Silicon and lidar and AI, oh my!

Announcements around these topics headlined Rivian’s first “Autonomy and AI Day” in Palo Alto on Thursday, where executives highlighted a slew of tech advancements the EV startup is slated to roll out in the near future.

Let the chips fall: Rivian execs announced the development of custom silicon that will underpin its next-generation autonomy platform and that they said would deliver cost, performance, and speed benefits.

“Our updated hardware platform, which includes our in-house 1600 sparse TOPS inference chip, will enable us to achieve dramatic progress in self-driving to ultimately deliver on our goal of delivering L4,” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement.

Execs unveiled what they’re calling the Rivian Autonomy Processor, or RAP1, described in a news release as “a custom 5nm processor that integrates processing and memory onto a single multi-chip module.” The RAP1 will support Rivian’s third-gen autonomy computer, dubbed ACM3, which the company said will have the power to process 5 billion pixels per second.

The company plans to roll out the new third-gen autonomy hardware in R2 models beginning in late 2026.

“With our in-house silicon development, we’re able to start our software development almost a year ahead of what we can do with supplier silicon,” Vidya Rajagopalan, Rivian’s SVP of electrical hardware, said during a livestream of the event.

Keep reading here.—JG

As energy prices continue to increase, keeping costs down is top of mind when buying or renting commercial space.

A new survey from the National Association of Realtors found that businesses are focused on energy efficiency when purchasing or leasing commercial property. The responses came from over 2,000 realtors, more than half of whom reported that promoting a building’s energy efficiency is valuable when listing it. Similarly, a third of realtors said green building certifications increased commercial property value.

While 70% of respondents said clients found utility and operations costs to be important considerations, only 27% said clients were focused on renewable energy systems such as solar and geothermal. Even still, 35% of realtors said it was important to understand how solar panels impact a real-estate transaction. Behind-the-meter solar infrastructure that directly powers buildings can lower utility bills, as can net metering, and proper insulation prevents heat or cooling loss.

In a recent House hearing on energy efficiency, hearing witness Kara Saul Rinaldi, chief policy officer of the Building Performance Association, said that energy efficiency can guarantee building longevity and support the grid.

“Energy efficiency in buildings and appliances lowers costs for families and businesses,” Rinaldi said during the hearing. “Advancing energy efficiency across the US reduces demand on our energy system.”

Keep reading here.—TC

With all eyes on earnings from Big Tech’s varsity squad (Google, Meta, Amazon, Nvidia) in October and November, focus has now shifted to the JV team of enterprise software companies: Box, Okta, Salesforce, and Snowflake.

While these B2B tech companies may not have the same brand recognition as the Magnificent Seven, how they perform can still tell us a lot about tech’s economic landscape. And they all beat expectations.

As the senior team is building (and making bank from) AI infrastructure, these enterprise tech companies are now figuring out how to fully integrate AI agents into their own software, as reflected in their Q3 earnings.

Okta outlook. The cybersecurity and single sign-on provider beat Wall Street’s third quarter expectations with revenue of $742 million, beating the predicted $730 million. Its adjusted earnings per share jumped to $0.82 over the expected $0.76. But despite these numbers, shares fell because of the company’s lack of guidance on the upcoming fiscal year.

Okta CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that the company’s AI offerings and revenue haven’t been fully incorporated into the results.

Analysts from JPMorgan said in a report released after its call that they “remain positive on Okta’s positioning to capture the agentic identity opportunity with improving sales execution.”

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—JK