Hugging Face, an AI startup, has raised $235 million in a Series D funding round, with participation from tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and IBM, and now has a valuation of $4.5 billion, signaling the growing demand for AI platforms and tools.
Paris-based startup Poolside AI has raised $126 million in a seed round led by French billionaire Xavier Niel and US VC Felicis, to develop an AI model that can write software code and eventually enable users to create applications without coding experience, with the company also opening a French subsidiary and relocating its HQ to Paris in a boost to the country's AI ambitions.
AI21 Labs, a text-generating AI startup, has raised $155 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $283 million and valuing the company at $1.4 billion, with plans to expand its workforce and accelerate its R&D efforts.
Anthropic has launched its premium subscription plan, Claude Pro, for its AI-powered chatbot, Claude 2, offering customers more usage, the ability to send more messages, priority access, and early access to new features for $20 per month in the U.S. or £18 in the U.K., the same price as OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus. Anthropic aims to create a next-gen algorithm for AI self-teaching and has raised $1.45 billion in funding, but estimates it will need $5 billion over the next two years to achieve its goals.
Salesforce is donating $11 million to San Francisco and Oakland public schools to prepare students for careers in artificial intelligence, as part of a larger $20 million investment in education, aiming to advance students' digital skills and provide better access to tech and AI careers.
European AI startup Druid has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round to support its U.S. growth, which currently accounts for the majority of its revenue, as it expands its conversational business applications powered by generative AI.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has donated $3 million to Common Sense Media to fund an artificial intelligence (AI) and education initiative, focusing on AI safety for children and providing AI literacy courses for parents and educators. Newmark is concerned about the potential for generative AI to amplify and spread disinformation, and the lack of effort by tech companies to combat dishonesty.
LastMile AI has raised $10 million in a seed funding round to develop and integrate generative AI models into apps, aiming to democratize generative AI for software engineers and simplify the AI developer journey.
San Francisco-based AI startup Writer has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Iconiq Growth, bringing its valuation to $500 million, and aims to help businesses use large language models to generate content across different departments.
AI startup Darrow has raised $35 million in funding for its AI-powered data engine that searches for class action litigation potential, with active cases resulting from its insights currently totaling around $10 billion in claims, and plans to use the funding to expand its team, add new legal domains to its tools, and invest in technology assets.
Pryon, an AI-powered platform for enterprise knowledge bases, has raised $100 million in funding to support its growth and expansion of its team, partnerships, and international presence, with a valuation between $500 million and $750 million.
