AWS Hits 3nm Chip; Kalshi Jumps $11B
Summary
The rapid deployment of custom silicon and surging capital into hard tech signal a competitive shift in foundational infrastructure, impacting cloud costs and energy solutions.
- AWS AI Infrastructure AWS launched Trainium3 (3nm chip) and Nova 2 models, shifting focus to AI agents at re:Invent [2, 8, 14].
- Deep Tech Funding Soars Kalshi achieved an \(11B valuation after a \)1B raise, while nuclear startup Antares secured $96M in Series B funding [3, 7].
- Privacy & Control Focus Kohler’s ‘encrypted’ toilet camera was shown to allow remote picture access, raising privacy concerns 10.
- Software & Performance Zig released a new async I/O plan, while SQLite demonstrated 100k TPS throughput over a billion rows [11, 12].
- M&A Activity Bending Spoons acquired Eventbrite for $500M, significantly less than its IPO valuation 6.
- $11 Billion - New post-money valuation achieved by prediction market Kalshi in a $1B raise 7.
- 3 Nanometer - Process node powering the newly announced AWS Trainium3 custom AI chip 14.
- $96 Million - Total Series B funding secured by microreactor startup Antares for power deployment 3.
- $500 Million - Agreed purchase price for Eventbrite by Bending Spoons in a major acquisition 6.
- 100k TPS - High write throughput achieved by SQLite when querying over a billion rows 11.
Key Moments
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AWS CEO Matt Garman announced the launch of Nova 2, a fleet of four upgraded homegrown AI models.
— Article [2] -
Prediction market Kalshi successfully raised a $1 billion funding round, bringing its total valuation to $11B.
— Article [7] -
Nuclear startup Antares secured $96 million in Series B funding.
— Article [3] -
The Zig programming language designers announced a new approach for asynchronous I/O.
— Article [12] -
Kohler launched the Dekota, a device attaching to toilet rims that collects images.
— Article [10]