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The Wall Street Skinny
February 13, 2025
This Week on The Floor
Stronger than expected inflation data and softer than expected employment numbers have rattled the markets, with the Fed signaling they feel no urgency to cut rates.
Unpacking Elon Musk’s alleged offer to buy OpenAI
Coffee chats with our younger selves
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Markets Recap / Deal News
Interviewing this week? Here’s some content for your conversation.
It takes a lot to surprise me these days.
But I was pretty shocked when I saw a headline earlier this week reporting that Elon Musk and a consortium of investors were making an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4bn.
It’s the latest in an ongoing battle between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who called the offer “ridiculous” and reiterated that the company is not for sale, igniting a feud on social media.
One of the few days I’m sad not to have a Twitter — sorry, X — account
The longstanding animosity between Musk and Altman stems from a disagreement when it comes to OpenAI’s direction and broader questions about the ethics of tech development.
Critics of OpenAI’s move to a for-profit model (Musk among them), argue that its assets should remain within a charitable trust and not be used for private gain.
OpenAI says the shifting capital model is a necessary step towards furthering AI development.
Skeptics said the bid amounted to little more than theatrics, but Tesla’s stock was hit hard, dropping 6.3% to a three-month low on Tuesday before rebounding.
Moreover, an offer price of $97.4bn pales in comparison to the most recent round of $40bn worth of funding that values the company at $260bn pre-money.
Given Musk launched a lawsuit in August against OpenAI in August trying to block its move towards a for-profit model, OpenAI asserts that an offer that would place OpenAI’s assets under the control of Musk and other private investors directly contradicts the existing lawsuit.
At the end of the day, the only thing that’s surprising is that I was surprised by a headline like this 🤦♀️ — back to business as usual!
The “coffee with my younger self” trend
There is a trend on TikTok right now where people imagine having coffee with their younger selves.
Since we haven’t had time to share a new reel for it, we figured we’d play it out here!
☕️ We are both 15 minutes late.
Punctuality has always been my Achilles’ heel…don’t let it be yours!
☕️ She orders coffee black with 3 Splendas. I do 3 sugars and heavy cream.
Don’t fall for the fake stuff — when it comes to both dairy AND the rest of life.
☕️ She’s scarred by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the Global Financial Crisis. I tell her to buy S&Ps, buy Bitcoin, buy real estate.
We overindex to bad news and the most recent things that scare us. Take more sensible risks and scale into opportunities you believe in.
☕️ She thinks no career opportunities exist beyond NYC. I tell her leaving NYC was not a one-way ticket. Instead, it was the catalyst for more opportunities than I ever could have imagined.
It’s easy to fall into the echo chamber of your own small professional and social circle. But sometimes making a big — and scary — leap is the only way to maximize your earnings potential and get “unstuck”.
What advice would you give your younger self? Other than “buy Bitcoin in 2012” 😂
☕️ She is obsessed with making it to the gym after this. I tell her “I haven’t been to the gym in over five years, and I’m happier than ever.”
The ‘90s and early ‘00s diet/workout culture gave us an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise. With the amount of time and mental energy she spent obsessing about calories in/calories out, she could have figured out the formula for cold fusion.
☕️ She goes to bed between 10pm and 2am, struggles to wake up by 6am. My phone goes on “do not disturb” at 8:15pm and I’m usually asleep by then.
Sleep is everything. Prioritize it as though your entire mental, physical, and emotional well-being depends on it, because it does.
☕️ She is worried what having kids will do to her body, her career, and her lifestyle, because she can’t envision a life that isn’t just about her. I tell her we’re about to add a sixth kid between our two families.
Navigating parenthood can be the hardest part of your career and your relationship with yourself. But if Avery Sheffield can do it as a mother of four at the helm of an equity long/short hedge fund, and Deb Smith can do it running her own investment bank, and Michele Trogni can do it while running an Insurance Fund, you have more senior women than ever with families to look up to as role models than ever before.
☕️ She goes days (or weeks, in Kristen’s case) without checking in with her parents. Jen’s dad lives with her, and Kristen texts her parents 10 times a day.
Don’t take your family or your elders for granted. Nurture personal relationships, even when you have your head down at work or feel like they don’t care. They do, and your time with them is finite. You’ll regret it if you don’t. Same goes with your lifelong friends — you never know, you might just start a business with one 👯♀️
☕️ She’s terrified about leaving a prestigious job with a stellar paycheck for an entrepreneurial life. I’d tell her to start her own company NOW and never look back.
The thing that you think “everyone” cares about that you’re doing right now? You’re the only one who really cares. Stop worrying about someone’s reaction at a cocktail party when you talk about your job, and start pursuing the things that light you up.