Sep 22, 2025 4 min read Daily Rundown

⛵ U.S. Trolls Hijack Flights

Plus: Gates Heir Goes GenZ, Siri-killer Hardware,

Good Morning, Early Adopters!

If you thought the weekend would be calm, think again, flights, fortunes, and future hardware are all in play.

VISA

US Trolls Crash India-US Flights After Trump’s H-1B Shock

👀 What’s the move: After Trump’s $100k H-1B fee was announced, Indian workers rushed to book flights to the U.S. before the rule kicked in. But the scramble turned chaotic when groups of American netizens allegedly organized to mass-reserve tickets, deliberately crowding out H-1B holders and applicants. Many stranded workers turned to the Indian embassy for help.

💡 Why it’s not boring: The H-1B program has always been a pressure point between America’s need for talent and populist resentment. This time the backlash jumped from policy papers to airline booking systems, weaponizing air travel against foreign workers. The social media fallout—Americans cheering, Indians outraged—shows how immigration is becoming a cultural flashpoint with real economic consequences.

⛵ Key takeaway: When U.S. internet mobs start weaponizing Expedia, H-1B isn’t just an immigration issue, it’s a proxy war for who gets to build the future.

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GENZ

Bill Gates’ Kid Cashes In With Gen Z Methods

👀 What’s the move: Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni co-founded Phia, a mobile app and Chrome extension that pulls from over 300 million fashion items to compare prices, essentially Google Flights for clothes. They raised $8M in a seed round led by Kleiner Perkins in under a month, with backing from Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and other high-profile investors.

💡 Why it’s not boring: The real play is not the search engine but the way they raised money and built attention. Their so-called Gen Z methods include running the company in public, recruiting through Instagram DMs, promoting with a podcast that already has half a million followers, and testing ChatGPT-generated campaigns for viral reach. Growth itself becomes content, and fundraising becomes clout.

⛵ Key takeaway: When venture capital is this hungry for Gen Z founder vibes, sometimes the method ends up being the moat instead of the product.

OpenAI Raids Apple’s Bench to Build Its Own Siri-killer Hardware

👀 What’s the move: Sam Altman has greenlit a consumer hardware push, hiring 25+ ex-Apple veterans and locking in Luxshare and Goertek, both long-time Apple suppliers, to manufacture a screenless “AI speaker” slated for 2026. This move builds on OpenAI’s $6.5B acquisition of io Products, the design studio founded by ex-Apple heavyweights Jony Ive and Tang Tan, signaling a long game in AI-native devices.

💡 Why it’s not boring: This isn’t just a gadget experiment. OpenAI is trying to own the interface layer, the physical portal where users access AI every day. By poaching Apple’s DNA and vendors, Altman is effectively rewriting the supply chain playbook: turning Apple’s industrial design machine into OpenAI’s distribution engine. If it works, iOS integration becomes a short-term revenue bridge while the real prize is cutting Apple out of the future Siri was supposed to own.

⛵ Key takeaway: OpenAI isn’t making a smart speaker, it’s making a Trojan horse to move from “inside Siri” to “replacing Siri.” Apple lent Altman the keys; now he’s building his own house.

STARTUP SPOT

🛍️ Phia
“Google Flights for fashion.”
AI shopping app + browser extension comparing prices, resale value, and discounts across fashion sites.
→ Founded 2025 by Phoebe Gates (Bill Gates’ daughter) & Sophia Kianni; $8M seed (Kleiner Perkins, Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber); ~500K users early traction.

🧠 Flora Growth
“Cannabis meets crypto AI.”
Nasdaq-listed cannabis CPG firm pivoting into AI infra—$401M treasury backing 0G decentralized blockchain for model training.
→ Brands incl. JustCBD & Vessel; large Colombia cultivation; rebranding as ZeroStack while keeping FLGC ticker.

🚗 Wayve
“Embodied AI for driving.”
End-to-end self-driving trained on raw vision + behavior data—no HD maps needed.
→ Founded 2017 by Alex Kendall & Amar Shah; $1.3B raised incl. $1.05B Series C (SoftBank, 2024); partners Nissan, Uber, Microsoft, Nvidia; LOI for $500M from Nvidia.

BAY AREA MEMOS

Researchers find that MBAs still open doors to venture capital, but hands-on experience and technical backgrounds are increasingly prized.
Nvidia plans to invest $500 million in UK self-driving unicorn Wayve, strengthening their long-term collaboration in AI-driven self-learning autonomy.
Nissan plans to launch city-ready self-driving tech in 2027 to revive its business and compete in the trillion-dollar market.
Oracle will invest 5 billion dollars in UK cloud infrastructure to expand data centers, boost jobs, and support the digital economy.
Nasdaq-listed cannabis firm Flora Growth will rebrand as ZeroStack and raise $401M dollars to back its 0G decentralized AI project for large-scale model training.

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