Invest ideasNews
20 May 2026, 22:55
Clouted raises $7M to automate short video clipping and distribution for brands
BitcoinWorld Clouted raises $7M to automate short video clipping and distribution for brands Brands and marketing agencies are increasingly turning to short-form video clips to promote products, but identifying the most compelling 30 to 90 seconds of content — a process known as ‘clipping’ — and distributing those clips effectively remains a logistical challenge. Clouted, a startup that emerged from a16z’s Speedrun accelerator in 2024, is building an infrastructure platform to automate both the clipping process and the distribution strategy. How Clouted works Clouted taps into a network of over 100,000 gig creators who edit clips from longer content. The platform then uses AI to determine the best social media platform and target audience for each clip. Rather than simply maximizing the number of clips produced, Clouted’s AI operates a continuous testing loop, experimenting with different formats and channel strategies to identify what actually performs best. Co-founder and CEO Justin Banusing first applied the technology to his personal passion: electronic music and festival production. As a longtime DJ, he used Clouted to promote and grow &Friends, a Manila-based electronic dance music and pop-culture festival that now draws over 20,000 people. Funding and market positioning Clouted has raised a $7 million seed round led by Slow Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Weekend Fund, Peak XV’s Surge, and others. The startup competes directly with similar automated clipping platforms like Overlap AI, but Banusing said he looks to larger marketing infrastructure players — specifically CreatorIQ and Hightouch — as the ultimate competition. Hightouch recently crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, suggesting the enterprise marketing infrastructure space is large and still expanding. Why this matters for brands and creators Short video clips from podcasts, songs, and movies are everywhere on social media, and brands have realized the format offers a highly cost-effective way to market products. However, managing gig workers and determining distribution strategies presents a massive operational challenge. Clouted aims to solve that by accumulating data on what works, making each campaign more targeted and efficient than the last. Banusing described the approach as similar to penetration testing for social media algorithms — a concept borrowed from cybersecurity. Instead of looking for security flaws, Clouted’s AI and creator network test thousands of different clipping and distribution approaches to identify what triggers a piece of content to go viral. Conclusion Clouted’s $7 million seed round signals investor confidence in the growing demand for automated short-form video marketing infrastructure. By combining a large creator network with AI-driven testing and distribution, the startup aims to take the guesswork out of viral content — and position itself as a key player in the enterprise marketing technology space. FAQs Q1: What is Clouted? Clouted is a startup that uses AI and a network of over 100,000 gig creators to automate the process of clipping and distributing short-form video content for brands and marketing agencies. Q2: How does Clouted’s AI determine where to distribute clips? The platform runs a continuous testing loop, experimenting with different formats and channel strategies to identify which approaches drive the best engagement, then optimizes future campaigns based on accumulated data. Q3: Who are Clouted’s main competitors? Clouted competes directly with automated clipping platforms like Overlap AI, but views larger marketing infrastructure companies such as CreatorIQ and Hightouch as its ultimate market rivals. This post Clouted raises $7M to automate short video clipping and distribution for brands first appeared on BitcoinWorld .
20 May 2026, 22:54
Trump administration weighs AI model reviews as tech giants race to ship faster
The Trump administration is looking at a new order that would let US security agencies check powerful AI models before companies put them out for the public. The plan came up in a White House briefing led by the Office of the National Cyber Director. The meeting included OpenAI, Anthropic, and Reflection AI, all private companies, so there are no stock tickers for them. The order could be signed by Donald Trump as soon as Thursday. After the first mention, Trump is the name used here. The plan would set up a “voluntary framework” for companies building frontier AI systems. Under that setup, AI firms would tell the US government before major launches. They could also give agencies access to advanced models up to 90 days before those models reach users. Trump lets agencies check frontier AI systems before public launches The AI section of the order will emphasize “covered frontier models,” which means that the government will first determine which AI technologies are sufficiently significant to receive additional review. This won’t involve an examination in one particular office but rather several agencies who will evaluate models before their release. The expected executive order will have two key provisions, one related to cybersecurity and another one related to advanced AI models. While the cybersecurity provision will target the Pentagon, national security agencies, hospitals, financial institutions, and other critical infrastructure throughout the country, the second provision is related to expanding the pool of cyber experts hired. This includes increasing the number of employees at the US Tech Force – a program launched by OPM director Scott Kupor late last year. According to Scott Kupor, the purpose of the US Tech Force program was to recruit top-tier AI specialists in federal agencies. The order would also push AI companies and the government to share more details about security breaches. That part is about speed. If a company finds a weak spot or gets hit, federal teams want that information faster, not three meetings and a dead inbox later. Treasury builds a clearinghouse while NSA gets final AI review power The Treasury Department would lead a voluntary project with AI companies and owners of critical infrastructure. That project would create a clearinghouse within 30 days. The job of the clearinghouse would be simple: find security holes and help fix them. The Office of the National Cyber Director, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would support Treasury’s work. CISA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology would also help build the model review process. The second section would give Treasury, CISA, and NIST 60 days to create a classified test process for deciding what counts as a covered frontier model. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, and Michael Kratsios, who leads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, would also take part. After that, Susie, Sean, and Michael would stay tied to the process through their offices. The NSA would have the final say after speaking with the other agencies. The White House started meeting with tech and cyber groups after Anthropic showed Mythos last month to a small group of tech companies and security researchers. A White House official called the reports “speculation” and said any real announcement would come from Trump. The drafting has also shown disagreements inside the Trump administration over how much review frontier AI models should face before launch. The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them .
