 | Sep 27, 2024 | | | | Supported by  | | | | | TGIF! Sam Altman says report about him getting a 7% stake in OpenAI is "ludicrous." Fintech banking startup Chime hires Morgan Stanley to lead its IPO next year. Robinhood and Revolut consider launching stablecoins.
| | | | OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff Thursday that there were "good reasons" for him to avoid having equity shares in OpenAI but that investors are pushing for him to get a package so his interests align with that of the company, The Information reported. In a meeting with staff, Altman also said that a Wednesday report that said he might take a 7% stake in OpenAI was "ludicrous," implying such a figure was too high, and he said no specific numbers have been discussed. The comments come as the company nears a roughly $7 billion capital raise and aims to restructure from a nonprofit to a for-profit company known as a benefit corp. The nonprofit would have a material stake in the new OpenAI for-profit but wouldn't govern it the way it currently does, company leaders said. OpenAI was initially started as a nonprofit whose board directors, including Altman, oversaw its artificial intelligence research. Altman and the board created a for-profit arm under the nonprofit in 2019, but unlike other co-founders, Altman didn't take equity directly. OpenAI's current equity is known as profit units, which entitle holders to a share of future profits the company generates. Microsoft will get a sizable share of future profits, thanks to a $10 billion funding of OpenAI early last year. | | | | Fintech banking startup Chime has hired Morgan Stanley to lead its planned initial public offering next year, Bloomberg reported. The company was last valued at $25 billion in 2021, at a time when fintech valuations soared amid low interest rates. Those valuations have since reduced. Chime launched a new cash advance product in May that allows customers to access up to $500 of their wages before they are paid, as it looked to bolster its customer ranks ahead of its IPO. Chime CEO Chris Britt said that the company had 7 million active users at the time, and that it was profitable in the first quarter of 2024. | | | | Trading brokerage Robinhood and digital banking app Revolut are considering launching stablecoins, Bloomberg reported, moves that could take market share from Tether and other top stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins are a type of crypto token whose values are tied to government-issued currencies, such as a dollar. Used mainly by crypto investors, they have reached $173 billion in market circulation collectively, of which Tether contributed $119 billion. The firms could still choose not to proceed, Bloomberg reported. A Robinhood spokesperson says the company has no immediate plans to launch a stablecoin, while Revolut told the outlet that it plans to grow its crypto product lineup, without confirming the plan. The European Union is set to fully adopt its stablecoin rules at the end of this year, requiring stablecoin issuers to obtain licenses. Tether doesn't have an EU license yet, prompting exchanges to partially delist the world's largest stablecoin to comply with the regulation. | | | | Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy told staff Thursday that he promoted Vivek Raghunathan, who was managing the database provider's work on artificial intelligence, to oversee all engineers as a senior vice president, according to an internal memo. Snowflake co-founder Thierry Cruanes had been interim leader of the engineering unit since its previous leader, Grzegorz Czajkowski, left in July. Ramaswamy and Raghunathan previously co-founded Neeva, a search engine startup that Snowflake bought last year. The move highlights how Ramaswamy, who took over as CEO from Frank Slootman in February, is giving loyalists more power as he shakes things up at the company. Snowflake's shares have struggled in recent years as it faced new competition from firms such as Databricks and as some analysts have questioned whether conversational AI might hurt its sales. A Snowflake spokesperson did not immediately have a comment. | | | | | Popular articles
By Anissa Gardizy and Kate Clark
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