AI Update: Funding Rounds, Acquisitions, and China Tensions

Welcome to the newest edition of FindBiometrics’ AI update. Here’s the latest big news on the shifting landscape of AI and identity technology:

xAI is in talks to raise $6 billion at a pre-money valuation of $18 billion. Sequoia Capital is reportedly one of the VC firms interested in fuelling Elon Musk’s one-year-old startup, and the funding round is expected to close in a couple of weeks.

Mistral, another one-year-old startup, is in talks to raise €500 million, which would bring its valuation to at least €5 billion. Mistral is based in Paris, and is widely seen as Europe’s strongest competitor to Silicon Valley’s AI firms. It has taken an open source approach to its AI model.

SenseTime has unveiled a new large language model, dubbed “SenseNova 5.0”, that it says has “met or exceeded GPT-4 Turbo in mainstream objective evaluations.” SenseTime is blacklisted in the US, having been placed on a sanctions list over its alleged provision of facial recognition technology in the Chinese government’s repression of the Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang.

Nvidia is acquiring two Israeli startups that specialize in reducing the cost of developing and running AI models. Run:ai offers a solution to optimize GPU compute resources, while Deci AI is focused on accelerating AI inference on the cloud and on edge devices.

Apple has acquired Datakalab, a French startup known for its AI compression and computer vision technology. Datakalab’s focus is on AI tech that can run on-device, which aligns with reports that Apple has been working on AI systems that can run directly on its popular consumer devices.

US-based Micron Technology has secured over $13 billion in government fundings and loans to aid its efforts to build memory chip production facilities in Idaho and New York. The company’s HBM3E chips are currently used in Nvidia’s H200 GPUs. Micron has been hit by sanctions from China, which has banned critical infrastructure operators from using its chips.

South Korea’s SK Hynix, one of Micron’s key competitors, has announced plans to build a $14.6 billion memory chip complex in Cheongju. SK Hynix is considered the global leader in high-bandwidth memory chips for AI, and became South Korea’s second-most valuable company at the end of last year.

The Philippines government is investigating a deepfake video in which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was depicted calling for military action against China. The video had been circulating on social media amid escalating tensions between the countries over claims to the South China Sea, and was flagged as manipulated content by government authorities this week.

Chinese researchers have developed a deep learning model that can correctly estimate a subject’s age within 2.5 years, while disguising the subject’s identifying biometric details. One catch, however, is that the system requires 3D face scans.

The chatbot’s take: We turned to ChatGPT for some commentary on the prominence of China in the AI discussion.

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April 26, 2024 – by Alex Perala