Beyond algorithms and codes, data is very catalytic in building AI startups. If you have something and you want to discuss it with Tekedia Capital, make sure you have a clear roadmap on where that data will come from. If you remove Microsoft’s data from ChatGPT, it becomes another tech with no practical application to business problems. But with Microsoft’s data, it derives life to transform our world. I posit that someone has better models than the ChatGPT model  in some universities, but what is missing is the niche data which ChatGPT engineers have access to. Without data, it is largely a lost mission.

Of course, if that is the case, the old world of data analytics and incremental machine learning remains viable to improve productivity and advance the utilizations of factors of production. But to go all the way to the new world of large language models like ChatGPT’s, show me the data.

You may ask yourself: how can Africa be part of this? Tough question because data is the most dominant competitive weapon here. And if Africa does not have the data, our productive contribution to large language model AI startups may be limited. The AI referred to in the video is the large language model type.

These days, our extremely busy Tekedia Capital Syndicate members do not even have time to read emails. So, since they are always here, I want to drop the message besides what our team had already done: tomorrow is Tekedia Capital Business Review (HI 2023). We’re going to look at all elements of our business.

Topic: Tekedia Capital Business Update
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2023
Time:  3.30 – 5.30pm WAT
Venue: Zoom (link in the board) https://lnkd.in/eY3YuCtZ

Welcome and thank you all for funding the FUTURE.

“Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this company. We have no choice but to implement immediate, dramatic, and extremely painful changes. This would be probably the hardest all-hands that we have ever done in my life” – Dan Hart, CEO of Virgin Orbit.

Yes, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit, an aircraft engineering company, has run out of money and new investors are not joining the party. Consequently, the company has fired most of its workers. The stock of the SPAC-company has moved into a deeper junk status.

Operations at Virgin Orbit, which were put on hold two weeks ago while the company sought a financial lifeline, are winding down in a more permanent way. CEO Dan Hart announced at an all-hands meeting Thursday that the rocket maker had been unable “to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this company” and would cease operations “for the foreseeable future,” CNBC reported, citing an audio recording of the meeting. Hart said that around 90% of the staff, or approximately 700 people, will be laid off, while about 100 employees will keep their jobs.

A Virgin Orbit rocket had suffered a mid-flight failure in January, crashing into the ocean and thrusting the company’s financial viability into question.

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Virgin Orbit has furloughed most of its staff and put operations on hold for a week as it tries to secure more funding, CNBC reports, citing anonymous sources. The rocket-building firm told affected employees they would likely receive an update on the pause around the middle of next week; the furlough is said to be unpaid, though workers can use PTO. Virgin Orbit shares were already on a downward trajectory throughout 2022, but the company hit more trouble after its last mission failed in January.

Elon Musk. Elon Musk. Elon Musk – how many times have I called you? SpaceX is causing troubles for many space-focused companies right now. When there is a clear category-king, it is hard for investors to believe in anything else! Products win markets, and SpaceX has won this thing.

Richard Branson-Owned Company Virgin Orbit Plans to Lay Off Nearly All of Its Workforce

Aircraft engineering company Virgin Orbit which is owned by British entrepreneur and business magnate Richard Branson has recently revealed plans to lay off nearly all of its workforce making about 85 percent.

In a US regulatory filing, Virgin Orbit disclosed that it made the decision in order to reduce expenses in light of the company’s inability to secure meaningful funding.

Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart, disclosed that the company has ceased operations for the foreseeable future which is coming weeks after the company halted its operations in an attempt to bolster its finances.

In his words,

“Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this company. We have no choice but to implement immediate, dramatic, and extremely painful changes. This would be probably the hardest all-hands that we have ever done in my life”.

Hart further disclosed that the layoff will affect every department in the company, adding that laid-off employees will be provided with a severance package which entails a cash payment, an extension of benefits, and support in finding a new position with a direct pipeline set up with sister company Virgin Galactic for hiring.

Virgin Orbit estimated that the move will incur aggregate charges of approximately $15 million, consisting primarily of $8.8 million in severance payments and employee benefits costs and $6.5 million in other costs primarily related to outplacement services and WARN Act exposure.

Following the news of its proposed layoff which has visibly not gone down well with investors, Virgin Orbit which is a publicly traded company has seen its shares decline to more than 44%. Last year, the company’s shares were valued at $7.59, but following the recent close of the market, its shares were just worth $0.34.

Founded in 2017, with its Headquarters in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit had more than 300 employees led by CEO Dan Hart, a former vice president of government satellite systems at Boeing. The company from which it was spun off, Virgin Galactic, continued to focus on two other capabilities which include human suborbital spaceflight operations and advanced aerospace design, manufacturing, and testing.

Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites. The company was formed as a spin-off of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to develop and market the LauncherOne rocket, which had previously been a project under Virgin Galactic.

It would be recalled that in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic, Virgin Orbit announced it partnership with the University of California Irvine and the University of Texas at Austin in a new venture to build simplified mechanical ventilators, specifically bridge ventilators for partially recovered patients and patients not in intensive care, as it sought to address the global shortage of ventilators.

On December 30, 2021, Virgin Orbit underwent a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp and became a publicly traded company (symbol VORB) on the NASDAQ stock exchange.