Author: TechBrunch

Over the past few years, startups around the world have faced challenges in attempting to exit due to factors such as a frozen IPO market and reduced attractiveness to buyers. Additionally, large mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, especially those involving large technology companies and multi-billion dollar conglomerates, have come under increased regulatory scrutiny. Notably, the decline in venture investment within the startup ecosystem is often linked to a lack of exit volume and value: in Africa, for example, the number of M&A exits peaked at 44 in 2021, when the continent attracted nearly $6 billion in venture capital, but in…

In the latest development in Bolt's aggressive fundraising efforts, the fintech company's CEO appeared to implicitly threaten legal action against Silver Bear Capital, the investment bank whose involvement in the deal remains controversial. “We believe there was an internal miscommunication at one of our major investors, Silver Bear Capital, which has caused unnecessary confusion,” CEO Justin Grooms said in an email reportedly seen by Forbes. “In fact, they have signed a binding agreement to commit $200 million. Our talented legal team at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher stands ready to represent the company to aggressively enforce our rights.” Bolt, which offers…

Amazon announced Friday night that it had hired Covariant founders Peter Abeel, Peter Chen and Rocky Duan, as well as “approximately a quarter” of the startup's employees, and also signed a non-exclusive license to use Covariant's robotic foundation model. Earlier this year, Chen told TechCrunch that Covariant is building “large-scale language models for robotics. In other words, the company is creating AI models for robots, with an initial focus on robotic arms that perform common warehouse tasks like bin picking. “We are conducting fundamental research with the brightest minds and combining our vast domain expertise to pioneer new ways for…

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. caused a stir a few months ago. Mason announced that the prestigious Grammy Awards would finally accept music made with artificial intelligence. At first people were confused, but Mason later explained that this meant that only humans could submit works for the awards, but AI could be used in the creative process. “It's a fine line, but it will evolve,” he told TechCrunch about how the Academy evaluates the use of artificial intelligence in music. “Hopefully we can continue to celebrate human creativity at the highest level.” The rise of AI is engulfing the…

Elle Russell, co-founder of Cairns, Australia-based NightCafe, which offers a suite of AI-powered art-creating tools, prefers to avoid the spotlight. “I like to remain hidden behind my monitors,” she told me in a recent interview. NightCafe is similarly low profile. The company, which Russell helped her partner, Angus Russell, launch five years ago, doesn’t get the same publicity as some of its rivals, like Midjourney. Yet NightCafe — an entirely bootstrapped venture that’s profitable “most months,” according to Elle — has enormous reach. Its over 25 million users have created nearly a billion images with its tools. To pull back…

Let's start with the premise that change is hard for everyone. In large organizations, change is even harder. Over the past 15 years, I've watched large organizations try to embrace mobile, big data, cloud, and general digital transformation, only to see many of them struggle to implement these technologies time and time again. Today, it's AI that is forcing change on companies and their employees, whether they like it or not. Part of the problem is technical debt, the notion that an organization's tech stack needs to evolve to make the most of new technologies, rather than using a set…

The South Korean startup ecosystem has grown over the last decade as major tech firms and venture capital from the West has sought to make inroads in the country. No surprise there: South Korea has long been one of Asia’s strongest economies. Startups here have enjoyed good access to funding, benefiting from Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, Qualcomm and Samsung setting up operations locally, as well as from dedicated venture arms. It also helps that the Korean government has spurred investment by setting up innovation hubs, incubators and accelerators. Today, South Korea ranks ninth on the list of countries…

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the immediate nationwide suspension of the X Platform on Friday, following a months-long legal battle with Elon Musk's social media company over content moderation, according to Bloomberg. The court added that anyone using a VPN to access the X Platform would be fined 50,000 reais ($8,900) per day, but it was unclear how the ruling would be enforced. Earlier this month, X suspended its operations in Brazil in protest of a court order requiring it to remove accounts that allegedly spread false information. At the time, the company said that Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de…

Sources told The Wall Street Journal this week that OpenAI is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a staggering valuation of more than $100 billion. It turns out investors have already proven they're willing to value the company that highly to get on OpenAI's coveted cap table: In several companies tracking or facilitating secondary transactions (where investors buy shares from existing investors rather than directly from a company), investors have paid prices that suggest valuations of more than $100 billion. The main deal that OpenAI is negotiating is being led by Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital, which…

Update: California's Appropriations Committee passed SB 1047 on Thursday, August 15, with significant amendments that change the bill. Read more here. Outside of science fiction movies, there is no precedent for AI systems being used to kill people or launch large-scale cyberattacks. But some lawmakers want to put in place safeguards before bad actors make this dystopian future a reality. California's bill, SB 1047, aims to prevent real-world disasters caused by AI systems. The bill passed the state Senate in August and now awaits approval or veto from California Governor Gavin Newsom. While this seems like a goal we can…