Paul Sawers, Author at TechCrunch

UK launches formal probe into Amazon’s ties with AI startup Anthropic

Paul Sawers — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 11:16:52 +0000

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic, after Amazon recently completed a $4 billion investment into the AI startup. The news comes a week after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed it was launching an invitation to comment into Google’s own ties with […]

UK satellite startup Blue Skies Space wants to sell astronomy data ‘as a service’

Paul Sawers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 23:00:00 +0000

The satellite is designed to complement data provided by existing astronomical efforts such as that of the famed Hubble Telescope.

After EU approval, UK clears HPE’s $14B Juniper Networks acquisition

Paul Sawers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:39:49 +0000

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) planned $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks is one step closer to completion — the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that the deal won't face any further scrutiny.

Automattic launches AI writing tool that aims to make WordPress blogs more readable and succinct

Paul Sawers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 09:32:01 +0000

Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, has launched a new AI tool designed to help bloggers write more clearly and succinctly.

Meet the founder who built and sold a $600M enterprise software startup from Sri Lanka

Paul Sawers — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Sanjiva Weerawarana co-founded WSO2 in 2005, recently selling it for more than $600M. He sometimes drives for Uber, too.

Healx, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform for rare diseases, raises $47M

Paul Sawers — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The company also said it has received regulatory clearance to start Phase 2 clinical trials for a new drug in the U.S. later this year.

EU greenlights HPE’s $14B Juniper Networks acquisition

Paul Sawers — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:19:27 +0000

The European Commission (EC) has given the go-ahead to HPE's planned megabucks acquisition of Juniper Networks.

UK antitrust body probes Google’s ties with AI rival Anthropic

Paul Sawers — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:23:31 +0000

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has revealed an early-stage probe into Google’s ties with Anthropic, after the Alphabet subsidiary invested in its U.S. AI rival over several rounds. While it’s not at the stage of being an official investigation yet, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is inviting stakeholders and other “interested parties” to comment ahead […]

Lakera, which protects enterprises from LLM vulnerabilities, raises $20M

Paul Sawers — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:10:00 +0000

Lakera, a Swiss startup that’s building technology to protect generative AI applications from malicious prompts and other threats, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by European venture capital firm, Atomico. Generative AI has emerged as the poster child for the burgeoning AI movement, driven by popular apps such as ChatGPT. But […]

Backed by Microsoft, AWS and Meta, the Overture Maps Foundation launches its first open map datasets

Paul Sawers — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

The Overture Maps Foundation is today releasing data sets for 2.3B building "footprints" globally, 54M notable places of interest, a visual overlay of "boundaries," and land and water features such as physical infrastructure.

UK school reprimanded for unlawful use of facial-recognition technology

Paul Sawers — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 12:58:50 +0000

An English school has been reprimanded by U.K. regulators after it used facial recognition technology without getting opt-in consent from students.

Google’s Jigsaw open sources Altitude to help online platforms weed out extremist content

Paul Sawers — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 16:36:30 +0000

Nine months on, and Jigsaw is now formally handing Altitude over to Tech Against Terrorism, which will continue its development and maintenance.

From Yandex’s ashes comes Nebius, a ‘startup’ with plans to be a European AI compute leader

Paul Sawers — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Subject to shareholder approval, Yandex N.V. is adopting the name of one of its few remaining assets, an AI cloud platform called Nebius AI which it birthed last year.

Strava’s next chapter: New CEO talks AI, inclusivity, and why ‘dark mode’ took so long

Paul Sawers — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

TechCrunch sat down with Strava's new CEO in London for a wide-ranging interview, delving into what the company is prioritizing, and what we can expect in the future as the company embarks on its "next chapter."

Proton launches ‘privacy-first’ AI writing assistant for email that runs on-device

Paul Sawers — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Proton has launched a new AI-enabled writing assistant that helps users compose emails based on simple prompts.

Microsoft faces UK antitrust probe after hiring Inflection AI founders and employees

Paul Sawers — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:40:51 +0000

U.K. authorities have until early September to decide whether the hiring is tantamount to a merger.

Toddle wants to ‘change how we build software’ with a collaborative visual web app builder

Paul Sawers — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 09:42:17 +0000

Danish startup Toddle has launched a no-code web app builder that's designed as a full-featured alternative to Javascript frameworks.

SoftBank acquires UK AI chipmaker Graphcore

Paul Sawers — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 23:00:00 +0000

While the figure of $500 million has been bandied around in various reports for months, in a press briefing early Thursday morning, Graphcore co-founder and CEO Nigel Toon remained coy on the details.

Intel Capital backs AI construction startup that could boost Intel’s own manufacturing prospects

Paul Sawers — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Intel could be giving its burgeoning foundry ambitions a much-needed shot in the arm, as the chip giant’s venture capital arm today revealed that it’s making a “strategic” investment in an Israel- and U.K.-based AI construction startup. Intel Capital is leading a $15 million investment into Buildots, a company that uses AI and computer vision […]

Microsoft settles with European cloud trade body over antitrust complaints

Paul Sawers — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:39:33 +0000

The core issue relates to a 2019 licensing change whereby Microsoft made it more expensive to run Microsoft’s enterprise software on rival cloud services.