Author: Krystle and Sean
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PM Anwar Launches SParK 2026 — PUNB Sets RM2.25 Billion Financing Target for Bumiputera SMEs
TL;DR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim launched SParK 2026, a national initiative under Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad (PUNB) targeting RM2.25 billion in financing for Bumiputera SMEs and entrepreneurs. The programme focuses on high-growth sectors including technology, services, manufacturing, and agriculture. Applications are open through PUNB’s digital platform. This is a major signal for Malaysian…
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Solo GP Ashley Smith announces second $25M fund to back startups in AI, security and more | TechCrunch
Why a Solo Investor’s $25 Million Bet on AI and Security Should Catch Your Attention You might think venture capital moves are reserved for Silicon Valley giants. But when investor Ashley Smith closed a $25 million fund for AI infrastructure, security, and dev tools, it signals something you can’t ignore. For Malaysian SME owners, this…
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OpenAI releases new voice models for more natural live conversations | TechCrunch
Why This Voice AI Update Should Make You Take Notice You’re running a small business. Customer calls come in all day. Staff get tied up. Clients complain about being put on hold or repeating themselves. Now imagine a voice system that handles interruptions, stays silent when needed, and speaks naturally enough that customers don’t realise…
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Google’s AI Buildout Drove a 37% Surge in Electricity Use — The Hidden Environmental Cost of AI
TL;DR: Google’s 2025 electricity consumption jumped 37% — its largest annual increase ever — driven entirely by AI data center expansion. Data centers consumed 42 million MWh, rivaling the entire electricity demand of New Zealand. While Google cut operational emissions 2% via clean energy purchases, supply chain emissions rose 25%. The AI boom has an…
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Why this CEO thinks video games make better training data than the internet | TechCrunch
If Your AI Can Write Emails But Can’t Move a Box, This is Why You have probably spent the last year testing AI tools for your business. They draft the marketing copy. They summarize the meeting notes. But ask them to understand why your inventory is always piled up in the wrong corner of your…
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Venice AI Becomes a Unicorn With $65M Series A — Privacy-First AI Is the Next Big Thing
TL;DR: Venice AI raised a $65M Series A at a $1B valuation led by Dragonfly, its first external capital. The privacy-first platform serves 3M+ active users, processes 1.7M API calls/day across 200+ models, and is already profitable with $70M+ annualised revenue. If you’ve been ignoring the privacy angle in AI, this is the wake-up call.…
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AI chip maker SambaNova raises $1B at $11B valuation, 5 months after last mega round | TechCrunch
Why a US$1 Billion AI Chip Bet Matters for Your Malaysian SME Imagine reading that a company you never heard of just raised US$1 billion at an US$11 billion valuation (TechCrunch). It sounds like abstract Silicon Valley noise. But when you run a small business in Malaysia, any significant change in the AI infrastructure world…
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Chainything: The Open-Source No-Code Workflow Automation Tool That’s Giving Zapier a Run for Its Money
TL;DR: Chainything is a free, open-source DAG-based workflow automation tool written in Rust. It combines a visual no-code node editor with an AI assistant that generates pipelines from natural language prompts. If you’re paying $30+/month for Zapier or Make and want full control over your automation logic — including offline, self-hosted execution — Chainything might…