AI Update - Friday, March 22, 2024

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? Here’s how Microsoft is providing a ‘good outcome’ for Inflection AI VCs, as Reid Hoffman promised

Exactly how much Microsoft is?paying all the investors of Inflection AI?as part its oddly structured deal to abscond with the co-founders, much of the staff and the rights to use the tech hasn’t been publicly revealed. And Microsoft declined comment when asked.

? Reddit stock closes up nearly 48% on its first day of trading

Shares of social forum giant?Reddit closed its first day of trading at $50.31, up nearly 48% from its?IPO price of $34 per share. The company had indicated a target range of?$31 to $34 per share?in the run-up to its public-market debut, eventually settling on the top-end of that interval. Prices are still bouncing, though have cooled and appear to be settling in at below $50.

? A new web3 network is being built right now that wants to end Big Tech’s control of your data

Many of the people building web3 feel like the traditional web ecosystem has taken advantage of users and their data. While it benefits a number of businesses, data miners and even AI models, some see it as an overreach.

? TechCrunch Minute: All about Microsoft’s mega AI push after it hired Inflection AI’s co-founders

Microsoft’s?latest gambit?to snag much of the human talent from Inflection AI is causing waves this week. Redmond has previously invested in the company, but is now absorbing much of its staff into a new division it created for just that purpose.

? Copilot gets its own key on Microsoft’s new Surface devices

We’re still a month or so out from Build, but Microsoft is doing a bit of a trial run this week in the form of an online-only event. What’s been billed as a Windows event is, predictably, focused on AI efforts, with?Copilot taking the wheel. A pair of refreshes to the Surface line announced at the event are, predictably, putting the software giant’s chatbot front and center.

?Astera Labs’ IPO pops 72% on first day, showing that investor demand for tech with an AI twist is high

Astera Labs started its life as a public company trading at $52.56 per share, up 46% when the bell rang. The company priced its IPO?last night at $36 per share, above its raised price range. Astera’s debut marks the first material technology offering this year that TechCrunch is tracking. Reddit, the well-known social forum and AI data provider, is expected to price after the close of trading today and begin its own public saga tomorrow.

? GitHub’s latest AI tool can automatically fix code vulnerabilities

It’s a bad day for bugs. Earlier today, Sentry announced its AI Autofix feature for debugging production code and now, a few hours later, GitHub is launching the first beta of its code-scanning autofix feature for finding and fixing security vulnerabilities during the coding process. This new feature combines the real-time capabilities of GitHub’s Copilot with?CodeQL, the company’s semantic code analysis engine. The company first?previewed?this capability last November.

? Astera Labs goes public, and the Inflection-Microsoft AI saga continues

(PODCAST)Welcome back to?Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, focused on startup and venture capital news that matters.

Today we have a grip of startup stories, and a venture capital item that isn’t as bad of news as it seems at first blush.

Listen here or?wherever you get your podcasts.

Here’s the rundown:

• Astera Labs is going public after pricing above-range.?We’ll see how it trades today, but it’s good news that the first real tech IPO of the year set its share price at $36, higher than even its raised-price interval.
• TigerEye’s $35 million round?for business intelligence gives us a peek at how tech could help businesses navigate the future. There’s a YC connection as well, which is worth keeping in mind.
• Pocket FM’s mega-round shows that consumer-focused technology plays can still pay handsomely. Even more notably, Pocket FM’s business model is contra-subscription, which is delightfully different.
• And then there’s the?Inflection AI-Microsoft-saga, which is part startup story, part corporate venture capital story, and part antitrust story.
• We also touched on?the boom in two-wheel electric vehicle companies in India, and?why one pension fund’s move to lower its venture allocation?isn’t as worrying as it might sound.