Enterprise Weekly #515: AI Infra Advancements, Work-Bench Developer Happy Hour, and more
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It’s been a big week for open source AI infrastructure.
Meta delayed the release of its long-awaited “Behemoth” model, but momentum hasn’t slowed. Two new 32B parameter reasoning models dropped this week: AM-Thinking-v1 and Intellect-2, along with strong progress in decentralized training infrastructure.
AM-Thinking-v1 stands out for its emphasis on compute-efficient reasoning. Unlike heavyweight models like DeepSeek-R1 that demand massive GPU clusters, AM-Thinking-v1 can run on a single machine, making it far more accessible. Its training pipeline is also impressive: supervised fine-tuning combined with dual-stage reinforcement learning delivers strong performance with significantly lower compute requirements. For teams without hyperscale budgets, this could be a game-changer.
Intellect-2 from Prime Intellect brings a different kind of innovation in the form of decentralized training. While it’s common to train models in a central data center, tightly coupled to massive compute infrastructure, Intellect-2 is the largest model to be trained across a distributed global network using post-training reinforcement learning. This approach matters not just for flexibility, but also for resilience. In a world where power and compute availability are unevenly distributed, decentralized training helps unlock new possibilities.
We’re witnessing a surge of architectural creativity across the open source AI stack. From compute-efficient fine-tuning to globally distributed training networks, teams are proving that you don’t need billions in CapEx to build state-of-the-art models. For builders, that means access to more efficient models at a (hopefully) lower cost.
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📚 Read more news:
🚨 Fortune: Work-Bench’s new $160 million venture fund doubles down on New York enterprise tech investing
WSJ: AI Has Upended the Search Game. Marketers Are Scrambling to Catch Up
Venturebeat: AI power rankings upended: OpenAI, Google rise as Anthropic falls, Poe report finds
TechCrunch: Coinbase says customers’ personal information stolen in data breach
NYTimes: Data Centers’ Hunger for Energy Could Raise All Electric Bills
🧵 Threads
🎬 Jessica Lin: Reflections on Raising $160M for Work-Bench IV
🤖 Priyanka Somrah: On our Investment Thesis on AI Agents for Technical Support
Jose Andres Quesada: Challenges with UI Automation Execution
Company: Spring Health
Role: VP, New Venture
Technology: Risk OS for FSI
Funding: $466M from Work-Bench, Generation Investment Management, Kinnevik, Tiger Global Management, Northzone, Rethink Impact, and more.
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Sequen raises $6M led by Greycroft
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • New York, NY
Co-Founders: Zoë Weil, Mo Afsharr, Alexander Thom
Plakar raises $3M led by Seedcamp
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Pre-Seed • Paris, France
Kovr.ai raises $3.6M led by IronGate and Xfund
Risk / Security • Seed • Reston, VA
Prediction Guard raises $3.7M led by Sovereign’s Capital
Risk / Security • Seed • Lafayette, IN
TensorStax raises $5M led by Glasswing Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Adopt AI raises $6M led by Elevation Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Jose, CA
Haast raises $6M led by AirTree
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Sydney, Australia
Stackpack raises $6.3M led by Freestyle Capital
Future of Work • Seed • San Francisco, CA
FlexPoint raises $12M led by Foundry Group
Future of Work • Series A • New York, NY
Ravio raises $12M led by Spark Capital
HR Tech • Series A • London, UK
ClearVector raises $13M led by Scale Venture Partners
Risk / Security • Series A • Reston, VA
Openlayer raises $14.5M led by Race Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Glass Imaging raises $20M led by Insight Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Los Altos, CA
Theom raises $20M led by Wing VC
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • San Jose, CA
Origin raises $21M led by Felix Capital
HR Tech • Series A • London, UK
Forethought raises $25M led by Blue Cloud Ventures
Future of Work • Series D • San Francisco, CA
Arkestro raises $36M led by Altira Group and Aramco Ventures
Future of Work • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Optimal Dynamics raises $40M led by Koch Disruptive Technologies
Future of Work • Series C • New York, NY
Granola raises $43M led by NFDG
Collaboration / Productivity • Series B • London, UK
Cart.com raises $50M led by BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, and Others
Future of Work • Series C • Houston, TX
TensorWave raises $100M led by Magnetar and AMD Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Las Vegas, NV
AI21 Labs raises $300M led by Google and Nvidia
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series D • Tel Aviv, Israel
Rippling raises $450M led by Dubin & Co, Sands Capital and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity
HR Tech • Series G • San Francisco, CA
Databricks acquires Neon for $1B
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • Menlo Park, CA
Orca Security acquires Opus for an Undisclosed Amount
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Tel Aviv, Israel
Proofpoint acquires Hornetsecurity for an Undisclosed Amount
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Hanover, Germany
Salesforce acquires Convergence for an Undisclosed Amount
Future of Work • Acquisition • London, UK