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LMU Receives $25 Million from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation in Support of New Engineering Innovation Complex

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LOS ANGELES, June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation has set the pace of fundraising for LMU’s new Engineering Innovation Complex (EIC), a planned capital expansion for the LMU Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering, with a $25 million matching gift. The gift is the largest capital gift in university history, as well as the largest gift from a living donor.

“The LMU of today would not be possible without the Leavey family’s enduring partnership,” said LMU President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D. “Indeed, the Leaveys are in our DNA. Throughout the decades, LMU has flourished, thanks to their continued generosity and support. Shaping the future requires a rigorous commitment to anticipating and addressing the yet-to-be-known, the seemingly impossible. This is more than a gift; this is a testament to our shared values and bold vision for igniting a brighter world.”

View President Snyder’s video announcement.

With best-in-class facilities for research, learning, and discovery, the EIC will expand the university’s leadership in STEM education, helping to accelerate new technologies and scientific advances. The Leavey Foundation’s gift will match new commitments to the EIC from donors on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to $25 million. In recognition of their generosity, a key portion of the complex will be named the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey STEM Center and will provide essential classrooms, laboratories, offices, and community spaces designed to inspire interdisciplinary exploration in STEM for faculty and staff.

“This is an inspiring gift from a family who has been a partner to LMU for more than 80 years,” said Peter Wilch, senior vice president for University Advancement. Wilch emphasized that Leavey Foundation founder Thomas E. Leavey was a member of the Marymount College Regents and the family’s involvement continued with two LMU Board of Trustee members, foundation Trustee Kathleen McCarthy Kostlan for more than 30 years, and foundation Trustee Kathleen Duncan, currently serving her second term. “The family’s unwavering commitment to the university, exemplified today by this generous matching challenge from the foundation, positions us for greater strides in STEM innovation for generations to come. We are incredibly grateful to the family for their longstanding support and important step forward for Seaver College.”

The EIC will be an innovation hub where multi-disciplinary teams within the university will work together on a scale greater than previously possible on campus. In addition to housing classes in engineering, computer science, physics, and health care systems engineering, the facility will support interdisciplinary research programs that are a hallmark of integrative scholarship. Collaborative spaces for learning, research, advanced maker spaces, teaching laboratories, and community spaces will enable Seaver College students and faculty to work with others dedicated to innovation in STEM both within and beyond the university, particularly among LMU’s neighbor institutions along Southern California’s technology corridor.

“The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation is happy to support LMU’s longstanding leadership in making STEM education accessible to a broad range of students,” said Duncan, trustee of the foundation and a member of the LMU Board of Trustees. “As the world faces ever more complex challenges, we look to STEM innovation to find creative, sustainable solutions. It is our hope that this matching grant will inspire waves of giving that will enable LMU to reach its campaign goals for this transformational capital project.”

Spanning across two buildings, the EIC will use modern architectural touchstones that build for the future with a focus on flexibility and sustainability. A module-based layout will provide the flexibility to reconfigure teaching and research spaces to respond to both changing needs and opportunities for specialized hubs that address key areas for investigation.

“The EIC will open exciting new avenues of collaboration and experimentation for our students and faculty, helping to spur important achievements in STEM,” said Tina Choe, dean of Seaver College. “As we work toward making the new complex a reality, I am both grateful and inspired to have the support of visionary donors like the Leavey Foundation who are deeply aligned with our mission and share in our vision for the future.”

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SOURCE Loyola Marymount University

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CHAI, the Social AI Platform, on Track to Hit $1.4B Valuation in 2026

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CHAI, a fast-rising AI startup in Palo Alto, is rapidly emerging as the next unicorn with explosive revenue growth of 250%, surpassing industry leaders like Databricks (127%), SpaceX (139%), and Anthropic (220%). With a last valuation of $450 million more than a year ago, CHAI is on track to achieve a $1.4 billion valuation by 2026, driven by projected 30X revenue multiples—a benchmark set by top-tier Silicon Valley disruptors.

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — CHAI, a fast-rising AI startup in Palo Alto, is rapidly emerging as the next unicorn with explosive revenue growth of 250%, surpassing industry leaders like Databricks (127%), SpaceX (139%), and Anthropic (220%). With a last valuation of $450 million more than a year ago, CHAI is on track to achieve a $1.4 billion valuation by 2026, driven by projected 30X revenue multiples—a benchmark set by top-tier Silicon Valley disruptors.

