Alphabet, Google's parent company, is spending like it is beginning to prepare for life after advertising. Currently, Alphabet makes nearly 90 percent of its money from selling advertising on the internet, and gobbles up heaps of data about its users to help marketers target those ads more effectively. But a close reading of Alphabet's financial results for the first quarter of 2018, which were announced on Monday, showed that the Silicon Valley giant is accelerating its efforts to diversify into other businesses. Alphabet has made investments in areas like self-driving cars and online computer services for businesses for years, but spending in those areas was up dramatically in the first quarter. The company's capital expenditures, which included installing undersea cables and the construction of new data centers, were $7.7 billion -- more than triple the same period last year.

Net profit jumped 73% to $9.4 billion in the first quarter, up from $5.4 billion in the same period last year, a performance that highlights the firm's huge lead in the global market for online ads. The earnings growth was Alphabet's strongest since the fourth quarter of 2009. Advertising revenue, which accounts for nearly all of the company's top line, soared 24% to $26.6 billion. Revenue from "Other Bets," a segment which includes Waymo self-driving cars, totaled $150 million, an increase of 14% from the same period last year. The results landed while regulators in Washington are considering getting tougher on internet privacy.

The EU has launched a formal investigation into Apple's proposed acquisition of UK music-recognition app Shazam. The European commission announced its in-depth investigation into the deal over concerns that it would harm consumer choice and give Apple an unfair advantage through access to user data, which could aid in poaching customers from rivals. Shazam has been downloaded 1bn times and is used 20m times a day. It is the world's leading music recognition system, able to listen to and identify tracks via a smartphone and then link those tracks to multiple music subscription services, which means it could therefore hold commercially sensitive data on Apple's competitors and their consumers. Noting that Apple Music has become the second-largest music streaming service in Europe, the EC said: "Access to such data could allow Apple to directly target its competitors' customers and encourage them to switch to Apple Music. As a result, competing music streaming services could be put at a competitive disadvantage."

Can Artificial Intelligence replace lawyers? Perhaps sometime in the distant future, but in the meantime AI is already augmenting the work done by legal professionals as startups race to reach that ultimate goal. One burgeoning player in the AI-powered legal tech space is Tel Aviv-based LawGeex, which has developed automated contract review technology to help companies sift through things like NDAs, supply agreements, purchase orders, and SaaS licenses, to ensure they're aren't any unsanctioned legal gotchas buried deep in legalise. Today, the company is announcing that it has closed $12 million in new investment. Led by VC fund Aleph, with participation from previous backers, including Lool Ventures, the new round of funding will be used by LawGeex to further develop its product, and build a bigger presence in the U.S. where it recently opened a New York office. It brings the startup's total funding to date to $21.5 million.

BenevolentAI has secured $115 million in funding to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in the development of new medical treatments. On Wednesday, the startup said the cash injection came from both new and existing investors at a pre-money valuation of $2 billion. Founded in 2003, the British company has now raised $202 million to date, according to Crunchbase. Investors include Woodford Investment Management, Lundbeck, and Lansdowne Partners. The identity of some investors has not been disclosed.

In the ongoing race to build the best and smartest applications that tap into the advances of artificial intelligence, a startup out of London has raised a large round of funding to double down on solving persistent problems in areas like healthcare and energy. BenevolventAI announced today that it has raised $115 million to continue developing its core "AI brain" as well as different arms of the company that are using it specifically to break new ground in drug development and more. This venture round values the company at $2.1 billion post-money, its founder and executive chairman Ken Mulvaney confirmed to TechCrunch. Investors in this round include previous backer Woodford Investment Management, and while Mulvaney said the company was not disclosing the names of any other investors, he added it was a mix of family offices and some strategic backers, with a majority coming from the U.S., but would not specify any more. Notably, BenevolentAI does not have any backing from more traditional VCs, which more generally have been doubling down on investments in AI startups.

SenseTime Group has raised $600 million from Alibaba Group Holding (baba) and other investors at a valuation of more than $3 billion, becoming the world's most valuable artificial intelligence startup. The company, which specializes in systems that analyze faces and images on an enormous scale, said it closed a Series C round in recent months in which Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings and retailer Suning.com. SenseTime didn't outline individual investments, but Alibaba was said to have sought the biggest stake in the three-year-old startup. With the deal, SenseTime has doubled its valuation in a few months. Backed by Qualcomm (qcom), it underscores its status as one of a crop of homegrown firms spearheading Beijing's ambition to become the leader in AI by 2030.

Voicera today announced it has acquired Wrappup to expand its meeting assistant Eva to the AI note-taking app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Voicera has raised $20 million from some of the biggest names at the intersection of enterprise and AI, including Microsoft Ventures, Cisco Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and GV, formerly Google Ventures. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cisco and Microsoft both shared plans last year to bring Spark Assistant and Cortana into the workplace and meeting rooms. With millions of G Suite customers and Alexa expanding into the workplace as well, Google Assistant may join other tech companies that want to bring their assistants into offices and meeting rooms.

International Business Machines Corp. rode the success of old technology to big gains at the end of last year, but investors will be looking for success from newer businesses in order to believe in Big Blue's future. IBM IBM, -0.86% is scheduled to report earnings on Tuesday after the close of markets. Key points will be the potential impact of China tariffs and the company's gross margins. Most important might be the company's services revenue, which is far behind systems revenue growth despite comprising newer efforts. Don't miss: IBM broke a long losing streak thanks to some of its oldest technology Compared with the year-ago quarter, analysts expect technology services and cloud-platform revenue to rise 0.8% to $8.28 billion and cognitive-solutions revenue to rise 3.8% to $4.22 billion.

The artificial intelligence industry just recorded its largest funding round in history. SenseTime, a Chinese startup that specializes in facial recognition, announced Monday that it has raised $600 million in Series C funding--making it the most highly valued artificial intelligence startup in the world. The company reportedly has a valuation higher than $4 billion, according to Bloomberg. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group led the round. SenseTime provides facial-recognition technology used in various fields from security to fintech.