Other investors in the San Francisco-based startup’s Series A round include the venture arms of Nvidia, Intel and Dell Technologies. (The Logic)

Talking point: Prime Intellect is one of a new batch of so-called neolabs that are building frontier AI models to rival those of market leaders Anthropic and OpenAI. Instead of spending huge sums to train an all-powerful system up front, the firm’s approach is to use reinforcement learning—a technique, to simplify greatly, based on getting better by trial and error—so that its technology keeps improving as customers use it. Prime Intellect claims it’s passed US$100 million in annualized revenue, with customers including Nvidia and fintech firm Ramp. “Can a new team actually reach the frontier?” Radical partners Rich Kotite and Aaron Rosenberg asked in a post last month; they cited several examples that the answer is yes. The Toronto-based venture firm has backed several neolabs in large rounds, including Decart, Periodic Labs, Ricursive Intelligence and World Labs.