Reuters’ AI War Chest

Thomson Reuters CEO Steve Hasker told the Financial Times in March that the conglomerate has amassed an enormous $8 billion war chest to spend on artificial intelligence investments and acquisitions.This report follows news from last November that Reuters, who owns a suite of tax and accounting software, plans to spend $100 million developing its own in-house generative AI efforts, including product development, acquisitions, and partnerships.

Reuters’ hefty spend is another chance to surface one of our favorite questions: what will come first, the incumbent getting innovation or the startup getting distribution??

As a big incumbent for AI tax startups and others, Reuters — in deciding to make this investment — is a great example of an established player with a major distribution advantage? also realizing they are vulnerable in this platform shift to AI. Github, Microsoft, and Intuit are other examples of companies that have been in this position.?

Not that Reuters is new to evolving with the times. Though it began as a media company in the early 20th century, it has since expanded into aviation, natural resources, publishing, and legal services, to name a few.?

We’ll be watching how Reuters spends this $8 billion war chest, and we’ll also keep a close eye on startups who seek to collaborate or compete in this quickly evolving space.

— Joe Schmidt, a16z fintech partner

Learn more about the intersection of AI and fintech

• BarbAIrians at the Gate: The Financial Opportunity of AI
• More Countries, More Problems: Selling AI Products Around the World is Still Too Hard
• Money on Autopilot: The Future of AI x Personal Finance

National Association of Realtors Nixes Sales Commission

The real estate market received a shock last month when the National Association of Realtors agreed to partly settle a series of lawsuits by eliminating its longstanding rules on commissions, including its standard 6% sales commission.?

Check out how some of our team has thought about the state of the real estate market over the years:

• When Software Eats the Real (Estate) World
• The Housing Market is Killing the American Dream
• Real Estate in a Pandemic: Homeowners and Buyers
• Data: Asset Relativity (and the Case of Bay Area Housing)

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