In a remarkably short time, Anysphere, the parent company of AI coding assistant Cursor, has managed to raise a $60M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $100M Series B led by Thrive. The latter round places the startup at an estimated $2.6B valuation.
AI startup Decart has raised $53 million in total funding as it pivots from its profitable AI infrastructure business to developing real-time video generation and world models. Decart recently previewed Oasis, its foundation model capable of generating "playable" Minecraft-like worlds.
GitHub has launched a free version of its AI coding assistant Copilot with limited monthly completions and chat messages, aiming to expand access to AI programming tools as part of its mission to reach one billion developers worldwide.
Grammarly has acquired Coda to create an AI-powered productivity platform that combines Grammarly's writing assistance technology with Coda's document and workflow tools, with Coda's co-founder Shishir Mehrotra taking over as CEO of the combined company.
YouTube has partnered with Creative Artists Agency to develop and test new AI tools that will help celebrities and creators identify and manage AI-generated content featuring their likeness on the platform.
Otterly.AI, the first AI search monitoring platform, has launched from stealth with over 1,000 users, helping brands track and optimize their visibility across major AI search engines like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews as traditional search traffic faces disruption from AI adoption.
Writer has launched Palmyra Creative, a new AI model designed to produce more creative and engaging outputs. According to Writer, Palmyra Creative can be combined with the company's specialized models to bring creative writing to domains such as finance and healthcare.
Databricks has secured a massive $10 billion Series J funding round led by Thrive Capital, valuing the company at $62 billion, as it experiences rapid growth driven by AI demand. Databricks expects to cross $3 billion in revenue run rate and achieve positive free cash flow this quarter.
Google recently announced the release of an early version of its first 'reasoning' model, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking. The model features text and image understanding and text outputs, and is now available via the Gemini API and in the Google AI Studio.
YouTube has launched a new setting that opts creators out of third party model training and enables them to choose whether they want all, some or no third-parties to train models using their content.
Google DeepMind recently unveiled Veo 2, a video generation model capable of outputting consistent and realistic minutes-long video clips in up to 4K resolution. Veo 2 is currently available through Google Labs' Video FX.
Mistral AI recently started receiving applications for its startup program, Mistralship. Ten selected applicants will benefit from La Plateforme credits, one-on-one support, and early access to models and products in the first six-month cohort. Applications close on January 5, 2025.