Author: GT

AI chip startup Groq is in talks to raise a fresh $600 million at a near $6 billion valuation, sources tell Bloomberg, although the deal isn’t yet final and terms could change.  Groq raised $640 million at a $2.8 billion valuation in August 2024, making this double the valuation in about a year. Groq previously raised about $1 billion. The new round is led by Austin-based firm Disruptive, Bloomberg reports. The November round was led by BlackRock, with participation from Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, Cisco, KDDI, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. Groq was founded by Jonathan Ross, who previously worked…

META CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.Getty ImagesShares of Meta soared 12% and Microsoft popped 5% on Thursday, after the companies reported better-than-expected earnings that beat on top and bottom lines.Microsoft topped the $4 trillion market cap benchmark with the move, joining Nvidia in the club.Both Meta and Microsoft have been investing heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure in recent years, and the companies said they expect to continue to shell out billions in capital expenditures.Meta said capital expenditures will range between $66 billion and $72 billion for the full year, raising the low end of the company’s previous estimate…

American warfighters need jam-proof communications, and the Space Force is planning to spend hundreds of millions to ensure they have them. As part of that effort, the service established the Protected Tactical Satcom program to build out secure battlefield communications via satellites. The Space Force has already awarded contracts to defense primes Boeing and Northrop Grumman to develop prototype payloads for satellites heading to far-away geostationary orbit. Now, the program is entering a new phase. On Tuesday, the Space Force awarded five additional contracts for the design and demonstration of purpose-built satellites to provide jam-resistant comms to tactical forces. The…

Backup generator manufacturer Generac has a huge opportunity with data centers, according to Bank of America. “Generac’s entry into the data center market marks a multi-year growth inflection, with management calling it the most needle-moving opportunity in decades,” analyst Dimple Gosai told clients in a note Wednesday. Bank of America raised its stock price target for Generac to $221, indicating 21% upside from Wednesday’s close of $181. Generac shares were about 6% higher after the call, putting the stock on pace for a 24% year-to-date gain. The tech sector faces a backup generator deficit in 2026 totaling 5,000 units as…

Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said Thursday that artificial intelligence doesn’t pose a serious threat to the future of the design software company, which is on the verge of debuting on the public markets.”We’re in this moment where you might, if you’re singularity-pilled, go, ‘Hey, superintelligence is coming and it’ll be able to do things that no human can do,” Field told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I have a harder time believing that we’re going to approach that really quickly right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of the picture.”Figma is slated to begin trading on the New York…

TikTok announced on Wednesday that it’s releasing a slew of new features, including enhanced parental controls, additional tools for creators, and a new interactive well-being feature. It also publicly launched Footnotes, its fact-checking system. The social network is bringing new parental controls to Family Pairing, its feature that allows parents to link their accounts with their teen’s account to customize safety settings. Parents can now block specific accounts for their teen’s account. Blocked accounts can’t interact with the teen, and the teen won’t see the account’s content in their feed. Parents will also now automatically be notified when their teen…

TikTok on Wednesday announced the public launch of Footnotes, a crowdsourced fact-checking system similar to X’s and Meta’s Community Notes feature. The technology will initially roll out to U.S. users as a pilot program, allowing contributors to both write and rate Footnotes on TikTok videos. All U.S. TikTok users are able to view the notes that have been rated as helpful and submit their own ratings in return. The company first announced its plans to test Footnotes in April. At the time, it described the feature as a way to give the community more context around TikTok’s content. Like X’s…

LONDON (AP) — Is it The Velvet Underground or Velvet Sundown?The fictitious rock group, Velvet Sundown, which comes complete with AI-generated music, lyrics and album art, is stoking debate about how the new technology is blurring the line between the real and synthetic in the music industry, and whether creators should be transparent with their audience.Computer software is widely used in music production, and artificial intelligence is just the latest tool that disc jockeys, music producers and others have added to their production pipeline. But the rise of AI song generators such as Suno and Udio is set to transform…

Comcast beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday for second-quarter earnings and revenue. Yet the company saw a loss of broadband customers even as it pivoted its market strategy for the segmenComcast and its cable peers have been suffering from a slowdown in broadband growth, which has impacted company stocks. Comcast stock was up about 4% in premarket trading. Here’s how Comcast did in its second quarter compared with Wall Street estimated, according to LSEG:Earnings per share: $1.25 adjusted vs. $1.18 expectedRevenue: $30.31 billion vs. $29.81 billion expectedRevenue of $30.31 billion was a 2% increase year over year. For the second quarter, the company’s net…

Google has confirmed it will sign the European Union’s general purpose AI code of practice, a voluntary framework that aims to help AI developers implement processes and systems to comply with the bloc’s AI Act. Notably, Meta earlier this month said it would not sign the code, calling the EU’s implementation of its AI legislation “overreach” and stating that Europe was “heading down the wrong path on AI.” Google’s commitment comes days before rules for providers of “general-purpose AI models with systemic risk” go into effect on August 2. Companies likely to be affected by these rules include major names…