MC.37: A $125M bet to disrupt music

This week, Suno raises $125M to disrupt music, H's $220M seed round to build AGI, and Scarlett Johansson questions ChatGPT Sky voice.

Author

Samuel ROY
May 23, 2024

In partnership with

Hello everyone,

This week saw massive financing rounds, and it feels like AGI is at the gates, with investors eager not to miss the companies building it.

One unexpected event is the Suno financing round at $125 million. The CEO believes he can generate $120 million in revenue per year with a $10 subscription per month.

Their goal is clear: disrupt the music industry.

They rely on network effects, as people will share the tracks they create and listen to their friends' tracks. AI-generated music will improve continuously, and infrastructure costs will decrease and become marginal.

Investors are making a big bet: will people turn to AI-generated music or have the money to spend on both Spotify and Suno?

Their competitor Udio must be smiling, as it's a strong signal to other investors: those who missed the Suno round can invest in them.

Cheers,

Sam

In this issue:

💸 TechCrunch: French AI startup H raises $220M seed round
🏗️ Scale: Series F to become the data foundry for AI
🎵 Suno: $125 million to build a future where anyone can make music
🤖 Rusher.ai: The AI Copilot for Modern Marketing Teams
🗂️ Microsoft: New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot
📉 Replit: cuts staff by 30
🍎 Digits to Dollars: Why is Apple Making a Data Center Chip?
🎙️ Scarlett Johansson: asking answers about ChatGPT Sky voice
💬 Tom Tungunz: Chatting With Her
🔄 Andreessen Horowitz: AI’s Second Order Effects

Updates & tools

TechCrunch: French AI startup H raises $220M seed round
A new French AI startup, H, raised an unheard-of $220M seed round and aims to build AGI. The founders' backgrounds at DeepMind make me excited to see what they create next year. MORE

Scale: Series F to become the data foundry for AI
Scale just closed a $1B financing round, making it clear they're serious about being the leading data foundry for AI. With this much funding, they can pretty much become whatever they want. MORE

Suno: $125 million to build a future where anyone can make music
Suno raised $125M to make music creation accessible to everyone, but I'm curious about their business model. Would people really spend $10 a month for AI-generated music? That's what the CEO think. MORE

Rusher.ai: The AI Copilot for Modern Marketing Teams
You can create memes by just telling the AI your topic or giving it a URL. It's funny and works well. MORE

Microsoft: New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot now goes beyond being a personal assistant to help with meetings, chats, and project management. With integration across Microsoft’s ecosystem, it’s hard for others to compete. MORE

Replit: cuts staff by 30
Replit, a platform for developers, laid off 30 employees as it pivots aggressively towards AI. It's tough to balance innovation and profitability, even for a leading company. MORE

Digits to Dollars: Why is Apple Making a Data Center Chip? 
Apple has been working on AI for years, from Siri to machine learning improvements, and now they seem to be building their own foundational model. Could this be Apple's next big innovation, a hybrid LLM where inference is done half on the edge and half in the cloud? MORE

Scarlett Johansson: asking answers about ChatGPT Sky voice
Scarlett Johansson's lawyers demand answers from OpenAI about the voice "Sky" that sounds like her. From the start, OpenAI aimed to create the “Her” experience. This raises questions about voice likeness and data usage for companies like Suno. MORE

Tom Tungunz: Chatting With Her
I can't picture my colleagues and me talking to AI assistants for work. Even with noise-canceling headsets, it feels dystopian and less efficient than keyboard shortcuts for most use cases. MORE

Andreessen Horowitz: AI’s Second Order Effects
The article discusses how AI could make previously unviable business models work due to lower support and sales costs. As a side note, I believe successful companies can be run by fewer people because of AI, like Telegram and WhatsApp did with great engineering. MORE

What do you think of this email?

You can add more feedback after choosing an option 👇

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Join the live session: automate compliance & streamline security reviews

Whether you’re starting or scaling your company’s security program, demonstrating top-notch security practices and establishing trust is more important than ever.

Vanta automates compliance for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more, saving you time and money — while helping you build customer trust.

And, you can streamline security reviews by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing Trust Center, all powered by Vanta AI.

Reply

or to participate.