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☆ Alphabet's VC arm backs little-known SAP rival Odoo, boosting valuation to $5.3 billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-20 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Fabien Pinckaers, CEO of Belgian-based enterprise software startup Odoo. OdooOdoo, a startup taking on SAP in the realm of enterprise software, boosted its valuation to 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in a secondary share round led by Alphabet 's venture fund and Sequoia Capital. "The reason everybody [has] failed [in this market] is that it's quite complex," Pinckaers told CNBC. The last time Odoo secured primary funding was in 2014, when it raised $10 million in a Series B round. Prior to the latest secondary round, Odoo was most recently valued by investors at 3.2 billion euros.

Persons: Fabien Pinckaers, Odoo, Pinckaers, Andrew Reed, Reed, He's, Billings, aren't, Alex Nichols, CapitalG, he's, bootstrapping, Odoo hasn't, Wallonie Organizations: Belgian, SAP, Sequoia Capital, CNBC, Enterprise, Sequoia, Summit Partners Locations: Belgium, India, billings, Sequoia

Buy now, pay later firms like Klarna and Block's Afterpay could be about to face tougher rules in the U.K.Klarna, which is known for its popular buy now, pay later business, announced Wednesday that it's confidentially filed IPO documents with the SEC. The company said the offering would follow the SEC's review process and is subject to market conditions. Analysts recently valued Klarna, which was founded in 2005, in the $15 billion range. Klarna's decision to go pursue a listing in the U.S. represents a major blow to European stock exchanges, which have been trying to encourage local tech companies to list at home. "European IPO markets have seen some recovery as of Q3 this year," she added.

Persons: Block's, it's confidentially, Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CNBC's, Siemiatkowski, Siemiatkowski hadn't, Navina Rajan, We've, Rajan Organizations: SEC, SoftBank's Vision, Sequoia Capital, CNBC, Apple, Meta, London Stock Exchange Locations: London, Europe, U.S

☆ OpenAI is reportedly struggling to improve its next big AI model. It's a warning for the entire AI industry.
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-11 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

It reignites a debate about the feasibility of developing increasingly advanced models and AI scaling laws — the theoretical rules about how the models improve. It remains to be seen how smart an AI model can get when it has that much capital thrown at it. There could also be strategies to make AI models smarter by enhancing the inference portion of development. The model OpenAI released in September — called OpenAI o1 — focused more on inference improvements. Still, it's clear that, like Altman, much of the industry remains firm in its conviction that scaling laws are the driver of AI performance.

Persons: OpenAI's, It's, —, Sam Altman, Fabrice Beaulieu, Altman, OpenAI, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, Ion Stoica, Gary Marcus, Anthropic, Marcus, Claude, Ilya Sutskever, Dario Amodei, Kevin Scott, we're, Scott, they've Organizations: Service, OpenAI's, Orion, Business, Getty, Companies, New York University, Reuters, Sequoia, o1 Locations: GPT, Silicon Valley, AFP

☆ Silicon Valley's Trump boosters celebrate: 'It's time to build'
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-06 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech leaders who openly supported Donald Trump took to X to celebrate his win Wednesday morning. AdvertisementAs former president Donald Trump swept to victory Wednesday morning, supporters in Silicon Valley posted messages of congratulations and even gloated over his return to the Oval Office. Some of tech's most high-profile and wealthiest names offered their first reactions after major news networks called the race for Trump. The billionaire owner of X and Tesla watched the election results roll in with Trump from Mar-a-Lago. AdvertisementMarc Andreessen, an early Facebook and Coinbase investor via his firm Andreessen Horowitz, had a curious relationship with Trump.

