Connie Loizos
Silicon Valley Editor
The Latest from Connie Loizos
1,100+ notable signatories just signed an open letter asking ‘all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months’
Signatories including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Tristan Harris are asking AI labs to pause building AI more powerful than GPT-4.
The market has changed, but super-voting shares are here to stay, says Mr. IPO
Yesterday, the ride-sharing company Lyft said its two co-founders, John Zimmer and Logan Green, are stepping down from managing the company’s day-to-day operations, though they are retaining their b
‘Graceful way out’: Investors propose some struggling founders close shop and return funding
Their argument is that some startups simply raised too much, and that at this point a clean, well-planned exit is better than a messy one.
A $500 million term sheet in 12 hours: How Rippling struck a deal as SVB was melting down
As a serial entrepreneur who has famously endured some ups and downs, Parker Conrad thought he’d seen it all. Still, he never imagined that there would be a run on Silicon Valley Bank that would
Regulators are looking harder at insider stock sales by SVB execs (which really added up)
The Justice Department and SEC are investigating the stock sales that officers of Silicon Valley Bank made days before the bank failed, according to both the WSJ and the NYTimes. The probes are report
Investor Mark Suster says a “handful” of bad actors in VC destroyed Silicon Valley Bank
Yesterday at around noon in Los Angeles, investor Mark Suster of the venture firm Upfront Ventures began urging “calm” on Twitter. Silicon Valley Bank had bungled its messaging on Wednesda
Silicon Valley Bank shoots self in foot
It will go down in the history books about Silicon Valley: the time that its most prominent bank, a bank founded nearly 40 years earlier, inflicted such grievous injury on itself that it it had to be
Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, is betting the next big thing in AI is proving you are human
Fake virtual identities are nothing new. The ability to so easily create them has been both a boon for social media platforms — more “users” — and a scourge, tied as they are t
Felicis funded 50% more deals last year than in 2021, some as prices were still rising — and it says it has no regrets
Felicis, a now 17-year-old, San Francisco- and Menlo Park-based venture firm, is announcing today that it has closed its ninth flagship fund with $825 million, compared with the $600 million core fund
Chamath Palihapitiya: It could take three years for the market to ‘accurately’ reprice late-stage cos
Former Facebook exec turned VC Chamath Palihapitiya has long been a controversial figure in the investing world. Both brilliant and combative, Palihapitiya came to be known most widely by ushering in
Chris Rock to address ‘The Slap’ in Netflix’s first livestreamed broadcast this Saturday
Chris Rock is a widely beloved comic; he’s also a savvy entrepreneur. Though Rock might have talked with media outlets about being assaulted by actor-producer Will Smith last March during the Ac
Volition’s Larry Cheng on trying to raise a fund right now: ‘All of the LPs felt more constrained’
Last month, Volition Capital, a 13-year-old, 30-person Boston-based growth equity firm, announced it has closed its fifth fund with $675 million in capital commitments, bringing its total assets under
SignalFire’s founder says his VC firm lost staffers who ‘thought we were too cheap’ in prior years
For most founders, being seen by employees as cheap isn’t exactly a badge of honor, but venture investor Chris Farmer doesn’t mind. While Farmer’s 10-year-old, seed-stage venture fir
Can ‘we the people’ keep AI in check?
Technologist and researcher Aviv Ovadya isn’t sure that generative AI can be governed, but he thinks the most plausible means of keeping it in check might just be entrusting those who will be im
If Sequoia, Paradigm and Thoma Bravo settle a new lawsuit, it could upend VC; here’s why
It was only a matter of time before frustrated customers of the fallen crypto exchange FTX went after its deep-pocketed venture backers. Indeed, the most surprising thing about a class-action lawsuit
Bain Capital has closed its second Tech Opportunities fund with $2.4 billion
It’s always nice to have a lot of capital to invest, but managing a large new fund can be even more advantageous right now given that many later-stage companies that put off fundraising last yea
Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty and a newer startup, FIT:MATCH, team up to sell better-fitting lingerie
Shoppers at Rihanna’s lingerie brand Savage X Fenty may soon find it easier than ever to find products that fit their measurements. Last year, the brand made an investment in a four-year-old, Mi
In a trademark battle between an NFT artist and Hermès, the artist just lost
Artist Mason Rothschild thought he was sitting on a “goldmine” when he began creating digital versions of the iconic Hermès Birkin handbag and selling these as NFTs. Among them was an ani
Sequoia reveals in filing how much is sitting in its Sequoia Capital Fund (and yes, it’s a lot)
Almost a year ago to the day, the 50-year-old investing powerhouse Sequoia Capital announced that it had reorganized itself around a singular, permanent structure: The Sequoia Capital Fund. Now, thank
When the government is the customer (some things to keep in mind)
Five years ago, Google backed away from a Pentagon government contract because thousands of employees protested that its tech might be used for lethal drone targeting. Today, however, Silicon Valley h