Latest news with #SiliconValley
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
From Power-Hungry AI to Energy Saver: Snowcap's $23M Move to Revolutionize Computing
Snowcap Compute, a semiconductor startup developing superconducting AI chips, announced a $23 million seed round on Monday. According to Reuters, the company is backed by Playground Global and led by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who will also serve as board chair. The funding round also included Cambium Capital and Vsquared Ventures. The startup aims to create high-performance computing platforms that require significantly less power than current-generation chips. Snowcap said its superconducting architecture will deliver 25 times better performance per watt compared to existing AI systems. Don't Miss: Peter Thiel turned $1,700 into $5 billion—now accredited investors are eyeing this software company with similar breakout potential. Learn how you can invest with $1,000 at just $0.30/share. Invest early in CancerVax's breakthrough tech aiming to disrupt a $231B market. Back a bold new approach to cancer treatment with high-growth potential. Snowcap Compute's superconducting chips are designed to operate with zero electrical resistance and require cryogenic cooling to function, according to Reuters. The company said the chips are being developed to reduce electricity consumption in artificial intelligence computing, a sector facing increasing energy demands. Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) upcoming Rubin Ultra server, expected in 2027, is projected to consume around 600 kilowatts of power—about two-thirds of the monthly electricity use of a typical U.S. household, Reuters reported. Snowcap CEO Michael Lafferty, formerly with Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ:CDNS), told Reuters that the performance-to-power ratio of Snowcap's architecture justifies the energy spent on cooling. "We're pushing the performance level way up and pulling the power down at the same time," he said. Snowcap plans to release a basic chip by the end of 2026. Full system deployments will follow at a later stage. The chips will be manufactured in a conventional factory using niobium titanium nitride sourced from Brazil and Canada, Reuters reported. Trending: GoSun's Breakthrough Rooftop EV Charger Already Has 2,000+ Units Reserved — Become an Investor in This $41.3M Clean Energy Brand Today Gelsinger, who stepped down as Intel CEO in December, said the industry must rethink its reliance on increasingly power-hungry chips. "A lot of data centers today are just being limited by power availability," he told Reuters. In a LinkedIn post, Gelsinger described Snowcap as "the first commercially viable superconducting compute platform," and said it delivers performance and efficiency gains across classical, AI, and quantum workloads. He called it his first public investment as general partner at Playground Global and said the company's technology could address compute bottlenecks and "push the boundaries of what is possible with silicon."Snowcap's founding team includes superconducting researchers Anna Herr and Quentin Herr, who previously worked at chip research firm Imed and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC). The team also includes former executives from Nvidia and Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL)) Google unit. According to Snowcap, its architecture is engineered for high-performance AI inference and training, quantum-classical hybrid workloads, and low-latency systems. Founded in 2024, Snowcap enters a growing field of startups pursuing alternatives to conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-based processors. The company said its superconducting logic offers "orders-of-magnitude gains in processing speed and efficiency" and aims to support emerging compute workloads spanning AI, high-performance computing, and quantum workflows. Read Next: Are you rich? Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article From Power-Hungry AI to Energy Saver: Snowcap's $23M Move to Revolutionize Computing originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
From Power-Hungry AI to Energy Saver: Snowcap's $23M Move to Revolutionize Computing
Snowcap Compute, a semiconductor startup developing superconducting AI chips, announced a $23 million seed round on Monday. According to Reuters, the company is backed by Playground Global and led by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who will also serve as board chair. The funding round also included Cambium Capital and Vsquared Ventures. The startup aims to create high-performance computing platforms that require significantly less power than current-generation chips. Snowcap said its superconducting architecture will deliver 25 times better performance per watt compared to existing AI systems. Don't Miss: Peter Thiel turned $1,700 into $5 billion—now accredited investors are eyeing this software company with similar breakout potential. Learn how you can invest with $1,000 at just $0.30/share. Invest early in CancerVax's breakthrough tech aiming to disrupt a $231B market. Back a bold new approach to cancer treatment with high-growth potential. Snowcap Compute's superconducting chips are designed to operate with zero electrical resistance and require cryogenic cooling to function, according to Reuters. The company said the chips are being developed to reduce electricity consumption in artificial intelligence computing, a sector facing increasing energy demands. Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) upcoming Rubin Ultra server, expected in 2027, is projected to consume around 600 kilowatts of power—about two-thirds of the monthly electricity use of a typical U.S. household, Reuters reported. Snowcap CEO Michael Lafferty, formerly with Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ:CDNS), told Reuters that the performance-to-power ratio of Snowcap's architecture justifies the energy spent on cooling. "We're pushing the performance level way up and pulling the power down at the same time," he said. Snowcap plans to release a basic chip by the end of 2026. Full system deployments will follow at a later stage. The chips will be manufactured in a conventional factory using niobium titanium nitride sourced from Brazil and Canada, Reuters reported. Trending: GoSun's Breakthrough Rooftop EV Charger Already Has 2,000+ Units Reserved — Become an Investor in This $41.3M Clean Energy Brand Today Gelsinger, who stepped down as Intel CEO in December, said the industry must rethink its reliance on increasingly power-hungry chips. "A lot of data centers today are just being limited by power availability," he told Reuters. In a LinkedIn post, Gelsinger described Snowcap as "the first commercially viable superconducting compute platform," and said it delivers performance and efficiency gains across classical, AI, and quantum workloads. He called it his first public investment as general partner at Playground Global and said the company's technology could address compute bottlenecks and "push the boundaries of what is possible with silicon."Snowcap's founding team includes superconducting researchers Anna Herr and Quentin Herr, who previously worked at chip research firm Imed and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC). The team also includes former executives from Nvidia and Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL)) Google unit. According to Snowcap, its architecture is engineered for high-performance AI inference and training, quantum-classical hybrid workloads, and low-latency systems. Founded in 2024, Snowcap enters a growing field of startups pursuing alternatives to conventional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-based processors. The company said its superconducting logic offers "orders-of-magnitude gains in processing speed and efficiency" and aims to support emerging compute workloads spanning AI, high-performance computing, and quantum workflows. Read Next: Are you rich? Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article From Power-Hungry AI to Energy Saver: Snowcap's $23M Move to Revolutionize Computing originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Salesforce is using AI for up to 50% of its workload, and its AI product is 93% accurate, says CEO Marc Benioff
Salesforce CEO and founder Marc Benioff said the company now relies on artificial intelligence for 30% to 50% of its entire workload. Coco Gauff and Emma Grede team up to help small businesses I've become an AI vibe coding convert Tech layoffs June 2025: Microsoft, Google, Disney, ZoomInfo join the list of companies said to be shedding jobs The software giant, like many other tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Microsoft and Google, is going all in on the AI boom. 'All of us have to get our head around this idea that AI could do things, that before we were doing, and we can move on to do higher-value work,' Benioff told Bloomberg, including positions like software engineering and customer service. 'It's these agents, these digital laborers, digital employees who are out there doing this work servicing the customers, selling to the customer, marketing to the customer, partnering with me to do the analytics, the marketing, the branding.' Benioff said he even writes his yearly business plan with an AI partner, along with a 'human' Salesforce executive, adding that the company was on track to have one billion of these 'agents' before the end of the year. (Sixty-five percent of companies are now experimenting with AI agents, according to an April KPMG survey.) Benioff also estimated that Salesforce has reached 93% accuracy with the AI product it's selling to customers, including Walt Disney Co., which was developed to carry out tasks such as customer service without human supervision, according to Bloomberg. Benioff added that it's not 'realistic' to reach 100% accuracy, and that other companies are at 'much lower levels because they don't have as much data and metadata.' The software giant was ranked the No. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) software provider in 2025 for the 12th consecutive year by the global market intelligence firm IDC. Salesforce's clients include Apple, Boeing, Amazon, Walmart, and McDonald's, to name a few. According to Bloomberg, AI is ushering in a new era of 'the tiny team.' Gone are the days when Silicon Valley companies rapidly hire as they scale; now tech companies are in a race to the bottom, competing to see who can manage the lowest head count in an effort to cut costs and increase efficiencies. The AI boom comes at a time when many tech companies are slashing jobs, in part to keep up with inflation and increased economic uncertainty, spurred on by the Trump administration's tariffs and conflict with Iran. