Tech5: Blue Ghost lands on the Moon, Anthropic valued at $61.5 billion, Coforge bags $1.56 billion order, and more

He started with a BE degree in computer science and engineering from Chennai and went to earn his PhD in Amsterdam, according to his LinkedIn profile. After a three-year stint at IBM, Sivasubramanian’s worked at Amazon for close to 20 years and he’s a member of the US government’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee.

Anthropic’s latest funding round values it at $61.5 billion

Anthropic has raised $3.5 billion at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation, the US AI venture said in a post on March 3. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Jane Street, Menlo Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, among other new and existing investors.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei with five other former employees of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. The funding announcement follows the launch of Anthropic’s AI models Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude Code. The company said its customers include other fast-growing startups such as Cursor and Codeium as well as global corporations such as Zoom, Snowflake and Pfizer.

Coforge bags $1.56 billion contract from travel tech company Sabre

Coforge Limited has won a contract from Sabre Corp, a leading travel technology company in the US, the Indian IT services provider said in a stock exchange filing on March 4. The 13-year contract is valued at $1.56 billion and one of the largest that Noida-based Coforge has won by total contract value.

Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, Sabre is the largest global distribution systems (GDS) provider for air bookings, connecting travel suppliers such as airlines and hotels with travel sellers such as booking agencies. The company, started by American Airlines in 1960, was spun off as an independent entity in the year 2000.

Sabre is an existing customer of Coforge and this latest contract is a new agreement. The engagement will help Sabre step up the pace of product development and delivery, according to the filing.

S&T Minister Jitendra Singh reiterates 100 GW nuclear power target

Nuclear energy will play an important role in advancing India’s Net Zero efforts, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said in a post-budget webinar organized by NITI Aayog, according to a ministry press release.

The minister, who is also in charge of Earth Sciences, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, noted that the budget for fiscal year 2024-25 set a target of achieving 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047. Today, India generates only 8.2 GW of nuclear power, or less than 2 percent of India’s total electricity generation.

“Opening up the nuclear sector will send a strong policy signal to industry players, boosting investor confidence and encouraging long-term investments,” the minister noted. He also announced the launch of a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) R&D Mission, with the objective of developing five SMRs by 2033.