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Yann LeCun raises $1 billion for his Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, breaking European records

One of the esteemed pioneers of generative AI, Yann LeCun has raised $1.03 billion in a seed funding round for his company Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs, which is the largest seed round for a European company. This give AMI labs a pre-money valuation of $3.5 billion.

The company said the round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. Nvidia, Dassault Group, and global investment firm Temasek are also listed as investors.

After recently leaving Meta, LeCun is making a bold bet that “world models” — which understand how physical objects interact with their environment — are the key to AI’s next big breakthrough, rather than large language models.

The EU is eager to build out its own bench of AI startups as it seeks to build a “Euro stack” that lessens the region’s dependence on American tech companies. The Paris-based AMI Labs will instantly become one of the most important tech companies working on AI in the EU.

The company said the round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. Nvidia, Dassault Group, and global investment firm Temasek are also listed as investors.

After recently leaving Meta, LeCun is making a bold bet that “world models” — which understand how physical objects interact with their environment — are the key to AI’s next big breakthrough, rather than large language models.

The EU is eager to build out its own bench of AI startups as it seeks to build a “Euro stack” that lessens the region’s dependence on American tech companies. The Paris-based AMI Labs will instantly become one of the most important tech companies working on AI in the EU.

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Salesforce reportedly planning $25 billion bond sale to help fund $50 billion buyback

When Salesforce reported earnings last month, it announced a $50 billion share buyback as a show of confidence in its position at a time when investors are questioning AI’s impact on enterprise software. Now, to help fund that buyback, the company is reportedly seeking to sell up to $25 billion in debt — a record sum for Salesforce that could test investor appetite for a more leveraged balance sheet.

Moody’s Ratings called funding the buyback via a bond sale “a material shift in financial policy” and downgraded Salesforce’s credit rating to A2. S&P Global Ratings also lowered its outlook to negative.

Moody’s Ratings called funding the buyback via a bond sale “a material shift in financial policy” and downgraded Salesforce’s credit rating to A2. S&P Global Ratings also lowered its outlook to negative.

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Nvidia partners with Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab for 1 gigawatt of Rubin GPUs

Nvidia announced a “long-term” partnership with AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati.

The deal involves an investment from Nvidia and a commitment to provide 1 gigawatt’s worth of the company’s next-gen Vera Rubin processors to the startup.

Thinking Machines Lab has raised at least $2 billion for a reported valuation of $50 billion.

In January, two of the cofounders of Thinking Machines Lab left for OpenAI, and another left for Meta. The company’s only product is Tinker, a tool that helps developers train AI models.

Thinking Machines Lab has raised at least $2 billion for a reported valuation of $50 billion.

In January, two of the cofounders of Thinking Machines Lab left for OpenAI, and another left for Meta. The company’s only product is Tinker, a tool that helps developers train AI models.

tech

Report: Meta has acquired Moltbook, the AI-only social network

Meta has acquired the startup Moltbook, which is a viral social network where humans are allowed to read, but only AI agents are allowed to post, according to a report by Axios.

Moltbook’s founders, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, will join the Meta Superintelligence Lab, which is run by Alexandr Wang, formerly of ScaleAI.

AI super-users are currently obsessed with OpenClaw (formerly named both Clawdbot and Moltbot), a free tool that lets users run AI agents privately on their home computers that can be interfaced via chat apps, like Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram. The agents are given wide access to users’ data to allow them to take on a wide variety of tasks like managing emails, organizing files, and controlling home automation. The founder of OpenClaw was recently hired by OpenAI, and the project will be reportedly be open-sourced.

A Meta spokesperson told Axios, “The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses.”

It’s not clear if Meta plans on actually doing anything with Moltbook, as it may just be an “acquihire.” Before the acquisition, Schlicht and Parr worked together at Octane AI, an AI e-commerce platform, where Schlicht was CEO and Parr was cofounder and president. Integrating AI features into e-commerce — both for customers and online retailers — has been an area of intense focus recently for AI companies, which are hoping that shoppers will hand off purchases to bots and that sellers will integrate agents into their customer service and back-end processes.

AI super-users are currently obsessed with OpenClaw (formerly named both Clawdbot and Moltbot), a free tool that lets users run AI agents privately on their home computers that can be interfaced via chat apps, like Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram. The agents are given wide access to users’ data to allow them to take on a wide variety of tasks like managing emails, organizing files, and controlling home automation. The founder of OpenClaw was recently hired by OpenAI, and the project will be reportedly be open-sourced.

A Meta spokesperson told Axios, “The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses.”

It’s not clear if Meta plans on actually doing anything with Moltbook, as it may just be an “acquihire.” Before the acquisition, Schlicht and Parr worked together at Octane AI, an AI e-commerce platform, where Schlicht was CEO and Parr was cofounder and president. Integrating AI features into e-commerce — both for customers and online retailers — has been an area of intense focus recently for AI companies, which are hoping that shoppers will hand off purchases to bots and that sellers will integrate agents into their customer service and back-end processes.

tech

Reuters: SpaceX wants a Nasdaq listing — with early Nasdaq 100 access

SpaceX is leaning toward listing what’s potentially the biggest IPO of all time on Nasdaq, Reuters reports, contingent on early inclusion on the exchange’s Nasdaq 100 index. Typically companies have to wait up to a year before being considered for inclusion in indexes like the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq 100, but Nasdaq recently proposed a change that could decrease that wait time to under a month for megacap companies.

SpaceX is reportedly aiming for a staggering $1.75 trillion valuation and could go public as soon as June. Getting into a major index would spark automatic buying from index funds, lifting demand and liquidity while expanding its investor base. The listing would be a major win for Nasdaq, reinforcing its dominance in Big Tech IPOs and driving billions in index licensing and trading revenue.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s rocket company has yet to make a final decision on which exchange it will list on, and the New York Stock Exchange is also competing for the listing, Reuters said.

SpaceX is reportedly aiming for a staggering $1.75 trillion valuation and could go public as soon as June. Getting into a major index would spark automatic buying from index funds, lifting demand and liquidity while expanding its investor base. The listing would be a major win for Nasdaq, reinforcing its dominance in Big Tech IPOs and driving billions in index licensing and trading revenue.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s rocket company has yet to make a final decision on which exchange it will list on, and the New York Stock Exchange is also competing for the listing, Reuters said.

25%

Apple manufactured 55 million iPhones — about 25% of its global production — in India last year, Bloomberg reports. That’s up from about 36 million in 2024, as the company has been trying to decrease reliance and avoid tariffs on China.

That share would put the iPhone maker ahead of Wall Street’s schedule. At the start of 2025, analysts predicted Apple’s iPhone production in India would reach 25% by 2027.

“The vast majority of the iPhones sold in the US, or the majority, I should say, have a country of origin of India,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s fiscal Q3 2025 earnings call.

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