Seb Johnson

A European startup that built a foundational model with only $9m has just been acquired for $1bn+. The company - @prior_labs, has built a state-of-the-art foundation model for tabular data. It was founded by @FrankRHutter, @noahholl and Sauraj Gambhir, and only announced a $9m pre-seed led by @balderton (@Jameswise) last year. Tabular data, i.e. structured data in tables, spreadsheets, and databases, plays an essential role is many critical industries, but was neglected in the early advances in AI that focused on text and images. Today SAP has announced that it is acquiring the company for $1bn+. To date Prior Labs has only raised $9m which means it will likely be a great result for its founders, employee and early investors who include Balderton, @guypod, @Thom_Wolf, @petersarlin. It's great to see a good exit for the German tech ecosystem and even better to see it staying in Europe! It also shows how much there is to play for in AI. The team have built an insanely high quality, hyper-focused model and have got a unicorn outcome on just under a year. Amazing news!

@gm_mertd @nathanbenaich Exactly - I don’t know if it’s the same 1bn but everyone I’ve spoken to close the deal said the acquisition price was about a bn and largely cash

@nathanbenaich rumour is that the purchase price was close to it as well

guys - a company committing to invest up to $1b in a new initiative as a result of buying a startup is not the same thing as that startup being bought for $1b

@N_Sportelli THANK YOU

@SebJohnsonUK tompkins sq bagels

I’m in New York for a week. Let’s see what all this fuss is about. I am looking for the best bagels NYC has to offer. Recommendations plz

@DrellLabs Either

@SebJohnsonUK Do you like a bagel sandwich or plain bagel with a dip (cream cheese)?

Three of Europe's fast growing companies are in the Nordics. Two are in stockholm.

@blwiertz @prior_labs @FrankRHutter @noahholl pathfounders.com/p/sap-acquires…

@SebJohnsonUK @prior_labs @FrankRHutter @noahholl Where does the 1bn come from? All i can find is that theyll invest 1bn into scaling the company

A European startup that built a foundational model with only $9m has just been acquired for $1bn+. The company - @prior_labs, has built a state-of-the-art foundation model for tabular data. It was founded by @FrankRHutter, @noahholl and Sauraj Gambhir, and only announced a $9m pre-seed led by @balderton (@Jameswise) last year. Tabular data, i.e. structured data in tables, spreadsheets, and databases, plays an essential role is many critical industries, but was neglected in the early advances in AI that focused on text and images. Today SAP has announced that it is acquiring the company for $1bn+. To date Prior Labs has only raised $9m which means it will likely be a great result for its founders, employee and early investors who include Balderton, @guypod, @Thom_Wolf, @petersarlin. It's great to see a good exit for the German tech ecosystem and even better to see it staying in Europe! It also shows how much there is to play for in AI. The team have built an insanely high quality, hyper-focused model and have got a unicorn outcome on just under a year. Amazing news!

@CrackedXtech @prior_labs @FrankRHutter @noahholl u bet

@SebJohnsonUK @prior_labs @FrankRHutter @noahholl Very cracked

The UK Is going after the full AI stack. We’re building frontier AI here (@IneffableLabs, @GoogleDeepMind), housing other labs (@OpenAI, @AnthropicAI). We’re building world leading application/enterprise level companies (@ElevenLabs, @synthesiaIO). And now we’re going after chips. LETS GO

@fractile_ai theinformation.com/articles/anthr…

BREAKING: Anthropic is in talks to buy AI Chips from a UK startup! The startup, @fractile_ai, is one of the UK's most exciting companies at the moment. Its chips rely on a different kind of memory technology to Nvidia’s GPUs, which is called static random access memory or SRAM. It is meant to improve the speed and cost of AI inference. The supposed deal comes as @AnthropicAI is looking to reduce its reliance on Nvidia. Fractile is currently raising $200m at a $1bn+ valuation, and no doubt this news will help. We've seen a lot of news recently about Anthropic and OpenAI expanding their london offices which is GREAT, but it doesn't compare with seeing UK startups going toe to toe with Nvidia. LETS GO (story from @theinformation which I'll link below)

@DrellLabs ill take a look!

@SebJohnsonUK Do you know much about Salience Labs? They are a UK AI chip lab (Oxford based) but haven’t heard much since they first announced.

HQ'ed in London, chips built in Bristol. Selling to Anthropic and competing with Nvidia. LETS GO

This is one of the most important developments in UK hardware for a LONG TIME. Extremely bullish on UK deeptech

@chrispwalker @awxjack you bet!

@SebJohnsonUK @awxjack London is flying right now

Airwallex is hiring 100 engineers in London. It's the first time the company has hired for engineers in the UK. AI is flying in the UK, so much so it's easy to forget what a powerhouse it is for Fintech NICE @awxjack

@altantutar It’s Plato in action

@SebJohnsonUK I find this smart! Singapore has this system, where the public officials make millions, such that (i) they don't take bribes and (ii) the government roles are where people go to do good work with no financial downside.

The UK Government is paying up to £200k a year for AI Engineers and Forward Deployed Engineers. These people will be transforming the quality and efficieny of public services with AI. This is EXCATLY what we need more of