Fireworks AI raised $52 million to expand its artificial intelligence product.
The investment values the 2-year-old firm at $552 million, according to a Monday (July 8) company blog post. The company helps businesses access multiple AI models.
“Unlike proprietary mega models that are generic, non-private, and hard to customize, Fireworks AI provides smaller, production-grade models that can be deployed privately and securely,” CEO Lin Qiao wrote in the post. “Using minimal human-curated data, our ultra-fast LoRA fine-tuning allows developers to quickly customize models to their specific needs, transitioning from dataset preparation to querying a fine-tuned model in minutes. These fine-tuned models are seamlessly deployed, maintaining the same performance and cost benefits as our base models.”
Developers at AI startups such as Cresta, Cursor and Liner have used Fireworks’ AI models, as have tech companies including DoorDash, Quora and Upwork, the post said.
In an interview with Bloomberg Thursday (July 11), Qiao said the industry is heading to a place where using a mix of AI systems becomes the norm.
“A single model is not enough to solve business problems,” she said, per the report, noting that Fireworks focuses on smaller and open-source models designed to handle specific business needs and are simpler to use and customize.
“We want to use the funding to make a big shift toward a compound AI system that can orchestrate across multiple single models,” she added. The AI tools could then access, for example, “my personal calendars or personal to-do list, and view the totality of the great application experience.”
Fireworks’ funding round — which included participation by Nvidia — is happening as tech firms continue to invest in the AI sector and in the technology itself.
For example, PYMNTS wrote Thursday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, saw a 32% year-over-year increase in revenue, highlighting the growing demand for AI chips.
“As AI continues to reshape the tech landscape, TSMC’s ability to meet the demanding requirements of AI chip design will be crucial,” the report said. “The coming quarters will be telling as the industry watches to see if TSMC can maintain this growth trajectory and how it balances the needs of its diverse customer base.”
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Corporate delinquencies are reportedly at the highest rate they’ve reached in eight years.
The delinquency rate for loans from U.S. banks to both U.S. and foreign companies rose to 1.3% at the end of 2024, a figure that was the highest since the first quarter of 2017 but well below the 5% seen during the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Times (FT) reported Monday (Feb. 17), citing data from BankRegData.
The total amount of bank debt on which U.S. business borrowers were at least one month late reached $28 billion, up $2.2 billion from three months earlier and up $5.4 billion from a year earlier, according to the report.
The report attributed the rise to interest rates that remain high, surprising some observers who expected them to fall this year. A pickup in inflation in January and concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs have delayed further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, the report said.
Corporate bank loans tend to be variable rate, so the expected decline in interest rates would have given some relief to borrowers, the report said.
The data from BankRegData does not include loans from direct lenders and private credit funds, per the report.
It was reported in January that the growth in commercial bank loans was at the slowest it’s been since the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Commercial bank loans grew by around 2.7% in 2024, which was only somewhat faster than the 2.3% rise seen in 2023.
A number of bankers said they hoped to see loan growth later this year, citing optimism among clients and other indicators.
Bank of America said during a January earnings call that commercial loans were up 5% year over year in the fourth quarter and that loan and deposit growth in the current year should outpace last year’s.
J.P. Morgan Chase said during a January earnings call that there has been improvement in business sentiment and that balance sheets at small businesses are healthy.
Citi CEO Jane Fraser said during a January earnings call that in the United States, “growth is not only being driven by the higher-end consumer but also by a strong and innovative corporate sector.”