TRW - Issue#63

Why AI Won’t Solve Climate Change / The AI Subprime Crisis / Italian VC Trends / EU Defence Tech / When to Follow Your Passion, Insights from Paul Graham

Oct 06, 2024

Hello there 👋

I'm Edo, and welcome to the 63rd issue of Tech Readings of the Week!

Every Sunday, I curate a digest of tech insights for non-tech folks and aspiring founders. From data-driven trends to tech leaders' opinions, with a pinch of startup wisdom, I help you cut through the noise and stay ahead of the curve.

Ready to dive in? Let's go! 🚀

In Today's Issue 👇

Why AI won't fix Climate Change
The Subprime AI Crisis
What will happen to the DNA data of 14 million people?
Data on Italian VC and EU Defence Investments
When it's a good idea to "follow your passion"

👓 Essays & articles

Sorry, AI won’t fix climate change - OpenAI’s Sam Altman claims AI will deliver an "Intelligence Age," but tech breakthroughs alone can't solve global warming (MIT Technology Review)(€)
Mexico’s data center industry is booming, but are more drought and blackouts the price communities must pay? - Many fear the arrival of tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google in the state of Querétaro will place too much of a strain on scarce water and electricity resources (The Guardian)
The Subprime AI Crisis - the precarious state of the generative AI boom raises concerns about its sustainability and potential collapse, threatening the tech industry and job security (Edward Zitron)
AI and globalization are shaking up software developers’ world - their code will get cheaper. So might they (The Economist)
The UK is done with coal. How’s the rest of the world doing? - the country’s final coal-fired power plant just shut down, marking a major milestone for the notoriously polluting fossil fuel (MIT Technology Review)(€)
The messy WordPress drama, explained - WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg is going after a rival hosting firm he says is ‘strip-mining the WordPress ecosystem.’ (The Verge)
Stem cells reverse woman’s diabetes, a world first - she is the first person with type 1 diabetes to receive this kind of transplant (Nature)
NASA is working on a plan to replace its space station, but time is running out - "Initially, Congress almost treated the program as a joke." (Ars Technica)
Inside Elon Musk’s AI party at OpenAI’s old headquarters - at a recruiting party for xAI, Musk laid out his vision to beat ‘closed, for-maximum-profit AI.’ (The Verge)
Did Apple just kill social apps? - some app makers worry that a subtle change to the iPhone’s contact-sharing permissions could make it hard for them to get the fast growth they need to compete (The New York Times)(€)

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ASML: a monopoly on magic - the $300 billion Dutch firm is the most important company you’ve never heard of (
The Generalist
)
Remember that DNA you gave 23andMe? - the company is in trouble, and anyone who has spit into one of the company’s test tubes should be concerned (The Atlantic)
Surviving the tech reset - what can global venture capitalists learn from Europe? (EU VC)
Y Combinator traded prestige for growth - they never truly grasped the factors behind their success, which is why YC's peak is already behind them (Unfashionable)
The VC tide has gone out - a real innovation wave is now arriving (Founders Coop)
Every company will be a fintech company, but why are they not (still)? - the hard things about building embedded fintech products (Rafael Coda)
Klarna CEO says a European tech brain drain is ‘number one risk’ for company ahead of IPO -unfavorable share-based compensation rules in Europe could lead to Klarna losing talent to tech giants in the U.S. such as Google, Apple, and Meta (CNBC)

📊 Reports & Data

PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor First Look - global deal activity slowed for the third consecutive quarter, as the market looks for a balance as rate cuts loom (Pitchbook)
The State of Defence Investment 2024 - resilience builders in NATO & Europe (Dealroom)
North American startup funding weakened in Q3 - in total, investors put $40.5 billion into startups across all stages in Q3, a decline of 10% from the prior quarter and an increase of 22% from year-ago levels (Crunchbase)
The state of VC in Italy 2024 report - keynote presentation for Italian Tech Week 2024 in Turin, presented by Yoram Wijngaarde (Dealroom)
Emerging tech future report: updating our generative AI outlook - models thrive while complexity, costs impact applications (Pitchbook)

📚 Founder's Toolkit

TRW's collection of free fundraising resources for founders!

VC meeting map: what to expect for a successful pitch - guidelines for entrepreneurs preparing for venture capital meetings (NextView VC)
When to do what you love - advice on timing and risk-taking in startup ventures (Paul Graham)
How to create a co-founder agreement - essential elements to consider when forming co-founder agreements (
The VC Corner
)