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☆ Former Humane execs secure $25 million valuation after departing AI hardware startup
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-08 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Two former executives of Humane, the embattled AI hardware startup, are reemerging with a new artificial intelligence software venture that has raised $4 million at a $25 million valuation. He and Hartley Moy are marketing the startup toward enterprise customers in industries like finance, insurance, SaaS, healthcare services and media. "It really came down to the opportunity that we saw in the enterprise side of the house," Hartley Moy, Infactory's CEO, told CNBC. But the two's departure had to do with the business opportunities they saw when working at Humane, Hartley Moy said. WATCH: Former Apple designers launch $700 Humane AI Pin as smartphone replacement

Persons: Brooke Hartley Moy, Ken Kocienda, Kocienda, Hartley Moy, Sam Altman, Marc Benioff, Slack, Andreessen Horowitz, Infactory, Ohtani Organizations: Humane, CNBC, HP, Microsoft, Tiger Global, Google, Apple, Bee Partners, SPV Locations: Salesforce

That continues a trend from 2023, when generative AI companies raised $25.9 billion for the full year, up more than 200% from 2022. The average round for AI companies is 140% bigger this year compared with last, the data shows, while for non-AI companies the increase is only 10%. Most venture investors are bullish on the potential for generative AI to eventually create big returns at the application layer. John-David Lovelock, an analyst at Gartner and a 35-year veteran of the IT industry, sees a big opportunity for generative AI in the enterprise. Yet, in 2024, only 1% of the trillion dollars spent on software will be from businesses spending on generative AI products, he said.

Persons: Adam Selipsky, Anthropic, Dario Amodei, Noah Berger, aren't, They're, Melissa Incera, Chip Hazard, PitchBook, that's, Cerebras, hasn't, Jeremiah Owyang, Owyang, That's, —, Cohere, Tobias Lutke, Inovia, JPMorgan Chase, Elon Musk's, what's, NASA's, Joe Raedle, Michael Harris, David Lovelock, Lovelock Organizations: Amazon Web, Getty, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tech, P Global Market Intelligence, CNBC, U.S, Forge, Flybridge Capital Partners, Federal Reserve, Meta, Nasdaq, Benchmark, Foundation Capital, SEC, Blitzscaling Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Inovia, Menlo, SPV, AMD, Oracle, Representatives, JPMorgan, Morgan Private Ventures, Elon Musk's SpaceX, SpaceX, Polaris, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, Astera Labs, Tempus, Google, Facebook, Gartner Locations: Vegas, Las Vegas, PitchBook, Anthropic, Montreal, xAI, Cape Canaveral , Florida

☆ Elon Musk's xAI is luring more investors through special purpose vehicles charging high fees
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk is raising funds for xAI at a $15 billion pre-money valuation. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementElon Musk's new AI startup is luring more investors through special purpose vehicles that charge hefty fees, according to an email sent this week. Related storiesThe email lays out the terms if investors want to take part in the xAI financing round through special purpose vehicles. AdvertisementFor prospective xAI investors, these commitments come at a cost.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Elon, Musk, Kali Hays Organizations: xAI, Twitter, Service, Business Locations: khays@businessinsider.com

☆ How much Sam Altman stands to gain from a Reddit IPO
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Madeline Berg | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Here's how much Altman's Reddit stake could be worth — and why it's not as much as some say. Business Insider estimates that OpenAI CEO Altman owns a maximum of just about 1.66 million shares of Reddit. Using the company's estimated price per share of $31 to $34, Altman's stake in Reddit could be worth between $51.4 million and $56.4 million. Neither Reddit nor Altman would comment on the exact number of shares that Altman owns. For instance, Hydrazine Capital II owns nearly 9.9 million shares of Reddit.

Persons: Sam Altman, —, Altman, Reddit, OpenAI, Peter Thiel Organizations: Service, News, Business, Apollo, bioscience, Facebook, Google Locations: Reddit

☆ No, Sam Altman doesn't actually own half a billion dollars of Reddit stock
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Madeline Berg | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Reddit filed for an IPO, revealing nearly 10% of its shares are owned by entities related to Sam Altman. AdvertisementLast week, not long after Reddit made moves toward a public listing, headlines began to appear about an unexpected figure: Sam Altman. For example, Hydrazine Capital II is listed as owning nearly 9.9 million shares of Reddit. But Altman, at most, owns 5% of Hydrazine Capital II's holdings, or 492,720 of its Reddit shares. AdvertisementThe various entities point to a side of Altman — Altman the investor — that has receded from view since he has become known to the public as OpenAI's CEO.

