Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of September 25, 2023. Writer Raised $100M Series B

I am so happy to be back to San Francisco this week and absolutely loving the cooler weather.  Singapore and Hong Kong are both so hot and humid..

Here are a few great reads, watch, etc for this week:

• 💰 💰 VC firm GGV Capital split the firm amidst rising tensions between the U.S. and China - GGV is following in the footsteps of Sequoia splitting their firm into two entities. The U.S.-based entity will continue to invest primarily in the U.S. and Europe, whereas the Asia division will invest in China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. I really hate to see splinternet is now spilling over to venture investing. I think this poses a significant threat to business, innovation, and even democracy itself.  Read more
• 🇨🇳 🇨🇳 China now has at least 130 large language models (LLMs) - accounting for 40% of the global total and just behind the United States' 50% share, according to brokerage CLSA. In the next 6-12 months, LLMs in China with lower capacities will gradually be eliminated due to chip restrictions, high costs and intensifying competition. Read more
• 🎧🎧 Airbnb: Building (and Rebuilding) User Trust to Revolutionize Travel -  I really enjoy Sequoia's new podcast series called the Crucible Moments. I particularly like Brian Chesky's Airbnb story. It is amazing to think about ""Office is now Zoom. The Mall is now Amazon. The Theatre is now Netflix and the Hotel is now Airbnb." Take a listen
• 📱📱 Huawei is emulating Apple in developing the processors that power its latest smartphone, a breakthrough that will help the Chinese company to reduce its reliance on foreign technology as it confronts US sanctions. Huawei has been struggling since 2019 under sanctions aimed at cutting off its access to advanced chips, equipment and software from the US for making 5G smartphones, forcing it to pivot to selling 4G gadgets and focus on its home market. While Huawei is still licensing Arm’s basic designs, its own HiSilicon chip design business has improved on them in building its own processor cores on the Mate’s Kirin 9000S SoC. Read more
• 🔊🔊 October 18 with Nuance and Otter.ai - I am hosting Paul Ricci (founder of Nuance) and Sam Liang (founder of Otter.ai) on October 18 to chat about the future of Voice AI.  This unique gathering brings together trailblazing founders, innovators, engineers and researchers to share their insights, experiences, and visions for the future. Discover the challenges and opportunities that come with building and scaling Voice AI companies. Apply to join

This week a total of 15 startups raised $318.7M in funding, 5 M&As:

• $238.5M goes to 8 Enterprise startups
• $25M goes to 2 FinTech startups
• $13M goes to 1 Recruiting startup
• $8M goes to 1 Health Tech startup
• $12.5M goes to 1 Energy startup
• $12M goes to 1 Logistics startup
• $9.7M goes to 1 Environment startup