10/10/23

∆ Tech in the News

China Chip Plan - China has set a goal of ramping up computing power by 50% by 2025, with more data centers. This move seeks to improve businesses' access to computing power and strengthen the nation’s AI advancements.

Atlantic Rift On AI Standards - The G7 nations are divided over the EU's preference for mandatory oversight and the US's favoring of self-regulation.

Google’s Master Key for Robots - DeepMind’s new Open X-Embodiment model can operate a wide range of robots and outperform specialized models.

Green Light for EVs - From January, car dealers can instantly provide refunds to EV buyers, leveraging Treasury Department tax credits up to $7,500. This aligns with Biden’s goal of a 50% EV market share by 2030.

AI in Cancer Diagnosis Booms - The nascent market for AI-driven cancer detection is projected to hit US$979.2M by 2029, a 33.6% CAGR, up nearly 6x!

Disney Sidelines Artists - The use of GenAI for the Loki S2 promo poster has ruffled feathers over the potential unsanctioned training on artist content.

˚The hottest thing in tech this week

The AI Hardware Hustle

AI pioneers are increasingly scrambling to produce their own AI chips as the increased demand caused by the rise of generative AI impacts the availability and cost of GPUs. Nvidia has a near-monopoly on the GPU market with ~80% market share, enabling them to avoid cost and supply shortages and hold massive leverage over other market players, for now…

Open AI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly prioritizing diversifying suppliers and possibly even acquiring a chip firm. Microsoft is also planning to launch its own ‘data center server’ AI chip to reduce its reliance on Nvidia. Google, Meta and Amazon have also all taken steps towards proprietary AI chips to mitigate this dependency and tailor hardware to their specific needs. This also comes as the EU is examining alleged anticompetitive practices in Nvidia's key role in AI chips, its price policy, the shortage of chips, and its impact on prices.

This all means this trend of companies seeking to build their own supply chains and foster technological self-sufficiency is likely to continue. It is also good news for rival chip makers like Intel and AMD and startups like Cerebras, Graphcore, Groq, Lightmatter and more. It is also creating new models such as that of Lambda Labs, which competes with AWS by renting out Nvidia Chip servers.

What is the most exciting Chip Technology or Startup you’ve seen?

News Bytes

• Hacktivism erupts in response to Israel’s war on Palestine

• Nvidia Cancels Israel AI Summit Over Safety Concerns

• Spotify’s ‘Superpremium’ service includes AI playlists and more

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Closed Deals:

AI Future of Learning - US-based 360Learning bought startup eLamp to help them pioneer AI-driven corporate training. 360 also paid $20M for Looop in 2022, and bagged $200M from SoftBank and Silver Lake Waterman.

Saronic Charts Course - The autonomous naval defense startup by an ex-Navy SEAL CEO secured a $55M Series A round backed by Caffeinated Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Lightspeed Ventures.

Wanda Lands Big Fish - Israeli food tech startup, Wanda Fish Technologies has landed $7M in seed funding to accelerate the initial production of lab-cultivated bluefin tuna.

Reusable Rocket Innovation - Stoke Space has secured a $100M Series B round led by Industrious Ventures to supercharge their inaugural "Nova" rocket and eye an orbital flight test in 2025.

Companies to Watch:

Gliding Into Action - Regent's Electric Seaglider vision gets a boost with $60M Series A. The Rhode Is. startup is eyeing the Japan market with Japan Airlines, Yamato, Lockheed and Mark Cuban among backers.

Koch-Backed Gamechanger - GameChange Solar has filed for an IPO in 2024 at a target value of ~$3B. The company is now scaling US manufacturing capacity for its solar racking systems.

‘Cobot’ Food-Prep Bot - Hyphen's automated makeline is now undergoing testing at the Chipotle Cultivate Center before restaurant trials. Chipotle believes the system could process 350+ digital order meals p/h.

Autonomous Aircraft - Wisk Aero, an eVTOL company, began testing its experimental fifth-generation aircraft, with a sixth-gen craft to follow in 2024.

Nvidia Cloud Ally Nears Deal - Lambda Labs, which competes with AWS by renting servers with Nvidia chips to AI devs, is reportedly near closing a $300M equity round.

Open Deals:

Outpost Ventures - A deep technology fund investing in revenue-generating companies from its exclusive accelerator with current US Govt contracts historically representing a 12.5x-25x increase in value. Click to speak with CFO Ben Strub.

Outside the Box - Former investment banker and journalist Katie Tarbox is raising a $50M fund to invest in founders harnessing AI to create disruptive, scalable platforms that change how we work and create content. Click to chat.

SaaS Venture Fund - Illuminate is raising a $50M fund focused on finding, funding and accelerating great founders in the B2B/Enterprise cloud and mobile computing space.

Tools

CheckFor - helps identify AI-generated content immediately

ChartMyLife - records everything and anything you want

EPIK - The new No. 1 spot on the U.S AppStore, an AI photo-editing app that lets users turn a series of selfies into nostalgic, '90s-inspired "yearbook" photos.

If you have a deal or company that you would like to host on our next issue, drop us a line at @ [email protected].

Thanks for connecting with us.

The Tech Buzz Team