Elon Musk causes stock market tremors among chip manufacturers

Tesla wants to reduce the expensive silicon carbide chips for its new mass model. Also: Infineon takes over Canadian manufacturer Gan and Neuralink is not allowed to test brain chips on humans for the time being.

Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.

The top topics:

The chip stocks of several corporations collapsed on Thursday. The trigger was an announcement by Tesla at his investor day. In Austin, the carmaker presented an electric drive that uses just a quarter of the silicon carbide chips previously required. Chips made with silicon carbide transistors have longer lifespans and are more energy efficient than semiconductors with silicon power transistors. But silicon carbide is expensive. Speaking at Investor Day, Colin Campbell, head of Tesla’s propulsion systems, said, “So using less of that is a big win for us.”

The shares of the Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics, the most important supplier of silicon carbide chips for Tesla, then fell by more than six percent at times. The papers of the Dax group Infineonthe American Sic specialist Wolfspeed and the Japanese competitor Rohm also collapsed. Silicon carbide chips are one of the main growth drivers for the corporations that are currently investing billions in new plants. [Mehr bei CNBC und Handelsblatt]

On the founding scene: ChatGPT impresses with almost human-sounding answers. But how does the tool fare when it comes to innovative business ideas? Are the suggestions suitable as a blueprint for the next unicorn? Our new editor Lara Jäkel did the test. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Infineon has announced the Canadian manufacturer Gan Systems to take over for 830 million US dollars. According to the Munich Dax group, the purchase will be financed from the available liquid funds. Ottawa-based Gan is one of the world’s leading suppliers of gallium nitride semiconductors, which are used in chargers for electric cars, among other things. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]

US regulators have rejected Elon Musk’s push to test brain chips on humans. In 2019, Musk announced for the first time that Neuralink would soon begin human trials of a revolutionary brain implant to treat intractable diseases. In early 2022, Neuralink applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval to do so. As reported by “Reuters”, they rejected the application, which has not yet been reported. [Mehr bei CNBC, Reuters und Techcrunch]

Instacart join the ChatGPT hype. Grocery delivery service adds a chatbot to its grocery app. The ChatGPT maker OpenAI is currently simplifying the process of integrating its software with external apps. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

investment: Blocpower, a Brooklyn-based climate technology company, has closed a nearly $155 million funding round. The round, which includes more than $24 million in Series B funding, was led by Volo Earth Ventures. The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Credit Suisse, Kimbal and Christina Musk, and NBA player Russell Westbrook also attended. The company also raised $130 million in debt financing. [Mehr bei CNBC]

a manned one SpaceXrocket successfully departed for the International Space Station on Thursday. The start was actually planned for the beginning of the week, but had to be postponed due to a technical problem. The four-person “Crew-6” is to replace the “Crew-5” after an exercise and remain on the ISS for six months. Elon Musk’s space company has been conducting manned missions for the Nasa through. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Ukraine war, inflation and energy crisis – there are many arguments against higher investments in startups. Here is the one now right time. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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Happy Friday!

Your Gründerszene editors