European Union antitrust regulators have ordered Apple to follow a set of specific steps in order to open up its ecosystem to rival makers of smartphones, headphones and virtual reality headsets. Reuters has more here. 

Needless to say, Apple is none to happy about this development. "Today’s decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules," it said in a statement. 9to5Mac has more here. 

Nvidia and xAI are teaming up with Microsoft, BlackRock, and MGX to invest $100 billion in an AI data center initiative that will compete with the Stargate plan proposed by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle. Reuters has more here. 

X has raised almost $1 billion in new equity at a valuation approximating what Musk paid for the company back in 2022. Investors included Darsana Capital Partners, 1789 Capital, and Musk himself. Bloomberg has more here. 

Join Affinity to dive into how, at a time when traditional due diligence approaches are being tested, Vanessa Larco is taking a different approach. Previously a Partner at NEA, Larco is on the cusp of launching a new fund and rethinking how investors assess the deals in their pipeline. Join Affinity on April 3 to hear a new perspective on due diligence in early-stage investing.

By Charles Rollet

A senior research scientist at DeepMind who worked on robotics and AI has left Google to create his own robotics startup, called Generalist AI, and has already obtained investment from Nvidia, TechCrunch has learned.

Pete Florence was listed as co-founder and CEO of Generalist AI at a panel at Nvidia’s GTC conference in San Jose yesterday. The panel was for portfolio companies of Nvidia’s VC arm, NVentures.

NVentures has become an especially active venture capital firm since Nvidia has enjoyed skyrocketing financial success in this new age of AI.

“We are largely still in stealth,” Florence told TechCrunch, explaining that the mission of the startup is “to make general-purpose robots a reality.”

Florence left DeepMind a year ago, per his LinkedIn profile. DeepMind student researcher Kamyar Ghasemipour has also joined Generalist AI as a founding technical staff member, according to Ghasemipour’s LinkedIn.

More here.

Ampersand Biomedicines, a five-year-old Boston startup that is developing programmable medicines that act precisely at the site of disease without affecting healthy tissue, raised a $65 million Series B round. Investors included Eli Lilly as well as previous investor Flagship Pioneering. More here.

Dataminr, a 16-year-old company that specializes in detecting early signals of high-impact events and emerging risks by analyzing publicly available data in real-time, raised $85 million in a combination of convertible financing and credit. The deal was co-led by NightDragon and HSBC. Before this latest funding, the company had raised over $1.1 billion in equity and debt, per Crunchbase. TechCrunch has more here.  

Proscia, an eleven-year-old Philadelphia company that digitizes tissue samples and applies AI to enhance disease diagnosis and research, particularly in cancer, raised a $50 million round co-led by Insight Partners, AI Capital Partners, and Triangle Peak Partners, with additional participation from Avenue Venture Opportunities Fund, Emerald Development Managers, GPG Healthcare, Fusion Fund, Interwoven Ventures, and Razor's Edge. More here.

Arcade.dev, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that enables AI systems to perform tasks on behalf of users by securely connecting them to various applications and services such as Gmail, Slack, and GitHub, raised a $12 million seed round. Laude led the financing, with Flybridge Ventures, Hanabi Capital, Neotribe, and Andy Rachleff also stepping up. More here.

Augment, a San Francisco startup founded last year that has developed an AI assistant to help freight operators with complex tasks such as managing emails, phone calls, and workflows, raised a $25 million seed round. 8VC was the deal lead. Trucking Dive has more here.

Multiply Mortgage, a three-year-old Denver startup that offers mortgages as an employee benefit to make homeownership more accessible, raised a $23.5 million Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins, with BoxGroup, Mischief, Workshop as well as previous investor A* also joining in. The company has raised a total of $27 million. TechCrunch has more here. 

Prezent, a four-year-old startup based in Los Altos, CA, that helps professionals create business presentations quickly and effectively, raised a $20 million round at a valuation “well over” $100 million. The deal was led by Greycroft, with Zoom Ventures, Emergent Ventures, WestWave, TGV, Manulife Ventures, and Alumni Ventures also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Privy, a four-year-old New York startup that provides infrastructure that allows users to connect their existing crypto wallets to various apps and websites without additional logins, raised a $15 million round. Ribbit Capital was the deal lead, with Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, and Coinbase also investing. The company has raised a total of $40+ million. NFTgators has more here.

Utila, a three-year-old Tel Aviv and New York startup that enables institutions to securely manage digital assets across multiple blockchains, wallets, teams, and users, raised a $18 million Series A round led by Nyca Partners, with Wing VC, NFX, Haymaker Ventures, Gaingels, and Cerca Partners also contributing. The company has raised a total of $30 million. CTech has more here.

