Explore AI trends, applications, and insights.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Micro1, a fast-growing startup that helps AI companies source and manage human contractors for data labeling and training, has raised a $35 million Series A funding round at a $500 million valuation. The round was led by O1 Advisors, the venture capital firm founded by former Twitter executives Dick Costolo
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Alibaba Group Holding has unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model, marking a major leap in efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The model, developed under the Qwen3-Next architecture, is said to be 10 times more powerful yet requires only a tenth of the cost to build compared with its predecessor, according to announcements
Finance
OpenAI announced Thursday that it has reached a non-binding agreement with Microsoft, its largest investor, to restructure its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation (PBC) — a move that could reshape the AI startup’s governance and fundraising model. If approved by regulators in California and Delaware, the shift would
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Perplexity, the AI-powered search startup positioning itself as a rival to Google, has secured $200 million in fresh funding at a $20 billion valuation, according to The Information. The new round comes just two months after the company raised $100 million at an $18 billion valuation, per a July Bloomberg
Cloud Computing
Oracle’s shares soared in after-hours trading yesterday following news that the company had secured several multi-billion-dollar contracts. Now, details are emerging that point to OpenAI as one of its biggest customers. According to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has agreed to purchase $300 billion worth of compute
Software Development
Replit, the fast-growing collaborative coding platform, has closed a $250 million funding round that values the company at $3 billion, according to sources familiar with the deal. The round marks a dramatic leap in valuation from its last raise in 2023, when the startup secured $100 million at a $1.
Transportation
Lyft riders in Atlanta can now hail a self-driving vehicle through the app, marking the first commercial rollout of the company’s partnership with autonomous vehicle startup May Mobility. The pilot program, which began this week, represents Lyft’s latest effort to gain ground in the increasingly competitive robotaxi market.
Transportation
Amazon-owned Zoox has officially opened its futuristic robotaxi rides to the public in Las Vegas — and for now, they’re free. The company, which has been developing its custom-built autonomous vehicles for more than six years, announced Wednesday that anyone over 18 can now hail one of its driverless cars
Talent Management
Mercor, the fast-rising startup that supplies domain experts to leading artificial intelligence companies, is in talks with investors for a Series C round that could value the company at more than $10 billion, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch and sources familiar with the discussions. Felicis, which led Mercor’s
Energy
A new kind of computer that harnesses light instead of digital switches could dramatically reduce the energy demands of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a groundbreaking study published Sept. 3 in Nature. Microsoft researchers behind the project describe it as a "new computing paradigm" with the potential to
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Microsoft is expanding its artificial intelligence partnerships, with plans to integrate Anthropic’s AI models into Office 365 applications, The Information reports, citing two sources familiar with the deal. The move marks a significant shift for Microsoft, which has so far leaned heavily on OpenAI’s technology to power its
Semiconductors
At its AI Infrastructure Summit on Tuesday, Nvidia announced a new GPU, the Rubin CPX, specifically engineered to handle context windows larger than 1 million tokens. The breakthrough marks a major step in enabling AI models to process and reason over unprecedented volumes of data. Built for long-context AI The