In today’s newsletter we discuss Jeep announces the launch of their all-electric 600 horsepower  Wagoneer S, Is OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman starting an AI chip factory, Tesla building robots, are Jay-Z & Beyonce planning to take over the film industry next,  and did NASA lose its Ingenuity Mars helicopter.

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Cristiano Ronaldo Just Bought A New Home In Dubai

Business

Is OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman starting an AI chip factory?

Sam Altman has been working on raising Billions of dollars to begin making his own AI chip factories (or Fabs as they call them in the industry).

He’s on the record as stating that he sees a shortage of AI chips right now, and that will continue to extend well into the future.

So he’s making plans to change that.

His new venture, an offshoot of OpenAI, is raising funds that could potentially value this new venture at $100 Billion dollars with a capital B!

His goal is to use the funds to set up a network of factories to manufacture semiconductors, and he’s talking to some of the biggest chip companies in the world about partnering. Additionally, he’s talking with both Abu Dhabi-based G42, which according to their website aims to be “a global leader in creating visionary artificial intelligence for a better tomorrow.”, and SoftBank out of Japan who’s more famously known for backing such luminary startups as Uber and WeWork.

Building an AI chip fab, or multiple chip factories across the world, won’t be cheap. According to an article in Fortune “the cost to construct a single state-of-the-art fabrication plant can require tens of billions of dollars, and creating a network of such facilities would take years. The talks with G42 alone had focused on raising $8 billion to $10 billion.”

All of this news of raising funding to build their own chip factory comes only a few months after Sam Altman was fired, then rehired, by OpenAI in a high-tech palace coup. Can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store for Sam Altman and OpenAI!

Sam Altman seeks billions to set up AI chips factories

Tech

Elon Musk thinks that Tesla building robots is more important to the company than building vehicles. As a Tesla shareholder I strongly disagree.

In an interview with Wall Street analysts in January 2022 Elon Musk said that he believes the company’s goal of building humanoid robots is the most important technology it’s developing. By his own admission that means he views robots as more important to Tesla’s future than vehicles, solar energy, batteries, or Tesla’s AI for self-driving vehicles.

Think about that for a minute.

Elon Musk went on to say about building robots “This I think has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time.”

I’m not completely convinced.

I love the idea and technology behind their new Tesla Optimus Bot, but I think it should eventually be spun off as its own stand alone company to further unlock shareholder value.

In my opinion Tesla building robots doesn’t really align with the industries that Tesla is currently involved in right now, and from a future fundraising perspective it’d do better on its own. I also think it would be for a standalone robotics company to more easily sell to businesses and consumers if it wasn’t a part of Tesla in the future. 

Recently David Holz, the founder of artificial intelligence research lab Midjourney said on X/Twitter that "we should be expecting a billion humanoid robots on earth in the 2040s and a hundred billion (mostly alien) robots throughout the solar system in the 2060s."

Elon Musk replied "Probably something like that, provided the foundations of civilization are stable."

It turns out Elon Musk sorta agrees with me.

In an interview with Reuters he said that while making humanoid robots isn’t "directly in line with accelerating sustainable energy" as part of Tesla’s overarching goal, "I think the mission does somewhat broaden with the advent of Optimus to – you know, I don’t know: making the future awesome."

So there you have it. Even though Elon Musk didn’t directly say it, I feel like I’m vindicated in my belief that Tesla should spin off their robotics division as a standalone company with Elon Musk agreeing that his vision for robotics isn’t in line with Tesla’s drive toward accelerating sustainable energy.

And lastly, don’t get me wrong - I’m a big fan of robots, and when they take over someday I hope they’ll remember how nice I was to my own Roomba, but I’d love to see Tesla spin off their robotics division in the future.

A Billion Tesla Humanoid Robots In the 2040s, Says Elon Musk

Entertainment

Are Jay-Z & Beyonce planning to take over the film industry next?

Jay-Z  & Beyonce have been dipping their toes into the film industry for years now, but they may be planning a deeper dive in the future.

Jay-Z most recently served as an Executive Producer on the new film ‘The Book of Clarence’ that was written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, which tells the story of “Clarence (Stanfield), a down-on-his-luck man in A.D. 33 Jerusalem who is inspired by the story of Jesus Christ. He takes fate into his own hands by emulating the rising Messiah and His apostles in an epic story with modern twists, according to the movie's Rotten Tomatoes page.”

Jay-Z hinted that he and Jeymes Samuel are cooking up some new projects, so that has me very excited.

Not to be outdone, Beyoncé is fresh off her own film ‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’ which is a documentary of her Renaissance World Tour that she wrote, directed, and produced.

The film has made nearly $50 million since its December release, with Beyoncé’s tour having grossed a whopping $580 million.

Both Beyoncé and Jay-Z have prior experience in the moving industry with their involvement in ‘The Lion King’, where Beyoncé voiced the role of an adult Nala, and recorded an original song called “Spirit” for the movie which was also featured on a curated companion album for the movie.

The movie ‘Homecoming’ was also written, directed, and executive produced by Beyoncé and released on April 17, 2019 by Netflix. The film is about Beyoncé’s performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

I’m excited to watch anything that Beyoncé and Jay-Z are involved with in 2024.

JAY-Z Reacts to Him and Beyoncé Taking Over Film and Music Industry

Space

Has NASA lost its Ingenuity Mars helicopter?

On Thursday, January 18 NASA lost contact with their 4-pound helicopter named Ingenuity that they’ve been flying around on Mars for the last year.

The Ingenuity Mars helicopter was only built and expected to last on the Marian planet for up to 31 days, but here we are having just completed its 72nd flight over the last 2 years, 11 months and 4 days (as of the writing of this article).

According to an article on Space.com in an update on Sunday, January 21 “NASA announced on Saturday evening (Jan. 20) that it has reestablished contact with Ingenuity after instructing the Perseverance rover "to perform long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity’s signal." The mission team is working to determine what caused the communications dropout during Flight 72.”

I fell in love with NASA and space at an early age, and my interest in space has only grown with the recent Mars missions such as the Perseverance rover and its tiny payload the Ingenuity helicopter. I hope you share in my excitement about these sort of space-related news bits, and I’ll continue to bring you new updates on not only NASA related news but private space companies like SpaceX, RocketLab, and Blue Origin.

NASA loses contact with Ingenuity Mars helicopter

EVs

Jeep has unveiled its 1st all-electric vehicle for the U.S., and WoW it’s powerful!

The new Jeep Wagoneer S is packing 600 horsepower (yes, electric vehicles still use horses as a measure of their power for some reason).

The Jeep Wagoneer S is expected to go on sale in the U.S. in 2024, and is expected to be a little smaller than other Wagoneers in Jeep’s lineup, but what it might lack in size its expected to more than make up for in power and off-road capability.

This Wagoneer S will be a mid-size SUV, and unlike its bigger gas-guzzling siblings it’ll have a smoother aerodynamic shape.

No release date has been announced, but the all-electric vehicle is expected to go on sale during Fall 2024.

Jeep Unveils Its First All-Electric Car for the U.S., the 600 HP Wagoneer S

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

— Chris