257, a two-year-old New York startup that creates detailed energy profiles for every U.S. home to help utility, solar, HVAC, and electric supply companies better understand their customers, raised a $9.2 million seed round. F2 Venture Capital was the deal lead. CTech has more here.

Aletiq, a six-year-old Paris startup whose platform centralizes technical data such as CAD files and quality requirements for industrial manufacturers in sectors like aerospace, automotive, electronics, and luxury goods, raised a $6.5 million round. Point Nine led the investment, with Entropy Industrial and AngelInvest also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.

AMT, a one-year-old London startup whose goal is to be "Google Adwords for influencers," raised a $3.5 million seed round. NFX was the deal lead. TechCrunch has more here.

Entegrata, a two-year-old Indianapolis startup that helps law firms centralize their data, generate AI-powered business insights, and streamline decision-making with secure, pre-built analytics tools on Microsoft Azure, raised a $4.5 million round led by Chicago Ventures, with support from OnDean Forward and The LegalTech Fund. LawSites has more here.

Eventum Orthopaedics, a five-year-old UK startup that provides surgeons with real-time data on kneecap positioning during total knee replacements, enhancing surgical precision and patient outcomes, raised a $4.9 million round co-led by Mercia Ventures and Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. The company has raised a total of $9+ million. EU-Startups has more here.

Orion Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup whose platform learns how data typically moves within a company and identifies unusual activities that may indicate data theft or unauthorized access, raised a $6 million seed round co-led by Pico Partners and FXP, with Underscore VC also anteing up. SecurityWeek has more here.

PULSETRAIN, a three-year-old Munich startup that develops advanced battery management and inverter technology for electric vehicles, raised a $6.7 million seed round co-led by Vsquared Ventures and Planet A and including Climate Club. Tech Funding News has more here.

SpangleAI, a one-year-old Seattle startup that aims to enhance online shopping experiences by creating personalized landing pages tailored to individual customer interactions, raised a $6 million seed round. Madrona Ventures and Streamlined Ventures provided the funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Stable Sea, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an off-ramping service for stablecoins, allowing users to convert digital assets into local currencies worldwide, raised a $3.5 million round led by Kindred Ventures, with Ludlow Ventures, DFS Lab, The Venture Dept., and The Fintech Fund also opting in. More here.

Affinity spoke to Lauren MacDonald, Principal at Sozo Ventures, about the firm’s successful CRM implementation. The outcome? This comprehensive yet simple-to-follow checklist, covering every step from pre-implementation planning to ways you can maximize CRM adoption and business impact. With MacDonald’s best practices spread throughout the checklist, this is your essential companion to launching a new CRM in your firm. Download the checklist now.

Ribbit Capital, a 13-year-old Palo Alto venture firm, is in the market to raise a $500 million fund, its eleventh. The fintech-focused outfit's past bets include Nubank, Affirm, and Robinhood. TechCrunch has more here. 

Gretel, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that enables developers to generate artificial datasets mirroring the statistical properties of real data in order facilitate AI model training while preserving privacy, has been purchased by Nvidia for $320+ million. Wired has more here. 

CoreWeave, an eight-year-old New Jersey startup backed by Nvidia that specializes in providing high-performance computing resources optimized for AI and machine learning workloads, has pegged an IPO price range of $47 to $55 per share. Reuters has more here. 

YC loyalist Michael Seibel announced late Wednesday on X that after more than 12 years with the famed accelerator, he is transitioning to a “partner emeritus” role. TechCrunch has more here.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov claimed today that Telegram has more than one billion active users and cast shade on WhatsApp, calling it "a cheap, watered-down imitation of Telegram." Ouch! TechCrunch has more here. 

Attention, VCs: Raj Aggarwal, AWS's GM of generative AI and revenue acceleration, has left the company to found his own startup. TechCrunch has more here.  

X competitor Bluesky made so much money selling a shirt that mocked Mark Zuckerberg that its COO, Rose Wang, joked that Bluesky is "[p]ivoting to a tshirt company." TechCrunch has more here.

Copyrights do not apply to AI-generated art, a judge rules. Ars Technica has more here. 

An AI startup is betting $1 million that its algorithms will produce a better March Madness bracket than professional sports gambler Sean Perry.  

A 10.03-carat Mediterranean Blue diamond will be auctioned off at Sotheby's this May for an estimated hammer price of $20 million.