With a valuation of $450 million 16 months ago, CHAI is experiencing explosive revenue growth of 250%, surpassing high-profile companies including Anthropic (220%), Midjourney (167%), SpaceX (139%), and Databricks (127%). With 2024 revenue of $18 million and projections to reach or even surpass $45 million by the end of 2025, CHAI’s trajectory places it among the elite tier of tech innovators.

Industry analysts tracking CHAI’s meteoric rise predict revenue multiples of 30X to 32X by 2026, potentially driving the company’s valuation to approximately $1.4 billion. This remarkable growth rate exceeds some of today’s most valuable startups, including Anthropic and SpaceX.

While CHAI doesn’t have plan to start it’s next fund raising round, investors and industry observers are taking note of its extraordinary performance metrics, positioning the company as the next breakthrough success in Silicon Valley’s competitive landscape.

Was CHAI the first AI Platform? CHAI was the first consumer AI product to reach 1 million users, leveraging the open-sourced LLM GPT-J, before ChatGPT or Llama.

What is CHAI? CHAI is a social AI platform where users can create their own AI. Since its launch three years ago, CHAI has experienced significant growth, particularly among Gen Z users. Now, to support further growth and wider adoption, CHAI has redesigned its brand.

Can you use CHAI AI in a browser? As of March 2025, no. CHAI is focused on delivering the most engaging social AI experience by hiring talented engineers to refine its app. While there are currently no plans for a web app, this may change in the future.

Is CHAI AI safe? CHAI has implemented a range of safety features that allow users to engage in dynamic chats while encouraging them to stay within established guidelines. By building better AI, CHAI aims to enhance user value and experience.

What makes CHAI special? CHAI is designed to be the most engaging social AI, delivering highly entertaining conversations. Many users rely on it to craft interactive stories and immersive experiences.

Why do people love CHAI? CHAI employs advanced AI techniques to increase the entertainment value of its bots. Users chat with AI to write interactive novels and have engaging conversations, supported by a variety of genres that appeal to avid novel readers.

Sometimes regarded as the best free AI chatbot, CHAI is paving its way to widespread adoption of conversational social AI for entertainment.

Who is the founder? William Beauchamp is a 2x founder, first started building CHAI with his sister in Cambridge UK in 2020. After building the first AI chat platform they relocated to Palo Alto.

Are they hiring? CHAI is a rapidly growing company that is known for paying very high salaries with an intense culture focused on delivering results and iterating quickly. Apply on CHAI’s website.

Press Contact:

Tom Lu
+1 (626) 594-8966
https://www.chai-research.com/

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SOURCE Chai Research Corp

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GMI Cloud Scales Up With New HQ in Mountain View, CA

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GMI Cloud deepens existing Silicon Valley roots, prioritizing collaboration with leading AI innovators 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — GMI Cloud, a fast-rising provider of GPU-as-a-Service infrastructure purpose-built for AI, today is proud to announce it has moved its headquarters from San Jose, CA to Mountain View, CA to provide more open space for its growing team and the local growing AI native startup community. From hackathons, meetups, technology industry events and more, the closer proximity to top universities and colleges will help GMI Cloud continue to foster the rapid growth of AI throughout Silicon Valley and on a global level.

The new office comes amid strong momentum for GMI Cloud. Since its funding announcement last year, the company has grown exponentially in customers and partnerships, increasing AI development all over the world. However, GMI Cloud has been a global company since day one, with data centers in Taiwan, Malaysia, Mexico, and the U.S. Its global data center network makes it uniquely able to provide flexible, cost-effective computing solutions without the disruption of geopolitical changes. Customers can scale their AI capabilities without unexpected cost surprises. This new office signifies its commitment to AI innovators in Silicon Valley and beyond.

“Bringing GMI Cloud to Mountain View allows for employees to enjoy what the local community has to offer while keeping us in the epicenter of Silicon Valley,” said Alex Yeh, CEO of GMI Cloud. “We are accelerating quickly and we find it incredibly valuable to have the right home base to host our partners, customers, and employees.”

For more information about GMI Cloud and hiring opportunities, visit www.gmicloud.ai.

About GMI Cloud
GMI Cloud is a global company that delivers full-stack, U.S.-based GPU infrastructure and enterprise-grade inference services built to scale AI products. Whether training foundation models or deploying real-time agents, GMI gives teams full control of performance, costs, and launch velocity. With on-demand and reserved GPU clusters for all workloads and projects, GMI helps AI teams build without limits. GMI Cloud is based in Mountain View, CA.

