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OpenAI's board officially began work today. Microsoft has a board observer seat, but CEO and cofounder Sam Altman has no seat on the board whatsoever, a key concession he made to the company's outgoing directors to resolve the leadership controversy that roiled the company over Thanksgiving week. Former Salesforce CEO Bret Taylor will chair the board; other board members include former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora and a holdover from the company's previous
board.
Perhaps in lieu of making Google Bard better, Google researchers have figured out how to trick ChatGPT into revealing personal information from its training data.
At The New York Times' annual DealBook Summit today, Elon Musk had an interesting choice of words for advertisers who decided to pull their ads from X in response to his anti-Semitic tweet. “Go f—yourself,” he said.
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Braincube, a 16-year-old French company that provides software tools for manufacturers that are designed to enhance operational efficiency, quality, and sustainability in factories, raised a $91.1 million round. Scottish Equity Partners and Bpifrance were the co-leads. The company has raised in excess of $104 million. Tech.eu has more here.
Together, a one-year-old startup based in Menlo Park, Ca., whose goal is to create open source models and services that help organizations incorporate AI into their applications, raised a $102.5 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Nvidia and Emergence Capital. TechCrunch has more here.
Wormhole, a spinoff of Jump Trading Group whose developer platform allows different blockchain networks to communicate with each other, raised a $225 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Investors included Jump Trading Group, Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, and Multicoin Capital. CoinDesk has more here.
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| Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings |
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Aro Biotherapeutics, a six-year-old Philadelphia startup that is focused on developing a drug to treat Pompe disease as well as treatments for new autoimmune disorders, raised a $41.5 million Series B round led by Cowen Healthcare Investments, with additional participation from previous investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Northpond Venture. Pharmaceutical Technology has more here.
Cloudsmith, a seven-year-old Belfast startup that provides digital storage for software assets under development for companies like Shopify and PagerDuty, raised an $11 million Series A extension led by MMC Ventures. The Business Post has more here.
DuploCloud, a five-year-old startup based in San Jose, Ca., that sells software to facilitate the provisioning of apps to public clouds like Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS, raised a $32 million Series B round co-led by WestBridge Capital and StepStone Group, with previous investor Mayfield also participating. The company has raised a total of $49.5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
GoMetro, a South African startup that specializes in fleet management and optimization software, raised an $11.4 million Series A round led by Zenobē Energy, with Futuregrowth, ESquared Ventures, and Kalon Venture Partners as well as previous investors 4 Decades Capital, Hlayisani Capital, and Tritech Global also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.
Immensa, a seven-year-old Dubai startup that helps energy companies to generate spare parts on demand, raised a $20 million Series B round led by Global Ventures, with Endeavor Catalyst Fund, EDGO, and previous investors Energy Capital Group, Shorooq Partners, and Green Coast Investments also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.
Modo Energy, a four-year-old London startup that supplies energy asset owners with benchmarking, forecasts, data, and insights for new energy assets, raised a $15 million Series A round led by MMC Ventures, with Triple Point Ventures, Fred Olsen Limited, and Catalyst Capital also pitching in. More here.
Neuralink, a startup founded by Elon Musk that is developing implantable brain-machine interfaces to help people with paralysis communicate and restore lost motor, sensory, and visual functions, filed an SEC Form D stating that it has sold $43 million in equity to 32 undisclosed investors. The company has raised a total of $323 million. MassDevice has more here.
PayGround, a five-year-old startup based in Gilbert, AZ, that says that it provides individuals and families with a dedicated digital wallet so that they can manage and pay their healthcare provider bills in one place, raised a $19.7 million Series A round led by SixThirty, with Rally Ventures, IA Capital, FCA Venture Partners, and Plug and Play Ventures also contributing. PYMNTS has more here.
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Construex, a four-year-old Ecuadorian startup that is creating an online regional marketplace for the construction and design industries, raised a $4.6 million seed round co-led by Zacua Ventures and Fifth Wall. TechCrunch has more here.
