Richard Nieva
@richardnieva.bsky.social
Senior Writer at Forbes covering AI. Previously: BuzzFeed News. East Bay native. Tips: rnieva@forbes.com or Signal at username Rnieva.26
Scoop: Flapping Airplanes, a startup that’s trying to develop ways to use less data to train AI models, is in talks to raise capital at a $5 billion valuation. With @iainmartin.bsky.social and @richardnieva.bsky.social. www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...
AI Startup Flapping Airplanes Is In Talks To Raise Funding At A $5 Billion Valuation
The data efficiency startup is researching a better way to train AI models using less data.
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Today we published the 12th edition of the Next Billion Dollar Startups list, a fun one because it spotlights up-and-comers working on everything from bone marrow transplants to thwarting biological threats. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026 List
The Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026 list highlights venture-backed companies likely to become unicorns. Learn more about these fast-growing startups.
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New: Corgi, the AI insurance company that works 7 days a week and operates an all-night cafe in SF, has raised money for the third time in three months. This time at a $4 billion valuation. With @annatonger.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/annato...
AI Startup Corgi Of Seven-Day Work Week Fame Raises Yet Again At $4 Billion Valuation
AI Startup Corgi Fundraises Yet Again, At $4 Billion Valuation
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New: AI data labeler Mercor is in talks to raise $500 million in a round expected to close later this month. (Bloomberg earlier reported they were raising at a $20B valuation) www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
AI Data Labeler Mercor In Talks To Raise $500 Million At $20 Billion Valuation
If the round closes as expected later this month, the startup’s three 23-year-old cofounders would be worth an estimated $4.3 billion apiece.
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I chatted with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan about how AI could transform the site. The balance is combatting AI slop while allowing AI to supercharge growth for creators. It’s “not a trivial problem,” he says. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
AI Slop Is Transforming YouTube. Its CEO Wants To Keep It Human
How YouTube’s CEO Is Trying To Combat AI Slop
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Anthropic disabled Fable 5 on Friday. In an interview hours before Anthropic received the directive, Chief Commercial Officer Paul Smith told me about the “tradeoffs” of releasing such a powerful tool www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Anthropic’s Fable 5 Safeguards Were Always A ‘Judgement Call’
In an interview hours before the U.S. government issued a directive to disable Anthropic’s newest AI model, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer told Forbes about the tradeoffs of releasing such a p...
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New: Cursor hit $4 billion in annualized revenue, up from $3 billion in late April. The new figure comes ahead of an expected acquisition by SpaceX after its IPO. With @annatonger.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Cursor Hits $4 Billion Annualized Revenue Ahead Of SpaceX IPO
Elon Musk’s rocket and AI company is expected to acquire the buzzy AI coding startup shortly after it goes public.
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New: AI insurance company Corgi has doubled its valuation to $2.6 billion with a $106 million fundraise, just weeks after raising $160 million and becoming a unicorn. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
AI Insurance Startup Corgi Doubles Valuation To $2.6 Billion In Weeks
Welcome to the frenzied world of AI, where a two-year-old startup founded by a 26-year-old can have a company-owned dog, run a 24-hour cafe and raise $106 million about a month after becoming a unicor...
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New: I chatted with Alexandr Wang and new Scale CEO Jason Droege about the company post-Meta deal. Scale says revenue last year was just shy of $1B, and expects it to top $1B this year. (But Meta will account for nearly half of annual revenue) www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Inside Scale AI’s Business After Meta’s Bombshell $14 Billion Deal
How Scale AI Is Adapting Post Meta Deal And Founder’s Departure
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After Cerebras’ long-awaited IPO, CEO Andrew Feldman is now a billionaire worth an estimated $3.4 billion. Check out my story, which involves a secret dance floor and Halloween candy from a Nobel Prize winner. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
AI Chipmaker Cerebras’ CEO Is Now Worth $3.4 Billion After Long-Awaited IPO
The next-gen chipmaker first filed for its IPO in September 2024. Now, after snags that held up its debut, it’s a public company.
