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☆ Wall Street worries about revenue 'round-tripping,' after big AI deals by cloud giants including Amazon and Google
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

These days, this may happen when a big tech company invests in an AI startup, and then that startup buys cloud and AI services from the big tech company. These arrangements are called "round tripping" because the money invested comes right back in the form of cloud spending. When Amazon Web Services invested $4 billion in Anthropic, the AI startup agreed to use AWS as its "primary cloud provider." In recent years, cloud spending growth has slowed as some customers try to save money in the midst of a lackluster economy with high inflation. An Amazon spokesperson declined to say whether AWS revenue numbers include cloud spending by Anthropic or not.

Persons: —, what's, Rishi Jaluria, GCP, Jaluria Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, RBC Capital, RBC, Amazon Locations: Anthropic

☆ A new mantra for AI models: 'good enough' is good enough
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In particular, it beat OpenAI's GPT 3.5, a model that was released two years earlier, an eternity in AI years. This new, leaner model will cost users only 35 cents per million tokens, compared with $7 per million for the Gemini 1.5 Pro model. But it remains to be seen if state-of-the-art is actually a good business model. said the founder and CEO of one seed-stage startup that's training new AI models, "but then, you know, as businesses, what you also want to do is what is good enough." As AI models get bigger and gobble up more money and computing resources, there are often diminishing returns in terms of performance.

Persons: —, Databricks, Ali Ghodsi, Ghodsi, Claude, it'll, Morgan Stanley, Martin Kon, Kon, OpenAI Organizations: Service, Business, Companies, Google, Gemini, Microsoft, Apple

☆ Amazon's cloud business needs a 'bulldozer.' New AWS CEO Matt Garman fits the bill.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Read previewAt an October all-hands meeting, an Amazon Web Services employee asked executive Matt Garman about the company's difficult work environment. The people who spoke with BI about Garman asked not to be identified so they could freely discuss his abilities. One AWS employee pointed out to BI that Amazon Q was months behind the launch of Microsoft's AI Copilots. Associated PressOutside of AI, AWS has struggled in its core startups and small business segments, failing short of sales targets last year, as BI previously reported. Those customers are particularly important for AWS because the company built its early business by embracing that market.

Persons: —, Matt Garman, Garman, It's, Adam Selipsky, Selipsky, Andy Jassy, Matt, Amazon's, Patrick Neighorn, He'd, We're, Neighorn, it's, Claude, AWS's, let's Organizations: Service, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Business Insider, Employees, Business, Amazon, Stanford, BI, Mizuho Securities, Q, Cohere, Mistral, Google, Associated Locations: Anthropic

☆ Early Facebook investor Accel raises $650 million fund to back European and Israeli startups
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

AccelVenture capital firm Accel said Tuesday it's raised $650 million for its eighth fund targeted at investing in European and Israeli early-stage startups, in a sign the venture capital market may be showing signs of a recovery. "The environment has dramatically changed since then," Nelis told CNBC. Climate-focused VC firm World Fund closed a 300 million euro fund in March. "We're lucky that with DeepMind here in London and with Fair [Facebook AI Research] in Paris, there's at least two big centers that have great AI expertise," Nelis told CNBC. "My expectation is Europe is going to generate some really interesting AI application companies," Nelis told CNBC.

Persons: Harry Nelis, Sonali de Rycker, Andrei Brasoveanu, Luca Bocchio, Philippe Botteri, it's, Nelis, UiPath, Russia's, Wise, Magnus Grimeland, Grimeland, there's, Victor Riparbelli, Synthesia, Riparbelli Organizations: Accel, Accel Venture, Spotify, CNBC, Skype, U.S, Nvidia Locations: Europe, Israel, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, New York, U.S, London, Paris, Synthesia

☆ An OpenAI rival says its new AI model is not only cheaper to run than GPT-4, but it's also more useful
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewOpenAI rival Cohere has unveiled an updated AI model it says is more useful and cheaper to run than GPT-4. The AI startup says it is rolling out the ability to fine-tune its Command R AI model, allowing it to outperform larger models like GPT-4 in some use cases while costing up to fifteen times less to operate. Similarly, when analyzing financial data Command R was 6.2% more accurate than GPT-4 and 5.3% more accurate than Claude. AdvertisementCohere said that as Command R, which initially launched in March, is significantly smaller than the likes of GPT-4, it costs much less to run. Related storiesFine-tuning on the Command R model is available on Cohere's platform from Thursday, with availability on other platforms coming in the near future.

