| Hi, Agen. We promise we didn’t mean for this to turn into another AI-obsessed edition of the newsletter, but when tech giants are literally throwing billions of dollars at artificial intelligence startups, we have to take notice. The latest is Amazon, which is investing as much as $4 billion into one of OpenAI’s rivals, marking the second-largest venture funding deal this year. We also look at SoftBank’s self-described AI offensive and ponder whether an AI tool can help you dream up your next billion-dollar business idea. But first, let’s look at batteries. It seems battery startups lately are powering up with giant funding rounds at an unusually rapid pace. In roughly the past month alone, we’ve seen three financings of more than $1 billion, including to the battery recycling startup founded by Tesla’s former CTO. Why are investors suddenly so fired up about batteries? Related Crunchbase Pro list: Battery-Related Venture Funding Amazon is investing as much as $4 billion into Anthropic, a generative AI rival to Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google’s Bard, as the tech giants battle for supremacy in artificial intelligence. Can ChatGPT or another AI tool dream up the next billion-dollar business idea? Business strategist Dan Kraemer, who’s worked with brands such as Nike and FedEx to help them create new products from scratch, says he thinks AI can — and will — invent the next Airbnb. Here’s how. SoftBank has had some big hits — Arm, Uber and Slack come to mind — but major misses (WeWork, Zume, Katerra, the list goes on …) as well. So one could be forgiven for being a little skeptical about its latest pronouncement about the AI revolution. We look at where SoftBank and its Vision Fund have actually been placing bets on artificial intelligence. Related Crunchbase Pro list: SoftBank Vision Fund Investments We know, we know. You’re getting tired of reading about AI. But investors didn’t seem to get the memo: Last week, three of the top four largest U.S. startup funding deals went to companies doing things with artificial intelligence, including a $280 million round to an AI-powered mapping company. The deal was led by, you guessed it, SoftBank. | 
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