DeepSeek kicks AI arms race into orbit + Major US VCs and founders hit the road
Plus: Latest on Potomac crash, Infometrics forecast growth from mid-year and should NZ be selling state assets?
Happy Friday!
We’ve made it to the end of January and what a first month back it’s been for news. If February keeps this pace of global events going I think I’ll be ready to retire come Easter. We’re kicking off today with a feature from me with a few thoughts on DeepSeek and it’s fundamental challenge to some billion dollar assumptions in Silicon Valley. Then we’re shouting out a cracker piece from Chris Keall at the Herald who has all the details of a Founder roadie this weekend we all wish we were invited to.
Here’s your Daily shot of news you don’t want to miss!
Cannonball run record holder, iPod creator hit New Zealand for 4X4 tour, looking for new investments
Cameron Bagrie: How to unlock a 'Go' economy in NZ
NZ for sale - Should we sell state assets? If so, what?
Potomac crash: More than 60 dead in Washington after jet, helicopter collide
Business confidence, economic growth to improve from mid-year
Your weekend fuel list of what to watch, listen to and read
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Finn & the Caffeine Team
Cannonball run record holder, iPod creator hit New Zealand for 4X4 tour, looking for new investments: Keep your eyes on the road this weekend because you might catch sight of some familiar faces. As Chris Keall reports for the Herald, co-founder of Shasta Ventures Rob Coneybeer will drive his second annual 4x4 Far Out convey around New Zealand from this weekend. Approximately 80 people will take part in the road trip - including “leading US tech founders, engineers, executives.” Some of these are luminaries like Tony Fadell, former senior vice-president at Apple, who then went on to found Nest and was one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Read the whole piece here and maybe sharpen up your latest pitch so it can be yelled to a passing car, you never know.
Cameron Bagrie: How do we unlock a 'Go' economy?: Back in my TV journalism days we knew we could always go to economist Cameron Bagrie for a blunt, no-nonsense take on money matters and I’m glad to say he’s still delivering them, this time in print. He uses this op-ed in Business Desk to upack the latest speech by the Reserve Bank’s Chief economist and highlight’s a few dire facts that were laid out in it:
Key Facts:
Since the early 2000s, GDP per capita in New Zealand has fallen from around 95% to just under 90% of the OECD average. This relative decline reflects declining labour productivity relative to the OECD average.
New Zealanders now work almost 20% more hours per person but produce around 25% less output per hour compared to the OECD average.
New Zealand is no longer a high-income OECD economy.
It makes for some stark reading but I think there are few people better at cutting through the noise of economic stories and delivering the essentials. Check out the full piece here.
NZ for sale - Should we sell state assets? If so, what?: Partly in response to numbers laid out above, one the many political debates rocking the country currently is to what extent we privatize public assets in order to free up cash. It’s one of the most consequential decisions we can make for our long-term economic health and while David Seymour argues the classic libertarian line that ‘the government is terrible at owning things’, this editorial from NZ Herald urges caution and against ‘a fire sale’ of assets. It also includes the memorable and somewhat sobering point from Sir John Key who explained in a recent interview New Zealand ‘Quite simply doesn’t have anything of value left to sell.’ Read the full editorial here.
Potomac crash: More than 60 dead in Washington after jet, helicopter collide: We’re still getting details of the horrific crash which saw an American Airlines passenger jet collide with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.
What we know so far (Via Reuters):
64 people were aboard passenger jet, airline says
Likely to be deadliest US air crash since 2001
Officials say no survivors, 67 presumed dead
Trump faults government diversity efforts
Passengers included US and Russian figure skaters
CNN reports Trump has somehow already blamed the crash on DEI initiatives and on his Democratic predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Read more live updates from RNZ here.
Business confidence, economic growth to improve from mid-year - Infometrics: Some at least directionally happy news to wash away the the previous grimness and another in the recent spat of ‘it’s still bad but getting better’ data stories. Nona Pelletier at RNZ reports businesses are expected to have more confidence to invest in the second half of the year as easing inflation and interest rates give consumers more spending money.
The numbers come via thinktank Infometrics and forecast annual growth of 2.5 percent from the middle of the year, following the Reserve Bank completing the latest round of interest rate cuts.
The piece quotes Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan who acknowledges there is still certainly a lot of strain across the economy but expects it to ease in the second half of the year. Read more here.
Here’s what’s on our radar. Hit us with your own recommendations.
📺Watch: I am happy to report that Severance Season 2 is just as astonishingly good as the first (at least so far) and has three episodes available now. It’s the weirdest, most beautifully shot show I have seen in many years and might just be the most creative thing on television currently. Please, I am so scared it will never get a third season if more people don’t watch. It’s on Apple TV, don’t even bother finishing the newsletter just go watch it right now, your boss will understand.
📖 Read: The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr is one of those rare books which make every book you read after it feel different. Storr uses an evidence-based approach to unpack what makes a good story, not just in terms of the craft but on a deeper, psychological and neuroscientific level. It’s fascinating and the best kind of writing about writing I’ve read in a long, long time
🎧Listen: I’ve shouted out Cautionary Tales by Tim Harford out before but in light of the terrible events in Washington, I thought it was worth pointing people to a fascinating pair of episode unpacking a previous aviation disaster and the lessons we might learn from it. This episode details the Tenerife disaster, the worst in aviation history and all the decisions which led to 583 people losing their lives. Listen here.
Zombie:
In a previous life, this was the drink that I wasn’t allowed to serve more than 2 of to a customer in a single evening. It’s big, bold and it will make you feel like its namesake. Sometimes though, that’s exactly what you’re after.
Ingredients
30ml Jamaican rum
30ml Puerto Rican gold rum
30ml 151-proof demerara rum
20ml ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
15ml ounce falernum
1 teaspoon grenadine
4 dashes Pernod
1 dash Angostura bitters
Garnish: mint sprig
Steps:
Add the Jamaica rum, Puerto Rican gold rum, demerara rum, Pernod, lime juice, falernum, grenadine and bitters into a blender, then add 6 ounces of crushed ice.
Blend at high speed for no more than 5 seconds.
Pour the contents into a tall glass or Tiki mug and add additional crushed ice to fill
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co. Look after yourselves this weekend and we’ll see you Monday.