Foundations by Axented
Nvidia unveils new AI model, Alibaba and Baidu shares jump in Hong Kong, Databricks secures $188bn funding round & Indian AI coding startup Emergent becomes a unicorn with $130M Series C
Table of Contents:
AI | Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia unveils new AI model and expands Japan’s physical AI ecosystem
Alibaba and Baidu shares jump in Hong Kong on Apple AI partnership
VC | Startup & Funding
Databricks secures $188bn funding round to advance AI strategy
Indian AI coding startup Emergent becomes a unicorn with $130M Series C
HI | Hardware & Infrastructure
3M and Microsoft announce strategic partnership to advance AI data center infrastructure and enterprise transformation
Infrastructure Defines Mexico’s Next AI Growth Phase
Nvidia unveils new AI model and expands Japan’s physical AI ecosystem
Nvidia introduced Cosmos 3 Edge, a new world model designed to help robots and vision AI systems perceive and navigate physical environments in real time, as CEO Jensen Huang announced a broader expansion of the company’s physical AI efforts in Japan.
Nvidia is building a coalition with Japanese industrial leaders including Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries to accelerate AI adoption in manufacturing, while also expanding into healthcare through partnerships focused on AI-driven drug discovery and medical robotics.
The company said pharmaceutical firms such as Astellas Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, and Ono Pharmaceutical are already using its BioNeMo platform, reinforcing Japan’s role as a strategic market for industrial and scientific AI.
Source: CNBC
Alibaba and Baidu shares jump in Hong Kong on Apple AI partnership
Shares of Alibaba and Baidu rose after both companies confirmed they are partnering with Apple to power Apple Intelligence features for users in China following regulatory approval from the Cyberspace Administration of China.
Alibaba said its Qwen AI model will be integrated across Apple’s operating systems in China, enabling AI capabilities such as text and image understanding and generation within Apple Intelligence, while Baidu is also contributing AI features for Chinese iPhone users.
The approvals mark a significant step in Apple’s rollout of AI services in China and come amid intensifying technological competition between the U.S. and China over AI development and semiconductor access.
Source: CNBC
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Databricks secures $188bn funding round to advance AI strategy
Databricks has signed a term sheet for a funding round led by Coatue that values the company at $188 billion, with the financing expected to close later this summer.
The company plans to use the new capital to expand its AI platform by investing in Unity AI Gateway, Genie, and Lakebase, while also supporting AI acquisitions and research.
Databricks said the investment is aimed at helping enterprises deploy AI more effectively by improving governance, reducing costs, and connecting AI systems with business data, alongside the launch of its new Genie One AI coworker.
Source: Capacity
Indian AI coding startup Emergent becomes a unicorn with $130M Series C
Indian AI coding startup Emergent has raised $130 million in a Series C funding round led by Creaegis, reaching a $1.5 billion valuation just over a year after its launch and increasing its valuation fivefold in six months.
The company, which develops an AI platform for entrepreneurs and small businesses to build and deploy software, says it has surpassed $120 million in annualized revenue and serves more than 200,000 paying customers across global markets.
Emergent will use the funding to expand product development, strengthen its AI agent capabilities, support more complex applications, grow its go-to-market operations, and increase its presence in San Francisco and Europe.
Source: Tech Crunch
3M and Microsoft announce strategic partnership to advance AI data center infrastructure and enterprise transformation
Microsoft and 3M have announced a strategic partnership that combines Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms with 3M’s optical connectivity and materials science technologies to support next-generation AI infrastructure.
Microsoft will become the first hyperscale cloud provider to deploy 3M’s Expanded Beam Optical (EBO) technology in Azure data centers, aiming to improve deployment speed, reliability, and maintenance efficiency for high-density AI networks.
Separately, 3M will adopt Microsoft’s AI tools across functions including customer service, finance, sales, and operations, with the companies jointly developing AI-powered workflows to automate business processes while maintaining human oversight.
Source: Microsoft
Infrastructure Defines Mexico’s Next AI Growth Phase
Mexico’s AI sector is shifting from early experimentation to large-scale deployment, with infrastructure emerging as the primary constraint on future growth.
The report highlights electricity availability, data center capacity, optical fiber connectivity, and scalable AI architectures as critical requirements for expanding enterprise AI adoption, while emphasizing the need for stronger governance and context-aware AI systems.
It also notes growing use of AI agents in logistics and cites research projecting that AI and existing technologies could automate 59% of Mexico’s current work hours by 2030, representing an estimated $204 billion in annual economic value.
Source: Mexico Business News
Foundations is written by the Axented team.
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