TechCapsules

AI inference company Baseten is reportedly closing a $1.5 billion funding round at a $13 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. This latest round represents a 160% increase in valuation in less than half a year, following a $300 million Series E round in May 2023 at a $5 billion valuation. The startup, launched in 2019, benefits from the "inference gold rush" and promises to handle inference quickly while controlling costs.

Elastic has agreed to buy DeductiveAI, a startup using AI to catch and resolve software bugs, for up to $85 million. DeductiveAI was founded in 2023 and came out of stealth last November with a $7.5 million seed round. The sale marks a speedy exit for the startup, operating in the fast-growing AI site reliability engineering sector. Elastic's observability software could benefit from Deductive's tech, enhancing its platform by giving customers tools to monitor performance and resolve [...]

General Intuition, a New York-based startup, is in talks to raise around $300 million, which would bring its valuation to over $2 billion. The startup, founded by Pim de Witte and co-founders Eloi Alonso, Adam Jelley, and Vincent Micheli, trains embodied AI and world models using a unique dataset from Medal's 2 billion videos per year. The funds will be used to scale up compute capacity and release a new product by the end of summer or

A coalition of US sodium-ion battery startups, known as the American Battery Leadership Coalition (ABLC), has formed to challenge China's dominance in the battery industry. The group, led by companies such as Alsym Energy and Peak Energy, aims to establish sodium-ion batteries as a key technology for US energy storage and manufacturing competitiveness. ABLC recognizes that China has a significant lead in sodium-ion manufacturing, but believes the US can still establish a leadership position through domestic resources [...]

Chinese startup Spark Space has secured funding for its electric-pump-fed rocket, the Jinhua-1, following successful engine tests. The rocket is set to debut in 2027 and will be powered by nine Lieyan-2 engines, giving it a liftoff thrust of 90 tons. The company has raised nearly 100 million yuan in a Pre-A round and tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A+ funding, with plans to use the funds to develop the rocket. The Jinhua-1 has a payload [...]

Israeli quantum startup Quantum Pulse Ventures has unveiled a manufacturing line tweak called QP2.0, which promises a tenfold boost in quantum computer performance. The platform centers on a redesigned universal directional coupler that improves operational fidelity and robustness against fabrication variability. This innovation addresses a major challenge in quantum computing: the need for a vast number of physical qubits and extensive error correction to deliver one logical qubit. Quantum Pulse's design uses composite wave guides to reduce [...]

Elon Musk has announced that xAI's model, Grok, will be capable of creating full movies by the end of 2026. A trailer for Homer's The Odyssey, created using Grok Imagine Video 1.5, showcases the AI's rapid strides in video generation. The 2-minute-plus trailer features 36 consistent shots, realistic special effects, and emotional depth, demonstrating Grok's capabilities in scale, physics, and cinematic workflow. Musk believes Grok will be "watchable" by the end of 2026 and "really good" by

Astrall Dynamics, a Shenzhen-based embodied AI robotics startup, has secured investment from SAIC Motor and Dongfang Precision, increasing its registered capital to 67.33 million yuan. Founded in June 2024, the company specializes in R&D, manufacturing, and sales of smart robots and motor control systems. Astrall Dynamics has also partnered with China Life Property & Casualty Insurance to develop dedicated insurance products for quadruped robots, aiming to drive innovation in smart equipment and establish a new model for