. Led $25B+ M&A. UCLA Econ BS.
Software Engineering Leader, providing AI solutions. Ex-StoneRiver Enterprise Architect, Arthur Andersen Sr Manager. Arizona State CS degree.
Deals We’re Watching
Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch
Open Deals:
Request an intro to founders - invest@thetech.buzz
Multilingual Messaging Portal - Sydney, AU - Global, AWS-backed SaaS platform for businesses to communicate with clients without language barriers. $300k secured, seeking $650k for U.S. expansion. (Series A)
Digital Twins - Miami, FL - Applying proprietary digital twinning tech to remote patient monitoring and therapy. Over $1 million revenue projected in 2024. Grants received for DoD applications. Raising $2 million in SAFEs with 25% discount for angels and 20% discount for VCs and family offices.
Homepage for Founders and Investors - Irvine, CA - A platform for investors to meet founders and for founders to grow their businesses with access to high-value community members, vendors, securitization tools, and capital. (Seed)
AI Agent Employees - New York - Sophisticated workflow automation for businesses, by a previously-exited founder. Building towards fully autonomous organizations. Backed by Tribe & Kenetic, rolling out to extensive waitlist.
Outbound B2B Campaign AI Co-Pilot - Lexington, MA - Turn any CRM into an AI optimized sales agent for personalized customer campaigns. Founder previous exit to PE. Notable Angel on board. Top Hubspot App. Post revenue. (Seed)
Trending Tools and Buzzy Tech
Tools
Vertex AI - Google Cloud’s Gemini 1.5 Pro-powered GenAI app dev site.
IDEA Research - DINO 1.5 detects and ID objects in images and videos.
Synthesia/ElevenLabs - Bring natural voices and voice cloning to videos.
Tech
Automated Vehicles - The U.K. approves driverless cars on road by 2026.
Conceivable Life Sciences - Uses robots/AI in the IVF process to save $.
Brain Freeze - Frozen human brain tissue works perfectly when thawed.
$2M Deepfake Scam - UK company suffers one of biggest-ever scams.
Closed Deals:
AI Cloud Infrastructure - Nvidia-backed startup CoreWeave secured a $7.5B debt facility from BlackRock and others, to double its global data centers by year-end. Coatue led a $1.1B equity round this month at $19B.
Collaborative Data Analytics - San Fran computing startup Sigma closed a Series D at $200M at a 60% valuation bump to $1.5B co-led by Avenir Growth and Spark Capital.
SUBSCRIBE TO PREMIUM TO READ THE REST
Paying members get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content. Subscribers get:
Premium deep dives and market reports
Access to exclusive content
Unlimited access to ‘Open Deals’ & ‘Startup Directory’
Unlimited warm introductions to founders and job candidates
Up to 50% OFF advertising in The Tech Buzz
0% management fee on Buzz Capital syndicate investments