San Francisco — Toronto-based chip start-up Taalas said on Thursday it had raised $169m and has developed a chip capable of running AI applications faster and more cheaply than conventional approaches.
Taalas has raised a total of $219m from investors such as Quiet Capital, Fidelity and Pierre Lamond, a chip industry venture capitalist.
Taalas’ announcement arrives weeks after Nvidia’s deal to licence intellectual property from chip startup Groq for $20bn, which reignited interest in a crop of startups and technologies used to perform specific elements of AI inference, the process where an AI model, such as the one powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT, responds to user queries.
Taalas’ approach to chip design involves printing portions of an AI model onto a piece of silicon, effectively producing a custom chip suited for specific models such as a small version of Meta’s Llama model. Reuters
Firms assess refunds as Supreme Court halts Trump’s tariffs
Washington — Companies that hedged their bets by selling potential tariff refund claims to investors celebrated on Friday after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs.
Now comes the hard part.
“It’s a tiny win in what seems to be an ongoing, changing environment,” said Mark Mintman, CFO of Atlanta-based toymaker Kids2, which received a total of $2m from a Boston hedge fund in exchange for the claim against $15m in tariffs the company paid to US customs through September of last year.
Mintman said the company, which imports 95% of its toys and infant products from China, is now working with its legal counsel to assess what steps to take to preserve its right to a refund. Reuters
OpenAI targets $600bn compute spend amid IPO plans
Washington — OpenAI is targeting roughly $600bn in total compute spend through 2030, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday, as the ChatGPT maker lays groundwork for an IPO that could value it at up to $1-trillion.
OpenAI’s 2025 revenue totalled $13bn, beating its $10bn projection, while it spent $8bn during the year, under its $9bn target, the person said.
The development comes as Nvidia closes in on finalising a $30bn investment in OpenAI as part of a fundraising round in which the AI startup is seeking more than $100bn.
That would value the Sam Altman-led company at about $830bn and amount to one of the largest private capital raises on record.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI expects more than $280bn in total revenue by 2030, divided nearly equally across its consumer and enterprise units, according to CNBC, which had reported the development earlier. Reuters
Judge upholds $243m verdict against Tesla in crash case
New York — A federal judge rejected Tesla’s request to overturn a $243m jury verdict over the 2019 crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S, which killed a 22-year-old woman and severely injured her boyfriend.
In a decision made public on Friday, US district judge Beth Bloom in Miami said the evidence at trial “more than supports” the August 2025 verdict, and Tesla raised no new arguments to set the verdict aside.
Tesla, led by Elon Musk, is expected to appeal. Neither Tesla nor its lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment.
The case arose from an April 25 2019 incident in Key Largo, Florida, in which George McGee drove his 2019 Model S through an intersection at about 100km/h while he bent to look for his phone, which he had dropped. Reuters
Sharma to lead division after Microsoft gaming chief retires
New York — Microsoft said on Friday gaming head Phil Spencer is retiring after 38 years at the software maker, in a major leadership shake-up.
The company named insider Asha Sharma as the executive vice-president and CEO of the gaming division. In her previous role, Sharma led product development for AI models and services at Microsoft.
Sharma said she would renew focus on the Xbox console, aiming to “recommit to our core Xbox fans and players.”
Microsoft Gaming has been grappling with tariff-induced cost pressures, strong competition and uncertain consumer spending, prompting price rises on Xbox hardware.
Last month, Microsoft reported that its gaming revenue fell around 9.5% in the December quarter, and it recorded undisclosed impairment charges in the division. Reuters
Airbus open to split as FCAS fighter project strains
Paris — The head of Airbus said he hopes Europe can continue to co-develop a new fighter jet but added that his company was ready for any scenario, including two completely separate French- and German-led programmes to replace the troubled FCAS project.
In remarks to France’s BFM TV broadcast on Friday, CEO Guillaume Faury reiterated that splitting the project into two planes was one scenario but raised questions over the extent to which co-operation on broader systems could be salvaged.
The Future Combat Air System is a €100-billion effort to develop a fighter jet supported by armed drones and secure links. But it is threatened by a rivalry between France’s Dassault Aviation and Airbus, representing Germany and Spain, resulting from disputes over workshare and technology rights. Reuters
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