Our news
-
SoftBank to acquire semiconductor designer Ampere in $6.5B all-cash deal
SoftBank Group announced on Wednesday that it will acquire Ampere Computing, a chip designer founded by former Intel executive Renee James, through a $6.5 billion all-cash deal as a strategic move to broaden its investment in AI infrastructure. Ampere will be operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank after the deal, which is expected to…
-
How a $6M bet on Wiz turned into a massive 200x return for one early backer
Wiz’s $32 billion all-cash acquisition by Google parent Alphabet promises a colossal payday for the cybersecurity startup’s early-stage investors. The deal is a big win for Sequoia, one of the best-known VC firms, which stands to make $3 billion, about 25x the money it invested in the company, Bloomberg reported. Despite substantial returns for Sequoia’s…
-
OpenAI’s o1-pro is the company’s most expensive AI model yet
OpenAI has launched a more powerful version of its o1 “reasoning” AI model, o1-pro, in its developer API. According to OpenAI, o1-pro uses more computing than o1 to provide “consistently better responses.” Currently, it’s only available to select developers — those who’ve spent at least $5 on OpenAI API services — and it’s pricey. Very…
-
Data breach at stalkerware SpyX affects close to 2 million, including thousands of Apple users
Another consumer-grade spyware operation was hacked in June 2024, which exposed thousands of Apple Account credentials. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
-
X users treating Grok like a fact-checker spark concerns over misinformation
Some users on X are turning to Grok for fact-checking, raising concerns among fact-checkers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
-
Sequoia shutters D.C. office, lets go of policy team
Sequoia will shutter its D.C. office as well as part ways with the policy team there at the end of March, TechCrunch has confirmed. The news comes — and is somewhat in contrast — with the other prominent VC firms in Silicon Valley strengthening their ties with Capitol Hill and the new Trump administration. Andreessen…
-
OpenAI research lead Noam Brown thinks AI ‘reasoning’ models could’ve arrived decades ago
Noam Brown, who leads AI reasoning research at OpenAI, says “reasoning” AI models like OpenAI’s o1 could’ve arrived 20 years earlier had researchers “known [the right] approach” and algorithms. “There were various reasons why this research direction was neglected,” Brown said during a panel at Nvidia’s GTC conference in San Jose on Wednesday. “I noticed…
-
Nvidia reportedly acquires synthetic data startup Gretel
Nvidia has reportedly acquired Gretel, a San Diego-based startup that’s developed a platform to generate synthetic AI training data. Terms of the acquisition are unknown. The price tag was said to be nine figures, exceeding Gretel’s most recent valuation of $320 million, according to Wired. Gretel and its team of roughly 80 employees will be folded…
-
AWS generative AI exec leaves to launch startup
Raj Aggarwal is leaving AWS after nearly three years as the company’s GM of generative AI and revenue acceleration, according to a LinkedIn post Aggarwal published Wednesday. “I’m proud of the pioneering work our team did in generative AI from its earliest days,” Aggarwal said in his post. “We built what might be the world’s…
-
Group co-led by Fei-Fei Li suggests that AI safety laws should anticipate future risks
In a new report, a California-based policy group co-led by Fei-Fei Li, an AI pioneer, suggests that lawmakers should consider AI risks that “have not yet been observed in the world” when crafting AI regulatory policies. The 41-page interim report released on Tuesday comes from the Joint California Policy Working Group on Frontier AI Models,…