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From Startups | TechCrunch
By Haje Jan Kamps
March 22, 2024
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday.
Helloooo, startup nerds! I spent much of this week in San Jose hanging out in the world of AI startups and tech giants at GTC, and I have a ton of fun stories in the pipeline from there, so stay tuned for all of that. In the meantime … let’s look at the exciting goodness that has been the past week of TechCrunch startup coverage!
In a dramatic turn of events, Microsoft has effectively absorbed Inflection, a once-promising AI startup that raised a staggering $1.3 billion just nine months ago. The acquisition sees Inflection’s co-founders, Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, along with a significant portion of their team, transitioning to Microsoft to spearhead the newly formed Microsoft AI division. This move leaves Inflection, under the guidance of Reid Hoffman and new CEO Sean White, in a precarious position as it attempts to salvage what remains of its co-founders’ ambitious project. Microsoft’s role in this saga raises eyebrows, as it positions itself as both a savior and an opportunist, capitalizing on the struggles of its investments to consolidate its dominance in the AI space.
Meanwhile, over in the land of biotech, the sector’s latest fascination, the microbiome, has been hailed as a frontier for personalized health solutions, promising to tackle everything from digestive issues to skin conditions. However, a recent report in Science casts a shadow over the burgeoning industry, suggesting that many microbiome companies may be operating with more enthusiasm than scientific rigor. These startups, riding the wave of affordable genome sequencing and venture capital, offer services that profile the unique microbial communities in our bodies to identify health problems and solutions. Yet, the report raises concerns about the lack of meaningful regulation and scientific consensus in this complex field, likening some practices to modern-day snake oil salesmanship. Despite the criticism, companies like Parallel Health, Tiny Health, and Daye defend their approaches, emphasizing their commitment to achieving scientific legitimacy.
Telegram, the messaging app giant with a user base north of 900 million, just flexed its financial muscles by securing a whopping $330 million through bond sales, as announced by its founder and CEO, Pavel Durov. The bond bonanza was a hit, attracting more cash than they had room for, with Durov boasting about snagging “global funds of the highest caliber” under terms that made this the sweetest deal in Telegram’s history. While Durov played coy on who exactly threw their money into the ring, he was clear that these investors are betting big on Telegram’s growth trajectory. The company is aiming for profitability next year, and last raised $220 million worth of funding through bonds about a year ago.
It’s been a week of highs and lows. Where some startups are meeting their demise, others are rising from the ashes, while others again are filling the void left by their falling brethren. All very dramatic.
One example of this drama is between Google and the EU. The search giant finds itself in hot water once again with France’s Autorité de la Concurrence, which has slapped the tech giant with a €250 million fine (around $270 million) for misusing news publishers’ content to train its AI model, Bard/Gemini, without proper notification. This latest fine is part of a longstanding feud over copyright protections, with Google previously attempting to sidestep EU digital copyright reforms by limiting access to its news services in France. The Autorité‘s investigation revealed that Google not only failed to inform publishers about the use of their content for AI training but also lacked a mechanism for publishers to opt out without affecting their visibility on Google’s other services until late September 2023. Meanwhile, Midjourney thinks it has a plan to beat the copyright cops.
Every week, there’s always a few stories I want to share with you that somehow don’t fit into the categories above. It’d be a shame if you missed ’em, so here’s a random grab bag of goodies for ya:
Subscribe to Startups Weekly and the other TechCrunch newsletters. If you have hardware startup news or tips, get in touch with Haje!
View original article on techcrunch.com
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Xaira, an AI drug discovery startup, launches with a massive $1B, says it’s ‘ready’ to start developing drugs
Advances in generative AI have taken the tech world by storm. Biotech investors are making a big bet that similar computational methods could revolutionize drug discovery. On Tuesday, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, an affiliate of Foresite Capital, announced that they incubated Xaira Therapeutics and funded the AI biotech with $1 billion. Other investors […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apr 25, 2024
Eric Schmidt-backed Augment, a GitHub Copilot rival, launches out of stealth with $252M
AI is supercharging coding — and developers are embracing it. In a recent StackOverflow poll, 44% of software engineers said that they use AI tools as part of their development processes now and 26% plan to soon. Gartner estimates that over half of organizations are currently piloting or have already deployed AI-driven coding assistants, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apr 24, 2024
Radical thinks the time has come for solar-powered, high-altitude autonomous aircraft
Though many eyes are on space as orbit develops into a thriving business ecosystem, Radical is keeping things a little closer to the ground — but not too close. Its high-altitude, solar-powered aircraft aim to succeed where Facebook’s infamous Aquila failed by refining the tech and embracing more markets. It’s hard to believe that Facebook’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apr 24, 2024
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