OpenAI meets its big 2024 goal: a $6.5 billion investment round to keep going, according to Bloomberg
One of OpenAI's main goals for this year was to raise the funds it needed to move forward. In its race to lead the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the company was burning money like there was no tomorrow. After weeks of negotiations, Sam Altman has gotten exactly what he needed: $6.5 billion in venture capital from a variety of actors.
According to Bloomberg, we are facing one of the largest private investments in history. The dimensions of the aforementioned round of financing allow the AI firm to reach a valuation of more than $150 billion. Very few other companies have received such attention from investors. Among them we find Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is one of the great promises of the space sector.
AI coding startup Poolside raises $500 million from eBay, Nvidia, others
Poolside, the AI-powered software development platform, has raised $500 million in fresh capital.
The money came in the form of a Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures, which also included participation from major tech companies including eBay (via eBay Ventures) and Nvidia. This brings the total raised by Poolside to $626 million; Bloomberg reports that the startup's valuation now stands at $3 billion.
"AI giants target lucrative military sector"
Technology companies such as Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI and Meta are establishing partnerships and adjusting their policies to allow their artificial intelligence models to be used in U.S. defense and intelligence projects. Anthropic, in partnership with Palantir and Amazon Web Services, will make it easier for security agencies to access its AI model, Claude. Microsoft and Palantir are also collaborating to offer cloud AI infrastructure to these agencies, while OpenAI modified its terms of use to allow for potential military applications and partnered with Carahsoft, a Department of Defense contractor. On the other hand, Meta, upon discovering that China used a previous version of its Llama model for a chatbot for military purposes, updated its terms of use to restrict the use of its technology in unauthorized military applications. This context reflects the sharp increase in U.S. investment in defense AI, which has grown by 1,200% between 2022 and 2023, with a possible acceleration in 2024, according to a Brookings Institute study.