Persons: —, Cohere, Nick Frosst, Claude Opus, Claude, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Altman, they're, Frosst, It's, Emad Mostaque, Mustafa Suleyman, We're Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon, GPT, Command, Meta, Intelligence, Stanford University, Cohere, Big Tech, Stability, Microsoft Locations: GPT, Toronto

☆ Exclusive: Convergence AI, a new startup founded by ex-Cohere employees, is in talks to raise a major pre-seed round
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A UK-based AI startup, founded last month by former Cohere employees, is already in talks to raise a major pre-seed round amid venture capitalists' continued spending spree in the sector. Convergence AI, incorporated at the end of April, was founded by ex-Cohere employees Marvin Purtorab and Andy Toulis, who was also a machine learning engineer at Uber. Its primary aim, per leaked investor documents seen by BI, is to build out automated workforces using AI. The nascent business has been feted by several leading funds, with the company receiving at least six different term sheets for investment, two London-based sources said. The startup opted for a funding round led by London-based Balderton Capital, six sources familiar with the deal told Business Insider.

Persons: Marvin Purtorab, Andy Toulis, Slack Organizations: Uber, Business, Balderton, BI, Nvidia, Mistral Locations: London, Paris

☆ Healthcare Startup Valuations Are Coming Back to Earth — Except in AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The frenzy has investors across industries rushing to get into AI deals, including in healthcare. AdvertisementStill, healthcare startups using AI have already raised hundreds of millions of dollars this year, especially to automate tedious administrative tasks for providers and health plans. Andrew Arruda, CEO of Flexpa FlexpaThe AI long-haulNot every startup needs to be an AI startup. AdvertisementPlus, healthcare companies that do want to use AI face higher stakes than other industries, contending with numerous privacy, regulatory, and safety issues, Kong noted. For example — if healthcare AI makes a mistake, could patient health be impacted?

Persons: —, Scott Barclay, Nina Achadijan, Shiv Rao Abridge, VCs, nabbed, CodaMetrix, Aike Ho, Christina Farr, Andrew Arruda, that'll, Flexpa, he's, Flexpa's, Kong, Todd Cozzens, it's Organizations: Service, Business, Insight Partners, ACME Capital, nab, Catalyst, HealthQuest, Transformation Locations: Tech, Kong

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he's committed to cost cutting while investing in AI in shareholder letter
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +41 min

This work diminished short-term revenue, but was best for customers, much appreciated, and should bode well for customers and AWS longer-term. We're also making progress on many of our newer business investments that have the potential to be important to customers and Amazon long-term. Being intentional about building primitives requires patience. Customers building their own FM must tackle several challenges in getting a model into production. Customers' AI models contain some of their most sensitive data.

Persons: Andy Jassy, Jassy, Jeff Bezos, he's, we've, Martha Stewart, Clinique, we're, We've, bode, We're, I've, iterating, We'd, we'd, Fox, affordably, you've, They're, Anthropic, that's, Claude, Dana, debugs, Slack Organizations: Amazon, Services, AWS, Deal, Prime, MGM, Savings, Regions, Citadel, Target, Storage Service, Netflix, Disney, Max, Paramount, CIA, . Intelligence, Amazon Freight, Carrier, Amazon Shipping, Foods, Drones, Amazon Pharmacy, Amazon Clinic, Robotics, Nvidia, Ricoh, NatWest, FMs, Meta, Bridgewater Associates, Farber Cancer Institute, Delta Air Lines, Intuit, KT, Lonely, LexisNexis, Netsmart, Pfizer, PGA, Rocket Companies, Siemens, Media, Inc Locations: North America, U.S, Europe, India, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Middle East, Africa, Malaysia, New Zealand, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Berlin, Hulu, Amdocs, Genomics England, GoDaddy, GenAI

