Databricks, the data analytics platform, has raised $10 billion in a funding round that values the company at $62 billion (up from $43 billion). Backers include Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, and Iconiq Growth. The round is one of the largest venture rounds in history, and will drive future future mergers and acquisitions, […]
Databricks raises $10B as it barrels toward an IPO Read More »
Jon Morehouse launched PowerTools in 2019 to help companies ship static sites and serverless apps to their cloud accounts on providers like AWS and Azure. When a customer asked him if they could use PowerTools to deploy their software into one of their customer’s cloud accounts, Morehouse was skeptical. Morehouse told TechCrunch that after that
Nuon helps companies deploy their software into their customers’ cloud accounts Read More »
Colin Angle, one of the co-founders of Roomba maker iRobot, is raising cash for a home robotics venture. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Angle’s new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is trying to raise $30 million. So far, it has raised $15 million from a group of eight investors.
iRobot co-founder’s new home robot startup hopes to raise $30M Read More »
Arctic Wolf has acquired Cylance, BlackBerry’s beleaguered cybersecurity business, for $160 million — a significant write-down from the $1.4 billion BlackBerry paid to acquire the company in 2018. Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in BlackBerry’s fiscal Q4, BlackBerry will sell its Cylance assets to Arctic Wolf for $160 million
BlackBerry sells Cylance for $160M, a fraction of the $1.4B it paid in 2018 Read More »
Liquid AI, an AI startup co-founded by robotics luminary Daniela Rus, has raised $250 million in a Series A led by AMD. Per Bloomberg, the round values Liquid AI at over $2 billion. Liquid AI aims to build general-purpose AI systems powered by a relatively new type of AI model called a liquid neural network. Liquid
Liquid AI just raised $250M to develop a more efficient type of AI model Read More »
AI models that understand videos as well as text can unlock powerful new applications. At least, that’s what Jae Lee, the co-founder of Twelve Labs, believes. Granted, Lee’s a little biased. Twelve Labs trains video-analyzing models for a range of use cases. But there may just be something to his assertion. Using Twelve Labs’ models,
Twelve Labs is building AI that can analyze and search through videos Read More »
It’s becoming increasingly costly to develop and run AI. OpenAI’s AI operations costs could reach $7 billion this year, while Anthropic’s CEO recently suggested that models costing over $10 billion could arrive soon. So the hunt is on for ways to make AI cheaper. Some researchers are focusing on techniques to optimize existing model architectures — i.e.
Cartesia claims its AI is efficient enough to run pretty much anywhere Read More »
Some VCs are looking at the Trump administration’s proposed massive tax increase on university endowments with alarm, warns Ann Miura-Ko, co-founder at Floodgate Partners. “There is a proposal right now to take the endowment tax from 1.4 percent to 35 percent and most people would say, well endowments are super rich, why do we care? Well, they
Trump’s proposed university endowment tax could hurt funding, VC warns Read More »
Devs expect tech vendors to supply software development kits, or SDKs, alongside their products to make it easier to create apps using those products. But many vendors only offer APIs, which are simply protocols that enable software components to communicate with each other. Alex Rattray, the founder of Stainless, thinks AI can assist, here. Stainless
Stainless helps build SDKs for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta Read More »
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing. 97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities. The new cash brings xAI’s total raised to $12 billion, adding to the $6 billion
Elon Musk’s xAI lands billions in new cash to fuel AI ambitions Read More »
