OpenAI Chair’s AI Startup Sierra Gets $4.5 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round

Former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor’s company keeps pulling in money from top VC firms as expectations mount.

Business - Inc. - October 29

Bret Taylor’s AI startup Sierra raises funding at $4.5 billion valuation

Sierra, the startup founded by ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, has raised a fresh round of capital that values the company at $4.5 billion.

Business - CNBC - October 28

AI Startup Perplexity to Triple Valuation to $9 Billion in New Funding Round

The artificial intelligence search company is raising $500 million in its fourth funding round this year.

Tech - The Wall Street Journal - November 5

Elon Musk's xAI Startup Is Valued at $50 Billion in New Funding Round

The artificial-intelligence company has told investors it raised $5 billion in its latest funding round.

Tech - The Wall Street Journal - Yesterday

Jeff Bezos and OpenAI invest in robot startup Physical Intelligence at $2.4 billion valuation

Amazon's Jeff Bezos and OpenAI invested in Physical Intelligence, a robot startup that raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion post-money valuation.

Business - CNBC - November 4

Perplexity AI in final stages of raising $500 million round at $9 billion valuation

Perplexity AI is in the final stages of raising $500 million in funding at a $9 billion valuation, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC.

Business - CNBC - November 5

DevRev raises $100.8 million in Series A funding and becomes an AI unicorn at a $1.15 billion valuation

Following its successful Series A funding, DevRev drives forward its mission to revolutionize customer support and product development.

Tech - VentureBeat - November 1

Inside the Billion-Dollar Startup Bringing AI Into the Physical World

Physical Intelligence has assembled an all-star team and raised $400 million on the promise of a stunning breakthrough in how robots learn.

Tech - Wired - November 14

Elon Musk’s xAI startup said to eye funding round, valuing the company at this much

xAI is in talks with investors for a funding round, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Business - MarketWatch - October 29

This Robotics AI ‘Brain’ Startup Just Raised $400 Million From Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, and Others

Physical Intelligence, now valued at about $2 billion, aims to create AI models that can power robots.

Business - Inc. - November 4

Chinese AI startup takes aim at OpenAI's Sora with image-to-video tool launch

Beijing-based Shengshu Technology updated its artificial intelligence-powered text-to-video tool Vidu for generating videos based on separate images.

Business - CNBC - November 14

AI startup funding hit a record in the L.A. area last quarter. Here's who got the most money

L.A.-area startups received $1.8 billion in the third quarter, the highest quarterly amount for the region, according to CB Insights. Most of it went to a single company.

Entertainment - Los Angeles Times - November 8

Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo closes $5.6 billion funding round as robotaxi race heats up in the U.S.

Alphabet-owned driverless vehicle unit Waymo just closed a $5.6 billion funding round to expand its robotaxi service across the U.S.

Business - CNBC - October 25

ByteDance Valuation Hits $300 Billion Amid Possible U.S. TikTok Ban

ByteDance, owner of TikTok, has placed its own value at this figure.

Business - Inc. - 5 days ago

Play Ventures raises $140M second fund to invest in games and consumer startups

Play Ventures, a global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage gaming, has raised $140 million for its third gaming fund.

Tech - VentureBeat - 3 days ago

OpenAI Will Send Its Next AI to Businesses Before a Public Release

A leader in AI technology may soon make a giant leap forward, but this time, select companies will get their hands on its next-generation model before you do.

Business - Inc. - October 25

ChatGPT’s AI Search Tool Is Now Available From OpenAI

OpenAI just launched its newest artificial intelligence search experience for ChatGPT. Here’s how to get the AI search update, and WIRED’s initial impressions.

Tech - Wired - October 31

Why OpenAI Is Trying New Strategies to Deal With an AI Development Slowdown

As quantum leaps in AI capabilities get harder to pull off, the market leader is pivoting to progress. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Grok AI may be opening to more X users.

Business - Inc. - November 11

OpenAI to present plans for U.S. AI strategy and an alliance to compete with China

OpenAI's official blueprint for U.S. AI infrastructure involves AI economic zones and government projects funded by private investors, according to a document.