☆ Mike Lynch-backed legal tech startup Luminance raises $40 million, capitalizing on AI hype
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mathisworks | Digitalvision Vectors | Getty ImagesLegal technology firm Luminance has raised $40 million in fresh funding from investors to grow its U.S. footprint, capitalizing on the wave of investor interest surrounding artificial intelligence. The company told CNBC that it raised the fresh capital in a Series B funding round led by U.S. venture fund March Capital. "We had lots of interest from lots of VCs," Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance, told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. Lightbody said that businesses are investing in AI tools like Luminance's to keep a competitive edge, as well as to reduce costs. Luminance is one firm of the many generating buzz from investors thanks to the hype swirling around artificial intelligence.

Persons: Slaughter, Eleanor Lightbody, Lightbody Organizations: CNBC, U.S, National Grid Partners, National Grid, Koch Industries, Hitachi, Yokogawa, Liberty Mutual, LG Chem, BBC Studios, University of Cambridge, Companies, Mistral, Microsoft, Amazon, Investors

A significant chunk of that money was strategic, in that it came from tech companies rather than venture capitalists or other institutions. The company has refocused much of its product development on generative AI, and its newly rebranded Gemini model, adding features into search, documents, maps and elsewhere. Alphabet and Nvidia are also investors in Runway ML, a generative AI company known for its video-editing and visual effects tools. Microsoft has invested in many of the techniques underpinning generative AI through its Microsoft Research division. Apple researchers recently published details of their work on MM1, a family of small AI models that can take both text and visual input.

Persons: Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Justin Sullivan, Claude, Fred Havemeyer, Havemeyer, that's, Anthropic, Gemini Ai, Michael M, It's, Amy Hood, dealmaking Daniel Newman, Mustafa Suleyman, Newman, Lina Khan Organizations: Getty, Getty Images Tech, aren't, GPT, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Nvidia, Google, Web Services, Amazon, Santiago, AMD, Runway ML, Mistral, Big Tech, Microsoft Research, Baidu, Futurum, Anthropic, Federal Trade Commission Locations: San Francisco, Macquarie, Anthropic, New York City, Mistral, U.S, China

☆ 'The frenzy continues’: Researcher names 3 new signs of an AI bubble amid Nvidia hype
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Katrina Bishop | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

He outlined three recent events that give him cause for concern: Cohere valuation The first is that generative AI company Cohere is reportedly on track to raise funds at a $5 billion valuation. "Another red flag was Microsoft's ability to hire the CEO and 70 staff from the AI start-up Inflection AI," he said. Amazon investment Emphasizing the "FOMO effect" around AI, Windsor noted that even tech giant Amazon isn't immune. Amazon's largest-ever investment will see it continue to pump money into the generative AI start-up, which has a chatbot Claude that competes with OpenAI 's ChatGPT. He added that he already owns chip stock Qualcomm , which is in a "very good position to benefit as generative AI starts to be implemented at the edge."

Persons: Richard Windsor, Cohere, Windsor, Martin Kon, Claude, OpenAI, Stocks, —, Kate Rooney Organizations: Radio Free Mobile, Mar, CNBC, Nvidia, Google, Windsor, Nomura Securities, Microsoft, Qualcomm Locations: Amazon's

☆ The next phase of AI is here — and it's not looking pretty
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI companies run into hurdlesOne of the more eye-opening developments of this new phase came last week from a barely two-year-old OpenAI rival named Inflection AI. Related storiesIt has quickly become apparent that Inflection AI wasn't the only one struggling, however. Stability's Mostaque, meanwhile, seems to have conceded that Big Tech companies wield unassailable power in AI. In a post on X, he said that centralized AI was not going to be beaten with "more centralized AI". Not going to beat centralized AI with more centralized AI.

