Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Wordware, which lets customers like Instacart and Runway create AI agents using natural language instead of code, raised a $30M seed led by Spark Capital — A San Francisco startup wants to make artificial intelligence development as easy as writing in a word processor.
Nick Pickles, who left X as VP of Global Affairs in September, joins Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity, which is building World Network, as chief policy officer (Michelle Conlin/Reuters)
Michelle Conlin / Reuters:
Nick Pickles, who left X as VP of Global Affairs in September, joins Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity, which is building World Network, as chief policy officer — Nick Pickles, the former head of global affairs at Elon Musk’s social media platform X, is joining forces with one of Musk’s rivals, his fellow OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman.
Cybersecurity startup Wiz acquires Dazz, a specialist in security remediation and risk management; sources: the cash-and-stock deal is valued at $450M (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Cybersecurity startup Wiz acquires Dazz, a specialist in security remediation and risk management; sources: the cash-and-stock deal is valued at $450M — Wiz, one of the most talked-about names in the world of cybersecurity, is making a significant acquisition to expand its product reach in cloud security …
Lightning AI, which lets customers fine-tune and run AI models in their preferred cloud environments, raised $50M, bringing its total funding to $103M (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Lightning AI, which lets customers fine-tune and run AI models in their preferred cloud environments, raised $50M, bringing its total funding to $103M — AI may be the hottest thing since sliced bread. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting easier to develop and run.
How Satya Nadella transformed Microsoft as it enters its 50th year, including by changing its toxic culture, embracing open source, and making the OpenAI deal (Steven Levy/Wired)
Steven Levy / Wired:
How Satya Nadella transformed Microsoft as it enters its 50th year, including by changing its toxic culture, embracing open source, and making the OpenAI deal — When Satya Nadella took over as CEO, the company was lumbering and uncool. He cleaned up a toxic culture, crafted the deal of the decade, and put Microsoft back on top.
A profile of Thrive Capital, whose biggest portfolio companies include OpenAI and Stripe, as rivals say the VC firm’s approach is closer to asset management (George Hammond/Financial Times)
George Hammond / Financial Times:
A profile of Thrive Capital, whose biggest portfolio companies include OpenAI and Stripe, as rivals say the VC firm’s approach is closer to asset management — As OpenAI raced to raise almost $7bn last month, one investor was always on hand. Thrive Capital stayed close to the AI start-up’s co-founder …
Forcing Google to sell Chrome sounds good on paper but the reality of it happening is fairly small as it will be extremely messy, if not impossible to execute (M.G. Siegler/Spyglass)
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Forcing Google to sell Chrome sounds good on paper but the reality of it happening is fairly small as it will be extremely messy, if not impossible to execute — If Google were to sell off Chrome, who would benefit? Anyone? — The idea that Google would be broken up as a result …
Several media and tech executives say UK VC Matt Clifford, who has advised successive Tory and Labour governments, has an outsized influence over AI policy (Anna Gross/Financial Times)
Anna Gross / Financial Times:
Several media and tech executives say UK VC Matt Clifford, who has advised successive Tory and Labour governments, has an outsized influence over AI policy — British venture capitalist has advised successive Tory and Labour governments — Last year, as thousands of customers withdrew …
Alibaba appoints Jiang Fan its new e-commerce chief in an overhaul of the struggling business; Jiang was demoted in 2020 after allegations of improper conduct (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Alibaba appoints Jiang Fan its new e-commerce chief in an overhaul of the struggling business; Jiang was demoted in 2020 after allegations of improper conduct — – International chief Jiang will oversee entire commerce unit — Jiang will become one of the company’s most powerful execs
Streamlabs: Twitch accounted for 82.3% of total Q3 streaming hours, with YouTube Gaming in second place at 5.6%; Kick grew 204% from Q2 2023 to Q3 2024 (Sam Gutelle/Tubefilter)
Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter:
Streamlabs: Twitch accounted for 82.3% of total Q3 streaming hours, with YouTube Gaming in second place at 5.6%; Kick grew 204% from Q2 2023 to Q3 2024 — For years, the Logitech-owned creator dashboard Streamlabs and its data partner Stream Hatchet have compiled quarterly progress reports for the streaming industry.
