Microsoft announces AI features for Office applications

The new “Copilot” is set to revolutionize day-to-day office work. Also: Difficulty at another US bank averted and Virgin Orbit furloughs most of its employees.

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

The top topics:

Microsoft right on the topic Artificial intelligence (AI) further ahead: The US software company presented AI-supported extensions of all Office applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Teams and Excel on Thursday. The assistant is called “Copilot” and was described as “Revolution” by the responsible Microsoft manager Jared Spataro. “Copilot” is powered by software created by ChatGPT developers OpenAI was developed by the startup Microsoft has backed with a multi-billion dollar investment.

On the other hand, the presentation of Baidu. China’s largest search engine operator presented its intelligent chatbot “Ernie Bot”. The group is under pressure to catch up with its US competitors when it comes to AI. But instead of a live demonstration, Baidu boss Robin Li only presented a video. This did not impress investors and market observers: the group’s share price fell by around ten percent on the Hong Kong stock exchange as a reaction. [Mehr bei Bloomberg, CNBC, CNBC, Handelsblatt und Handelsblatt]

On Founder Scene: More than 80 percent of startups in Germany are founded in teams – many of them among friends. There are plenty of prominent examples MyMuesli-Team about. However, many experts advise against it. founder Henning Staudt shares his experiences and gives tips on how to succeed. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Banking crisis in the US: The US Deposit Insurance Fund (FDIC) is asking prospective buyers to submit their offers for the Silicon Valley Bank and the Signature Bank to be submitted by Friday. At the same time, it became known that the major US institutes had joined forces to help the ailing bank First Republic Bank and thus prevent another bank failure. Eleven banks will hold a total of $30 billion in the bank. The San Francisco-based financial institution had rapidly expanded its wealth management business in recent years and also serves technology clients. [Mehr bei Reuters und Handelsblatt]

Virgin Orbit furloughed most of its employees on Wednesday and suspended operations. According to the US broadcaster CNBC, the management team is looking for new sources of funding. Virgin Orbit is a space company that is part of British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The company went public in August 2021 through a special purpose vehicle that valued the company at $3.2 billion at the time. After a failed rocket launch earlier in the year, the share price fell. As of Thursday, the market cap was down to just $225 million. [Mehr bei The Information]

TiktokCEO Shou Zi Chew claimed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that a sale of the video platform, as US authorities are currently demanding, would not resolve national security concerns. The US government is currently threatening to ban the app in the United States. After Tiktok to the Chinese group Bytedance heard, the authorities fear that Beijing could take away access to customer data from US citizens. According to the CEO, a multibillion-dollar plan Tiktok has proposed offers protections very similar to a sale. This plan provides Oracle as an American partner and to store the data of American users there. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

FTX announced that co-founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other founders have received $3.2 billion in loans from Alameda Research and other companies affiliated with FTX before the companies filed for bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried received $2.2 billion, former director of engineering Nishad Singh $587 million, and former chief technology officer Gary Wang $246 million. [Mehr bei Reuters und The Information]

Twitch-CEO Emmett Shear announced his resignation as CEO on Thursday. Shear had run the streaming platform for more than a decade. Shear was one of the original founders of Justin.tv, a live streaming precursor to Twitch. Twitch was founded in 2014 by Amazon acquired for $970 million. Shear is replaced by Dan Clancy, a former longtime Googlemanager who most recently served as President of Twitch. [Mehr bei The Information]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Which startups in Germany will be promoted to the prominent Unicorns club next? A new analysis shows it. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

Don’t want to miss anything? Then subscribe to our Gründerszene newsletter! It appears every morning at 8:30 a.m. and brings you all the important news straight to your inbox.

Happy Friday!

Your Gründerszene editors