Layoffs in ’99, Microsoft’s plans for ChatGPT and what matters in the market

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Microsoft’s plans for ChatGPT

Microsoft will increase its bet on OpenAI, owner of artificial intelligence (AI) software ChatGPT and Dall-E, and invest $10 billion in the company, valuing it at US$ 29 billion, published the American website Semafor.

The information is in line with that released by the Wall Street Journal last week. The paper reported that employees were cleared to sell their shares at the same $29 billion valuation.

Big tech had already invested $1 billion in 2019 at the laboratory, which had Elon Musk among its founders – the billionaire left the company in 2018.

In numbers: Semafor claimed that Microsoft will own 75% of OpenAI’s profits until it recovers its initial investment.

• Upon reaching that threshold, Microsoft would have a 49% stake in OpenAI, with other investors getting 49% and the non-profit parent taking 2%.

There is skepticism among investors about OpenAI’s ability to make money, the WSJ reported.

• Sam Altman, the company’s CEO, told investors recently that the startup could generate $1 billion in annual revenue from charging consumers and businesses for its products, according to the newspaper.

Microsoft’s plans for ChatGPT: excited about the success of the chatbot that writes articulate texts, poems and even codes, the big tech plans to integrate it into the Bing search engine and also into Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, according to the website The Verge.

• Tests in Word are being done on the autocomplete tool, while in Outlook the idea is that users can find what they are looking for without having to search for keywords in emails.

Layoffs at 99

99, from the app travel service, promoted a wave of layoffs this week.

A list circulating on Linkedin shows at least 77 layoffs, including professionals from different areas. Founded in 2012 as an app to call taxis, the Brazilian company was bought in 2018 by the giant Didi, the “Chinese Uber”.

The company does not confirm how many people have been laid off, but said the move is part of a restructuring process to increase the focus on financial and delivery services.

Leads of layoffs: the 99 is yet another Brazilian unicorn cutting costs in the face of the new scenario of high interest rates and less incentives for investments.

• At the end of 2022, it was the turn of big techs like Meta, Twitter and Microsoft.

Changes: the column Panel SA reported that 99 decided to end its delivery operation with delivery partners in the app. 99Food will now have just one marketplace service.

The company announced this Tuesday the launch of the 99Entrega Moto Corporativo service, aimed at companies of all sizes. The idea is to transport products in the so-called last mile.

Another blow to the goal

The IPCA ended 2022 with an accumulated increase of 5.79%, the IBGE reported this Tuesday (10). It was the second consecutive time that Brazilian inflation ended the year above the target ceiling (5% in 2022).

In an open letter, the president of the BC, Roberto Campos Neto, said that the inflation inherited from the previous year and the increase in commodities contributed to the target being exceeded.

In numbers: in December, the high was 0.62%, above the median forecast by analysts (0.44%). Therefore, the annual advance also came above the projected, which was high of 5.60%.

For 2023, the market predicts a new burst of the inflation target. The latest BC bulletin Focus projected the IPCA in 5.36% for next year, when the target will be 3.25%, with a margin of 1.5 points.

What explains the 2022 IPCA:

– Food high: the food and beverage group went up 11.64% in the year and had an impact of 2.41 percentage points on the index.

• The advance came in the wake of the rise in price of agricultural commodities with the war in Ukraine and also damage in the field due to drought and frost.

• Emphasis on the skyrocketing prices of onions (130.14%), the item that rose the most in the year. See the list of the biggest highs and lows here.

– Drop in fuel: the reduction of taxes on fuel and electric energy, in the second half of the year, eased inflation. The group of transports had the biggest decrease, of 1.29%.

• Gasoline dropped 25.78% and had the biggest negative impact on the index (-1.70 percentage points). Also noteworthy is the drop in electricity (-19.01%), after the end of the 2021 water scarcity banner.

Race for green hydrogen

Considered the fuel of the future and one of the protagonists of the energy transition, green hydrogen must see its evolution pass through Brazil.

This is due to the country’s potential in renewable energy, which can make it the cheapest green hydrogen producer in the world, according to BloombergNEF accounts.

Understand: to be used as fuel, hydrogen needs to be separated from some raw material, which today is mainly of fossil origin, such as natural gas (grey hydrogen), oil (blue) or coal (brown), in processes that emit CO2.

• Green hydrogen is so named because it is a clean fuel derived from water. To produce it, a chemical process –electrolysis– is usually applied, which uses an electric current to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water.

• In this case, the energy source adopted is clean, such as solar or wind. This is where the Brazilian differential appears.

The challenges: the main obstacle is the transport of hydrogen, which requires storage at low temperatures and high pressure. Technologies for large-scale production are not ready either.

The benefits are promising. Only replacing gray hydrogen with green would save 830 million tons of carbon per year, equivalent to the emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined, according to calculations by the International Energy Agency.

In progress: in Brazil, the planned investments go from BRL 180 billionwith the majority of projects in the Northeast, the region with the greatest potential for clean energy.

• Most of them, however, are still in the early stages. One that is advanced is the Unigel factory, in Bahia, which will use hydrogen to produce ammonia.