PhonePe charts road to IPO; OpenAI’s compute-to-revenue flywheel

Hello,

Agentic AI is the latest buzzword in the tech ecosystem, with startups raising millions of dollars in VC funding.

Now, agentic AI startup Emergent has raised $70 million in Series B funding from Khosla Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The round also saw participation from Prosus, Lightspeed, Together and Y Combinator, taking Emergent’s total funding to $100 million since its launch last year. 

The Bengaluru-headquartered company is building an AI-native platform that lets anyone create production-ready web and mobile applications through natural language—without writing code. 

Meanwhile, NVIDIA has seen an eye-watering increase in its valuation. In 2025, it surpassed the GDP figures of countries such as Japan, India, and the United Kingdom. Here’s a graph that shows just how massive the chipmaker is currently.

ICYMI: In news that surprises nobody, the richest people on the planet are far more likely–4,000 times more likely– to be in power politically than everyone else, Oxfam’s annual inequality report found.

Speaking of the rich, the Netflix-Warner Bros deal just got more interesting. The streaming giant has switched to an all-cash offer for Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming assets without increasing the $82.7 billion price in a bid to shut the door on Paramount's rival efforts to snag the Hollywood company, Reuters reported.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• PhonePe charts road to IPO
• OpenAI’s compute-to-revenue flywheel
• Navigating the gig work puzzle

Here’s your trivia for today: The Edgar Award is an award given in what field?

News

PhonePe charts road to IPO

PhonePe has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to proceed with its initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said, clearing a key regulatory hurdle for what is expected to be one of the country’s most closely watched fintech listings.

Fintech listing:

• The Walmart-owned digital payments firm is expected to file its Updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus this week, according to the people.
• The proposed IPO will be an offer for sale by existing shareholders, with the company not seeking to raise any fresh capital through the listing.
• The company had posted Rs 7,115 crore in revenue for FY24-25, marking a 40% year-on-year increase. The company also turned free cash flow positive with an operating cash flow of Rs 1,202 crore. Its adjusted PAT (excluding ESOP costs) more than tripled to Rs 630 crore.

Funding Alert

Startup: Unbox Robotics

Amount: $28M

Round: Series B

Startup: Whizzo

Amount: $15M

Round: Series A

Startup: WanderOn

Amount: Rs 54 Cr

Round: Series A

Insight

OpenAI’s compute-to-revenue flywheel

For many people, the shift in how we interact with artificial intelligence (AI) has happened almost imperceptibly. Amidst this shift, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has evolved from its research origins into a commercial powerhouse by tightly coupling its physical infrastructure with its financial growth.

At the core of this expansion is a concept that Sarah Friar, chief financial officer at OpenAI, recently described as a flywheel across compute, research, products, and monetisation. The business is currently in a state where its growth is primarily limited by the availability of hardware rather than a lack of interest from the market.

Commercial powerhouse:

• Data by the company shows a near-linear relationship between the power used to run models and the money they generate. In 2023, with 0.2 gigawatts of compute, the company reached $2 billion in ARR. By 2025, the scale reached about 1.9 gigawatts of compute, powering more than $20 billion in revenue.
• The focus has also shifted toward capturing the next billion users through flexible pricing. In January, the company launched ChatGPT Go globally, a new subscription tier priced at $8 per month in the United States. The company is introducing advertisements and commerce into the free and Go versions.
• Each week, over 230 million people globally use ChatGPT to ask questions about wellness, symptoms, or medical notes. This has led to the creation of ChatGPT Health, a dedicated space within the app where users can connect their medical records and fitness data from apps like Apple Health or MyFitnessPal.

Interview 

Navigating the gig work puzzle

Abhishek Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of Shadowfax, isn’t too worried about the central government’s recent directive to ecommerce companies to stop 10-minute delivery promises.

In fact, he believes that rather than stifling growth, these regulations will legitimise the gig worker sector, raise benefits and expand the talent pool. The Bengaluru-based company, which offers logistics support to a host of consumer marketplaces—from food delivery to beauty and general goods—is set to open its Rs 1,907 crore IPO today.

News & updates

• Trump tariff: US President Donald Trump threatened to hit French wines and champagnes with 200% tariffs in an apparent effort to cajole French President Emmanuel Macron into joining his Board of Peace initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.
• Doubling down: Sweden's IKEA will more than double its investment in India to around $2.20 billion in the next five years as the furniture retailer plans to open more stores and increase sourcing locally, Reuters reported, citing a top executive.
• Climate change: Penguins in Antarctica have radically shifted their breeding season, apparently as a response to climate change, research has found. Dramatic shifts in behaviour were revealed by a decade-long study led by Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University

The Edgar Award is an award given in what field?

Answer: Mystery writing

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