Modal, a cloud platform that runs AI models and code for developers, raised $750 million in a Series D at a $15.75 billion valuation. Accel led the round with Kleiner Perkins joining, and all existing investors took part; its annualized revenue run rate now exceeds $1 billion.
New York Attorney General Letitia James disclosed a multi-state investigation into Character.AI that has run for years, as states push for protections on consumer data that could be sold in its bankruptcy. She is among 40 bipartisan attorneys general who filed a notice of interest in the case.
Oxfordshire photonics firm Salience Labs closed an oversubscribed $125M Series B led by Bullhound Capital, with AMD Ventures, Intel Capital and the British Business Bank participating. The money will go toward scaling production of its optical switches for AI data centres and opening a second West Coast office.
Accounts for OpenAI UK Ltd show 110 employees shared £87m in salaries and £168m in shares last year, an average of about £2.3m each. The figures illustrate how much the ChatGPT maker is spending on talent as it prepares a new London headquarters in King's Cross.
Sachin Katti is stepping down from his infrastructure role at OpenAI but will remain with the company as an advisor. In a LinkedIn post, he said he wants to go and build something new.
Kyndryl and Toyota Systems plan to apply Kyndryl's agentic AI framework to Toyota Finance's IT change management, infrastructure design and impact analysis in its production environment. The companies have not disclosed a contract value, a timeline or any measured results.