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Arvind's Newsletter
Issue No #722
1.Fantasy gaming platform Dream11, food-tech company Swiggy, and ed-tech decacorn BYJU'S are India’s top unicorns, according to the Global Unicorn Index 2023 by Hurun. The report revealed that India has retained its position as the country with the world's third-largest number of unicorns after the US and China.
BYJU'S is also one of the top 10 unicorn startups worldwide that experienced a significant increase in valuation since the pre-COVID-19 era, with a valuation of $22 billion. Meanwhile, Swiggy and Dream11 are both valued at $8 billion each, according to the list
2.Netflix, the American streaming platform, saw a nearly 30% year-on-year growth in engagement and 24% foreign exchange neutral revenue growth in India in 2022, following its decision to slash prices by 20-60% in December 2021.
“India is a big prize because it’s an enormous population of entertainment-loving people and we have to have the product they love.” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO, said.
Taking cues from the success of lower pricing in India, the company in Q1 reduced prices in 116 more countries, expecting increased adoption to boost long-term revenue.
3.McKinsey, Bain Delay Some M.B.A. Start Dates to 2024. Top consulting firms say job offers are secure, but start dates are getting pushed back; EY cuts 3,000 workers in the U.S.
Bain told M.B.A.s with offer letters that if they waited to start until April 2024, the firm would pay them $40,000 to work for a nonprofit or $30,000 to learn a new language or participate in an educational program, in one communication that suggested hires could also become yoga instructors or go on safari for $20,000. At McKinsey, many M.B.A.s hires don’t have start dates yet, several students with offer letters said. The company, which is in the process of laying off as many as 2,000 workers, said those new hires will be brought in over a series of months, from shortly after graduation through February 202
4.Foxconn looks to expand Chennai iPhone facility. Apple iPhone-maker Foxconn is likely to expand its manufacturing facility in India by adding two additional buildings at its site near Chennai, according to people aware of the plans.
Foxconn is due to begin construction of an iPhone manufacturing and assembly unit near Bengaluru International Airport by this May. Now the proposed R&D centre in Whitefield may also be one of the company’s multiple plans for investing in the southern state, sources aware said.
Ashweej Aithal, market research analyst at Canalys estimates that “exports for Apple increased drastically in March where nearly 2.5 million iPhones were exported of which 1.3 million were to the US alone”.
Tamil Nadu is fast becoming an iPhone manufacturing hub with Foxconn and Pegatron being operational here. Apple is also outsourcing the manufacturing of iPhone enclosures to Tata Electronics, which has a plant at Hosur, on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.
In December 2022, Foxconn announced an infusion of $500 million into its India unit. As per a stock exchange filing in Taiwan, Foxconn said its Singapore subsidiary is deploying the capital into the India entity, Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Private Limited
Read more at:
5.Microsoft is reportedly working on its own AI chips that can be used to train large language models and avoid a costly reliance on Nvidia. The Information reports that Microsoft has been developing the chips in secret since 2019, and some Microsoft and OpenAI employees already have access to them to test how well they perform for the latest large language models like GPT-4.
Nvidia is the key supplier of AI server chips right now, with companies racing to buy up these chips and estimates suggesting OpenAI will need more than 30,000 of Nvidia’s A100 GPUs for the commercialization of ChatGPT. Nvidia’s latest H100 GPUs are selling for more than $40,000 on eBay, illustrating the demand for high-end chips that can help deploy AI software.
1.Fantasy gaming platform Dream11, food-tech company Swiggy, and ed-tech decacorn BYJU'S are India’s top unicorns, according to the Global Unicorn Index 2023 by Hurun. The report revealed that India has retained its position as the country with the world's third-largest number of unicorns after the US and China.
BYJU'S is also one of the top 10 unicorn startups worldwide that experienced a significant increase in valuation since the pre-COVID-19 era, with a valuation of $22 billion. Meanwhile, Swiggy and Dream11 are both valued at $8 billion each, according to the list
2.Netflix, the American streaming platform, saw a nearly 30% year-on-year growth in engagement and 24% foreign exchange neutral revenue growth in India in 2022, following its decision to slash prices by 20-60% in December 2021.
“India is a big prize because it’s an enormous population of entertainment-loving people and we have to have the product they love.” Ted Sarandos, co-CEO, said.
Taking cues from the success of lower pricing in India, the company in Q1 reduced prices in 116 more countries, expecting increased adoption to boost long-term revenue.
3.McKinsey, Bain Delay Some M.B.A. Start Dates to 2024. Top consulting firms say job offers are secure, but start dates are getting pushed back; EY cuts 3,000 workers in the U.S.
Bain told M.B.A.s with offer letters that if they waited to start until April 2024, the firm would pay them $40,000 to work for a nonprofit or $30,000 to learn a new language or participate in an educational program, in one communication that suggested hires could also become yoga instructors or go on safari for $20,000. At McKinsey, many M.B.A.s hires don’t have start dates yet, several students with offer letters said. The company, which is in the process of laying off as many as 2,000 workers, said those new hires will be brought in over a series of months, from shortly after graduation through February 202
4.Foxconn looks to expand Chennai iPhone facility. Apple iPhone-maker Foxconn is likely to expand its manufacturing facility in India by adding two additional buildings at its site near Chennai, according to people aware of the plans.
Foxconn is due to begin construction of an iPhone manufacturing and assembly unit near Bengaluru International Airport by this May. Now the proposed R&D centre in Whitefield may also be one of the company’s multiple plans for investing in the southern state, sources aware said.
Ashweej Aithal, market research analyst at Canalys estimates that “exports for Apple increased drastically in March where nearly 2.5 million iPhones were exported of which 1.3 million were to the US alone”.
Tamil Nadu is fast becoming an iPhone manufacturing hub with Foxconn and Pegatron being operational here. Apple is also outsourcing the manufacturing of iPhone enclosures to Tata Electronics, which has a plant at Hosur, on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.
In December 2022, Foxconn announced an infusion of $500 million into its India unit. As per a stock exchange filing in Taiwan, Foxconn said its Singapore subsidiary is deploying the capital into the India entity, Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Private Limited
Read more at:
5.Microsoft is reportedly working on its own AI chips that can be used to train large language models and avoid a costly reliance on Nvidia. The Information reports that Microsoft has been developing the chips in secret since 2019, and some Microsoft and OpenAI employees already have access to them to test how well they perform for the latest large language models like GPT-4.
Nvidia is the key supplier of AI server chips right now, with companies racing to buy up these chips and estimates suggesting OpenAI will need more than 30,000 of Nvidia’s A100 GPUs for the commercialization of ChatGPT. Nvidia’s latest H100 GPUs are selling for more than $40,000 on eBay, illustrating the demand for high-end chips that can help deploy AI software.