Technology

➚ MOVE FAST: Shovel. The boom in data centers is boosting construction companies that can build these sophisticated facilities. Chicago firm Clayco announced a special division focused on advanced tech structures as money pours into infrastructure, with Macquarie’s $5 billion investment pledge being one of the latest examples.

➘ BREAK THINGS: Pick. Global watchdogs are continuing their smackdown of the tech industry, including in the last days of the Biden administration. While the next White House may reverse some of those decisions, non-US probes of Google and other firms will continue to put them on defense.

A mammoth funding round. Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering startup looking to bring the dodo bird and woolly mammoth out of extinction, has raised $200 million at a $10.2 billion valuation. The injection came from TWG Global, the investment firm led by Guggenheim Partners chief Mark Walter and media billionaire Thomas Tull.

Colossal’s mission is dual-purposed — to bring extinct species back and use the technologies it develops to aid in conservation. The company is working to create a woolly mammoth by editing found samples of its ancient genes into those of Asian elephant cells. It says it is on track to produce a calf by late 2028.

CEO Ben Lamm built Colossal out of a conversation with geneticist George Church. Lamm was curious about how AI could intersect with computational biology, designing experiments, and genomic software, Lamm told Semafor last year. “Towards the end of the call, I asked him ‘If you had unlimited capital to work on one thing, what would it be?’” Lamm said. Church responded: “I would work to bring back the mammoth and reintroduce it back into the Arctic to help preserve the permafrost. And I’d build technologies to help humans and conservation,” according to Lamm. The two founded Colossal in 2021, and have since raised a total $435 million.

How an unexpected AI breakthrough quintupled Replit’s sales

THE SCENE

Replit has had a turbulent year, but CEO Amjad Masad’s sonorous voice was almost zen-like as he spoke to me on Monday in an airy conference room, sipping coconut water with a view of the sun setting over Foster City, California.

The AI coding company had moved its headquarters out of San Francisco in April, went through layoffs in May, and has seen its headcount cut in half, to about 65 people.

Yet it has grown its revenue five-fold over the past six months, Masad said, thanks to a breakthrough in artificial-intelligence capabilities that enabled a new product called “Agent,” a tool that can write a working software application with nothing but a natural language prompt.

“It was a huge hit,” Masad said. “We launched it in September, and it’s basically the first at-scale working software agent you can try in the world today. And it’s the only one, I would say.”

Replit, which Masad co-founded in 2016, has embraced AI since the beginning, and in recent years it has launched products that automate various aspects of the coding process.

But if you had listened to Masad in recent years, Agent shouldn’t be possible yet. He said at one point it might not be possible this decade. Even as he set up an “agent task force” to develop the product last year, he wasn’t sure if it would work. What changed was a new model from Anthropic, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which achieved a record score on a coding evaluation called SWE-bench in October.

Replit had been building its own models and had been hoping that its proprietary data — which includes every aspect of the coding process, from conception to deployment — might give it an advantage. Suddenly, that was no longer the case.

“I knew all this stuff was coming. I just didn’t think it was going to come this fast,” he said.

That acceleration has implications not just for Replit, but for every industry.

Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence present a transformative opportunity to drive the global energy and climate transition.

Join Ricardo Manuel Falú, AES Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and President of New Energy Technologies, along with Semafor’s Technology Editor, Reed Albergotti, as they explore how AI can enhance mitigation efforts, support adaptation strategies, and develop the infrastructure for a low-carbon future.

Jan. 22, 2025 | Davos, Switzerland | Request Invitation

Quiet storm. Despite the widespread talk about AI, a new study reveals that most people don’t know the digital products they’re using are backed by AI — similar to how one might not know all the ingredients in their takeout dinner. Nearly all Americans use products that contain AI on a weekly basis, but 64% don’t realize it, according to a survey released today by Gallup and AI investor Telescope. The results indicate AI hasn’t permeated the general public as quickly as it has advanced in recent years.

Surveyors asked 4,000 US adults whether they used AI-enabled products in the last week, and separately, which products they used — including Siri, Google Maps, Instagram, Netflix, and eBay. Only one-third acknowledged engaging with AI, despite 99% saying they accessed at least one of these AI-enabled apps and websites.

Most respondents recognized that personal assistants like Siri and Alexa use the technology, but that’s less the case for weather apps, map providers, and streaming services. Even as businesses shout their work towards AGI to shareholders and the media (hello there), the less snazzy AI capabilities — algorithms, predictive analytics, advertising optimization — are quietly infiltrating every product Americans use.

Whack-a-troll. A US ban is looming for TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, but the platform’s users have another trick up their sleeve. In what some have called “trolling the US government,” American TikTokers have flocked to another social-media service with even closer ties to China. Xiaohongshu — which translates to “little red book” and is pronounced “Shau-hong-shoo” — became Apple’s top free downloaded app this week. Lemon8, the social platform also connected to ByteDance, follows.

The online migration represents a rare meeting of American and Chinese cultures. Americans are taking an interest in speaking Mandarin, Chinese users are asking for help with their English homework, and individuals are explaining how their societies work. But the retaliation also forces US officials to further define their priorities in outlawing TikTok, which by Sunday must break from its Chinese parent or face a US ban, though it’s unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will intervene. The statute exiling TikTok and any affiliate of ByteDance over security concerns doesn’t specifically mention Xiaohongshu, but it does allow broad enforcement against other foreign adversary-controlled platforms — which could set up a nasty game of whack-a-mole for officials trying to curb Americans’ app usage.

The wildfires that are sweeping Los Angeles may accelerate the flight of home insurance companies, in spite of recent regulatory changes aimed at retaining them, the state’s previous top insurance official told Semafor’s Tim McDonnell.

For California to experience fires like these “was never a question of if, it was a question of when,” the official said.