Persons: —, Bill Gates, Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Suleyman, Reid Hoffman, Gates, Eric Schmidt, Emad Mostaque, Googlers —, Ali Barr, Pi, Cohere, Stability's Mostaque, ike C oatue Organizations: Service, Nasdaq, Business, Big Tech, Microsoft, Nvidia

☆ Anthropic-backer Menlo Ventures is preparing for a 'gold rush' of AI infrastructure startups. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Menlo Ventures has been an early backer of AI powerhouses including security startup Abnormal, LLM developer Anthropic, and vector database Pinecone. "AI itself is not new, I think it's just how mainstream it's become," Matt Murphy, a Menlo Ventures partner who invests in SaaS and robotics startups, told Business Insider in an interview. AI's "picks and shovels"Murphy and fellow Menlo Ventures partner Tim Tully say that 2024 will be a big year for the "picks and shovels" of AI. There's room in the game for more LLMsSam Altman's OpenAI has been at the forefront of the generative AI revolution. Other vector database startups including Chorma and Weaviate have also raised millions from VCs.

Persons: —, Siri, Warby Parker, Matt Murphy, OpenAI, AI's, Murphy, Tim Tully, Tully —, Sana, Lindy, we've, Tully, Sam Altman's OpenAI, it's Organizations: Service, Valley's, Menlo Ventures, Business, Menlo, Cisco, Oracle, Meta, Google Locations: Snowflake, Anthropic

☆ Jensen Huang is about to give AI believers a glimpse of the future
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThere's a running gag that Jensen Huang is to AI fanboys what Taylor Swift is to Swifties. Nvidia's GTC event, starting on Monday, should answer that. AdvertisementMatt Bryson, an analyst at Wedbush, expects Nvidia to lift the lid on the B100, the next-generation version of its H100 GPU. Can AI models eventually reason? Of course, industry watchers will look for any sign that the Nvidia and AI mania might be about to slow down.

Persons: —, Jensen Huang, Taylor Swift, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, hasn't, Bojan Tunguz, Huang, Matt Bryson, Blackwell, It'll, Zuckerberg, he'll, JOSH EDELSON, Brad Lightcap, Arthur Mensch, Christian Szegedy, Elon Musk's, Aidan Gomez, Stanford's Fei, Fei Li, Wedbush's Bryson Organizations: Service, Nvidia, GPU Technology Conference, Business, Apple, Tech, Meta, Microsoft, Google, AMD Locations: San, Woodstock

☆ I've made over $50,000 building AI tools for businesses. My main challenge: managing clients' expectations.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The 25-year-old's mission is to help clients make more money using large language models. Now, I run a consultancy that tries to help companies grow using AI — and business has been booming. Most projects use AI models from leading LLM providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. My main advice for businesses interested in adopting AI is to familiarize yourself with large language models and how they could be used to address specific pain points. After that, collect as much data as possible — from meeting recordings to marketing materials — that can be used to fine-tune the AI models.

Persons: Sasha Aptlin, —, ChatGPT, I've, that's Organizations: Service, Founders Locations: Dubai and New York, chatbots, San Francisco

☆ Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman: One is clearly winning the nastiest battle in tech
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, years after he left the startup. "Elon Musk is the best PR stuntsman I've ever seen," Kyle Arteaga, the CEO of the national tech PR company, The Bulleit Group, said. Earlier this month, Altman told veteran tech reporter Kara Swisher that Musk was his "absolute hero" growing up. AdvertisementDuring the interview, Swisher told Altman she thought Musk's lawsuit was "nonsense." Representatives for Musk, Altman, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a requests for comment by Business Insider.

Persons: Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Musk, —, Elon, Altman, Muhammad Ali, Evan Nierman, Michael Kovac, OpenAI, Nierman, Sam Altman's, he's, xAI, Kyle Arteaga, Arteaga, it's, — Anthropic, He's, Tom Mueller, Alan Dunton, he'd, Musk's, you've, Dunton, JACK GUEZ, Ayelet Noff, Noff, Lex Fridman, Kara Swisher, Swisher, " Swisher Organizations: OpenAI, Service, Banyan, Yerba Buena Center, Arts, Microsoft, SpaceX, Musk, Communications, Elon, Getty, Business Locations: California, San Francisco, AFP, Altman's

☆ Healthcare deals are picking up as VCs finally reopen their wallets. Here's what they are betting on.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Investors aren't anticipating healthcare funding to surge to anything resembling 2021 levels this year, and fewer deals could mean shutdowns for many companies running low on cash. Multiple healthcare startups have announced raises this year at Series B and beyond. Investors said there's now a higher bar for which startups get venture funding compared to 2021, however. Exits and shutdowns aheadWhile a number of biotech startups have jumped into the public markets already this year, the IPO window for healthcare startups has remained firmly shut. Still, many investors are optimistic that a few healthcare startups will test the waters later this year.

