Nvidia's acquisition, Samsung's $181 million stake, and KoBold Metals' raise: This week's AI launches

Nvidia (NVDA) completed a $700 million acquisition of AI startup Run:ai this week. Through the deal, Run:ai’s AI infrastructure software will be open-source, the startup, which focuses on optimizing GPU systems, said.

Run:ai’s software currently only supports Nvidia’s GPUs, but it will open source its software to be compatible with other AI hardware.

“GPUs and AI infrastructure will remain at the forefront of driving these transformative innovations and joining NVIDIA provides us an extraordinary opportunity to carry forward a joint mission of helping humanity solve the world’s greatest challenges,” the startup said in a statement.

Samsung announced a $181 million stake in Rainbow Robotics this week, making it the largest shareholder in the robotics company. The partnership will advance the South Korea-based robotics company’s developments, including of humanoid robots, and incorporate it as a subsidiary under Samsung Electronics’s consolidated financial statements.

The two companies will also form a synergy council “to strengthen leadership in the advanced robot global business, with the council expected to serve as a bridge to foster the growth of both companies by developing future robot technologies and core business strategies and identifying and assessing market demand,” Samsung said.

Through the partnership, Samsung will use Rainbow Robotics’ robots for manufacturing and logistics automation.

KoBold Metals, which builds and uses AI models for mineral exploration, announced a $537 million Series C funding round this week that values the company at $2.96 billion. The funding round was co-led by Durable Capital Partners LP, a new investor, and a pair of T. Rowe Price (TROW) funds.

The new funding will be used for growth and innovation, it said, including expanding its critical minerals exploration on five continents, and cutting-edge research and development.

“KoBold’s mission is to expand and diversify the global supply of critical resources essential for prosperity, energy technology, AI, and security,” KoBold chief executive Kurt House said in a statement. “Partnering with this broad set of world-class investors will accelerate our progress.”

Swave Photonics, which focuses on holographic displays, announced a $28.27 million Series A funding round this week co-led by imec.xpand and SFPIM Relaunch.

The funding will be used to advance the company’s Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) platform, it said, “enabling a reality-first user experience for AI-powered augmented reality (AR) smartglasses and heads-up displays.” The company’s HXR technology, which it introduced in April, involves “the world’s smallest pixel to shape light and sculpt high-quality 3D holographic images” for the reality-first user experience.

“AR glasses are set to become the primary interface for AI-powered spatial computing and other applications, and Swave is uniquely positioned to enable this future,” Theo Marescaux, Swave co-founder and chief product officer, said in a statement. “We are co-designing every element—from our holographic SLMs with cutting-edge nano-pixels, to real-time compute chips, light engines, and AR combiners—delivering the most advanced and integrated solution yet.”