Intel has appointed former Cadence Design Systems CEO and venture capitalist Lip-Bu Tan to be its next CEO. TechCrunch has more here.

SpaceX just scrubbed the expected launch of a replacement crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station that would have set in motion the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who've been stuck in space for nine months. The announcement was made during a livestream of the launch countdown, reports CNBC.

AI hardware is having a $500 billion moment as compute demand surges.

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From Sequoia-backed Cerebras Systems to BlackRock-backed Groq, we’ve curated 50+ AI hardware startups making moves in model inferencing, on-device AI, and other cutting-edge tech. Check out the list here.

By Charles Rollet

Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei is worried that spies, likely from China, are getting their hands on costly “algorithmic secrets” from the U.S.’s top AI companies – and he wants the U.S. government to step in.

Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event on Monday, Amodei said that China is known for its “large-scale industrial espionage” and that AI companies like Anthropic are almost certainly being targeted.

“Many of these algorithmic secrets, there are $100 million secrets that are a few lines of code,” he said. “And, you know, I’m sure that there are folks trying to steal them, and they may be succeeding.”

More help from the U.S. government to defend against this risk is “very important,” Amodei added, without specifying exactly what kind of help would be required.

Anthropic declined to comment to TechCrunch on the remarks specifically, but referred to Anthropic’s recommendations to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) earlier this month.

In the submission, Anthropic argues that the federal government should partner with AI industry leaders to beef up security at frontier AI labs, including by working with U.S. intelligence agencies and their allies.

More here.

Applied Intuition, an eight-year-old startup based in Mountain View, CA, that provides tools and infrastructure to assist in the development, testing, and deployment of autonomous vehicles across various industries, including automotive, trucking, defense, construction, agriculture, and mining, is reportedly in the market to raise a multi-hundred million round at a $15 billion valuation. The Information has the scoop here. 

Ditto, a seven-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a mobile database designed to keep applications functional even without consistent internet connectivity, raised an $82 million Series B round at a $462 million post-money valuation. The co-leads were Top Tier Capital Partners and Acrew Capital, with Advance Venture Partners, Amity Ventures, Friends and Family Capital, Fundrise, Innovative Technology Fund, Internet Initiative Japan, and True Ventures also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Mesh, a five-year-old San Francisco-based startup whose crypto payments network enables users to pay with various cryptocurrencies while allowing merchants to settle transactions in their preferred stablecoins, raised an $82 million Series B round led by Paradigm, with additional participation from Consensys, QuantumLight Capital, and Yolo Investments. The company has raised a total of $120+ million. PYMNTS has more here.

Pentera, a 10-year-old Boston company that develops automated security validation software to test and assess organizations' defenses against potential cyberattacks, raised a $60 million Series D at a $1+ billion post-money valuation. The deal lead was Evolution Equity Partners, with Farallon Capital also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Supabase, a five-year-old U.S. startup startup that provides developers with a PostgreSQL database, authentication, real-time subscriptions, and storage, is reportedly raising a $100+ million at approximately a $2 billion valuation. The deal is being led by Accel, according to Bloomberg, which has more here.  

Vori Health, a five-year-old New York startup that provides virtual and in-person musculoskeletal care, raised a $53 million Series B round led by NEA, with AlleyCorp, Intermountain Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, and Max Ventures also investing. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Motivity, a 12-year-old Honolulu company whose software assists behavioral health providers in tracking track patient progress, managing therapy sessions, and streamlining clinical operations, raised a $27 million round. Five Elms Capital provided the capital.