Elizabeth Gilbert talks about an idea ‘having its moment’, and I’ve been sitting on the concept of Look Up for some time. Its moment came at the end of last year when I heard this:

The wealthier you are, the more opportunity you will have to do something about it. Screaming on Twitter, crying into TikTok, all that does is make the people on the other side feel even more emboldened. My advice is, arm yourself with money.

Arm ourselves with money. That phrase stuck with me. It’s not something women talk about often — not for our own personal financial strength, and even less about what it would mean if women controlled more wealth collectively. But we should.

Look Up is my contribution to this conversation.

Technology and investing are two of the most powerful sectors for growing financial strength. They’re also areas where women’s participation is disproportionately low—which means the untapped potential for us is massive. There are many reasons for this gap, but a lack of knowledge and confidence (especially around investing) plays a big role.

Look Up is about closing that gap - arming ourselves with knowledge as a first step.

But it’s not just about tech and investing—culture plays a crucial role too. It’s the lens through which we spot future opportunities and stay ahead of the curve. Staying culturally relevant isn’t just about ‘keeping up with kids’ (that’s an added bonus); it’s essential if we want to see where the world is headed and position ourselves to thrive.

So that’s the mission. Each week, I’ll listen to podcasts, read posts and articles so you don’t have to! I’ll do the curation, you bring your curiousity.

Lastly, We will only ‘Arm ourselves with money’ if we see it as a team game. The good thing is women’s superpower is talking to each other, we just need to add in a few new topics - like money and how we make it. I hope Look Up helps start these conversations, so please share feedback, suggest topics, and most importantly, discuss it with a friend.

Let’s get started.

⚡ What’s inside

• Tech: Deep Seek AI is launched. Is it the end of US domination of the industry?
• Investing: Nvidia sets record for biggest single day loss, and Trump administration's tariff policy sends investors to Gold.
• Culture: Beyonce wins at the Grammys with Cowboy Carter.
• Tech toy: Oura Ring
• Podcast of the week: Cindy Gallop tells it like it is: “Real change starts with women making a shit ton of money”

💾 Tech News

There is only one name in the news this week; Deep Seek. The story of its launch has many layers and plot twists (a Netflix documentary is probably already in production 🍿) but I’ve pulled out the ‘need to know’ plot points.

NB: This section is likely to be shorter in future issues, but this story is worth the read and gives a good overview of the dynamics of AI development.

As a taster, this meme won the internet for me. (If you don’t remember the Turkish shooter from the Olympics click here to get a reminder).

Everything was going according to plan…

OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT) dominated the AI market, with other major players (Anthropic, Google..) also based in the U.S. These companies relied heavily on the chips Nvidia (the world’s most valuable company) make, and the prevailing narrative was clear:

• AI development is prohibitively expensive.
• It requires massive energy consumption.
• Only well-funded entities (e.g those already in the race) can compete.

This narrative was reinforced by projects like the $500 billion Stargate initiative for AI infrastructure, announced by the President just before …..

Deep Seek arrived

Deep Seek’s model delivers performance on a par with the incumbents but with some big differences:

• No Nvidia chips: Due to U.S. export bans, Deep Seek developed innovative alternatives.
• Low cost: Claiming a development cost of just $5 million—a fraction of its competitors’ budgets.
• Energy efficiency: Its unique architecture uses significantly less energy.
• Open Source: Freely available for integration and development, enabling platforms like Perplexity to adopt it immediately—without the censorship often associated with Chinese-backed technologies.

What Happened Next?

• Deep Seek became the most downloaded free app on the App Store - knocking ChatGPT off the top spot (turns out users quite like ‘free’).
• Doubts arose around the claimed $5 million figure it still appears development costs and energy use are significantly lower than their competitors.
• OpenAI accused Deep Seek of stealing data from ChatGPT, BUT the internet was quick to remind OpenAI of its own practices of scraping internet content with zero regard for copyright, and THEN locking access to it behind paywalls.
• Financial markets reacted negatively, reflecting uncertainty about the shifting AI landscape (more below).

The Deep Seek story will have many sequels to come, but somehow at this point a product launched by a Chinese investment firm has gained the role of the ‘plucky underdog’ 🤔. For now, I can report I’m using it and may be cancelling my Claude Pro subscription soon!

💰 Money Talk

US Markets are volatile- which mean most other markets follow suit.

• Trump's tariff policies created market uncertainty, particularly with the on-again-off-again tariffs with Canada and Mexico, plus the 10% Chinese tariffs and China's retaliatory measures. Markets dislike uncertainty even more than tariffs themselves, as it leads investors to pull money from stocks to avoid risk.
• Reflecting the lack of confidence in the market, gold hit an all time high on February 5th as investors seek safer assets.
• Deep Seek again
  • As mentioned Nvidia took a massive hit due to concern it won’t have the ‘only chip in town’ market dominance after all. It is recovering but still well down.
  • Energy companies, particularly nuclear, are also taking a hit. While AI's high energy demands previously made nuclear power an attractive investment, Deep Seek's ability to deliver similar results with significantly less computing power is seeing investors reconsider this bet.

😎 Culture Corner

As per the headlines, Beyonce finally got her Best Album Grammy (she also won Best Country Album) after being nominated 4 times and having won 35 Grammys - the most ever. Cowboy Carter is a great genre busting album to win with, and in the current environment of ‘down with DEI’ feels like a win for us all. Shout out to Chappell Roan’s speech calling out labels and their treatment of artists.

My prediction: Taylor Swift starts a label soon and role models how it should be done.

If you’re not watching Severance on Apple you should definitely start. Marketers will love the pre-season activation done in Central Station New York which shows how IRL can still deliver (and in my view, will become MORE not less important as people value in person ‘I was there’ moments)

💡 Tech Toy of the Week

Each week I highlight a cool gadget/app/tool

OURA RING

What it is: A wearable monitoring your sleep, heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen, cycle and more.

Why I like it: After 6 weeks of use, Oura helps me track stress levels, migraine effects on sleep, and workout heart rate zones. It also provides useful insights on how diet, coffee, and alcohol impact my overall health.

Who it's for: Oura is ideal for anyone focused on general health optimization, rather than athletic performance which other wearables such as Whoop focus on. I particularly like it for the focus on women's health metrics.

Price point: Not an impulse buy! Oura starts at $USD349 with a $USD69.99 annual membership.

Standout feature: After it has 60 days of data it can predict your period or a potential oncoming illness by your body temperature.

Wearables represent a growing segment of the massive health industry, with more launches expected this year. The ability to opt into data sharing is particularly valuable for women's health research, where aggregated data could help identify and address gender-specific health issues that have been historically understudied.\

🎧 Up Next

Once you’re done reacquainting your ears with Cowboy Carter head over to this for a dash of inspiration Cindy Gallop style. If you don’t know of her, her personal brand says it all:

I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.

She’s an absolute powerhouse (still going strong at 65) and worth a Linkedin follow too.

In this podcast you will learn about:

• what has influenced her relationship with money
• the importance of workplace negotiation for financial empowerment
• why we need to invest in women to change the internet for the better

If you made it to the end I hope you have enjoyed this and feel more informed than when you began.

From next week I will include a list of resources at the bottom for anyone who wants to dive in deeper into investing or tech topics.

Until then, have a great week. Enjoy the Superbowl half time show with Kendrick Lamar who is bound to make a statement and don’t forget to Look Up - the future is in front of us.