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was trading up less than 1% on Thursday in midday trading, at the time of this writing. In the company's latest round of earnings for the first quarter, which ended April 30, the company reported revenue of $9.8 billion, up nearly 8% year over year, beating analyst expectations, and it raised guidance 'by $400 million, to $41.3 billion, at the high end of the range.' Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $2.58, topping estimates of $2.55. Benioff said Salesforce has 'built a deeply unified enterprise AI platform—with agents, data, apps, and a metadata platform . . . with Agentforce, Data Cloud, our Customer 360 apps, Tableau, and Slack all built on one trusted, unified foundation, [so] companies of every size can build a digital labor force—boosting productivity, reducing costs, and accelerating growth.' The company had a market capitalization of $257 billion at the time of this writing. Its next earnings report is scheduled for late August. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter:
CNA
3 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Exclusive-Intel's top strategy officer to depart this month
Intel's top strategy executive, Safroadu Yeboah-Amankwah, is departing the company, the latest change since Lip-Bu Tan took the chipmaker's helm in March, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Intel confirmed the departure, saying, "We are grateful for Saf's contributions to Intel and wish him the best." Yeboah-Amankwah, who has served as Intel's chief strategy officer since 2020, is leaving on June 30, said the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Yeboah-Amankwah has overseen growth initiatives, strategic partnerships and equity investments for Intel, among other responsibilities. Some of Yeboah-Amankwah's strategy functions will now fall to Sachin Katti, whom Intel recently elevated to chief technology and AI officer. Intel Capital, the company's venture arm, is reporting up to Tan, said one of the two people and a third source briefed on the matter. Tan is a prolific investor and founded San Francisco-based venture capital firm Walden International in 1987. As Intel's CEO, Tan so far has flattened the semiconductor giant's leadership team and taken direct oversight of its important data center and AI chip group, plus its personal-computer chip group. He has brought in new engineering leaders. He has also aimed to cut what he viewed as Intel's bloated, slow-moving middle-management layer. Tan's moves follow years of manufacturing challenges at Intel and lost opportunity for mobile phone and AI chips. His predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, attempted an ambitious turnaround though he compounded some of Intel's problems, Reuters previously reported. Intel reported an annual net loss attributable to the company - its first since 1986 - of $18.8 billion in 2024.
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Yes, You May Lose Your Job To AI. So What Will You Do About It?
The Silicon Valley gospel has been preached from every conference stage: "You won't lose your job to AI, but to someone who learns to use AI." It's a comforting narrative that keeps executives sleeping soundly while their HR departments frantically roll out "AI literacy" programs. But this conventional wisdom misses the fundamental transformation happening right under our noses. Putting the notion of "AI won't take your job" into context. The real disruption isn't about individual workers becoming AI-savvy. It's about the obsolescence of entire job categories as AI becomes exponentially more capable, efficient, and effective at core business functions. The Exponential Reality Check Here's what should terrify you: Today is the worst AI will ever be. Several current AI models have surpassed the average IQ of humans. Most people have an average IQ between 85 and 115. Overall, about 98% of people have a score below 130, with the 2% above that are considered 'very superior'. With the latest versions of OpenAI's o3, Anthropic's Claude 4 Sonnet, and Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental all well above average human intelligence scores, we now have genius-level AI. Ranking The Smartest AI Models by IQ Level But that's just the beginning. AI capability is roughly doubling every six months. Let's do the math and be a bit more conservative and assume it doubles every year: I share this just for illustrative purposes. Humans typically think in a linear fashion. It's hard for us to think exponentially. And it's hard to not think this is all 'science fiction' and will happen years in the future. No. This is happening now. This is compound growth in action. When AI can already write better marketing copy than most marketers, analyze data faster than any analyst, and code more efficiently than many developers TODAY - imagine what happens when it's 32 times more capable in just five years. The Job Container Is Breaking For decades, companies have organized human effort into neat packages called "jobs"—performing tasks in predefined roles with specific responsibilities, reporting structures, and compensation bands. This industrial-age