Seekr launches self-service AI enterprise platform to accelerate time to market.

As it braced for a new president and questioned where he’d take the economy this year, the DC region ended 2024 with a bang thanks to one multi-billion dollar raise standing above the rest.Companies in the DMV saw $3 billion of venture capital invested across 50 deals in Q4 — a high jump from a comparatively sluggish $478.3 million across 64 deals in Q3, according to the latest quarterly Venture Monitor report from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. This amount makes last quarter the region’s highest-performing one in recent memory. Tallies surpassed $1 billion in 2023’s second and third quarters, but did so through more transactions: Q2 2023 boasted $1.2 billion across 107 deals, while companies amassed $1.2 billion over 79 deals in Q3. The last three months of 2023 saw less money but more deals than Q4 2024, with 87 deals at a total valuation of $838 million. Juul Labs, which relocated to DC in 2020, accounted for $1.9 billion of last quarter’s funds. It’s the latest major raise in a trend of the e-cigarette giant amassing major capital.PitchBook reported in July that the company raised $1.3 billion during Q2 2024, corresponding with a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from that quarter. The firm also raised $1.27 billion to close out 2023. JUUL is the predominant investee among the other, mostly later-stage companies to report top regional raises at the end of 2024. Dustin Dunbar, a senior investment associate at the state-backed funder Virginia Venture Partners, doesn’t find venture firms coalescing around established companies especially surprising

Intel introduced the new brand for its next-generation processors for data centers, cloud and edge: Intel Xeon 6. Intel Xeon 6 processors with new Efficient-cores (E-cores) will deliver exceptional efficiency and launch this quarter, while Intel Xeon 6 with Performance-cores (P-cores) will offer increased AI performance and launch soon after the E-core processors. (Credit: Intel Corporation)At Intel Vision 2024, Intel unveiled the Intel Tiber portfolio of business solutions to streamline the deployment of enterprise software and services, including for generative AI. Customers can begin exploring the Intel Tiber portfolio starting at Vision, with a full rollout planned for the third quarter of 2024. (Credit: Intel Corporation)Intel tackles the generative AI gap by introducing the Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerator at the Intel Vision event on April 9, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona. Gaudi 3 gives customers choice with open community-based software and industry-standard Ethernet networking to scale their systems more flexibly