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Can Video Games Make You an F1 Driver?

Can Video Games Make You an F1 Driver?

Christopher Webster
February 18, 2025

Startups:

AI marketing tools:

AI is being used to help improve sales and marketing strategies. One of the startups attacking this industry is Hightouch. They just announced a $80 million Series C funding round. The company plans to use the new capital to build out its platform that lets sales, marketing, and customer service teams synchronize data warehouses and other locations, along with AI agents to do work and build experiences for them. The company’s valuation has also doubled to $1.2 billion. The Series C is being led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from NVC, Amplify Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, Bain Capital Ventures, and Y Combinator. This will most likely be a big market. Will Hightouch be a big winner?

Figure AI figures to raise $1.5B:

Silicon Valley-based robotics startup Figure AI is in talks to raise a massive $1.5 billion round at a $39.5 billion valuation. Yeah, that’s a whole lot of money. Its actually 15 times bigger than Figure’s $2.6 billion valuation for its $675 million Series B last year. Figure’s current round is expected to be led by Align Ventures and Parkway Venture Capital. Figure builds humanoid robots for commercial and residential purposes. Humanoid robots are all the rage thanks to the AI boom. Figure has already sold some robots to BMW. Its founder Brett Adcock posted last month that Figure has signed on a second (unnamed) commercial customer and sees the potential to ship 100,000 humanoid robots.

Venture:

Can venture capital firms go public?:

Marc Andreessen is the co-founder of one of the most famous venture capital firms in the world, Andreessen Horowitz (also know as a16z). The company already has $45 billion under management which makes people question if they will eventually go public. Recently Marc spoke saying that while he isn’t “chomping at the bit” to go public, he does want to build the firm into an enduring company. The best model that he could copy to do such is that of either JP Morgan or some of the publicly traded private equity firms like Blackstone. It is quite hard for venture firms to go public since they’re built mainly of partnerships with other people. While the partnership model has its benefits it also has its negatives. One of the biggest being when the original partners of the firm leave the firm losses most of its value since they are the ones who created all the partnerships. Passing the company on from generation to generation is almost impossible like this. However, JP Morgan started out looking like a mini venture firm and was able to build a lasting business off of it. Will a16z be able to do the same?

Big Tech:

Gamers becoming F1 drivers:

Drivers have to spend a lot of money to make it to the top of motorsports. Even young drivers spend thousands of dollars just to get started in karting. Four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen knows this all too well. Now he sees a way to change it through sim racing, a virtual form of car racing that closely replicates real-world racing. It’s maybe less crazy than it sounds. The sport has evolved into a serious proving ground for talent, with detailed setups and tire management. The only thing missing is the crushing financial barrier. In fact, Verstappen, a passionate sim racer himself, believes the best virtual drivers deserve a shot in real cars. His ultimate vision, he tells The Athletic, is creating his own racing team, one that merges elite sim racers with traditional racers. While sim drivers lack experience with G-forces, Verstappen thinks training and the right coaching can bridge the gap. He says sim racing has improved his own driving, and vice versa. Is Max right? Will we see sim racers make it on the real race tracks?