OpenAI Dismisses Apple's Trade-Secret Lawsuit as a "Mess of Its Own Making"

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Top News

OpenAI is fighting back against Apple’s trade-secret lawsuit, calling it “a mess of Apple’s own making” and accusing the iPhone maker of using baseless claims to hamper its recruiting and slow development of competing AI hardware. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

At a G20 technology meeting in North Carolina, the U.S. pressed member countries to take a hands-off approach to AI regulation, urging them to avoid entirely new oversight regimes and instead apply existing rules to novel AI situations; China has already signed on to the proposed “Carolina Principles.” Reuters has more here.

OpenAI’s Astra Model Is On the Way — And Very Good at Breaking Into Computer Systems

By Tim Fernholz

OpenAI shared new details on its forthcoming Astra model, which the company said is the first large language model to meet its “critical cybersecurity threshold,” in preparation for its imminent release.

“We plan to make Astra available soon,” OpenAI’s blog post reads, “but access to its most advanced cybersecurity capabilities will be more limited.”

The frontier lab determined that Astra is capable of finding unknown security flaws in computer systems, and exploiting them without a person’s guidance. That’s similar to the concerns Anthropic raised about its Mythos model earlier this year, and OpenAI is taking comparable precautions as it prepares to roll out the Astra.

Without any third-party confirmation, it is difficult to evaluate OpenAI’s claims about safety or preparedness. The company said it would preview the model with a group of testers but did not say who they were or how they would be chosen. It’s not clear if OpenAI is working with the U.S. government to evaluate the model ahead of release.

OpenAI noted that Astra scored a perfect score on ExploitBench, an evaluation of an LLM’s ability to hack into known system vulnerabilities. In a modified version of the test developed by OpenAI engineers, the model discovered and exploited two zero-day vulnerabilities, the company said.

Massive Fundings

AfterQuery, a 19-month-old San Francisco AI training-data startup that helps train models and agents to perform tasks like professionals, raised an undisclosed amount at a $3.2 billion post-money valuation, according to Forbes. That’s more than a 10x jump in valuation in just five months. TechCrunch has more here.

Félix, a six-year-old Miami startup that lets Latino immigrants in the U.S. send money to families across Latin America through WhatsApp, raised $200 million in Series C financing, including an $87 million equity round led by Andreessen Horowitz and $113 million in debt from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund. QED Investors, Castle Island Ventures, Switch Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, and Endeavor Catalyst also participated in the equity round. Crunchbase News has more here.

HiBob, an 11-year-old London company that manages employee data, organizational structures, permissions, and HR workflows for companies running workforce operations and deploying internal AI tools, raised a $160 million round at a $3.2+ billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Salesforce, with Farallon Capital Management also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $700+ million. CTech has more here.

HubX, a four-year-old startup based in Izmir, Turkey, that operates and acquires consumer mobile and web apps across generative AI, education, health, and fitness, raised a $50 million round at a $1.2 billion pre-money valuation. The deal was led by Point72 Private Investments. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Physical Superintelligence, a one-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that is building a physics lab where AI models and simulations act as virtual physicists to optimize data centers and pursue new physics discoveries, raised a $58 million seed round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with Dragon Global, Robot Ventures, Solari, Susa, SV Angel, and Valkyrie also participating. More here.

Scan.com, a nine-year-old London startup that connects employers, health plans, doctors, and patients with medical imaging centers to schedule scans, handle paperwork, and deliver results, raised a $90 million round led by Noteus Partners, with Aviva, Concord Health Partners, YZR Capital, and Oxford Capital also stepping up. The company also raised $130 million in debt. Medical Device Network has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

AIR Security, a six-month-old Tel Aviv startup that protects AI agents from malicious instructions and compromised add-ons by filtering what enters their context, raised a $50 million round co-led by Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks, with Swish Ventures and Netz also partaking. CTech has more here.

Aranya, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that turns bare-metal servers into production-ready GPU clusters for AI inference in less than 48 hours, raised a $9 million seed round led by First Round Capital, with BoxGroup, Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, and previous investor Asylum Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $11 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Aslan, a one-year-old startup based in Washington, D.C., that deploys human-supervised AI agents to infiltrate criminal forums and other online spaces and collect digital evidence for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, raised a $20.8 million round co-led by Khosla Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital, with 2048 Ventures, BoxGroup, Liquid2, and Alumni Ventures also engaging. Axios has more here.

Clipto, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that indexes videos, audio, images, meetings, and documents on users’ devices so they can search files and share selected context with AI tools, raised a $15 million round at a $250 million post-money valuation. Investors included HSG, GL Ventures, EnvisionX Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Hans Tung, Lu Zhang, and 522 Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Empirik, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that maps changes across enterprise infrastructure to predict their downstream effects and prevent outages, raised a $21 million seed round. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Canapi Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Gridsight, a six-year-old Sydney startup that helps utilities identify available grid capacity and connect new demand faster using AI models built around their own networks, raised a $26 million Series B round led by Insight Partners, with Galvanize as well as previous investors Airtree, Energy Transition Ventures, and Aera VC also chipping in. More here.

Light, a three-year-old Austin startup that enables businesses to offer branded electricity plans by handling licensing, power procurement, billing, customer support, and grid programs, raised a $46 million Series A round led by Matrix, with Activate Capital as well as previous investors Spark Capital, Mischief, Gigascale Capital, MCJ, and BoxGroup also investing. The company has raised a total of approximately $60 million. More here.

Locus Robotics, a 12-year-old company based in Wilmington, MA, that builds warehouse robots that help automate goods movement and other warehouse operations, raised a $41.6 million Series G round. Investors included Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, G2 Venture Partners, and Scale Venture Partners. Dealroom has more here.

SciFin, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that helps revenue teams unify scattered context across accounts, deals, forecasts, reps, territories, and customer conversations to surface risks and recommended actions, raised a $44 million seed round co-led by Altimeter and Madrona, with Foundation Capital, S32, and Zetta Ventures also anteing up. More here.

Smaller Fundings

Alteon, a one-year-old Bengaluru startup that builds small autonomous aircraft that gather energy from ocean winds to give governments visibility into maritime activity, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Lachy Groom, with Together Fund also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

DataAgent, an eight-month-old Tel Aviv startup that deploys autonomous agents inside customers’ cloud infrastructure to identify production failures and apply verified fixes, raised a $10 million pre-seed round co-led by MizMaa Ventures and Alicorn Venture Partners. CTech has more here.

Guickly, a one-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, that helps enterprises track AI usage, spending, access, and ROI while keeping sensitive data on premises, raised a $4.2 million seed round led by Engineering Capital, with Converge VC and Neon Fund also participating. More here.

Leanwatts, a four-year-old Hyderabad startup that designs and manufactures EV chargers and power electronics systems for vehicle makers, fleet operators, and energy applications, raised a $2 million seed round led by Trivest Partners. More here.