Tech Updates and IPO Speculation: Insights from OWITH.ai Podcast

Good morning from OWITH.ai: the podcast that gives you only what's important to hear in AI and tech world. Today's AI agents, despite the hype surrounding them, still have a long way to go. At the Agentic AI Summit at UC Berkeley, top researchers discussed the challenges and limitations of AI agents. While there is optimism about infrastructure improvements and hardware advances making building agentic systems easier, the current agents are not always reliable and struggle to remember past actions or perform well in real-world production environments. The speakers emphasized the caution needed when integrating agentic systems into sensitive applications due to concerns around safety, security, and trustworthiness. Despite these challenges, the industry remains focused on developing AI agents that can reliably operate in the real world. The approval of OpenAI, Google, and Anthropics for the federal AI vendor list highlights the increasing use of AI in government agencies. Additionally, the AI spending boom by tech giants like Google and Microsoft is contributing to economic growth but poses risks if the trend slows down. Overall, while AI agents have not yet lived up to the hype, there is optimism about their potential impact in the future.Figma's recent IPO has sparked speculation about which tech startups will be next to go public. Investors are hopeful that positive IPOs like Figma's will encourage other startups to follow suit. Some potential candidates for upcoming IPOs include Canva, Revolut, Midjourney, Motive, and Anduril. Additionally, there are many late-stage VC-backed tech companies with strong customer bases that Wall Street investment bankers are eager to take public, including Databricks, Klarna, Stripe, and SpaceX. The tech industry's IPO drought may be coming to an end as more startups consider going public in the wake of Figma's successful debut.Elon Musk has been reinstated as the highest-paid CEO in history with a new $29 billion pay package by the Tesla board. This decision comes after a Delaware judge rescinded Musk's previous pay package. The new award does not have performance targets and only requires Musk to remain with Tesla for the next two years. In other tech news, Vinfast, a Vietnamese automaker, has started production at a $500 million electric vehicle plant in India as part of its plan to invest $2 billion in the country. Additionally, Google has agreed to moderate its AI power draw, Lyft and Baidu are partnering on autonomous vehicles for Germany and the U.K., and Spotify is raising prices for premium subscribers in various regions. The tech industry is also anticipating more IPOs following Figma's successful public debut, with potential candidates including Canva, Revolut, Midjourney, and Anduril.Fortune's 2025 ranking of the world's 100 most powerful people in business has been released, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang topping the list. Power in business is not permanent, as shown by the fall of Elon Musk from the top spot last year. A federal grand jury will investigate allegations of Russian influence on President Trump's 2016 campaign, and Trump is threatening more tariffs on India over Russian oil purchases. Palantir had a strong quarter, while Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing was involved in trades later investigated by Italian authorities. Trump is planning to issue an executive order to investigate banks denying accounts to those with right-wing opinions. JPMorgan's chief global strategist warned of labor demographic issues, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei discussed Meta's poaching attempts. The markets were up in early trading, with Bitcoin remaining above $114k. Elon Musk remains the highest-paid CEO in history with a $26 billion pay package. Doomsayers are being crit

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin