This week we are looking at AI founders who are playing musical chairs, a massive defense tech investment, and more issues at Techstars. Let’s get into it. Founders and senior executives of the hottest AI startups have been leaping around this week. OpenAI shuffle: John Schulman, one of the...

AI founders play musical chairs

Palantir is succeeding as a company, but is the stock already too expensive?. Palantir Technologies (PLTR 10.58%) has become one of the premier artificial intelligence (AI) software companies thanks to its long history in the field. While some companies have only started integrating AI features within the past few years, Palantir has been doing so since its founding in 2003.

Where Will Palantir Be in 5 Years?

Business Insider

Even if such deals as Google's arrangement with Character.AI are widely disliked, they are very much here to stay.

'These are not normal;' A new type of dealmaking for AI startups is rattling Silicon Valley

Bardeen’s platform uses a natural language interface to automate repetitive knowledge work. The company has secured $3 million in this new round, taking its total funding raised to $22 million. That might be only vaguely interesting, were it not for the fact that the investors who participated in this round will provide significant distribution for the platform. Both Dropbox and HubSpot have become strategic investors in the startup via their venture investment arms (Dropbox Ventures and HubSpot Ventures), and the two companies will also help distribute Bardeen’s tech, releasing on Thursday.

AI business agent startup Bardeen pulls in strategic investment from Dropbox and HubSpot

The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital. Patrick Collison, co-founder and CEO of Stripe, also participated in the round. Anysphere, a16z and Collison didn’t respond to a request for comment. Thrive declined comment. The company was co-founded by Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark and Aman...

Anysphere, a GitHub Copilot rival, has raised $60M Series A at $400M valuation from a16z, Thrive, sources say

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, has been a prominent figure in the tech industry for decades. However, in recent years, his personal life has drawn significant attention, particularly following his high-profile divorce from Melinda Gates in 2021. Their split came on the heels of another notable billionaire breakup, that of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Scott in 2019. Speculation abounds that one contributing factor could have been Gates’ past workplace conduct. In particular, Bill Gates faced allegations regarding an affair with a Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate.

Who is Bill Gates’ girlfriend Paula Hurd?

New York Post

Cisco will cut thousands of jobs in a second round of layoffs this year as the networking equipment maker shifts focus to higher-growth areas, including cybersecurity and AI, people familiar with the matter said.

The number of people affected could be similar to or slightly higher than the 4,000 employees Cisco laid off in February, and will likely be announced as early as Wednesday with the company’s fourth-quarter results, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Reuters exclusively reported the job cuts that San Jose, California-based Cisco announced in February, prior to the company announcing it.



Stellantis to cut nearly 2.5K union workers as Ram...

Cisco axing thousands of jobs in second round of layoffs amid shift to AI: report

(NewsNation) — After President Joe Biden exited the 2024 election, eyes have turned to his heir apparent. While Kamala Harris said she intends to earn the Democratic presidential nomination, what’s her net worth?. When it comes to finances, the vice president’s wealth has increased during her time in...

How much is Kamala Harris’ net worth?

Chicago, IL

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Foodie in Chicago

Shortly before 3 AM, people in the Chicago area may have felt their houses shake as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake occurred about 60 miles west of the city. (CHICAGO) The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 3.4-magnitude earthquake around Somonauk, IL. Somonauk is in DeKalb and LaSalle Counties, 64 miles west of Chicago.

Did You Feel the Earthquake?

Some of you may have noticed that this year Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who for ages exclusively wore the same combination of a gray T-shirt and blue jeans, suddenly took a keen interest in dressing in swanky, hip outfits. Well, we now have another big Zuckerberg fashion development, and this...

Mark Zuckerberg Seeks to Become Part Owner of Supreme

Denver, CO

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David Heitz

More dangerous substances are entering the Denver drug supply, Harm Reduction Action Center warned in a newsletter this week. “The Iron Law of Prohibition posits that as law enforcement becomes more intense, the potency of prohibited substances increases,” HRAC Executive Director Lisa Raville wrote in the newsletter. That is exactly what is happening, she said.

Dangerous substances entering Denver drug supply

Wrote Troper on Facebook earlier Friday night, “It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer.”. “Susan was not...

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has passed away at age 56

Fortune

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Internal politics get heated at Angel City FC, Tubi CEO Anjali Sud on her rapid rise to the C-suite, and the woman who leads the Secret Service is now in the hot seat. Have a thoughtful Monday. – At your service. Before this weekend, did you...

The woman who runs the Secret Service is a former PepsiCo exec who now must answer for the Trump assassination attempt

The home security company did not say when the cyberattack and data breach occurred, but disclosed that the attackers accessed the company’s databases containing customer home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. In a brief regulatory filing published late Wednesday, ADT said it has “no reason to believe” that...

Home security giant ADT says it was hacked

NBC News

In ruling Monday that Google has held a monopoly in internet search, U.S. judge Amit Mehta invoked the company at the center of the most famous tech antitrust case in U.S. history: Microsoft. A federal judge determined in 1999 that Microsoft had illegally used the market power of its Windows...

Google's antitrust ruling has experts looking to 25-year-old Microsoft case for answers

This wasn’t at some informal, off-the-record gathering. It was on Redfin’s second quarter earnings call, the kind of call where executives usually stick to blandly optimistic platitudes — a call that gets transcribed on investor relations websites. The real estate website’s earnings were better than expected, but...

Redfin CEO promises to ‘drink our own urine’ if mortgage rates don’t fall

Boeing has named Robert “Kelly” Ortberg as its new President and CEO, starting Aug. 8, 2024. Ortberg succeeds Dave Calhoun, who is retiring after leading the company since January 2020. Ortberg is a respected aerospace veteran with over 35 years of experience, and he will also join Boeing’s Board of Directors. He is recognized for his leadership roles, including serving as CEO of Rockwell Collins and overseeing its integration with United Technologies.

New CEO Promises To Restore Boeing’s Public Image

Ho's stake in the newly-public company is worth nearly $70 million. Bloomberg estimates his family's fortune at $13 billion.

Meet the 29-year-old son of a casino billionaire who just took his influencer and esports company public

Las Vegas, NV

POLITICO

The Hackers for Harris fundraiser was held on the sidelines of the world’s largest cybersecurity conference and showcases the hacker community's support for the Democratic ticket.

While Silicon Valley is divided, hackers give the Harris campaign a $150,000 boost

When Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016, Silicon Valley seemed to widely oppose his candidacy. Fast-forward to 2024, and elites in the region are publicly backing him in droves — but why? According to Mark Cuban, it’s all about cryptocurrency. Suggested Reading. “It’s a bitcoin play,”...

Mark Cuban says Silicon Valley is backing Trump because he would make their Bitcoin worth more

NewsBreak

First look at the Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

We’re thrilled to reveal our first group of investors who will assess the startups and follow up each pitch with an intense, revealing Q&A. Be on...

First look at the Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

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