Persons: Anargha Vardhana, There's, they're, Christina Farr, haven't, Richard Drury, Scott Barclay, Shiv Rao, Vardhana, there's, Farr, Sara Choi, Ritankar Das, Supriya Jain, Jain, Barclay Organizations: Business, Insight Partners, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Wing Venture Capital, Boston Consulting Locations: orthopedics

☆ Copilot dreams and nightmares: Microsoft insiders share what they really think about the company's AI future.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

"Customers trust Microsoft more than OpenAI since they already buy Microsoft's ecosystem," a Microsoft AI researcher told BI. "Almost everyone I know is working on Copilot to a certain extent," the Microsoft AI researcher told BI. "It's too premature to assume this is going to be a race to the bottom on price," another Microsoft executive said. Some Microsoft employees work so closely with OpenAI that they have badges to get into OpenAI's offices, and some OpenAI employees can badge into Microsoft locations. Mistral models will be offered to Microsoft customers along with about 1,600 other models including Cohere and Meta's Llama.

Persons: there's, Morgan Stanley, Satya Nadella, they've, they're, Frank Shaw, Shaw, That's, OpenAI, JPMorgan Chase, It's, Dentsu, Shiva Vannavada, Vannavada, Eric Boyd, Scott, John Montgomery, Asha Sharma, Ashley Stewart Organizations: Microsoft, Business, Enterprise, Walmart, JPMorgan, BI, Google, Dentsu, Product, Technology, Employees, Nvidia, DA Davidson, AI Services, AI Bot, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI, Mistral

☆ OpenAI rival Cohere says some AI startups build Bugatti sports cars, 'We make F-150s'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

"We don't comment on rumors," Kon told CNBC. Although Cohere is often mentioned alongside AI heavyweights like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft , the startup's focus on enterprise-only chatbots has set it apart. In November, Cohere told CNBC it saw an uptick in customer interest after OpenAI's sudden and temporary ouster of CEO Sam Altman. Cohere's relationships with strategic investors are another area where it differs from generative AI competitors, Kon said. Search, Kon said, is a key piece of generative AI that's getting less attention than other areas.

Persons: Martin Kon, Kon, OpenAI, Cohere, It's, Anthropic, Claude chatbot, who's, Sam Altman, it's, Nvidia –, Lina Khan, That's Organizations: Bugatti, CNBC, Google, Nvidia, Cohere, Salesforce, Oracle, Company, White, Microsoft, Enterprise, Federal Trade Commission Locations: Cohere's

☆ Nvidia's Data Center business is booming, up more than 400% since last year to $18.4 billion in fourth-quarter sales
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Nvidia's Data Center business just logged $18.4 billion in fourth-quarter sales, underscoring how the computer chip giant continues to benefit from the current boom in artificial intelligence. Analysts were expecting Nvidia's data center unit to record $17.06 billion in sales for its fiscal fourth quarter. Investors are closely watching Nvidia's Data Center business, which includes the company's H100 graphics cards that are widely used to power generative AI apps such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Nvidia's data center unit has blossomed, particularly over the past three quarters. Fiscal Q3 2023 – data center revenue was $3.83 billion, up 31% from the year prior.

Persons: OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg Organizations: Data Center, Meta Locations: Nvidia's

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the Supermicro keynote presentation during the Computex conference in Taipei on June 1, 2023. Nvidia shares are up more than 200% over the past 12 months due to seemingly limitless demand for its AI chips, which underpin powerful AI models from Google, Amazon, OpenAI and others. TuSimple, an autonomous trucking company, rocketed 40% on Thursday after the disclosure of Nvidia's $3 million stake. Nvidia bought $50 million worth of shares in 2023 and now has an investment worth $76 million, according to its filing. In recent years, Nvidia has backed hot AI startups including Cohere, Hugging Face, CoreWeave and Perplexity.

