In a 2023 Congressional testimony, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that he owns no equity in OpenAI. However, in a recent interview, he admitted to having some equity through a Sequoia fund which he has since sold. He currently holds a small amount of equity from a YC fund, in case OpenAI becomes a for-profit company.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

Songyee Yoon, a South Korean college student, spent late nights running programs on her campus's supercomputer, inspiring a TV show character called 'Genius Girl' on KAIST.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

AI-powered search engine Perplexity has raised $500 million in a funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners, valuing the startup at $9 billion. The round closed in December, with Perplexity declining to comment. Competition in AI-powered search is increasing, with OpenAI and Google developing similar capabilities.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

Digital bank Chime has filed confidential paperwork with the SEC for a potential IPO, following ServiceTitan's successful IPO. Chime was last valued at $25 billion and has raised $2.65 billion in total. The IPO is not yet final as it depends on institutional investors' interest and the public disclosure of the filing.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

Truth Terminal, an AI bot, has inspired a memecoin called Goetseus Maximus ($GOAT) on the Solana blockchain, which was created by an anonymous fan.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

Oura, a smart ring maker, closed a $200 million Series D funding round, bringing its valuation to $5.2 billion. The new capital will be used to expand product offerings, invest in technology, and explore acquisitions.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

TuSimple has rebranded as CreateAI and shifted its focus from self-driving trucks to AI animation and gaming. This move comes after controversy surrounding the company's plan to relocate U.S. assets to China to fund the new venture.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

SpaceX receives approval for its seventh Starship mission, with no announced launch date yet, despite ongoing test fires and preparations at the launch site.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

Google has released an experimental 'reasoning' AI model called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, available in AI Studio, for multimodal understanding, reasoning, and coding in fields like programming, math, and physics.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/

Backflip, a startup founded by 3D printing veterans, has raised $30 million to develop AI models that simplify the process of designing physical objects, aiming to reduce hours of specialized work to minutes.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/tag/ai/