Apple is rumored to have acquired privacy-focused AI startup Silk Labs, according to a Tuesday report from The Information. While the move may seem like just another example of big tech snapping up the hottest AI startup, beneath the surface, it signals something deeper:
The competition among tech giants over AI isn’t just an arms race —it’s a battle of philosophies.
2019 is shaping up to be a breakout year for tech IPOs.
The economy is strong, unemployment rates are low, and investor optimism is high with rising tech valuations. Airbnb, Slack, and Lyft could all go public within the next year, and despite its slowing growth, Uber is among the most anticipated offerings in years.
The demand for New York’s tech talent may be heating up.
Amazon is expected to announce the home of two new headquarters—one in northern Virginia and the other in New York City—before year-end, employing 25,000 people at each location. Still unconfirmed, Amazon’s news comes just days before rumblings that Google may also be planning a New York expansion.
In 1994, a computer science grad from Carnegie Mellon published a new project: A Linux distribution he dubbed “Red Hat.” Twenty-four years later, Marc Ewing’s project—and the business spun around it—has been bought by IBM for $34 billion, making it the largest software acquisition in history.
At $12.4 billion, San Diego biotech Samumed is one of the highest-valued healthcare startups in the country. It’s goal? Reverse aging.
Founded in 2008 by now-billionaire Osman Kibar, the company is focused on developing medicines that could (one day) do things like erase wrinkles or cure blindness. The key, Kibar thinks, lies in teaching our cells to regenerate—prompting progenitor stem cells back into action to help repair aging organs.
In August, Samumed raised $438 million in equity funding, a stunning investment for a company that, while promising, still has no approved drugs. To-date, it’s raised more than $650 million.
In 1981, Masayoshi Son founded SoftBank Group, and by the peak of the dot-com bubble, his net worth was surging by billions a week. He’d become one of the earliest investors in Yahoo, bet $20 million on Alibaba, and invested in about 800 other startups at the time. Today, he’s still Japan’s richest man.
Startups are saving retail.
Brick-and-mortar spending is expected to grow by $36 billion over the next four years, and e-commerce by $50 billion, according to a study by Deloitte. But as new technology closes the gap between online browsing and in-store buying, spending could go even higher.
When the rubber meets the road, which driverless vehicle will take the lead?
In the last few months alone, Uber has deepened its dealings with Toyota, taking on $500 million more in investment to expand its self-driving tech to minivans. Waymo has partnered with Walmart to help riders get their groceries faster and more efficiently. And Tesla has said its new self-driving chip, promising to process video data 10x faster than its predecessor, is finally ready.
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