The week of electronica and SEMICON Europa in Munich brings a wave of chip-tooling announcements. Three from November 9 are worth a look, because each targets a different bottleneck: the engineer writing firmware, the designer putting AI into a chip, and the factory trying to build quantum processors at scale. Texas Instruments: agents inside the IDE TI has added agentic AI … [Read more...] about TI Lets AI Agents Write, Build and Debug Code in CCStudio as Expedera Pairs Its NPU With Cadence and EV Group Pitches Packaging for Qubits
Teradyne Tests Edge AI Boards, MIPS Puts Motor Control Inside Robot Joints and Kopin Grows US MicroLED Production
Most AI hardware news is about data centers. Three announcements on November 9 were about the other end: the boards, joints and displays that put AI into machines that move. Teradyne launched a test system for edge AI circuit boards, MIPS previewed a chip platform built to sit inside a robot's elbow or wrist, and Kopin said it will expand its Massachusetts site to make MicroLED … [Read more...] about Teradyne Tests Edge AI Boards, MIPS Puts Motor Control Inside Robot Joints and Kopin Grows US MicroLED Production
AI in Medicine Moves From Demos to Trials With Viz.ai Heart Data, Cancer Grand Challenges AURORA Teams and a Feinstein Delirium Grant
Three medical AI announcements came out on November 6. None of them is a product launch. Each is about testing AI against something hard to fake, like patient records, lab results or hospital outcomes. That is where the field is heading after two years of chatbot demos. Viz.ai finds heart disease the records missed Two abstracts on Viz HCM, the AI-ECG algorithm in Viz.ai's … [Read more...] about AI in Medicine Moves From Demos to Trials With Viz.ai Heart Data, Cancer Grand Challenges AURORA Teams and a Feinstein Delirium Grant
Nooks Gets 500 Million Dollars From General Catalyst for AI Sales Agents as Phaze and Shackleton AI Raise Seed Rounds
Three agent companies raised money on November 4, and the sizes couldn't be further apart. Nooks took $500 million for AI that works alongside salespeople. Phaze raised an $8.75 million seed to give agents their own computers. Shackleton AI raised $5 million to put agents on construction sites. What ties them together is the question each one answers differently: where does an … [Read more...] about Nooks Gets 500 Million Dollars From General Catalyst for AI Sales Agents as Phaze and Shackleton AI Raise Seed Rounds
Kalepa Raises $75 Million for Insurance AI as Capgemini and Rootstock Surveys Show Agents Still Need a Human Sign-Off
Three releases on November 5, from insurance, banking and manufacturing, all landed on the same design for AI agents: let them do the work, keep a person on the decision. Kalepa, a New York underwriting software company, raised a $75 million Series B at a $470 million valuation, led by Updata Partners with IA Ventures and Inspired Capital joining. Inspired led its $14 million … [Read more...] about Kalepa Raises $75 Million for Insurance AI as Capgemini and Rootstock Surveys Show Agents Still Need a Human Sign-Off
Visa Benchmark Finds AI Shopping Agents Fail 42.8% of Runs as FIS Survey Shows Consumers Want AI Guarding Money First
Two releases landed on November 5 that read like the same study run from opposite ends. Visa tested what AI shopping agents can do. FIS asked what people will let them do. The answers line up uncomfortably well. Visa's new Agentic Commerce Benchmark put 22 models from 12 labs through 15 shopping tasks, things like buying a TV, a laptop or a personal care appliance, with each … [Read more...] about Visa Benchmark Finds AI Shopping Agents Fail 42.8% of Runs as FIS Survey Shows Consumers Want AI Guarding Money First
Braid Raises $38 Million to Put Branded eSIM Plans Inside Travel and Banking Apps
Braid has raised $38 million in Series A funding to help businesses offer mobile connectivity under their own brands. Octopus Ventures led the round, with KPN Ventures participating. The Hague company, previously called Next Communications, announced the financing on October 29. Its proposition puts another everyday purchase within reach of the apps that already hold a customer … [Read more...] about Braid Raises $38 Million to Put Branded eSIM Plans Inside Travel and Banking Apps
Cognizant Puts 25,000 Staff Behind OpenAI as IT Services Firms Become the Delivery Channel for Enterprise AI
Cognizant said on October 30 it has formed an OpenAI Frontier Capability Group, pulling more than 25,000 of its people into one global organization that delivers OpenAI products, Codex and ChatGPT among them, to clients. The company also says more than 21,000 associates have earned over 40,000 OpenAI badges for finishing OpenAI learning tracks. Read the numbers carefully. The … [Read more...] about Cognizant Puts 25,000 Staff Behind OpenAI as IT Services Firms Become the Delivery Channel for Enterprise AI
Rapidus Taps HCLTech Engineers in India as Japan’s 2nm Foundry Still Hunts for Its First Signed Customer
Rapidus, Japan's state-backed bid to make leading-edge logic chips at home, now has two engineering centers in India. HCLTech opened them in Bengaluru and Hubli, with a ceremony on October 26 at HCLTech's headquarters in Noida. Their job is to do semiconductor engineering for Rapidus: mask design, design infrastructure, process design kit (PDK) development, design technology … [Read more...] about Rapidus Taps HCLTech Engineers in India as Japan’s 2nm Foundry Still Hunts for Its First Signed Customer
XGIMI AURA 3 Projector Raises $15 Million on Kickstarter in 23 Hours as Brands Turn Crowdfunding Into Pre-Orders
XGIMI's AURA 3 Series went live on Kickstarter on October 20 and, by the company's count, passed $10 million in pledges in about two hours. Within 23 hours it was over $15 million, with more than 5,800 backers. XGIMI calls the two-hour mark a new Kickstarter record for the fastest campaign to reach $10 million. That's a big number for a projector. It's also XGIMI's second … [Read more...] about XGIMI AURA 3 Projector Raises $15 Million on Kickstarter in 23 Hours as Brands Turn Crowdfunding Into Pre-Orders