Hyundai Motors is acquiring Boston Dynamics, according to The Korea Economic Daily. The publication says Softbank has agreed to sell the robot maker for 1 trillion won (US$917 million) and that the acquisition will be finalized at a board meeting today, December 10th. The companies have been discussing a sale since at least early November, based on a previous report by Bloomberg. Boston Dynamics is known for its nightmare-inducing (or oddly adorable, depending on your perspective) robotic dog Spot, which it started selling in mid--2020 for $75,000. The four-legged robot can climb stairs, herd sheep and pull a rickshaw.

Uber has sold its loss-making flying taxi division, Elevate, to a Californian startup as it abandons costly side projects in an attempt to turn a profit next year. The sale to Joby Aviation, announced late on Tuesday, comes a day after Uber ditched ambitions to develop its own self-driving car and sold its autonomous vehicle division, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), to the startup Aurora Innovation for $4bn (£3bn). Uber and Joby described the Elevate sale as an "expanded partnership". It will result in Uber investing an additional $75m (£56m) in Joby. Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's chief executive, said: "Advanced air mobility has the potential to be exponentially positive for the environment and future generations. This deal allows us to deepen our partnership with Joby, the clear leader in this field, to accelerate the path to market for these technologies."

C3.ai is expected to go public on Wednesday. The company will have about 109 million fully diluted shares outstanding after the offering and two concurrent private placements: Microsoft (MSFT) has agreed to buy $50 million of stock at the IPO price, while Spring Creek Capital, an affiliate of Koch Industries, has pledged to invest $100 million on the same basis. At the top of the range, the company would be worth about $4.1 billion. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AI. The underwriting group for the deal is led by Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and BofA Securities.

These days, artificial intelligence is showing up in all sorts of new services. There's a reason: The use of AI is growing fast, and businesses putting it to good use are unlocking efficiencies and delivering better experiences to their customers. According to tech researcher IDC, global spending on AI is expected to have increased more than 12% this year and to top $156 billion. That's impressive given the current state of world affairs, and AI is expected to continue its expansion for the foreseeable future. If investing in the artificial intelligence trend for the long-haul is your goal, Dynatrace (NYSE:DT), Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ:MRVL), and Medallia (NYSE:MDLA) stocks are worth serious looks.

As 2020 finally winds down and potential vaccines promise emergence from COVID reality, Israel's startup ecosystem showcases its MedTech prowess, AI dominance, and data magic in this week's recap of the Israel tech sphere. Investments keep on coming, VCs keep on funding, multinational organizations recognize the innovative potential in Israeli startups, and a recap of the ecosystem's fundraising efforts for the month of November. Aquarius Engines develops a smart miniature sustainable combustion engine that can help scale the big machines down to size. Aquarius recently announced a $10 million funding round, led by TPR, a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer. To date, the Israeli startup has raised $37 million from Paz Oil, Marius Nacht, Honda Group's Musashi Seimitsu, and others.

Because of their ability to detect, track, and follow objects of interest while maintaining safe distances, drones have become an important tool for professional and amateur filmmakers alike. This being the case, quadcopters' camera controls remain difficult to master. Drones might take different paths for the same scenes even if their positions, velocities, and angles are carefully tuned, potentially ruining the consistency of a shot. In search of a solution, Carnegie Mellon, University of Sao Paulo, and Facebook researchers developed a framework that enables users to define drone camera shots working from labels like "exciting," "enjoyable," and "establishing." Using a software simulator, they generated a database of video clips with a diverse set of shot types and then leveraged crowdsourcing and AI to learn the relationship between the labels and certain semantic descriptors.

Gatik, a Palo Alto and Toronto based autonomous technology company deploying autonomous vehicles for B2B short-haul middle-mile logistics, announced today it has raised $25 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Wittington Ventures and Innovation Endeavors with participation from FM Capital and Intact Ventures. Existing investors like Dynamo Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, AngelPad and others participated as well. Gatik's investors bring a wealth of deep experience in automotive, artificial intelligence and supply chain, making them a strong strategic fit for the company's rapid growth. Gatik will use the funding to further expand its operations across North America, its team size in Silicon Valley and growing presence in Canada.

Onit, a workflow software company based in Houston with a legal component, announced this week that it has acquired 2018 TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield alum McCarthyFinch. Onit intends to use the startup's AI skills to beef up its legal workflow software offerings. The companies did not share the purchase price. After evaluating a number of companies in the space, Onit focused on McCarthyFinch, which gives it an artificial intelligence component the company's legal workflow software had been lacking. "We evaluated about a dozen companies in the AI space and dug in deep on six of them. McCarthyFinch stood out from the pack. They had the strongest technology and the strongest team," Eric M. Elfman, CEO and co-founder of Onit told TechCrunch.

Boston-based DataRobot, a startup developing an end-to-end enterprise AI platform, today raised $270 million in an equity funding round led by Altimeter Capital. DataRobot says the pre-IPO round -- which included new and existing investors T. Rowe Price, Blackrock, Silverlake, NEA, and Tiger -- values the company at over $2.7 billion. The benefits of AI and machine learning can feel intangible at times, but surveys show this hasn't deterred enterprises from adopting the technology in droves. Business use of AI grew a whopping 270% over the past four years, according to Gartner, while Deloitte says 62% of respondents to its corporate October 2018 report deployed some form of AI, up from 53% a year ago. But adoption doesn't always meet with success, as the roughly 25% of companies that have seen half of their AI projects fail will tell you.

Baidu, Inc., a leading search engine, knowledge and information centered Internet platform, and AI company, announced that the Company had entered into definitive agreements with JOYY Inc. Pursuant to the agreements, Baidu will acquire JOYY's domestic video-based entertainment live streaming business in China ("YY Live"), which includes YY mobile app, YY.com website, and PC YY, among others, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately US$3.6 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments. The closing of the transaction is subject to certain conditions and is currently expected to occur in the first half of 2021. "Baidu has built a vibrant mobile ecosystem in the past few years to enable the fast growth of our non-advertising revenues by increasing log in users, adding social engagement to our platform and expanding non-advertising offerings, including membership, live streaming and online games. This transaction will catapult Baidu into a leading platform for live streaming and diversify our revenue source," said Robin Li, Co-Founder, and CEO of Baidu. "YY Live comes to Baidu bringing great synergy. YY Live stands to benefit from Baidu's large traffic and thriving mobile ecosystem, while Baidu will receive immediate operational experience and know-how for large-scale video-based social media development, as well as an enviable creator network that will further strengthen Baidu's massive content provider network. Together with the team from YY Live, Baidu hopes to explore the next-generation live streaming and video-based social media that can expand beyond entertainment into the diversified verticals on Baidu platform."