20 May 2026, 21:58
OpenAI Reveals Plans to File for IPO Like Anthropic and SpaceX: WSJ
Sam Altman’s OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file a draft prospectus for an initial public offering as soon as Friday, according to reports citing people familiar with the matter. The move would place the ChatGPT maker among several large technology companies preparing for public listings in 2026. The company is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the planned filing. A public debut could take place later this year, though the schedule may change because the process is still private and subject to market conditions, regulatory review and internal planning. OpenAI is valued at more than $850 billion by private investors, according to the reports. A listing at or near that level would make it one of the largest technology IPOs ever and would give public investors direct exposure to one of the main companies behind the artificial intelligence boom. OpenAI IPO Filing Could Come This Week The confidential filing would allow OpenAI to begin the SEC review process without immediately making its full financial details public. Companies often use confidential filings to prepare for an IPO while assessing investor demand and market conditions. An OpenAI representative said the company regularly evaluates strategic options as part of normal governance and that its focus remains on execution. The company did not confirm a specific IPO date. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar previously said it was good practice for a company of OpenAI’s size to operate with the discipline expected of public companies. She did not give a firm timeline for a listing. The expected filing comes as OpenAI continues to raise large amounts of capital to support model development, computing capacity and data center needs. The company has raised more than $180 billion from investors, according to CNBC, while continuing to spend heavily on infrastructure. Legal Ruling Removes One Barrier The IPO preparations come shortly after OpenAI won a court decision in a case brought by Elon Musk. Musk sued OpenAI, Chief Executive Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, alleging that the company moved away from its original nonprofit mission. An advisory jury in Oakland, California, found that Musk waited too long to bring the claims. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers adopted the verdict. Musk criticized the decision on X and said he plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Microsoft, which had faced an aiding-and-abetting claim in the case, was also cleared of liability. The ruling reduces one legal issue around OpenAI as the company prepares for possible public market scrutiny. OpenAI has grown quickly since launching ChatGPT in 2022. The product helped expand public use of generative AI and pushed major technology companies to increase spending on artificial intelligence tools, chips and cloud infrastructure. SpaceX and Anthropic Add IPO Pressure OpenAI’s IPO planning comes as SpaceX and Anthropic are also preparing for potential public listings. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is expected to disclose its IPO prospectus soon, with Goldman Sachs in the lead left role and Morgan Stanley among the top banks. SpaceX is reportedly targeting a Nasdaq listing under the ticker SPCX. Reports have said the company could seek a valuation between $1.75 trillion and $2 trillion, with a large capital raise tied to Starlink, launch services, and its merger with xAI. Anthropic, the maker of Claude, is also being watched as a possible IPO candidate. The company has been linked to a potential public debut later in 2026 and is reportedly seeking funding at a valuation that could approach $900 billion. Source: X However, prediction market activity also showed traders assigning stronger odds to OpenAI reaching the public market before Anthropic. According to Coinbase data shared on May 20, the reported OpenAI IPO filing news pushed the market-implied chance of OpenAI listing before Anthropic to 85%, while Anthropic’s odds fell to 28%.
