Big Tech Ideas for 2025 / AI + Stablecoins / European Ambition / Deep Dive on VC Power Law / How to Pitch a Founder / AI Agents Explained

Hello there ??

I'm Edo, and welcome to the 71st issue of Tech Readings of the Week!

The last for 2024. ?????

Every Sunday, I curate a digest of tech insights for non-tech folks and aspiring founders. From data-driven trends to tech leaders' opinions, with a pinch of startup wisdom, I help you cut through the noise and stay ahead of the curve.

Ready to dive in? Let's go! ??

In Today's Issue ??

1. a16z's Big Tech Ideas for 2025
2. AI + Stablecoins
3. European Ambition on Technology
4. You Don't Understand AI Agent
5. How to Pitch a Founder

???Essays & Articles

• Big ideas in tech for 2025 - an external "AI brain." Big swings in biopharma. Interactive video. Nuclear energy's resurgence. "Faceless" influencers. We asked 50 a16z partners to preview one big idea that will spur innovation in 2025 (Andreessen Horowitz)
• 10 charts that capture how the world is changing (Part II) - from Gen AI Music to VC Secondaries, Shopify growth to online video consumption (Digital Native)
• People are the new brands - America has fallen out of love with brands and in love with people (No Mercy / No Malice)
• The next generation of neural networks could live in hardware - Researchers have devised a way to make computer vision systems more efficient by building networks out of computer chips’ logic gates. (MIT Technology Review)(€)
• What happens when the internet disappears? - huge swaths of the web are vanishing. What does that do to our culture? (The Verge)
• The 8 worst technology failures of 2024 - vertical farms, woke AI, and 23andMe made our annual list of failed tech (MIT Technology Review)(€)
• China-US immigration policies could reshape the AI talent race - the West may lose out in the talent race amid U.S. national security and immigration hurdles (Rest Of World)
• You don't understand AI agents - what are AI agents? Why do they matter? And why do I think most engineers and product leaders don't understand them? (Wayne Hamadi)
• AI + Stablecoins - are transforming finance by enabling always on autonomous systems that are redefining how value moves on the internet (Api First)
• Europe’s Starlink competitor is go - 290 IRIS2 satellites by 2030 to provide secure connectivity to governmental users as well as private companies and European citizens (The Verge)
• Amazon and the endangered future of the middle manager - Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivered one of 2024's major job headlines with his five-day office mandate, but there's a bigger tech organizational shakeup at work (CNBC)
• Beyond human: OpenAI’s o3 wake up call - a reasoning breakthrough arrives months - not years - after its predecessor. Here's why we need to talk (Exponential View)
• How Elon Musk’s partnership with Trump could shape science in the US and beyond - some researchers are wary of the billionaire’s newfound influence as he seeks to downsize the US government (Nature)
• Intel’s death and potential revival - Intel's decline due to its adherence to the x86 architecture amid the industry's shift towards RISC-based designs (Stratechery)

???VC & Startups Stuff

• A deep dive on the power law - data on VC returns in the last decade, public market returns in the last century, and what this means for investors (Generative Value)
• European Ambition - the old world’s meek culture must change (The Generalist)
• The end of Cruise is the beginning of a risky new phase for autonomous vehicles - robotaxis are a money loser. Why not just sell autonomous vehicles to everybody instead? (The Verge)
• VCs feel the market cheer heading into the holidays - VCs are desperate for some good vibes, and it appears they’re finally getting them just in time for the holidays (Newcomer)
• 5 trends in tech and startups we’re watching in 2025, from an M&A rebound to a defense tech boom - will the M&A market pick up next year and, with it, the IPO pipeline? And what about the tech job market? (Crunchbase News)
• Beat and No Raise? - did companies under or overperform relative to consensus estimates at the start of the year? (Clouded Judgement)

???Reports & Data

• Carta Equity Report 2024 - how opportunities to found companies, raise venture funding, and work at startups are distributed according to race and gender (Carta)
• Forecast 2024 was slow for tech IPOs, but 2025 could be different - after another slow year in 2024 for new tech listings, there is an expectation that the IPO markets will pick up in 2025 (Crunchbase News)
• US Venture Capital Outlook - interest rate cuts should jump-start some long-delayed public listings. Valuations are poised for a rebound. And we should see more acquisitions as investors face the acute pressure of liquidity generation (Pitchbook)

?? Founder's Toolkit

TRW's collection of free fundraising resources for founders!

• How CEOS should think about growth - there are only a handful of things you can do to grow faster. The trick is going all-in on just one (Hello Operator)
• A deep dive on average revenue per user (ARPU) - and where it goes wrong (Mostly Metrics)
• How to pitch founders: advice from top VCs - how to earn allocation in the hottest deals, according to expert fund managers (Hustle Fund)

???ICYMI

• NVIDIA unveils its most affordable generative AI supercomputer - (Nvidia Blog)
• China orbits first Guowang Internet satellites, with thousands more to come - (Ars Technica)
• EU approves Nvidia's acquisition of Run:ai - (Reuters)
• Gemini 2.0, Google's newest flagship AI, can generate text, images, and speech - (Tech Crunch)
• Drugs like Ozempic now make up 5% of prescriptions in the US - (MIT Technology Review)(€)
• Starlink’s first nationwide satellite texting service goes live in New Zealand - (Engadget)
• ‘World’s first’ grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant announced in the US in another step for the futuristic energy - (CNN)
• First baby conceived via breakthrough fertility tech born - (New Atlas)
• GitHub launches a free version of its Copilot - (TechCrunch)
• Waymo is sending autonomous vehicles to Japan for first international tests - (The Verge)
• Temu is the most downloaded app on the US App Store in 2024 - (Tech Crunch)

???Shitpost of the week:

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Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.

Edo