Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
Database maker ClickHouse raises $400M, acquires AI observability startup Langfuse
Open-source database maker ClickHouse Inc. today announced that it has closed a $400 million late-stage funding round at a $15 billion valuation. The Series D investment, which comes about six months after the company’s previous raise, was led by Dragoneer. It was joined by GIC, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price ...
OpenAI quietly launches ChatGPT Translate with support for 25 languages
OpenAI Group PBC today launched ChatGPT Translate, a free translation service hosted on a standalone web page. The rollout wasn’t accompanied by an announcement, which hints that the service may be a prototype. In July 2024, OpenAI launched a search engine called SearchGPT with the goal of collecting user feedback about its information retrieval features. ...
OpenAI invests in brain-computer interface developer Merge Labs
OpenAI Group PBC has invested in Merge Labs Inc., a startup developing hardware that will enable users to control computers with their thoughts. The large language model provider announced the deal today. Bloomberg described the investment as a $252 million seed round, while TechCrunch cited a source as saying that Merge Labs raised $250 million. Besides ...
TSMC tops revenue expectations amid strong demand for advanced nodes
Continuing its growth streak, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. today posted fourth-quarter revenue and profit numbers that easily topped the consensus estimate. The company also disclosed that it plans to boost its capital expenditure significantly this year. TSMC’s revenue rose 20.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, to 1.046 trillion new Taiwan dollars, or $33.73 billion. Analysts ...
Alpaca raises $150M to grow its brokerage account management platform
Financial technology startup AlpacaDB Inc. today announced that it has raised $150 million in funding at a $1.15 billion valuation. The Series D round was led by Drive Capital. It also drew contributions from more than a dozen other backers including the venture capital arms of BNP Paribas and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, two of ...
Google introduces Personal Intelligence personalization tool for Gemini
Google LLC today debuted a tool called Personal Intelligence that will enable consumers to tailor its Gemini chatbot to their preferences. The tool will initially be available to a limited number of paying users in the U.S. Google plans to expand access over time. Consumers can enable Personal Intelligence through a new option in the ...
Robot software startup Skild AI raises $1.4B round backed by Nvidia, Jeff Bezos
Skild AI Inc., a startup that develops artificial intelligence software for robots, has raised $1.4 billion from a group of prominent investors. Today’s funding announcement comes about a month after reports of the funding round first emerged. Skild AI has raised about $400 million more than expected. The consortium that provided the capital was led by ...
Microsoft details plan to prevent its data centers from straining power, water resources
Microsoft Corp. today announced an initiative to prevent its data centers from harming the areas where they’re built. Brad Smith, the tech giant’s vice chair and president, detailed the program in a blog post. The Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan, as it’s known, comprises more than a dozen elements. Many of them focus on ensuring that ...
CrowdStrike acquires browser security startup Seraphic Security for $400M
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. is acquiring Seraphic Security Ltd., a startup that helps enterprises protect employees’ browsers from online threats. The companies announced the deal today without disclosing its financial terms, though Calcalist pegged the amount at $400 million. Seraphic, which maintains offices in Palo Alto, California, and Israel, previously raised about $37 million from investors. ...
Salesforce makes revamped Slackbot generally available
Salesforce Inc. today launched a significantly enhanced version of Slackbot, the artificial intelligence assistant embedded in Slack. The company first debuted the upgrade at its Dreamforce 2025 conference in October. Slackbot originally focused on relatively simple tasks such as displaying notifications. The new version significantly expands the range of use cases that the tool can ...