Hermes agent maker Nous Research in talks for new funding at $1.5B valuation; plus, Pinwheel launches a retro-inspired landline phone for kids

Etched, founded by three Harvard dropouts, has created new chips and memory components that speed up inference on any AI model -- no GPUs required, it says. Also, Imagi announced a $4.5 million seed round, with investors including Brighteye Ventures, Day One Capital, and artist Wil.i.am. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Colossal Biosciences is in talks to raise new funding at a $20 billion to $30 billion valuation, Axios reported. Also, Passionfroot, a German startup building a marketplace connecting B2B creators with brands, has raised $15M in a Series A round led by Insight Partners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gritt is coming out of stealth with $34 million and plan to automate the hardest tasks on construction sites. Also, maritime nuclear energy startup Bluecore Energy has raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Slauson & Co. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The potential deal highlights a growing trend of complex, multi-stage funding rounds that mask true entry prices. Also, Databricks has remade its image into an AI company and has published research on the cost savings of open weight AI models for coding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Applied Computing has raised a $20M Series A to build a foundation AI model for the oil, gas and petrochemical industry. Also, travel agency Fora announced a $60 million Series D round led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While everyone in AI is chasing "superintelligence." Alexandre LeBrun, CEO of Yann LeCun’s world model startup, AMI Labs, dismisses the word. Also, Syntetica, a French startup that has developed a novel approach to recycling nylon, has already obtained big-name partners and investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rime is handling over 100 million calls each month across multiple companies Also, Anthropic-backed Ode launches as AI labs bet that embedding forward-deployed engineers inside enterprises is the key to accelerating enterprise AI adoption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company is raising at least $75 million, led by Robot, with significant participation from USV and other prominent investors. Also, kid-friendly tech company Pinwheel announced the launch of a new landline phone designed to let children stay connected without the distractions of a smartphone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Phia, the shopping startup founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe, and her friend, Sophia Kianni, is under fire for a practice known as “cookie stuffing,” which helped the product receive commissions and credit for sales it did not actually generate, per a Bloomberg investigation. Also, Lyzr, a startup that builds AI agents for enterprises, used its own AI agent to raise a $100 million round — proof, evidently, that the product actually works. Plus, the new startup raised $300 million co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI chip maker SambaNova has raised at an $11 billion valuation months after Intel was rumored to be trying to buy it for about $1.6 billion. Plus, Benchmark-backed Ollama has amassed 176,000 stars, and nearly 17,000 forks on Github by helping developers easily run AI on their PCs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices