Maria Deutscher
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Chinese chipmakers Montage, Axera file for Hong Kong IPOs
Chinese chipmakers Montage Technology Co. and Axera Semiconductor Co. today filed to go public in Hong Kong. The companies are set to list their shares next month. The public offerings are expected to raise as much as 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, or about $1.28 billion. Montage’s upcoming listing will represent its third stock exchange ...
Google introduces Project Genie virtual world generator
Google LLC today introduced Project Genie, a tool that makes it possible to generate three-dimensional virtual environments using prompts. The tool is initially available in the U.S. to users with Google AI Ultra subscription. The $250-a-month plan offers several features not included in standard Google accounts. Users receive higher AI usage limits, 30 terabytes of ...
Apple acquires AI startup Q.ai for reported $2B
Apple Inc. has acquired Q.ai, a startup that develops artificial intelligence software for wearables. The Financial Times reported that the transaction is worth nearly $2 billion. Israel-based Q.ai, officially Q (Cue) Ltd., develops AI software that can understand mouthed and whispered speech. It’s also capable of understanding audio produced in noisy environments. The software reportedly ...
Virtue AI debuts AgentSuite platform to help enterprises secure AI agents
Startup Virtue AI Inc. today introduced AgentSuite, a software plaform designed to protect artificial intelligence agents from threats such as malicious MCP servers. The platform’s debut comes less than a year after the company launched with $30 million in initial funding. It raised the capital from a consortium that included Intel Corp. Chief Executive Officer ...
Google DeepMind open-sources AlphaGenome medical research model
Google DeepMind today open-sourced AlphaGenome, an artificial intelligence model that researchers can use to study biological processes. The Alphabet Inc. unit first debuted the algorithm in June. Until now, it was accessible only through an application programming interface limited to noncommercial research use cases. According to DeepMind, the API has been adopted by more than ...
OpenAI, Anthropic reportedly raising billions of dollars in new funding
OpenAI Group PBC and Anthropic PBC are reportedly seeking new funding rounds that could significantly boost their respective valuations. Both companies are expected to go public as early as this year. That means the investments under discussion may be the last ones they raise. The Wall Street Journal today cited sources as saying that SoftBank ...
Amazon lays off 16,000 employees to prioritize growth areas
Amazon.com Inc. today announced a round of layoffs that will affect about 16,000 employees. The restructuring comes a few weeks after the company let go 14,000 workers across multiple business units. Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, wrote in an internal memo that the job cuts are part of an ...
Crypto payments startup Mesh raises $75M at $1B valuation
Crypto payment processing provider Mesh Connect Inc. today announced that it has closed a $75 million funding round at a $1 billion valuation. Dragonfly Capital led the Series C deal. It was joined by Coinbase Ventures, Japanese financial services giant SBI, Paradigm, Moderne Ventures and Liberty City Ventures. Mesh has raised more than $200 million to ...
Moonshot AI releases open-source Kimi K2.5 model with 1T parameters
Chinese artificial intelligence developer Moonshot AI today debuted Kimi K2.5, an open-source model that it says can outperform GPT-5.2 across several benchmarks. The launch comes a few days after word emerged that the company is raising capital at a $4.8 billion valuation. Moonshot reportedly closed a separate $500 million round in December. Kimi K2.5 is derived from ...
Industrial robotics startup Vention reels in $110M funding round
Vention Inc., a Canadian startup that supplies manufacturers with customized automation equipment, has raised $110 million in late-stage funding. The investment arm of Quebec’s government led the Series D round. It was joined by Nvidia Corp.’s NVentures and several other institutional backers. Vention offers more than 3,000 hardware products that range from simple metal components ...