framework worked when work was predictable, hierarchical, and required sustained human attention. AI is obliterating this model. When artificial intelligence can write code in minutes, draft legal briefs in seconds, and generate marketing campaigns instantly, traditional job boundaries become arbitrary constraints. Why maintain a "Marketing Manager" role when AI can execute campaigns while a strategic thinker provides direction? Why preserve "Financial Analyst" positions when AI can process datasets that would take humans months to review? Think this is hype? Check out the latest release that dropped this week from HeyGen, an AI-powered video creation platform that allows users to generate videos with AI avatars, text-to-speech, and customizable templates. They just announced this week the HeyGen Video Agent, the first prompt-native creative engine designed to transform a single idea into a complete, publish-ready video asset. Whether that's a TikTok ad, a YouTube hook, a product explainer, or a quickfire UGC clip, the video is created by AI in seconds. The tool looks amazing, and it will surely be compelling to marketers at small companies to large global enterprises. However, this is another nail in the coffin for a creative agency or production company that was providing those services. We're entering the era of agentic content creation where intelligent systems don't just assist with ... More editing, but act on your behalf to create high-quality videos, end to end. Reading Between The Lines: The Amazon Example The companies that survive won't be those that train existing jobholders to use AI tools. They'll be the ones that completely reimagine how work gets done. On June 17th, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy published a memo with "Some thoughts on Generative AI." While highlighting AI's incredible applications across the company, he dropped this bombshell: 'As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.' This should be a wake-up call. It's a direct admission that AI will eliminate jobs, and it should terrify anyone doing repetitive or process-driven work. Amazon is just the latest in a number of companies that are signaling what is to come slowly, carefully, and publicly. Sure for now it's mostly tech companies like Duolingo, Klarna, and Shopify that are talking about being 'AI first'. In the case of Shopify, CEO Tobi Lütke told employees that teams must demonstrate why AI cannot fulfill a role before requesting to hire a human. This effectively positions AI as the default option for many tasks. This AI first approach might start in tech, but it won't end there. The Rise of Liquid Labor Forward-thinking organizations are moving beyond "jobs" toward what I call 'Liquid Labor'. In a hybrid human-AI workforce, Liquid Labor is the fluid combinations of human creativity, AI capabilities, and automated processes that adapt in real-time to business needs. Consider Netflix. They don't have traditional "TV Programming Executive" jobs. Instead, they have data scientists, content strategists, and algorithm specialists working in fluid teams that constantly reconfigure based on viewer behavior and market opportunities. This shift challenges everything: OK, this is scary. So What Should I Do? The obvious answer is to upskill yourself and learn how to use all of these AI tools. Are you using not just one model (say ChatGPT), but experiment with multiple models from Claude to Perplexity to CoPilot to Gemini to Grok. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, so learn what works best for you. This is table-stakes, though. Here's a more candid survival guide: Double down on uniquely human capabilities that AI can't replicate (yet): Develop higher-order thinking abilities that allow you to adapt and learn faster than AI can optimize for your replacement, focusing on skills that help you navigate complexity and change rather than specific technical competencies: Become the critical bridge between AI systems and human needs: Forge a unique professional identity: Urgently diversify your income streams and build wealth-generating assets while you still have earning power: Cultivate deep, value-creating relationships as your unique network of human connections becomes one of your most defensible and irreplaceable assets in the AI era: The Time to Act Is Now Most people think they have years to adapt. They're wrong. By the time AI visibly threatens your job, it's already too late. The exponential curve means: The window for repositioning yourself is now, while you still have leverage, income, and options. The transformation from jobs to liquid labor is already here. The choice isn't between learning AI or losing your job. It's between fundamentally reimagining your career or watching it become obsolete. Those who act now - building unique capabilities, creating new value propositions, and positioning themselves at the human-AI interface - won't just survive. They'll thrive in ways we can't yet imagine. Those who wait, believing that disruption is still years away, will discover that no amount of prompt engineering can compete with exponentially improving AI that works 24/7, never gets sick, and improves while you sleep. The question isn't whether this transformation will affect you, but whether you'll adapt fast enough. Now is the time to get AI ready.
