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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, aims to secure $1 billion in equity financing to compete with industry leaders such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. The company, co-founded by Musk, has already garnered $135 million from investors, as revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Artificial Intelligence: Self-Driving Startup Argo AI Shuts Down, Parts To Be Absorbed By Backers Ford, VW
The signs were all there. In July, Argo AI, the self-driving startup backed by Ford (NYSE: F) and Volkswagen (ETR: VOW) laid off 150 jobs and slowed down its hiring. At the time the company attributed the action to “prudent adjustments to our business plan.” Three months down the line, Argo has downed shutters, with parts of it being taken over by Ford and VW.
Venture Capital: Walmart To Raise Upto $3B For Indian E-Commerce Subsidiary Flipkart
A news report said Flipkart, Walmart’s (NYSE: WMT) Indian e-commerce subsidiary was mulling a fundraise of $2 – 3 billion at a valuation of over $40 billion to drive a country-wide expansion. Last year, Flipkart raised $3.6 billion in a funding round that had the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart as investors. That round gave it a valuation of $37.6 billion.
Artificial Intelligence: Google’s Dialogflow Service To Power Wells Fargo’s New Digital Assistant
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) announced its launch of Fargo, a new virtual assistant that will assist customers with their banking in the coming months and provide a more personalised, convenient and simple banking experience. Fargo will be built upon the Google Cloud conversational AI platform known as Dialogflow which has language processing capabilities, can understand customers’ intents, and deliver an appropriate response.
Venture Capital: Climate Tech Fund Propeller Raises $100M For Ocean Climate Startups
Climate-tech fund Propeller announced its raise of a $100 million fund to support startups aiming to solve the climate crisis by innovating planet-saving, ocean-based science and technology solutions. The fund is launched in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a private, non-profit organization established in 1930, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education.
FinTech: India’s PhonePe On Decacorn Path, Mulls Fundraise At Over $12B Valuation
PhonePe is negotiating a fundraise at a valuation of over $12 billion, with General Atlantic likely to lead the round with an investment in the range of $450 – $500 million. If the funding goes through, it would catapult PhonePe to the position of the most highly-valued fintech in India.
Venture Capital: Chinese EV Maker Aion Raises $2.53B Series A
Aion, the EV unit of Chinese automaker GAC (HKG: 2238), has raised a huge RMB 18.3 billion ($2.53 billion) Series A round at a whopping RMB 103.3 billion ($14.28 billion) valuation. That puts Aion at the top of the league of Chinese private, venture capital-backed EV makers.
Artificial Intelligence: Adobe Announces Generative AI For Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) has been researching Generative AI for its transformative potential to accelerate creativity and make it accessible to millions of people; for example, by speaking a few words to describe an image, and having the corresponding image magically produced on the computer screen by the AI.
Venture Capital: JPMorgan Launching A Platform To Facilitate Venture Finance
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is launching Capital Connect, its own venture capital platform, to simplify the funding process for startups, and expand its own penetration of the private market. Banks have sought to present a friendlier funding face to founders given the rapid increase in recent years in the number and size of unlisted and private ventures.
Artificial Intelligence: Reducing Sulfur In Shipping Fuel Cut Sea Air Emissions (NASA AI Model)
An AI model built by NASA confirmed that an IMO move to slash sulfur content in shipping fuel paid off in spades, because it led to the lowest air pollution levels at sea in 2020. However, part of the credit must also go to the reduced shipping traffic volumes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Liquid Alternatives: Interview With George Matthews Of Allspring Global Investments
George Matthews is a managing director and co-head of Product for the Systematic Edge Equity team at Allspring Global Investments. In this capacity, he leads global institutional product direction for the Systematic Edge platform. George specializes in factor-based investing and serves as a senior product specialist for the team’s equity group.
Venture Capital: Lionel Messi Launches Investment Vehicle
San Francisco-based Play Time Sports-Tech HoldCo LLC is a holding company created by soccer superstar Lionel Messi to explore and invest in ventures that include football teams or football technology, said a Bloomberg report.
Artificial Intelligence: AI-Generated Content Platform Jasper Raises $125M Series A
Jasper, the platform for AI-generated content, announced its $125 million Series A round led by global software investor Insight Partners and joined by other leading firms including Coatue, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Foundation Capital, Founders Circle Capital, HubSpot Ventures and more. The round valued the firm at $1.5 billion.
Venture Capital: Under-The -Radar Oncology Start-up Treeline Biosciences Nabs $261M
Treeline Biosciences, a cancer biotechnology startup led by biotech executives and Co-Founders Joshua Bilenker (CEO) and Jeffrey Engelman (CSO), has landed a Series A funding of $262 million to further its research pipeline. Bilenker, who had previously worked a stint in the oncology division of the FDA, went on to found a biotech company called Loxo Oncology which was later acquired by Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) for $8 billion in 2019.
