boon Boon Raises $20.5M to Bring Agentic AI to Fragmented Fleet Operations Startup Boon secures $20.5 million in funding to build AI agents that streamline back-office tasks for logistics and fleet companies. The platform integrates data from up to 20 fragmented applications to significantly boost operational efficiency.
emmett shear Former Twitch CEO Shear Launches Stealth AI Startup Backed by a16z Ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is building a stealth AI company called Stem AI, which focuses on aligning artificial intelligence with human behavior and ethics. The new venture secures early backing from prominent venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
google Google Enters Reasoning AI Race With Experimental Gemini Model Google introduces Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, a new AI model designed to work through complex problems by fact-checking itself. However, early testing shows the experimental system still struggles with basic tasks like counting letters.
anysphere AI Coding Startup Cursor Reaches $2.6 Billion Valuation in Rapid Series B Anysphere, the startup behind the popular AI coding assistant Cursor, raises $100 million in a Series B round led by Thrive Capital, pushing its valuation to $2.6 billion just months after its previous raise.
instagram Instagram Plans AI Video Editing Tools Powered by Meta Movie Gen Instagram head Adam Mosseri previews new generative AI tools that let creators modify video appearances and backgrounds using simple text prompts. The features, powered by Meta's Movie Gen model, are expected to launch next year.
perplexity AI Search Startup Perplexity Closes $500M Round at $9B Valuation Perplexity reportedly secures a massive $500 million funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners, reaching a $9 billion valuation. The investment arrives as the AI search market sees increasing competition from OpenAI and Google.
tusimple Former Self-Driving Truck Firm TuSimple Rebrands as AI Animation Company CreateAI TuSimple officially drops its autonomous trucking past to become CreateAI, an AI animation and gaming venture. The dramatic pivot faces heavy shareholder backlash and controversy over the movement of U.S. assets to China.
github GitHub Introduces Free Version of Copilot AI Coding Assistant GitHub launches a free tier of its AI pair programming tool Copilot, expanding access beyond paid subscribers and students. The free version includes limited monthly code completions and chat messages to serve occasional developers.
anthropic Anthology Fund Backs First 18 AI Startups With $100M Initiative Menlo Ventures and Anthropic select the first 18 startups for their $100 million Anthology Fund, chosen from thousands of applicants. The hybrid program offers funding and AI credits to companies building applications on top of foundational models.
microsoft Microsoft Leads Rivals by Purchasing 485,000 Nvidia AI Chips in 2024 Microsoft buys nearly 500,000 Nvidia Hopper chips this year, outpacing competitors like Meta to fuel its massive artificial intelligence expansion.
openai OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Access Via Traditional Landline Phones OpenAI now allows users to interact with ChatGPT by calling a toll-free landline number or messaging on WhatsApp. The initiative aims to make AI accessible to people without smartphones or accounts.
perplexity Perplexity Acquires Carbon to Bring AI Search to Enterprise Work Files Perplexity buys Seattle startup Carbon to integrate AI search with workplace tools like Slack and Google Docs. The move positions Perplexity to compete in the rapidly growing enterprise AI search market.
wing Wing and DoorDash Expand Drone Delivery to Dallas-Fort Worth Area Alphabet's Wing and DoorDash are bringing fast drone delivery to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, allowing customers to receive meals from 50 local merchants in as little as 15 minutes.
venture capital Venture Capital Splits Into Two Cities as Non-AI Startups Struggle to Raise Funding The current venture capital market heavily favors AI startups, leaving non-AI companies facing severe fundraising challenges and significant valuation drops. Data shows a massive gap between top-tier and bottom-tier software deals.
google Google Permits High-Risk AI Decisions Under Human Supervision Google updates its generative AI policy to explicitly allow automated decision-making in high-risk domains like healthcare and housing, provided a human supervises the process.