Persons: Donald Trump, Keith Rabois, —, Chamath Palihapitiya, Shaun Maguire, Trump . Elon Musk, Tesla, Joe Biden, Israel —, Musk, Trump, Doug Leone, Joe Lonsdale, David Sacks, Obama, Biden, Harris, Sacks, Leone, Marc Andreessen, Andreessen Horowitz, Andreessen Organizations: Tech, Service, tech's, Trump, Trump ., Mar, San Francisco, Republicans, Israel, Craft Ventures, Republican National Convention, Business, Federal, Commission, National Republican, Founders Fund, SpaceX, Khosla Ventures Locations: Silicon Valley, Sequoia, America, San, Pennsylvania, Rabois

☆ Jeff Bezos and OpenAI invest in robot startup Physical Intelligence at $2.4 billion valuation
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-04 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Physical Intelligence, a robot startup based in San Francisco, has raised $400 million at a $2.4 billion post-money valuation, the company confirmed Monday to CNBC. Investors included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, Thrive Capital and Lux Capital, a Physical Intelligence spokesperson said. Physical Intelligence's new valuation is about six times that of its March seed round, which reportedly came in at $70 million with a $400 million valuation. Physical Intelligence hopes that model will be the first step toward its ultimate goal of developing artificial general intelligence. In case studies, Physical Intelligence details how its tech could allow a robot to do laundry, bus tables or assemble a box.

Persons: Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, Microsoft's Bing Organizations: Economic, Amazon, Change, Physical Intelligence, CNBC, Investors, Lux Capital, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Tesla, Google, Intelligence Locations: Davos, Switzerland, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, San Francisco, ChatGPT

☆ Elon Musk's xAI startup could soon be worth many times more than X
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-30 | by ( Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk's xAI is raising fresh funding at a $40 billion valuation, the WSJ reported. Social media network X, meanwhile, is currently valued at $9.4 billion, according to Fidelity filings. AdvertisementA new funding round in the works for xAI could value Elon Musk's startup at more than four times what his social media network, X, is currently worth, according to recent Fidelity filings. The AI startup is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a $40 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. Assuming the investment was made at X's $44 billion valuation, the fund now estimates X's value to be around $9.4 billion.

Persons: Elon Musk's, —, Musk, ChatGPT, That's Organizations: Social, Fidelity, Service, Elon, Wall Street, Sequoia Capital, Growth Locations: a16z, xAI

☆ VCs are 'hedging their bets,' backing competing LLMs like Anthropic and OpenAI, breaking a long-standing venture taboo
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-26 | by ( Ben Bergman | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Venture firms are increasingly investing in competing LLM startups like OpenAI and xAI. Some VCs argue investing in multiple LLMs is strategic, while others see it as unethical. AdvertisementWhen venture firms pull out their checkbooks, there has traditionally been an unspoken rule: Do not back a competitor. Sound Ventures and Wisdom Ventures backed both OpenAI and Anthropic. There is also the matter of money, with only a handful of firms capable of writing the colossal checks required to fund LLM companies.

Persons: VCs, —, Joe Aaron, — Sheel, Andreessen Horowitz, Elon Musk's XAI, Ilya Sutskever, Umesh Padval, Padval, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gregg Hill, they've Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity, Ark Invest, Sound Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Parkway Venture, Madrona Ventures, NASDAQ Locations: OpenAI, Canadian

☆ Bolt CEO changes RTO policy to 'stop the insanity of people working remotely from places like Bali.' Read the memo.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-25 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The CEO of European ride-hailing app Bolt is mandating workers return to the office 12 days a month. AdvertisementThe CEO of European mobility app Bolt didn't mince words earlier this month when calling workers back to the office. "We will stop the insanity of people working remotely from places like Bali," he said. "We believe that in-person collaboration drives innovation and performance, and our existing policy advises employees to work from a Bolt office for 2-3 days a week," a Bolt spokesperson said. "Starting from 1 January, this policy will be formalised with employees being asked to work from a Bolt office 12 days per month.

