Spicy season: Chipotle and Taco Bell are both finding ways to grow

2/6/24 7:00PM

Spicy season

‍America’s appetite for fast-Mexican is showing few signs of waning, with Chipotle reporting a spicy 14% jump in annual sales yesterday, while quick-serve industry leader Taco Bell revealed a milder 9% jump in revenue this morning.

Chipotle’s results were served with a 7% uptick in footfall in Q4, bucking the trend seen at rivals Starbucks and McDonald's, both of which reported declines in foot traffic. Customers appeared broadly unfazed by Chipotle's price hikes, with strong demand propelling the company to just shy of $10 billion in sales, as it looks to onboard some 19,000 new workers for the bustling “burrito season” period from March to May.

‍Taco Bell has also been hiking prices — upsetting some of its loyal customers, who turn to it as a value option — with data sourced from Reddit revealing that Taco Bell dominated mentions on the social media site… but often because customers were complaining about the price of their meal.

Despite the price rises at fast-food favorites, America can’t seem to get enough of Mexican-inspired bites and Tex-Mex food more generally. In New York City, taquerías are booming, and an analysis of new menu items released at chains across the country found that many of the new dishes include Latin or Latin-inspired ingredients, with Birria (a Mexican stew) and chicken taco salad among the fastest-growing menu items.

For the mass market, Chipotle finds itself at the center of that boom, with plans to open another 285+ restaurants in 2024.

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Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind’s CEO and founder, was also an early Anthropic investor

A chess prodigy and an actual a knight of the realm in the UK, it’s perhaps no surprise that Demis Hassabis has made some strategic moves about his exposure to AI upside. According to people familiar with the matter, the influential AI architect became an angel investor in Anthropic, currently behind many of the leading AI models, per Arena AI leaderboards.

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, per the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

Google, which bought DeepMind, the company that Hassabis cofounded and heads to this day, for a reported ~$400 million in 2014, is also a key Anthropic investor. The tech giant reportedly plans to invest up to $40 billion in the AI company as part of the mutually beneficial relationship the pair have forged, with reports that Anthropic has committed to spending $200 billion in the other direction on Google’s cloud services over the next five years.

I’m playing all sides, so I always come out on top

In addition to his financial support for Anthropic, Hassabis has also invested in a range of AI startups launched by colleagues, such as Inflection AI, a company set up by DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman (who is now CEO of Microsoft AI), as well as efforts from other collaborators, like David Silver’s Ineffable Intelligence.

Hassabis also emerged as a recurring figure on the fringes of the recent Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial, cropping up repeatedly in testimonies and court documents and appearing to live, as The Verge put it, “rent-free” in Musk’s head.

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis emerges as early Anthropic investor

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, per the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

I’m playing all sides, so I always come out on top

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

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