Gigawatts and aspect ratios.
Plus: News from Strava, Loewe, Gucci and On.
Welcome back to Professionally Curious.
All across London this morning, people were thinking to themselves ‘I should really buy that new winter coat’. After a warm summer, the city hit a brisk 10 degrees during the early hours. I think it might be time to pick up that Mfpen Installation Coat that managed to escape me last year.
In today’s letter, we cover: OpenAI and Nvidia teaming up, that NikeSKIMS drop and a potential hot IPO.
Nvidia announces investment of ‘up to $100 billion’ in OpenAI
The deal will allow OpenAI to “build and deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers with NVIDIA systems representing millions of GPUs,” representing a potentially massive leap in AI compute capacity.
A significant rise in compute power aims to bring OpenAI closer to their goal of superintelligence and scaling “the benefits of this technology to everyone,” says Co-founder Greg Brockman.
This is one of the largest strategic partnerships in the artificial intelligence industry to date. The first phase will “come online in the second half of 2026.”
Nvidia’s market cap is currently around 8.7x bigger than OpenAI’s ($4.37 trillion, compared to $500 billion).
In other AI news, creative agency Mother are getting great reviews for this recent ad for Claude by Anthropic.
It’s been a popcorn-worthy few days in fashion. Here’s what’s happened:
Nike and SKIMS revealed the first NikeSKIMS collection. First announced in February (Nike shares rose 6.2% as a result), the collection was originally expected to launch in spring 2025 before being postponed to later in the year. When the news broke I wondered why Nike couldn’t have done something similar on their own, but the signature colours, styling and quality look like they’ve come together well here. To see how it performs we’ll have to wait until September 26.
The girls aren’t sold? How one friend reacted to the NikeSKIMS reveal. Today, we got the first signs of what a post-Anderson Loewe will look like under new Creative Directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (founders of Proenza Schouler). “Ahead of our first LOEWE collection, this teaser stands as an opening gesture, the outset of a new dialogue,” they told the media.
Demna got things moving at Gucci. The ex-Balenciaga Creative Director unveiled his first collection for the Italian house. Dubbed "La Famiglia", it features a quirky cast of archetypal Italian characters surrounded by whimsy decorative frames. This was quickly followed up by the announcement of ‘The Tiger’ — a short-film directed by Spike Jonze featuring stars Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Kendall Jenner, and Alex Consani. At the moment, we don’t know much other than it streams live tonight from Gucci’s channels at 12 a.m. CEST, and it will presumably feature the new collection. The first reception of Demna’s Gucci feels positive and I’m looking forward to his runway debut early next year.
Quick Hits
The athlete-tracking app Strava is reportedly investigating an IPO.
Super wide videos are going viral on Instagram. Poppi, HBO and TBPN have all posted in the last 24 hours with posts that are in a 5120 x 1080 format.
On teamed up with Beams and REI Co-op, the American outdoor and athletic gear retailer.
Brockhampton’s album ‘Iridescence’ dropped 7 years ago.
Daft Punk are re-uniting… for an in-game concert in Fortnite. (Seriously, if this isn’t rage bait I don’t know what is).
Harry Salmons is a Strategist based in London. If you got this far, consider upgrading your subscription. It costs the same as a coffee and you’ll receive exclusive posts going forward.