Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst Discusses AI, LPs, and Securing Nearly $8 Billion in Funding
General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja on AI, LPs, and raising around $8 billion I talked to General Catalyst CEO and managing director Hemant Taneja in the dark. Well, he didn’t know that, but by now he probably does. The news broke yesterday morning that General Catalyst (GC for short) had raised about $8 billion in new […]
Qualities of a Strong Prospective Founder and Mayfield’s AI Garage: Insights from Navin Chaddha
Mayfield’s Navin Chaddha on the firm’s AI Garage and the qualities of a strong prospective founder Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Fund managing partner, wants me to know that the firm’s new AI Garage is meant to actually evoke a garage, the kind where you put your car and the Amazon boxes you’ve forgotten about. A garage […]
Attracting Deep Tech Talent from Big Companies is Now Easier for Startups, According to Mytra CEO Chris Walti
For startups, attracting deep tech talent from large companies is more attainable than ever, says Mytra CEO and cofounder Chris Walti Chris Walti knows a thing or two about robots. Walti spent more than seven years at Tesla, where he ultimately led the project that became the much-discussed humanoid robot Optimus. Since 2022, he’s been […]
Wolf, the cofounder of Hugging Face, explains why the advantages of open-source AI outweigh the potential risks
Hugging Face cofounder Wolf on why open-source AI’s benefits outweigh the risks In this edition…a Hugging Face cofounder on the importance of open source…a Nobel Prize for Geoff Hinton and John Hopfield…a movie model from Meta…a Trump ‘Manhattan Project’ for AI? Hello, and welcome to Eye on AI. Yesterday, I had the privilege of moderating […]
Cerebras poised to rejuvenate sluggish IPO market, despite looming risks
Cerebras could restart a stagnant IPO market, but clear risks abound You know the feeling. You turn the key, the engine hums, you’re about to hit the road…and then the car stops. That’s sort of what’s happened in 2024, as the scattered IPOs of companies like Reddit and Astera Labs inspired hope that IPOs were […]
The Drama Surrounding Sam Altman’s Equity in OpenAI
Why Sam Altman owning equity in OpenAI is such a dramafest Will OpenAI CEO Sam Altman get a big stake in his company worth billions of dollars? If it were any other business, the answer would be a definite yes. Virtually every CEO, from day one, is awarded a large number of shares that could […]
Sam Altman refutes claims of receiving equity in for-profit OpenAI
Sam Altman denies plan to give him equity in for-profit OpenAI OpenAI may be changing to a for-profit company, but according to CEO Sam Altman, that doesn’t mean he’s about to strike it rich. Altman told OpenAI employees in an all-hands meeting Thursday that there are no plans to give him a “giant equity stake” […]
There is only one person remaining in this iconic OpenAI photo
Only one person is left from this iconic OpenAI photo OpenAI is bleeding its top executives, and one picture shows just how stark the contrast has been in just over a year. Of the four OpenAI executives in the March 2023 photo featured above, two have left the company and one is on leave. CEO […]
Sam Altman is quoted as saying that leaving Stanford was not a risk
Sam Altman says dropping out of Stanford wasn’t risky For OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, dropping out of college to launch his first startup, Loopt, wasn’t as big a risk as it might seem. In fact, in Altman’s telling, the decision to leave Stanford in 2005 was not particularly calculated, but rather somewhat unexpected. “This was […]
AI investors should prioritize focus, although their enthusiasm is not completely unwarranted.
AI investors need focus—but their exuberance isn’t entirely unjustified Perhaps no technology since the smartphone has taken the world by storm quite like generative AI (GenAI). The investment landscape has also reflected this fervor, with GenAI attracting over $25 billion in funding in 2023, mostly driven by mega-rounds for core infrastructure companies building the foundation models […]