In today’s newsletter we discuss how AI wants to control your dreams, Intel’s programmable chips unit IPO, 2030 World Cup to be held on 3 continents, Las Vegas’ Sphere venue U2 concert debut, and a peek at Patrick Mahomes’s Real Estate Portfolio.

Business

Not to be outdone by the recent IPO of the chip design company ARM (who earned $4.87 billion in their IPO), Intel has announced that they are looking to spin off their programmable chip unit as a standalone business in an IPO in the next few years. Everyone is racing to try and catch up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC as it is known in the biz. This is a hot sector in the chip industry because of the ability to program a chip to do what you want it to do when you receive it instead of building it to do only one thing when it is manufactured. This flexibility is giving consumers more power to build out advanced data centers that crunch data in the race for AI supremacy.

Intel plans to IPO programmable chip unit within three years; stock rises after hours

Tech

I try to strike a balance between reporting on developments in the AI industry and not overloading your newsfeed with the endless doom-and-gloom of AI conspiracy theorists, but I couldn’t help myself with this one. A new startup called Prophetic has created what they call the “world’s first wearable device for stabilizing lucid dreams.”

If you’re not family with the term “Lucid dreams occur when a person sleeping becomes aware they’re dreaming and may be able to control parts of the dream.” according to this article.

This new startup has raised $1.1 million in funding from some heavy weight VCs, but it’s not exactly clear how they’ll monetize their device or what the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for such a device would be. If you ask me I think they’re dreaming if you think people will pay to control their dreams.

This AI company wants to help you control your dreams

Sports

In a first in the sports world the men’s 2030 World Cup to be hosted by size countries on three continents for the first time ever. This is where the story gets complicated. Spain, Portugal and Morocco were the three winning co-hosts originally, then they formed an agreement to bring in three more countries from South America including Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay who were all part of a rival bid (see where this is going?).

My guess is the six countries colluded to win the bid and divide up the games to be played in six different countries. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of this, but then again the 2026 World Cup will be hosted in three countries including the United States, Mexico and Canada, but that makes more sense to me because all three countries are next to each other and their economies are so integrated.

The 2023 Women’s World Cup generated over $900 million in revenues, but according to the FIFA it only broke even. Contrast that to the 2022 Men’s World cup where FIFA made $7.5 billion in revenue. Yea, I’d say the world has a ways to go before women’s sports are on a level playing field with men’s.

2030 World Cup to be hosted by three continents for first time

Entertainment

There are debuts, then there’s the Las Vegas’ Sphere venue that opened up last weekend with a concert by U2. If you haven’t heard of the Sphere before. It’s a $2.3 billion dollar venture by the owners of Madison Square Garden in New York, and it’s the world’s largest spherical structure at 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide. The entire structure is made up of the largest and highest-resolution LED screen in the world, and envelops the audience filling their entire field of vision.

Tickets obviously don’t come cheap for a U2 concert, and the Las Vegas’ Sphere venue will set you back $400-$500 for the best seats.

Las Vegas’ Sphere venue debuted this weekend with concerts by U2. Here’s what it was like

Real Estate

Patrick Mahomes has been on a bit of a roll the last few years. He signed a 10-year, $450 million deal that includes $141.482 million in guarantees. SO yea, he can afford to splurge on some sweet real estate bling.

His first real estate purchase in 2017 was a modest two-bedroom condo located close to Arrowhead Stadium that he picked up for $350,000. Just before he won his first Super Bowl in 2018 he picked up a 4,300 sqft mansion on 1.4 acres for $1.8 million, and it’s still pretty close to his work which is nice. Then in 2020 he bought an 8 acre plot of vacant land for around $400,000 and built his own mansion and compound, with no price revealed, but it sounds like a pretty sweet setup including a pool, a pond, and a 50-yard football field of his very own! But that’s just where he lives during the season. When he’s relaxing in the offseason (after winning another Super Bowl) he spends his time in a seven-bedroom estate in Texas that he bought for $3.37 million. It’s good to be Patrick Mahomes!

Inside Patrick Mahomes’s Real Estate Portfolio

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris