 Self-driving car technology startup Argo AI is shutting down operations after it lost the financial backing of Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, TechCrunch reported. Argo, a spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University, was founded in 2016. It secured investments of $1B from Ford in 2017 and $2.6B from Volkswagen in 2020. More: - Ford and Volkswagen will now back out of Argo, their autonomous vehicle joint venture, after it failed to secure other investors.
- Argo AI's resources, including some employees and its technology, will now be absorbed by Ford and VW, according to TechCrunch.
- During a meeting on Wednesday, Argo AI's employees were told that Ford and VW would extend offers to an undisclosed number of employees.
- Argo will also give severance packages, including two bonuses, to all employees once the deal closes with the two automakers.
- The Pittsburgh-based company grew its global workforce from about 1,000 employees in 2020 to more than 2,000 during the pandemic.
- In July, Argo confirmed that it had laid off 150 employees and would shutter its Washington, D.C., operations.
Zoom-out: - On Wednesday, Ford reported its Q3 earnings, saying it would wind down Argo's operations and offer positions to its "talented engineers."
- The automaker recorded a $2.7B non-cash, pretax charge on its investment in Argo, leading to an $827M net loss for the quarter.
- Ford will shift its focus from Argo's L4 advanced driver assistance systems to its own internal L2+ and L3 technology, it said.
- In a statement, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company remains "optimistic" about the future of L4 driving systems. However, "profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off, and we won't necessarily have to create that technology ourselves," he said.
TECHCRUNCH 
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Intel spun out its autonomous vehicle technology company Mobileye, which raised $861M in its initial public offering on Wednesday. Mobile's IPO price of $21 a share valued the company at around $17B. The stock closed up nearly 40% following its debut on the Nasdaq, valuing Mobileye at more than $23B. More: - According to Bloomberg, it was scored this year's "biggest trading-debut gain for a major U.S. listing."
- Founded in 1999, Mobileye specializes in advanced driver-assist technology through its "EyeQ" software, camera, and chips.
- Its customers include Ford, GM, BMW, Volkswagen, and Toyota. 50 companies now use its technology in 800 vehicle models.
- Mobileye was publicly traded before Intel acquired it for $15.3B in 2017.
- In December, Intel announced it would spin out Mobileye. Intel remains the majority owner, and the companies will still be strategic partners, they said.
CNBC
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Philanthropy Schmidt Futures has announced a $148M investment to fund global postdoctoral fellowships in AI. The Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship program will initially support about 160 fellows at nine universities to incorporate AI into their research. More: - Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt, founded Schmidt Futures in 2017 to fund tech and science research and talent.
- The philanthropic initiative has committed $400M toward AI development, including the $148M announced today.
- The Science Postdoctoral Fellowship will benefit initially benefit nine universities. They are the University of Toronto, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, National University of Singapore, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Cornell University, the University of California San Diego, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan.
- Every year, each university is allowed to select as many as 20 fellows for up to six years. They will offer "advanced AI training, research support, and professional development" to help develop a worldwide network of AI-trained scientists.
- Schmidt plans to expand the fellowship to more institutions and countries.
Zoom-out: - Schmidt was Google's CEO from 2001 to 2011 and executive chairman from 2015 to 2018.
- He chaired the U.S. government's National Security Commission on AI and co-wrote the book, "The Age of AI: And our Human Future," with Henry Kissinger and Dan Huttenlocher.
- In February, Schmidt Futures launched its AI2050 initiative to invest $125M into AI research, supporting research projects that could help tackle AI bias, harms, geopolitical conflicts, and other "hard" challenges.
FORBES
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 Computer vision startup Trigo announced $100M in new equity financing to fund its technology that brings autonomous checkout to supermarkets. The investment was led by Singaporean investment firm Temasek and U.K.-based VC firm 83North. More: - The Israeli company says its technology transforms existing grocery stores into "fully autonomous digital stores" using cameras, sensors, and computer vision algorithms.
- Similar to Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology, Trigo's system is aimed at letting shoppers buy products without scanning or going through a checkout.
- Trigo said its solutions are already deployed at some stores in Europe and the U.S., including Tesco in the U.K., Aldi in the Netherlands, and Wakefern Food Corp. in the U.S.
- The fresh funding will enable it to scale deployment across Europe and the U.S. and expand into new geographies.
- Trigo said it will also tap funding to further develop and launch "StoreOS," its store and inventory management software application suite.
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Sony has debuted a new high-resolution camera with an AI processing unit for better subject detection and tracking. The A7R V camera has a 61-megapixel sensor and 8K video capabilities. More: - The camera's full-frame sensor and Bionz XR processor are paired with the AI processor.
- The AI technology enables the A7R V's autofocus to detect and identify subjects like animals, insects, and cars.
- It also has "human pose estimation," a new system that can "see" 20 different points in the human body and determine where the person's eye should be for better tracking during movement.
- The AI processing also powers a new auto white balance. The camera will arrive in December and cost $3,900.
THE VERGE
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🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - Tellius (Virginia), provides an AI-driven decision intelligence platform: $16M B led by Baird Capital with participation from Sands Capital Ventures, Grotech Ventures, and Veraz Investments.
- Keebo (Michigan), enables companies to automate manual tasks by using its AI-powered software solution: $15M A led by True Ventures, with participation from Neotribe, Pear, 406 Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures.
- Wispr (California), a consumer electronics company: $10M Equity and debt led by Neo, Triple Point Capital, MVP Ventures, and Fred Ehrsam.
- StoryFit (Texas), provides machine learning data analytics tools for the movie industry: $5.5M A led by Refinery Ventures with participation from Techstars, Elkstone Partners, Collective Capital Ventures, and Alumni Ventures.
- Vara (Germany), offers an AI platform that detects breast cancer in patients: $4.4M A led by VI Partners.
- Numurus (Washington), helps integrate AI in robotic systems: $2M growth led by Tokusui Corporation of America.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, check out our Inside Venture Capital newsletter.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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