Dear readers,
Since our first issue last week, a lot of new faces have been added here, which makes us very happy.
Our claim: We stay tuned! Even if we initially receive a rejection for some research. Because some start-up minds simply don't want to go public.
This is also the case with Gundbert Scherf, head of the Helsing arms company. He almost never gives interviews - even though his company could play a key role in Europe's security. My colleagues Christina Kyriasoglou and Kirsten Bialdiga still managed to talk to him. The result? Read our top story.
These are our topics
this week
:
How Helsing and other AI start-ups are shaking up the war industry
How start-up investor Janna Ensthaler is getting her children ready for the AI age
What's behind the restructuring at SAP
Exclusive research: How the AI warriors of Helsing are transforming the defense industry
Helsing
is considered one of the most financially strong AI start-ups in Europe (valued at $1.8 billion). The CEO
Gundbert Scherf
(41) and his company are revolutionizing the way of waging war: The company is upgrading combat systems such as the Eurofighter with artificial intelligence. Our inside report on Scherf and rivals like
Quantum Systems
shows how AI could make humans superfluous in the future when deciding whether to live or die in war.
Heads: Janna Ensthaler ++ Janina Mütze ++ Alexander Samwer ++ Dirk Wössner
The digital entrepreneur
Janna Ensthaler
(40) co-founded companies such as Glossybox (beauty subscription boxes), and she now heads her 100 million euro Green Generation Fund. Ensthaler told my colleague Sonja Banze how she wants to get her children ready for the AI age.
Entrepreneur
Janina Mütze
(33) files for bankruptcy for her market research start-up Civey. The aim of the maneuver is apparently to reorganize the group of shareholders in protective shield proceedings, i.e. in self-administration insolvency. New investors are already ready, as the company itself writes on Linkedin. The decision was preceded by “differences of opinion among the shareholders”.
Almost all of the richest Germans now have family offices so that their assets can be managed by specialists. For the first time, manager magazin presents the 50 largest such single-family offices in the Republic. Among them are selected techies: such as
Alexander Samwer
(48; Picus, formerly Rocket Internet) or the SAP founders
Hasso Plattner
(80) and
Dietmar Hopp
(83).
The former Telekom Germany boss
Dirk Wössner
(54) goes among financial investors and takes on a job as managing director at the financial investor
Warburg Pincus
, reports my colleague Mirjam Hecking. There he meets an old acquaintance.
Column: Why start-ups that solve real problems are now getting millions
Not only has financing for start-ups fallen drastically compared to previous years. Suddenly tech companies that solve real problems are given millions, analyzes investor
Judith Dada
in her column. She explains what’s behind it – and why investors have to change.
Round-up: SAP ++ GoStudent ++ OpenAI ++ Ebay ++ Microsoft
AI terminations:
Europe's largest software manufacturer
SAP
wants to expand its business with artificial intelligence. To achieve this, CEO
Christian Klein
(43) is turning the company around: not only is he investing billions in AI, he also wants to cut 8,000 jobs. The restructuring is expected to cost two billion euros. The stock market celebrates it.
And even more waves of layoffs :
Microsoft
is cutting 1,900 jobs (8 percent of the workforce)
in its gaming division .
They have identified overlaps and want to secure growth. There were also layoffs again at the tutoring start-up
GoStudent
. The company postponed achieving profitability until this year. And eBay also announced that it wanted to cut almost one in ten jobs. That corresponds to around 1000 jobs.
Makes Haribo (and Rewe) happy
: The food start-up
Infinite Roots
from Hamburg develops mushroom-based foods. With
Rewe
and one of the
Haribo
shareholders, two big players from the German food industry are now investing in the company. The current financing round brings together 58 million dollars (53.2 million euros).
Chip plans:
OpenAI boss
Sam Altman
(38) wants to build his own factories for the production of computer chips. And he is relying on political support for this: He apparently tried to win over members of the US Congress for his plans.
Spotlight:
The Chinese cheap app
Temu
is always finding new bargain hunters with its Tiktok strategy - including in Germany. One in four people here has now shopped at Temu. Still worth reading: My colleague Christina Kyriasoglou's analysis of why German traders are rightly getting nervous.
Number of the week: $3 trillion
That's how much the US software company
Microsoft
is now worth - it is the second company ever (after Apple) to break the market value hurdle of three trillion dollars. The main reason for this is the current boom in artificial intelligence, from which Microsoft is particularly benefiting.
Skilling me softly: Linkedin hack
Well, already posted on Linkedin today?
This could be worthwhile for you not only because of the likes, but also financially. A current study by Boris Groysberg from Harvard Business School and Eric Lin shows: Our visibility also determines the level of our salary. Why this is the case – and for whom exactly a Linkedin presence is worthwhile.
Error 404 – this was still missing:
When it was founded in 2015, OpenAI
announced
that it wanted to work more transparently than other tech giants and therefore make all important company documents publicly accessible. Hence the name OpenAI. The directive has since been quietly withdrawn, as an inquiry by the US magazine Wired revealed. Not that after the drama surrounding the temporary expulsion of co-founder Sam Altman there were still many doubts about the lack of transparency of the billion-dollar company.
And that's it for this week's tech update, we'll read it again next Friday. We welcome any questions, comments or criticism: tech-update@manager-magazin.de.
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Many greetings
Sarah Heuberger