All In Summit Rundown
Startup besties and All In Podcast hosts Jason Calacanis, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, and David Friedberg convened their annual summit this month. Notable speakers included venture capitalist Bill Gurley, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and YouTube superstar Mr. Beast.
All In With VC Bill Gurley
In the most viewed segment of the Summit (after Elon Musk’s), famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley got political with his “2,851 Miles” presentation on the history of regulatory capture in healthcare technology. He specifically called out Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who spoke later at the Summit, for pursuing similar regulatory capture.
All In With Brian Armstrong
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who was previously well-received on the All In Podcast, faced an uncharacteristically critical litany of questions about pending regulation and the lack of growth in crypto adoption. “You have a lot of younger users, but do we have to wait 30 years for them to get rich?” wondered Chamath Palihapitiya. “What reason does a 50-year-old have to use Coinbase today?”
All In With Mr. Beast
James Donaldson, better known as Mr. Beast, was the youngest but unquestionably most famous participant and spoke at length about the financial operations of his brands. Most amazingly, he revealed that Feastables, the chocolate brand he launched on his YouTube channel, will do “hundreds of millions” of dollars of revenue this year.
Ads Are Coming To Amazon Prime Video
Amazon announced a stealth price hike to its Prime Membership service this week with news that its Prime Video service, home of shows like The Rings of Power and Jack Ryan, will incorporate commercial breaks starting in 2024 to support new cloud investments. The ads can be turned off for $3 per month.
Billionaire TikTok Investor Also Funds TikTok Opposition
Jeffrey Yass, the billionaire founder of TikTok investor Susquehanna International Group, is also a major donor to groups and politicians campaigning to ban the Chinese-owned app. The conflict of interest suggests the campaign against TikTok might not be authentic, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Microsoft Hardware Chief Abruptly Leaves For Amazon
Panos Panay, the Microsoft Chief Product Officer and founding director of the Surface division, abruptly announced his resignation before the yearly Surface Event he was scheduled to host. Panay is reportedly headed to Amazon to lead the newly reformed Alexa division after Amazon decimated the department earlier this year.
Microsoft Refreshes Surface Laptops & Launches New AI Tools
At its yearly Microsoft Surface event, CEO Satya Nadella filled the role of host to show off the newest updates to the Surface Laptop line and debut another round of AI integrations with Windows and Office. The AI announcements dominated the event and showcased Copilot integrations throughout the Office Suite, Windows Sidebar, and Bing Browser.
Google Domains Officially Offline
Google Domains, the lightweight and affordable domain registration service offered by Google, has officially ceased accepting new domain registrations. Google sold the service to Squarespace earlier this year while it fights to maintain margin in its cloud business.