Startups Weekly: AMD acquisition and other moves to scale AI startups

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This week introduced extra than simply Nvidia’s earnings reports; startups and VCs additionally had some information — quieter maybe, however nonetheless price being attentive to, particularly the place AI is concerned.

Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week

AI as soon as once more drove a big share of total startup exercise, together with one acquisition, however this week additionally introduced us a reminder that full M&A execution takes time — and that VC funding just isn’t the one route.

Good optics: AMD acquired Enosemi, a startup designing customized supplies to assist silicon photonics product improvement, beneath undisclosed phrases. The objective of the acquisition is to “speed up [AMD’s] co-packaged optics innovation for AI programs.”

Onboarded: AI startup Anthropic added Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to its board of administrators. Hastings was appointed by Anthropic’s unbiased Lengthy-Time period Profit Belief and already has expertise sitting on the boards of Netflix, Bloomberg, Meta, and Microsoft.

It takes time: Household security app Life360 finally incorporates the AirTag-like misplaced merchandise monitoring functionalities of Tile, three and a half years after Life360 acquired Tile for $205 million.

One month and 25 days: Excessive-profile entrepreneur and angel investor Sahil Lavingia revealed particulars of his stint on Elon Musk’s DOGE workforce, saying he was booted after only 55 days. Nevertheless it’s not simply him: Musk’s stint can also be coming to an end.

Bootstrapped: Ten-year-old cybersecurity firm Thinkst Canary reached $20 million in annual recurring revenue without VC investment — an attention-grabbing story that appeared price mentioning earlier than diving into funding information.

Most attention-grabbing VC and funding information this week

Funding information this week comes from a mixture of bulletins and rumors — unconfirmed however well-sourced. Let’s begin with these earlier than shifting on to the extra concrete updates.

Musk once more: Neuralink, Elon Musk’s mind implant startup, reportedly raised $600 million at a $9 billion pre-money valuation.

Lengthy arm: Samsung is claimed to be trying to put money into a $100 million round for medical device startup Exo by way of its enterprise funding arm. 

New horizon: Filings revealed that cybersecurity startup Horizon3.ai is seeking to raise $100 million, out of which it has already secured no less than $73 million.

New bricks: Buildots, a Chicago-based startup leveraging AI and pc imaginative and prescient to enhance development progress monitoring, raised a $45 million Series D, bringing its complete raised to $166 million.

Including up: Rillet, a startup utilizing machine studying and generative AI to automate accounting reviews, raised a $25 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital, solely 10 months after a $13.5 million seed and pre-seed spherical.

Comfort: Snabbit, a 15-month-old Indian startup working within the more and more scorching residence companies house, secured $19 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed at a post-money valuation of $80 million. 

World fashions: SpAItial, the brand new firm of Synthesia co-founder Matthias Niessner, raised a $13 million seed round led by Earlybird to develop a basis mannequin able to producing interactive 3D on-line environments. It could share similarities with the AI mannequin released by competitor Odyssey this week.

Superior grid: Gridcare, an AI-powered vitality optimization startup, emerged out of stealth with an oversubscribed $13.5 million seed round and stated it’s able to play matchmaker between knowledge facilities and utilities.

Diversifying: State-owned Saudi AI firm Humain is making progress to launch Humain Ventures, a $10 billion enterprise fund that can put money into startups within the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Kiwi startups: Auckland-based enterprise agency and incubator Outset Ventures closed a second fund of roughly $25 million to put money into deep tech startups rising out of New Zealand.

Final however not least

Nuclear fusion startups have been attracting investors, however their endeavors are nonetheless experimental. Fission, however, already has the potential to energy knowledge facilities, which explains why Massive Tech firms have been investing in nuclear fission startups.