AI alliances are like the great houses of Dune fighting over spice. And DoD contracts are the spice.
Advanced Computing, AI/ML, Chips, and Extended Reality
Good morning,
Google makes waves as it achieves milestone in error-corrected quantum computing. AI firms are teaming up with competitors to better meet DoD needs. Zuck joins Musk in opposition to a for-profit OpenAI. OpenAI fires back, releases emails highlighting Musk hypocrisy as the tycoon wanted to own OpenAI and make it for-profit. TSMC’s plant in Arizona is almost back on schedule. And, government vendor and data intelligence platform, Databricks, is nearing a close on one of the largest VC rounds of all time.
Alright, enough yapping. Let’s dig in to the news.
News Headlines:
U.S. sanctions Chinese cybersecurity firm for firewall hacks targeting critical infrastructure (TC)
FY2025 NDAA angles to enhance DOD’s AI and quantum sciences capabilities (NG)
Storm-hit Russian petroleum tankers leak oil into Black Sea (AP)
DHS head: feds are handling the New Jersey drone sightings, as the sightings spread to New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire (ABC)
U.S. has made contact with Syrian rebel group HTS, Blinken says (NPR)
N. Korean troops active in Kursk region, have taken first combat losses (DW)
Paparo: Growing Russia-China ties and global aid dull U.S. firepower (AX)
Quantum Tech:
Google's new quantum chip achieves accuracy, error-correction milestone (NT)
Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist (TC)
Researchers find that more qubits increases the resilience of the quantum computer (QM)
Graphene stacking discovery could herald new era for quantum tech (TN)
AI / ML
AI firms band together as they prepare to eat the Pentagon (DO)
Pentagon sunsets generative AI task force, launches rapid capabilities cell (DS)
Pentagon announces new AI office as it looks to deploy autonomous weapons (TH)
Synthetic data has its limits — why human-sourced data can help prevent AI model collapse (VB)
OpenAI fires back at Musk, claims he wanted to own a for-profit OpenAI (TC)
Meta urged California to stop OpenAI from becoming for-profit (TC)
Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience (RT)
Google puts AI agents at the center of Gemini update (RT)
New House AI bills for the financial services sector (NLR)
Nanotech, Nanomaterials, Chips
China launched an antitrust investigation into Nvidia (AP)
TSMC founder says Intel should've focused on AI rather than chips (RT)
China's semiconductor firms cash in chips as export boom bucks overall trend (SCMP)
Supreme Court allows investor lawsuit against chipmaker Nvidia (WP)
U.S. finalizes $6.1B Micron chip-making subsidy (RT)
TSMC says first advanced U.S. chip plant 'dang near back' on schedule (CNBC)
Apple is working on an AI chip with Broadcom (TI)
Google’s new Trillium AI chip delivers 4x speed and powers Gemini 2.0 (VB)
XR / AR / VR
MouseGoggles: an immersive virtual reality headset for mouse neuroscience and behavior (N)
An augmented reality program can help patients overcome Parkinson’s symptoms (WI)
Deal Flow:
VC
Data analytics software firm Databricks is nearing a $9.5B funding round at a $60B+ valuation led by Thrive Capital, a16z, Insight Partners, and GIC (TC)
GDS International, a Singaporean data center pioneer, raised a $1.2B Series B from SoftBank and Ken Griffin (PU)
AI startup Liquid AI raised a $250M Series A at a $2B+ valuation led by AMD (TC)
Ayar Labs, an optical interconnects for large scale AI workloads, raised a $155M Series D led by Advent Global Opportunities and Light Street Capital (FSME)
Sustainable AI data center startup Nscale raised a $155M Series A led by Sandton Capital Partners (AX)
Emotionally-intelligent audio AI startup WaveForms raised a $40M seed round led by a16z (TC)
TruVideo, an AI and AR-driven communication platform for the transportation industry, received a $40M growth investment from TZP Growth Equity (PRN)
Partful, a UK startup specializing in interactive 3D technology, raised $6M in Series A funding led by Northern Gritstone (EUS)
Arctic Instruments secures $2.47M in seed funding led by Lifeline Ventures to scale superconducting amplifiers for quantum computers (QI)
PE / M&A / Exits
Bain Capital-backed Japanese chipmaker Kioxia raised $800M at a ~$5.2B valuation in its Japan IPO (RT)
Opportunities:
The Army AI Innovation Institute (A2I2) has released a BAA for research around AI and ML, specifically focused on Command and Control and Large Pre-Trained Models (SAM)
AFRL is soliciting advanced cyber operations prototypes (SAM)
Army DEVCOM is seeking ideas (TRL 3-6) for more proactive network security tools under the Predictive Intelligent Networking Cyber (PIN-Cyber) program (SAM)
Editor’s Picks:
U.K. spy agency releases annual Christmas card puzzle to uncover future codebreakers.
TechCrunch takes a stab at explaining AI agents beyond the hype of being the ‘next big thing.’
Alex Li outlines how Trump’s planned hardware tariffs could hinder U.S. AI progress.
Lighter Side:
Keep Building,
BOF