Persons: Jensen Huang, SoundHound, TuSimple, what's, Nvidia's, they're, Jonathan Cohen Organizations: Nvidia, Investors, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Zebra, Nasdaq, Committee Locations: Taipei, U.S, SoundHound, TuSimple

☆ Elad Gil, tech's biggest solo capitalist, sees an AI app wave coming
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementThe year of the "AI app layer"Gil sees 2024 as the year that the “AI app layer” will start to crystalize, bringing the power of rapidly advancing foundation models to the masses. For someone with so much skin in the AI game, it’s notable that Gil’s portfolio does not include the big foundation models companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. Gil says he has been impressed with how quickly the legacy tech companies have moved to corner the market on cutting-edge AI research. But with the Biden administration’s more robust antitrust posture, Gil says there’s a lot of much-needed consolidation that’s not happening.

Persons: —, OpenAI, Elad Gil, Harvey, Character.ai, “ We're, ” Gil, ChatGPT, Gil, Gil's, ”, “ they’ve, Biden, there’s Organizations: Service, Business, Twitter, Mixer Labs, Google, Apple, Fortune, “ Enterprises Locations: Airbnb, MistralAI, Silicon Valley

☆ Masayoshi Son made $72 billion betting on Jack Ma's Alibaba. Now he wants to do it again with AI.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewMasayoshi Son owes much of his success to an incredibly prescient dot-com era bet on Alibaba. The SoftBank chief first invested $20 million in Jack Ma's ecommerce upstart in 2000, when it was just a year old. That faith was handsomely rewarded, with SoftBank realizing an incredible $72 billion gain on its investments in Alibaba over the course of 23 years. Arm and the Vision Funds collectively represent 70% of SoftBank’s net asset value, a key performance indicator that reflects the total value of its holdings. Arm, SoftBank's latest golden child, is on course to deliver, but there is still much work to be done to get the Vision Funds back on track.

Persons: —, Jack Ma's ecommerce, Ma, Son, Masayoshi Son's, Jack Ma, Alibaba, ChatGPT, Yoshimitsu Goto, SoftBank, Uber, Sam Altman, he'll Organizations: Service, Business, Future Publishing, Vision, Apple, Google, Nvidia, Samsung, Nasdaq, Funds Locations: Alibaba, China, British, London

☆ Tech execs are telling investors they have to spend money to make money on AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

One theme investors heard repeatedly from top execs is that, when it comes to AI, they have to spend money to make money. Last year marked the beginning of the generative AI boom, as companies raced to embed increasingly sophisticated chatbots and assistants across key products. One key priority area, based on the latest earnings calls, is AI models-as-a-service, or large AI models that clients can use and customize according to their needs. Alphabet executives highlighted Vertex AI, a Google product that offers more than 130 generative AI models for use by developers and enterprise clients such as Samsung and Shutterstock. Alphabet executives touted Google's Duet AI, or "packaged AI agents" for Google Workspace and Google Cloud, designed to boost productivity and complete simple tasks.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Mandel Ngan, Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg, Josh Edelson, Zuckerberg, Nadella, Amy Hood, Pichai, You've, durably, Ruth Porat, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Tim Cook, Cook, Thos Robinson, Microsoft's, Rufus, Bard Organizations: Artificial Intelligence, AFP, Getty, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Meta, Google, Amazon, New York Times, Samsung, GE, Spotify, Pfizer Locations: Washington ,, Menlo Park , California, LLMs, New York City

☆ Exclusive: AI healthcare software startup Cohere Health just raised $50 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Cohere Health just landed $50 million in Series B extension funding, Business Insider has learned exclusively. Deerfield Management led the Series B extension, with participation from Define Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Longitude Capital, and Polaris Partners. The Cohere Health team. This year, as it works to get more health plans to use its software, Cohere plans to grow its workforce. In the second quarter of this year, Cohere plans to announce software that will apply AI to medical imaging.

Persons: Siva Namasivayam, Cohere, Axios, Namasivayam, It's, Michael Greeley, Lynne Chou O'Keefe, Greeley, Cohere's Organizations: Cohere, Business, Deerfield Management, Define Ventures, Flare Capital, Longitude, Polaris Partners, Humana, Capital Partners, Cohere Health Locations: Deerfield, Cohere

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