Venture Capital: TripActions Raises $304M Series G At $9.2B Valuation
TripActions announced a Series G raise comprising $154 million in equity from new and existing financial investors as well as a $150 million structured capital transaction led by Coatue, marking the third financing round for the company in three years.
Artificial Intelligence: Ai-Da, A Robot, Speaks At The House Of Lords
Ai-Da, a robot created by Aiden Meller, and described as “the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist”, appeared at a hearing before the Lords communications and digital committee on Tuesday. The Committee was examining the future of the UK’s creative industries and how AI could impact the sector.
Alternative Investments/Hedge Funds: Ex-Bridgewater Executive Launches Unlimited – A Hedge Fund Tracking ETF
Unlimited, a new investment firm purpose-built to give all investors exposure to the alpha-generating potential of alternative investment strategies without the high fees and adverse tax implication, has been launched by Bob Elliott, former member of the Investment Committee at Bridgewater Associates. The firm has debuted the Unlimited HFND Multi-Strategy Return Tracker ETF (NYSE: HFND), an actively managed fund which uses a sophisticated machine learning engine to track the gross-of-fees returns across several hedge fund indices.
Alternative Investments/ESG: Two New ESG-Focused ETFs From OneAscent
OneAscent promotes investments that make a positive impact and bless humanity through values-based investing. The asset manager has launched the OneAscent International Equity ETF (OAIM US) and OneAscent Emerging Markets ETF (OAEM US), both listed on NYSE Arca, and coming to market with $50 million and $20m in initial assets, respectively. The funds target companies making a positive impact on society.
Artificial Intelligence: Microsoft Open Sources Its FarmVibes AI Toolkit To Advance Data-Driven Agriculture
Effective October 6, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will open source the AI tools in its Project FarmVibes suite of farming technologies. The software giant is hoping that researchers and data scientists can build upon them to turn agricultural data into action that can help boost yields and cut costs. Pictured above is Andrew Nelson, a farmer in eastern Washington who uses drone and satellite imagery, and other AI tools from FarmVibe, to gather actionable data on his farm.
Artificial Intelligence: Google Announces Imagen, Its Text-To-Video Tool
Google has announced Imagen Video, an AI video generator that can create 1280×768 HD video at 24 fps from written text. Though it’s still in research mode, it seems to be a quick riposte to Meta’s recently unveiled text-to-video AI tool, Make-A-Video. It also comes within six months of OpenAi’s DALLE-2 text-to-image generator.
Artificial Intelligence: The White House Issues A 5-Point ‘AI Bill Of Rights’
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Tuesday issued guidelines titled “Blueprint for An AI Bill of Rights” meant to protect all people from threats including limiting their access to equal opportunity; prevent access to critical resources or services; and undermining their privacy, or tracking their activities.
Alternative Investments/ESG: BNP Paribas Launches Biodiversity Focused ETF In Europe
The BNP Paribas Easy ESG Eurozone Biodiversity Leaders PAB UCITS ETF, which offers investors exposure to companies with a lower potential impact on biodiversity than their peers, listed since 29 September on Euronext Paris and Deutsche Börse Xetra exchanges.
Artificial Intelligence: Tesla Displays Optimus, A Humanoid Robot, At Its AI Day Event
At its much-anticipated AI Day on Friday, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) brought on stage a prototype of its Optimus humanoid robot slated for mass production in 3-5 years at a target price of less than $20,000. The humanoid is aimed at solving all kinds of boring and repetitive tasks, especially in the context of labor shortages.
Venture Capital: LIVIN Farms, A Provider Of Bugs On Subscription, Raises €6M Series A
LIVIN Farms, an industrial technology provider in the alternative protein industry, has developed HIVE PRO, a fully automated process that allows waste management companies and large scale food producers to convert organic waste and by-products into revenue earning proteins, fats, and fertilisers using insect larvae. The company raised a EUR 6 Million Series A round led by venture investor Peter Luersse.
Digital Assets: Do Kwon Not In Singapore; Interpol Issues Red Notice For The Terra Co-Founder
According to a Bloomberg report, South Korean authorities have confirmed in a text message Monday that Interpol had issued a Red Notice for Kwon, requesting law enforcement forces globally to locate and arrest Do Kwon, the co-founder of the ill-fated Terraform Labs. Kwon is accused in South Korea of various crimes, including violations of capital market law, and courts there have already issued a warrant for his arrest.