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From “golden passports” for the ultra-rich to WhatsApp ghosting AI chatbots on January 15. India is finally giving 7.7 million gig workers legal recognition (social security TBD), Spotify is eyeing yet another price hike, and Mastercard wants to go deeper into crypto with a $1.5B Zerohash deal. Meanwhile, Quebec might be sitting on a lithium jackpot and Apple is quietly trimming staff for the first time in ages.
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🎙 Catch the punchline hidden in this week’s headlines 🎙
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Eight bullets of updates
🤖 Starting Jan 15, users won’t be able to access AI chatbots like Copilot on WhatsApp as new platform rules take effect.
🌍 Wealthy founders are treating citizenship as a wealth hack, with demand for “golden passports” up 120%.
📊 Despite a decade of effort, just 24% of companies achieved self-service BI—will agentic AI finally crack the code for everyday analytics?
🪙 India grants 7.7M gig workers new legal status but social security coverage still lags in recent labor reform.
💳 Mastercard eyes a $1.5B deal to boost its crypto services with the acquisition of fintech startup Zerohash.
💸 Spotify users may soon see higher prices next year as streaming fees lag behind inflation and rivals, per major labels.
🔋 Quebec could be sitting on a lithium deposit 3x bigger than previously thought thanks to new AI-powered discoveries.
🍏 Apple trims dozens of roles, including long-time staff, marking its first notable workforce reduction in over a decade.
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Meet the undertakers of tech—and their $11B haul
Italian startup Bending Spoons jolted into the spotlight after buying AOL and raising $270 million, pushing its valuation to $11 billion. Its playbook is simple: buy aging, underperforming tech brands like Evernote or Vimeo, cut costs, raise prices, and turn them profitable—without ever planning to sell them. It’s part of a broader “buy, fix, and hold” trend led by operators who see value in the many VC-backed companies that stalled but still have solid revenue.
Curious CEO Andrew Dumont is one of them, acquiring “venture zombies” cheaply—sometimes at just 1x revenue—and reviving them through centralized operations and a focus on profitability. His firm aims to buy 50–75 such startups in the next five years. While Bending Spoons’ valuation surge validates the model, Dumont says competition will stay light: turning neglected software into cash machines is lucrative, but decidedly unsexy work.
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The Invisible Company Killing Intel
Most people think Intel built the modern computer—but they’re wrong. This video uncovers the invisible company behind your phone, your laptop, and even your smartwatch. It’s a deep dive into the forgotten tech war that reshaped everything: how ARM beat Intel without ever making a single chip.
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AI Pitch Deck Reviewer
Slidebean has been helping startups craft pitch decks for over 10 years. We recently built an AI Pitch Deck Review tool, that processes the text and visuals on your presentation, and provides actionable feedback on the story, potential missing items, and recommendations on how to improve each slide.
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Altman & Ive want your phone to stop yelling
Sam Altman and Jony Ive are quietly building what they hope is the next big shift after the smartphone—a minimalist AI device that stays calm, ambient, and mostly out of sight. In an interview hosted by Emerson Collective, they teased a prototype and said they aim to ship it within two years.
If it works, it could reset everyday tech habits: fewer pings, more context-aware help, and assistants that feel present but not demanding. The hurdles are the usual ones—latency, privacy, battery—and the cautionary tale of Humane looms large. But the upside is a fresh “agent” ecosystem, new ways to distribute AI services, and a world where delight matters more than app grids and screen time.
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