Elon Musk may be right about the funding for Stargate. If you haven’t heard of Stargate (likely because you pay attention to things that matter), it’s a company that “intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure [data centers] for OpenAI in the United States.”
It was launched Tuesday with a press event at the White House, leading the press to call it “Trump’s ambitious AI infrastructure venture.” While the president gave the project his blessing, he didn’t give it any government funding.
The event also featured Oracle CTO/Chairman/co-founder Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, all partners in the venture. Of the three, Ellison is the only one running a company that currently makes money. However, Oracle is only on board as a technology partner. Son, who famously lost $14 billion funding WeWork, is in charge on the financial side.
Shortly after the project announcement, Musk tweeted (eXed?), “They don’t actually have the money. SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.” OpenAI shot back that it was planning to “deploy $100 million immediately.” Softbank and OpenAI are both “committing” $19 billion to Stargate, so there’s no reason to think the funds won’t be “deployed.”
To raise the rest of the money, Softbank will have to use “some combination of a massive fundraising effort, new debt or selling chunks of [the] company’s holdings,” according to The Wall Street Journal. One big question for investors: How will Stargate make money?
Now, this week’s round-up of AI-powered martech news and releases.
- Act-On Software finalized an agreement to be acquired by Banzai International. Act-On is an AI-powered marketing automation platform with an open data architecture designed to enhance marketing efforts for businesses. The platform offers intuitive tools for campaign management and customer engagement.
- PureCars added RylieAI to its AutoMiner CDP. RylieAI is aimed at helping automotive dealerships improve their customer outreach and operational efficiency.
- Equativ upgraded its curation platform, now renamed Maestro by Equativ. It centralizes programmatic campaign management and provides ad buyers with improved access to quality ad inventory. Key features include seamless integration with first-party data, cookieless targeting solutions advanced deal management tools for improved campaign outcomes.
- SundaySky launched the next generation of its AI-powered video platform. It now has AI avatars, in-app screen recording advanced media generation capabilities.
- pharosIQ enhanced its B2B marketing intelligence platform with new AI features for intent data and lead prioritization. The updates include improved targeting of global accounts, deeper persona insights, and more accurate content classification to help marketers understand buyer intent and refine their strategies.
- Chatmeter’s Pulse Ai platform can now analyze photos in customer reviews and surface relevant images based on feedback trends. The platform also offers enhanced review generation tools for multi-location businesses.
- Birdeye launched a new marketing solution specifically for the restaurant and franchise industry, incorporating AI features to help businesses improve their online presence, reputation, social media management and customer insights.
- Optimove’s Optimove Ignite+ is designed to aid emerging iGaming and sports betting operators to scale efficiently. The program offers access to CRM marketing tools, expert guidance and proprietary industry insights.
- Certain’s Session Advisor AI provides personalized recommendations for event management. The tool helps businesses drive engagement and measurable outcomes at scale.
- Conversica’s AI Agent powered by AnswersIQ for Auto provides auto inventory capabilities to enhance sales teams’ ability to engage with potential customers in the automotive sector.
- UneeQ’s UneeQ 2.0 is a platform for deploying digital humans that offer emotionally intelligent and engaging customer interactions. The platform supports high-quality avatars with sub-second response times and can be customized for various industries and use cases, providing rich, real-time analytics.
- Netigate’s Ask AI is a generative AI feature that helps businesses gain insights from customer and employee feedback. The tool aims to provide clear, actionable answers that organizations can use to improve their experiences and operations.
The post AI-powered martech news and releases: January 23 appeared first on MarTech.
