Tracy Qu / Wall Street Journal:
PDD-owned Pinduoduo says it plans to allocate ~$13B over the next three years to support its merchants, following other Chinese e-commerce companies — PDD, which also owns Temu, reported slower quarterly profit and revenue growth in the fourth quarter — Chinese bargain shopping platform …
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Q&A with Christopher Bishop on leading Microsoft’s AI for Science lab, why scientific discovery will be AI’s single most important application, and more — The AI for Science lab director discusses the technology’s capability to accelerate time-consuming research
Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg:
President Trump’s tariffs are set to disrupt the Bitcoin mining sector, with many of the largest miners based in the US and the supply chain rooted in Asia — Lauren Lin is in a hurry. She has less than 48 hours to ship about 5,600 Bitcoin mining machines from Thailand to the US …
Jessica Testa / New York Times:
Spotify rolls out new ad tools, including an AI tool in the US and Canada to generate scripts and voiceovers, and pitches itself to advertisers as “nutritional” — After finally achieving profitability, the streaming platform wants to be a healthy alternative to “doom scrolling.”
Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE:
Cyberhaven, whose AI-powered tech lets companies detect when employees use internal data in an unauthorized manner, raised a $100M Series D at a $1B+ valuation — Data security startup Cyberhaven Inc. today announced that it has closed a $100 million funding round to support its growth efforts.
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
Circle’s S-1 shows that it is basically a fintech and that, as of December 31, 2024, ~85% of USDC reserves were held in a BlackRock-managed money market fund — Circle, slangy wealth management chatbots, private credit runs, SEC climate rules and OCC desk space.
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Netscout: DDoS attacks rose from 13M+ in 2023 to ~17M in 2024, becoming a staple of geopolitical conflict as new tech like AI supercharges their power — A type of cyberattack that was once the preserve of petty criminals is becoming a staple of geopolitical conflict as new technology supercharges …
FinSMEs:
AttoTude, which offers THz interconnect tech for AI and hyperscale data centers, raised a $50M Series B, after a $30M Series A and $11M seed in 2024 — AttoTude, a Menlo Park, CA-based THz interconnect technology company for AI and hyperscale data center applications, raised $50M in Series B funding.
Laya Neelakandan / CNBC:
Adaptive Security, which uses AI for simulating cyberthreats, raised $43M co-led by OpenAI and a16z, marking OpenAI’s first investment in a cybersecurity firm — WATCH NOW — Artificial intelligence cybersecurity company Adaptive Security announced Wednesday that it closed …
Cate Lawrence / Tech.eu:
Rotterdam-based Gradyent, which lets energy providers optimize their systems by creating digital twins of heating and cooling grids, raised a €28M Series B — Energy providers can use Gradyent’s tech to optimise performance, reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 10%, lower operational costs …
