Category: info1
Sources: Multimodal AI startup Fal.ai already raised at $4B+ valuation
Fal.ai, a startup that hosts image, video, and audio AI models for developers, has closed a new round valuing the company at over $4 billion, four people familiar with the deal said. The company raised approximately $250 million, two of the people said. Major investors in the round are Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, according to…
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is pushing UK regulator to unbundle Google’s search and AI crawlers
After earlier this year launching a marketplace that allows websites to charge AI bots for scraping their content, web infrastructure provider Cloudflare is pushing for increased regulation in the AI sector. The company’s chief executive Matthew Prince says he’s in London to speak with the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), where he’s proposing stricter…
YC alum Cercli, an AI-powered Rippling for MENA, raises oversubscribed $12M Series A
In a region long defined by fragmented enterprise systems, outdated compliance tools, and HR software that rarely talks to finance, Cercli is building a unified alternative for MENA businesses with AI at its core. The Dubai-based startup, founded by ex-Careem operators Akeed Azmi and David Reche, has announced an oversubscribed $12 million Series A round led by…
European AI rising star Nexos.ai raises $30M to unlock enterprise AI adoption
For most enterprise companies, AI is either a promise that has yet to deliver or a security risk. The effort of Lithuania’s most famous entrepreneur duo to solve that conundrum has garnered attention — and funding. Just months after Nexos.ai came out of stealth with an $8 million funding round led by Index Ventures, Nord…
Meta AI’s app downloads and daily users spiked after launch of ‘Vibes’ AI video feed
New data indicates that use of Meta AI’s mobile app for iOS and Android has seen a significant increase. According to a new analysis from market intelligence provider Similarweb, the app’s daily active users across both platforms jumped to 2.7 million as of October 17, up from around 775,000 just four weeks ago. In addition,…
U.S. and Australia sign $3B critical minerals deal
President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese inked an agreement on Monday that will pump billions of dollars into critical minerals projects. The U.S. and Australia will together contribute $3 billion to the projects over the next six months. The total project pipeline is worth $8.5 billion, the governments said. As part of…
The man betting everything on AI and Bill Belichick
Lee Roberts meets me at the University Club of San Francisco on a Friday morning, hours before his football team will lose to Cal in heartbreaking fashion – a fumble at the goal line, because little about the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s expensive experiment with Bill Belichick has gone according to script.…
Kohler unveils a camera for your toilet
Home goods company Kohler recently unveiled a new device called the Dekoda — a $599 camera that can be attached to your toilet bowl and take pictures of what’s inside. CNET reports that the Dekoda analyzes these images in order to provide updates on your gut health and hydration, and to potentially detect blood. It…
TechCrunch Mobility: A takeover that might not be hostile
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Want another reason to get this free in your inbox? The emailed version of this newsletter includes polls, including one this week that asks readers what they think the best business model is for autonomous vehicle technology.…
OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math | TechCrunch
“Hoisted by their own GPTards.” That’s how Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun described the blowback after OpenAI researchers did a victory lap over GPT-5’s supposed math breakthroughs. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis added, “this is embarrassing.” The Decoder reports that in a since-deleted tweet, OpenAI VP Kevin Weil declared that “GPT-5 found solutions to…
