startups

Inside the Billion-Dollar Startup Bringing AI Into the Physical World

Inside the Billion-Dollar Startup Bringing AI Into the Physical World

OpenAI is evidently ramping up its own robotics efforts, too. Last week, Caitlin Kalinowski, who previously led the development of virtual and augmented reality headsets at Meta, announced on LinkedIn that she was joining OpenAI to work on hardware, including robotics.Lachy Groom, a friend of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and an investor and cofounder of Physical Intelligence, joins the team at the conference room to discuss the business side of the plan. Groom wears an expensive-looking hoodie and seems remarkably young. He stresses that Physical Intelligence has plenty of runway to pursue a breakthrough in robot learning. “I just had…
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A High-Profile Geneticist Is Launching a Fusion-Power Moonshot

A High-Profile Geneticist Is Launching a Fusion-Power Moonshot

Eric Lander is a Big Science heavyweight. A geneticist, molecular biologist, and mathematician, he led the International Human Genome Project and is founding director of the powerful Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. His countless accolades include a MacArthur “genius” grant and 14 honorary doctorates. When Joe Biden became president, he tapped Lander to be his science adviser and the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lander lost the job because of charges that he bullied subordinates, but he went on to head a nonprofit organization called Science for America.So what is he doing running a Silicon…
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The Hottest Startups in Dublin in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Dublin in 2024

Thanks to low corporation tax and government incentives, Dublin has hosted the European Headquarters of many large US technology companies—Google, Meta, LinkedIn and Microsoft all have offices in the city’s Silicon Docks.“The big US companies operated independently of the startup world for many years,” explains Will Prendergast, partner at Frontline Ventures. “But in the last five years, US technology companies have been building product and engineering functions here, and that talent is starting to spill out, driving startup creation.”Government support via Enterprise Ireland’s Pre-Seed Start Fund, designed to accelerate early stage startups, and hubs such as Dogpatch Labs are supporting…
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The Hottest Startups in London in 2024

The Hottest Startups in London in 2024

In the “Startup-up, Scale-up” review report published last year, chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to make Britain the “high growth, start-up hub of the world”. Now, almost six months into the new government, entrepreneurs remain encouraged by the promises made in the Labour manifesto. “The ambition embodied in Great British Energy and the 2030 decarbonization targets is precisely what we need and deserve,” says Shilpika Gautam, CEO of greentech startup Opna, about Labour’s energy policies. “It's high time the UK caught up with the policy and financing innovations in other countries, such as the Inflation Reduction Act in the US.”Amit Gudka,…
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The Hottest Startups in Madrid in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Madrid in 2024

Having spent many years as second fiddle to Barcelona, Madrid surpassed its Catalan cousin in 2023 with startups securing €605 million ($672 million) investment above Barcelona’s €457 million ($507 million). “Lots of Latin American talent is arriving thanks to the recent entrepreneur visa and talent programs run by Telefonica to bring promising startup founders from Mexico, Argentina, Columbia and Venezuela,” explains Bu Haces, innovation consultant at Madrid’s Impact Hub.The city has seen solid growth in transportation, mobility and fintech startups during the last three years with AI and deep tech supercharged by an astonishing 56 universities. “The business schools in…
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The Hottest Startups in Helsinki in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Helsinki in 2024

Helsinki’s startup scene evolved around behemoths such as Nokia, games giant Supercell and food delivery platform Wolt. It’s reaping the rewards with experienced entrepreneurs, investors and engineers powering a lively scene based around the Aalto University campus and the startup festival Slush, one of the world’s largest gatherings of investors and startups.“We appreciate work-life balance and collaboration,” explains Jonne Kuittinen, deputy chief executive of the Finnish Venture Capital Association. “The Supercell guys were very open about paying all their taxes in Finland and this giving back mentality is visible now these founders are helping out on a lot of the…
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The Hottest Startups in Lisbon in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Lisbon in 2024

Two years ago, Jon Fath moved with his family to Portugal from the Netherlands with the sole purpose of launching a fintech startup there. “This country is brimming with talent and ambition,” Fath says. “I thank Lisbon for welcoming me, along with so many other expats and entrepreneurs, so warmly.”Indeed, it’s no surprise that the European Commission named Lisbon as 2023’s European Capital of Innovation, while the Financial Times, in partnership with Statista, ranked two Portuguese startup hubs in Europe’s top ten startup hubs—including the Unicorn Factory Lisboa, which launched in 2022 and has already supported more than 820 startups…
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The Hottest Startups in Amsterdam in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Amsterdam in 2024

The 2023 Atomico's State of European Tech Report reveals Netherlands to be a standout success, cementing its position as a star player in the startup ecosystem. In terms of capital invested in its private tech companies, for instance, it’s risen back into the top five countries with a projected $2.1 billion. And while the UK has seen the share of its European capital invested drop by almost three per cent within the last three years, the Netherlands comes out top, capturing the biggest gains in Europe at almost 2 per cent. The hub of the Netherlands’ startup ecosystem is Amsterdam,…
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The Hottest Startups in Zurich in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Zurich in 2024

Home to fine cheese, breathtaking scenery and footballing politics (FIFA HQ overlooks Lake Zurich), Switzerland’s largest city is also a financial juggernaut. The central square of Paradeplatz is its beating heart, where the Swiss banking system pumps venture capital funding into a thriving tech ecosystem—around CHF 72 million (more than $1 billion) was poured into Zurich startups alone in 2023.Fintech is a natural major player, but if the banking industry is the ecosystem’s engine, innovation is its fuel. Many of the city’s most exciting startups began life as student projects at its world-leading universities, which provide a steady flow of…
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The Hottest Startups in Paris in 2024

The Hottest Startups in Paris in 2024

In the past two years the French capital has been in the throes of AI fever and has launched some of Europe’s most talked-about startups, including Mistral, which is currently valued at $6.2 billion (£4.7 billion). That’s partly down to the support the industry has received. President Emmanuel Macron has given French AI startups some emphatic political backing, while telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel has provided much investment and will to finance national ambition. In September 2023, Niel invested €200 million ($212 million), splitting that money between funding for startups such as Mistral, an AI research lab called Kyutai and a…
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