In partnership with
Investors see ANOTHER return from Masterworks (!!!!)
That’s 6 sales in 7 months. 29 all time. And the performance?
16.5%, 17.6%, and 17.8%, net annualized returns on sold works held longer than one year (See all 29 at Masterworks.com)
It’s not from stocks, private equity, or real estate… it’s from contemporary and post war art. Crazy, right?
With Masterworks, you don’t need to be a BILLIONAIRE to invest in multi-million dollar art anymore.
Historically, the segment overall has had attractive appreciation and low correlation to stocks.*
Masterworks targets works featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso, identifying what they believe to have significant long-term appreciation potential, not just at the artist level but at the level of individual artworks.
As one of the largest players in the art market, with $1.3 billion invested over 500 artworks, they pass critical advantages through to their 70,000+ members to add art to their portfolios strategically.
Looking to diversify your investments in 2026?
*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
Good morning ☀️, leader of the next generation.
We will talk about agents. AI agents.
They will change the way how we do business, how we interract and even how we do our everyday lives.
Agents will build business.
Agents will organize your day.
Agents will fill up your fridge.
I will let that sit in here for a while, so we can imagine and build the future together one agent at a time...
⚡ WHAT'S AT STAKE TODAY ⚡
- 💰🚀 Ethos raises $22.75M from a16z for its expert network with voice onboarding
- 📈💼 Peter Sarlin's QuTwo reaches $380M valuation in angel round
- 🔬💡 Altara secures $7M to bridge the data gap that's slowing down physical sciences
- 🤖💰 SAP bets $1.16B on 18-month-old German AI lab and says yes to NemoClaw
- 🍕🤖 Marc Lore says that AI will soon enable anyone to open a restaurant
- 🍎⚖️ Apple to pay $250M to settle lawsuit over Siri's delayed AI features
- 🤖🔧 Khosla-backed robotics startup Genesis AI has gone full stack, demo shows
- 🚀💎 DeepSeek could hit $45B valuation from its first investment round
- 📱💥 AI boom pushes Samsung to $1T
AI-powered expert network secures major funding for voice-based matching.
Ethos raises $22.75M from a16z for its expert network with voice onboarding
London-based startup Ethos has secured $22.75 million in Series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from General Catalyst, XTX Markets, Evantic Capital, and Common Magic. The company is revolutionizing the expert network industry by using AI-powered voice onboarding to create deeper, more accurate matches between businesses and subject matter experts.
Traditional expert networks like GLG, Third Bridge, and AlphaSights rely heavily on job titles and basic forms to match experts with companies seeking advice. This approach often fails to capture the nuanced expertise that professionals possess beyond their formal roles. Ethos addresses this limitation by conducting voice-powered interviews that explore experts' knowledge across multiple domains, creating a richer data profile that enables more sophisticated matching.
The voice-based approach allows Ethos to handle complex queries that would stump conventional platforms. For example, companies can search for "people who worked at a funded startup by A-grade investors solving for finance automation," or pharmaceutical companies can find doctors who specialize in specific areas while also having research publications and drug development experience.
Founded in 2024 by James Lo and Daniel Mankowitz, Ethos brings together expertise from consulting and AI research. Lo previously worked at McKinsey and SoftBank, where he contributed to transformations at companies like WeWork and Arm. Mankowitz, a former DeepMind AI researcher, worked on YouTube's video compression algorithm, Gemini, and the AlphaDev sorting algorithm.
"Traditional expert platforms almost purely focus on a mixture of job titles and job descriptions," Lo explained. "What we observe is that most clients are not looking for a job title company. They're looking for a specific skill and a specific capability."
a16z's Anish Acharya believes voice communication unlocks authentic expertise that written profiles often miss. "Voice is the original form of human communication. Most people don't know how to write their story down in a very succinct, compelling, and accurate way. Voice is a big unlock for Ethos," he noted.
Beyond voice interviews, Ethos enhances its matching capabilities by analyzing public sources including blogs, academic papers, and social media profiles. The platform uses conversational AI agents to conduct interviews and extract insights, competing with companies like Listen Labs and Outset in the AI-powered interview space.
The startup's business model involves taking a 30% or higher per-project fee from clients, with revenue varying based on project complexity. While Ethos doesn't disclose specific numbers, the company reports being on track for "eight-figure annualized revenue." Its client base includes top hedge funds, private equity firms, leading AI labs, and enterprise consulting firms, though specific names remain confidential.
Platform growth appears robust, with approximately 35,000 new experts joining weekly through Ethos's invitation system. The company strategically invites individuals who could benefit from the platform rather than accepting open applications.