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Corgi, an AI insurance startup, just raised $160 million at a $1.3 billion valuation. Its employees work 7 days a week, it owns and operates a 24/7 cafe and has a company-owned Corgi named Trudy, which employees walk and feed with the help of an AI bot. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
This AI Insurance Company With An All-Night Cafe And Cheeky Corgi Is Now A Unicorn
Named after the company-owned dog, Corgi embodies the sometimes-absurd San Francisco startup scene. And it just raised $160 million at a $1.3 billion valuation.
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New for @forbes.com with @richardnieva.bsky.social: www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...
CoreWeave's Business Depends On OpenAI. What If The AI Company Can't Pay Up?
OpenAI is one of the former crypto miner’s largest contracted customers. Here are the risks and how CoreWeave is thinking about them.
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Here’s a fun one: The next big AI dataset is…Google’s garbage. The company is partnering with Mill, which makes a smart trash bin, to train the startup’s AI on food waste from Google’s campus. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Google’s Weirdest AI Dataset Yet: Its Own Garbage
The search giant had previously created a machine learning data set out of food scraps from its kitchens. Now it’s partnering with Mill, which makes a high-tech trash bin, to use that data to train it...
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I chatted with AWS CEO Matt Garman, who says the company is “bullish” on the Middle East, despite recent drone strikes that have damaged data centers. He also touched on the OpenAI deal, hoping it will improve Amazon’s Trainium chips www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Amazon’s AWS Chief Is ‘Bullish’ On Middle East Despite Conflict
Matt Garman, who rose from intern to Amazon Web Services boss, also hopes the company’s recent deal with OpenAI will help improve the e-commerce giant’s Trainium chips.
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This year I’m taking over our Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. We want to highlight the best up-and-comers. If your company’s valuation is under $1B, apply here! www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2026: Nominations Are Open
For the 12th annual Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list, we’re on the hunt for 25 fast-growing companies most likely to become unicorns — and thrive well beyond that.
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Vercel, the web hosting and deployment company, hit run rate revenue of $340 million at the end of February. And its $300 million funding round in September has made founder Guillermo Rauch a billionaire, worth an estimated $2.1 billion. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
This Argentine Billionaire’s Startup Vercel Is One Of Claude Code’s Go-To Web Hosting Tools
One of the most popular ways to view the Epstein Files, an interface called Jmail that mimics a Gmail inbox, is hosted on Guillermo Rauch’s $9 billion unicorn Vercel.
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Three months after a blockbuster $20 billion deal, Nvidia announced its plans for Groq’s inference-speed tech. Here's how it came together and what's next. My latest for @forbes.com, with @iainmartin.bsky.social, @richardnieva.bsky.social and Anna Tong: www.forbes.com/sites/phoebe...
“We Almost Didn’t Do It”: Jonathan Ross On The $20 Billion Deal With Nvidia
The Christmas Eve agreement—billed as Nvidia’s biggest deal in its three-decade history—landed at a precarious moment for Groq. Now Nvidia is betting on Groq’s inference-speed tech inside a newly anno...
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New: Replit has raised $400 million at a $9 billion valuation, and is releasing its new coding agent. The goal is to make vibe coding more like you’re doodling on a white board. Paul Graham, an early investor, thinks it will “redefine” the term. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Replit’s Jordanian Immigrant Billionaire Founder Shakes Up Vibe Coding
Amjad Masad’s Replit allows users to work together like they’re doodling on a white board. It also made him a billionaire along the way.
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For our cover story on Sam Altman, we sat down with him for two wide-ranging interviews. We couldn’t fit everything into the final profile. Here’s some of what we discussed, from Elon and Trump to robotics and vaccines. w/ Anna Tong www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Sam Altman On Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Robotics, Fatherhood And More
Across two wide-ranging interviews with Forbes, Altman covered more ground than could fit in our profile. Here are his remarks on everything from vaccine research to critics who argue he backs compani...
