Tech5: Tata, Airtel To Merge DTH Ops, Apple Has $500 Bln US Plan, Anthropic Seeks $3.5 Bln Funding – Forbes India

N Chandrasekaran, Executive Chairman, Tata Sons; and Sunil Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharati Enterprises

Tata, Airtel in talks to merge DTH businesses

Tata Group and Bharti Airtel, India’s second-biggest wireless provider, are finalising a merger of their loss-making DTH businesses, Tata Play and Airtel Digital TV, Economic Times reported on February 25, citing sources. The deal, structured as a share swap, will allow Bharti Airtel to hold a majority stake of over 50 percent, enhancing its non-mobile revenues through convergence.

Tata Play, India’s largest DTH provider, offers Airtel access to 19 million homes, boosting its ‘triple play’ strategy. This move comes amid a shift in consumer preferences to digital platforms. The merger marks the second major DTH consolidation in a decade, following the 2016 Dish TV-Videocon deal, and aligns with larger media industry shifts.

Mphasis, Hexaware, global PE firms in race to buy SLK Software

Mphasis, Hexaware Technologies, Altimetrik (owned by TPG Capital), and ChrysCapital have shown interest in acquiring a majority stake in Bengaluru-based SLK Software, Economic Times reported on February 25, citing sources. The potential buyers have submitted non-binding bids ranging from Rs 4,700 crore to Rs 5,600 crore ($550-650 million).

SLK Software, valued at $800 million by its promoters, focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and analytics for sectors like manufacturing, banking, and insurance. It has offices in seven countries, including India and the US. The company, managed by the Amin family, is expected to post an Ebitda of $40 million for FY25. Avendus is handling the sale process.

Apple to invest $500 billion, create 20,000 US jobs over four years

Apple has announced it will invest $500 billion in the US over the next four years, including a new AI server factory in Texas and 20,000 additional R&D jobs nationwide. This commitment follows reports of CEO Tim Cook’s meeting with US President Donald Trump and aims to mitigate the impact of potential tariffs on Apple products assembled in China, Reuters reported on February 24.

The investment also encompasses spending on US suppliers like Corning and Apple TV+ content. Analysts note this pledge appears politically motivated, with Apple previously committing $350 billion during Trump’s first term.

Bessemer, Lightspeed may back $3.5 bln Anthropic round

AI startup Anthropic is seeking $3.5 billion in a funding round, potentially valuing it at $61.5 billion, Reuters reported on February 2, citing sources. Venture capital (VC) firms Lightspeed, General Catalyst, and Bessemer may back the Claude chatbot maker. This round surpasses the $2 billion previously raised, according to Reuters. Nearly half of all funding in the US last year went to AI startups.

Anthropic, valued at $18 billion last year, was co-founded by former OpenAI executives. OpenAI itself is in talks for a $300 billion valuation round. On February 24 Anthropic also launched its advanced AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, for faster responses and detailed reasoning, aiming to stay competitive in the generative AI sector.

Lambda, deep learning cloud provider, raises $480 million

Lambda, a San Francisco-based provider of deep learning cloud infrastructure, has raised $480 million in a Series D round co-led by Andra Capital and SGW, with participation from notable investors like Andrej Karpathy, ARK Invest, Nvidia, and others.

This funding will accelerate Lambda’s cloud platform expansion, enhancing both infrastructure and software for AI developers to train and deploy models more efficiently, co-founder Stephen Balaban wrote in a company blog post on February 19. The company aims to scale GPU deployment and develop new AI tools, including Lambda Chat. Balaban highlights the dual forces of open-source models and enhanced inference reasoning, democratising AI. The firm envisions a future where AI is universally accessible, empowering individuals with powerful GPUs for daily use.