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Bloomberg
12 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Thune Believes Senate Has Votes to Pass Trump Tax Bill
Senate Majority Leader John Thune believes there is enough Republican support of President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill and said his chamber will soon vote on passage of the legislation. Kailey Leinz reports on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Scale AI's bigger rival Surge AI seeks up to $1 billion capital raise, sources say
By Milana Vinn and Krystal Hu (Reuters) -Surge AI, a data-labeling firm that competes with Scale AI, has hired advisors to raise as much as $1 billion in the first capital raising in the firm's history, sources told Reuters, as it seeks to capitalize on growing user demand amid Scale AI's recent customer exodus. The company, founded by former Google and Meta engineer Edwin Chen, is targeting a valuation of over $15 billion, sources said, cautioning that the talks are still in early stages and the final number could be higher. The funding would be a mix of primary and secondary capital that provides liquidity for the employees. Surge AI, which has been profitable and bootstrapped by Chen, has raked in over $1 billion in revenue last year, bigger than its better-known competitor Scale AI, which reported $870 million in revenue over the same period of time. In comparison, Scale AI was valued at $14 billion in a funding round last year, and was mostly recently valued at nearly $29 billion when Meta invested for a 49% stake in the company and poached its CEO Alexandr Wang to be its chief AI officer to lead its new Superintelligence Labs. Surge AI declined to comment. Like other Scale AI competitors, Surge AI is benefiting from Scale AI's customer losses following Meta's investment. This includes OpenAI and Scale's largest customer, Google, who are now planning to move away from the platform over concerns that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities to Meta. Scale has said its business remains strong, and it is committed to protecting customer data. Surge AI's quiet yet meteoric rise has positioned it as one of the largest players in the crowded data labeling industry, defying the typical Silicon Valley playbook of raising massive rounds of venture capital to fuel growth. Founded in 2020, the San Francisco-based company has largely operated under the radar, known for its premium, high-end data labeling services used by top AI labs, including Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. As reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) has become more important in training advanced AI systems, the demand for meticulously labeled, nuanced datasets has grown. Surge AI has capitalized on this trend by appealing to a network of highly skilled contractors instead of large pools of low-wage labor. The outsized funding of Surge would be a test of investor interest in the data labeling sector. Some investors view data labeling as an ongoing necessity for AI development, predicting a continued demand from leading AI labs. Others express concern that the industry's low margins and reliance on human labor could make it vulnerable to automation, as AI technology advances and the need for manual annotation diminishes. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
13 minutes ago
- New York Post
Lululemon sues Costco over alleged sale of 'dupes' copying $128 pants
Athletic apparel giant Lululemon is suing Costco for allegedly selling cheap 'dupes' of its pricey pants and sweatshirts. In a lawsuit filed Friday in California, Lululemon alleges Costco has 'unlawfully traded' on the brand's 'reputation, goodwill and sweat equity by selling unauthorized and unlicensed apparel employing knockoff, infringing versions' of its products. Lululemon, for example, sells its popular ABC men's pants for $128 – and alleges that a pair of Costco pants that retail for just $10 rip off their design. Advertisement Leggings and yoga pants on display in a Lululemon store in New York. Bloomberg via Getty Images Its Scuba hoodies sell for $118, while Costco's private label Kirkland Signature sells copycat sweatshirts for $8, the company alleged in the suit. 'As an innovation-led company that invests significantly in the research, development and design of our products, we take the responsibility of protecting and enforcing our intellectual property rights very seriously and pursue the appropriate legal action when necessary,' Lululemon told The Post in a statement. The Vancouver-based company is accusing Costco of leading customers to believe that these dupes, slang for duplicates, 'are in fact manufactured by the authentic supplier of the 'original' products.' Advertisement Lululemon and Costco did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment. Lululemon claimed it sent the Washington-based big box retailer a letter in November 2024 accusing it of selling hoodies using the Scuba design. Costco 'subsequently removed at least some of the products that infringed lululemon's SCUBA,' but later started selling similar products, according to the lawsuit. Advertisement The retailer is still selling the alleged dupes today, Lululemon said in the suit. Clothing folded on tables at a Costco store in New Jersey. Bloomberg via Getty Images The luxury leggings maker is seeking to 'fully recover' financial losses through unspecified damages and a court order to block Costco from selling the products. Lululemon has gone after alleged copycats in the past, suing stationary bike giant Peloton in 2021 for allegedly selling apparel using similar designs. Advertisement That suit was settled in 2022, and the companies announced a five-year partnership the following year to sell co-branded clothing. Lululemon recently slashed its full-year forecast, citing a 'dynamic macroenvironment' with added costs from tariffs, low demand amid economic uncertainty and heated competition from other athletic brands. Shares of Lululemon jumped 2.2% Tuesday. The stock is down 36% so far this year.
