Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of December 11, 2023. Assembly AI Raised $50M Series C

Happy Monday! 

• Meta helps me speak French - I just tried out Meta’s SeamlessExpressive, a new AI translation model by Meta which enables speech translation that maintains my vocal style, tone. I know how to speak French.  Check this out!
• Will People Always Work?  I believe we can use AI to free us from tasks we don’t want to do and let us focus on more meaningful work. Think about jobs that existed 50 years ago - elevator operator, milkman or encyclopedia salesman. Even if these jobs exist today you would not want to do it? Check out my talk at FII Hong Kong this past week. 
• Elon Musk may have a plan to save X, and it doesn't involve advertising, free speech, or financial services. And the answer is again - AI.  And it is called X.ai disclosed in an SEC filing that it's raising up to $1 billion in equity funding, with nearly $135 million already banked. It's unclear if X.ai sits under the same corporate umbrella (X Holdings Corp.)  Read on Axio
• How can Shein justify $100B in valuation?  Here is the answer: $23B in revenue $800M in net profit in 2022, $10B revenue in 2020.  $5B revenue in 2019 with over 10,000 employees Read more on Bloomberg.  Meanwhile Zara’s revenue is $23B Euro and  H&M's revenue at $22B. 
• China “Lying Flat” Culture 101 - In China, terms like “lying flat” and “let it rot” have been used to describe a movement brewing among young Chinese who seem ready to give up when faced with challenges such as widespread unemployment and a high cost of living. It’s funny but sad.

This week a total of 16 startups raised $338.2M in funding, 0 M&As: 

• $218M goes to 8 Enterprise startups
• $6.8M goes to 1 InsurTech startup
• $18M goes to 1 Web3/Crypto startup
• $14.6M goes to 1 EdTech startup
• $3.2M goes to 1 eCommerce startup
• $12M goes to 1 BioTech startup
• $9M goes to 1 Cleantech startup
• $34M goes to 1 Aerospace startup
• $22.6M goes to 1 Hardware startup