đ The US is drowning OPEC in oil
Plus: What the heck is up with tech layoffs?

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The US is drowning OPEC in oil. The US is producing more oil than any country in history, some 13 million barrels of it per day, and all those barrels are coming at OPECâs expense.
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A rare Singapore corruption scandal has ensnared Formula 1âs Grand Prix. The September event is still on the books, but resignations and bribery accusations among race authorities are swirling.
What the heck is up with tech layoffs?

The first two weeks of 2024 are over, and they brought with them more than 7,500 layoffs in the tech industry.
What exactly is happening? Itâs a confluence of things.
đ A continuing comedown from 2021âs boom (and overhiring)
đ€ New prioritiesâmainly that of generative AI
đȘĄ An inherent startup ethos of being nimble
Quartzâs Laura Bratton has a breakdown of each layoff in the sector so far this yearâtake a look at her timeline.
Tesla has Hyundais and Kias riding its bumper
Tesla has its cruise control on when it comes to leading the electric car market, but there are two brands on its tail: Hyundai and Kia.
In 2023, the Hyundai Motor Group affiliates collectively sold 69,259 battery-powered vehicles in the US, helping cut Teslaâs 2022 65% dominance by 10%.
To be fair, Hyundai and Kia have to slam the pedal to the floor: Tesla still holds more than half (55%) of the EV market in the US. Thatâs why theyâre going all in on their aggressive expansion plans and throwing cash at hopeful buyers. Maybe itâll work, if Hyundai and Kia can avoid some major potholes in the roadârecalls, $200 million settlements, and easy-to-steal cars can be quite hazardous.
Sam Altman and Will.i.am have dueling visions for the future
Quartzâs Heather Landy got to hear words from both OpenAI chief Sam Altman and musician-turned-activist-turned-Davos-regular Will.i.am on the sidelines at the World Economic Forum.
Which quote is Altmanâs, and which is Will.i.amâs?
1ïžâŁ âWe can be way more creative; I think the quality of media and entertainment is going to go nuts in a really wonderful way... Eventually we can all have, like, a whole companyâs worth of cognitive ability and we can create whatever we imagine.â
2ïžâŁ âThatâs kind of inhumane, how we can have a world where items have more funding to be intelligent than humans.â
The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum may be wrapping up today, but you can catch up on all our coverage here and, of course, back issues of Need to Know: Davos 2024. See you in the Alps in 2025!
đ€đ€ âŠwhile Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the worldâs richest men got $465 billion richer in 4 years
Surprising discoveries
A Shiba Inu named Peanut Butter is great at playing video games as fast as possible. While he didnât beat his last PR, heâs of course, as Kotakuâs Zack Zwiezen so eloquently put it, âa really good boy who was fed plenty of treats and given lots of pets and who has never done anything wrong in his life.â
Solar-powered chargers may one day be strong enough to juice up our indoor devices. The tech is getting much more sophisticated than those panels on pocket calculators that didnât work that well.
Maybe people arenât leaving Austin? A new study shows several US cities, including Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, will shrink in the coming decades, but not the Texas capital.
Never-before-seen photos of the computer that helped win World War II were released. Too bad Wes Anderson couldnât access it for some Asteroid City (2023) scenes.
Spotify has helped afrobeats travel around the world. The Swedish music streamerâs CEO may not think heâs that important, but the platform has been for the beat-heavy, electronic music from Nigeriaâwhich we canât help but be obsessed with.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, pats for Peanut Butter, and your useless Texas Instrument calculators to [email protected]. Todayâs Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner.