Synthesia co-founder Victor Riparbelli said the winning businesses of the future will be those which are ‘the best at using AI’ - Justin Tallis/AFP Staff at a British tech startup are in line for a major windfall after an investment deal valued their company at $4bn (£2.9bn). Synthesia, which is developing artificial intelligence (AI) video technology, was given the price tag after selling a $200m chunk of shares to new investors including Google. It makes the company one of the highest-valued private ...

Core Insights - MiniMax Group Ltd. has successfully developed a multi-modal AI model capable of processing text, speech, and video, which has gained significant traction since its market debut in October 2025 [1] - The company's initial years were challenging, described by the founder as "painful," but the strategy has proven effective as it now serves over 212 million users globally [1] - The recent IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange valued MiniMax at $6.5 billion, reflecting strong investor interest in the generative AI sector [2][3] Company Performance - The IPO was priced at the top end of the offer range, leading to a significant increase in share value, which more than doubled on its debut [3] - The founder, Yan Junjie, saw his personal wealth rise to approximately $3.5 billion following the IPO [3] - The company has attracted investments from notable figures in China's tech industry, including Richard Li and the gaming studio MiHoYo, as well as major tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent [4][5] Industry Context - The generative AI sector has seen substantial capital investment and is beginning to demonstrate commercial viability, as evidenced by MiniMax's successful market entry [2] - The backing from high-profile investors indicates a growing confidence in the potential of AI technologies [4][5]

Zoom is launching new tools for its meeting and productivity platform including new AI avatars that would resemble users. https://t.co/Ks72FyEhbM ...

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Can Zuck and Elon buy their way into the AI race? 2) Will scaling laws turn AI progress over to the biggest tech 3) Grok's new AI avatars - Rudy and Ani 4) Grok's Ani AI bot gets steamy quickly 5) Why AI companies are counting on companion/love bots 6) The backlash to Aqui-Hire-Sitions after Windsurf, Scale, etc. 7) Did Big Tech antitrust backfire? 8) OpenAI announces ChatGPT Agent 9) Is Perplexity's Comet browse ...