| Hi, Agen. Storied Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital has invested in OpenAI, Unity and a long list of other AI-related companies — 70 and counting, in fact. We recently spoke with one of Sequoia’s partners about the firm’s growing AI portfolio. Plus, let’s look at last week’s 10 largest U.S. startup funding deals and which companies joined our Tech Layoffs Tracker. A year ago, about 16% of Sequoia Capital’s new investments were in artificial intelligence startups. So far in 2023, that number has jumped to nearly 60%. We recently spoke with Stephanie Zhan, a partner at the firm who invests in seed and early-stage companies, about Sequoia’s AI investments, which the firm says now span 70-plus portfolio companies. Related Crunchbase Pro list: Sequoia Capital AI Portfolio Companies There is only one way to describe funding last week — incredibly slow. For the first time in a while, there wasn’t a round that hit nine figures. After a strong close to the summer, the fall has brought a chilling effect to big funding rounds. See also: The Crunchbase Megadeals Board OpenAI, the startup behind the artificial intelligence tools ChatGPT and DALL-E, will see its valuation jump thanks to a tender offer of employee stock, while Chinese competitor Zhipu AI reported investments from the likes of Alibaba and Tencent. Last week was another busy one in layoff news as mega-companies Alphabet and LinkedIn reported still more layoffs, and Greycroft, a seed- to growth-stage VC firm, trimmed its investor ranks. Parking-related companies funded in the past three years have collectively pulled in at least $2.9 billion in equity financing to date, Crunchbase data shows. Some of that money went to fund the biggest M&A transaction of the year by a private, VC-backed company. Who knew there was so much money to be made helping people find a spot to temporarily abandon their cars? Related Crunchbase Pro list: Funded Parking-Related Startups The IPO market seems to be perking up. If you’re a startup CEO thinking about taking your company public soon, here’s a three-part checklist from guest author Mike Whitmire, who’s worked alongside several companies in the IPO process. Related Crunchbase Pro list: Startup IPOs of 2023 | 
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