New Meta 🔥
AI gets more money, Stock moves, and A golden quarter.
☀️ Morning,
📉 Markets were a bit sluggish yesterday.
💡 Quick spotlight: Data Centers are the new gold. Middle Eastern billionaire Hussain Sajwani will invest $20 billion to build AI data centers across the US.
A couple of things worth looking at.
Let’s hit it 🚀
1 Big Thing: Zuck wants free speech 🔥
Meta is replacing third-party fact-checking with a user-driven “community notes” system, inspired by Elon Musk’s X.
The Big Picture: Meta is once again changing with the tide. After nearly a decade of trying to thwart extremism, hateful speech, and misinformation on its platforms, the company has decided that there appears to be more public sentiment — and political clout — in letting the community police itself.
What changes: Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will move away from relying on third-party fact-checkers.
Zuck plans to remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender and politics, granting users more freedom to discuss sensitive topics
The deets: the move comes in response to ongoing criticism of Meta's moderation policies, which have been accused of bias—especially following Zuckerberg's controversial donations during the 2020 election.
Despite years of hostile back-and-forth between Zuckerberg and Trump like Trump getting kicked off and then reinstated on Meta platforms, Trump threatening Zuckerberg with life in prison etc etc., Zuck is now cuddling up closely with Trump in a likely attempt to encourage policy positions that are more favorable to the social media giant.
Zoom out: the Trump influence is visible. Just a few days back, Meta added Dana White, the UFC CEO to its board, which is a move some say meant to pacify Trump.
2. Anthropic’s Big AI Play 🚀
Anthropic, the AI startup behind the chatbot Claude, is looking to raise $2 billion at a $60 billion valuation.
The deets: the round is led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Amazon and Google as major backers.
Context: backed by Amazon and Google, Anthropic is quickly becoming to Amazon what Open AI is to Microsoft. Its AI chatbot Claude is gaining traction in enterprise use cases like customer service and marketing, driving an estimated $875 million in annualized revenue.
Worth noting: Amazon has poured $8 billion into Anthropic so far, making AWS its primary cloud and training partner. Google, which holds a 10% stake, committed $2 billion last year.
While we are on raises,
Groyyo, is eyeing $40 million in Series B funding at a $200 million valuation. The round, led by Tiger Global, will include a mix of equity and small debt components.
Groyyo is the world's first manufacturer-first automation platform that connects millions of manufacturing MSMEs. It helps over 20 million micro-manufacturers across Asia to expand their businesses globally.
3. PNG’s golden quarter 💰
Gold has been all the rage this festive season.
After Titan’s stellar quarter yesterday, PN Gadgil followed suit, reporting a 24% YoY revenue growth for Q3 FY25.
The retail segment led the pack with a 42% YoY revenue jump, while the franchise business skyrocketed by 87%.
E-commerce wasn’t far behind, posting a whopping 98% YoY surge. The diamond category also delivered a 40% YoY growth in revenue.
Keeping up with the momentum, PNG opened nine new stores over nine consecutive days during Navratri in October 2024.
And let’s not forget PNG’s big IPO debut this year, which further cemented its position in the jewelry retail market.
Although an impressive report, stock still closed at ₹672.4, down by 2.71%.
4. Big Daily Movers 📈
Delta Corp: Made headlines with a 6% jump to ₹210 after the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges against ₹1.12 lakh crore GST notices targeting online gaming companies. The verdict could reshape the tax landscape, significantly affecting Delta’s casino and online operations like Adda52.com.
Paytm: Took a hit, sliding 5.9% to ₹924.4 with concerns over its shrinking UPI market share, which has halved to 5.5% in just a year. Despite regulatory approval to onboard new users, Paytm’s challenges in retaining its UPI foothold remain evident.
Tata Technologies: Gained momentum, closing 1.16% higher at ₹891.6 after announcing a strategic tie-up with Telechips to develop cutting-edge vehicle software solutions. This partnership places Tata Tech at the forefront of automotive innovation, focusing on advanced systems like ADAS and digital cockpits.
5. Chart of the day 📈
Who owns the most number of Bitcoins?
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🚀 New commander: V Narayanan is set to take over as ISRO chairman and Department of Space secretary on January 14, succeeding S Somanath.
📉 Slowdown: New demat account openings dropped 26.3% in Q3, the sharpest decline yet, as market volatility slowed the pace to 9.77 million from Q2’s 13.25 million.
🍔 Swiggy’s SNACC: Swiggy has launched SNACC, a 15-minute food delivery app offering quick meals and snacks.
That’s a wrap! The weekend is just around the corner – hang in there!
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Hit that 💚 if you liked this issue.