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Posted by helloplanets 1 day ago

Yann LeCun raises $1B to build AI that understands the physical world(www.wired.com)
https://web.archive.org/web/20260310153721/https://www.wired...

https://www.ft.com/content/e5245ec3-1a58-4eff-ab58-480b6259a... (https://archive.md/5eZWq)

591 points | 473 commentspage 8
LingoChat 1 day ago|
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fresed 22 hours ago||
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fresed 22 hours ago||
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jccx70 22 hours ago||
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rvz 1 day ago||
Once again, US companies and VCs are in this seed round. Just like Mistral with their seed round.

Europe again missing out, until AMI reaches a much higher valuation with an obvious use case in robotics.

Either AMI reaches over $100B+ valuation (likely) or it becomes a Thinking Machines Lab with investors questioning its valuation. (very unlikely since world models has a use-case in vision and robotics)

embedding-shape 1 day ago||
> Europe again missing out

I can't read the article, but American investors investing into European companies, isn't US the one missing out here? Or does "Europe" "win" when European investors invest in US companies? How does that work in your head?

joe_mamba 1 day ago||
>isn't US the one missing out here?

Why would the US miss out here? The US invests in something = the US owns part of something.

This isn't a zero sum game.

embedding-shape 1 day ago||
> Why would the US miss out here?

Personally I don't believe anyone is missing out on anything here.

But rvz earlier claimed that Europe is missing out, because US investors are investing in a European company. That's kind of surprising to me, so asking if they also believe that the US is "missing out" whenever European investors invest in US companies, or if that sentiment only goes one way.

thibaut_barrere 1 day ago||
It is well enough to attract worthy talents & produce interesting outcomes.
myth_drannon 1 day ago||
This could have been 1000 seed rounds. We are creating technological deserts by going all-in on AI and star personalities.
dmix 1 day ago||
There's seems to be no little shortage of capital in the global market.
net01 1 day ago||
Because for these investors the opportunity cost of this is higher than other startups.

I agree with you; there should be more diversity in investments in EU startups, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ not my money.

general1465 1 day ago||
Here you can see why it is so hard to compete as European startup with US startups - abysmal access to money. Investment of 1B USD in Europe is glorified as largest seed ever, but in USA it is another Tuesday.
weego 1 day ago||
A billion seed is not an every day event anywhere.
mattmaroon 1 day ago|||
Not at all. A quick google turns up evidence of 4. There may be more but I think probably not many.
s08148692 1 day ago|||
For a foundation AI lab with a world famous AI researcher at the helm though, it's not so impressive. Won't even touch the sides of the hardware costs they'd need to be anywhere near competitive
compounding_it 1 day ago|||
Europeans have free healthcare and retirement. They consider putting their money with long term benefits not just become CEO on Tuesday and declare bankruptcy on Wednesday.
general1465 1 day ago|||
It is not free, we just pay taxes.
ExpertAdvisor01 1 day ago||
Retirement is the worst. You are basically forced to pay into a unsustainable system ( at least in Germany ). It already has to be subsidized by taxes .
joe_mamba 1 day ago||
Exactly. State retirement in Europes is not free nor great. We pay extra in taxes for it and it's only great for the present day retirees, not for those paying into the system right now who will retire into the future. It's the same as US social security, it's not some extra perk that Europeans have over Americans.

Top tier scientists aren't gonna be swayed by European state retirement systems.

ExpertAdvisor01 1 day ago||||
Free healthcare and retirement ?
ExpertAdvisor01 1 day ago||
It is an universal system but definitely not free . In Germany you pay on average 17.5% of your salary for healthcare insurance and 18.6% for retirement . However contribution caps exists . 70k for healthcare and 100k for retirement .
MrBuddyCasino 1 day ago|||
„free“
oceansky 1 day ago|||
A startup getting 1B net worth is so rare that such companies are called unicorns.

As the other commenter pointed out, this is 1B seed.

ArnoVW 1 day ago||
actually, they raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion valuation.
dude250711 1 day ago||
Yes, the faster they get used to the thought that loosing a billion is not a big deal, the better.
abmmgb 1 day ago||
Not based on true valuation unless h-index has become a valuation metric lol

Academics don’t always make great entrepeneurs

YackerLose 1 day ago||
AI is developing backwards. The simplest organisms eat and find food. More complex ones can smell and sense tremors. After several steps in evolution comes vision and complex thought.

AIs that can't smell, can't feel hunger, can't desire -- I do not think it can understand the world the way organic life does.

jccx70 22 hours ago|
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bluesounddirect 11 hours ago|
Yann is going to sell you the opportunity to sell people the opportunity of better AI .