AI & Robotics

While many venture firms seem to only have eyes for AI these days, Nexus Venture Partners is deliberately splitting its focus for its new $700 million fund. The firm will back AI startups and seek out India-focused startups in consumer, fintech, and digital infrastructure. AI has soaked up most of the venture capital raised globally and the 20-year-old VC firm also sees AI as a defining…

Amazon announced a new product Tuesday called “AI Factories” that allows big corporations and governments to run its AI systems in their own data centers. Or as AWS puts it: Customers supply the power and the data center, and AWS plunks in the AI system, manages it, and can tie it into other AWS cloud services. The idea is to cater to companies and governments concerned with data…

The Trump administration has agreed to inject up to $150 million into xLight, a semiconductor startup developing advanced chip-making technology, marking the third time the U.S. government has taken an equity position in a private startup and further expanding a controversial strategy that has put Washington on the cap tables of American companies. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the…

Amazon’s AI chatbot, Rufus, saw a surge of adoption on Black Friday, according to new data published over the weekend by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. In the U.S., Amazon sessions that resulted in a purchase surged 100% on Black Friday compared with the trailing 30 days, while sessions that resulted in a purchase and didn’t include Rufus increased by only 20%. In addition…