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This week, the 28-year-old venture capital firm debuted a new pair of funds totaling $2.3 billion, a substantial sum during an abysmal time for the industry's fundraising efforts. The European-born firm is structured in a way that investors across continents invest out of the same funds. The new funds include $800 million to invest at the early stage and $1.5 billion to invest in growth. Those figures are slightly down from the firm's last fundraise, when it collected $900 million for an early-stage fund and $2 billion for a growth fund. That year, Index saw seven portfolio companies go public at a market cap of more than $1 billion, including Roblox and Robinhood.

Persons: —, Nina Achadjian, Sofia Dolfe, Ishani Thakur, Vlad Loktev, Erin Price, Wright, Andreessen, Mark Goldberg, He's, Ethan Kurzweil, Kristina Shen, Mike Volpi, Greycroft Organizations: Service, Ventures, Business, San, Labs, Bessemer Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures Locations: San, West Coast, San Francisco, Index's London, New York, London, Europe

☆ Ray Kurzweil Still Says He Will Merge With A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-04 | by ( Cade Metz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Mr. Kurzweil, a renowned inventor and futurist who built a career on predictions that defy conventional wisdom, made the same claim in his 2005 book, “The Singularity Is Near.” After the arrival of A.I. technologies like ChatGPT and recent efforts to implant computer chips inside people’s heads, he believes the time is right to restate his claim. Last week, he published a sequel: “The Singularity Is Nearer.”Now that Mr. Kurzweil is 76 years old and is moving a lot slower than he used to, his predictions carry an added edge. He has long said he plans to experience the Singularity, merge with A.I. But if the Singularity arrives in 2045, as he claims it will, there is no guarantee he will be alive to see it.

Persons: Kurzweil

Shivon Zilis was pictured alongside Elon Musk and their twins for the first time on Wednesday. Insider first reported that Musk quietly fathered twins with Zilis, a director at Neuralink, in 2021. AdvertisementAdvertisementGrimes, whose legal name is Claire Boucher, said on X that communication about Zilis' twins "wasn't handled super well." Last week, in a since-deleted post on X Grimes accused Zilis of blocking her on social media. The Neuralink director has also taken to posting about her children in recent months.

Persons: Shivon Zilis, Elon Musk, Musk, Zilis, Elon Musk's, Walter Isaacson, —, Isaacson, Musk wasn't, Justine, Grimes, He's, he's, Tesla, Justin Sullivan, Ray Kurzweil, I've, Sam Altman, OpenAI's, Jonathan Raa, Neuralink, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, ck Elon Musk, Gonzalez, Austin Zilis, Claire Boucher, wasn't, Musk's, X Grimes, Tau, ftw Organizations: Service, Yale University, Yale, IBM, Bloomberg Beta, Forbes, Canadian, Conference, Neuralink, Getty, Food and Drug Administration, California, Twitter, SpaceX Locations: Zilis, Wall, Silicon, Austin, Ontario, Canada, Markham , Ontario, California, Texas, Boca Chica, South Texas

☆ Welcome to the final phase of software eating the world. SaaS companies beware, you're on the menu this time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

This could disrupt the way software is created, distributed, and used, VCs and startup founders say. This outcome would flip the traditional software industry on its head, calling into question the value of SaaS companies in a world where everyday people can build software themselves. "This is the final chapter of software eating the world, where a bunch of people can create enterprise software within the enterprise." A 'healthy pressure' for traditional SaaS providersTo be sure, the death of the traditional software company still seems a long way off. However, even skeptics admit that the threat of generative AI to traditional SaaS will push established software companies to prove their worth.

☆ AI startup cloud deals by Microsoft, Google and Amazon ring 'accounting alarm bells' across Silicon Valley over revenue 'round-tripping'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eugene Kim | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Some investors question whether these arrangements are artificially juicing cloud revenue growth. When Microsoft announced a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI earlier this year, the deal made Azure the ChatGPT-maker's "exclusive cloud provider." There's another deal in the works with similar attributes involving Runway AI and a major cloud company. But they are drawing more scrutiny lately because they could artificially inflate cloud revenue, a key driver of growth for Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, according to Ted Mortonson, managing director of financial-services firm Baird. Is OpenAI a regular cloud customer that is getting no investment money from Microsoft?

☆ Two Google engineers built a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot years ago, but execs reportedly shut it down due to safety concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ex-Google engineers developed a conversational AI chatbot years ago, per The Wall Street Journal. Google is now racing to catch up with Microsoft's AI and plans to release its AI chatbot this year. "It caused a bit of a stir inside of Google," Shazeer said in an interview with investors Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan last month. But Google's AI plans may now finally see the light of day, even as discussions around whether its chatbot can be responsibly launched continue. Alphabet chairman John Hennessy agreed that Google's chatbot wasn't "really ready for a product yet."

☆ Although the crypto hype is fading, 3 VCs say there's still 'low-hanging fruit' opportunities in Web3 security and compliance. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Despite the crypto winter and a funding slowdown, several VCs remain interested in Web3 security. Like in most other areas of the market, venture funding for cybersecurity has dropped this year. These are prime areas, in his view, for security startups to step in. In September, Solidus Labs made Insider's list of the most promising crypto startups of 2022. Crypto security, according to Seewald, is not so different from security for other tech applications.

Shivon Zilis was pictured for the first time alongside Elon Musk and their twins on Wednesday. Musk quietly fathered twins with Zilis, a director at Neuralink, in 2021. She has a high-level role at NeuralinkIn 2017, Zilis joined Neuralink, the futuristic brain microchip company also co-founded by Musk. Tesla's new Gigafactory is located near Austin, and court documents obtained by Insider show list Musk and Zilis as residents of that address. Zilis and Musk's twins were born in November, a few weeks before Musk and the musician Grimes had their second child via surrogate.

Persons: Shivon Zilis, Elon Musk, Musk, Zilis, Elon Musk's, Walter Isaacson, —, Isaacson, Musk wasn't, Twitter —, Justine, Grimes, he's, Ray Kurzweil, I've, Sam Altman, Neuralink, Tesla, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, ck Elon Musk, Gonzalez, Austin Zilis Organizations: Elon, Service, SpaceX, Twitter, Yale University, Yale, IBM, Bloomberg Beta, Forbes, Canadian, Conference, Neuralink, California Locations: Zilis, Wall, Silicon, Austin, Ontario, Canada, Markham , Ontario, California, Texas, Boca Chica, South Texas

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