The AI wars are (still) heating up

Author

Alex Wilhelm
February 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Top News

  • The AI wars are (still) heating up: News broke this afternoon that xAI, a foundation model startup that is part of the TWiST500, is looking to raise about $10 billion at a valuation that could reach $75 billion. The news comes after reporting indicated that xAI competitor OpenAI could raise $40 billion at a valuation as high as $300 billion. Anthropic has raised about $5 billion in recent months. There appears to be no upper bound to AI investment today.

  • Project Waterworth: Meta is building a 50,000 kilometer undersea cable that will nearly circumnavigate the globe, starting in North America before heading to South America, then off to Africa, Asia, Oceania, before coming back to the United States. Meta is not alone in investing in underwater cable infra. Google has also spent big data transfer technology, as have Microsoft and Amazon. (Are you a real player in technology if you don’t have your own undersea cables?)

  • EU to limit AI rules: In good news for European startups, the bloc intends to avoid getting in the way of upstart tech companies building, and building with AI. The EU stressed that this was its own choice — and not a decision made in response to external pressure. France has made lots of AI noise lately to notable effect. It appears that Europe has shifted gears from its earlier posture, and intends to play for keeps amongst the other AI powers around the globe.

TWiST500

The other day we took a look at investment, and promise in the humanoid robotics space. TWiST500 member company Apptronik’s massive $350 million round was certainly notable. And pledges from other humanoid robotics startups like Figure to start shipping in volume have kept us excited.

But there’s another player or two in the market that we should pay attention to:

  • Apple: Reportedly looking at both humanoid, and non-humanoid robots. Apple’s brand power alone would help it sell a lot of units, right?

  • Meta: Even more recently, Meta was pipped as working “on its own humanoid robot hardware, with an initial focus on household chores.”

Does the possible entrance of two technology Goliaths scupper our view that humanoid robotics startups are cooking up something both magical and lucrative? Not at all. In fact, it underlines our enthusiasm for the space. Heck, Meta and Apple could wind up as acquirers in the space. Regardless, keep both eyes on the human robots coming to market. Someone is going to win. And I’d bet on a startup. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2084: Jason and Alex interview Sam Lessin from Slow Ventures to discuss the creator economy and their $60M creator fun. They also have a great interview with David Kirtley, the CEO and Co-founder of Helion Energy, about their fusion reactors and the future of energy generation. And Lon Harris hops in to discuss copyright infringement and how it will affect LLMs. Great episode!

E2083: Former newsreader Lon (that’s me!) makes a prodigal son-esque return to the show this week to chat with Jason and Alex about all the tech ads that aired during Super Bowl LIX, and they pick some of their favorite (and least favorite) spots. Then Jason and Alex cover France’s investment strategy when it comes to AI innovation, and AI’s likely impact on employment in the IT sphere, plus they look ahead to some key upcoming earnings reports. All that and the latest on the Founder Fridays competition.

E2082:Jason and Alex break down Trump’s latest move against the carried interest tax loophole—could this shake up venture capital? Then, Orbit Fab CEO Daniel Faber joins to discuss how his company is building “gas stations in space” to refuel satellites and enable the industrialization of space. Plus, Deel’s massive $300M secondary sale, the CapBase acquisition, and big shifts in the European AI and energy sectors.

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