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  KEY POINTS Meta has trained and will release a new large language model to researchers, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday. Meta’s release of its new model comes as large tech companies and well-capitalized startups alike race to tout advances in artificial intelligence techniques and integrate the technology into commercial products. In this article META -0.39 (-0.23%) Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, in July 2021. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images Meta  has trained and will release a new large language model to researchers, CEO Mark Zuckerberg  announced  on Friday. The model,  called LLaMA , is intended to help scientists and engineers explore applications for AI such as answering questions and summarizing documents. Meta’s release of its new model, which was developed by its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team, comes as large tech companies and well-capitalized startups alike race to tout ad

  KEY POINTS BlockFi’s first bankruptcy hearing in New Jersey kicked off on Tuesday, with lawyers emphasizing the crypto lender’s strong corporate controls and customer prioritization. The company loaned over $670 million to Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Lawyers from Kirkland and Ellis told the court that a central objective was to “maximize client recoveries.” In this photo illustration, the BlockFi logo seen displayed on a smartphone. Rafael Henrique | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images BlockFi plans to reopen withdrawals as part of an effort to “maximize client recoveries,” the crypto lender’s lawyers said at a court hearing Tuesday, a day after the firm  filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . BlockFi’s lawyers at that hearing expressed optimism that the firm is in good position to restructure and salvage the business through the bankruptcy process. “We want to make sure we get people back as much of their value as quick as we can,” said Josh Su

  Image Credits:  Wire More funding for European end-to-end encrypted messaging app,  Wire : The enterprise-focused messaging platform told TechCrunch it closed a €24 million Series C round of funding led by growth equity firm Cipio Partners and Iconical, the investment vehicle of Skype co-founder Janus Friis. Existing investor UVC Partners also participating, among other returning backers. The messaging tool — which launched  almost a decade ago  — was originally conceived as a fresh take on secure consumer comms, drawing on certain connections to Skype (including early backing from Friis). But with increasingly fierce competition in the consumer space, from the likes of WhatsApp and Signal (and other E2EE messaging apps), the team pivoted focus to the B2B market — a move that caused a bit of  consternation among certain privacy advocates  when it emerged, back in 2019, that Wire had taken in its first ever tranche of VC funding and moved its holding company from Europe to the U.S. (T

  Image Credits:  Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window) Welcome to The  TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the  daily TechCrunch+ column  where it gets its name.  Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up  here . With all eyes on Taiwan and worries mounting around semiconductor supply, the U.S. CHIPS Act is particularly timely. But it is not unique: Other countries similarly aspire to reduce their reliance on imported chips. Let’s explore.  —  Anna From cheap as chips to billion-dollar incentives U.S. president Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 into law earlier this week after the bill received broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate. The H and I in CHIPS stand for “Helpful Incentives,” hinting at the main component of the initiative: $52.7 billion in public subsidies.

  Image Credits:  Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window) Welcome to The  TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the  daily TechCrunch+ column  where it gets its name.  Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up  here . Reading recently about Germany’s  € 30 billion plan for its startups, I was intrigued. Did the country start to envy La French Tech? Is it hoping to rival post-Brexit U.K.? Perhaps both, but it also has a national goal — making sure that profits from homegrown successes stay home. Let’s explore. —  Anna Second, third, or eighteenth? European startups have been  weathering the venture capital downturn  quite well, and funding declined only slightly in the second quarter compared to the first three months of 2022. German startups, however, had it worse: According to  EY , they collectively attracted 20% less capital in the first half of 2022 than during the same period last year. This includes private equity, but venture capital d