There was no easing gently back into things this week as Meta ditched third-party fact-checking, and Irish tech companies raised a whopping $500 million-plus between them.
Starting with Meta, and there was considerable surprise at Mark Zuckerberg’s address on Monday in which he rolled back on the tech giant’s attempts to moderate content on its platforms.
Unsurprisingly, there was a wide range of reactions to the news. In my analysis, I warned that Big Tech’s alignment with US president-elect Donald Trump to take on the EU leaves Ireland in a tricky situation. Separately, my colleague Sarah Collins got the reaction from Brussels.
There may be plenty of people dreading the return of Trump but Irish tech veteran Ray Nolan is not one of them. This year will be very strong for business and the president-elect will be part of that, the Edesk CEO said.
It was a huge week for raises from Irish tech firms. Among those companies who secured new investment were Fire1, LetsGetChecked, Xocean, Deciphex, Dataships, and Druid Software. Sisu, which is certainly not a tech company, but is run by well-known tech entrepreneur Pat Phelan, also scored new financing.
Overall, Irish tech companies secured over €500 million in funding this week, and that doesn’t include Mail Metrics, which also announced a ‘sizeable investment’ from MML Partners to help fund its $50 million acquisition of a UK rival.
While all of these deals are welcome, -not least as they show that later-stage companies are scoring investment - It is worth noting that while most of the transactions were announced in recent days, many, if not all of them, likely closed last year.
Talking of fundraising, AI firm Anthropic is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a funding round that would value the company at $60 billion.
Staying with AI and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang used an address at CES in Las Vegas to announce a raft of new chips, software and services that are all intended to help the company stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence computing.
It was a busy week on the fintech front with the Central Bank announcing the seven companies that have been selected for its inaugural sandbox programme. In addition, Rippling secured an e-money license, while HashKey received approval as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP)
Among the big deals announced in recent days was news that Getty Images has agreed to acquire rival stock-photo provider Shutterstock in a deal that would create a combined company worth about $3.7 billion including debt.
The Connected AI podcast returns next Wednesday and we’ll be talking to DC Calahane of Sure Valley Ventures on opportunities for Irish tech firms, and much more. Listen wherever you pick up your podcasts.
In our weekly update, we are giving you the lowdown on the best tech jobs currently available locally. If you want to be included, then email [email protected]
In other news:
• Equinix pays €33m to landowners to buy up data centre sites around Dublin
• McGrath and EU ‘energetically’ pursuing Elon Musk’s X probe
• European VC deals fall to 2017 level but AI to bolster 2025 figures
Send on your news and views to [email protected]
All the best,
Charlie
“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas,” Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing the company’s decision to ditch third-party fact-checking
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