Persons: Markus Villig, Bolt, —, Villig, Elon Musk, flexibly, it'd, Read Organizations: Service, Business, Apple, Amazon, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management, Team, – Locations: Bali, Tallinn, Estonia, – Tallinn

☆ Sequoia Capital partner Pat Grady is redefining AI investments
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

The prestigious venture firm Sequoia Capital likes to say all its partners invest in every sector. But more than anyone, the growth-stage partner Grady, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, has led the firm's AI strategy, making bets on companies including OpenAI, Harvey, and Hugging Face. Along with another partner, Sonya Huang, Grady also wrote a public blog post on Sequoia's website inviting AI founders to email them their ideas and pitches directly. A successful deal for Sequoia is more about investing in the best people rather than at the best price, Grady told Business Insider last year. See Business Insider's full AI Power List

Persons: Grady, Harvey, Sonya Huang Organizations: Sequoia Capital, Sequoia

☆ Exclusive: Maven Clinic is swapping out its finance chiefs as the women's health unicorn looks ahead to an IPO
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-24 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Maven's chief financial officer has left the women's health unicorn one year after taking the role. AdvertisementMaven Clinic is swapping out its chief financial officers on the heels of a fresh funding round as the women's health startup inches closer to an IPO. Related storiesAs the highest-valued women's health startup, Maven is expected to be a candidate for the next wave of digital health IPOs. The startup's hopeful future exit would be a boon for the women's health market, which remains a small fraction of all healthcare funding. Wrapbook raised a $20 million funding round in September at a valuation of $750 million.

Persons: Maven, —, Kristina Campbell, isn't, Campbell didn't, haven't, Campbell, Wrapbook Organizations: Service, StepStone Group, Business, Sequoia Capital, Catalyst, Lux Capital, Oak HC, SEC

☆ Amazon's AI data center dream runs into the reality of 'zombie' facilities, higher costs, and labor shortages
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-23 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Electricity and labor headwinds slow Amazon's data center buildout. AdvertisementAmazon is spending heavily on data centers to support booming AI workloads, putting it on pace to build 240 new facilities by 2040, one estimate found. David Cahn, a Sequoia Capital general partner, recently predicted data center delays across the sector. Bernstein Research recently estimated that electricity demand for AI data centers could exceed supply in just two years without action. An Amazon data center in Oregon.

Persons: —, It's, David Cahn, Marc Wulfraat, MWPVL, we've, Bernstein, Amazon's, Matt Garman, JOSH EDELSON, Garman, Manuel Pineda, Pineda, Owens Corning Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, Energy, Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, Bernstein Research, Business, Web, San Francisco 49ers, BI, AWS, Uptime Institute, Center, Survey Locations: AMER, Americas, Oregon , Ohio, Northern Virginia, Amazon's Portland, Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Silicon Valley, Santa Clara , California, Santa Clara, Levi's, City, Santa, Oregon

☆ Venture capital is going to war over the election. Here's the data to prove it.
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-19 | by ( Rob Price | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

VCs are lobbing cash at the presidential election and key congressional races, FEC data shows. This election cycle, investors at the top venture capital firms have plowed tens of millions of dollars into the election, both backing their favored political candidates and just cannily promoting commercial interests. (The filing deadline for Q3 data for quarterly filing entities was October 15, but this data isn't yet readily available in full online.) Business Insider selected 10 venture capital firms to focus on, taking into account fund size and cultural and industry significance. Sequoia Capital's Doug Leone is one of VC's most prolific GOP-aligned political donors, giving his almost $3.8 million to the National Republican Committee and other causes.

Persons: Reid Hoffman, Kamala Harris, —, hasn't, Andreessen Horowitz, blockchain, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, a16z, Horowitz, Andreessen, Harris, megadonor Reid Hoffman, Keith Rabois, Kleiner Perkins, Michael Moritz, Shaun Maguire, Joe Manchin, Hoffman, Horowitz Hoffman, Joe Biden, Biden, Nikki Haley, Trump, Vinod Khosla, John Doerr, Doug Leone, Elon Musk, Melia Russell, Rob Price Organizations: Service, Federal, Commission, Yuga Labs, White, Republicans, Founders Fund, SpaceX, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Heritage, Business, Republican, Lincoln, Democratic, Democratic Party, Democratic Congressional, Sequoia, National Republican, Future Forward PAC, America PAC, Elon, Investors, splashy Hamptons, Harris Victory Fund, Harris Action Fund, Democratic National Committee Locations: Solana, Sequoia, West Virginia, New Hampshire

☆ AI sales startup Clay is raising a new funding round at a $1.3 billion valuation, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-16 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The company last raised a $46 million Series B at a $500 million valuation led by Meritech in June. AdvertisementClay, the AI-powered sales startup, is set to be valued at $1.3 billion in a new insider funding round, two sources told Business Insider. Sequoia Capital, First Round Capital, Box Group, and Boldstart Ventures participated in that round. Clay's AI messaging tool can then help sales teams send tailored outbound messages to prospective customers. Apollo, a sales intelligence startup, raised a $100 million Series D round led by Bain Capital Ventures last year at a $1.6 billion valuation.

Persons: Clay, Meritech, —, Kareem Amin, Amin, Varun Anand Organizations: Service, Business, Meritech Capital, Sequoia Capital, Boldstart Ventures, Wall Street, Bain Capital Ventures

☆ OpenAI backer Vinod Khosla on why all the executive departures may be a good thing, taking on Elon Musk, and fixing AI's image problem
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-08 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Khosla Ventures was the first investor in OpenAI when it switched to a "capped-profit" model in 2018. When OpenAI switched from a non-profit to a "capped-profit" company in 2018, he put his money where his mouth was when Khosla Ventures stepped forward with the first check. While some notable earlier investors sat out this round, such as Sequoia Capital, sat out this round, Khosla Ventures doubled down. "There's plenty of companies in the public markets that have higher revenue multiples with much lower growth than OpenAI," Khosla said during an interview this week. Advertisement"I think a number of people who left recently really want to start something of their own, but the organization is also being rationalized for agility and speed," Khosla said.

Persons: Khosla, —, Vinod Khosla, OpenAI, Mira Murati, Ilya Sutskever, Andrej Karpathy, John Schulman, Sam, Altman, Sutskever, X, 4chan Khosla, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Musk Organizations: Khosla Ventures, Service, Sequoia Capital, 4chan, 4Chan Locations: OpenAI, Silicon Valley, It's

☆ Exclusive: Health startup Roon is raising $15 million from Sequoia to replace 'Dr. Google'
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-01 | by ( Sri Muppidi | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Health startup Roon is raising $15 million at a $65 million pre-money valuation, BI has learned. AdvertisementHealth information site Roon is raising a new funding round, Business Insider has learned. Roon aims to replace "Dr. Google" with its website and app for consumers to ask their health questions and get expert answers. The company provides accessible medical information to users and partners with trained medical professionals to answer specific medical questions about users' health journeys. Related storiesToday, expert health information isn't always easy to find with a simple Google search.

Persons: —, Roon, Vikram Bhaskaran, Arun Ranganathan, Rohan Ramakrishna, OpenAI's, Bhaskaran Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Union Square Ventures Locations: Sequoia

☆ Masayoshi Son is the $100 billion gambler who went from dirt track to tech titan — and he isn't done betting yet
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-28 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has spent his life putting bold bets on the future of technology. SoftBank, the media-technology conglomerate Son founded two decades prior, was riding high on the glory it attained in the dot-com boom. He was told he was special," Barber told BI. "He wants to be seen as the great modernizer transforming this petrostate into a truly modern economy where technology is at the forefront," Barber told BI. But as previous cycles in Son's life dictate, the flurry of enthusiasm is typically followed by failure.

Persons: Masayoshi Son, Lionel Barber, —, Son, Bill Gates, Masa —, Uber, Barber, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, — he's, Jack Ma's Alibaba, Wang, he's, Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Qin Shi Huang, Emperor of, Microsoft's Gates, Jordan Strauss, Mitsunori, SoftBank, Rupert Murdoch, Larry Ellison, Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Masayoshi, Justin Sullivan, Rajeev Misra, Nikesh Arora, Phil McCarten, Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi, Michael Moritz, Kim Jong, Adam Neumann, Donald Trump, Wirecard, Jesus, NurPhoto, He's, Allen Lane Organizations: Service, Financial Times, Kremlin, Yahoo, Popular Electronics, Vision, Deutsche Bank, Google, Reuters, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Vision Fund, Valley's, Sequoia Capital, Greensill, Nvidia, Signal Publishers Locations: Tokyo's Roppongi, Japan, Masayoshi, Washington, Wayne, Emperor of China, Kyushu, United States, Riyadh, Berkeley, Las Vegas

