Weâre approaching that time of the year when most public companies hold their annual shareholder meetings, theoretically giving investors both large and small a chance to question management and vote on board members and other matters. That all still happens, but the drama has faded from these events. What used to be in-person gatherings are increasingly online, eliminating any real chance at meaningful interaction. CEO missives to shareholders, meanwhile, seemingly... Read more âș
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The fintech and e-commerce sectors, two of the hardest hit by the end of the venture capital funding boom, are still showing plenty of carnage. Some investors say itâs the perfect time to go bargain hunting. At the end of 2022, fintech was âprobably the most hated area and probably lending within that [sector], and we actually have a couple of lending businesses weâre very excited about,â said Spark Capital... Read more âș
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This morning, my colleagues Jing, Juro and I reported that TikTok has started to develop an advertising tool that would generate AI avatars to star in advertisersâ videos.  The feature is still far from ready, we reported. Still, TikTokâs efforts indicate that the company could try to shake up the way creators make money again. TikTokâs 2020 campaign telling advertisers to âmake TikToks, not ads,â encouraged brands to pay influencers... Read more âș
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OpenAI has fired two researchers for allegedly leaking information, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. They include Leopold Aschenbrenner, a researcher on a team dedicated to keeping artificial intelligence safe for society. Aschenbrenner was also an ally of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who participated in a failed effort to force out OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last fall. Itâs not clear what information the two fired staffers... Read more âș
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Temu, a China-founded bargain shopping app, has been under fire from U.S. lawmakers, who say it hasnât done enough to stamp out the use of forced labor in its supply chain. Temu, for its part, has said it keeps close watch on the thousands of small manufacturers that make up its sprawling supplier base. But last year, Temu walked back a short-lived policy requiring suppliers to certify that cotton used... Read more âș
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For months, venture capitalists have been telling me the same thing: the foundation model game is over. Between OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google and dozens of open-source model developers, thereâs just no way for a company developing a new large language model to break into the market. In recent weeks, though, VCs have modified that stance and become more positive about new kinds of AI models, those that go beyond the... Read more âș
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TikTok touts itself as a platform where creators can stand out and build a following. But the company has begun discussing with advertisers an artificial intelligence-powered feature that would generate avatars to star in videosâvirtual influencers that would potentially compete with human creators for ad deals. The feature, which is still under development and could change, would generate a script for a video ad based on a prompt submitted by... Read more âș
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Amid grave investor doubts about the viability of next-generation batteries, a half-dozen U.S. companies and seven universities are competing in a government-sponsored contest to quadruple the energy density of the worldâs best commercial electric vehicle batteries. Read more âș
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Mark Zuckerberg seems to enjoy stealing Sundar Pichaiâs thunder. Close observers of the cloud sector will know that Google Cloud has one of its big annual events in Las Vegas this week, and itâs rolling out lots of announcements, including a new custom-designed chip for cloud computing. It seems Meta Platforms couldnât resist getting in on the action, announcing today its first internally designed chip for running artificial intelligence models,... Read more âș
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Last week, we published a deep dive into YouTube, whose leaders are bringing a new focus on financial discipline at the expense of support staff that helped creators grow and manage their accounts. That focus on the bottom line has raised the hackles of creators. But they could justifiably be more outraged about the slim financial payouts theyâre receiving from Shorts, the TikTok rival that YouTube launched more than three... Read more âș
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Amazon is giving its mid- and lower-level corporate employees a chance to decide how much they want to tie their future pay to the companyâs stock performance. In May, Amazon will give many U.S. corporate employees the option of reducing the amount of stock they receive next year by a quarter in exchange for more cash, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Information. In doing so, Amazon joins... Read more âș
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In early 2023, Irish banking regulators contacted ByteDance with a pointed question: Why was the Chinese internet giant and parent company of TikTok moving large sums of money, likely in the tens of millions of dollars, out of its HSBC bank accounts? ByteDance officials quickly sought to assuage their concerns by telling the Irish regulators it was simply moving the money for âliquidity management purposes,â jargon for money transfers designed... Read more âș
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Artificial intelligence wasnât the stated theme of The Informationâs Private Capital Conference on Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange but it was the topic on everyoneâs lips. From the pros and cons of strategic investors to humanoid robotics, hereâs what came up: Read more âș
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In the world of generative artificial intelligence startups, chatbots are so 2023. This year, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are building and backing new applications of the emerging technology, including humanlike robots and voice generators. In the first quarter, venture capitalists plowed more than $2.2 billion into startups tracked by The Informationâs Generative AI Database, an increase of more than 11% from the fourth quarter. Figure, which is building humanlike robots... Read more âș
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Investors at The Informationâs Private Capital Conference Tuesday said the shakeout in valuations the past two years has given them more opportunities to find attractive dealsâeven in beaten-down sectors such as e-commerce. But tech founders face higher hurdles to go public and many initial public offerings remain far off, even for most artificial intelligence companies. A cautious note pervaded much of the discussion, with memories of the most recent tech... Read more âș
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The stock market is setting records, partly due to enthusiasm about artificial intelligence, a sector where valuations have soared. The IPO market isnât back to where it was before interest rates started rising. Yet some investors are more upbeat about investment conditions than theyâve been in a while, judging from comments at our Private Capital Conference in New York on Tuesday. Anton Levy, of General Atlantic, for instance, said, âFor... Read more âș
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Mubadala Capital, the investment arm of a giant Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, is âmoving into offense,â according to Ibrahim Ajami, Mubadalaâs head of venture investments. âWeâre leaning in,â he said, adding that the days of passive investing in vehicles like SoftBankâs Vision Fund are over. Speaking at The Informationâs Private Capital Summit on Tuesday, Ajami said that this position means Mubadala will form deeper relationships with fund managers and... Read more âș
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The stock market is near a record high. Six public tech companies are worth more than $1 trillion. Even bitcoin has made a comeback! But the titans of private capital arenât over the moon with optimism yet. That may be because theyâre still working through the hangover of the zero-interest-rate funding boom in their own portfolios. âTwenty-three was a bit of a wipeout,â said Philippe Laffont, founder of New York... Read more âș
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As creatorsâ popularity has grown, some of the biggest are now raising capital to transform their online followings into long-lasting media and consumer companies.Dude Perfect, the five-person sports and comedy group that started with a popular YouTube channel, on Tuesday announced an investment from private equity firm Highmount Capital. A spokesperson for the group said the investment is between $100 million and $300 million. Read more âș
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Some of the worldâs biggest tech investors have a reality check for companies thinking about going public: While the initial public offering market is showing signs of life, smaller companies that made the cut during the last boom cycle donât have a shot now. âThere were a lot of companies that went public in the last cycle when there was a lot of exuberance that were too small,â said Anton... Read more âș
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Most popular sources
Business Insider
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32% 3 |
The Verge
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10% 2 |
Tom's Hardware
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7% 2 |
Eurogamer.net
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6% 1 |
CNET
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5% 1 |
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27.11.2024 17:44
Last update: 17:35 EDT.
News rating updated: 00:30.
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