这位拥有25亿美元（约合人民币179亿元）身家的大学教授，为何还坚守在一线课堂？ 智东西9月2日报道，近日，AI数据平台Databricks在最新一轮融资后，估值突破1000亿美元（约合人民币7162亿元），有望成为全球估值第四 高的AI独角兽，这也让外界关注到其联合创始人兼董事长、加州大学伯克利分校（后简称UCB）教授Ion Stoica，以及他横跨产业与学术界的 传奇经历。 Stoica现年60岁，自2000年起开始在UCB任教，此后25年来均未离开这一校园。2010年至今，Stoica在UCB计算机学院参与了3所重要实验室的 创办和管理。这些实验室在大数据、云计算和AI时代贡献了118个科研项目，其中不乏影响力广泛、几乎成为AI领域核心基础设施的项目，如 大数据框架Spark、分布式执行框架Ray、大模型推理框架vLLM等。 他还通过亲自参与创业、指导创业或是提供人脉与资金支持的方式，创办或孵化了至少7家知名创企，分布于数据基础设施、生成式AI等行 业。 除了估值已经突破1000亿美元的Databricks，Stoica联合创办了估值10亿美元的AI托管计算平台Anyscale、估值6亿美元的LMAre ...

Core Insights - Databricks is raising over $1 billion in a Series K funding round, which will elevate its valuation to over $100 billion, making it the fifth-largest unicorn globally [2][5][7] - The rapid fundraising process took only six days from the initial call to signing the term sheet [4] - The company plans to hire 3,000 additional engineers and sales personnel, increasing its workforce from 9,000 to 12,000 [7] Funding Details - The funding round is primarily backed by existing investors, with a16z leading the investment with approximately $250 million, followed by Thrive Capital and Insight Partners each contributing $150 million [5][6] - New investors include the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Fidelity, which together subscribed to $300 million in preferred stock [5] - The oversubscription of the funding round was significant, with the bookrunner reporting a 3.8 times oversubscription [6] Company Background - Databricks was founded in 2013, originating from the UC Berkeley AMPLab's "Spark" open-source project [10] - The company specializes in providing cloud services based on Spark, facilitating data integration and pipeline tasks [11] Valuation Growth - Databricks' valuation has surged by $38 billion in just eight months, driven by factors such as a projected annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $3.7 billion by July 2025, a 50% year-over-year increase [13] - The demand for generative AI has significantly boosted the company's performance, with the introduction of the "LakehouseIQ" feature enhancing text-to-SQL accuracy to 92% [13] - Comparatively, the market is willing to assign a higher valuation to Databricks than its competitor Snowflake, which has a market cap of $64.2 billion [13]

Top Trending Memecoins on Dexscreener (Last 6 hours) 🔥 🔥🔥1. $LIGHT2, $HODLESS3. $JESUS4. $LUMEN5. $FRED6. Spark7. $TROLL ...

Spark is betting that Bitcoin can be fast, cheap, and stablecoin-friendly—without bridging, wrapping, or smart contracts.Using Statechains, it moves BTC-native assets offchain fast and cheap, bypassing bridges and complex contracts.Here’s how the project's design could change Bitcoin’s L2 landscape.👇~~ Analysis by @wmpeaster ~~@spark isn’t a typical L2. It’s a distributed ledger built as a shared signing protocol. Moving funds means temporarily delegating signing rights, while assets remain as Bitcoin UTXOs ...

机器之心编译 编辑：泽南 一直在探索，一直能搞定。 「我认为他是我们这个时代最优秀的计算机科学家之一。他是一位真正的智者，不仅懂得如何将学术研究与商业系统相结合，更懂得如何构建整个社会的人类生 态系统和技术进步，」加州大学圣巴巴拉分校（UCSB）教授 William Wang 说道。 在 AI 领域里，有很多学者投身工业领域获得了成功，不过像加州大学伯克利分校（UC Berkeley）教授 Ion Stoica 那样，能一边教书，一边多次创业成功，「打出 品牌」走出一条正循环道路的，可能还不多见。 Ion Stoica 教授为人们所知的身份包括伯克利教授、ACM Fellow，也包括 Databricks、Anyscale、LMArena、Conviva 等公司的联合创始人。他的经历最近得到了 《福布斯》的报道。 在最近火热的人工智能领域，我们提起大模型水平的比对，肯定绕不开 ChatBot Arena，这个平台就是 Ion Stoica 和他的学生们创办的。据说它最初设立的原因是用 作给伯克利开源的 Vicuna 模型和斯坦福的 Alpaca 打擂台。 如今，ChatBot Arena 是一个托管了 400 ...

RT Santiment (@santimentfeed)🗣️ The cryptocurrencies seeing the highest rise in traction across social media today are:🪙 Binance Coin $BNB is trending due to Binance Coin's recent all-time high price around $800, driven by strong institutional inflows and bullish market activity on the BNBChain. Discussions focus on BNB's deflationary tokenomics, its utility in transaction fees on Binance Smart Chain, and its role in crypto trading and investment opportunities. Comparisons with other major cryptocurrencies ...

🗣️ The cryptocurrencies seeing the highest rise in traction across social media today are:🪙 Binance Coin $BNB is trending due to Binance Coin's recent all-time high price around $800, driven by strong institutional inflows and bullish market activity on the BNBChain. Discussions focus on BNB's deflationary tokenomics, its utility in transaction fees on Binance Smart Chain, and its role in crypto trading and investment opportunities. Comparisons with other major cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP a ...

Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter exceeded $1,000,000,000, significantly beating expectations, despite a modestly negative system-wide RevPAR [6][19] - Adjusted EPS also exceeded expectations, with diluted earnings per share adjusted for special items at $2.20 [20] - Year-to-date, the company returned $1,700,000,000 to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, on track to return approximately $3,300,000,000 for the full year [7][26] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - System-wide RevPAR decreased by 50 basis points year-over-year, driven by declines in occupancy and modest rate growth [19] - Leisure transient RevPAR grew by 1%, while business transient RevPAR decreased by 2% due to various factors including government spending declines and broader economic uncertainty [8][19] - Group RevPAR was roughly flat, with favorable trends in company meetings offset by soft convention business [9] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - U.S. RevPAR decreased by 1.5%, largely due to pressure across business transient and group segments [20] - In the Americas outside the U.S., RevPAR increased by 3.8%, driven by strength in the luxury and lifestyle portfolio [21] - Middle East and Africa region saw a 10.3% increase in RevPAR, while Asia Pacific's RevPAR was up 0.3%, with APAC ex-China increasing by 5.2% [22][23] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company opened 221 hotels totaling over 26,000 rooms, representing a 52% year-over-year increase, achieving net unit growth of 7.5% [11] - Plans to welcome three new luxury and lifestyle hotels per week in 2025, with a focus on expanding in strategic markets [15] - The company aims for net unit growth solidly within the 6% to 7% range for the full year, supported by a strong development pipeline of over 510,000 rooms [25][63] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management expressed optimism about the intermediate-term outlook, citing a favorable regulatory environment and expected economic growth driven by significant investments across various industries [10][41] - The company anticipates RevPAR growth of flat to up 2% for the full year, with improving trends expected in the fourth quarter [26] - Management noted that the current operating environment is characterized by a thawing of the "wait and see" attitude among corporate clients, indicating potential growth in demand [39][108] Other Important Information - Hilton Honors membership grew to over 226 million, up 16% year-over-year, reflecting the strength of the company's global reach [16] - The company was named the most valuable hotel brand for the tenth consecutive year, highlighting its competitive position in the industry [17] Q&A Session Summary Question: Insights on different segments (leisure, business, group) - Management noted relative strength in leisure and weakness in business transient and group segments, with expectations for a more normalized fourth quarter [28][32] Question: Development trends in China amidst RevPAR declines - Management expects modest declines in China but remains optimistic about long-term development opportunities due to undersupply in the market [48][55] Question: Confidence in net unit growth - Management reinforced confidence in achieving 6% to 7% net unit growth, driven by strong conversion activity and a robust development pipeline [60][63] Question: Momentum in luxury segment and its implications - Management emphasized the importance of luxury and lifestyle brands for overall network effect and loyalty, while acknowledging they won't be the primary source of profitability [66][72] Question: Current environment for conversions and key money usage - Management reported that 33% of deals in the quarter were conversions, with expectations to increase to 40% for the year, while key money usage remains consistent [78][81] Question: Timing of non-RevPAR fees - Management clarified that the timing of termination fees and other non-RevPAR items was largely built into guidance, with some fees coming in earlier than expected [86][87]

