Financial Times:
AI data labeling startup Scale AI raised $1B led by Accel at a ~$14B valuation, up from $7.3B in April 2021; a source says Scale AI had ~$700M in 2023 revenue — Alexandr Wang’s company brings in $1bn in latest fundraising round as investors bet that data is the new oil
Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs event was compelling, the culmination of years of work, and Windows feels revitalized while its hardware is meaningfully differentiated (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs event was compelling, the culmination of years of work, and Windows feels revitalized while its hardware is meaningfully differentiated — Full disclosure: I didn’t have any plans to write this Article; I had various reasons to be in the U.S. this week …
EU countries vote to approve the landmark EU AI Act, agreed in December 2023, to ensure “trust, transparency, and accountability”, taking effect in June 2024 (Reuters)
Reuters:
EU countries vote to approve the landmark EU AI Act, agreed in December 2023, to ensure “trust, transparency, and accountability”, taking effect in June 2024 — Europe’s landmark rules on artificial intelligence will enter into force next month after EU countries endorsed …
Sources: Apple files a lawsuit at the EU’s General Court to challenge a March 2024 decision to impose a €1.8B fine for thwarting competition in music streaming (Samuel Stolton/Bloomberg)
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple files a lawsuit at the EU’s General Court to challenge a March 2024 decision to impose a €1.8B fine for thwarting competition in music streaming — – Company files suit at EU’s General Court to topple penalty — Fine was sparked by long-running dispute with top music rival
Sources: in the event that China invades Taiwan, ASML and TSMC have ways to disable their sophisticated chipmaking machines; ASML reassured Dutch officials (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Sources: in the event that China invades Taiwan, ASML and TSMC have ways to disable their sophisticated chipmaking machines; ASML reassured Dutch officials — – Firms can remotely shut off advanced EUV chip-making machines — US officials concerned over risk of conflict to chip industry
How Meta, Microsoft, and Google are helping OpenAI develop Triton, a tool to help run code efficiently on AI chips to compete with Nvidia’s CUDA platform (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
How Meta, Microsoft, and Google are helping OpenAI develop Triton, a tool to help run code efficiently on AI chips to compete with Nvidia’s CUDA platform — OpenAI-led push for an alternative to Cuda seeks to break chipmaker’s stranglehold on AI market — Nvidia’s rivals and biggest customers …
SEC filing: Chicago-based Tempus, which uses AI to process medical data, files for an IPO, reporting a $266M net loss on $532M revenue in 2023 and 2,300 staff (Bailey Lipschultz/Bloomberg)
Bailey Lipschultz / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Chicago-based Tempus, which uses AI to process medical data, files for an IPO, reporting a $266M net loss on $532M revenue in 2023 and 2,300 staff — The company said in its filing Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s creating “intelligent diagnostics” for precision medicine.
Google plans to spend ~€1B to expand its data center in Finland, and will reuse heat from the data center to warm nearby homes, schools, and public buildings (Justine Calma/The Verge)
Justine Calma / The Verge:
Google plans to spend ~€1B to expand its data center in Finland, and will reuse heat from the data center to warm nearby homes, schools, and public buildings — Google’s data centers are expanding to support its AI ambitions, and a new project in Finland shows one way the company …
Sources: ByteDance acquires Chinese earphone maker Oladance, founded five years ago, for ~$50M, bringing on board seasoned ex-Bose engineers (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Sources: ByteDance acquires Chinese earphone maker Oladance, founded five years ago, for ~$50M, bringing on board seasoned ex-Bose engineers — – Shenzhen-based startup is led by former Bose sound engineers — TikTok owner sees future growth in wearables and generative AI
London-based Vitesse, which offers a treasury and payment platform for insurance companies, raised a $93M Series C led by KKR, after a $26M Series B in 2022 (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
London-based Vitesse, which offers a treasury and payment platform for insurance companies, raised a $93M Series C led by KKR, after a $26M Series B in 2022 — U.K. fintech Vitesse has closed a $93 million Series C round of funding led by investment giant KKR.
