Funding & Deals

The DeepMind trio who built a poker AI are now making money for quant hedge funds

EquiLibre Technologies, a Prague-based AI lab founded by three ex-DeepMind researchers, is now valued at more than $500 million.

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Three former DeepMind researchers who built an AI program that defeated professional poker players have now started a Prague-based AI lab that applies similar technology to stock trading. The lab, valued at $500 million after a recent funding round, uses reinforcement learning, an AI training technique where models learn by being rewarded for successful outcomes, which works similarly for both poker and financial markets. The startup's algorithms have been trading billions in daily volume and claim to have generated positive returns every month since their rollout on crypto markets and stock exchanges. This matters because the financial markets represent an enormous potential market, and the success of AI systems in this domain could demonstrate the broader commercial value of frontier AI developed by leading researchers.

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Anthropic sets IPO price range of $70 to $78 per share to reach an implied valuation of $1.404 trillion

The company could end up being worth a hefty $1.404 trillion if its shares list at the top of the price range, on a fully diluted basis.

Also reported by SiliconANGLE

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Anthropic pushes ahead with pre-Thanksgiving IPO despite tech selloff, accepts lower valuation

Despite the tech selloff, Anthropic is pressing ahead with its IPO at a valuation of $1.25 to $1.75 trillion, well below the hoped-for $2 trillion. The Claude developer aims to raise $80 to $100 billion before Thanksgiving. Rival OpenAI has also recently had to cut its valuation. The article Anthropic pushes ahead with pre-Thanksgiving IPO despite tech selloff, accepts lower valuation appeared first on The Decoder.

Also reported by TechCrunch and The Verge

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Taiwan’s chipmaking giant TSMC to invest $1B in Anthropic, OpenAI

Top chip manufacturer TSMC is ready to invest $1 billion in Anthropic and OpenAI. That would give the Taiwanese chipmaker direct stakes in leading AI developers, even as its own contract chipmaking business has profited enormously from the AI data center buildout. The chipmaker’s board approved plans to invest up to $500 million in OpenAI preferred stock reserved for large investors and another $500 million to purchase Anthropic common shares at the latter’s expected IPO price, according to Reut

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OpenAI lands an $11 billion funding round, but has to court dentists for more capital

OpenAI has secured $11 billion in fresh capital, the first tranche of a round that values the company at $1.25 trillion. The full round could swell to $20 billion. That OpenAI is already turning to wealthy private investors hints at a saturating AI capital market and growing investor caution. The article OpenAI lands an $11 billion funding round, but has to court dentists for more capital appeared first on The Decoder.

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Hatz AI raises $24M to help small businesses go AI-native through their MSPs

Large enterprises have emerged as the foremost adopters of artificial intelligence technology, and it’s giving them an unfair advantage over their smaller competitors. Looking to change that is a startup called Hatz AI Inc., which has just raised $24 million in early-stage funding to empower managed services providers with the tools they need to keep […] The post Hatz AI raises $24M to help small businesses go AI-native through their MSPs appeared first on SiliconANGLE.

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Anthropic Seeks Record $88.5B Tied To Public Market Debut

Anthropic is seeking to secure up to $88.5 billion in its planned IPO and a concurrent private placement, potentially making it the largest-ever fundraise tied to a public market debut. On Tuesday, the AI giant submitted an updated S-1 filing for its upcoming public offering, unveiling new details including a proposed share price range offering size. The offering could set a fully diluted valuation of up to $1.4 trillion for the San Francisco company. Anthropic’s expected valuation comes in belo