Latest news with #a16z
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A16z Crypto Leads $15M Seed Round Into Decentralized AI Data Layer Poseidon
Venture capital heavyweight a16z Crypto led a $15 million seed-round investment into Poseidon, a decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) data layer. Poseidon is built to provide access to training data for robotics and AI models that is "traceable, enforceable and monetizable," according to an emailed announcement on Tuesday. The project was incubated by intellectual property (IP)-based protocol Story, another a16z portfolio company. Story aims to convert IP into programmable assets that can be licensed and managed using smart contracts on blockchains. "AI foundation models have already exhausted the most easily accessible training data," a16z Crypto's managing partner, Chris Dixon, said in the email. "Poseidon's decentralized data layer seeks to establish a new economic foundation for the internet, rewarding creators and suppliers for providing the diverse inputs that next-gen intelligent systems need.' AI models, especially generative AI, are trained on vast datasets — often scraped from the internet — which include copyrighted works such as books, art, music and code. Some creatives argue that this constitutes unauthorized use and copyright infringement because their work is being used for commercial purposes without permission or compensation. The practice has already led to several lawsuits. This friction highlights how AI and blockchain technology can interact, with decentralization helping to provide secure, controlled sharing of data and allowing multiple parties to contribute to large-language model training without compromising privacy or proprietary information. The creation of diverse datasets opens up possibilities for data monetization, with creators being compensated for the use of their works.
The Verge
15-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab raised $2 billion.
Posted Jul 15, 2025 at 6:38 PM UTC Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab raised $2 billion. OpenAI's ex-CTO, who also briefly stepped into the CEO role during Sam Altman's high-profile ouster, said Tuesday that a16z led the round, with participation from NVIDIA, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, and Jane Street. She added that the company would share its first product 'in the next couple months.'
Business Insider
15-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Box CEO Aaron Levie has some advice for bosses: Hire AI native grads and they'll 'flip your company on its head'
"Hire a bunch of these people," he said in a Monday interview on the a16z podcast, "because they're going to flip your company on its head in terms of how much faster the organization can run." "If you're graduating, the thing I would be selling to any corporation some way or another is that if you're AI-native right now coming out of college, the amount you can teach at a company is unbelievable," Levie said. Levie, who cofounded Box in 2005 and now leads a company serving more than 65% of the Fortune 500, said AI-literate graduates are better positioned to boost organizational efficiency than traditional junior engineers, and can do it faster. "They will be able to show companies way faster ways of working," he said. "If you're a company, you should be prioritizing this talent that's just like: 'Why does it take you guys two weeks to research a market to enter? I can do that in deep research and get an answer to you in 30 minutes.'" With AI tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot becoming standard in developer workflows, Levie said the newest generation of engineers will rely on them from day one. "The incoming class of engineers that you hire — they will literally not be able to code without AI assisting them," he said. "And it's not 100% obvious that's a bad thing." While some tech veterans worry that AI tools will undermine foundational programming skills, Levie took a more pragmatic view: AI can speed up development, make software engineering more accessible, and help young engineers make meaningful contributions earlier in their careers. The AI talent war Levie's push to hire AI-native grads comes amid a full-blown talent war among tech's biggest players — and tensions are rising. Last month, on his brother's podcast, "Uncapped with Jack Altman," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused Meta of trying to poach his top employees with signing bonuses of up to $100 million, calling the offers "crazy." Meta hasn't denied the claim. In fact, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly taking a hands-on role in recruitment, personally hosting top AI researchers at his home as he builds out Meta's new "superintelligence" unit, per Bloomberg. The rivalry is about more than talent — it's about who gets to define the next era of computing.
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Stanford University forced my wife out without ..., said Silicon Valley's most-prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen in a group chat with US government officials
Prominent venture capitalists are making headlines for their sharp criticisms of established institutions and, in one case, for incendiary comments regarding a political candidate, underscoring a growing ideological divide within the tech industry. Prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen , co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has reportedly launched a scathing attack on leading universities, including Stanford and MIT, and the National Science Foundation. According to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post, Andreessen, in a private group chat with AI scientists and officials of the Donald Trump administration, characterized MIT and Stanford as "mainly political operations fighting American innovation." He reportedly further said that Stanford "forced my wife out [as chair of its Center on Philanthropy and Civil society] without a second thought, a decision that will cost them something like $5 billion in future donations." Stanford and MIT have "declared war on 70% of the country" In a separate message, Andreessen reportedly declared that universities "declared war on 70% of the country and now they're going to pay the price," specifically targeting "DEI and immigration" as "two forms of discrimination" that are "politically lethal." These remarks align with Andreessen's previously stated support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, alongside a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz. Allies of Andreessen have since taken roles within the Trump administration. TechCrunch has reached out to a16z for comment. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years IC Markets Learn More Undo Meanwhile, venture giant Sequoia Capital is grappling with the fallout from controversial comments made by partner Shaun Maguire concerning Zohran Mamdani , the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. In a July 4th tweet on Twitter, which has garnered over 5 million views, Maguire labeled Mamdani an "Islamist" who "comes from a culture that lies about everything." In his tweets, Maguire stated: "Mamdani comes from a culture that lies about everything. It's literally a virtue to lie if it advances his Islamist agenda. The West will learn this lesson the hard way." He further elaborated, "People have lost the plot Islamist != to Muslim Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, The Taliban, The Ayatollahs in Iran, etc are Islamists Mamdani — a man who started an SJP chapter and defended Anwar al-Alawki — is an Islamist He's doing his best to hide this but it's clear." Sequoia Capital has maintained a "hands-off approach" to the controversy, a strategy now being tested as the company finds itself in the eye of a public storm. The incidents once again shows increasing political polarization within the tech sector and raise questions about the role and responsibilities of influential figures in shaping public discourse. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Eigen Labs Axes 25% of Staff to Focus on Building EigenCloud
Eigen Labs cut its workforce by 25%, losing 29 roles, as CEO Sreeram Kannan said he restructured the company to focus on developing EigenCloud, what he called a 'verifiable' alternative to existing, opaque cloud services. The Seattle-based startup said the dismissals were not a cash-crunch response. The comany is backed by $220 million in venture funding, including a $100 million Series B round led by a16z in February that gave it a $1 billion valuation. "As difficult as these changes are, they sharpen our focus as a company and ensure our teams are structured to sustainably pursue a single, ambitious goal: to build the world's first verifiable cloud platform," Kannan said in a post on X. "We move forward with a tighter strategy, renewed energy, and a team laser-focused on our mission." EigenLayer, the restaking protocol that underpins the project, and its data-availability sibling EigenDA will remain online as part of EigenCloud, Kannan added in separate post. Employees leaving company will receive three months of pay, accelerated token vesting, continued health coverage, and help finding new jobs, he said. He also invited other crypto firms to recruit the departing staff, signaling a wish to keep talent inside the ecosystem. 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
