Intel has acquired Tel Aviv-based artificial intelligence chip developer Habana Labs Ltd. for $2 billion, the company announced Monday. Calcalist first reported on the deal earlier this month, citing sources. Habana will continue to operate as an independent business unit under its current management team and will remain in Israel. The deal marks Intel's second-largest acquisition of an Israeli company. In March 2017, Intel announced the acquisition of Jerusalem-headquartered automotive chip developer Mobileye for $15.3 billion.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Walmart said on Tuesday it has acquired Aspectiva, an Israeli start-up whose technology analyses consumers' product reviews to help shoppers make decisions. Financial details were not disclosed. Aspectiva will join Walmart's Store No 8, the incubation arm launched by the U.S. retailer in 2017 to find new commerce-related technologies. Aspectiva has developed machine-learning techniques and natural language processing capabilities, "areas we believe will have profound impact on how customers will shop in the future," Store No 8 principal Lori Flees said. Walmart also has a strategic investment in Team8, an Israeli cybersecurity start-up incubator, and launched a joint venture with Eko, an interactive media and technology company with offices in Tel Aviv and New York.

Apple has acquired a startup in the UK that develops technology designed to improve smartphone photography. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple has acquired Spectral Edge for an undisclosed sum. Spectral Edge uses machine learning to "make smartphone pictures crisper, with more accurate colors." This works primarily by taking an infrared image and blending it with a standard photo. "Spectral Edge combines patented Image Fusion tech with Deep Learning to reveal more of the color, detail and clarity in any image," the company explained in its pitch.

BOSTON – December 12, 2019 – DataRobot, the leader in enterprise AI, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Paxata, the pioneer of self-service data preparation and leading data fabric provider, to fulfill its mission to build the world's first automated end-to-end enterprise AI platform. While the massive impact of AI on enterprises is well understood -- PwC forecasts by 2030 AI could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy -- companies must overcome several key challenges associated with AI in order to reap the benefits and become successful. Data preparation is one area that has historically held companies back. Creating a dataset for training predictive models, deploying data prep steps with AI models, and preparing data specific to AI routines are all major challenges companies face when it comes to leveraging data at scale. By providing tools that help users build automation into their data prep processes, the Paxata acquisition will alleviate these pain points for customers and dramatically enhance their ability to achieve AI-driven outcomes rapidly.

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 12, 2019 / Dimension Five Technologies Inc. (CSE:DFT) (the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share exchange agreement dated December 11, 2019 (the "SEA") with Digital Cavalier Technology Services Inc. doing business as Youneeq ("Youneeq") to acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Youneeq (the "Transaction"). The Company and Youneeq have signed the SEA and signatures are being gathered from Youneeq shareholders in order to obtain a fully executed version. The proposed transaction is dependent on all Youneeq shareholders signing the SEA. Youneeq is an award-winning personalization and recommendation engine powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The company is poised to become a leading multi-channel AI personalization engine focused on the anonymous audience, the single biggest segment for marketers.

Observe.ai, an artificial intelligence-based startup that focusses on voice conversations for customer service, has raised $26 million (approximately Rs 184.16 crore at current exchange rates) in its Series A funding round from a clutch of investors. California-based venture capital firm Scale Venture Partners led the investment round, Observe.ai said in a statement. Other investors that participated in the round include Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, 01 Advisors and Emergent Ventures. The company said it will use the funds to expand its US and India teams, and will also accelerate its product development. Swapnil Jain, co-founder and chief executive officer at Observe.ai, said the investment will fuel the firm's mission to elevate agent performance through AI-based coaching and insights The latest investment takes the total funding raised by Observe.ai

Countless tech platforms are setting out to help call centers automate conversations with their customers. But U.S-Indian startup and Y Combinator alum Observe.ai is bucking that trend by using AI to help coach human call center workers, rather than replace them. Today the company announced it has raised $26 million in a series A round of funding to further this mission. It then automatically transcribes each call and carries out sentiment analysis to determine customer satisfaction while drawing correlations between the words and actions of the support agent and the happiness of the customer. Top-performing agents can be used as benchmarks to determine what works, which can then help train new or under-performing support staff.

Beyond trendy names like Tesla and Alphabet chasing self-driving cars, a host of auto brands and other tech heavyweights are also investing in autonomous R&D. Private companies working in auto tech are attracting record levels of deals and funding, with autonomous driving startups leading the charge. Along with early-stage startups, VCs, and other investors, large corporations are also angling to get a slice of the self-driving pie. From autonomy to telematics to ride sharing, the auto industry has never been at more risk. Get the free 67-page report PDF. Using CB Insights' investment, acquisition, and partnership data, we identified over 40 companies developing road-going self-driving vehicles. They are a diverse group of players, ranging from automotive industry stalwarts to leading technology brands and telecommunications companies. This list is organized alphabetically and focuses on larger corporate players in the space (as opposed to earlier-stage startups). Companies working on industrial autonomous vehicles were not included in this analysis. A few of the companies or brands listed below belong to the same parent organization but are detailed separately if they are operating distinct autonomous development programs. Some companies are grouped together by key partnerships or alliances. Given the complex web of relationships between these players, other collaborations are also noted in each profile. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of corporations working on autonomous vehicle technology. This brief was originally published on 9/25/2015 and featured 25 select corporations. It was updated and expanded on 5/17/2017, 9/4/2018, and 8/28/2019. Over the last decade, Amazon has spent billions of dollars working on finding ever-better solutions to the last-mile problem in delivery. It's built its own fleet of cargo jets, explored delivery by drone in the form of "Prime Air," and more. More recently, an increasing percentage of that investment has been directed toward autonomous vehicle technology. In February 2019, Amazon invested in Aurora Innovation, an autonomous tech startup run by former executives from two other firms with strong ties to self-driving technology: Google and Tesla. "Autonomous technology has the potential to help make the jobs of our employees and partners safer and more productive, whether it's in a fulfillment center or on the road, and we're excited about the possibilities." The Aurora investment isn't the only autonomous technology play that Amazon is pursuing. In January 2019, the company introduced the Amazon Scout, a six-wheeled electric-powered delivery robot.

The NBA and GameOn Technology announced a partnership this week where the league will take advantage ... [ ] of the company's AI chatbot technology to provide in-game highlights via Facebook Messenger. As sports move into the new decade, it can be argued that the key new technologies that will define tech's impact will be the influx of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) related to how teams conduct their business objectives. These businesses use range from improving performance on the field and for in-game decision-making to achieving revenue objectives through utilizing the technology to make better use of the enormous amounts of data that teams and leagues collect from fan shopping habits and online behavior. As part of this process, AI is being utilized to automate chat to reduce manpower needs. With this in mind, the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced a partnership this week with AI chatbot company GameOn Technology that will engage fans of the league through Facebook Messenger to deliver highlights in-game. The chatbot will deliver news updates as games unfold each evening as well as game previews, tailored news notifications, scoring alerts, schedules, and even GIFs.