AI news and funding updates from the last 24 hours(30th March 2025):
CoreWeave's IPO debuted with a muted reception, pricing lower than anticipated at $40 and raising $1.5 billion, falling short of initial hopes. Despite this, the IPO marks the largest AI-related and biggest US tech listing since 2021, highlighting its significance in the current market. The company's journey began unexpectedly with crypto mining by former hedge fund managers who stumbled into AI infrastructure through open-source collaborations. From a pool table mining operation to a massive GPU fleet, CoreWeave's growth was propelled by chance encounters and partnerships, notably with EleutherAI and OpenAI. Now a major player with significant data centers and GPUs, CoreWeave faces substantial debt but expresses confidence in its customer contracts and the future of AI training.
In an all-stock transaction, Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has acquired his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. This merger values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, combining the strengths of both entities. The acquisition aims to integrate X's vast data, distribution network, and talent with xAI's AI models and computing power. Executives believe the combined entity will attract investment more easily, leveraging X's increased valuation and 600 million users. This move underscores the strategic importance of X's resources for advancing Musk's broader AI ambitions, particularly as xAI competes with industry leaders like OpenAI.
A new book excerpt reveals the OpenAI board fired Sam Altman over concerns about his behavior and conflicts of interest, including a personally owned Startup Fund. Co-founder Ilya Sutskever and CTO Mira Murati compiled evidence, like Slack screenshots, alleging Altman's dishonesty, citing an instance about GPT-4 Turbo's safety review. The board ousted Altman and appointed Murati as interim CEO, but faced immediate backlash from employees who demanded Altman's return. This employee revolt led to Altman's swift reinstatement as CEO. Subsequently, both Sutskever and Murati departed OpenAI to pursue their own entrepreneurial ventures.
Amazon has introduced "Interests," a new generative AI tool designed to personalize the shopping experience by suggesting products based on individual hobbies and preferences. This feature allows users to use conversational language to discover items like apparel for sports fans or equipment for hobbyists. Currently available to a limited group of US shoppers on the Amazon app and mobile website, "Interests" continuously works to filter products and offer tailored recommendations. Analysts suggest this tool is an evolution of existing recommendation systems rather than a groundbreaking innovation. This launch of "Interests" aligns with Amazon's broader push into AI and coincides with their Spring Sale event.
OpenAI's recent launch of a native image generator within ChatGPT has been met with immense popularity, so much so that CEO Sam Altman reported their GPUs are "melting" under the user load. This surge in demand has forced OpenAI to implement temporary rate limits, restricting free users to three image generations per day while they work on efficiency improvements. The article explains that GPUs, originally designed for graphics, are now essential for AI due to their parallel processing capabilities needed for complex computations. This high demand for powerful GPUs underscores their critical role as the "new oil rigs" for AI companies like OpenAI, who are investing heavily in them.
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