Foundations by Axented
Meta jumps into AI coding market in effort to chase Anthropic and OpenAI, Bespoke Labs raises $40M in funding, Micron Breaks Ground on $9 Billion Japan Fab Expansion
Table of Contents:
AI | Artificial Intelligence
Meta jumps into AI coding market in effort to chase Anthropic and OpenAI
Global push for AI governance amid warnings of ‘catastrophic harm’
VC | Startup & Funding
AI post-training startup Bespoke Labs raises $40M in funding
AI Start-Up Kaon AI Raises $60 Million in Funding Round in Quest to Build a ‘Personalized Story Engine’ for Users
HI | Hardware & Infrastructure
Meta is building its first big Canadian data center as AI expansion crosses the border
Micron Breaks Ground on $9 Billion Japan Fab Expansion
Meta jumps into AI coding market in effort to chase Anthropic and OpenAI
Meta has launched Muse Spark 1.1, an upgraded artificial intelligence model focused on coding and autonomous agent tasks, while opening a public preview of its API through a new developer portal.
The company is introducing paid access to the model, offering $20 in free credits before charging usage-based token fees, as it seeks to compete more directly with OpenAI and Anthropic and generate returns on its growing AI investments.
AI chief Alexandr Wang said the model was designed to work with widely used developer tools and outperforms competitors in some coding tasks, while confirming that an open-source variant is still in development and that a more powerful model, code-named Watermelon, is being trained.
Source: CNBC
Global push for AI governance amid warnings of ‘catastrophic harm’
Governments, technology companies, researchers and civil society groups are gathering in Geneva for the UN’s Global Dialogue on AI Governance to discuss international rules for artificial intelligence as its capabilities advance faster than existing oversight.
Participants, including AI researcher Yoshua Bengio and journalist Maria Ressa, warned that AI poses risks ranging from misinformation and democratic erosion to potentially catastrophic outcomes if governance fails to keep pace.
The discussions also focus on narrowing the global AI divide, ensuring developing countries share in the technology’s benefits, and building internationally accepted guardrails informed by the UN’s first independent scientific assessment of AI.
Source: United Nations News
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AI post-training startup Bespoke Labs raises $40M in funding
Bespoke Labs has raised $40 million to expand its platform for AI post-training, including $31.75 million in a Series A round led by Wing VC after an earlier $8.25 million seed round backed by investors including Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean.
The startup develops software that automates the creation of reinforcement learning environments, helping developers improve AI models’ reasoning and task performance more efficiently than manual workflows.
The company also maintains open-source projects for prompt optimization and supervised fine-tuning datasets, and says the new funding will be used to enhance its reinforcement learning platform and advance AI data research.
Source: Silicon Angle
AI Start-Up Kaon AI Raises $60 Million in Funding Round in Quest to Build a ‘Personalized Story Engine’ for Users
Kaon AI has raised $60 million from investors including B Capital, Redpoint Ace, Goodwater Capital and DCM to expand its generative AI platform for interactive, personalized storytelling.
The company says its flagship product, Emochi, enables users to create and shape AI-driven story worlds that adapt to their emotions and creative direction rather than simply simulating conversations.
Kaon reported $45 million in annual recurring revenue, more than 2 million daily active users, and plans to further develop what it describes as an AI-native entertainment platform centered on customized, evolving experiences.
Source: Variety
Meta is building its first big Canadian data center as AI expansion crosses the border
Meta will invest about $9 billion to build its first large-scale Canadian data center, a 1-gigawatt AI-optimized facility in Alberta that is expected to take two to three years to complete.
The company selected the site for its energy availability, electrical infrastructure and supportive regulatory environment as it accelerates investment in AI computing capacity.
The project is also part of Meta’s broader strategy to support future AI services and a planned cloud computing business, while promising local infrastructure investment and thousands of construction jobs.
Source: CNBC
Micron Breaks Ground on $9 Billion Japan Fab Expansion
Micron Technology has begun construction on a ¥1.5 trillion ($9.3 billion) expansion of its Hiroshima semiconductor facility to increase production of advanced memory chips, including high-bandwidth memory used in AI processors.
The project is expected to receive up to ¥500 billion in support from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, with manufacturing equipment scheduled for installation beginning in the second half of 2028.
The investment reflects growing demand for AI-focused memory technologies and Japan’s broader effort to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry.
Source: Bloomberg
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