Business - CNBC - November 13

Will Sam Altman always win the OpenAI board fight in an AI agent simulation?

Fable built its AI Sim Francisco "war game" to find out why OpenAI's behind closed doors board fight turned out the way it did.

Tech - VentureBeat - 6 hours ago

Mother of Teen Who Died by Suicide Sues AI Startup

The boy, 14, spent months talking to an artificial character on Character.AI before becoming depressed. His mother blames the company, saying the tech shouldn’t be accessible to minors.

Business - Inc. - October 24

Google's partnership with AI startup Anthropic faces a UK competition investigation

Britain’s competition watchdog is opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic

Tech - ABC News - October 24

Meet the startup that just won the Pentagon’s first AI defense contract

The Pentagon awards its first-ever generative AI defense contract worth $1.8M to Jericho Security, targeting deepfake attacks and AI-powered threats against military personnel including drone pilots.

Tech - VentureBeat - November 5

A US Ban on Investing in Chinese AI Startups Could Escalate Under Trump

The Biden administration narrowed in on Chinese companies developing frontier AI models, but Donald Trump could take a much broader approach.

Tech - Wired - 3 days ago

How I’m Building My Startup With Remote Workers and AI Tools

Startups like mine are managing remote teams and integrating AI tools to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Business - Inc. - 2 days ago

Thames Water Proposes $3.9 Billion Funding Deal to Continue Operations

The U.K. water company said the deal would enable the debt-laden company to continue with its planned investment and maintenance of its infrastructure.

Business - The Wall Street Journal - October 25

Elon Musk's xAI in Talks to Raise Funding Valuing It at $40 Billion

The new fundraising effort would substantially increase startup’s valuation from spring.

Tech - The Wall Street Journal - October 29

Elon Musk’s xAI in Funding Talks That Could Value Company at $40 Billion

The financing efforts follow that of rival OpenAI, which recently closed a funding round that valued it at $157 billion.

Tech - The New York Times - October 31

Chinese driver-assist startup announces $100 million in funding, touts 'deep cooperation' with Nvidia

Deeproute said it is part of the first batch of companies in China to obtain Nvidia's newer Thor chip for cars and will release a new system using it next year

Business - CNBC - November 5

OpenAI’s Altman Latest Tech Exec to Lend a Hand to New San Francisco Mayor

The AI leader joins the transition team for Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and a political neophyte.

Business - Inc. - 2 days ago

The 1 Skill Bonobos’ Co-Founder Has Embraced in his Latest Startup for Success

Andy Dunn talks about embracing radical candor with his employees.

Business - Inc. - 23 hours ago

Government commission proposes Manhattan Project-style AI funding plan

A U.S. congressional commission proposed a "Manhattan Project-like" initiative for the funding of artificial intelligence (AI) development in a larger push to stay ahead of China's technological ...

Politics - The Hill - 2 days ago

Lilium was once a promising 'air taxi' startup worth billions. Now it's on the brink of insolvency

German aerospace startup Lilium faces insolvency if it doesn't raise emergency funding from the state government for the southeastern state of Bavaria.

Business - CNBC - October 23

AI on the trading floor: Morgan Stanley expands OpenAI-powered chatbot tools to Wall Street division

Nearly 50% of employees at Morgan Stanley and 60% at JPMorgan Chase have access to generative AI software provided by OpenAI.

Business - CNBC - October 23

OpenAI scientist Noam Brown stuns TED AI Conference: ’20 seconds of thinking worth 100,000x more data’

At the TED AI conference, OpenAI’s Noam Brown unveiled the o1 model, showcasing how "System Two Thinking" could transform industries by enabling AI to deliver smarter, more deliberate decision-making.

Tech - VentureBeat - October 23

Microsoft's GitHub expands beyond OpenAI, lets developers use AI models from Anthropic, Google

GitHub is giving software developers more choices for its popular coding assistant, meaning they won't be limited to models from OpenAI.

Business - CNBC - October 29

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says new AI model is taking a while because 'we can't ship' as quickly as hoped

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that GPT-5, the company's next probable large AI model, likely won't come this year.

Business - CNBC - October 31

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