🔍 This Week on Upside:
We’re going full spectrum this week: markets moving, EVs charging faster than ever, biblical-level AI revelations, Google splashing the cash, and even MI5 making a guest appearance (kind of) – what’s really happening in European venture.
💸 Markets Corner
- Klarna Files for IPO – Targeting $15B valuation, down from $45B in 2021 but still a major move for European fintech.
- CoreWeave’s Massive Leap – From $16M to $1.9B revenue in 2 years and acquiring Weights & Biases for $1.7B. IPO incoming.
- Google x Wiz – Google’s record $23B acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz. Massive exit, but will the FTC let it slide?
⚡ EV Watch
- BYD’s Battery Breakthrough – 5-minute charge for 470km? Game-changing for the industry. Tesla and Mercedes scrambling to keep up.
- Tesla Recall Woes – Cybertrucks recalled due to panels potentially peeling off mid-highway. Not ideal.
🍽️ Food, Forever?
- Bryan Johnson’s “Foodome” Vision – Sequencing the American diet like the human genome. Lofty or legit?
- ZOE’s churn problem – Are personalised nutrition startups sticky enough?
- UPF, Sugar Taxes, and Regulation – The gang debates whether real change comes from startups… or governments.
🧠 AI Corner
- AI Jesus Speaks (a.k.a. Jensen Huang) – Nvidia’s GTC: new chips (Blackwell Ultra, Vera Rubin, Feynman) and bullish takes on reasoning + agentic AI.
- Stargate vs. AIP – OpenAI’s mega-scale GPU buildout vs. Elon Musk’s counterplay with Microsoft, UAE, and BlackRock.
- Europe Reacts – Macron’s €100B+ bet on sovereign AI and the case for Mistral leading Europe’s AI frontier.
🇪🇺 Europe in Focus
- Data centers are consuming up to 30% of Ireland’s electricity
- European VCs (hello Index Ventures 👋) are behind some of the biggest tech exits ever
- Does Europe need its own AI stack? The guys debate strategic autonomy vs. commoditised smarts
🔐 Startup Espionage Files
- Rippling vs. Deel, Flexport vs. FreightMate – Dirty tactics, source code theft, and lawsuits flying.
- Dan’s MI5 Story – An underground bunker, bugs from the CCP, and a face-to-face with British intelligence.
- Lessons from the frontlines – Where does know-how end and IP theft begin? What happens when founders cross lines?
💤 Longevity, Sleep & 7PM Bryan
- Bryan Johnson’s hyperbaric adventures, shocking news (literally), and… nighttime erections?
- Why “7PM Bryan” is the biggest threat to longevity
- Can Europe’s emerging “longevity clinic” wave go mainstream?
🎧 Memorable Quotes
“At some point, we’re going to wake up and realise the food system was as damaging as cigarettes.” – Lomax
“We should invent our own future, not copy the US.” – Andrew J. Scott
“20% of Ireland’s electricity goes to data centres — heading to 30%.” – Lomax
“Only the paranoid survive.” – Dan
🧠 TL;DR
A jam-packed episode ranging from Klarna’s public debut to hyperbaric chambers, from AI arms races to startup cloak-and-dagger moves. It’s tech, it’s geopolitics, it’s nutrition, and it’s deeply European — as always.