10/27/23

∆ Tech in the News

Global AI Summit - China will participate in next week’s UK event but will be excluded from a meeting on AI safety and security risks.

"Preparedness" Team - OpenAI is creating a team to oversee advanced AI models and monitor for "catastrophic risks" such as cybersecurity and nuclear.

"Now and Then" - LOTR Director Peter Jackson used AI to help create a new Beatles song isolating vocals from a ‘70s John Lennon demo with new parts.

UN AI Advisory Body - The 39-member collection of corporate tech execs, government officials, AI experts, and academics will first convene on Friday.

$10M Frontier Fund - Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic are funding new AI safety research to support independent AI model evaluation.

˚The hottest thing in tech this week

Microsoft Wins The AI Cloud Wars

Earnings season shows Microsoft has a significant advantage in the AI cloud services realm, outpacing rivals Amazon and Google. The Azure cloud unit reported a robust 29% growth attributed to high demand for ChatGPT-powered AI services and office-based products. An attractive bundled pricing and integration and monetization strategy is even luring previous OpenAI users. CEO Satya Nadella revealed that over 18k companies are opting for Azure, and ~40% of Fortune 500 companies are experimenting with "Copilot”. The upcoming launch of 365’s new $30p/mth AI service, which can summarize a day's worth of emails into a quick update, is anticipated to further boost adoption.

Google Cloud, on the other hand, slowed by 6% meaning it hasn't yet reaped significant financial benefits from its AI services. Over half of funded AI startups are using Google Cloud, but this startup focus and slower roll-out is delaying the earnings boost from the new technology as most cloud spending is coming from enterprise clients. Amazon's disclosures show their AWS cloud unit's growth dropped to just 12% YoY, way down from 28% in Q3 ‘22. Given the OpenAI alliance, Microsoft's early lead isn’t unexpected, but the true test will likely come in 2024 when Google Gemini launches and Apple launches its new AI strategy.

News Bytes

• SpaceX to launch final piece of NASA's laser communications relay

• Researchers develop 'Woodpecker' solution to AI hallucinations

• Researchers develop AI that generalizes language like humans

• Amazon’s virtual health clinic can now treat patients for cold or flu

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Tackling Charge Anxiety - EVLUV brings an “OpenTable-inspired” EV charger solution to the market. Currently raising a $500K Angel Round. Schedule a chat with CEO & Co-Founder Guzel Lumpkin here to learn more.

“Easy as Calling a Friend” - Teleperson uses AI to redesign customer service by directing consumers to the most efficient, or preferred path (chatbot or human rep), avoiding “phone jail or call trees.” Schedule a call here.

Raising Rebellion - Korean AI-chip startup Rebellions is looking to raise $100M in Series B funds by year-end at a valuation up to $500M per Bloomberg.

Closed Deals:

BP x Tesla - BP’s EV charging business Pulse will acquire $100M of ultra-fast charging units from Tesla to deploy across the BP family of brands in the U.S.

Good LTV:CAC Ratio - Insurtech startup AgentSync has raised a $50M Series B extension, focusing on federating information via APIs between parties.

Citi-Backed - Arteria AI raised a $30M Series B led by GGV Capital. Arteria uses AI to extract data from financial documents to smooth banking transactions.

LLM Optimizing Tool - AMD and Korean Telco backed US/Korean AI software startup Moreh’s $22M Series B round, bringing its total to $30M.

Health Data Insights - Betteromics, a healthcare startup using AI and computation to extract insights from data closed a $20M Series A round.

Publishing AI - Direqt, allows publishers to train chatbots on their own content, engage new audiences and monetize raised $4.5M in funding.

Companies to Watch:

Thiel-backed Drones - Startup Quantum Systems has Ukraine war autonomous drone contracts and closed a Series B at $67M backed by Airbus.

AI Healthcare - Abridge provides genAI solutions and is backed by Union Square, Mayo Clinic and UCI. A new $30M series B will accelerate US adoption.

AI Model Optimization Platform - Startup CentML added on $27M in seed funds from Google, Nvidia, Deloitte, and Thomson Reuters Venture Funds.

Sodium-Metal-Halide Tech - Inlyte Energy, founded by a Stanford PhD raised an $8M seed round to revive a 50-year-old lithium-free battery technology.

Y Combinator-backed - Credal.ai founded by ex-Palantir/Google team helps enterprises securely connect company data to LLMs. A $4.8M seed was led by Spark Capital.

The Funding Buzz (New)

Shaking Up VC - Seismic gives investors at all levels (from $1k min) exposure to early-stage securities with no fees, CGT or Capital calls.

Omidyar the Sole LP - Flourish Ventures raised $350M for its latest fund to invest in early-stage fintech startups in the U.S. and emerging markets.

UC Berkeley AI Fund - The House Fund closed its Fund III at $115M with a focus on AI startups by UCB-affiliated applicants and an accelerator program.

Tools

New AI Features - Google announces new tools to 1) integrate ads into AI search, and 2) verify images are real by tracking from the photo capture stage.

AlertCalifornia - Uses AI to detect wildfires before they spread.

Alitheron - Snap a pic of a physical object to verify its authenticity.

Tome - AI presentation tool that got 10M users in 9-mths, now adds features for lengthier text prompts and more slide content and formatting control.

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