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SOURCE GMI Cloud

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STL reports FY25 results; well-positioned to unlock growth

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Reports EBITDA of INR 146 Cr, highest in the last six quarters; 31% QoQ growth

MUMBAI, India, May 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — STL (NSE: STLTECH), a leading optical and digital solutions company, today announced its financial results for the year ended 31 March, 2025. The Company reported revenues of INR 1052 Cr for the quarter and INR 3996 Cr for FY25 across its business units – Optical Networking and Digital. STL delivered EBITDA margins of 13.8% and EBITDA of INR 146 Cr, highest in the last six quarters.

With a focus on customer centricity, product innovation, and cost leadership, STL continues to be a partner of choice for the global Digital Infrastructure build. As we navigate evolving tariff dynamics, we remain focused on leveraging our global manufacturing footprint in the U.S., Europe, and India and diversified supplier partnerships to drive company performance. 

In Q4 FY25, Optical Networking Business reported a 26% revenue growth and 110% EBITDA as compared to Q4 FY24. This was driven by accelerating momentum in the Enterprise Connectivity and Data Centre Business and a ~22% attach rate in the Optical Connectivity Business (OC). Enterprise and Data Centre Business has seen robust demand in Europe and India as STL supported key players in these regions to expand their end customer connectivity solutions.

STL Digital – Achieved EBITDA positive for consecutive 2 quarters with a steady YoY revenue growth and a robust order book. STL Digital has strategic partnerships with 40+ technology companies and has acquired more than 25 global customers across India and the U.S.

Some key highlights for FY25

Global Services Business* – STL completed the demerger of its Global Services Business that transitioned from Sterlite Technologies (STL) to STL Networks Limited under the brand name ‘Invenia.’Our marquee wins – STL added diversified customers across geographies, forming deep partnerships with service providers like Archtop Fiber in the U.S., Connexin, Netomnia and Wyre in the UK and Europe, Vocus in Australia, du Telecom in MEA and Bharatnet and Vedanta in India.Product innovation and co-creation with customers – STL has aggressively driven product innovation, focusing on co-creation with customers and next-gen optical solutions with development of ultra-thin optical fibre of 160-micron, 180-micron and 864F Microcables, AI-led data centre solutions, Multi-core fibre (MCF) for quantum communications and silicon photonics, and Optical Connectivity portfolio for the U.S. STL also unveiled Rapid series of Optical products, compliant with the ‘Build America, Buy America’ (BABA) regulations. STL ended the year with a patent count of 740 with 76 new patents filed in FY25.Our Net Debt: Equity has improved to 0.68 times against 1.39 times post demerger and Post QIP (YoY).

“FY25 was marked by resilience and customer-focus. By doubling down on our core priorities—Customer and Cost Leadership—we not only sustained momentum but also laid the groundwork for future growth. The strengthening order pipeline and customer engagements signal a promising shift in market dynamics,” remarked Ankit Agarwal, Managing Director, STL. “The trifecta of AI-ready infrastructure, rural fiberisation, and data centre expansion will be the cornerstone of global digitalisation, and we’re are fully prepared with our extensive Connectivity solutions,” he added.

Financial highlights (INR Cr)

Financials**

INR Cr

FY25

FY24

Q4FY25

Q4FY24

Revenue

3996

4083

1052

843

EBITDA

452

527

146

44

**All financials are from continued operations

*Pursuant to receipt of necessary statutory approvals and in accordance with the Scheme of Arrangement between STL and STL Networks Limited, the Company has demerged its Global Service business effective March 31, 2025, as approved by NCLT. Consequently, the financial results of the Global Service business for the respective quarters and year ended March 31, 2025 and March 31, 2024 have been presented as discontinued operations to reflect the impact of this demerger.

About STL – Sterlite Technologies Ltd:

STL is a leading global optical and digital solutions company providing advanced offerings to build 5G, Rural, FTTx, Enterprise and Data Centre networks. Read more, Contact usstl.tech | Twitter | LinkedInYouTube

For more information, contact:
Media Relations:
Shaily Rai Sinha
stl.communications@stl.tech

Investor Relations
Ajay Jhanjhari 
investor@stl.tech

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2259921/4968402/STL_Logo.jpg

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/stl-reports-fy25-results-well-positioned-to-unlock-growth-302457858.html

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