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OpenAI secured another billions, but there was capital left for other startups

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This week once more brought us news regarding AI funding, in addition to some warnings: some categories and stages are showing signs of overheating. Luckily, we also spotted some cool startups – literally.

The most interesting startup stories of the week

Image credits:Whatnot

It could also be hard to imagine, but OpenAI continues to be a startup, hence its repeated first place. There were other interesting stories this week, nevertheless.

A billion AI: OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a post-money valuation of $157 billion, and likewise secured a $4 billion revolving credit facility and launched a brand new interface. Business apparently has asked investors to not back rivals corresponding to Anthropic and xAI, but OpenAI has not confirmed this. Meanwhile, Anthropic has hired OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma for a distant position.

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Attack of the Clones: Y Combinator faced criticism for supporting AI code editor PearAI, whose CEO apologized for cloning another YC-backed open source project without proper attribution and with a “garbled” license.

Shopping broadcast live: Live shopping app Whatnot says its annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) has surpassed $2 billion this 12 months, meaning there’s still hope for live commerce within the US

The most interesting collections this week

CEO of Series Entertainment, Pany Haritatos
Image credits:Entertainment Series

Some firms prefer to boost funds secretly; others even work underwater.

Deep end: Artificial intelligence coding startup Poolside raised a $500 million Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from eBay and Nvidia. This enabled Poolside to bring 10,000 Nvidia GPUs online to coach future models, CEO Jason Warner said.

Cool water: Barcelona-based immersion cooling startup Submer raised $55.5 million to draw more customers to its solution already utilized by hyperscalers, telecommunications firms and other large corporations.

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11x meets a16zTechCrunch has learned that 11x.ai, a startup that creates AI-powered sales bots, has secured a Series B funding round of roughly $50 million led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Hidden financing: Cloud backup startup Eon has come out of hiding to disclose that it has already achieved a post-money valuation of $750 million after raising three rounds of funding, including a $77 million Series B.

More hidden financing: Series, an AI-powered generative game development platform, has quietly raised a $28 million Series A funding round from Netflix, Dell, a16z and others.

The most interesting VC and funding news this week

startups, venture capital, Ali Rowghani
Image credits:Kimberly White/Stringer/Getty Images

Pruning season: Veteran enterprise capital firm CRV returned $275 million of its $500 million late-stage Select fund to investors, citing overvaluation of mature startups. It follows the same move by India’s Peak XV, which reduced its fund size and costs amid signs of overheating.

Launching: Former Y Combinator CEO and Twitter executive Ali Rowghani is launching Maxq, a brand new enterprise capital firm with a debut fund of $250 million.

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NOT bullish: Index Ventures is looking for another New York investor and plans so as to add three or 4 latest people to its local team over the following 12 months, partner Shardul Shah told TechCrunch.

No less necessary

Image credits:Kevin Ryan

Speaking with TechCrunch Global Managing Editor Matt Rosoff ahead of this 12 months’s Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, New York tech investor and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan shared his thoughts on when and if founders should sell their company. His belief: there ought to be more of them.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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“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.”

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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

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Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

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The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA

The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.

Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.

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TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.

The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.

Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.

For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.

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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.

(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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