But increasingly concerned Republicans fear the Trump team is firing blanks. So I just think that’s super overblown criticism by people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”‘Some groups are better than others’Concerns over Republican field efforts are nothing new. Large-scale conservative canvassing efforts, these Republicans explained, were plagued with issues including fraudulent and untrustworthy data entries. The senior Trump campaign official said the campaign was not caught off guard by Turning Point having a more limited scope, saying it has been working closely with the organization. “You gotta remember, Donald Trump got more votes for a sitting president than ever before in history,” this person said.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Trump, ”, Kamala Harris ’, “ Local Republicans aren’t, they’re, Elon, James John Liautaud, Jimmy John’s, Shaun Maguire, Douglas, Ron DeSantis ’, Generra Peck, Phil Cox, there’s, it’s, … I’ve, Semafor, “, ” Andrew Kolvet, Michael Whatley, Harris, Joe Biden, ” Sen, Steve Daines, Kamala Harris, ” Whatley, GOTV, isn’t, Donald Trump Organizations: Republican National Committee, Trump, Federal, Commission, RNC, Republican, “ Local Republicans, America PAC, FEC, Sequoia Capital, GOP, Gov, New York Times, NBC, “, NBC News, House Republicans, National Republican Senatorial, Democrats ’ Senate, ”, Republicans Locations: Iowa, Douglas Leone, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia

☆ AI-powered search startup Glean doubles valuation in new funding round led by Altimeter
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-10 | by ( Riley De León | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

AI-powered search startup Glean said Tuesday it has raised $260 million in a funding round that values the tech company at $4.6 billion — more than double its last reported valuation. Glean competes with a herd of well-financed generative AI startups and tech giants, attempting to compete with Microsoft Copilot and chatbot Amazon Q. Glean's Series E round, led by Altimeter and DST Global, includes Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, all new investors in the company. Founder and CEO Arvind Jain started Glean in 2019 with other former Google engineers as an enterprise search engine. The company soon transitioned to generative AI.

Persons: Arvind Jain, Glean, Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Jain Organizations: CNBC, Glean, Microsoft, DST Global, Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Latitude, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, IDC Locations: Lisbon, Portugal, Palo Alto , California

☆ Dozens of business leaders endorse Kamala Harris for president
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-06 | by ( Liam Reilly | Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Dozens of business leaders are throwing their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris, saying she is the stronger candidate for the American economy and the future of democracy. In a three-page letter, a group of 88 business leaders — including high-profile current and former executives from major public companies across tech, media, and finance — emphasized that they believe a Harris administration can better nurture the private sector. The endorsements underscore the support Harris has not only in Silicon Valley, a traditional Democratic stronghold, but in some corners on Wall Street and at some consumer-facing companies. On the campaign trail, Harris has positioned herself as perhaps friendlier to business than President Joe Biden. The letter is a vote of confidence for Harris as she and former President Donald Trump appear neck and neck ahead of the November election.

Persons: Kamala Harris, —, Harris, “, James Murdoch, Mark Cuban, Reid Hoffman, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Lynton, Jeremy Stoppelman, Hoffman, Jeff Lawson, Laurene Powell Jobs, Peter Chernin, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Joe Biden, Trump, Elon Musk, David Sacks, San Francisco, Doug Leone, Joe Lonsdale, Peter Thiel, Donald Trump Organizations: CNN, CNBC, Democratic, Century Fox, Emerson Collective, TCG, Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Trump, San, Republican National Convention, America PAC, Sequoia Capital, Palantir, ABC Locations: Silicon Valley, United States

☆ Engineers have found a way to bootstrap their way to smarter AI models as they wait for Chat GPT-5
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-23 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewChat GPT-5, the next version of OpenAI's language model that changed everything, is on the way. As AI developers wait to test GPT-5, some have found a new way to bootstrap their way to more advanced AI without an entirely new model. Fewer idle GPUs then translate to more affordable computing, as Davis explained on the No Priors podcast released Thursday. When Davis and his co-authors used the compound AI method, the layered model produced the correct answer 37% of the time — a nearly 10-fold increase. "I think people are getting more sophisticated at thinking about cost in more of a life-cycle way," Davis said.

Persons: —, Jared Quincy Davis, Davis, Sarah Guo, Elad Gil, iterating Organizations: Service, Business, Foundry, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Systems

☆ Opinion | Nate Silver on How Kamala Harris Changed the Odds
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +81 min

You know, Hillary Clinton, who was, I think, kind of a terrible candidate, won the popular vote by two points. So I don’t think they gave her a very good hand to play. It doesn’t matter who you are, it matters that you’re right and you’re able to prove it or bet on it in some way. What wasn’t in the Harris model that should have been?” “Yeah, maybe you really can meme your way to victory. And there’s something in it that I don’t think she can explain how she does it, but it makes her a fascinating leader.

Persons: Nate Silver, ”, ESPN’s Nate Silver, Silver, He’s, “ Savage, ” “, he’s, Ezra, Harris, we’ve, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s, There’s, Hillary Clinton, she’s, She’s, Gavin Newsom, It’s, Biden, I’m, you’re, Joe Biden, Democratic Party Harris, Liz, —, “, Donald Trump, that’s, George W, Bush, Donald Trump wasn’t, it’s, Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, ’, Chick, don’t, George Floyd, ‘ COVID, COVID, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Michael Moritz, Elon, Mark Cuban, Thiel, Max Chafkin, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, Ted Cruz, Sam Bankman, Tom Brady, SBF, Carrick Flynn, Oregon’s, I’m Carrick Flynn, Tara MacAulay, vouched, Bill Clinton, Tyler Cowen, they’ve, Jane, JD Vance, Peter Thiel’s, Vance, Trump, Steve Bannon, Don Trump, Jr, Tucker Carlson, Tim Walz, Josh Shapiro, Tell, you’ve, Shapiro, Walz, I’ve, Iglesias, Obama, Susan Collins, Joe Manchin —, Jon Tester, ” “ Sherrod Brown, I’d, Dana White, Hulk Hogan, Joe Biden’s, — let’s, Mike Donilon, Kennedy, ” “ Tim Alberta, Georgia —, Brian Kemp, Blake Masters, Rick Scott, ” “ Trump, Doug Burgum, Black, didn’t, — Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Michael Jordan, everyone’s, Nancy Pelosi’s, Nancy Pelosi, Joe ’, we’re, I’ll, John Coates, Richard Rhodes, Natasha Schüll, Natasha Organizations: Oracle, Trump, Democratic Party, Facebook, Twitter, The New York Times, ’ Harvard University, Democratic White House, Republican White House, Democratic, Silver, George, Vegas, Poker, extroversion, Elon, Sequoia Capital, McLaren, Paypal, Republican, New, PAC, Alameda, Las, Ohio Senate, underperform, White, UFC, RNC, Biden, Biden ., National Association of Black Journalists, Deutsche Bank, Manhattan Project, Design Locations: Nate, Russian, Russia, ’, Elon, Florida, predestiny, Bahamas, Sam, Africa, New York, Oregon, Las Vegas, Petersburg, United States, Ohio, Trump, Minnesota, ” “ Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Gaza, Chicago, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada , Arizona, Biden . Georgia, Carolina, Arizona, Ukraine, LA, It’s, Vegas

☆ Sequoia invests in Reflection AI, a startup founded by Google DeepMind alum, at $100 million valuation, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-07 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewReflection AI, a startup building AI agents, has raised new funding at a $100 million valuation, Business Insider has learned. AI agents promise to execute difficult tasks, like booking an appointment or updating Salesforce. Laskin conducted AI research at the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab and most recently worked at Google DeepMind, the company's AI research lab. AdvertisementReflection isn't the only startup building AI agents. In June, Amazon hired away the cofounders of AI agent startup Adept, which raised more than $400 million in funding, and licensed its technology, reported GeekWire.

