Hi, and welcome to today's Bay Area Times daily newsletter. Top stories today: 1) Sam Altman invested $180M in Retro Bio, 2) Silvergate to shut down, 3) VC funding is down 63%, 4) Powell says 50 bps is not guaranteed, and 5) Biden unveils budget proposal at 2:30 PM ET.

0. Data and calendar

1. Sam Altman was the one who invested $180M in longevity startup Retro Bio

• Retro Bio is a multi-asset biotech focused on longevity. Still in stealth and quite secretive, they "are focused on cellular reprogramming, plasma-inspired therapeutics, and autophagy."

• Previously, the identity of its founding investor was kept secret. According to Altman, he poured most of his liquid net worth into 2 companies: Retro Bio and Helion Energy, which is building nuclear fusion generators. - Technology Review, Retro Bio

• Game changer because it can finally bring longevity to the mainstream. Aging is by far the #1 contributor to death -- since humanity has found cures for most bacteria and viruses, almost all diseases today are highly correlated with age. Even then, work on therapies to extend longevity has been considered taboo. Hopefully now, with the support of the CEO of OpenAI, things will change for the better.

2. Silvergate to liquidate bank and shut down

Down 43% in the pre-market, 98% since 2021:

• As we previewed over the past few days, the bank is shutting down, it just announced: "In light of recent industry and regulatory developments, Silvergate believes that an orderly wind down of Bank operations and a voluntary liquidation of the Bank is the best path forward. The Bank’s wind down and liquidation plan includes full repayment of all deposits. The Company is also considering how best to resolve claims and preserve the residual value of its assets, including its proprietary technology and tax assets." - Press release, The Block

• Watch out for: Signature Bank. Silvergate and Signature were the top banks of choice for the crypto industry. Signature started with a much healthier balance sheet than Silvergate, and was also more diversified, so the risks there are smaller but still significant.

• Watch out for: crypto exchanges. Any exchange that had money on Silvergate could be left empty-handed. As FTX showed us, "USD" values at exchanges aren't always backed 1-to-1.

3. VC funding falls 63% to $18B in Feb

• Up: profitable growth, AI. Down: cryptos with no usage, low margins. These broader trends continue, and we don't expect them to reverse any time soon.

• Early-stage: $16.5B -> $7.9B (-52% yoy)

• Late-stage: $24.3B -> $7.3B (-73% yoy) - Crunchbase

4. Powell says 50 bps is not guaranteed

• Key quote during House testimony: "We have not made any decision about the March meeting. If — and I stress that no decision has been made on this — but if the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we’d be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes." - Bloomberg

But markets still believe in 50 bps, now at a 76% probability

5. Biden to unveil budget proposal at 2:30 PM ET, with several tax hikes

• We don't expect the approval of any of Biden's proposed tax hikes, but here are some of his proposals:

  • 25% minimum tax on billionaires' unrealized capital gain tax

  • 37% -> 39.6% top individual income tax rate

  • 21% -> 28% corporate income tax

  • Limit retirement-account tax benefits to $10M

  • Eliminate crypto wash-sell tax loophole

  • Higher (TBD) taxes on oil-and-gas companies - WSJ

  • Eliminate carried-interest and real estate tax breaks - Bloomberg

• U.S. taxation is already very high, so none of these proposals make sense. Singapore, for example, provides more and better government services with a lower level of taxation (15% of GDP vs 27%).

• Biden is talking at 2:30 PM ET. "The President releases his Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 and delivers remarks on his plans to invest in America, continue to lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, reduce the deficit, and more."

• Yellen will testify on Friday before the House Ways and Means Committee, and then many other times this month. - Bloomberg

6. Spotify's new design mimics TikTok, Youtube

• AI-powered feed of recommended music, podcasts, and shows. The new AI DJ (which they announced last month). Smart Shuffle. These are some of the new features that Spotify announced. - The Verge, Spotify

• Coming out "soon", but not very exciting. We do not see how these features can improve Spotify's not-so-strong position in the market, with Apple and Amazon attacking its music business, and TikTok and Youtube taking over market share in podcast and video.

7. DuckDuckGo releases AI-powered answers which look just like Google snippets

• DuckDuckGo is using ChatGPT and Anthropic to summarize answers it finds on high-quality websites like Wikipedia and Britannica, calling it DuckAssist. - DuckDuckGo

• Unfortunately for them, Google has had this feature (snippets) for years. DuckDuckGo's search engine continues to fall behind Google's and Bing's, while maintaining its core differentiator of privacy, which attracts a small portion of users.

8. In related news, Google aims to incorporate AI into its major products in months

• Focus on 1B+ products (Google search, Android, Chrome, Youtube, Gmail, Drive, Maps, Play Store, Photos): "Senior management has declared a “code red” that comes with a directive that all of its most important products—those with more than a billion users—must incorporate generative AI within months." - Bloomberg, 01core

• Announcements expected on May 10, at Google I/O:

9. Apple is looking at India for growth, names head of India

• India could become bigger than China, as the former's economy and population are growing very fast.

• Before, there was only a VP in charge of India, Middle East, the Mediterranean, East Europe, and Africa. This person, Hugues Asseman, retired, and the new head of India is Ashish Chowdhary, reporting directly to Michael Fenger, head of product sales. - Bloomberg

• 1st India retail stores expected in 2023: originally planned for a January-March launch, the Mumbai store is expected at any time now. - MacRumors

10. Other headlines

Tech

• Bing crosses 100M DAUs.

• Stripe is raising $6B at $50B from Thrive, General Catalyst, a16z, mostly for taxes.

• Anthropic to raise $300M at $4.1B from Spark, after getting $400M from Google.

• Humane, founded in 2018, raises $100M for AI-powered wearable devices.

• Twitter has $3B revenue run rate, $1.5B operating costs, $1.5B interest cost.

• Google One brings VPN to $1.99/mo, still no option to choose country.

• Uber considering spinning off its Freights logistics division.

• Scientists claim creation of new commercially-accessible superconductors.

• Interview: former Instagram co-founders, now Artifact co-founders.

Business

• Netherlands to bar exports to China of more semiconductor tech.

• TikTok launches Project Clover, claiming to safeguard EU data from China.

• China using golden shares to get full control of companies.

Crypto

• JPMorgan cutting banking relationship with Gemini; Coinbase still OK.

• Coinbase launches Wallet-as-a-Service to simplify web3 onboarding.

• Biden budget to propose elimination of crypto tax loss claim loophole.

Washington and more

• Ring gave judge full access to someone's personal camera footage.

• FBI admits to purchase user location, allowed in a 2018 SCOTUS decision.

• Some Republicans propose small cuts to Medicaid.

• Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis admits that fraud claims were "misrepresentations."

• Senate votes to block reduced violent crimes penalties in D.C.'s crime law.

• Fox News not having Trump on, featuring DeSantis and other candidates more.

• DeSantis says he doesn't support bill that would require Florida bloggers to register.

10. Interesting tweets, memes, and images

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