…and the Temu-v.-Shein beef gets #spicy
| Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner — the tall one (Michele Tantussi/Getty Images) | |
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Yesterday's Market Moves | | Dow Jones
37,248 (+0.43%) | S&P 500
4,720 (+0.26%) | Nasdaq
14,762 (+0.19%) | Bitcoin
$43,079 (+0.34%) |
| Dow Jones
37,248 (+0.43%) | S&P 500
4,720 (+0.26%) | Nasdaq
14,762 (+0.19%) | Bitcoin
$43,079 (+0.34%) |
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Hey Snackers, Formula One, the Super Bowl, and… the Excel World Championship? Vegas recently hosted scores of competitive spreadsheeters clicking for PivotTable glory. Ready, set, copy-paste. Stocks ticked up yesterday with the Dow setting its second record-high close of the week. Experts cheered signs of strong holiday spending, which bodes well for the economy. 🧠 Quiz the season: Test your Snacks-pertise with our weekly Snacks Seven quiz. The first Q: | |
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As AI copyright battles mount, OpenAI's deal with a media giant could provide a new framework | AI Insider… OpenAI will pay media powerhouse Axel Springer (Business Insider, Politico) to use its news content in ChatGPT answers and training. The multiyear licensing deal will let the chatbot summarize news stories from Axel Springer's myriad media brands. ChatGPT will include links to the OG sources to give the sites credit and clicks. The partnership's expected to bring in big bucks for Axel Springer. FYI: OpenAI also made a deal with AP in July, allowing it to use the news org's archive for training. Interesting timing: Since August, over 500 news publishers (including The New York Times, Reuters, and The Washington Post) have installed software to block their articles from being collected and used in ChatGPTraining. Playin' defense: This year there've been several reports that major news publishers were prepping for a case to force AI companies like Alphabet and Microsoft to compensate them for content. Licensing deals could help avoid copyright-infringement suits.
From Jodi Picoult to Getty Images… Big names are getting involved in AI legal battles, which have piled up since ChatGPT's rollout. In September, famous scribes including John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult sued OpenAI over copyright infringement. In July, Sarah Silverman and others sued OpenAI and Meta. It's not just books: Getty Images sued Stability AI, alleging it "unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright" without a license. Coders are suing AI companies, too, accusing them of "software piracy." |  | THE TAKEAWAY |
| Catch a wave before it crashes… By negotiating with news publishers, OpenAI may be trying to preemptively set a precedent before lawsuits set a legal precedent. If courts find that AI companies infringed on copyrights, the financial fallout could be huge. News publishers, who learned a lesson from all the traffic and $$ lost to sites like Facebook and Google, may also be eager to set a precedent in which they have a financial gain. | |
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| | Is Lithium the next gold rush? | Power play: Lithium is an essential component of nearly all tech, from smartphones to EVs. The economy will require 450,000 tons of lithium by 2030, but the world will only produce 105 tons in 2021. At this rate, demand for lithium will exceed supply. That's why EnergyX has built the technology to make it easier and cheaper to extract lithium from hard-to-reach places. Driving force: EnergyX can recover 90% of available lithium (compared to 30% using current methods). Their ability to extract the metal integral to building all tech products, including EVs, is one of the reasons General Motors is leading their series B investment round with $50M in financing. You can join GM and invest in EnergyX today.* |
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Temu sues rival Shein (again), reigniting a bitter feud between Chinese ecomm titans | Fast (and furious) fashion… Temu, a US subsidiary of Chinese ecomm giant Pinduoduo, intensified its rift with rival Shein with a new lawsuit. In October, both online retail giants agreed to drop previous suits that accused each other of antitrust and copyright issues. But this week WhaleCo (which operates as Temu in the US) filed a 100-page suit accusing Shein of using "mafia-style" tactics — including intimidating and illegally detaining merchants, stealing usernames and passwords, and violating IP rights. Hate-click: Temu's suit says it uploads 100K images to its site daily and gets 170 copyright takedown requests — 63% of those from Shein. American dream: Both cos have aggressively vied for a bigger slice of the US online shopping pie as cash-strapped consumers snatch up $5 tanks and $15 foyer rugs.
Clash of the ecomm titans… Shein's had an astronomical rise since its 2017 US debut, and now makes up half of all fast-fashion sales (more than H&M and Zara combined). Last month Shein reportedly filed for its long-anticipated US IPO, seeking up to a $90B valuation — but Temu's hot on its track. Less than a year after its US launch, Temu became the most downloaded app in America after its Super Bowl ad in February. Temu surpassed Shein in transactions for the first time in May, Bloomberg data showed, and last month it tripled Shein's US sales. | | THE TAKEAWAY |
| Competition isn't the biggest problem… Temu and Shein see each other as threats to US growth (hence: the spicy legal beef), but they may have greater obstacles. US lawmakers are looking to halt Shein's IPO unless it can show it doesn't use forced labor. Plus, the company's been accused of copyright infringement from fashion brands and indie designers. Last month, Temu was sued over allegations it "aggressively" stole customer data through its app. | |
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| 📜 Policy… An accounting rule set to take effect next December could benefit companies with crypto on their balance sheets, including Tesla, Block, and MicroStrategy. Bitcoin bulls say the change could encourage corporates to hold BTC. 🤹♀️ Quirky… Former US President Donald Trump's latest NFT collection is embracing the phygital. Collectors who buy 47 of the $99 digi tokens (picture: cartoons of a buff Trump) will also receive a small piece of the suit he wore in his infamous mugshot. 🌶️ Spicy… The legal architect behind Sam Bankman-Fried's defense said the former crypto mogul may be the "worst person" he's ever seen on the stand. After being found guilty, SBF is scheduled to be sentenced in March and faces a max sentence of 100+ years. | |
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What else we're Snackin' | Recover: An experimental skin-cancer vaccine from Moderna and Merck helped to halve the risk of death or melanoma recurrence in a trial. After being fast-tracked by the FDA, the vax could be available in 2025. Chipetition: Intel announced a new AI chip yesterday (meet: Gaudi3), and AMD also has a new one that Meta and Microsoft said they'd buy. The new entrants could threaten Nvidia's AI-chip dominance. New2Threads: Meta launched an EU-friendly version of Threads yesterday, months after the app's US debut. Meanwhile, rival X is losing major advertisers after owner Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic tweet. StopSign: GM's Cruise dismissed nine higher-ups amid a safety probe (one of its robotaxis struck and dragged a woman in San Francisco). Cruise suspended ops after the incident, while rival Waymo is still on the street. Bunt: Baseball star Shohei Ohtani deferred $680M of his record $700M contract so that the Dodgers have more $$ to pay for star teammates. He'll get $2M/year over the 10-year deal.
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Snack Fact Of the Day | Before coffee became a top beverage, people used it to clean their hands | | |
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Friday | Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and shares of: Alphabet, Block, GM, Microsoft, Moderna, Tesla, and Nvidia *Advertiser's disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX's Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.energyx.com. | |
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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more | |
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