Happy Monday! =)  I am speaking at the 500 Global's Join me if you are in Washington DC> 

Here are a few great reads, watch, etc for this week:

• 😀 😀 Join me on October 18 with Nuance and Otter.ai - I am hosting Paul Ricci (founder of Nuance) and Sam Liang (founder of Otter.ai) on October 18 to chat about the Future of Voice AI.  Apply to join
• 🎂 🎂 Happy 25th Birthday to Google  - Google turned 25 this past week.  I asked Google's Bard what they have accomplished in the past 25 years, this is what I got:
  • 1998: Google search engine launches.
  • 2000: Google introduces AdWords, an online advertising platform that allows businesses to reach potential customers when they are searching for relevant keywords.
  • 2004: Gmail launches, offering users 1GB of free storage, which was unheard of at the time.
  • 2005: Google Maps launches, providing users with turn-by-turn navigation and detailed maps of the world.
  • 2006: Google acquires YouTube, the world's largest video-sharing platform.
  • 2007: Google launches Android, a mobile operating system that quickly becomes the most popular in the world.
  • 2008: Google launches Chrome, now the most popular browser in the world.
  • 2012: Google launches Google Drive, a cloud storage service that allows users to store and access their files from anywhere.
  • 2014: Google launches Google Cloud Platform, a suite of cloud computing services that businesses can use to build and deploy applications.
  • 2015: Google becomes Alphabet Inc., a holding company that oversees Google and other companies, such as Calico, Waymo, and DeepMind.
• 💰 💰 AI attracts big bucks - This week, Amazon announced the company will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic and have a minority ownership position in the company. Meanwhile, OpenAI is now valued at $90B! 
• 🔊 🔊 The Complete History & Strategy of Nvidia - Over the past 18 months Nvidia has weathered one of the steepest stock crashes in history ($500B+ market cap wiped away peak-to-trough!). And, it has of course also experienced an even more fantastical rise — becoming the platform that’s powering the emergence of perhaps a new form of intelligence itself… and in the process becoming a trillion-dollar company. Take a listen
• Private debt fundraising has overtaken Venture Capital and is second only to PE among private market strategies. The $94.9 billion raised in H1 is ahead of last year and tracking above $200 billion for the fourth consecutive year. These new structures have allowed private debt sponsors to gather an additional $200 billion in AUM over the last three years. The total AUM in private debt exceeds $1.75 trillion. Read Pitchbook Private Debt report

This week a total of 21 startups raised $275.1M in funding, 1 M&As:

• $229M goes to 12 Enterprise startups
• $46.6M goes to 3 FinTech startups
• $2.6M goes to 1 Marketplace startup
• $6.5M goes to 1 Logistics startup
• $3.9M goes to 1 Wellness startup
• $1.5M goes to 1 Sports startup
• $25M goes to 1 Healthcare startup
• $70M goes to 2 BioTech startups