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∆ Tech in the News

Apple x Google - The tech giants are in “active negotiations” to integrate Gemini‘s advanced cloud AI features into its upcoming iOS 18 iPhone update. Apple also acquired Canadian AI startup DarwinAI to further its AI plans.

SpyX - SpaceX’s "Starshield" unit is building a $1.8B network of hundreds of spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office per Reuters.

OpenAI Chips - Abu Dhabi’s newly formed state-funded VC firm MGX is in talks to back Sam Altman's $7T chip venture, FT reports.

India Walks Back On AI - India updated its recent AI Advisory to replace pre-launch model approvals with transparency and user awareness rules.

Protecting Borders - DHS is expanding its genAI use with three pilot projects seeking improved investigator reporting, training and FEMA planning.

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The Hottest Thing in Tech this Week

Nvidia’s New Tech Stack for the $1T Industrial Metaverse

Nvidia's GTC 2024 conference signals a paradigm shift, with the tech giant unveiling a groundbreaking tech stack including the "world's most powerful" AI chip and new software set to propel a $1T industrial metaverse revolution. This approach moves Nvidia towards becoming a comprehensive AI platform reflecting its desire to be seen as a “platform company,” not just a chipmaker.

Nvidia unlocks powerful 1T-parameter scale genAI through the following stack:

• A Flagship Blackwell GB200 AI "superchip" combining CPU & GPU to deliver 25x more efficiency than the H100, and 7x more performance with 4x the training speed on GPT-3 benchmarking.

• The DGX SuperPod, an AI supercomputing infrastructure in a box scaling to combine hundreds of thousands of GB200 chips to deliver 240 TB of memory and 11.5 exaflops of AI might.

• The NIMS "inference machine" software “containers” poised to disrupt GenAI software deployments.

The NIMS containers come loaded with optimized inference engines, APIs, and AI models, promising to supercharge AI deployment tailored specifically to 1) Nvidia GPUs and 2) Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) use cases.

An API for The Industrial Metaverse

Nvidia also delivered new Omniverse "digital twin" API integrations, which will ship with Apple's Vision Pro headset. Embracing Pixar's Universal Scene Description format, Omniverse APIs enable realistic 3D simulations, reducing prototyping costs and accelerating innovation across various industrial applications and tools. Spatial computing applications built on the Omniverse will reduce industrial manufacturing design cycles from years to months.

Siemens, among others, is going all-in on Omniverse and digital twins with its Xcelerator platform, enhancing product design workflows for industrial clients through immersive visualization and Nvidia's new APIs.

The Omniverse Cloud API takes the spatial computing a step closer to reality enabling Vision Pro users to stream interactive, real-world digital twins in 3D via the GeForce Now cloud gaming network. This paves the way for groundbreaking design, e-commerce experiences and agile data center deployments, with Nvidia even building its own “digital twin” data center blueprint in their cloud. Nvidia is also stepping up on the climate front, unveiling an Omniverse-powered Earth-2 Cloud Platform for predicting climate change across the entire planet, using simulations by AI supercomputers.

Reach out if you want to free trial any of Nvidia’s spatial computing products - [email protected] 

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Looking to invest? Let us know if you want a warm intro —> [email protected]

1. AI/ML for Healthcare Admin Billing - Los Angeles - Simplify health documentation with translatable billing and QA for faster Dx coding. Post revenue. 20 Major healthcare clients in pipeline. Multiple awards for top 1% in industry. PMF/FMF. Serial entrepreneur/founder of medical group. Early traction. (Seed)

2. AI-agent for Professional Intros - Irvine, CA - Existing Tech/finance media company looking for growth funding to launch autonomous co-pilot that introduces founders/builders to individuals that can support their growth. Audience of ~600k active members. (Open to financing discussions).

3. AI-Powered Learning Platform - Florida - Recently exited unicorn co-founder and CTO launches new startup to revolutionize course creation. 25x faster development, 75%+ cost reduction. Lead investor secured. (Seed)

4. SEC-registered AI RIA Copilot - NYC - VC-backed, making complex financial planning accessible for underserved. Led by fintech entrepreneurs, post-revenue. (Seed)

5. Outbound B2B Campaign AI Co-Pilot - Lexington, MA - Turn any CRM into an AI optimized sales agent for personalized customer campaigns. Hubspot and Saleforce API integration. Post revenue. (Pre-Seed)

Raising for your startup? Send us your Open Round —> [email protected]

Closed Deals:

Do No Harm - Palo Alto startup Hippocratic AI raised a $53M Series A at a $500M valuation from General Catalyst, SV Angel, & a16z to develop its safety-focused healthcare LLM.

Deal Sealed - The New York startup that streamlines home energy improvements and electrification projects for contractors, raised a $30M round led by Keyframe Capital.

BizIntel - San Francisco AI business intelligence platform startup Omni added $20M in a round led by Theory Ventures.

Retail AI - California startup Lily AI is developing AI solutions for the retail sector and has extended its Series B by $20M.

DraftWise - The AI-powered legal contract and negotiation platform closed a $20M Series A from Index Ventures, YC and Earlybird Ventures.

Companies to Watch:

InDrive - California ride-hailing startup saw a 54% revenue bump in 2023, with 200M+ app downloads, it was the 2nd most downloaded mobility app in ‘22 and ‘23. It just added a $150M round extension led by General Catalyst.

BigID - New York AI-powered data security Unicorn with $100M ARR with Fintech awards like CNBC Top 25, Forbes Cloud 100, Deloitte 500. The WEF Tech Partner just closed a $60M growth round taking its total raised to $320M.

The Funding Buzz

Westbound Equity Ventures - closed its second fund at $100M to invest in early-stage startups led by underrepresented founders or serving underserved communities. 

Trending Tools and Buzzy Tech

Trending Tools

Google - VLOGGER AI model generates talking avatar videos from a still image.

Anthropic - Claude 3 Haiku is its fastest and most cost-effective AI model

Suno - Startup’s Music LLM allows anyone to create professional-quality music

Buzzy Tech

Apple - Unveiled its MM1 30B parameter multimodal AI models.

xAI - Released Grok’s underlying code to open source community.

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