Persons: —, cofounders, Misha Laskin, Ioannis Antonoglou, DeepMind, Laskin, Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's, Antonoglou, Ioannis Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia, Business, Berkeley Artificial Intelligence, Google, Amazon Locations: DeepMind

☆ Trump's tech backers are 'making a big mistake,' Sequoia's Mike Moritz says
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As leading tech investors continue to vocally take sides ahead of the 2024 presidential election, legendary venture capitalist Michael Moritz is making his preference clear. In a Financial Times opinion piece published Monday, Moritz wrote that those in the industry who are supporting Donald Trump "are making a big mistake." Moritz was referring to Trump's conviction, earlier this year, on 34 felony counts in New York State court. Other Trump backers include venture capitalists David Sacks and Joe Lonsdale as well as Doug Leone, Moritz's longtime partner at Sequoia. Moritz wrote in his op-ed that Trump's tech financiers and supporters were "making the same mistake as all powerful people who back authoritarians."

Persons: Michael Moritz, Moritz, Donald Trump, Moritz —, LinkedIn —, Trump, Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Elon Musk, David Sacks, Joe Lonsdale, Doug Leone, Moritz's, He's, Reid Hoffman, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, VCs, Harris, Kamala, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, John Kasich's, OpenSecrets Organizations: Sequoia Capital, Google, PayPal, LinkedIn, Trump, Tesla, Sequoia ., Democratic, Trump Lincoln Project, Republican, Tech Locations: Sequoia, New York, Silicon Valley, California, Ohio

☆ Sequoia's Michael Moritz says Trump's Silicon Valley supporters are making a 'big mistake'
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewWhile some Silicon Valley investors and startup leaders are going red hoping for a more "tech-friendly" White House, Michael Moritz, a storied Sequoia Capital investor, believes that does not reflect the Valley overall. "Fortunately, at least in Silicon Valley, Trump will not prevail," Moritz wrote in a Financial Times opinion piece, which was also posted on LinkedIn. Like the rest of the nation, Silicon Valley is deeply divided over whom to support in the upcoming presidential race. In his piece, Moritz chided Trump supporters in Silicon Valley. Moritz added that Trump had historically not performed well among Silicon Valley voters.

Persons: —, Michael Moritz, Trump, Moritz, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Doug Leone, Shaun Maguire, Roelof Botha, Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Fund's Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Chamath, Vance, Sen, JD Vance, Palmer Luckey, Elon Musk, VCs, Kamala, Harris, Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, Mark Cuban, Ron Conway Organizations: Service, Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn, Business, Google, PayPal, Democratic, Republican, Tech, Trump, VR, Bloomberg, PAC, Street Journal, Netflix, Harris, Politico Locations: Silicon Valley, Sequoia, Park City , Utah, Silicon, Palo Alto , California, Newport Beach , California, Washington ,, Francisco, San Jose

☆ Kamala Harris gets support of more than 100 VCs and tech execs in online pledge
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Georgia State Convocation Center in Atlanta on July 30, 2024. More than 100 VCs on Wednesday pledged their support to Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee, as she ramps up her campaign to take on Trump in the November election. The group, calling itself VCs for Kamala, is made up of investors and entrepreneurs from a range of established and rising funds, and different demographic groups. "We spend our days looking for, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs who are building the future," the group said in its pledge. The VCs for Kamala list highlights a deepening political divide in Silicon Valley and the broader tech industry.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Kamala, Vinod Khosla, Reid Hoffman, Mark Cuban, Aileen Lee, Rebecca Kaden, Elon Musk, VCs Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Trump, Musk, Shaun Maguire, 8VC's Joe Lonsdale, Musk's, David Sacks, Hoffman, Greylock, Harris, Erika Lucas Organizations: Republican, Democratic, Trump, Khosla Ventures, LinkedIn, Dallas Mavericks, Cowboy Ventures, Union Square Ventures, America PAC, Sequoia, Craft Ventures, Republican National Convention, Musk, Convention Locations: Georgia, Atlanta, Silicon Valley, Chicago

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