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AI talent managers, techno-capitalist university towns, and the rise of defense tech acquisitions

TechBrunchBy TechBrunchAugust 23, 20243 Mins Read
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This week in Equity, we look at some unusual trades for a number of reasons: some are good, some are… well, you'll see why soon.

First up, Story just raised an $80 million investment round. The company is trying to bring some old Web3 magic to AI and human resources management. One investor said, “What Bitcoin did for money and finance, Story is doing for content and IP.” That may be true, but it may not be what he means.

Next, Mary Ann tries to untangle Bolt's complicated and bizarre term sheet: $450 million. But is this real money or “marketing credits”? At least, mostly the latter. Does the real money come from public investors or from multiple private equity shell companies operating in the Cayman Islands and the UAE? Yes, the latter. But at least Ryan Breslow is back, which should make things easier.

A new face (and voice) in Equity, Washington's Margaux McCall, described Balaji Srinivasan's private island, a “technocapitalist college town,” and said, “Anyone with an attachment to the current world order need not apply.” I said it sounded like a cult, and while cults are fine in moderation, I'm worried about this one.

We couldn't stop talking, and we also talked about two other AI companies we covered this week that aren't Enterprise LLM related: Reliant AI focuses on researchers (particularly in the pharmaceutical industry) who need to analyze thousands of papers at a time, and will likely be very useful for data scientists, and BeyondMath is working with F1 companies to create “digital wind tunnels” that run highly accurate, physics-based computational fluid dynamics simulations in near real time. When was the last time ChatGPT made a race car go faster?

Margaux concluded by noting that defense tech acquisition activity is on the rise. Investors have recently looked differently at this once-taboo market (and are now profiting from it). But that doesn't mean we should expect an AI bubble. It's a whole different world, with different definitions of success and different ways to exit. But with over $100 billion invested since 2021, no one can afford to ignore it anymore.

Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo and posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and allcasts.

To follow Equity X And check out Threads at @EquityPod For those who prefer reading to listening, check out our complete episode archive on Simplecast for full episode transcripts.





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