Today’s menu 🍽️👇️ 

Length: 5 minutes ⏰ 

• Perplexity’s $200 plan is just the start 💻

• Why tech giants Keep laying off thousands ⚠️

• Email just became Grammarly’s next empire 👑

• From Adobe rejection to $1.5B IPO 📈

• Turn your scripts into natural-sounding voiceovers without hiring voice actors 🎙️

• Prompt of the week 💬

• Top AI tools of the week ⚒️

FRESH AI NEWS

Perplexity launches a $200 monthly subscription plan 💎

Perplexity has launched its $200 monthly "Max" subscription plan, joining the growing ranks of AI companies targeting power users with hyper-premium tiers as competition in AI search is heating up against Google and OpenAI 🤖

• Max subscribers will also get priority access to any Perplexity services using the latest frontier models, such as OpenAI o3-pro and Claude Opus 4 ensuring cutting-edge AI capabilities ⚡

• Perplexity became the latest AI provider to offer a hyper-premium subscription tier to capitalize on its power users, following OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro, Google’s AI Ultra, Anthropic's Claude, and Cursor 💼
  

• The startup now offers a consumer Pro plan for $20-a-month, as well as an Enterprise Pro plan that costs $40-a-month per person with plans for an enterprise Max tier 🏢
  

• Perplexity reportedly had an ARR of $80 million in January and is looking to raise $500 million at a $14 billion valuation to drive growth 📈

Why You Should Care: Perplexity's Max tier reflects the AI industry's aggressive push toward premium monetization as startups face mounting infrastructure costs and valuation pressure. With Google's AI mode and OpenAI's search integration threatening its core market, the additional revenue from high-paying subscribers could prove crucial for Perplexity's survival in the intensifying AI search wars.

Microsoft to lay off about 9,000 workers 😬 

Microsoft has begun its second big layoff wave of 2025, eliminating about 9,000 jobs as the technology behemoth balances gargantuan AI infrastructure investments with cost control amid economic volatility 🔁

• Microsoft began job cuts that will impact about 9,000 workers, less than 4% of the company's total workforce, marking its largest reduction since 10,000 layoffs in 2023 🧑‍💼

• The company said these cuts are an attempt to reduce management layers, following competitors like Amazon and Meta in streamlining organizational structures 📦

• Microsoft had pledged $80 billion in capital spending for AI infrastructure, requiring cost reductions elsewhere to maintain profit margins ⚖️

• U.S. employers have announced 744,308 job cuts in 2025, the highest total since 2020, with tech leading the reductions 🖥️

Why You Should Care: Microsoft's slash-and-burn cost-cutting alongside billions invested in AI mirrors the sector-wide balance between profitability and growth investment. With almost 15,000 job cuts this year alone, the software giant is reorganizing its workforce around AI goals — a model other tech firms might emulate as the AI arms war heats up.

Grammarly acquires AI email client Superhuman ✅ 

Grammarly acquired premium email client Superhuman in a strategic bid to shift from a grammar tool to an end-to-end AI productivity suite, directly competing with Microsoft and Google's work suites 💼

• Grammarly announced Tuesday the acquisition of email client Superhuman in a push to build out its AI for its productivity suite, though financial terms were not disclosed 📊

• As part of the deal, Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra and more than 100 employees will join Grammarly, bringing deep email expertise to the writing assistant company 📩

• Superhuman's premium email service, known for its speed and efficiency features, has attracted tens of thousands of power users willing to pay $30 monthly for enhanced productivity 🚀

• Grammarly announced its intent to acquire Superhuman to accelerate its evolution into an AI productivity platform for apps and agents, expanding beyond traditional grammar correction ➡️

Why You Should Care: This acquisition marks Grammarly's bold shift from a single-product writing aid to a stack-level AI productivity challenger. By incorporating Superhuman's email knowledge and devoted user base, Grammarly is setting itself up to rival tech giants in the highly profitable workplace productivity space where email remains the focal point of professional interaction.

Figma moves closer to a blockbuster IPO that could raise $1.5B⚕️

Design software innovator Figma has submitted for its long-awaited IPO on the NYSE under symbol "FIG," potentially raising $1.5 billion in what will hopefully be one of the biggest tech debuts of the year after proving successful recovering from Adobe's failed acquisition attempt 🧬

• Figma filed its IPO prospectus on Tuesday, more than a year after a $20 billion deal to be acquired by Adobe was shelved due to regulatory roadblocks, clearing the path for public markets 🔬

• The company reported Q1 2025 revenue surging 46% year-over-year to $228.2 million with net income tripling to $44.9 million, demonstrating strong post-Adobe momentum 🌍

• IPO expert Renaissance Capital estimates that Figma's IPO could raise up to $1.5 billion, potentially matching CoreWeave as 2025's largest tech IPO 💊

• Figma's IPO filing revealed nearly $70 million in bitcoin ETF exposure, adding it to the growing list of tech firms using BTC as a treasury asset 🚀

Why You Should Care: Figma's IPO is a vindication of its strategy to resist the Adobe acquisition and seek independence. With hypergrowth revenue and leading share in co-design, the firm can set the tone for tech IPOs in the latter half of 2025 — demonstrating that strategic patience can yield rewards amid turbulent markets.

AI VOICE GENERATOR

Create AI voice with Google AI Studio’s Voice Generator ⚙️

Google AI Studio now offers a powerful speech generation tool that makes it easy to create high-quality audio with one or more speakers — perfect for podcasts, videos, training content, or creative projects ✅

Here’s how to get started 👇️ 

1. Open Google AI Studio and head to the “Native Audio Generation” section.

2. Pick your format:

   Single-speaker mode is ideal for narrations, audiobooks, or tutorials.

   Multi-speaker mode is great for skits, dialogue scenes, or interviews.
   

   

3. Write your script. You can even add performance cues like tone, emotion, and pacing.
   

   

4. Assign voices to each part (you can choose from a variety of voice profiles).
   

5. Hit “Run” to generate your voiceover, and download the finished audio.
   

   

Pro tip: Use the preset templates like “Movie Script Scene” or “Explainer Video” to experiment with tone and delivery before customizing your own.

Check out Google AI Studio HERE 👈️

PROMPT OF THE WEEK

Luxury Editorial Avatar (4K AI Render) 📸

“A highly stylized portrait of same person in image with sharp features, flawless

fair skin, wearing a black t-shirt, black sunglasses and standing against a bold

red gradient background, confidently. The lighting is dramatic and cinematic,

emphasizing his facial structure and giving a luxury fashion magazine vibe.

Ultra-realistic, high-detail, editorial photography style. 4K resolution,

symmetrical composition, minimal background elements. 4:3 ratio.”

🔧Pro tip: Add your raw photo before sending this prompt

The best place on the Internet to learn about AI! 🌐 🤖 

I just started my own X page where I provide AI news, guides, hacks and more (for FREE)!

We don’t miss a day, that means you get the most recent AI news, practical workflows, expert guides and premium content everyday.

TOOLS OF THE WEEK

These AI tools are going VIRAL 🐝 

Mistral Agents API - Build capable AI agents with memory and tools 🤖

MagicPath - An infinite canvas to create, refine, and explore with AI 🪄

Higgsfield Soul - Advanced image AI, now with free daily generations 🎨

AgentQL - A suite of tools for extracting data and automating workflows on live web sites 🕷️