Connect with us

Technology

In 2023, Canoo spent twice its annual revenue on its CEO’s private jet

Published

on

There’s a nugget in Canoo’s 2023 earnings report regarding the usage of CEO Tony Aquila’s private jet – just one among many expenses that illustrates the difference between expenses and revenues in an electrical vehicle startup.

Canoo reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 earnings on Monday regulatory filings shows how the corporate is saving money because it tries to scale up production of economic electric vehicles and avoid the identical fate as other electric vehicle startups just like the recently bankrupted Arrival. The regulatory proposal once more features a going concern warning – which stays in place from 2022 – in addition to some progress on expenses and revenues.

Advertisement

The company generated revenue of $886,000 in 2023 in comparison with zero dollars in 2022 because it delivered 22 vehicles to entities akin to NASA and the state of Oklahoma. Indeed, it reduced operating losses by almost half, from $506 million in 2022 to $267 million in 2023. However, the gap between revenues and losses continues to be significant: in 2023, the corporate reported total net losses of $302.6 million.

But you simply need to take a look at how much Canoo pays to rent the CEO’s private jet to place these “winnings” into perspective. Under the agreement signed in November 2020, Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for the prices of using the aircraft. In 2023, Canoo spent $1.7 million on this reimbursement – twice the revenue generated. Canoo paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.3 million in 2022 and $1.8 million in 2021 to be used of the aircraft.

The documents show Canoo also paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.7 million in 2023, $1.1 million in 2022 and $500,000 in 2021 to support shared services at its Justin office in Texas.

This could possibly be attributed to low costs if Canoo achieves its 2024 revenue forecast of $50-100 million.

Advertisement

We’ve reached out to Canoo for comment and can update this post if we hear back.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Advertisement

Technology

Anysphere, which makes the cursor supposedly collect USD 900 million with a valuation of USD 9 billion

Published

on

By

AI robot face and programming code on a black background.

Anysphere, producer of coding cursor with AI drive, attracted $ 900 million in the recent financing round by Thrive Capital, Financial Times He informed, citing anonymous sources familiar with the contract.

The report said that Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) and ACCEL also participate in the round, which values ​​about $ 9 billion.

The cursor collected $ 105 million from Thrive, and A16Z with a valuation of $ 2.5 billion, as TechCrunch said in December. Capital Thrive also led this round and in addition participated in A16Z. According to Crunchbase data, the startup has collected over $ 173 million thus far.

Advertisement

It is alleged that investors, including index ventures and a reference point, attempt to support the company, but plainly existing investors don’t want to miss the opportunity to support it.

Other coding start-ups powered by artificial intelligence also attract the interest of investors. Techcrunch announced in February that Windsurf, a rival for Aklesphere, talked about collecting funds at a valuation of $ 3 billion. Openai, an investor in Anysphere, was supposedly I’m attempting to get windsurf for about the same value.

(Tagstransate) A16Z

(*9*)This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

Continue Reading

Technology

This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

Published

on

By

Shein and Temu icons are seen displayed on a phone screen in this illustration photo

The Chinese retailer has modified the strategy in the face of American tariffs.

Thanks to the executive ordinance, President Donald Trump ended the so -called de minimis principle, which allowed goods value 800 USD or less entering the country without tariffs. It also increases tariffs to Chinese goods by over 100%, forcing each Chinese firms and Shein, in addition to American giants, similar to Amazon to adapt plans and price increases.

CNBC reports that this was also affected, and American buyers see “import fees” from 130% to 150% added to their accounts. Now, nevertheless, the company is not sending the goods directly from China to the United States. Instead, it only displays the offers of products available in American warehouses, while goods sent from China are listed as outside the warehouse.

Advertisement

“He actively recruits American sellers to join the platform,” said the spokesman ago. “The transfer is to help local sellers reach more customers and develop their companies.”

(tagstotransate) tariffs

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading

Technology

One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

Published

on

By

The Google Gemini generative AI logo on a smartphone.

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.

IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.

Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.

Advertisement

In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”

These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.

Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.

According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.

Advertisement

TechCrunch event

Berkeley, California
|.
June 5

Book now

Advertisement

“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.

The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI ​​OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.

Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.

“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”

Advertisement

Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.

The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.

On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.

(Tagstotransate) Gemini

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending