Daily tech: AI, Energy, and the Race for the Future

January 20 2025

FutureGate | The growing energy demands of AI are placing nuclear energy in a prime position to benefit as industries seek sustainable power solutions. Nvidia has backed MetAI with $4 million in seed funding to advance generative physical AI, focusing on building accurate simulated environments for training autonomous systems.

In the cryptocurrency sector, Coinbase has resumed offering Bitcoin-backed loans, while Meta stands to gain as much as $3.4 billion in advertising revenue if TikTok faces a U.S. ban.

Princeton University has launched the Holistic Agent Leaderboard (HAL), a benchmarking system that evaluates AI agent performance across 11 standardized tests. Meanwhile, Moment Energy raised $15 million to repurpose EV batteries into energy storage systems, and Netradyne secured $90 million to expand its AI-enabled dashcam solutions for fleet management.

Space startups also gained momentum: Stroke Space raised $260 million for reusable rocket development, and Loft Orbital secured $170 million for space infrastructure projects. NEURA Robotics announced $124 million in funding to advance cognitive robotics. However, not all news was positive, as SpaceX's Starship test ended in failure due to a liquid oxygen leak.

In acquisitions, Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, acquired LinkedIn competitor Read.cv. The FTC flagged Snap's My AI for allegedly causing harm to young users, raising concerns over safety and ethics in AI applications.

Other notable developments include eToro filing for a $5 billion IPO, and Beijing preparing to host the next World Humanoid Robot Conference as China continues to lead in cutting-edge technological advancements.