Increasing tech layoffs in 2024

PLUS: Alt Capital raises $150M venture fund

Author

Wishu
February 05, 2024

Hello đź‘‹

Welcome to another edition of Tech Creator! There are goodies and sour lemons to relish today: 

Alt Capital raises $150M venture fund

OpenAI’s Sam Altman’s Younger Bro, Jack Altman, is the new Santa in town. Jack has raised a $150 million venture fund for his VC firm Alt Capital. 

The fund will be used to invest in early-stage startups focused on enterprise software and AI. 

Funding round insights

  • Sustainability and infrastructure firm Generate Capital went big with $1.5B in funding. That’s a hattrick in billion-dollar funding rounds for Generate Capital - $1.1B in 2023 and $1B in 2021 – $4.5B in total. 

  • Generative AI startup Kore.ai raised $150M in a round led by FTV Capital. 

  • Another AI startup, Zum, raised $140M in a Series E round led by GIC. 

  • Biotech startup Cour Pharmaceuticals raised $105M in a Series A round led by Lumira Ventures. 

  • Inari and Watershed were other $100M babies in funding rounds this week. 

Increasing layoffs in 2024

Over 5,800 tech workers lost their jobs to layoffs in the past week. Microsoft shed 1,900 workers from its just-acquired Activision Blizzard division and will continue trimming its Xbox and ZeniMax divisions. 

Zoom’s latest layoff affected 2% of its employees. In 2023, it bade farewell to 15% of its workforce. 

The list also includes names like 2U, Aurora, eBay, Fashinza, Brex, Hubspot, Veho, TikTok, Riot Games, and Salesforce, among others. 

In 2024 alone, 12,402 workers at US-based tech companies have lost their jobs. Eee! It is not a great beginning for a promising year. 

But how did the previous years fare?

In 2023, the numbers reached as high as 191,000 workers laid off in mass job cuts in the US alone. 

In 2022, 93,000 workers lost their jobs to mass layoffs. 

Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet had the biggest workforce reductions in 2023. 

What’s behind the layoff trend in global tech companies?

  • AI boom and Automation efficiency eliminating certain job roles 

  • Companies are anticipating a recession 

  • Overhiring during the Pandemic boom period

  • Changing economic conditions

  • Rising interest rates

  • Focus on short-term profitability 

Here’s a great roundup by The Washington Post: The U.S. economy is booming. So why are tech companies laying off workers?

Apple’s Vision Pro is your tv + computer combined in a better way

The $3,500  headset arrived in the company’s physical US stores on Friday. The market already has lower-cost rivals from Meta, HTC, etc. Whether Apple’s Vision Pro beats its rivals towards mass adoption is yet to be seen. 

Meanwhile, Galaxy S24 Series AI-powered photo editing features are facing backlash for inconsistencies, but the company stands by its potential wonders. 

Tesla’s biggest “recall” to date

Nothing to worry about! It was a hook to grab your eyeballs. Winks 

Tesla is recalling 2.19 vehicles sold in the last 12 years to fix a font size issue with warning lights. It would be an over-the-air software fix. So, No, you don’t need to hand over your Tesla to the dealership for hands-on repair.

Tesla will release a software update free of charge to address the issue.

On the other hand, shares of Tesla fell over 3% in early trading Friday following the news.  They've lost more than 26% of their value so far this year.

Bite-sized news: