Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] Cognition, the AI coding startup that acquired rival company Windsurf three weeks ago, laid off 30 employees last week and is offering buyouts to the roughly 200 remaining employees on the team, reports The Information. This is the latest bout of whiplash that Windsurf employees have faced after a tumultuous stretch for the company. The startup was initially almost acquired by OpenAI, then lost its CEO, co-founder, and research leads to Google in a $2.4 billion deal known as a reverse-acquihire (where Google hired the key talent rather than buying the company), before ultimately getting acquired by Cognition.   At…

[ad_1] The AI audio-generation unicorn ElevenLabs announced a new model on Tuesday that allows users to generate music, which it claims is cleared for commercial use. This move marks ElevenLabs’ expansion beyond its main focus thus far in its three years of existence, which has been building AI audio tools. ElevenLabs is a leader among companies making text-to-speech AI products, and it has expanded into conversational bots and tools that translate speech into other languages. Alongside the launch, Eleven Labs shared samples of its AI-generated music. One features a synthetic voice rapping about how it “came up through the cracks…

[ad_1] The semiconductor industry’s rollercoaster year continues with another major development. President Donald Trump said on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that his administration is planning to announce tariffs on semiconductors and chips as soon as next week. However, the specifics of these tariffs remain unclear. Such tariffs could cause quite a disruption for U.S. hardware and AI companies. When the U.S. CHIPs and Science Act was signed in 2022 — providing $52 billion in subsidies to boost domestic chip manufacturing — the U.S. produced only about 10% of global chips. Despite this small manufacturing footprint, more than half of…

[ad_1] Finding product-market fit isn’t a milestone — it’s a messy, make-or-break journey. And at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, a founder who’s been through the fire and two investors who’ve helped startups hit escape velocity will break down how to do it right. On the Builders Stage, Rajat Bhageria (Founder & CEO, Chef Robotics), Ann Bordetsky (Partner, NEA), and Murali Joshi (Partner, ICONIQ) join forces to unpack the most critical — and elusive — phase in a startup’s life cycle. They’ll dive into smart testing strategies, real-time iteration, and how to listen to your users without getting lost in the noise.…

[ad_1] Google DeepMind has revealed Genie 3, its latest foundation world model that can be used to train general-purpose AI agents, a capability that the AI lab says makes for a crucial stepping stone on the path to “artificial general intelligence,” or human-like intelligence.  “Genie 3 is the first real-time interactive general-purpose world model,” Shlomi Fruchter, a research director at DeepMind, said during a press briefing. “It goes beyond narrow world models that existed before. It’s not specific to any particular environment. It can generate both photo-realistic and imaginary worlds, and everything in between.” Still in research preview and not…

[ad_1] TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 marks 20 years of driving the startup world forward — and you’ve got just two days left to join the movement and save up to $675 on your ticket. From October 27-29, Moscone West becomes the home base for over 10,000 movers and makers in the tech world. Join us in San Francisco as we celebrate two decades of startup breakthroughs, VC connections, and industry-shifting ideas. The deadline to lock in savings is August 6 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Don’t wait — register now to save big. Why go to Disrupt 2025? Disrupt is more than…

[ad_1] Novo Nordisk is in a tough spot as Ozempic sales lag behind Eli Lilly ‘s rival anti-obesity drugs, according to UBS. Analyst Matthew Weston downgraded the Danish pharmaceutical giant to neutral from buy, and slashed his 12-month price target some 43%, to about $52.55 from nearly $93 previously. The new objective implies roughly 8% upside from Novo’s Monday close in the U.S. of $48.81. Westin’s believes Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic semaglutide injection will not be able to regain market leadership to rival let alone beat Lilly in the GLP-1 space. Novo Nordisk’s market share loss comes even as it has…

[ad_1] Here are Tuesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Deutsche Bank upgrades Palantir to hold from sell Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock following earnings and said it was “late,” but that the stock remains well positioned. “We were admittedly quite late to the party in appreciating how Palantir’s platform is uniquely positioned for AI and changed the trajectory of the company.” Read more. Bank of America reiterates Palantir as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $180 per share from $150. “We see Palantir as a beneficiary of rapidly growing demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-platforms…

[ad_1] Bernstein is sticking by Oracle as the artificial intelligence buildout creates long-term value for the cloud services and infrastructure company. Analyst Mark Moerdler reiterated his outperform rating and raised his price target to $308 from $269. His new target suggests nearly 22% potential upside for the stock, which has rallied about 51.5% this year. “Oracle is in the early days of a massive Cloud transition, with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) on track to become the 4th largest global hyperscaler and growth accelerating,” the analyst wrote in a Tuesday note to clients. “While most of the revenue today is from…

[ad_1] Analysts are floating growth concerns over Palantir after the company’s latest quarterly report. The artificial intelligence software provider on Monday reported results that topped top and bottom line estimates . It also hiked its full-year guidance given explosive growth in AI. The company’s revenues grew 48% during the period and hit $1 billion for the first time. Palantir shares jumped more than 5% in early morning trading, continuing its post-earnings rally. Year to date, the stock has rallied 112.4%. Some analysts raised their price targets on the stock after the report. However, the Street remains divided on shares. Of…