Nov 3, 2025 5 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ Netflix Eyes Warner Bros.

Plus: Cold Landing for Navan, Perplexity Learns to Pay

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

The currents of power are shifting again. In the new economy of intelligence, even the bold must learn to land.

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Netflix Eyes Warner Bros. Discovery

👀 What’s the move: Reuters says Netflix has hired a bank to explore buying Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business. The company has access to WBD’s financial “data room,” signaling real due diligence, not just gossip. CEO Ted Sarandos insists Netflix is “a builder, not a buyer,” but that line usually precedes a big check.

💡 Why it’s not boring: If this happens, Netflix won’t just dominate streaming; it’ll own the pipes that feed its rivals. WBD’s libraries (HBO, DC, Discovery) would give Netflix cultural IP it’s long lacked, while also neutralizing Max as a competitor. It’s vertical integration 2.0: the streamer turns into a studio titan, reversing the logic of the cord-cutting era it started.

⛵ Key takeaway: Netflix spent a decade killing cable. Now it’s buying the corpse.

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IPO

Navan Takes Off in a Shutdown, Lands in a Cold Market

👀 What’s the move: AI travel startup Navan finally hit Nasdaq amid a U.S. government shutdown, and investors barely looked up from their terminals. Priced at $25, shares opened down 12% to $22, slicing its valuation to $5.9B, far below its 2022 peak of $9.2B. The company rushed to list after the SEC eased restrictions during the shutdown, hoping to ride the lingering AI wave. Instead, it walked straight into market apathy.

💡 Why it’s not boring: Navan pitches itself as an “AI-first” business travel OS — automating bookings, budgets, and compliance for clients like Shopify and Zoom. But the “AI-powered expense app” story is starting to sound like old news on Wall Street. With investors fleeing hype and craving profit, Navan’s debut felt less like a takeoff and more like a layover, a proof that not every AI label guarantees lift.

⛵ Key takeaway: Navan bet that investors still buy the AI dream, but it turns out, they’ve already landed back on Earth.

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Perplexity Buys Some Manners as Getty Finally Gets Paid

👀 What’s the move: Perplexity has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images to use its photo library inside the AI search interface, finally paying for the pictures it once “discovered.” Getty’s API will now supply licensed visuals with proper credits and links, and its stock rose 5 percent as investors realized that copyright can still be monetized.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This is the AI equivalent of a teenager cleaning their room after too many lawsuits. Perplexity, recently sued by Nikkei and Asahi, is now paying Getty to buy both credibility and legal peace. It signals a subtle but very real turn in AI economics, where the age of free data is ending and creators are finally charging rent on their pixels.

⛵ Key takeaway: It turns out that AI search still needs the world’s oldest plugin — a license agreement.

STARTUP SPOT

⚡ Crusoe
“Turning wasted energy into AI power.”
Builds data centers that convert flared and stranded natural gas into clean compute for AI training and inference.
→ Founded 2018 by Chase Lochmiller & Cully Cavness; raised $600 M Series D (2024) at $2.8 B valuation led by Founders Fund & NVIDIA; expanding low-cost AI infrastructure across North America.

🤖 Mimic Robotics
“Physical AI with human dexterity.”
Trains humanoid robot hands on real-world human motion data to give machines adaptive, self-correcting manipulation skills.
→ ETH Zürich spin-out (2024) by Elvis Nava, Stefan Weirich, Stephan-Daniel Gravert & Benedek Forrai; raised $16 M (2025) led by Elaia & Speedinvest (total $20 M+); scaling deployments in manufacturing and logistics.

🧠 Augmented Intelligence
“Neuro-symbolic brains for AI agents.”
Combines generative models with symbolic reasoning to build task-aware, tool-using enterprise agents on its Apollo-1 platform.
→ Founded 2017 by Ohad Elhelo & Ori Cohen; raised $20 M SAFE at $750 M cap (2025), total $60 M+; powering complex decision automation for Fortune 500 clients.

BAY AREA MEMOS

Google removed Gemma from AI Studio after a U.S. senator accused the model of fabricating sexual assault claims about her.
Tesla’s upcoming Cybercab may have to include a steering wheel to meet US safety rules for fully autonomous vehicles.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company remains open to AI-focused M&A and partnerships as it prepares to launch its next-generation Siri in 2026.
Microsoft’s booming cloud growth is overshadowed by investor concerns over its record AI infrastructure spending.
Bitcoin broke its seven-year October winning streak, falling nearly 5% amid tariff shocks and rising investor caution.

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