Bill Gates and Travis Kalanick invest in A.I. chip start-up using light to move data

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick's 10100 fund and current Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi have invested in Luminous, a small start-up building an artificial intelligence chip. The investment shows key figures in the technology industry believe there is still an opportunity for a new standard to emerge when it comes to hardware for AI, which can be incorporated into a variety of software applications. In all, the company raised $9 million in this seed round. Several start-ups have been working on next-generation hardware in recent years as AI has become trendy. Intel bought one, called Nervana, in 2016.