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Microsoft to Debut AI Chip Next Month That Could Cut Nvidia GPU Costs

By Anissa Gardizy · Oct 6, 2023 1:06pm PDT · 3 comments

Microsoft next month plans to unveil the company’s first chip designed for artificial intelligence at its annual developers’ conference, according to a person with direct knowledge. The move, a culmination of years of work, could help Microsoft lessen its reliance on Nvidia-designed AI chips, which have been in short supply as demand... Microsoft next month plans to unveil the company’s first chip designed for artificial...

Photo via Parade.

How Underwear Startup Parade Wiped Out Investors

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Ann Gehan · Oct 6, 2023 5:00am PDT · 7 comments

When lingerie manufacturer Ariela & Associates International announced its purchase of buzzy direct-to-consumer intimates startup Parade in August, the deal appeared to be yet another example of larger holding companies and licensing firms buying up popular digitally native brands. Parade, valued by investors last year at about $200 million,... When lingerie manufacturer Ariela & Associates International announced its purchase of buzzy...

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Flexport Plans to Cut Up to 30% of Workforce

By Theo Wayt · Oct 5, 2023 3:57pm PDT · 10 comments

Logistics startup Flexport plans to lay off up to 30% of its workforce, according to a person close to the company. That would represent about 1,000 people based on a headcount of around 3,300 people. The cuts are the latest and most drastic in a series of cost-cutting moves founder Ryan Petersen has made at the decade-old company since he... Logistics startup Flexport plans to lay off up to 30% of its workforce, according to a person...

Illustration generated in Ideogram

Andreessen Horowitz Discussed Backing a Rival to Midjourney Seeking $500 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Jon Victor · Oct 5, 2023 3:09pm PDT · 3 comments

Illustration generated in Ideogram

Andreessen Horowitz Discussed Backing a Rival to Midjourney Seeking $500 Million Valuation

By Stephanie Palazzolo and Jon Victor · Oct 5, 2023 3:09pm PDT · 3 comments

Investment firm Andreessen Horowitz recently discussed leading a new equity financing for Ideogram, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to create unique images, said a person with knowledge of the situation. The Toronto startup, which has been seeking a $500 million pre-money valuation, doesn’t generate revenue. But... Investment firm Andreessen Horowitz recently discussed leading a new equity financing...

A prototype of an autonomous vehicle by Glydways at its testing facility in Concord, Calif. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty

Robotaxi Startup Glydways Raises $56 Million, East Bay Project Advances

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 5, 2023 9:41am PDT · 4 comments

A startup seeking to bring robotaxis to dedicated roads surrounding airports and transit hubs is inching closer to realizing its vision. The startup, Glydways, has raised a $56 million Series B fundraising round, including about half of it from convertible debt that the notes holders are converting to equity. New Science Ventures led the round,... A startup seeking to bring robotaxis to dedicated roads surrounding airports and transit hubs is...

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X. Photo via Getty.

Inside Elon Musk’s Plans for X: Shopping and Sports

By Erin Woo and Sahil Patel · Oct 4, 2023 10:09am PDT

To turn around X, the company formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino are betting on shopping and sports. As Musk and Yaccarino try and turn the company around, there are growing signs they want to make X a shopping destination. For instance, X managers are considering ways of using direct messages on the platform to... To turn around X, the company formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino are...

Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen. Photo via Getty.

Flexport Exits Mount as CEO Ryan Petersen Overhauls Tech, Legal and Sales Teams

By Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan · Oct 4, 2023 6:41am PDT

Ryan Petersen’s clearout of Flexport’s top management is continuing. The company’s top engineering executive and longtime chief legal officer both departed the company this week, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Information. The logistics startup’s Asia sales head has also left the company, the memo said. The... Ryan Petersen’s clearout of Flexport’s top management is continuing. The...

