Stripe didn’t really buy OpenRouter because of the ‘singularity’

What does a payments giant want with a startup that routes prompts between different AI models? Stripe says it’s because of “the singularity” but it’s really for a far more real and powerful reason.

AI was supposed to win people over by now — it hasn’t

As AI becomes harder to avoid, consumers are growing more wary of the technology — and Silicon Valley is discovering that widespread adoption doesn’t necessarily lead to acceptance.

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Daniel Ek’s body-scanning startup Neko Health opens first US office, in New York

The scanning and bloodwork health startup founded by Spotify’s founder will officially launch in New York in about a month.

AI automation startup Relay shuts down, staff joins Google’s Chrome team

Relay, which offered businesses workflow automation, will stop operating next month. Its CEO and some of its staff plan to get to work on Google Chrome next.

Reddit begins testing a new audio and video experience, similar to popular TikTok videos

Reddit is beginning to test video and audio versions of popular posts, allowing users to watch or listen to Reddit stories instead of just reading them.

Feedly attributes weeklong slowdown to bug, not its AI pivot

Feedly says a bug is behind the performance issues that have made its web app nearly “unusable” for some users, while complaints about its mobile apps and customer support are adding to frustrations.

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Thrive’s Joshua Kushner chides Silicon Valley VCs over AI euphoria

The AI opportunity is huge but “it would also be a grave error in our minds to let excitement weaken our investment discipline,” Kushner warns in his first-ever investment letter.

Databricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.

AI is expensive, Ali Ghodsi tells TechCrunch. With so many investors wanting into his latest round, he said yes to more than planned.

Nvidia’s new $500B plan is risky but brilliant, especially for aging GPUs

Nvidia has a plan to make sure its GPUs won’t lose value. It wants to convince a new crop of financiers to keep lending for AI buildouts.

AI coding startup Cognition reportedly already in talks to raise at $40B valuation

Cognition may be looking to raise another mega round just a few months after raising $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation.