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David Ferrucci, chief executive officer and founder of Elemental Cognition, speaks during a conference in New York, Nov. 8, 2017.

Alex Flynn | Bloomberg | Getty Images

David Ferrucci, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who led the team that created IBM Watson, has raised nearly $60 million for his AI startup called Elemental Cognition, according to a regulatory filing.

The filing on Thursday says the company sold $59.95 million worth of equity to 17 investors and plans to raise another $5.75 million.

Headquartered in New York’s historic Helmsley Building, Elemental says on its website that the company seeks to develop AI that “thinks before it talks.” It offers two enterprise products, Cogent and Cora, which are essentially chatbots designed for different scenarios. They can be used in financial services, interactive travel planning and for automating research discovery in life sciences.

Ferrucci led IBM Watson from 2006 until the end of 2012, during which time the computer system famously won “Jeopardy!” He then ran AI research for Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds. Ferrucci has a Phd in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Elemental’s operating chief is David Shepler, another former top Bridgewater executive who also worked at IBM. Other members of Elemental’s leadership team with IBM on their resumes include Eric Brown and Mike Barborak, who are both vice presidents.

Jim Breyer, founder and CEO of Breyer Capital and one of the first investors in Facebook, is named on Elemental’s investors and advisors page, as is former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. Greg Jensen, Bridgewater’s co-chief investment officer, and Geoff Yang of Redpoint Ventures are also in that group.

Elemental didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Investors have been swarming to AI startups this year following the release in late 2022 of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which gave the public a clear look at the power of AI chatbots. While Elemental’s website doesn’t emphasize generative AI, the broad category that’s been red hot, its LinkedIn page says the company “provides a revolutionary Generative AI platform with superior natural language understanding that powers expert problem-solving intelligence and research & discovery applications.”

Elemental touts its hybrid AI platform as its standout offering. Instead of solely relying on large language models (LLMs) as is the case with ChatGPT, Elemental says it combines LLMs with an AI-powered reasoning engine to help responses better stay within guardrails.

Watson, which marked IBM’s early splash in artificial intelligence, never amounted to a profitable endeavor. In January of last year, the company sold its Watson Health unit for an undisclosed amount to private equity firm Francisco Partners. Three months ago, IBM announced WatsonX, which it’s billing it as a development studio for companies to “train, tune and deploy” machine-learning models.

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Ex-Meta employee files whistleblower suit for alleged security flaws at WhatsApp

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Ex-Meta employee files whistleblower suit for alleged security flaws at WhatsApp

Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

An ex-Meta employee sued the social media company on Monday over allegations that its WhatsApp messaging service contained “systemic cybersecurity failures” that potentially compromise user privacy.

Attaullah Baig, WhatsApp’s former head of security, alleged that Meta retaliated against him after he notified leaders, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, of security issues at the messaging app.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that after joining WhatsApp in 2021, Baig found security flaws that violated federal securities laws and Meta’s legal obligations related to a 2020 privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

During a test conducted with Meta’s central security team, Baig alleged he “discovered that approximately 1,500 WhatsApp engineers had unrestricted access to user data, including sensitive personal information” and that the employees “could move or steal such data without detection or audit trail.”

A Meta spokesperson disputed Baig’s allegations in a statement, and downplayed his role and ranking at the company.

“Sadly this is a familiar playbook in which a former employee is dismissed for poor performance and then goes public with distorted claims that misrepresent the ongoing hard work of our team,” the spokesperson wrote. “Security is an adversarial space, and we pride ourselves in building on our strong record of protecting people’s privacy.”

Baig is being represented by the whistle blower organization Psst.org and the law firm Schonbrun, Seplow, Harris, Hoffman and Zeldes.

Although the lawsuit doesn’t claim that any user data was compromised, it says that Baig told superiors on multiple occasions that the cybersecurity failures posed a regulatory compliance risk. Some of the alleged security flaws include WhatsApp’s failure to maintain a 24-hour security operations center fitting of its size and scale, systems to monitor user data access and a “a comprehensive inventory of systems storing user data, preventing proper protection and regulatory disclosure.”

Baig’s attorneys claim in the suit that there were multiple instances of his superiors criticizing his work, and said that within three days of his initial “cybersecurity disclosure,” he began receiving “negative performance feedback.”

In November, Baig notified the SEC of the alleged “cybersecurity deficiencies and failure to inform investors about material cybersecurity risks,” the suit says.

A month later, Baig sent Zuckerberg the second of two letters, this time informing the CEO that he “had filed the SEC complaint” and that he was “requesting immediate action to address both the underlying compliance failures and the unlawful retaliation.”

In January, Baig then filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, documenting “the systemic retaliation” he claims he received after the security disclosures, according to the lawsuit.

The following month, the complaint says Meta fired Baig, citing “poor performance” as part of the company’s February round of layoffs affecting 5% of staff.

“The timing and circumstances of Mr. Baig’s termination establish clear causal connection to his protected activity, occurring in close temporal proximity to his external regulatory filings and representing the culmination of over two years of systemic retaliation for his cybersecurity disclosures and advocacy for compliance with federal law and regulatory orders,” the suit says.

Baig’s lawyers said that he submitted a notice to remove his SEC-related claims to federal court on Monday, and that he has “exhausted his administrative remedies prior to bringing this action.”

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Nvidia’s Huang joining Trump on UK state visit next week

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Nvidia's Huang joining Trump on UK state visit next week

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at an ‘Investing in America’ event in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2025.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will join President Donald Trump next week on a state visit to the U.K., a person familiar with the plans told CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos on Monday.

The person asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss the trip.

The Nvidia chief is one of several U.S. business leaders who are expected to accompany Trump, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, according to Sky News, which first reported the trip.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was invited, according to the report.

The luminaries are expected to join Trump at a state banquet hosted by King Charles scheduled for next week, according to Sky News.

Though Huang was notably absent from Trump’s White House dinner for tech CEOs last week, his attendance on the U.K trip highlights how committed the chipmaker is to managing its relationship with the president as Nvidia seeks new licenses to sell its current-generation Blackwell chips in China.

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Since the company’s access to the Chinese market was thrown into question earlier this year, Huang has developed a close relationship with Trump, praising the president’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing.

Huang has tried to convince the president that allowing Nvidia to export its chips to China is good for U.S. national security because it means that the U.S. will continue leading the AI race.

Trump has praised Nvidia for being a technological leader, and was pleased when the company topped a $4 trillion market cap, Huang previously said.

Nvidia said earlier this year that its access to the Chinese market had been cut off by the Trump administration using export controls. Huang then met with Trump at the White House twice over the summer and secured export waivers for its China AI chip, called the H20.

Trump said that he negotiated a 15% cut of those chip sales with Huang. Nvidia said last month that details of the U.S. government’s cut had not been finalized.

Huang also joined Trump on a trip to Saudi Arabia for an investment forum in May.

Nvidia previously said it had to scrap H20 chips that could have accounted for $8 billion in sales in a single quarter. It said it could sell as much as $5 billion of the H20 chips this quarter, depending on the geopolitical environment.

But Nvidia is now focusing on getting licenses to sell newer chips to China, and Huang told investors last month there is a “real possibility” that it can get approval.

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StubHub aims to raise up to $9.2 billion in IPO, pricing at $22 to $25 per share

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StubHub aims to raise up to .2 billion in IPO, pricing at  to  per share

The StubHub logo is seen at its headquarters in San Francisco.

Andrej Sokolow | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

StubHub is aiming to raise as much as $851 million in its initial public offering, giving it a valuation of up to $9.2 billion, the company revealed in a new filing on Monday.

The ticket reselling marketplace plans to sell more than 34 million shares priced between $22 and $25 per share, according to the filing.

The long-awaited IPO comes after StubHub hit pause on the process in April as the stock market was reeling from President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariffs. The company also eyed an IPO last year, but it postponed its efforts in July 2024 amid a slowdown in the IPO market.

StubHub plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “STUB.”

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The IPO market has bounced back in recent months, with recent debuts from Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, design software company Figma and crypto firm Circle.

Klarna, a Swedish provider of buy now, pay later loans, and Gemini, the crypto firm founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, are gearing up for public debuts this week.

StubHub filed an updated IPO prospectus last month, showing that first-quarter revenue grew 10% from a year earlier to $397.6 million. Operating income came in at $26.8 million for the period.

The company’s net loss widened to $35.9 million from $29.7 million a year ago.

The company has been a longtime player in the ticketing industry since its launch in 2000. It was purchased by eBay for $310 million in 2007, but was reacquired by co-founder Eric Baker in 2020 for $4 billion through his new company Viagogo.

StubHub had sought a $16.5 billion valuation before it began the IPO process, CNBC previously reported

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