Author: Connie Loizos
In this week’s episode of the StrictlyVC Download podcast, veteran VC Aileen Lee was direct about a major consequence of the recent boom-and-bust cycle: many companies stuck in limbo aren’t just struggling to regain their footing after raising too much money at unsustainable valuations; they’ve also lost the champions who once backed them. Lee was discussing how limited partners hesitate to criticize powerful fund managers, fearing they’ll be shut out from investing in those firms again. But she imagined one thing they’d say if they could speak freely: “Everybody wants to get into X brand name fund, and so they…
Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, made it clear on Wednesday: he believes the company’s decision to abandon its autonomous driving program was a mistake. Said Kalanick at the Abundance Summit in L.A., “Look, [new management] killed the autonomous car project we had going on. At the time, we were really only behind Waymo but probably catching up, and we were going to pass them in short order . . . I wasn’t running the company when that happened, but you know, you could say, ‘Wish we had an autonomous ride-sharing product right now. That would be great.’” Uber…
Anthropic, a San Francisco startup often cast as an independent player in the AI race, has deeper ties to Google than previously known. Court documents recently obtained by The New York Times reveal that Google owns a 14% stake in the company and is set to pour another $750 million into it this year through a convertible debt deal. In total, Google’s investment in Anthropic now exceeds $3 billion. Despite having no voting rights, board seats, or direct control over the company, Google’s backing raises questions about how independent Anthropic really is. As AI startups increasingly rely on funding from…