Cade Metz / New York Times:
Source: Thrive invested ~$1.3B in OpenAI’s $6.6B round, with an exclusive option to invest up to $1B more at the same $157B valuation through 2025 — The A.I. start-up’s valuation has risen by more than $70 billion in nine months. — OpenAI said on Wednesday that it had completed …
OpenAI raised $6.6B led by Thrive Capital at a $157B valuation, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, others (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
OpenAI raised $6.6B led by Thrive Capital at a $157B valuation, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, others — – Thrive Capital, Nvidia, Microsoft among leading investors — Altman-led startup has undergone big changes in the past year
Google updates Gmail for Android and iOS with new summary cards that are more glanceable and actionable and a new “Happening soon” section above the inbox (Abner Li/9to5Google)
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google updates Gmail for Android and iOS with new summary cards that are more glanceable and actionable and a new “Happening soon” section above the inbox — Gmail for Android and iOS are getting new summary cards that are more glanceable and actionable, with Google also directly surfacing them in your inbox.
Poolside, which is building AI-assisted software development tools, raised a $500M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, reportedly at a $3B valuation (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg:
Poolside, which is building AI-assisted software development tools, raised a $500M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures, reportedly at a $3B valuation — – Company hasn’t released its product or given a launch timeline — Investment shows continued investor appetite for AI startups
Sources: OpenAI has asked investors to avoid backing rival startups such as Anthropic and xAI (Financial Times)
Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI has asked investors to avoid backing rival startups such as Anthropic and xAI — Sam Altman-led group wants exclusive arrangement as it closes in on latest $6.5bn funding round — OpenAI has asked investors to avoid backing rival start-ups such as Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI …
Some iOS developers worry that an iOS 18 change letting users choose contacts an app can access may make growing social apps hard; Apple says it boosts privacy (Kevin Roose/New York Times)
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Some iOS developers worry that an iOS 18 change letting users choose contacts an app can access may make growing social apps hard; Apple says it boosts privacy — This year, when Apple announced iOS 18, the latest version of its mobile operating system, most of the attention went to its slate of new artificial intelligence features.
Livestream marketplace Whatnot says its GMV passed $2B+ in 2024 and its top 500 sellers each sold $1M+; 66% of its sellers earn more than $10,000 per month (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Livestream marketplace Whatnot says its GMV passed $2B+ in 2024 and its top 500 sellers each sold $1M+; 66% of its sellers earn more than $10,000 per month — Whatnot, the livestream marketplace platform for trading card collectors and sneakerheads alike, announced on Wednesday …
Automattic demanded a cut of 8% of WP Engine’s monthly revenue to use the WordPress trademark in a seven-year deal in a September 20 letter; WP Engine declined (Emma Roth/The Verge)
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Automattic demanded a cut of 8% of WP Engine’s monthly revenue to use the WordPress trademark in a seven-year deal in a September 20 letter; WP Engine declined — Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, asked rival hosting service WP Engine to hand over 8 percent of its revenue each month …
Character.AI CEO Dominic Perella says the startup has largely abandoned building AI models after Google poached its founders, instead focusing on its chatbots (Cristina Criddle/Financial Times)
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Character.AI CEO Dominic Perella says the startup has largely abandoned building AI models after Google poached its founders, instead focusing on its chatbots — AI start-up’s new chief says race to build large language models against Big Tech got ‘insanely expensive’
The UK FCA fines Starling Bank £29M over its “shockingly lax” controls against financial crime like potential money laundering and sanctions breaches (Akila Quinio/Financial Times)
Akila Quinio / Financial Times:
The UK FCA fines Starling Bank £29M over its “shockingly lax” controls against financial crime like potential money laundering and sanctions breaches — FCA said lender’s efforts to identify potential money laundering ‘did not keep pace’ with its growth
