Good Morning! Biden ended his campaign yesterday, sending the election and economic agenda into turmoil. The tech world is still grappling with the fallout from Friday’s CrowdStrike outage. What was meant to be a routine update turned into a global fiasco, disrupting airlines, hospitals, and sparking a wave of business interruption claims. Meanwhile, Panera is considering a potential sale of its coffee and bagel chains, and Starbucks is facing heat from a new activist investor. Plus Rolex prices are trending down and Bruce Springsteen has officially joined the billionaire club.

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Venture Capital’s Latest Craze

When you think of venture capitalists, you might picture them sipping organic lattes and closing deals on the next big idea from starry-eyed entrepreneurs. But the game has changed. 

Today, VCs are shifting their focus from investing in companies to investing directly in the hardware that powers the A.I. revolution, like Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips.

Leading this new frontier is Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the biggest names in venture capital, known for backing OpenAI. They’re not just investing in A.I.; they’re hoarding thousands of GPUs to rent to A.I. startups in exchange for equity. For smaller A.I. startups, these GPUs are a lifeline, providing the critical power they need in exchange for a piece of their future success.

In April, a16z announced that it had raised $7.2 billion, with $1.25 billion earmarked for a fund focused on companies building A.I. infrastructure and another $1 billion targeting A.I. applications.

Andreessen Horowitz alone is planning to buy over 20,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs over the next several years, which is the same number Elon’s xAI uses to train his Grok large-language model.

Takeaway: On Andreessen Horowitz’s part, it’s a bold move, especially considering the rough patch VCs have had over the past couple of years with massive write-downs on their investments. Trading computing hours for equity might fill the gap created by the sky-high costs of these GPUs, but it’s still a gamble. And who knows, maybe these GPUs will appreciate better than some of their past investments.

_{PRESENTED BY MINDGRASP AI}

AI Assistants Are Killing Search Engines

If you need to know the capital of Greece, you Google it. 

But if you need to analyze your own personal materials, documents, or past meetings, you ask Mindgrasp.

The world's #1 learning assistant, Mindgrasp helps save time and enhance learning for professionals of every level. 

• Answers Q’s, finds additional research, and creates notes automatically

• Scans any Document, PDF, YouTube Video, Zoom Meeting, Podcast, etc

• Used by 10,000 professionals and countless universities (MIT, Stanford, and more)

So, ready to advance your career (or simply skyrocket your productivity)? 

Try Mindgrasp AI today at no-cost!

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Biden ends campaign, throwing election, economic agenda into turmoil (YF)

• Panera Brands explores sale of coffee, bagel chains (Reuters)

• Microsoft-CrowdStrike issue causes ‘largest IT outage in history’ (CNBC)

• Rolex prices are falling and supplies are rising (YF)

• Bruce Springsteen is officially a billionaire (Variety)

• What Trump-Vance could mean for Wall Street (YF)

• Jason Kelce’s journey from the NFL to private equity (NYT)

• Insurers face business interruption claims after global tech outage (Reuters)

• Airlines and others rush to get back on track after global tech disruption (YF)

• World's largest Din Tai Fung opens in New York (Axios)

• Activist Elliott reportedly has a significant stake in Starbucks (CNBC)

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Markets Rundown

Stocks continued their slide over global IT concerns and CrowdStrike melton.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Hawaiian Electric ($HE) +37% after the electric company reached a deal to resolve hundreds of lawsuits.

• (–) CrowdStrike ($CRWD) -11% because of a major outage at the cybersecurity firm.

• (–) Plug Power ($PLUG) -14% after the hydrogen company will sell $200M worth of shares.

Private Dealmaking

• Dechra Pharma bought Invetx for $520 million

• Saronic, a surface vehicles maker, raised $175 million

• Slope, a B2B payments platform, raised $65 million

• LevelTen, a transaction infrastructure provider, raised $65 million

• Peak Energy, a battery maker, raised $55 million

• Again, a Danish green chemical manufacturer, raised $43 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

The Trolls of Wall Street

Jaime Rogozinski and Jordan Zazzara were not what anyone would mistake for traditional financial power players. But they turned WallStreetBets, a subreddit focused on risky financial trading, into one of the most disruptive forces to bubble up from the fringes of the internet. 

This crude and unassuming message board harnessed the power of memes and trolling to create a new kind of online community. The group intertwined with the distrust and turmoil of our times and spoke to a generation of young men who were struggling to find their place in the world. 

Deeply reported and fast moving, The Trolls of Wall Street is the suspenseful story of the people who made and lost millions, battling with each other—and with Wall Street—for power and status.

It is a sobering account of how millions of young Americans became obsessed with money and the markets, casting a long and lasting influence over finance, politics, and popular culture.  

“A brilliant exploration of human behavior in the internet age.”

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CrowdStrike Free Fall

_{PRESENTED BY TiiCKER}

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Play

As adults, we often forget the value of play.

But play isn't just for children; it's a vital part of a fulfilling life.

It sparks creativity, reduces stress, and improves brain function.

When was the last time you did something purely for fun?

Companies like Google and Pixar incorporate play into their work environments, recognizing its power to boost innovation and productivity.

Make time for play in your life. Engage in a hobby. Be silly. Laugh often.

Remember, we don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

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Short Squeez Picks

• How presence can fix work-life balance

• Tricks good conversationalists use to be likable

• Use the MIT productivity method to achieve your goals

• The best polos for men

• The stoic way to survive money challenges

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Memes of the Day