Istanbul-based gaming startup Grand Games, maker of Magic Sort and Car Match, raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton, after securing a $3M seed in 2024 — Gaming startups, specifically those building casual mobile games, are very hot in Turkey right now, and today, another one is announcing …
A new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin, in which AI is used to superimpose his real face onto an actor, sparks a debate about use of AI — A new English-language Polish film about Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian president is portrayed using AI-powered special effects …
Inside Naver's 1784, a 36-level office tower in Seoul, which has ~4,500 employees working with 120 robots and serves as a testbed for various AI technologies — An office building called 1784 on the outskirts of Seoul offers a glimpse into the robotic future that artificial intelligence developers say is just around the corner.
PitchBook: US startups raised $209B in 2024, up ~33% from 2023; AI startups raised $97B, the largest portion on record; VCs raised $76.1B, the lowest since 2019 — VC investors piled into AI megarounds in the US last year. — Venture capitalists put $97 billion into artificial intelligence startups …
Satya Nadella says Microsoft will invest about $3B to expand its Azure cloud and AI capacity in India and train 10 million people in AI in the country by 2030 — Microsoft (MSFT.O) will invest about $3 billion to expand capacity for artificial intelligence and its Azure cloud-computing services in India …
Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool — Generative AI models have reached a baseline capability of producing at least a passable video from a single image or short sentence.
Sam Altman says “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it” and that OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence — The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into the next paradigm of models that can do complex reasoning.
Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning their own self-driving car programs — After ending their own driverless plans, the ride-sharing companies are embracing autonomous-vehicle operators and offering new app features
Sources: India plans $2.7B in fresh subsidies and import tariff cuts to boost local manufacturing, especially of smartphones made by companies like Apple — - Proposed incentives will help smartphone makers like Apple — Final decision to be made by cabinet; details likely in budget
A look at Chinese hackers' attacks on US infrastructure and telecoms; sources: Charter, Consolidated Communications, and Windstream networks were also breached — Massive ‘Typhoon’ cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure and telecoms sought to lay groundwork for potential conflict with Beijing …
Foxconn reports Q4 revenue of ~$64.6B, up 15% YoY and exceeding analyst expectations for a 13% rise, with December 2024 bringing in ~$19.8B, up 42% YoY — - Company sees significant sales growth for the first quarter — December sales NT$655 billion up 42% on strong AI server sales
PitchBook: AI startups developing medical note-taking apps raised $800M in 2024, compared to $390M in 2023, as Microsoft and others compete for market share — Investment in the apps has doubled as Big Tech and start-ups compete to grab share of market — Investment in artificial …
The UK CMA is testing an AI tool to help catch companies that collude when bidding for public contracts, amid a “significant risk of bid-rigging” by contractors — Agency is trialling an AI-backed programme that scrapes data to identify bid-rigging
A look at India's draft DPDP rules, which require platforms to verify the age and identity of a parent when obtaining consent to process data of users under 18 — The newly released draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025 say that online platforms must check the age …
Industry insiders hope the success of Black Myth: Wukong, which has earned an estimated $1.1B from ~25M copies sold, will boost Chinese gaming sector investment — As Beijing eases regulations, developers are tooling up to produce big-budget titles with international appeal
Meir Orbach / CTech : Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; ...
