| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| This $1.5b AI Company Goes Bankrupt‐Turns Out It Was Never AI… Just 700 Indian Engineers |
| 2025-10-17 |
| [DailyGalaxy] When Builder.ai launched in 2016 with promises to revolutionize app development through artificial intelligence, few questioned its ambitious claims. The company, backed by major investors including Microsoft, presented itself as a technological unicorn: an AI-powered platform capable of building software with minimal human intervention. Its flagship product, Natasha, was marketed as a neural network capable of designing, coding, and deploying apps in record time. For nearly eight years, the story held. Builder.ai attracted over $450 million in funding and reached a peak valuation of $1.5 billion, earning the kind of attention most startups only dream of. Tech outlets celebrated it as a sign of the new AI era—one where machines could take on creative and technical tasks once reserved for human developers. Clients, lured by the promise of speed and efficiency, signed up in droves. But in May 2025, the illusion cracked. Builder.ai quietly announced that it was entering insolvency proceedings, citing “historic challenges and past decisions” that had strained its financial structure. A LinkedIn post from the company thanked employees and customers, but omitted what would soon become public: the AI system that drove its success was not an algorithm at all—it was a network of over 700 engineers, mostly based in India, completing tasks manually behind the scenes. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-10-17 01:23 |