Tootfinder

A few days back I tweeted and blogged about the brand-new RFC 9839, and also published the first draft of tiny Go library to help enforce the subsets defined in the RFC. Got lots of useful input on the library and have progressed it enough to do a v0.8.0 release: https://github.com/timbray/rfc9839…

Experts warn that Nvidia's large investments in data centers and startups, almost like a stimulus program, could be artificially inflating demand for its GPUs (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/jensen-huang-using-nvidia-cash-r…

How Jensen Huang is Using Nvidia Cash to Rule the AI Economy
Even by the standards of one of the most prodigious dealmakers in tech, the past month or so has been a head-spinning one for Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. Just in September, Nvidia agreed to buy any unused Nvidia graphics processing units that cloud provider CoreWeave doesn’t sell to other customers ...

Sources: DeepSeek plans to use Huawei's Ascend AI chips to train smaller versions of its upcoming R2 models but will still use Nvidia chips for largest models (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/deepseek-opts-huawei-chips-train-models…

DeepSeek Opts for Huawei Chips to Train Some Models
DeepSeek, one of China’s leading artificial intelligence developers, has decided to use Huawei Technologies’ AI chips to train some of its AI models, a sign it is reducing its reliance on Nvidia chips, according to three people with knowledge of the effort. The move follows pressure by the ...

Runway and Luma AI say they are talking to robotics and self-driving car companies about their video models and expect these revenue sources to eclipse studios (Rocket Drew/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/runway-luma-target-sales-r…

Runway, Luma Target Sales to Robotics Companies
Imax on Monday announced that it would screen the winning films from Runway’s AI-generated film festival at some of its theaters. Netflix recently said it had used AI to generate a scene in one of its shows for the first time: a building collapsing in The Eternaut, an Argentine sci-fi show.Both ...

Sources: Pinecone, which provides an AI-compatible vector database, is exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest; Pinecone was valued at $750M in 2023 (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/top-funded-ai-database-star…

Top-Funded AI Database Startup Pinecone Considers a Sale
When the artificial intelligence boom began a few years ago, investors flocked to startups that helped businesses transform and store proprietary data in a format AI could understand, known as a vector database. The technology allowed businesses to use a customized AI chatbot to search or ...

Sources: Meta Superintelligence Labs' leaders have discussed using Google or OpenAI's models to power Meta AI and other AI features in Meta's social media apps (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/metas-ai-lead…

Meta’s AI Leaders Discuss Using Google, OpenAI Models in Apps
Meta Platforms’ plans to improve the artificial intelligence features in its apps could lead the company to partner with Google or OpenAI, two of its biggest AI rivals. Leaders in Meta’s new AI organization, Meta Superintelligence Labs, have discussed using Google’s Gemini model to provide ...

Docs: Groq revised its 2025 revenue projections to $500M within the past month, citing delays in data center capacity, after projecting $2B earlier this year (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ai-chipmaker-groq-sla…

AI Chipmaker Groq Slashes Projections Soon After Sharing With Investors
Groq, a richly funded chip startup trying to take on Nvidia, told investors early this year it was on track to have more than $2 billion in revenue for 2025. Within the past month, the number it gave to investors has fallen to more than $500 million, according to documents viewed by The ...

Daniel Ek says Spotify's ad business has "been moving too slowly"; Spotify ad chief Lee Brown left on July 28 to join DoorDash as its chief revenue officer (Catherine Perloff/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/spotify-says-…

Spotify Says Ad Business is Moving Too Slowly
Spotify executives on Tuesday signalled that the departure of its ad chief, Lee Brown, on Monday was in response to their unhappiness with the speed of changes with the company’s ad business. In a second quarter earnings conference call, Spotify co-president Alex Norstrom responded to a question about Brown’s exit, said that “we need to see more progress within ads…we felt it was the right time

Sources: Cohere has told investors it expects to generate $200M in annualized revenue by the end of 2025, up from $70M in annualized revenue as of February (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ai-startup-cohe…

AI Startup Cohere Projects $200 Million Revenue Pace as New Funding Nears
Cohere, a Canadian artificial intelligence developer that competes with Anthropic and OpenAI, has sustained one of the richest valuations in the industry as a multiple of the relatively modest revenue it generates. Now it’s told investors that sales are picking up—enough to entice existing ...

Rain, a stablecoin-backed Visa card issuer, raised a $58M Series B led by Sapphire Ventures, after raising a $24.5M Series A led by Norwest in March (Yueqi Yang/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/stablecoin-…

Stablecoin Card Startup Rain Raises $58 Million Led By Sapphire Ventures
Rain, a stablecoin-backed card issuer that works with Visa, said it raised $58 million in Series B round led by Sapphire Ventures, just months after its last fundraising round, demonstrating once again investor enthusiasm for crypto startups flowing from congressional passage of stablecoin legislation in July. With the deal, Rain’s valuation increased nearly six times from its $24.5 million