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AI chip startup Axelera lands $27M in capital to commercialize its hardware

TechCrunch

Several years ago, Fabrizio Del Maffeo and a core team from Imec, a Belgium-based nanotechnology lab, teamed up with Evangelos Eleftheriou and a group of researchers at IBM Zurich Lab to develop a computer chip. “One of the main challenges we’re facing is the availability and accessibility of AI to different groups and industries.

Hardware 240
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Prelaunch assembles a pre-seed round to help hardware founders pre-build the right pre-products

TechCrunch

Hardware startups are hard, the saying goes, but it isn’t always obvious why they are hard. ” How the FirstBuild product co-creation studio is changing how new things are made Prelaunch is founded on the core belief that the current practices in hardware product development basically haven’t changed in the last 100 years.

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Ex-Apple designer’s ultra-premium audio hardware startup Syng raises $48.75 million

TechCrunch

Audio startup Syng has been building on quite a bit more hype than the average fresh hardware startup, largely because of the team behind it. The company has now raised $50 million to date to build out an audio hardware startup with a hefty focus on design and advanced tech.

Hardware 169
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Humane, a stealthy hardware and software startup co-founded by an ex-Apple designer and engineer, raises $100M

TechCrunch

Tiger Global Management is leading the round, with SoftBank Group, BOND, Forerunner Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures also participating. 5 consumer hardware VCs share their 2021 investment strategies. This is a Series B, and it’s coming from some very high-profile backers. One sign of where all that funding will be going.)

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Meet Unstable Diffusion, the group trying to monetize AI porn generators

TechCrunch

The generated porn could have negative consequences particularly for marginalized groups, the ethicists say, including the artists and adult actors who make a living creating porn to fulfill customers’ fantasies. The group has its work cut out for it. A censored image from Unstable Diffusion’s Discord server.

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Spinning out from the cryptocurrency hardware developer Bitfury, LiquidStack pitches a data center cooling tech

TechCrunch

Enter LiquidStack , a company that’s spinning out from the cryptocurrency hardware technology developer Bitfury Group with a $10 million investment. It’s one of the major criticisms of cryptocurrency operations and something that many in the industry are trying to address.

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Daily Crunch: Citizen Lab claims Apple’s ‘Lockdown Mode’ helped block spyware attack by hacker group NSO

TechCrunch

In Apple’s case, researchers looking into spyware vulnerabilities said its “Lockdown Mode” was able to thwart the advances of the infamous mercenary hacking provider NSO Group. Fill that pit lest you fall in : Over on TC+, Haje explores 7 common pitfalls for hardware startups and how to avoid them. Lorenzo has more.

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