Plus: Samsung to manufacture chips from AI chip startup Tenstorrent.
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Ocean Supercluster announces $20 Million Investment in nine new AI-powered ocean projects (BETAKIT)
With the backing of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy Program, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) has announced $20 million in funding across nine AI-based ocean projects.
The largest OSC-provided allotment gave $5 million to the HydroAware project, meant to expand hydropower and safeguard habitats using AI-powered fish monitoring.
Other funded projects will use AI to remotely analyze ocean biomass for seaweed farming, oversee oyster farming, and monitor fish location and health, among others.
Andreessen Horowitz Discussed Backing a Rival to Midjourney Seeking $500 Million Valuation (THE INFORMATION)
Investment firm Andreessen Horowitz recently discussed leading a new equity financing for Ideogram, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to create images. The Toronto startup, which has been seeking a $500 million pre-money valuation, doesn’t generate revenue.
The startup, which raised $22.3 million in August, has discussed raising between $75 million and $100 million in the new round.
Scale AI announces $21 million for nine Canadian AI healthcare projects (BETAKIT)
At the ALL IN conference in Montreal, the federally funded innovation organization Scale AI announced a $21-million investment across nine separate Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) projects focused on optimizing healthcare logistics and resources.
A common denominator among most of the projects is the need to manage scarce resources in a sector facing a chronic budgetary strain, high community needs, and a persistent labour shortage.
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Samsung to manufacture chips from AI chip startup Tenstorrent (REUTERS)
Samsung’s contract chip manufacturing arm picked up a new artificial intelligence chip customer, a Canadian startup called Tenstorrent, the company said on Monday.
Tenstorrent, among a number of startups looking to challenge Nvidia domination in the chip market, raised a $100-million USD round in August which featured participation from the Samsung Catalyst Fund.
Lemurian Labs secures $9 million in seed funding to expedite AI workloads at a lower cost (BETAKIT)
Lemurian Labs has raised $9 million in seed funding to solve several problems associated with artificial intelligence (AI). These include making the technology affordable and environmentally sustainable.
AI is advancing with unprecedented speed, but the computing power needed to develop accurate models is outpacing current hardware capabilities, according to Lemurian Labs.
Anthropic in Talks to Raise $2 Billion From Google and Others Just Days After Amazon Investment (THE INFORMATION)
Anthropic, one of the main rivals of OpenAI, is in talks with investors to raise at least $2 billion in new funding, following a commitment from Amazon last week to invest $1.25 billion in the company, according to three people with direct knowledge.
Anthropic has told investors that Google, which bought a roughly 10% stake in the startup in 2022, is expected to invest in the round, two of the people said.
Rockwell Automation completes acquisition of Clearpath Robotics and its OTTO Motors division (BETAKIT)
Rockwell’s acquisition of Clearpath, originally announced Sept. 5, officially closed on Monday.
While no terms were disclosed, The Globe and Mail reported that Rockwell would pay between $550 million and $600 million USD upfront, with the possibility of exceeding $600 million USD if Clearpath met certain performance targets.
Clearpath will be staying in Kitchener-Waterloo, with its CEO, CTO, president, and employees sticking around following the acquisition.
ChatGPT sends executives back to school for crash courses in AI
(THE LOGIC)
Business leaders are facing pressure from boards of directors and investors over what the AI boom means for their companies. Some of Canada’s biggest business schools have started offering crash courses for executives, directors and managers on how to incorporate generative AI in their operations.
Alberta Innovates opens applications to $8 million program for AI integrations into provincial health system (BETAKIT)
Alberta Innovates has launched the enabling better health through artificial intelligence (AI-Better Health) program to demonstrate practical uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in a healthcare system.
The up-to-$8 million program is seeking applicants who “can explore how breaking down barriers will help realize the benefits of artificial intelligence within Alberta’s health system,” with individual project funding able to receive up to $800,000 over three years.
Exclusive: ChatGPT-owner OpenAI is exploring making its own AI chips (REUTERS)
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is exploring making its own artificial intelligence chips and has gone as far as evaluating a potential acquisition target, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
The company has not yet decided to move ahead, but has discussed various options to solve the shortage of expensive AI chips since at least last year.
Your finance team isn’t immune to digital transformation (BETAKIT)
In a recent conversation with Zoho, a cloud software provider for businesses, Julian Weber, CEO of SELISE Digital Platforms, shared his journey and how he digitized his finance function in a way that helped grow the business.
Business getaway marketplace RetreatsAndVenues takes first prize in New Ventures BC 2023 startup competition (BETAKIT)
New Ventures BC has given out $250,000 in prize money to the winners of its 23rd annual startup competition, presented by Innovate BC.
BrowseAI, a platform that enables users to automate the monitoring or scraping of data in any website, took home the $60,000 second place prize. Founded in January 2020, Browse AI says it raised over $2.8 million USD and hit 250,000 users in August.
AI-powered parking platform Metropolis raises $1.7B to acquire SP Plus (TECHCRUNCH)
AI-powered parking platform Metropolis today announced that it raised $1.7 billion to acquire SP Plus, a provider of parking facility management services, in a combination of equity and debt.
In SP Plus, Metropolis gains an established, publicly traded business with a massive parking footprint across the U.S. and Canada.
MaRS and Innovate UK announce cohort for third advanced manufacturing incubator (BETAKIT)
Toronto-based innovation hub MaRS Discovery District has announced the third cohort of United Kingdom (UK)-based startups participating in Innovate UK’s advanced manufacturing incubator program.
This is the fourth cooperative incubator through this partnership, but only the third geared towards manufacturing startups. In June, the duo announced an inaugural cohort for their UK-based AI startup incubator.
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