Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Data intelligence company Databricks is reportedly already in talks to raise fresh capital, just a few months after its last fundraise. Databricks is holding conversations to raise a funding round that values the company at a minimum of $130 billion, according to reporting from The Information. The company hasn’t signed a term sheet yet, the report added. That would prove a valuation bump of at least 30% over the $100 billion price tag Databricks achieved in its $1 billion Series J funding round in August. At the time, Databricks co-founder and CEO Ali Ghodsi told TechCrunch that the company raised…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew Wang, a 33-year-old senior software engineer based in San Francisco. After working at Amazon, he joined Fermat Commerce Inc., an e-commerce AI startup. His identification and employment have been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity.When I started my career, you could go to a three to six-month boot camp and get a job.That’s kind of what I did.After high school, I attended a boot camp and then started a web-design firm with a friend. Then I studied computer science at Harvard and founded…

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge is set to give his reasoning Tuesday for approving OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids.The deal calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to pay up to $7 billion over time.Judge Sean Lane said last week that he would accept the plan, which ranks among the largest opioid settlements ever and would do something other major ones don’t: Pay some victims of the crisis.Money will go to governments and some individualsSackler family members agreed to pay up to $7 billion over 15…

With consumers increasingly asking questions of ChatGPT — not Google — product discovery is changing. And the promise to give brands visibility and control over this fast-growing search channel has made Peec AI one of Europe’s hottest startups. Just four months after its Seed round led by 20VC, the Berlin-based startup has raised a $21 million Series A led by European VC firm Singular. CEO Marius Meiners declined to disclose the valuation, but said it had tripled and was now above $100 million.  This comes after Peec AI grew its annual recurring revenue to more than $4 million in only…

BOSTON (AP) — Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University who once served as U.S. treasury secretary, issued a statement saying he would step back from public commitments after the release of emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008. The statement sent to The Harvard Crimson and other media on Monday said Summers would step back to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused.…

A pro-AI super PAC backed by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman has chosen New York Assembly member Alex Bores – and his congressional bid – as its first target.  The PAC, dubbed Leading the Future, formed in August with a more than $100 million commitment to support policymakers with a light-touch – or a no-touch – approach to AI regulation. And that means going after policymakers who want to regulate AI. The super PAC has backing from a number of other prominent leaders in tech, including Palantir co-founder and 8VC managing partner Joe Lonsdale as well as AI search engine…

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Global efforts to curb emissions of the potent but short-lived heat-trapping gas methane are doing about as poorly as the more prevalent carbon dioxide, but there’s hope for the next five years, U.N. officials said Monday.Methane emissions can be a “hand brake” for slowing greenhouse gas pollution and temperatures, said Martina Otto, head of the U.N.’s climate and clean air commission for methane pollution. That’s because methane from fossil fuels traps nearly 30 times the heat of the more common carbon dioxide, but because they don’t last nearly as long in the air, fast action to…

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The families of two of the eight people killed earlier this year when an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia filed a lawsuit on Monday, claiming the medical air transport company and others negligently caused their deaths.The wrongful death case was filed by the estates of Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, a pediatrician, and Lizeth Murillo Osuna, the mother of a girl who was flying home to Mexico after being treated at a Philadelphia hospital.All six people on board the Learjet 55 were killed, along with two people on the ground. More than 20 people were hurt.About a minute…

Fifteen years ago, I was an out-of-place finance reporter in San Francisco, trying to reinvent myself as a tech journalist. That’s when I scored a lucky meeting with Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, two former Apple engineers with a wild idea to make thermostats sexy.Last week, I went to see Matt Rogers again. He’s still turning ordinary household objects into extraordinary gadgets at his latest startup, Mill.When I first met Fadell and Rogers above a store above the Town and Country Village Mall across from Stanford, the two were on a quest to build internet-connected home devices at their startup…

GLP-1 weight loss drugs are still far from cheap, but some of the prices keep dropping.Novo Nordisk is now offering people who pay out of pocket a steep discount for select doses of Ozempic and Wegovy, the company said Monday.Until the end of March, Novo Nordisk will let people with prescriptions buy the two lowest doses for $199 a month for two months. After that, the drugs will cost $349 a month. The deal will be available through the Ozempic and Wegovy websites, where people can register for the discounts to use at pharmacies and through telehealth.The $199-per-month offer applies…