Waymo approved to expand across 18 California counties
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved Waymo's robotaxi service expanding across 18 counties from Sonoma down to San Diego — its largest expansion yet.
Products
Epoka — What's happening in AI, without the noise.
Nvidia halves its $250B guarantee for an OpenAI data centre
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nvidia has reworked the deal financing OpenAI's Ohio data centre campus and will initially guarantee only half of the planned $250 billion backstop.
Companies
Why the view of AI in China is more optimistic than in the US
A Bloomberg analysis finds Chinese citizens are more optimistic about AI than Americans, because it is seen there as a practical tool and disrupts a smaller share of the population.
Research
Dynatrace to acquire Arize for $915M to add AI observability
Dynatrace is acquiring Arize, which specialises in AI observability and the AI development lifecycle, for $915 million, including around $815 million in cash.
Companies
Optima lets you benchmark models against your own data
Artificial Analysis has launched Optima, a platform letting users build custom benchmarks from their own data and workflows, comparing models on cost and time as well as quality.
Products
The datasets of shutting-down startups are being sold to AI labs
According to The Information, firms gathering data for AI labs are driving demand to buy or license the internal datasets of startups that are shutting down or being acquired.
Companies
A new plaintiff joins the federal suit against xAI over an altered childhood photo
A Wyoming woman has joined a federal lawsuit against xAI, alleging her stepfather used Grok to turn a childhood photograph of her into explicit imagery.
Policy
Dual valuations in AI rounds: different prices in the same deal
According to Newcomer, dual-valuation deals have become pervasive in the AI funding cycle, with prestige firms monetising their brand names by getting better prices in the same round.
Companies
Model evaluation has become an industry: Vals raises $40M at a $400M valuation
Vals, which builds evaluations and benchmarks testing AI models on real-world tasks, has closed a $40 million Series A led by a16z at a $400 million valuation.
Companies
Nvidia moves up the stack: a stake in the builder, not just the chips
The Information reports that Nvidia is in talks to invest up to $3 billion in SB Energy, the SoftBank-backed data centre developer behind OpenAI's vast Ohio campus, which is aiming for an IPO.
Companies
Pathway bets on life after the Transformer at a $500M valuation
AI research company Pathway, which develops models based on what it calls a Post-Transformer BDH architecture, has closed a $30 million seed round at a $500 million valuation.
Models
Washington pushes back on Apple buying Chinese memory chips
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the country is not in favour of Apple buying memory chips from Chinese manufacturers, urging the company to find other solutions to the AI-driven memory shortage.
Policy