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NEW: We profiled Sam Altman for the cover of Forbes Magazine. For the story, we talked to Bob Iger, Masa Son, Satya Nadella, Brian Chesky, Paul Graham and more. Graham’s take was resonant: “He’s good at getting people to do what he wants.” w/ Anna Tong www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
New: OpenAI wanted GPT-5 to be less warm and agreeable than its predecessor GPT-4o, but a group of users says the change was disruptive, particularly for people with autism, ADHD and special needs. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
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I chatted with Anthropic’s Mike Krieger about the company’s enterprise strategy. He said Claude usage is sticky: 60% of business customers are using more than one Claude product. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
How Instagram’s Cofounder-Turned-Anthropic Product Chief Is Cracking The Enterprise AI Code
Claude Code Is Anthropic’s Gateway Drug To The Enterprise
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Scoop from @iainmartin.bsky.social, @rashis.bsky.social and me: Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable is in talks to raise at a $6 billion valuation. www.forbes.com/sites/iainma...
Vibe Coding Startup Lovable In Talks To Raise At $6 Billion Valuation
The Stockholm-based startup that uses artificial intelligence to code apps and websites for its users is in talks to raise a new round at triple its last valuation from just four months ago.
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New: I profiled Sierra, the $10B AI customer service startup from Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, which wants to make AI agents the primary way businesses interact with customers. For the piece, I talked to their old bosses, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Inside OpenAI Chairman’s $10 Billion AI Customer Service Startup Sierra
Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor had leadership roles at the world's biggest tech companies. Now they’re in the startup trenches, using AI agents to help companies interact with their customers.
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New: With Mercor’s new fundraise and $10 billion valuation, its founders become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires at age 22, younger than Mark Zuckerberg was when he hit that status at age 23 two decades ago. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
These 22-Year-Olds Are Now The World’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaires
With a new $10 billion valuation for their AI recruiting startup Mercor, the founders are the youngest tech billionaires since Mark Zuckerberg’s debut at age 23.
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New from me: TikTok ignored repeated questions about whether and how they share data with ICE. Also, earlier this year, they quietly updated their policies about what happens when law enforcement asks for your data. 1/ www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...
TikTok Won’t Say If It’s Giving ICE Your Data
Changes to TikTok's policies make it easier for the company to share users’ personal information with governments. TikTok did not respond to questions about the changes.
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New: We interviewed elderly people who are chatting with AI bots in nursing homes and at home to combat loneliness. “[The calls are] not about anything that's really important, but it gives me something to do,” one senior said. With @rashis.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/rashis...
Lonely Seniors Are Turning To AI Bots For Companionship
The AI boom has brought with it a new crop of startups looking to build a business on an urgent but vaguely dystopian idea: solving loneliness among the elderly.
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I chatted with AMD’s senior vice president of AI about the company’s massive deal with OpenAI, and how AMD’s software efforts played a part in scoring the agreement. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
How AMD’s AI Software Helped It Score The Multi-Billion Dollar OpenAI Deal
Chips aren’t the only star of the massive agreement. AMD’s software efforts have slowly turned it into a more formidable competitor to Nvidia.
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This was all found in hundreds of emails obtained via public records requests for comms between various police departments and Amazon's law enforcement and school safety lead, an ex-cop himself. Yes, Amazon has also been pushing AI surveillance at schools.
Thomas Brewster@thomasbrewster.bsky.social · 10mo ago🚨NEW🚨 Amazon has been developing drone surveillance tech for American cops, from gun detection to repurposing Twitch's streaming code. It's also pushing all manner of surveillance tools, including Flock car tracking and AI that constantly monitors all prison calls. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
New: Grafana Labs, which helps companies monitor their data and internal systems, has hit $400 million in ARR and closed a tender offer of up to $150 million. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...
Grafana Labs Is Cleaning Up On The Vibe Coding Boom
With a client list that includes Nvidia, Anthropic and Uber, the $6 billion-valued Grafana Labs is flexing with $400 million in annualized revenue — and new investment from a tender offer of up to $15...
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