The rise of OpenAI and ChatGPT continues to be one of the most fascinating developments within technology. One of the big topics this week was if it would replace search functionalities. We shared some resources on the topic. This week, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, tweeted that the platform had hit over 1 million users in 5 days. Established companies like Netflix, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Spotify, all took over 3 years to 10 months to reach their million users. Meanwhile, OpenAI just drastically broke that record. To round out our continuing exploration of the space, we shared some of the best resources on AI, Large Language models (LLMs), and Generative AI. Contrary Research has written about several AI companies, including ScaleAI, Fivetran, CohereAI, Hugging Face and infrastructure companies like Snowflake and Databricks.
While early stage capital chases the next wave of AI, some companies have more established operational needs; and that means cash. We shared this week about Anduril announcing its $1.4 billion funding round, making it one of the largest funding deals of 2022. Anduril is a defense company transforming the US and allied military capabilities with advanced technology centered around autonomous systems, AI, and computer vision, making it an important company for core infrastructure in the US. If you missed our full memo, you can read it here.
Finally, we shared a thread about Ramp and some of the key elements that were successful in its early growth. Some of it includes having teams with strong talent density, counter positioning, and high product velocity. See the full thread here.
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