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China, U.K. Command Growing Share of AI Venture Deals; Tesla Value Tops $100 Billion
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Welcome back. Venture capital investors increasingly look beyond the U.S. as they fund startups that employ artificial intelligence. China, the U.K. and other countries are attracting more capital to develop technology that is reshaping health care, financial services and more, Jared Council reports for WSJ Pro.
Also: Tesla's market value tops $100 billion and Elon Musk now stands to start unlocking a pay package potentially worth more than $50 billion. Boom.
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A demonstration of facial-recognition technology at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in August./CREDIT: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Artificial-intelligence startups in China, the U.K., Japan and other countries are getting a bigger slice of venture-capital deals. U.S. companies' share continues to drop, Jared Council reports for WSJ Pro. A record 61% of venture-capital investments in AI went to non-U.S. companies last year, up from 60% in 2018, according to a report published Wednesday by research firm CB Insights. Non-U.S. deals represented 29% of global deal flow in 2014 and the share has grown steadily since then. The U.S. still leads the world in deal flow, with 39%.
“There are still a lot of AI startups in the U.S., but it just shows that the international AI community is growing,” said Deepashri Varadharajan, lead AI analyst at CB Insights. China is making a major push in AI, she said, adding that Canada, Israel and India are also showing strength.
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China's share of the total number of deals grew to 13% last year from 4% in 2014. China also had two of the largest funding deals in 2019, with facial-recognition company Megvii Technology Inc., creator of Face++, raising $750 million in May and AI chip maker Horizon Robotics raising $600 million in February.
No surprise. Jai Das, president and managing director at Sapphire Ventures, said about a third of the capital his firm deployed last year went to AI-related companies. His team looked at several AI companies in Israel and Europe last year, he said, adding, “We will most likely do something outside the U.S. this year.”
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AI-Startup Eightfold AI Inc. last week named Celia Poon as its finance chief. PHOTO: EIGHTFOLD AI INC.
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Smart recruiter recruits finance chief. Eightfold AI Inc. has hired former Twitter Inc. executive Celia Poon as its first chief financial officer, as it eyes an initial public offering, CFO Journal reports. The startup, which has raised $55 million to date, uses AI and deep learning to help large employers hire and retain workers, charging subscription, platform and other fees.
The company provides customers with a talent acquisition platform that helps them create a pipeline of suitable job candidates, import and filter thousands of résumés, and send targeted messages to job seekers. It allows companies to mask candidates’ personal information to reduce hiring bias and track the progress of employees already within the organization.
Digital transformation and shorter job tenures bring pressure on employers to attract the right talent, according to Ms. Poon. Her role at the Mountain View, Calif.-based startup will be to aid growth as it expands internationally and to ramp up its infrastructure.
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Placer.ai CEO on the company’s $12 million series A. “Up until now, we’ve been heavily focused on the commercial real-estate sector, but this has very organically led us into retail, hospitality, municipalities and even [consumer packaged goods],” co-founder and chief executive Noam Ben-Zvi told TechCrunch in an email. “This presents us with a massive market.” The company analyzes location data and foot traffic, TechCrunch said.
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ServiceNow weaves in AI. The cloud-based enterprise software firm has acquired Loom Systems, an Israeli-based startup, aiming to provide automated insights for customers using its platform so they may fix tech issues faster, VentureBeat reports. Loom leverages AI to analyze software log data across apps to help organizations manage operations. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
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Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk. CREDIT: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Elon Musk has navigated Tesla Inc. into new territory, as the electric-car maker’s market value topped $100 billion Wednesday morning and overtook Volkswagen AG as the world’s No. 2 most valuable auto maker. Crossing the $100 billion threshold could start unlocking a more than $50 billion pay package for Mr. Musk. Tesla shares have risen sharply in recent months after the company surprised investors with strong third-quarter results last year. The Silicon Valley auto maker in recent weeks said it had begun deliveries from its factory in China and met 2019 delivery guidance. (WSJ)
Xerox is preparing to nominate as many as 11 directors to HP’s board in an aggressive move to push a $33 billion unsolicited takeover bid for the maker of computers and printers, according to people familiar with the matter. Xerox in recent weeks bought a small HP stake, which gives it the right to nominate directors for elections to be held at the company’s annual meeting this summer. (WSJ)
Intel Corp. has named Omar Ishrak as its new chairman effective immediately, replacing Andy Bryant who stepped down from his role at a board meeting earlier this month. Mr. Bryant, an Intel veteran whose career at the U.S. chip maker spanned well over three decades serving in a variety of senior executive roles, told the board last March he wouldn’t run for re-election in 2020. Mr. Ishrak, the chief executive of Medtronic PLC, joined Intel’s board in March 2017. Intel also said its board named Square Inc. seller lead Alyssa Henry as an independent director. (WSJ)
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“China is really pushing the boundaries on this, especially in computer vision. Plus they have massive consumer bases, so they avoid some of the lack-of-data challenges that some startups might have.”
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— Joe Floyd, general partner, Emergence Capital Partners
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