20 May 2026, 21:21
GitHub Internal Repos Breached; Binance’s CZ Urges Urgent Key Rotation
Earlier today, hackers gained access to GitHub’s internal repositories by exploiting an employee’s computer with the use of a tainted VS Code extension. Following the incident, reports emerged that a threat actor using the alias TeamPCP was now allegedly selling what they claim is roughly 4,000 of GitHub’s private repositories on a cybercriminal forum, with a minimum asking price of $50,000. What GitHub Says Happened GitHub confirmed the breach through several tweets posted on its X account, where it detailed what it knew thus far. As per the hosting platform, the attacker gained access to its internal repository via a malicious extension of VS Code loaded onto one of the devices of its employees. GitHub claims that once it realized there was an attack, it promptly deleted the malicious software from the infected machine. Critically, it pointed out that there is currently no evidence that customer data held outside its internal systems, meaning individual users’ enterprises, organizations, or repositories, was accessed. The hosting service also confirmed it moved quickly to rotate credentials, moving the highest-impact secrets first. It will also be examining logs to see whether there has been any additional activity, and it will be providing more details on the matter after the investigation concludes. Meanwhile, French researcher Sébastien Latombe flagged a listing on a criminal message board by a threat actor calling themselves “TeamPCP,” claiming to be the one behind the hack, containing mentions of repositories related to GitHub Actions, GitHub Enterprise, GitHub Copilot, Azure, CodeQL, billing, and authentication services. Allegedly, they are not looking to ransom GitHub but want a single buyer for the stolen data, with the minimum asking price being $50,000. However, it must be noted that there has been no official confirmation of the content in the forum listing from GitHub or Microsoft, and any claims made in such cybercriminal sites may be taken with a pinch of salt, as any data they provide in such cases may be out of date or overblown to inflate its perceived value. Security Concerns Spread Through Crypto The reaction online to the breach was swift, with Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) posting a direct message to crypto developers: “If you have API keys in your code, even private repos, now is the time to double check and change them.” The replies painted a familiar picture of an industry-wide problem. Topaz DEX founder Aaron Shames called it “bad practice to have API keys in any repo, private or not,” though he acknowledged the heads-up. Others pointed out that for builders managing hundreds of keys across projects, this is not a simple fix. “This entire practice of key storage needs an update,” wrote digital artist Tuteth_. Security commentator Dhanush Nehru went further: “No one knows what all permissions each VS Code extension owns. The cybersecurity threat landscape is scary.” The timing of this incident also contributed to pre-existing worries about crypto security following multiple high-profile hacks this month, which included an attack on Echo Protocol, where hackers managed to mint $76.7 million worth of eBTC. That particular incident came just days after two other multimillion-dollar attacks were carried out on THORChain and the Verus-Ethereum Bridge. This spate of events has led to renewed debates on the issues of code verification and software supply chain vulnerabilities, where Vitalik Buterin asserts that with the help of AI, formal verification can make software safer by mathematically proving its behavior. The post GitHub Internal Repos Breached; Binance’s CZ Urges Urgent Key Rotation appeared first on CryptoPotato .
20 May 2026, 20:40
Nvidia Q1 Revenue Surpasses Expectations as AI Chip Demand Continues to Surge
BitcoinWorld Nvidia Q1 Revenue Surpasses Expectations as AI Chip Demand Continues to Surge Nvidia (NVDA) reported first-quarter revenue of $81.62 billion on Wednesday, exceeding analyst expectations of $79.19 billion. The better-than-expected results underscore the sustained demand for the company’s AI-focused graphics processing units (GPUs) across cloud providers, enterprise customers, and government contracts. Key Financial Highlights The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker posted revenue growth driven primarily by its Data Center segment, which includes its H100 and Blackwell GPU platforms. While Nvidia did not immediately break out segment-level results in its preliminary release, the overall figure represents a significant year-over-year increase, continuing a multi-quarter trend of outsized growth relative to the broader semiconductor industry. Analysts had projected revenue of $79.19 billion, according to consensus estimates compiled by financial data providers. The actual result of $81.62 billion marks a beat of approximately 3.1%, a margin that, while narrower than some previous quarters, still reflects the company’s dominant position in the AI hardware market. Context and Market Implications Nvidia’s earnings reports have become closely watched macroeconomic indicators, given the company’s central role in powering the generative AI boom. The Q1 results suggest that enterprise and cloud spending on AI infrastructure remains robust, even amid broader concerns about data center capacity, energy costs, and potential oversupply. The revenue beat comes at a time when Nvidia faces increasing competition from AMD, Intel, and a growing number of custom AI chip startups. However, the company’s software ecosystem (CUDA) and its next-generation Blackwell architecture continue to provide competitive moats that rivals have yet to fully replicate. What This Means for Investors and the AI Sector For investors, the earnings beat reinforces the thesis that AI-related capital expenditure remains a top priority for hyperscale cloud providers and large enterprises. Nvidia’s forward guidance, typically provided during the earnings call, will be closely scrutinized for any signs of demand softening or supply chain constraints. From a broader industry perspective, Nvidia’s sustained growth signals that the AI hardware cycle is still in its expansion phase, with potential implications for energy infrastructure, data center real estate, and the broader technology supply chain. Conclusion Nvidia’s Q1 revenue of $81.62 billion, exceeding the $79.19 billion consensus estimate, reinforces the company’s leadership in AI computing. The results highlight continued strong demand for its GPU platforms, even as competition intensifies and market dynamics evolve. Investors and industry observers will now focus on management’s outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year. FAQs Q1: How did Nvidia’s Q1 revenue compare to analyst expectations? A1: Nvidia reported $81.62 billion in Q1 revenue, surpassing the consensus estimate of $79.19 billion by approximately 3.1%. Q2: What drove Nvidia’s revenue growth in Q1? A2: The primary driver was continued strong demand for Nvidia’s AI-focused data center GPUs, including the H100 and newer Blackwell architecture, from cloud providers, enterprises, and government clients. Q3: Why is Nvidia’s earnings report important beyond the company itself? A3: Nvidia’s results are considered a bellwether for the AI industry because its chips power the majority of large-scale AI training and inference workloads. Strong earnings signal sustained investment in AI infrastructure across the technology sector. This post Nvidia Q1 Revenue Surpasses Expectations as AI Chip Demand Continues to Surge first appeared on BitcoinWorld .
