Skip to main content

Deck.blue brings a TweetDeck experience to Bluesky users

With over 3 million users and plans to open up more broadly in the months ahead, Bluesky is still establishing itself as an alternative to Twitter/X. However, that hasn’t stopped the developer community from embracing the project and building tools to meet the needs of those fleeing the now Elon Musk-owned social network, formerly known […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TBbEAPF

Stability AI CEO has the ambition to IPO in next few years

Emad Mostaque, the CEO and founder of open source platform Stability AI, hinted at plans to go public in the next few years, during the Cerebral Valley AI Conference in San Francisco on Thursday. He also shut down the idea that Stability AI, an OpenAI rival and leader in the generative artificial intelligence space, will ever get acquired.

“I think you can’t just IPO,” Mostaque said during an interview with journalist Eric Newcomer. “You need to have amazing revenue, amazing margins, distribution, and so we’ve been executing…we’re 17 months old.” He also said that the business model of Stability AI’s open source platform will be seen more properly in the next year,” but added that he doesn’t “want to give away my arbitrage opportunities.”

The generative intelligence company landed a spotlight after building Stable Diffusion, an image-generating system, along with Dance Diffusion and the development of open source music. Thus, it’s unsurprising that Mostaque feels strongly about creating open source standards in the world of generated art.

Mostaque was one of the notable 1,100+ signatories who published an open letter this week asking for more regulation in the AI space, but more specifically, for “‘all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months.” His name appeared alongside Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Tristan Harris.

“OpenAI should become transparent and probably governed; what is the governance of Open AI? Nobody knows. What is transparent? Completely opaque,” Mostaque said during the panel, defending the petition, which some critics see as destructive or an attempt by some buidlers to slow down competition.

The bullishness around exits, and pause on innovation, comes as Bloomberg reports swirl that Stability AI is seeking funding that would value the business at $4 billion, up from a reported $1 billion post-money valuation that it landed in October when it raised capital from Coatue and Lightspeed Venture partners. Mostaque didn’t comment on fundraising rumors. Earlier this month, Stability AI bought imaging tool Init ML. 

Despite all the activity in the space, Mostaque doesn’t think AI is a bubble, saying that “this is bigger than 5G and self-driving customers.”

“When founders come to me, I say build good products and solve problems…most of the stuff is still surface level,” he said.

If you have a juicy tip or lead about happenings in the venture world, you can reach Natasha Mascarenhas on Twitter @nmasc_ or on Signal at +1 925 271 0912. Anonymity requests will be respected.  

Stability AI CEO has the ambition to IPO in next few years by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Z0PVHsL

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nimbus launches tiny EV prototype that’s like a motorbike with a roof

As shared e-scooter companies have infiltrated cities and e-bike sales have soared, micromobility has been offered up as a panacea to save us all from the ill humors and packed streets caused by gas-guzzling cars. However, one of the major roadblocks in front of well-intentioned city dwellers who’d love to trade in their cumbersome and environmentally unfriendly vehicles for an e-bike or scooter remains: What happens when it rains? Nimbus, a California-based electric vehicle startup, wants to solve that problem with a simple solution: Put a roof on it. The company recently came out of stealth with a prototype for its Nimbus One, a tiny, three-wheeled EV that “combines the convenience and cost of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car.” The Nimbus One. Image Credits: Nimbus The thin, pod-like vehicle is only about 2.75 feet wide and 7.5 feet long, which Nimbus says makes it three to five times smaller than a compact car — the better to park and navigate busy urban stree...

Pitch Deck Teardown: Encore’s $3M seed deck

For this week’s Pitch Deck Teardown, I’m (virtually) traveling to Sweden to take a look at the $3 million seed round raised by developer tool startup Encore . The company is creating what it calls a software development platform for the cloud. It reportedly raised from Crane Venture Partners with Acequia Capital ,  Essence Venture Capital  and  Third Kind Venture Capital joining the round. I wanted to take a look at this deck in more detail, in particular, because it tells a really elegant story in a market where it’s extraordinarily hard to differentiate yourself — both to your customers and to investors! Pitching a dev tool in a way that tells the story well enough to understand but without dropping deep into a rabbit hole is a particularly hard challenge, and that’s the needle Encore threads ever so efficiently in this 24-slide pitch deck. We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to tear down, so if you want to submit your own, here’s how you can do that ....

Multifamily housing has missed the solar boom. PearlX wants to fix that with $70M Series B

If you’re a renter and you want solar power, you’re usually out of luck. For most, the only option is a community solar program, where people subscribe to utility-scale projects, but they’re not available everywhere. And given that most renters only stay for a few years, which of them are going to pay tens of thousands of dollars for solar panels — and what landlord would let them? That’s where PearlX comes in. “Think of us as like the Sunrun for renters,” said co-founder and CEO Michael Huerta, referring to the company that rents solar installations to single-family homeowners. “PearlX is a rental electrification platform.” Earlier this year, the startup began installing solar panels and backup batteries at multifamily rentals in Texas as part of its “TexFlex” project. PearlX’s next step, which Huerta shared exclusively with TechCrunch, will be a California expansion called “Flexifornia.” The startup is also rolling out a virtual power plant, which will allow the company to tap the...