| |  | Dec 16, 2025 | | | | | Supported by |  | | | | | | Happy Tuesday! The Trump administration launches the "Tech Force" program to recruit engineers to work on artificial intelligence inside federal agencies. LightSpeed and Dragoneer both raise multilbillion-dollar funds. Tesla stocks jump after Elon Musk says it's testing driverless robotaxi.
| | | | The Trump administration has launched a new program, dubbed "Tech Force," to recruit engineers to work on artificial intelligence inside federal agencies. People who sign up for the two-year program will "work in teams reporting directly to agency leadership" and will collaborate with partner tech companies including Google, Meta, Apple, OpenAI and xAI, according to a government website. Annual salaries are expected to range from $150,000 to $200,000, the website said. The Trump administration, working with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, has tried to implement AI across federal agencies this year, including inside the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, the administration also laid off thousands of federal workers and shut down existing tech teams. | | | | Two venture capital firms bucked the industry's year-long slump to raise multibillion dollar funds. Lightspeed Venture Partners on Monday announced it had raised more than $9 billion, including a $3.3 billion to make follow-on investments. And Dragoneer raised $4.3 billion in a new venture fund, higher than its $3.8 billion fund raised in 2022. The new raises give the VC firms more firepower to back increasingly large artificial intelligence deals and could improve what's been a bleak year for fundraising. U.S. VC firms raised $45.7 billion in new funds in the first nine months of the year. At that pace, fundraising is headed for the lowest level since 2017. Lightspeed Venture Partners has been one of the most aggressive firms in AI, leading investments in Anthropic, Mistral, Fireworks AI and Glean. In its most recent cash haul, it raised five funds totalling $7.9 billion, topping its target of $7 billion, as well as $1.25 billion in vehicles with a single investor this year. Dragoneer, founded by private equity investor Marc Stad in 2012, invests in public and private stocks. It has invested more than $3 billion in OpenAI, according to the company. | | | | Tesla shares were trading up 4% on Monday after CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company has started testing its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin without human backups inside the cars. "Testing is underway with no occupants in the car," Musk said in an X post on Sunday in response to a video of a Robotaxi on the road in Austin without a person inside it. In at least one video of an empty Robotaxi, the vehicle was being followed closely by another Tesla, which some observers have interpreted to be a backup observation vehicle. Tesla currently offers rides to customers in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area, though all customer rides in both regions currently have operators inside vehicles that can intervene if self-driving software malfunctions. Musk said in July that Tesla was aiming to offer Robotaxi to half the U.S. population by the end of 2025 before scaling that goal back to eight to 10 metro areas. Tesla has been driving test vehicles in several other U.S. metro areas but has yet to launch outside the two initial cities. That leaves the company far behind rival Waymo, which is offering rides without backup humans in five U.S. cities. | | | | PayPal Holdings applied to set up a Utah-based bank, a move that would allow it to directly provide loans to customers instead of relying on third-party banks for much of the process. The 27-year old online payments company filed applications with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for what it's calling PayPal Bank, it said Monday. The bank will originate small business loans and offer interest-bearing savings accounts, PayPal said. Mara McNeill, who was previously CEO of a bank catering to Toyota dealership owners and employees, will be the president of PayPal Bank. PayPal said it has provided access to more than $30 billion in loans and working capital since 2013. | | | | IRobot, the company that makes the Roomba vacuum, is filing for bankruptcy, it announced Sunday. Shenzhen Picea Robotics Co., iRobot's main contract manufacturer, will buy iRobot's assets out of bankruptcy. Roombas were first released in 2002 and became the most popular home robots of the past two decades. The company reached a market capitalization of over $4.5 billion in early 2021, but its stock price has plummeted to its current capitalization of $41 million. Amazon previously looked into buying iRobot but regulatory opposition by the E.U. and the Federal Trade Commission scuttled the deal in early 2024. The transaction would take iRobot private and existing shareholders would not receive any equity in the reorganized company. IRobot said it plans to continue operating throughout the process. IRobot has faced growing competition in recent years as new companies, such as Matic, gain traction in the market for robot vacuums. | | | | Shares of ServiceNow dropped around 10% on Monday morning, following a weekend report on Bloomberg that the enterprise software firm was in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup Armis for $7 billion. A potential deal with Armis would be ServiceNow's second cybersecurity acquisition this year after it agreed to buy identity security startup Veza for more than $1 billion in early December. The enterprise software giant is looking to enhance its ability in IT and security, its president Amit Zavery told The Information earlier. Armis is considered an IPO candidate and the company said it crossed $300 million in annual recurring revenue in August. | | | | Former Shopify executive Glen Coates has joined OpenAI as the company's head of app platform, he said in a LinkedIn post Monday. OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. OpenAI has taken early steps to make ChatGPT the default way its users interact with other apps, and has struck early partnerships with companies including Instacart and Target to make their apps available through ChatGPT. Nick Turley, the product executive who leads ChatGPT, has prioritized enabling more personalization of the chatbot, in part by connecting it to other apps. Coates spent around six years at Shopify, where he oversaw product development for the company's core software for hosting e-commerce storefronts. More recently, he also led teams working on initiatives to help Shopify merchants share their product information with AI apps and agents. Coates left Shopify this summer, The Information previously reported. | | | | OpenAI is hiring Albert Lee, a long-time corporate development executive at Google, as head of corporate development, according to people with knowledge of his move. His hire signals OpenAI's interest in pursuing acquisitions and strategic investments as a key component of future growth, said a person close to OpenAI. Lee led corporate development for Google Cloud and Deepmind, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked on Google' $5.4 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Mandiant and its $2.6 billion purchase of data analytics provider Looker. He will start at OpenAI in January and will report to chief financial officer Sarah Friar. Lee's move follows OpenAI's recent hiring of former Amazon executive Torben Severson as global head of business development. Severson focuses on strategic partnerships while Lee will focus on acquisitions. | | | | | | | | | Opportunities Empower your teams to stay ahead of market trends with the most trusted tech journalism.
Learn more
Reach The Information's influential audience with your message. Connect with our team | | | | | |
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário