Pre-IPO Stock Market Update - May 5, 2023 | AI cloud storage + cloud server provider partnerships, Twitter new CEO, Instacart Q1 slower gross order volume, SoftBank big portfolio losses
00:32 | AI cloud storage + cloud server provider partnerships
- Oracle and Microsoft are in talks for a potential agreement to rent servers to each other, aimed at addressing the shortage of computing power for their cloud customers using large-scale AI.
- Oracle has found success by renting cloud servers to AI startups, as it can run complex machine-learning models more cost-effectively.
- The collaboration between Oracle and Microsoft could leverage their data center connections to share GPU server capacity.
01:47 | Twitter new CEO
- Linda Yaccarino, the global advertising chief of NBCUniversal, has resigned to become the next CEO of Twitter, as confirmed by Elon Musk in a tweet.
- Yaccarino will focus on business operations at Twitter, while Musk concentrates on product design and new technology.
- Yaccarino will work to transform Twitter into an all-encompassing platform, X or X.com, and leverage her relationships with chief marketing officers globally to drive ad revenue.
02:28 | Instacart Q1 slower gross order volume
- Instacart experienced a Q1 growth slowdown, with gross order volume increasing by 5% to 10% compared to last year, down from 16% in 2022.
- The slowdown may delay Instacart's planned public debut.
- Despite the slowdown, Instacart maintains a significant market share among online grocery intermediaries.
- Achieving a favorable valuation for a public listing is challenging due to slower growth.
03:22 | SoftBank big portfolio losses
- SoftBank's Vision Fund reported a $2.3 billion loss in the quarter ending in March, as the value of its investments in private startups declined despite some recovery in publicly listed stocks.
- SoftBank Group recorded a net loss of $7.2 billion for the full fiscal year, primarily due to investment losses from the Vision Fund.
- The Vision Fund holds a vast portfolio of both public and private companies, including prominent tech companies like eToro, Klarna, Devoted Health, Chime, Gopuff, Flexport, and Revolut, with a total portfolio value of $138 billion as of March 31.
04:16 | Big capital raises
- Runway | $100m Series D, $1.5b valuation
- Flink | $100m Series D, $1.0b valuation
- Redaptive | $250m Series E, $1.0b valuation
- Monogram | $80m Series D, $980m valuation
- Semi-tech | $73m Series C, $870m valuation
05:14 | Pre-IPO stocks -4.14% for the week, S&P 500 -0.80%.
- YTD pre-IPO stocks trail the S&P by about 24%.
- Kraken is up 5.32% YTD. Brex is down 48%, Chime -43% and Stripe, Airtable, Epic Games, and Discord are all down over 10% plus.
- Stripe and Databricks had good weeks, up 3.69% and 2.76% respectfully. Brex just got crushed this week down 32%. So did Chime down 20%. Banking crisis?
www.agdillon.com --- [email protected]