Venture gets a rare Native American-led fund in Betsy Fore’s Velveteen Ventures
The firm will look to invest $500,000 to $4 million in 15-20 seed and Series A companies in the healthcare, climate, consumer, and community sectors.
Mistral releases Voxtral, its first open source AI audio model
French startup Mistral has jumped into the audio race with Voxtral, its first open model, aiming to challenge the dominance of walled-off corporate systems with open-weight alternatives.
Research leaders urge tech industry to monitor AI’s ‘thoughts’
Research leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind are urging tech companies and research groups to monitor AI’s “thoughts.”
Rwazi raises $12M Series A to help companies with consumer insights and intelligence
Rwazi has raised a $12 million Series A led by Bonfire Ventures to help companies with market intelligence and consumer insights
Apple commits $500M to U.S.-based rare earth recycling firm MP Materials
The factory will develop a series of neodymium magnet manufacturing lines specifically designed for Apple products.
Uber’s latest robotaxi partner is China’s Baidu
Baidu is the latest addition to Uber’s growing list of autonomous vehicle partners, which includes Waymo, Volkswagen, May Mobility, and Pony AI.
Reddit rolls out age verification in the UK to comply with new rules
Reddit users in the UK will have to upload their ID or a selfie to access potentially harmful content.
Rivian taps Google to bring custom maps into its EVs and app
Rivian vehicles will soon replace its Mapbox-based maps with Google Maps. The integration will still see a lot of Rivian DNA in the new mapping system, though.
China’s Geely is officially bringing its luxury EV startup Zeekr private
China’s Geely Auto is officially taking its luxury EV subsidiary Zeekr private, just over a year after the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.
ParadeDB takes on Elasticsearch as interest in Postgres explodes amid AI boom
ParadeDB built a Postgres extension that facilitates full-text search and analytics on Postgres without the need to transfer data.