20 May 2026, 20:27
Federal Reserve officials pledge to hike interest rates if inflation stays above target
According to Federal Reserve minutes released on Wednesday, officials are predicting that interest rates will go higher if inflation refuses to fall back to the Fed’s 2% target, after fresh data showed prices rising again and markets started treating another hike as a real risk. As Cryptopolitan previously reported, the Fed kept its target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5% to 3.75% on April 30. But pressure came from almost every corner of the economy. The Middle East conflict pushed oil prices higher, lifted near-term inflation expectations, hit shipping costs, raised airfares, and caused price jumps in fertilizer and other commodities. Fed officials keep rates high as inflation data gets worse Officials said inflation had gone up again and stayed above target, and core inflation also stayed too high. Several officials tied the goods-price pressure to tariffs, while others said fuel costs were feeding into shipping and plane tickets. Some also pointed to information technology and software prices, though a few said software costs may not be a good guide for future inflation. “Effective April 30, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee directs the Desk to undertake open market operations as necessary to maintain the federal funds rate in a target range of 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent,” said the Fed. Markets were not betting hard on cuts anymore. Options pricing showed about a 30% chance of a rate hike by the first quarter of 2027. The Desk survey still showed two 25 basis point cuts over the next year, but traders pushed them later, into the third or fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027. “Conduct standing overnight repurchase agreement operations at a rate of 3.75 percent.” The labor market seemed stable, with no signs of overheating. The unemployment rate was at 4.3 percent in March and had been stable for a while, since mid-2025. The Fed commented on an increase in employment in March despite its decline during February due to a strike in the health-care industry and unusually cold weather. Wages increased by 3.5 percent compared to the same month of the previous year; however, that figure was still 0.7 percentage point less than last year. Fed officials renew liquidity tools as new chair Warsh targets the balance sheet On the other hand, the real GDP performance improved in Q1 because of the reduced effects of the government shutdown. Trade had a negative impact since imports were growing faster than exports, driven by high-technology products. The rate of growth in private domestic final purchases, which include both consumer expenditures and private investment, was slightly better compared to its average annual rate. Inflation levels in foreign countries were close to target levels, but in March data showed rising inflation rates due to rising energy prices, as per the Federal Reserve. Foreign central banks maintained their policy stances. According to the Fed, standing overnight reverse repurchase agreements operations would take place at an offering rate of 3.5 percent with a cap of $160 billion daily per counterparty. Money markets stayed calm, as the effective federal funds rate sat 1 basis point below the interest on reserve balances rate. Repo rates stayed close to that same level, with quarter-end and the April tax date did not cause major funding stress. The overnight reverse repo facility saw little use. Standing repo activity was mostly limited to April 15, when tax payments pulled reserves lower. The Fed renewed dollar and foreign currency swap lines with the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, and Swiss National Bank. It also renewed reciprocal currency deals with the Bank of Canada and Bank of Mexico under the North American Framework Agreement of 1994. The Committee approved the Desk’s domestic transactions. There were no foreign currency interventions. “Roll over at auction all principal payments from the Federal Reserve’s holdings of Treasury securities. Reinvest all principal payments from the Federal Reserve’s holdings of agency securities into Treasury bills.” Incoming Federal Reserve chief Kevin Warsh wants a smaller bond portfolio, but that plan may hit limits fast. The Fed’s assets rose from about $800 billion before the 2008 crisis to almost $9 trillion in 2022, then fell to $6.7 trillion after three years of runoff. The balance sheet started growing again after funding stress appeared last December. Kevin said: “As it’s grown its balance sheet, grown its imprimatur on the economy, those with financial assets have benefited. If we were to cut rates, a broader number of people will benefit from it, versus quantitative easing, which tends to move through financial assets first.” If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter .
