TheChek News Flow

US secretary of state says there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ Edmundo González won the most votes

The US has declared Venezuela opposition candidate Edmundo González the winner of the July 28 presidential election, describing the official results favouring President Nicolás Maduro as “deeply flawed”.

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said on Thursday that “given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and . . . to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes” and congratulated him on his “successful campaign”.

Washington’s statement steps up the pressure on Maduro, who has launched a crackdown on nationwide protests this week against his disputed re-election.

The government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) said early on Monday that Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, had won 51.2 per cent of the vote to González’s 44.2 per cent. But the CNE provided no supporting evidence, and has not responded to international pressure to do so.

The elections department of the Organization of American States has said the Venezuelan result cannot be recognised because of the lack of evidence. Maduro has referred the election dispute to the supreme court, which is controlled by the government.

The Carter Center, a US non-profit and the only independent body in Venezuela to evaluate the election, withdrew its team on Tuesday without certifying the result, which it said “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages”.

The opposition, which ran a nationwide monitoring mission of its own, declared González the victor and president-elect with 7.1mn votes, compared with 3.2mn for Maduro, publishing 80 per cent of the voting receipts collected at polling stations as evidence.

Blinken also called for the immediate release of all those arrested who were protesting against the result and said the safety and security of González, a 74-year-old former diplomat, and opposition leader María Corina Machado must be protected. Maduro and members of his inner circle said in speeches this week that the pair should be jailed.

Washington’s top diplomat said the threats represented an “undemocratic attempt to repress political participation and retain power”. Authorities in Venezuela arrested more than 1,000 people in connection with protests this week, while rights groups have said that at least 17 demonstrators were killed.

Maduro referred to González in speeches this week as “Guaidó 2.0”, a reference to Juan Guaidó, the opposition lawmaker who Washington and dozens of other western capitals recognised as Venezuela’s legitimate president after a 2018 election widely considered a sham. That effort to unseat Maduro ultimately failed, and Guaidó fled Venezuela in April last year.

Earlier on Thursday, leftwing governments in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico published a joint statement calling “on the electoral authorities of Venezuela to move forward expeditiously and make public the data broken down by voting table”, but stopped short of condemning Maduro.

Machado, who had been banned from contesting the poll, has called for nationwide protests on Saturday in defence of González’s victory. “The country needs us to be strong, organised, and mobilised,” she wrote on X.

July saw its fair share of big rounds — and then some. Startups needed to raise $200 million or more to make this list. While we saw a lot of the regular sectors like biotech and financial services represented, we also saw some big deals involving supply chain and automotive startups.

1. Skild AI, $300M, robotics: The good year for robotics startups continued. Skild AI became the latest such startup to raise big, locking in a $300 million Series A led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank Group and Jeff Bezos, through his Bezos Expeditions. The funding brings the company to a valuation of $1.5 billion. The Pittsburgh-based startup isn’t building robots, however, it’s building robot brains. The theory is that those brain models can then be used in a variety of robots and for different tasks — instead of just having one application. It seems a lot of big-name investors agree with that strategy.

2. Element Biosciences, $277M, biotech: Every month there seems to be big biotech raises, and this one’s no different. Element Biosciences raised more than $277 million in a Series D led by Wellington Management. The San Diego-based biotech startup is focused on developing DNA sequencing and multiomics technology for research markets. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $678 million, per Crunchbase.

3. Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, $260M, biotech: Cardurion Pharmaceuticals raised a $260 million Series B financing led by Ascenta Capital. The Burlington, Massachusetts-based biotech startup is focused on developing therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Founded in 2017, the company has raised more than $600 million, per Crunchbase.

4. (tied) Cosm, $250M, entertainment: Entertainment and technology are intersecting more than ever — and Cosm is just the latest example. The sphere-like immersive tech and entertainment company locked up a raise of more than $250 million from the likes of Mirasol Capital and Baillie Gifford. The new round values the Dallas, Texas-based company at more than $1 billion. Cosm offers guests an immersive dome that allows a shared reality experience, usually with something regarding sports. The company already has a venue in Los Angeles and others planned for Dallas and Atlanta.

4. (tied) Regal, $250M, film: Regal, the second-largest movie theater chain in the U.S., makes the list this month after it secured $250 million to upgrade its locations. The Tennessee-based company is looking to add to its 425 theaters across the country — with enhancements that include luxury recliners and other amenities. Regal is owned by Cineworld, which emerged from bankruptcy with a financial restructuring process last year. Investors were not disclosed.

6. Human Interest, $242M, financial services: Retirement planning is big business and it also can apparently produce big valuations. San Francisco-based Human Interest offers small businesses the ability to more easily offer 401(k) plans to their employees. The company locked up a $267 million round led by investment firms Baillie Gifford and Marshall Wace that values the company at $1.3 billion. The round included $25 million of debt. The company said it recently surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Founded in 2015, Human Interest says it has raised more than $700 million in total primary and secondary financings.

7. (tied) Earned Wealth, $200M, financial services: Wealth tech startup Earned Wealth raised a $200 million investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners and Summit Partners. The company offers medical professionals financial planning, tax planning and investment advice on one platform. The new cash is expected to go toward acquisitions. Founded in 2021, the New York-based company has raised $212 million, per Crunchbase.

7. (tied) HarmonyCares, $200M, healthcare: HarmonyCares, a provider of in-home primary care, raised one of the biggest rounds of the month to expand its operations. The Troy, Michigan-based healthcare company closed a $200 million round led by General Catalyst, McKesson Ventures and a large unnamed national payor. The firm operates home-based primary care practices in 15 states — offering services such as home health, hospice, radiology and laboratory — and will look to grow its geographical reach across the U.S.

7. (tied) Altana AI, $200M, supply chain management: Altana AI, a supply chain management startup, locked up a $200 million Series C investment led by the US Innovative Technology Fund that values the company at $1 billion. The New York-based startup’s supply chain management platform gives customers deep insights and visibility into managing their global value chains — from the sourcing of raw materials to production to sale. Such oversight has become necessary as governments and organizations have introduced new trade restrictions, climate, national security and other policies. Much like most startups that raise big money in the current environment, Altana has an AI play. The company’s platform uses AI to analyze data points through the supply chain to spot anomalies and risks. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $322 million, per Crunchbase. Before the new round, it last raised a $100 million Series B led by Activate Capital Partners in 2022.

7. (tied) Astranis, $200M, space: Space startup Astranis raised a fresh $200 million round to build out its Omega satellite program. The new round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bam Elevate. The San Francisco-based startup develops small broadband communications satellites for telecoms, and plans to have more than 100 of its first-generation satellites operating in orbit by 2030. While Astranis did not release a valuation number, the company raised a $200 million round at a $1.6 billion valuation in April 2023, per a Bloomberg report in a deal also led by Andreessen Horowitz. Space startups have done well this year as satellite and communication companies continue to attract new investment. So far in 2024, space-related startups have raised more than $3.7 billion, per Crunchbase data. Such startups raised about $5.9 billion through all of last year — putting this year’s venture funding ahead of that pace. Founded in 2015, Astranis has raised more than $750 million, per the company.

7. (tied) Tekion, $200M, automotive: Providing a software platform to the retail automotive industry may not be the sexiest of technology plays, but it obviously can make a valuable company. Pleasanton, California-based Tekion, whose software connects manufacturers, retailers and others, raised a $200 million growth equity round from Dragoneer Investment Group that values the company at more than $4 billion. Bloomberg reported that the startup now has between $100 million and $200 million in revenue. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $635 million, per Crunchbase.

Microsoft has a long and tangled history with OpenAI, having invested a reported $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker as part of a long term partnership. As part of the deal, Microsoft runs OpenAI’s models across its enterprise and consumer products, and is OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider.

However, the tech giant called the startup a “competitor” for the first time in an SEC filing on Tuesday.

In Microsoft’s annual 10K, OpenAI joined long list of competitors in AI, alongside Anthropic, Amazon, and Meta. OpenAI was also listed alongside Google as a competitor to Microsoft in search, thanks to OpenAI’s new SearchGPT feature announced last week.

It’s possible Microsoft is trying to change the narrative on its relationship with OpenAI in light of antitrust concerns — the FTC is currently looking into the relationship, alongside similar cloud provider investments into AI startups. Microsoft recently agreed to give up its board observer seat at the startup — a seat it gained after a kerfuffle last fall in which OpenAI’s board briefly fired CEO Sam Altman, prompting Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to offer him and other top execs jobs at Microsoft.

However, SEC filings like this are often places where corporations throw out hyper-cautious warnings to investors.

Partners and competitors are certainly not mutually exclusive titles in Silicon Valley. In the year 2000, the dominant search engine at the time, Yahoo, announced an agreement to let Google’s search results appear on its webpage. The two companies were partners for a few years, until Google ate Yahoo’s lunch in search and became the unofficial, but dominant, doorstep to the internet. The two companies were partners, but were still threats to each other. (Yahoo is the owner of TechCrunch.)

There’s enough history of this kind of power-switch in tech that it’s at least conceivable that Microsoft and OpenAI’s relationship will take a similar route.

Regardless, Microsoft is not putting all its eggs in one basket.

In March, Microsoft hired the cofounders of a billion-dollar AI startup, Inflection AI’s Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, to lead its new Microsoft AI division. The cloud provider is investing heavily into Microsoft Copilot, and building out an AI future that’s entirely separate from OpenAI.

XAI has considered an acquisition of chatbot maker Character as Elon Musk’s AI startup hunts for talent and more ways to test its AI models.

XAI, Elon Musk’s one-year-old artificial intelligence startup, has considered acquiring chatbot maker Character.AI as it looks for more ways to test its Grok AI models, according to a person who spoke with xAI leadership about the deal.

The discussion may not result in a deal. But the internal debate at xAI points to the types of pairings that are likely to become more common as smaller AI startups such as Character face the steep costs of training and running their models while competing against deep-pocketed rivals.

Other conversational AI startups such as Adept and Inflection have effectively sold themselves to Amazon and Microsoft, respectively, despite having raised considerable capital in the past two years.

XAI has raised more than $6 billion and Musk has told investors he intends to raise more money in the future. Musk plans to use much of that money to expand xAI’s compute capacity, but he could look at consumer AI startups other than Character for potential acquisitions, the individual who spoke to xAI leaders said.

A spokesperson for Character declined to comment. Musk did not respond to email requests for comment. After this article was initially published, Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “xAI is not considering an acquisition of Character AI.”

Character, which was privately valued at $1 billion in a March 2023 financing, runs an app that lets individuals message AI versions of anime characters, TV personalities and historical figures in hyperrealistic role-play. It makes money from a subscription plan that costs $9.99 per month.

It has raised more than $150 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Greycroft. Google, which also provides Character with cloud computing services and access to Google’s advanced chips, has provided additional financing via a convertible note, The Information previously reported.

XAI leaders considered an acquisition after Character discussed a possible research partnership with xAI, as well as with Meta Platforms and Google. Such deals, earlier reported by The Information, could allow the chatbot maker to access the partnering company’s computing resources in exchange for sharing some of Character’s intellectual property.

Character’s leaders said in July that no partnership or acquisition deal was happening with Meta, according to a Character employee. Meta declined to comment.

With an acquisition of Character, xAI would gain technical talent in the form of dozens of AI researchers, a number of whom hail from Meta and Google. Musk in July said xAI was “definitely looking to increase our human talent advantage, so please apply at xAI.”

XAI could also use Character’s chatbots to get feedback on and improve its Grok models, adding to the data it collects through Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter. Rivals including Meta are improving their models using interactions from their consumer apps, such as WhatsApp.

Character has engaged in partnership discussions as more tech companies have developed competing products, though these offerings have had varying degrees of success. Meta scrapped chatbots modeled after celebrities such as Tom Brady after less than a year, The Information reported. The company has since introduced a feature that allows creators and others to make customized chatbots.

Google has also been developing a product for creating and conversing with customizable chatbots, which could launch as soon as this year.

An offer from xAI, should one materialize, would end months of uncertainty over Character’s next steps. Although it isn’t at risk of running out of cash soon, it hasn’t raised a new round of venture funding in more than a year, a contrast with the rapid funding pace of many AI startups.

Character in recent weeks has sought to cut costs and has instituted new processes for approving budgets and head counts, according to an employee. It generates revenue through its premium plan, which has fewer than 100,000 subscribers—a small fraction of its more than 6 million daily active users in July, that person said.

Two former Google researchers—Noam Shazeer, now Character’s CEO, and Daniel De Freitas, its president—founded Character in November 2021. Shazeer, one of the authors of a foundational generative AI research paper, and De Freitas left Google in part due to frustration with the company’s bureaucracy.