Persons: Reddit, Sam Altman, Altman, —, tech's, Reddit's, that's, he's, Chris Harvey, Altman — Altman, ADVs, Peter Thiel, Cruise, Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian Organizations: Service, Business, Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey, Apollo, Apollo Projects, SPV, SEC, Investors, University of Michigan, Helion Energy, Facebook, Google Locations: Altman

☆ OpenAI's Startup fund just raised a $10 million SPV from two unnamed investors
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

The OpenAI Startup Fund is a separate but related entity from OpenAI. The fund raised $175 million last year to invest in AI companies. It has since co-led investments in legal tech startup Harvey and Ambience Healthcare, among others. AdvertisementOpenAI's venture capital fund recently raised $10 million from two unnamed investors via a special purpose vehicle or SPV, according to an SEC filing. Since then, the fund has co-led a $80 million investment in legal tech startup Harvey and was part of a $70 million investment in Ambience Healthcare, among other deals.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, SEC, Fund, Business

By doing so, if they get capital relief, they would reduce the capital they need to keep against them for regulatory capital purposes, according to banking industry sources. “There has certainly been growing interest in these transactions as banks seek regulatory capital relief," said Missy Dolski, global head of capital markets at alternative investment firm Varde Partners, an active investor in such products. "This guidance makes it more clear what structures would need affirmative approval for capital relief and what is required to comply," she added. Directly issued credit-linked notes could also qualify but would need to be approved by the Fed, said the Q&A. These clarifications come after growing calls for clarity on which of these bespoke trades issued by U.S. banks would qualify for capital relief, the banking industry sources said.

Persons: Missy Dolski, Michael Bright, ”, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Megan Davies, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Federal Reserve, Varde Partners, Fed, SPV, Structured Finance Association, European Central Bank, Reuters, Thomson Locations: U.S, Major U.S

☆ Temasek-backed firms buy stake in VIVA Biotech unit ahead of listing
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

VIVA Biotech said it will use the net proceeds to redeem convertible bonds in a bid "to settle its outstanding liabilities without occupying its internal resources." The deal included capital injection into VIVA Shanghai by new investors and sale of existing interest in VIVA Shanghai from Viva Investment, another unit of VIVA Biotech, the filing showed. Ltd, will altogether hold 17.55% stake in VIVA Shanghai after the deal, according the filing. HLC SPV and Qingdao Hongyi, both linked to HighLight Capital, will obtain a total of 6.66% stake from the transaction. VIVA Biotech has initiated a restructuring which will transfer all assets and personnel related to its early-stage drug discovery business to VIVA Shanghai, and move out of the Shanghai unit any assets and personnel related to drug development and manufacturing service, the filing showed.

Persons: Roxanne Liu, Kane Wu, Stephen Coates Organizations: Singapore's Temasek, Capital, VIVA Biotech Holdings, HK, VIVA, VIVA Shanghai, VIVA Biotech, Viva Investment, Daxue Investments, Temasek Holdings, Temasek, Ltd, SPV, Qingdao Hongyi, Investors, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, Viva

☆ Russian firm says it closes deal to buy IKEA factory
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

IKEA halted all retail and production operations in Russia soon after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, along with scores of other Western companies. "The process of concluding the deal was not easy and quite lengthy," Invest Plus owner Vadim Osipov said in a statement, thanking all parties involved - IKEA, Russian and Swedish regulators, and Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade. Sales by Western companies have been complicated as deals involving firms from so-called unfriendly countries - those that imposed sanctions against Russia - need approval from a government commission. Russia's industry ministry in February said that Slotex and lumber producer Luzales would buy the IKEA plants. "Our goal is to return the highly popular and quality production of the Novgorod factory to Russia's furniture market as quickly as possible," Osipov said.

☆ India market regulator increases scrutiny of Adani group - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Jayshree Pyasi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Email queries and phone calls sent to Adani Group were not answered. Adani earlier this week dismissed the Hindenburg report as baseless and said it is considering whether to take legal action against the New York-based firm. The regulator had sought clarity from the group on these entities when the group approached it for regulatory clearance last year. Hindenburg's report on the Adani group comes amid a $2.45 billion secondary share sale by the group's flagship company Adani Enterprises. Some issues raised in the Hindenburg report point to concerns similar to what the regulator had regarding movement of funds between parties related to the Adani Group through offshore funds back into local companies, sources said.

☆ Fanatics salaries: Pay data shows how much the merch giant offers for tech and other jobs, as it expands into sports collectibles, betting, and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | Colin Salao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Recent work-visa data shows how much the company offers to pay certain staffers. Salaries in the data ranged from $57,100 to $233,200 for mainly tech jobs in its retail division. It included base salaries for mainly tech jobs in the retail division, ranging from a data engineer position that would make $110,000 per year to a director of product management that would earn between $201,968 and $231,750 per year. For example, the data included a pay rate of $125,486 to $130,000 for an experimentation strategist position. Here were the salaries for jobs at Fanatics SPV:Director, Influencer Relations : $195,042 to $200,000: $195,042 to $200,000 Senior Platform Engineer: $144,726 to $165,000This story has been updated to reflect the latest available data.

Organizations: & $, & $

☆ Fanatics is staffing up as it expands into collectibles, sports betting, and more. Pay data reveals how much the merch giant offers for dozens of tech and data jobs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | Colin Salao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Sports-merch giant Fanatics is expanding into collectibles, sports betting, and other areas. Salaries in the data ranged from $57,000 to $233,200 for mainly tech jobs in its retail division. Fanatics is also sleeping giant in the sports-betting industry, with the potential to combine collectibles, NFTs, and gambling into one platform. Still, the data offer insight into certain salary levels across the company, which ranged from $57,138 to $233,200 per year. For example, the data included a pay rate of $125,486 to $130,000 for an experimentation strategist position.

Organizations: & $, & $

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