Technology
Waymo’s latest round of financing raises its valuation to $45 billion
Waymo recently Closed a $5.6 billion Series C financing round led by parent company Alphabet, joined by a who’s who of Silicon Valley enterprise capital firms. The investment brings Waymo’s overall valuation to over $45 billion, according to Bloomberg News.
Alphabet previously announced in July that it could donate one other $5 billion to Waymo, but didn’t provide details, saying only that it was a “multi-year” commitment. Andreesen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Perry Creek and T. Rowe Price joined the round. Waymo declined to say how much each had invested.
This is Waymo’s second round of external fundraising and first since its $2.25 billion Series B in 2020, which eventually grew to $3.2 billion. The autonomous vehicle maker says it is going to use the funds to expand into latest cities and further develop its autonomous capabilities for “business applications.”
Waymo is a totally different company now in some respects than when it raised within the last round. At that point, the corporate was still pushing towards autonomous trucking, which it had abandoned.
Instead, the corporate focused almost entirely on robot transport services. The bet paid off. Waymo currently provides industrial robotaxi services in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and is expanding to Austin and Atlanta. It provides paid rides to greater than 100,000 customers every week in its first three markets and offers rides to and from the Phoenix airport. Operates on highways within the Phoenix and San Francisco areas.
Technology
India Posts Notice to Wikipedia Over Bias Concerns
Wikipedia is facing increasing regulatory pressure in India as local authorities query whether the platform should proceed to enjoy legal protection as a neutral intermediary reasonably than being classified as a publisher.
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a notice to Wikipedia on Tuesday questioning the indirect status of the encyclopedia offered to technology platforms in India. The ministry cited concerns about concentrated editorial control and chronic complaints about bias and inaccuracies on the platform.
The notice follows a controversial case before the Delhi High Court, where judges described Wikipedia’s open editing feature as “dangerous” and threatened to suspend its operations in India. The court is hearing a defamation case filed by news agency Asian News International that seeks to discover Wikipedia authors who allegedly characterised the news agency as a “propaganda tool” of the Indian government.
Justice Navin Chawla rejected Wikipedia’s request for added time to respond due to Wikipedia’s lack of physical presence in India, warning of contempt proceedings against the platform if it fails to comply with the order to disclose user information. “If you don’t want to comply with Indian laws, don’t do business in India,” the judge said.
Wikipedia maintains that its volunteer editors must follow established rules on verifiable content and legal guidelines, though this defense is facing increasing scrutiny from Indian authorities concerned concerning the platform’s content moderation practices.
Wikimedia, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nikhil Pahwa, editor of MediaNama and a outstanding voice on technology policy, questioned the legal basis for the federal government’s move, arguing that Indian IT law determines a platform’s status based on features reasonably than the variety of editors.
“You can be a platform with one user/editor or a billion,” he wrote on X.
Technology
Coatue raises $1 billion for AI betting
Coatue Management, a hedge fund that has invested heavily in tech startups throughout the pandemic boom, is raising $1 billion to support artificial intelligence corporations, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The funds that can contribute to the corporate’s flagship fund will probably be obtained primarily from institutional investors. However, the report shows that wealthy individuals with accounts at brokerage Raymond James and Associates can even spend money on Coatue.
Coatue, which manages nearly $50 billion in assets, invested in greater than 170 VC-backed corporations in 2021, based on PitchBook data. Since then, Coatue has dramatically slowed its pace of investing in startups, supporting only 81 corporations in 2022 and around 30 corporations in 2023.
However, the cross-border investor shouldn’t be done investing in private corporations. According to PitchBook data, in 2024 Coatue supported 29 startups. The company’s latest AI-focused investments include Glean, Scale AI and Skild AI, which is constructing a general-purpose AI robot. Philippe Laffont, founding father of Coatue (pictured above), said they’re particularly enthusiastic about humanoid robots with artificial intelligence-powered brains.
Technology
Mom and son Game Changer Academy founders help black gamers get 150,000. dollars in NIL transactions
Kendall Hamilton and his mother, Dr. Gigi, help Black gamers land lucrative name, image, likeness (NIL) deals and influence the industry through their organization Game Changer Academy.
In highschool, Hamilton rose to prominence as a player himself. Although his mother was initially concerned about his profession path, her support for Hamilton led to his promotion in Rocket League. Hamilton and his mother were among the many top ten players in the virtual game showing others Black families the right way to succeed in esports.
At Game Changer Academy, Hamilton is a performance improvement coach and mental health advocate. Thanks to his own success, he knows concerning the great opportunities the sport offers, akin to scholarships and NIL offers. Now he and his mother were working to make those offers available to other black players like him. So far, the mother and son duo have acquired over 150,000 for his or her clients. dollars.
As for Dr. Gigi, she uses her background in workforce development to help families turn passions into fruitful opportunities. She helped families learn the way gaming could lead on to scholarships and future offers. The licensed psychotherapist also wants to scale back the gap between black gamers and industrial success.
Their efforts are contributing to a greater emphasis on diverse players – 15% of them discover as black, in accordance with New Zoo. Understanding the potential financial gains from the booming industry, the duo stays committed to reaching Black youth captivated with esports to speed up their careers.
Their newest enterprise, Game On: Virtual Experience – Gaming, Mental Health, and Personal Development, hopes to proceed this mission. The event, which can happen on November 4, will connect players and inform them concerning the opportunity to shape their future in this industry. Additionally, there shall be speak about protecting your mental health while pursuing your passions while constructing an empire.
Game Changer Academy is diversifying the esports industry and preparing Black gamers to take the sector. Registration for the event is now open to all families with ready-to-play players.
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