Every other week, we gain Altitude with the founders, operators, dealmakers, allocators, marketers, and technologists shaping tomorrow. Engage with Successful Companies and Founding Teams | VC, PE, M&A, and Credit Transactions | Growth Metrics, Benchmarks, Charts & Data | New and Emergent Technologies | Founder Productivity Hacks, and more... You can learn more about Cirrus Capital Partners at www.cirruscap.com
Microsoft’s Nuclear Bet, OpenAI’s $6.6B Power Move, and Qualcomm’s Leap into Mixed Reality
Published about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Altitude Newsletter
Microsoft’s Nuclear Bet, OpenAI’s $6.6B Power Move, and Qualcomm’s Leap into Mixed Reality
📌 Tip of the week: Lenders offering revenue-based financing or venture debt love predictable MRR. Get granular with your revenue reporting and projections to negotiate better terms and a higher quantum of capital—without giving up equity.
What's Happening in the World
The Payments Space is in Consolidation Mode
October has sparked a wave of M&A in fintech, with Global Payments snapping up UK-based Takepayments.
Zooming out, what's happening here is that large players are preemptively consolidating to not only capture market share but to shield themselves from upcoming regulatory friction and rising operational costs.
For founders, this signals something deeper: the consolidation isn’t just a land grab. It’s a way for larger companies to control more of the value chain, insulating themselves from uncertainty. Smaller players without a clear growth path could find themselves vulnerable—not because they lack innovation, but because they lack the ability to scale fast enough to become indispensable. Aim to own your niche before someone else does.
Qualcomm Unveils AI Chipset to Power Next-Gen Mixed Reality
Qualcomm just unveiled its Snapdragon X Elite chipset, set to power AI-driven mixed reality experiences. This innovation promises hyper-realistic virtual environments, transforming gaming, collaboration, and everyday interactions.
Microsoft and Google’s Nuclear Bet: The Future of Powering AI
Microsoft and Google just made a big move into nuclear energy to support their rapidly expanding AI and cloud services. Microsoft signed a deal to power its data centers with nuclear energy from Three Mile Island, while Google is exploring small modular reactors. This is a massive play to handle AI's growing energy demands while keeping carbon emissions low.
By investing in this way, they’re signaling that AI and cloud computing are only going to get bigger, demanding more energy than current renewables can handle. The future of tech will depend heavily on securing stable, scalable energy sources. It could reshape everything from data infrastructure to regulatory landscapes.
Bill Gates’ Climate Bet: $839M for a Cleaner Future
Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures recently secured a massive $839 million for its third climate-focused fund. The goal is to fuel innovation in sectors like clean energy and carbon removal, driving a shift toward a more sustainable future. This is a signal that tech investment is shifting toward longer-term, globally-impactful solutions.
The Remote Work Trap: Why Burnout is Exploding in 2024
Remote work was supposed to bring freedom, but for many, it's turning into a trap. With lines between work and home life completely blurred, 53% of remote workers are now putting in more hours than they ever did in the office, according to recent studies. And the fallout? A 67% increase in loneliness and isolation among full-time remote employees, making them feel more disconnected than ever.
To fight burnout, implement a mandatory "Power Down Hour." This is a scheduled, daily hour where no one is allowed to work. This isn’t a lunch break. It’s an offline hour where your team is forced to disconnect from all work tasks—emails, Slack, everything. It gives their brain a reset during the day, like hitting the “refresh” button on a browser.
The key is consistency. By integrating this hour every day, you’re reinforcing boundaries and teaching your team to disconnect regularly.
OpenAI’s New Power Move: $6.6 Billion to Scale Advanced AI Tools
OpenAI just raised an enormous $6.6 billion, pushing its valuation to $157 billion. This move comes as it aims to scale its advanced AI tools, including their impact on healthcare, education, and autonomous systems.
This round isn’t only about money. It’s about accelerating AGI (which Sam Altman thinks could arrive in several thousand days), outpacing competitors, and locking down the resources needed for AI dominance.
$7M in revolving credit for an engineering solutions and software provider in Houston, TX! 🎉
New Resources
I’m going to start including new content that may be worth checking out. This isn’t an endorsement, just a “hey, you might like this.”
New Book: Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World by Parmy Olson
This book delves into the fierce competition between AI giants like OpenAI and DeepMind, and how their rivalry is shaping the future of AI. It explores the ethical and societal implications of AI advancements, making it a must-read for tech founders and anyone interested in the future of AI and machine learning.
New Podcast Episode: "How Bombas pairs scaling impact and profit" on Masters of Scale.This episode features Bombas co-founders David Heath and Randy Goldberg. They discuss how the
brand grew while staying committed to its "buy one, give one" model, providing socks to those in need with every purchase. The conversation highlights balancing profit with purpose and offers insights into how mission-driven companies can thrive financially while making a positive social impact.
Fresh Fundings
Notable Q3 Equity Rounds (Big → Small):
Grafana Labs raised $270M in new funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing its valuation to over $6 billion. This round will accelerate product development and help maintain its position as a leader in observability platforms.
Fortera secured $85M in Series C funding from Khosla Ventures and Temasek. The company is revolutionizing the cement industry with its low-carbon solution, which reduces emissions by up to 70%.
Story Protocol raised $80M in Series B funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz, to tackle the growing issue of intellectual property theft in AI through blockchain technology.
Notable Credit Transactions (Big → Small):
Cirrus Capital Partners facilitated a $7 million ABL revolver for a Texas-based engineering solutions and software provider
Cirrus Capital Partners facilitated a $1 million revolving line of credit for an eCommerce seller based in the Southeast
Second Avenue Capital Partners closed a $120 million Senior Secured Revolving Line of Credit to support the acquisition of The Aaron's Company by IQVentures.
Comvest Credit Partners upsized and amended a $218 million senior secured credit facility for Purchasing Power, an Atlanta-based provider of voluntary employee benefits.
Eclipse Business Capital provided a $20 million ABL credit facility to a fiber optic components manufacturer, backed by accounts receivable and inventory.
Revere Capital provided a $20 million line of credit to Clara Capital Servicing, supporting lender finance.
October M&A
GPS Insight acquired ClearPathGPS. Expands GPS Insight’s fleet management capabilities with ClearPathGPS’s business operations platform.
Permira's Acquisition of Squarespace ($6.9B). Private equity firm Permira is taking Squarespace private, giving the company flexibility to innovate without public market pressures, fueling its long-term growth strategy.
Everyone’s hyped about AI, but honestly, it’s still just a tool (an amazing, game-changing tool). It can handle all repetitive stuff and even some strategic stuff now, but high-stakes ideas still need a human behind them.
The founders who get that will use AI to cut through the noise and focus on what really makes them stand out. AI won’t do the thinking for you—it’ll give you the space to think better.
The edge isn’t in using AI. AI has now been totally democratized. It’s all in your ability to leverage it without losing what makes you irreplaceable.
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Every other week, we gain Altitude with the founders, operators, dealmakers, allocators, marketers, and technologists shaping tomorrow. Engage with Successful Companies and Founding Teams | VC, PE, M&A, and Credit Transactions | Growth Metrics, Benchmarks, Charts & Data | New and Emergent Technologies | Founder Productivity Hacks, and more... You can learn more about Cirrus Capital Partners at www.cirruscap.com
