The Hazelnut Heartthrob Iced Coffee + A $300 billion valuation🧋
This Week in Review☕: SuperBowl LIX in New Orleans | Egg prices continue to rise as people panic | Softbank to invest in OpenAI for a staggering amount | Musk rules out buying TikTok | Venice in Italy
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Quick Bites:
Sports🏈: Super Bowl locked in the stars with the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 this past weekend.
With more than 120 million viewers, the Super Bowl was.. well it was super for advertising!
With big brands flexing their muscle to grab viewers' attention, the thrill to outbid competitors has been REAL.
Even more real in 2025 with ads sold for $8 million dollars for a mere 30-second spot.
When you went to your neighbors Superbowl party just for the Buffalo Hot Wings and Potato Skins and people start talking to you about football stuff 🙄
"Belichick traded Jacoby Brisett knowing he'd hand the Chiefs an L 2 years later to give the Patriots control of the AFC.. Now do you see why the coach traded Jimmy Garoppollo for a 32nd round pick and a bag of Doritos?? Did y'all get that?
Yep, us neither 🤷🏻♀️
Key Highlights, reported by NBC News:
-The Super Bowl LIX took place this past Sunday at Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
-The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a commanding 40-22 victory
-Quarterback 'Jalen Hurts' scored on the ground and through the air, earning "Super Bowl MVP" this year
-Fox, which aired the game, said in November that it had sold out of ad spots- with more than 10 of those commercials costing advertisers $8 million apiece
-In addition, Donald Trump attended the game this year, which made him the first sitting President to attend a Super Bowl in history
-Taylor Swift was also in the crowd to support her boyfriend, the Chiefs Travis Kelce, among other A-list celebs
This year's ads leaned heavily on celebrities, humor and nostalgia. The ads that stood out:
The return of Ben Affleck's DunKings for Dunkin Donuts-
The Ben Affleck-approved DunKings menu from Dunkin shown below:
The Hazelnut Heartthrob Iced Coffee, The Crispy Munch Skewers, Everything Encore Breakfast Sandwich, DunKings Iced Coffee and Mixed Berry Beats Refresher!
Other ads featured big stars like Glenn Powell, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt, as well as singers Charlie XCX and Seal- as a seal.
Also, notable was Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal's "When Harry Met Sally" reunion for Hellmann's Mayonnaise:
Our Thoughts💡:
The SuperBowl every year: Please join us as we gather together to celebrate gluttony and borderline alcoholism, all in the name of commercials..
Because sharing germs from various bacon-onion dips and boozing yourself into a coma with strangers is called PATRIOTISM 🤯
Food 🍳 : Egg prices continue to rise across the US and globally due to a shortage caused by a bird flu outbreak.
Consumers are expected to feel the pain for a while as the industry has seen more than 20 consecutive months of record-high demand.
WE BELIEVED WHAT EVERYONE SAID AND STOCKED UP ON FREE-RANGE TABLE BROWN BEFORE THINGS GOT THIS BAD. WE HAVE 20 DOZEN EGGS FROM WALGREENS FOR $50
NOONE, WE MEAN, NOONE F**KS WITH OUR MORNING EGGS AVO TOAST 🖕🏻
The shortage has strained the country to the extent that around 100,000 eggs were stolen out of a trailer in Pennsylvania recently, CNN reports.
They are valued at $40,000, according to police.
Some grocers have put limits on how many eggs a shopper can buy on one trip because “people start to panic buy eggs.”
“People recognize the value in eggs, even with a slightly elevated price, and are also finding that eggs are indispensable to their daily lives”
Key Highlights, reported by CNN:
-Beef, coffee and orange juice have also become more expensive
-Eggs, however, have been uniquely impacted by the aggressive strain of avian flu, which has strained supply
-Nearly half of all birds killed by the virus in 2024 were egg-laying hen deaths that occurred in December, according to the USDA
-The national average price of eggs was a hot issue in the leadup to the US presidential election
Our Thoughts💡:
With this egg shortage, we’re starting to feel like millionaires- because at this rate, affording a cheese omelette is basically a luxury🍳💰
Finance💡: Softbank set to invest $40 billion in OpenAI at $260 billion pre-money valuation.