Lo sees significant opportunity in AI labs' current focus on mapping human talent across industries. "AI labs are pointing a giant capital gun at every economically valuable occupation in the world. They're trying to map out every profession. And so that's an amazing tailwind for us," he explained. As these labs develop professional services in law, health, finance, and management, they require diverse expert networks to refine their models and strategies.
Despite ambitious growth plans, Ethos maintains a lean approach with just eight team members, prioritizing efficiency while scaling operations. The company's vision extends beyond traditional expert networks toward bridging human and AI capabilities in the evolving economy.
Slow down aging at the biological level.
Aramore is a completely new approach to skincare—one that helps your body produce more NAD+, the vital co-enzyme responsible for our cellular health and how we age.
See firmer, more radiant, more resilient skin in just 28 days. Get 20% off your first order with code NEWSLETTER20.
Finnish AI lab QuTwo achieves €325M valuation after angel round
Peter Sarlin's QuTwo reaches $380M valuation in angel round
QuTwo, the Finnish AI lab founded by former Silo AI CEO Peter Sarlin, reached a €325 million ($380 million) valuation after raising €25 million in an angel round. The company's QuTwo OS orchestrates tasks across classical, quantum, and hybrid computing architectures.
Unlike other European AI startups raising billion-dollar rounds, Sarlin deliberately chose a modest angel round to maintain long-term focus. Notable investors include Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, and Nico Rosberg. QuTwo has already secured $23 million in committed revenue through partnerships with companies like Zalando.
🎙️ The Supercharged Podcast Is Growing
Real Conversations with the People Building the AI Future
The Supercharged Podcast is quickly becoming a space for real, unfiltered conversations about AI — beyond the hype, tools, and surface-level takes.
Each episode dives deep with founders, operators, and builders who are actively working with AI — or building AI-first companies — to uncover how it’s truly changing the way work gets done.
From strategy and systems to real-world execution, these conversations are practical, honest, and focused on what actually works — not just what sounds good.
⚡ Trends for the Future
AI boom pushes Samsung to $1T
Samsung becomes second Asian company to reach trillion-dollar valuation.
Samsung achieved a historic $1 trillion valuation on Wednesday as shares surged more than 10%, making it only the second Asian company to cross this milestone after TSMC. The surge was driven by the artificial intelligence boom creating unprecedented demand for semiconductors.
The achievement follows Samsung's blockbuster earnings report last week, showing profits eight times higher than the previous year. The company's success stems from its position as a key supplier of memory chips that power AI systems, with demand far outpacing supply and driving prices higher.
Wednesday's surge received additional momentum from reports that Apple has been negotiating with Samsung and Intel to manufacture chips on U.S. soil. This potential partnership could significantly shift the global semiconductor supply chain, as Apple has historically relied almost exclusively on Taiwan's TSMC for chip production.
Central to Samsung's profit explosion is high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a specialized chip critical for AI systems that has dramatically improved the company's margins. However, competition remains fierce, with rival SK Hynix aggressively pursuing the same lucrative market.
The AI-driven chip shortage affects the entire semiconductor industry, as the world's three largest memory chip makers—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—struggle to meet surging demand from AI data centers. All three companies have redirected investment from consumer chip businesses toward HBM production, which offers substantially higher margins.
Despite this historic milestone, Samsung faces challenges ahead. Workers are threatening an 18-day strike this month, demanding a larger share of AI-driven profits. Additionally, the company's phone and TV divisions must purchase the same expensive memory chips that are generating Samsung's record profits, creating internal cost pressures that could impact overall performance.
⚡ Let’s Make AI Actually Useful:
What Would Move the Needle in *Your* Industry?
AI has potential — but generic advice rarely helps.
What would be genuinely valuable for AI to do in your industry right now?
• Automate a painful workflow?
• Improve decision-making?
• Replace a manual process that wastes time?
• Help your team upskill faster?
Tell us what you’d want AI to handle — or where you feel stuck.
We’re using these insights to curate **industry-specific trainings, live webinars, and practical guidance** you can actually apply.
🌡️ Use the Satisfaction Thermometer to show us how much you enjoyed The Supercharged today ;)
The Supercharged is aiming to be the world's #1 AI business magazine and is on a mission to empower 1,000,000 entrepreneurs worldwide by 2026, guiding them through the transition into the AI-driven creative age. We're dedicated to breaking down complex technologies, sharing actionable insights, and fostering a community that thrives on innovation, to become the ultimate resource for businesses navigating the AI revolution.
The Supercharged is the #1 AI Newsletter for Entrepreneurs, with 25,000 + readers working at the world’s leading startups and enterprises. The Supercharged is free for the readers. Main ads are typically sold out 2 weeks in advance. You can book future ad spots here.
I'm sending this email because you registered for one of our workshops or our affiliates brought you. You can unsubscribe at the bottom of each email at any time.