Expanso, a Seattle startup founded this year whose open source platform is designed to assist companies in processing data at the edge, raised a $7.5 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Hetz Ventures, with Array Ventures also chipping in. GeekWire has more here.
Letterhead, a one-year-old Miami startup that automates the creation and management of email newsletters for customers such as Salon, McClatchy, and Patch, raised a $5.3 million seed round co-led by Las Olas VC and Reign Ventures, with BDMI, Florida Opportunity Fund, and McClatchy also stepping up. Refresh Miami has more here.
Monterra, a one-year-old San Francisco startup whose mission is to automate the design and planning of EV charging installations, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Base10 Partners and joined by Future Climate Venture Studio and Very Serious Ventures. More here.
MYX, a crypto startup that is building a decentralized platform to facilitate the trading of derivatives, specifically perpetual contracts, raised a $5 million seed round. HongShan was the deal lead, with additional funds provided by Consensys, Hack VC, OKX Ventures, Redpoint China, HashKey Capital, Foresight Ventures, GSR Markets, Alti5, Leland Ventures, Cypher Capital, Bing Ventures, and Lecca Ventures. CoinTelegraph has more here.
Revela, a two-year-old Detroit startup whose property management platform handles accounting, maintenance, leasing, and investor relations, raised a $9 million Series A round led by FirstMark Capital and including Detroit Venture Partners, MetaProp, and Assurant Ventures. More here.
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Failup Ventures, a Helsinki-based, seed-stage venture firm, says it has held a first close of €30 million for a debut early-stage fund that is targeting €50 million in capital commitments altogether. Founded by three previous Finnish entrepreneurs – Jesse Heikkilä, Topias Soininen, and Oscar Andersin – Failup Ventures backs early-stage startups in the Nordics and U.S., writing initial checks ranging in size from €200k to €1 million. EU Startups has more here.
NXTP, a 12-year-old firm with offices in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Mexico City, has raised $98 million for its third fund. The outfit targets early-stage, business-to-business startups and typically writes pre-seed, seed, and Series A checks ranging from $500,000 to $5 million. TechCrunch has more here.
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Chris Sacca's investment firm, Lowercarbon, acquired Climate Draft, a climate jobs site, this past September. Axios has more here.
SpaceX has acquired a parachute company for $2.2 million, because it turns out space-rated parachutes are very hard.
With regulators more closely scrutinizing crypto businesses, SoFi is bailing on its own. The San Francisco-based company told crypto customers today that they will need to liquidate their accounts in coming weeks, or move to crypto exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com.
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said today that he believes we will reach AGI in just five years and stated that none of the company's chips that it is shipping today would be possible without the help of AI.
If you're wondering what happens now with Ilya Sustkever, the OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist who pushed for Sam Altman's short-lived ouster as CEO (Sustkever later said he regretted his involvement), his continuing role at the company is apparently TBD. Said Altman in a note to staff that was published at OpenAI's site: " I love and respect Ilya, I think he's a guiding light of the field and a gem of a human being. I harbor zero ill will towards him. While Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we
hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI."
Twenty-one-year-old college student Jack Sweeney, who made a name for himself by tweeting about Elon Musk's private jet travel, has landed on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list. (Head's up, Jack: this list could be cursed.)
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According to a new study, each Bitcoin transaction consumes 4,200 gallons of water.
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The “blue versus green bubble” culture war has grown so bad that iPhone users often shy away from Android users on dating apps.
Researchers at Google's DeepMind unit have developed a new AI that has already discovered over two million new materials that could be used in batteries, solar panels, and computer chips.
In seven years, Elon Musk's Boring Company has drilled only 2.4 miles of tunnel.
Speaking of Musk, Tesla is expected to deliver the first of its long-awaited Cybertrucks to patient customers tomorrow, and the stakes are high.
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