Financial Data and Key Metrics Changes - Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter exceeded $1,000,000,000, significantly beating expectations, despite a modestly negative system-wide RevPAR [5][19] - Adjusted EPS also exceeded expectations, with diluted earnings per share adjusted for special items at $2.20 [20] - Year-to-date, the company returned $1,700,000,000 to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, on track to return approximately $3,300,000,000 for the full year [6][25] Business Line Data and Key Metrics Changes - System-wide RevPAR decreased by 50 basis points year-over-year, driven by declines in occupancy and modest rate growth [19][20] - Leisure transient RevPAR grew by 1%, while business transient RevPAR decreased by 2% due to various factors including government spending declines and broader economic uncertainty [7][19] - Group RevPAR was roughly flat, with positive trends in company meetings offset by soft convention business [8][19] Market Data and Key Metrics Changes - U.S. RevPAR decreased by 1.5%, largely due to pressure across business transient and group segments [20] - In the Americas outside the U.S., RevPAR increased by 3.8%, driven by strength in the luxury and lifestyle portfolio [21] - The Middle East and Africa region saw a 10.3% increase in RevPAR, while Asia Pacific's RevPAR was up 0.3%, with a 5.2% increase in APAC ex China [22][23] Company Strategy and Development Direction - The company opened 221 hotels totaling over 26,000 rooms, representing a 52% year-over-year increase, achieving net unit growth of 7.5% [11][24] - Plans to welcome three new luxury and lifestyle hotels per week in 2025 were announced, with a focus on expanding in strategic markets [12][15] - The company aims for net unit growth solidly within the 6% to 7% range for the full year, supported by a robust development pipeline of over 510,000 rooms [15][24] Management's Comments on Operating Environment and Future Outlook - Management expressed optimism about the intermediate-term outlook, citing a favorable regulatory environment and expected economic growth driven by significant investments across various industries [10][41] - The company anticipates RevPAR growth of flat to up 2% for the full year, with improving trends expected in the fourth quarter [9][25] - Management noted that the current operating environment is characterized by a thawing of the "wait and see" attitude among corporate clients, indicating potential for increased demand [32][106] Other Important Information - Hilton Honors membership grew to over 226 million, up 16% year-over-year, reflecting the strength of the company's global reach [16] - The company was named the most valuable hotel brand for the tenth consecutive year, highlighting its competitive positioning [17] - The company continues to focus on conversion-friendly brands, which accounted for over a third of openings in the quarter [13][75] Q&A Session Summary Question: Insights on different segments (leisure, business, group) - Management noted relative strength in leisure and weakness in business transient and group segments, with expectations for a more normalized fourth quarter [28][31] Question: Development trends in China amidst RevPAR declines - Management expects modest declines in China but remains optimistic about long-term growth due to undersupply in the market [46][50] Question: Confidence in net unit growth - Management reinforced confidence in achieving 6% to 7% net unit growth, driven by strong conversion activity and a robust development pipeline [57][60] Question: Momentum in luxury segment and its implications - Management emphasized the importance of luxury and lifestyle brands for overall network effect and customer loyalty, while not being the primary source of profitability [64][70] Question: Current environment for conversions and key money usage - Management reported that 33% of deals in the quarter were conversions, with a disciplined approach to key money usage [74][78] Question: Timing of non-RevPAR fees - Management clarified that the timing of non-RevPAR fees was largely built into guidance, with some fees coming in earlier than expected [80][82]

RT Sonic Labs (@SonicLabs)Announcing Spark by Sonic.Our leap into the AI frontier, Spark enables anyone to build Web3 apps with no code, from contract to UI.Describe your vision. Spark builds it.✨ https://t.co/B87oEo3qth https://t.co/ix87709smJ ...