SoftBank would pay out the funding to the ChatGPT maker over the next 12 to 24 months, with the first payment coming as soon as spring.
"Those who rule data will rule the entire world
-Masayoshi Son"
Umm ofcourse Open AI's valuation is gonna be a bajillion f**king dollars
Therapy is expensive but venting to ChatGPT is free. The choice is obvious. DUH
Key Highlights, reported by CNBC:
-Softbank's $40 billion primary investment would mean a $300 billion post-money valuation for OpenAI
-SoftBank would be able to syndicate as much as $10 billion of the amount
-The new funding would mean SoftBank surpasses Microsoft as the AI startup’s top investor
-Part of the funding is to be used for "Stargate"- the joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle announced by President Donald Trump in January
-Stargate requires billions of dollars to be invested in the US AI infrastructure
Background💡: OpenAI was last valued at $157 billion in October 2024.
Since then, the company has had a $4 billion revolving line of credit, with an option to increase it by an additional $2 billion. This brings its total liquidity to more than $10 billion, according to CNBC.
The $6.6 billion raised last year was also by an impressive roster of major investment firms and big tech companies like:
JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Wells Fargo, SMBC, UBS, and HSBC.
Things Sam Altman's success has taught us:
A degree doesn’t guarantee success
Nothing beats a good night sleep
Make your coffee at home
Food is expensive
Furniture is expensive
Read the fine print
Don't trust humans
Trust bots
Buy the DIP
Big Tech📱: Elon Musk rules out buying TikTok, amid speculation he could acquire the app's US business, Bloomberg reports.
Umm THANK GOD. If Elon Musk did buy TikTok, get ready for "For You, but on Mars"- plus every dance trend will require a Tesla to participate
His comment, at a conference in Germany last month, was made public on Saturday:
Musk said he doesn't use TikTok, and added that he prefers to build companies from scratch.
"I have not put in a bid for TikTok [..] I don't have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok."
Apple and Google have not reinstated TikTok to their app stores since the ban took effect in January.
Trump has said that he was in talks with multiple people over the app’s purchase and would likely have a decision on its future this month. It has about 170 million American users.
Our Thoughts: TikTok got banned, and now people have to actually dance at weddings instead of practicing in their bedrooms all year round
TRAGIC 😭💃
Work🏡: Is remote work only for the rich?
According to The New York Times, Remote work is increasingly a privilege reserved for the wealthy.
Hmm working from home can def make you a lotta money but it can also have its disadvantages. We miss the office politics, the need to wear underwear, not being broke or quarantined, not having to find toilet paper or hand sanitizer, to wash our hands and to stop touching our fkn face
Citing research by Stanford economist Nick Bloom, The Times reports that people earning $100,000 or less per year have seen their WFH days decrease by 16%.
Meanwhile, those who earn more than $200,000 annually have lost just 5% of their WFH days.
The research shows the increasing wealth gap of who gets to work from home.
However, while workers are told to return to the office, remote CEOs gravitate toward states with lower taxes in income and capital gains. Infact, 15% of remote CEOS live on the beach.
In addition, separate data shows that the further away a CEO lives from headquarters, the more likely a company is to underperform.q
Quicker Bites:
Trump sets 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium.
Ed Sheeran stopped from busking in Bengaluru by Indian police.
Musk calls to impeach judge whose order blocks DOGE from Treasury systems access.
Meta’s 2025 layoffs are underway.
Hamas says it is postponing next hostage release.
Venice, Italy doubles day tripper fees in 2025.
Hong Kong will file complaint to WTO on US tariffs, official says.
French antitrust agency probing Microsoft over Bing access.