The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos felt different this year, and not just because Meta and Salesforce took over storefronts on the main promenade. AI dominated the conversation in a way that overshadowed traditional topics like climate change and global poverty, and the CEOs weren’t holding back. There was public criticism of trade policy, warnings about AI bubbles popping, and a lot of talk about what comes next for the industry.
Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane discuss which conversations took over Davos this week, the latest startup raises that caught our eye, and more.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro & OpenAI Earbuds?
02:32 Humans& Raises $480M Seed Round
05:32 The Revolving Door of AI Talent
09:16 Serve Robotics Acquires Diligent
12:13 Robots in Healthcare vs. Sidewalk Delivery
15:00 Tech Giants Take Over Davos
19:46 AI CEOs Compete for Customers & Investment
24:15 The End of the Metaverse?
27:00 Meta’s Shift Away from First-Party VR Development
28:47 Outro
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