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic in Talks to Raise $2 Billion From Google and Others Just Days After Amazon Investment

By Kate Clark, Anissa Gardizy and Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 3, 2023 3:17pm PDT · 4 comments

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic. Photo via Getty.

Anthropic in Talks to Raise $2 Billion From Google and Others Just Days After Amazon Investment

By Kate Clark, Anissa Gardizy and Stephanie Palazzolo · Oct 3, 2023 3:17pm PDT · 4 comments

Anthropic, one of the main rivals of OpenAI, is in talks with investors to raise at least $2 billion in new funding, following a commitment from Amazon last week to invest $1.25 billion in the company, according to three people with direct knowledge. Anthropic has told investors that Google, which bought a roughly 10% stake in the startup in... Anthropic, one of the main rivals of OpenAI, is in talks with investors to raise at least $2...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Getty

Nvidia Deepens Push Into AWS’ Turf

By Anissa Gardizy · Oct 3, 2023 6:00am PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia’s ambition to compete with Amazon Web Services is growing. Nvidia is best known for designing server chips for artificial intelligence, but it has been running a nascent cloud service for corporate customers that develop AI with those chips. Nvidia operates the service, DGX Cloud, with servers located in the data centers of... Nvidia’s ambition to compete with Amazon Web Services is growing. Nvidia is best known for...

ByteDance's Singapore offices. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

TikTok’s Owner Generated Nearly $7 Billion in Cash From Operations in First Quarter

By Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2023 3:16pm PDT

The cash machine of TikTok’s owner is getting bigger. ByteDance’s revenue rose 34% to $24.5 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a slight slowdown from its 38% revenue growth in the 2022 calendar year, according to detailed financial results viewed by The Information. But the company generated $6.8 billion in cash from operations in... The cash machine of TikTok’s owner is getting bigger. ByteDance’s revenue rose 34% to...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Photo by AFP via Getty.

Instagram Looks for Ways to Revive Interest in Threads

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Oct 2, 2023 3:11pm PDT · 4 comments

Three months ago, Threads, Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter, was the hottest social media app around. In just days, 100 million people had signed up for it. Since then, usage has plunged, prompting Meta staffers to look for ways to revive interest in the app. One top priority is getting creators to post more often, as a way of boosting... Three months ago, Threads, Meta Platforms’ answer to Twitter, was the hottest social media...

TikTok's booth at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Photo via Getty.

ByteDance Valuation Falls 26% to $223.5 Billion in New Employee Share Buyback

By Kaya Yurieff and Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2023 12:56pm PDT

TikTok's booth at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Photo via Getty.

ByteDance Valuation Falls 26% to $223.5 Billion in New Employee Share Buyback

By Kaya Yurieff and Amir Efrati · Oct 2, 2023 12:56pm PDT

TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to buy at least $300 million worth of stock from current and former U.S. employees in a deal that values the privately-held company at $223.5 billion, down 26% from a similar buyback offer a year ago, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. Current and former employees must... TikTok parent company ByteDance is planning to buy at least $300 million worth of stock from...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo rings the Nasdaq opening bell on Sept. 19. Photo via Nasdaq.

Instacart’s Bleak Second-Half Outlook: Slower Growth, Lower Profits

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 2, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Instacart’s first couple of quarters on the public markets could come with slower revenue growth and lower profits than it reported in the first half, according to private forecasts from analysts at banks that underwrote Instacart’s initial public offering this month. The low expectations could further dent Instacart’s stock... Instacart’s first couple of quarters on the public markets could come with slower revenue...

Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo by Shutterstock

Indonesian Ban Could Kill Nearly One Third of TikTok Shop’s Business

By Juro Osawa and Jing Yang · Sep 29, 2023 9:04am PDT

TikTok just cannot escape government scrutiny. Even as the hugely popular ByteDance-owned app expands in the U.S. despite a persistent threat of a ban, the Indonesian government has decided on a new regulation to ban online shopping on social media. That would hobble TikTok’s fast-growing shopping service in Indonesia, which is the single... TikTok just cannot escape government scrutiny. Even as the hugely popular ByteDance-owned app...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

How a Hidden Bar Code in iPhone Screens Saved Apple Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

By Wayne Ma · Sep 29, 2023 6:00am PDT · 3 comments

Next time you try to wipe a smudge off your iPhone screen, take a closer look. See if you can spot one of the two tiny QR codes etched into its glass. Chances are you won’t be able to find them. Both codes are tiny—one is the size of a grain of sand and can only be seen with special equipment, while the other, roughly the size of the... Next time you try to wipe a smudge off your iPhone screen, take a closer look. See if you can...

Dave Rogenmoser, cofounder of Jasper. Photo via Getty.

Jasper, an Early Generative AI Winner, Cuts Internal Valuation as Growth Slows

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 28, 2023 6:40pm PDT · 8 comments

Dave Rogenmoser, cofounder of Jasper. Photo via Getty.

Jasper, an Early Generative AI Winner, Cuts Internal Valuation as Growth Slows

By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 28, 2023 6:40pm PDT · 8 comments

Jasper AI, an early darling of the generative artificial intelligence boom, has cut the internal value of its common shares 20%, according to former employees who were notified by the company. The drop in Jasper’s internal valuation could indicate that the growth of its AI-powered writing tool for marketers has slowed since the company... Jasper AI, an early darling of the generative artificial intelligence boom, has cut the internal...

Left to right: Sarah Guo, founder of Conviction; Saam Motamedi, general partner at Greylock; and Nat Friedman, investor and former CEO of GitHub. Photos via Getty, Greylock and Erin Beach (right).

VCs Dangle AI Chips to Woo Founders

By Natasha Mascarenhas, Kate Clark and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 28, 2023 1:24pm PDT

Venture capitalists have long flaunted their ties with startup founders. Lately they have been touting a different relationship: their connections with the biggest providers of artificial intelligence chips. VC partners competing to win sought-after investments in AI startups have been highlighting their relationships with Amazon, Microsoft... Venture capitalists have long flaunted their ties with startup founders. Lately they have been...

From left: Paul Graham, Garry Tan and Michael Seibel. Photos by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Y Combinator’s Garry Tan Goes to the Mat

By Kate Clark · Sep 28, 2023 6:00am PDT · 5 comments

Garry Tan was in his happy place. Surrounded by food trucks and techies basking in San Francisco’s September sun, the CEO of Y Combinator snapped selfies with entrepreneurs as he meandered through a crowd of 2,700 attendees at the startup accelerator’s annual alumni event. A week earlier, though, Tan had been blowing a fuse. In a... Garry Tan was in his happy place. Surrounded by food trucks and techies basking in San...

Merchandise purchased through Xiaohongshu (“little red book”) in Jinhua, China. VCG via Getty Images

Sequoia Capital China Buys Discounted Stake in Prominent E-Commerce App

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Sep 26, 2023 10:26pm PDT · 1 comment

Sequoia Capital China recently acquired a stake in Chinese social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu from existing investors at a discount to the company’s most recent equity financing valuation, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Sequoia China, which is preparing to separate from Silicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital next... Sequoia Capital China recently acquired a stake in Chinese social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu from...

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photos by Getty.

Designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman Discuss AI Hardware Project

By Jessica E. Lessin and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 26, 2023 6:51pm PDT · 16 comments

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photos by Getty.

Designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman Discuss AI Hardware Project

By Jessica E. Lessin and Stephanie Palazzolo · Sep 26, 2023 6:51pm PDT · 16 comments

Jony Ive, the renowned designer of the iPhone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been discussing building a new AI hardware device, according to two people familiar with the conversations. SoftBank CEO and investor Masayoshi Son has talked to both about the idea, according to one of these people, but it is unclear if he will remain involved. Jony Ive, the renowned designer of the iPhone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been...