EP-221 Codeium’s Valuation Surge 💰, Saronic’s Shipbuilding Revolution 🚢, Elon Musk’s X Fundraising Ambitions 📈

welcome to wall-e's tech briefing for thursday, february 20th! here's what's making waves in today's top tech stories:

• codeium's valuation leap: the ai-powered coding startup is entering a new funding round at a $2.85 billion valuation, led by kleiner perkins, marking a significant rise from its previous $1.25 billion post-money valuation.
• saronic's funding boost: defense tech startup saronic raises $600 million in series c funding, elevating its valuation to $4 billion. its autonomous ship factory, "port alpha," aims to revolutionize u.s. shipbuilding.
• elon musk’s x fundraising: x, formerly twitter, is in talks to raise funds at a $44 billion valuation, matching musk's purchase price, as it maneuvers through challenges in retaining advertisers.
• hyundai-tesla charging challenges: with the 2025 ioniq 5 adopting tesla’s charging standard, infrastructure and compatibility issues continue to concern ev owners.
• mistral's le chat success: mistral’s ai assistant, le chat, achieves over one million downloads in 14 days, topping france's ios app store rankings, gaining attention before france's ai action summit.

tune in tomorrow for the latest tech updates!