Hi there, 

Here is this week in charts.

End of an era. Last week, the World Health Organization stated that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency. Building on this, the US previously announced its Covid emergency declarations would expire today. While the number of Covid cases reported to the CDC has declined considerably in the US, Covid is still a strategic focus area for biopharma companies like Pfizer. We saw this focus and others when we mined and analyzed data on Pfizer’s 2023 partnerships.

CBI customers can access the data on all of Pfizer’s partnerships here.

AI goes down. Global AI funding fell to $5.4B in 2023, a drop of 43% QoQ. This is the lowest quarterly total since Q1’18. Three of the top 5 largest funding rounds this quarter went to generative AI companies — a signal that generative AI excitement is translating into real funding momentum. However, it may take longer for the growing genAI demand to make up for the decline in broader AI funding. Dive deeper into how generative AI performed relative to the AI space at large in our State of AI Q1’23 Report.

LVMH is haute. French companies dominate the luxury goods market. LVMH, Hermès, Dior, EssilorLuxottica, and Kering have a combined market cap of $1T+, accounting for around 80% of the total value of the 20 largest public luxury goods companies. The value of these companies has greatly benefited from the post-Covid luxury goods market boom. Learn more about the early-stage tech solutions luxury brands are exploring to support growth in this market map.

Next week, CBI customers will be able to dive deeper into the markets covered in this market map — like virtual try-ons — using our Market Reports. Check the PS for a preview of what’s on the horizon.

Bring it on. OpenAI’s headcount increased steadily leading up to the launch of ChatGPT and has continued to climb amid the genAI buzz. It is now up 138% from this time last year. While OpenAI is growing its team, it is also investing in a wide range of AI startups to build a generative AI ecosystem. Learn more about OpenAI’s investment strategy in this research brief. 

Employee headcount data is launching on CB Insights next week. See what it can do for you here.

4 hours or bust. As it turns out, round numbers are powerful motivators for marathon runners. In an analysis of 10M marathon finishes, it was revealed that finishes spiked right before typical goal thresholds like the 3- and 4-hour marks (illustrated by the shaded bars above). That said, while finishing times like 2:59 and 3:59 are fairly common, it is relatively rare for runners to cross the finish line right after hourly marks — e.g., at 3:01, 4:01, etc. In fact, a finishing time of 3:59 is 1.4 times as likely as one of 4:01.

Switch it up. This is such a basic thing to miss. Sad.
 

I love you. 

Anand

@asanwal

P.S. As promised, our virtual try-on market report and the vendor scorecard it has within it. We have similar for 1,000+ technology markets.

If you’d like to see headcount data, vendor scorecards, valuation comps, and more, which are all launching next week, we should talk. Sign up here.

Playing in a very red ocean

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