Novacap closes $1B AI fund, OpenAI and SoftBank launch $500B Stargate project
+ Understanding Google AI Essentials Course : A Comprehensive Five-Day Guide
Today’s Briefing:
In today's newsletter:
OpenAI and SoftBank announce $500B Stargate AI project
Databricks secures $15.3B financing at $62B valuation
Google makes additional $1B investment in Anthropic
Samsung unveils AI upgrade for SmartThings
Multiple AI startups secure significant funding
Goldman Sachs begins AI banking integration
Market movements driven by AI developments
Day 3 of Understanding Google AI Essentials Guide
Sponsored by
We're excited to partner with Intercom to bring a 100% discount for early-stage startups in year one.
Meet Fin, the AI agent that delivers conversational support based on your content. As the market's only complete AI-first customer service platform, Intercom seamlessly integrates AI across your entire support system - from instant customer responses to feature requests.
Try the only complete AI-first customer service solution today for free.
Intercom are offering substantial savings for startups:
First year: 100% off
Second year: 50% off
Third year: 25% off
To apply, click 'Apply Now' below and select "FutureWeb" as the Referral partner
Would you like to sponsor this newsletter? Email us to request our Media Kit
Markets
Major Industry Moves
OpenAI and SoftBank launch $500B Stargate project - The companies announce an unprecedented partnership to build a global network of AI data centers, representing one of the largest infrastructure investments in tech history. The project aims to dramatically expand AI computing capacity worldwide. Read more
Databricks raises $15.3B with Meta backing - The data analytics company closes massive financing round at $62B valuation, with Meta joining as strategic investor. The deal marks one of the largest private funding rounds in AI sector history. Read more
Google expands Anthropic partnership - Tech giant makes additional $1B investment in Anthropic, strengthening their strategic alliance in AI development and demonstrating continued confidence in the company's approach. Read more
Product Innovation
Samsung enhances SmartThings with AI - Company announces major AI upgrade to its smart home platform, introducing advanced automation and predictive features to simplify home management. Read more
Google expands Gemini integration - Company announces multiple app extensions and Samsung partnership for Gemini, including Bixby integration and Circle to Search feature. Read more
Postman launches AI agent platform - Developer tool company introduces new platform enabling developers to build and deploy custom AI agents. Read more
Startup Developments
StackBlitz in $700M valuation talks - AI speech-to-code startup discusses funding round at significant valuation, highlighting growing investor interest in developer-focused AI tools. Read more
1up reveals meme marketing success - Sales knowledge automation platform reports generating one-third of customer leads through meme-based marketing, demonstrating innovative AI-driven marketing strategies. Read more
Funding & Investments
Novacap closes $1B AI fund - Canadian private equity firm completes raising of dedicated AI investment fund, signaling growing institutional interest in AI sector. Read more
Lindus Health raises $55M - Healthcare technology company secures Series B funding to transform clinical trials through AI automation and improved efficiency. Read more
Vertice secures $50M - Company raises funding for its AI-powered SaaS spend management platform, aiming to optimize enterprise software costs. Read more
Market Impact
Goldman Sachs begins AI banking integration - Investment bank starts replacing traditional banking roles with AI systems, marking significant shift in financial services industry. Read more
Mobile AI drives app spending surge - Consumer spending on mobile applications saw significant growth in 2024, largely driven by AI-enabled features and applications. Read more
Markets rally on AI developments - US stocks receive boost from AI sector news and Trump's investment plans, with tech sector leading gains. Read more
Events & Conferences
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 announces early-bird tickets - Major tech conference opens registration with lowest rates ever, signaling strong focus on AI developments for upcoming event. Read more
Analysis
Today's developments reveal significant shifts in the AI industry, particularly in infrastructure investment and competitive positioning. The unprecedented $500 billion Stargate project by OpenAI and SoftBank, combined with Databricks' $15.3B financing round, signals a new phase in AI infrastructure scaling and enterprise adoption. This, coupled with Goldman Sachs' integration of AI into banking operations and Samsung's SmartThings platform upgrade, demonstrates accelerating practical implementation of AI across industries.
The funding landscape remains exceptionally active, as evidenced by Novacap's $1B AI fund closure and multiple strategic investments by tech giants. Google's additional $1B investment in Anthropic and Meta's strategic backing of Databricks highlight the intensifying competition for AI capabilities. Meanwhile, smaller players like Lindus Health ($55M) and Vertice ($50M) are successfully securing significant funding for specialized AI applications, indicating strong market confidence in sector-specific solutions.
On the technical front, the expansion of Google's Gemini integration across multiple applications and Postman's launch of an AI agent development platform points to growing sophistication in AI deployment and development tools. This evolution suggests opportunities for companies focused on practical AI implementation and specialized use cases, particularly in enterprise settings.
For businesses and developers, these developments highlight three key areas of opportunity: large-scale AI infrastructure access, enterprise-ready AI solutions that can address specific industry challenges, and innovative approaches to AI integration in established business processes. The surge in mobile app spending linked to AI features also indicates growing consumer readiness for AI-powered solutions.
Worth watching: The emerging bifurcation between infrastructure-scale players and specialized AI solution providers could create new partnership and market opportunities. StackBlitz's speech-to-code technology valuation talks and the success of unconventional marketing approaches (like 1up's meme-based lead generation) suggest evolving patterns in AI commercialization. Keep an eye on TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 announcements, as they may reveal new trends in AI deployment and development strategies. Additionally, the concentration of massive investments among major players raises important questions about market access and competition that could shape future regulatory and competitive dynamics.
Recommended Reading
This Generative AI Prompting Technique Uses Multiple Expert Personas To Derive First-Class Answers - Forbes Read More
Summary: Forbes' AI expert Dr. Lance Eliot reveals an innovative prompting technique that leverages multiple expert personas to enhance LLM responses. The article provides a detailed methodology for implementing this approach, including specific prompt examples and practical considerations when working with multiple AI personas. Particularly valuable is the discussion of potential limitations, such as the shared data pool issue across personas within a single LLM, and the suggested solution of using multiple AI models to achieve truly independent perspectives. The piece offers concrete examples using climate science experts, demonstrating how to blend multiple expert viewpoints into cohesive recommendations. For technical practitioners, the analysis of bias mitigation strategies and the comparison of responses across different AI models provides actionable insights for improving prompt engineering practices. The article is especially relevant for those interested in advanced LLM interaction techniques and educational applications of AI.
Understanding Google AI Essentials: A Five-Day Guide for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
Day 3: The Art of Prompt Engineering
Prompt engineering represents a crucial skill for effectively using AI tools. Much like crafting a clear email or giving precise instructions to a team member, the way you communicate with AI significantly impacts the quality of results you receive. Through proper prompt engineering, you can guide AI tools to provide more accurate, relevant, and useful outputs for your business needs. This foundational skill becomes the key to getting consistent, high-quality results from your AI tools.
When writing prompts, clarity and specificity prove essential. Rather than asking an AI tool to "write a marketing email," you might instruct it to "create a marketing email announcing our summer sale to loyal customers, emphasizing our new outdoor furniture collection." This level of detail helps the AI understand exactly what you need and produce more targeted results. The more precise your instructions, the less time you'll spend refining the AI's output.
Few-shot prompting represents another powerful technique where you provide examples to guide the AI's output. For instance, if you want to generate product descriptions in a particular style, you might share two or three examples of existing descriptions you like. The AI then uses these examples as a template for generating new content that matches your preferred tone and format. This approach ensures consistency and helps maintain your brand voice across all AI-generated content.
Chain-of-thought prompting helps when you need the AI to show its reasoning process. This proves particularly valuable when working on complex tasks like financial analysis or strategic planning. By asking the AI to explain its thinking step by step, you can better verify its logic and adjust your prompts if needed. This transparency in the AI's decision-making process helps you ensure accuracy and reliability in important business decisions.
Additional Insights:
Interactive Examples: Test different prompt styles for a single task to identify what works best.
Common Mistakes: Avoid vague prompts or providing incomplete context, which can lead to generic or irrelevant results.
Featured Prompt
Prompt Day 3: The Art of Prompt Engineering
I want to improve my [team/organization]'s ability to use AI effectively through better prompt engineering for [specific business needs]. Please help develop:
1. Prompt Engineering Framework
- Comprehensive guidelines for crafting clear, effective AI prompts
- Advanced examples of few-shot and chain-of-thought prompting techniques
- Specialized methods for customizing AI outputs for [specific tasks]
- Best practices for maintaining prompt consistency
2. Skill Development Roadmap:
- Progressive exercises for mastering prompt engineering concepts
- Clear training milestones with complexity progression
- Implementation of systematic feedback loops and iteration processes
- Performance metrics for evaluating prompt effectiveness
3. Resource Development:
- Customized prompt library for [specific business tasks]
- Versatile templates for different use cases (marketing, analytics, reporting)
- Before/after examples demonstrating prompt optimization impact
- Documentation of successful prompt patterns
4. Quality Control System:
- Standards for maintaining prompt consistency across teams
- Review processes for prompt effectiveness
- Methods for measuring output quality and alignment
- Guidelines for prompt version control and optimizationTools & Resources
Feedhive - AI social media management platform that predicts optimal posting times and content performance. Ideal for marketing teams looking to maximize social media engagement through data-driven insights.
Chorus.ai - Advanced conversation intelligence platform that analyzes sales calls for insights and coaching opportunities. Essential for sales teams looking to improve performance through data-driven feedback.
Cogram - AI meeting assistant that automatically captures and organizes key discussion points and action items. Perfect for busy professionals looking to maximize meeting productivity.
Rewind AI - Personal AI memory tool that indexes everything you've seen, said, or heard for easy recall. Ideal for knowledge workers who need to quickly access their digital history.
Lexica Art - Sophisticated AI art search and generation platform with advanced style control. Perfect for creative professionals needing unique, customizable visual content.
Grain - AI-powered video meeting clips and highlights platform that makes key moments searchable and shareable. Essential for teams looking to capture and share knowledge from virtual meetings.
Inkforall - All-in-one AI content optimization platform with SEO, readability, and engagement scoring. Perfect for content creators needing comprehensive content performance tools.
Tavus - Personalized AI video generation platform that creates custom video messages at scale. Ideal for sales and marketing teams looking to engage audiences with personalized video content.
“AI will change the nature of creativity, so it’s important that we develop new ways to interact with these machines.”
Yves Behar, Designer, Entrepreneur, and Educator
Get Involved
Submit news or Share insights: hello@futureweb.vc
Sponsor
Would you like to sponsor this newsletter? Email us to request our media kit.