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Plateau: Over 20 Communities in Jos Without Electricity for Weeks

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Residents of Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, have been enduring weeks of darkness as approximately 20 communities remain without electricity due to frequent acts of vandalism by thieves. The affected areas include Kangang 2 transformers, Nyango 1 transformer, Fwagul Angwan 2 Transformers, Wyit community behind Total Filling station in Bukuru, and Bwangdang Bukuru.

Among the other affected communities are Kwata Za’ang, the community opposite Police Staff College, Raku sot in Gyel, Fwavwei in Rayfield, Longwa in Kufang, Abattoir (now fixed), Diye in Zaramaganda (around Nevic Gas), Diye around Shuna Academy, Kuru Trade Centre, Rukuba Road, Heipang, Kukun community in Dahwol Dangwom, and Rahwol Kanang (Angwan Doki).

Victor Pam, a resident of New Abuja, expressed frustration over the recurring theft of transformers in the past six months. Each time the transformer is repaired through community contributions, it is vandalized again within a month. The continuous cycle of theft has left the entire community in darkness, and residents are exhausted from the financial burden of fixing transformers.

Joshua Fidelis, another resident, raised concerns about the silence of the Electricity Distribution Company, suspecting that their lack of action may be deliberate to extort money from the affected communities.

Mrs. Mary Sam, a resident of Kufang, shared her frustration, pointing out the unfairness of having to endure a prolonged lack of electricity and then being forced to raise up to 1 million Naira for transformer repairs. The Electricity Workers seem unresponsive to the situation unless the communities themselves raise funds for the necessary repairs.

The Head, Corporate Communications of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), Dr Friday Elijah, who confirmed the incidents, said the company was getting frustrated by the activities of vandals.

The prolonged blackout has taken a toll on the affected communities, hampering daily activities, and causing inconvenience to residents. The residents are calling for urgent action from the authorities and the Electricity Distribution Company to address the issue of vandalism and restore electricity to their communities.

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New leaders, new fund: Sequoia has raised $7B to expand its AI bets

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Few venture firms have bet more aggressively on AI than Sequoia Capital, and it isn’t slowing down.

The Silicon Valley stalwart has raised roughly $7 billion for a new fund, according to Bloomberg. Sequoia declined TechCrunch’s request for comment. The money will go toward what the firm calls its “expansion strategy” — essentially its late-stage investing arm, focused on the U.S. and Europe — and it’s nearly double Sequoia’s last comparable fund, a $3.4 billion vehicle raised in 2022.

That growth in fund size reflects something bigger: late-stage investing has taken on an entirely new meaning in the AI era. Companies can now scale at a speed and cost that would have been unimaginable a decade ago, and the firms backing them have to keep pace.

The money signals where Sequoia sees the future: deeply embedded in AI, from the giants building the underlying technology to the startups putting it to work. The firm has backed two of the most prominent players in the AI race — OpenAI originally and, more recently, Anthropic — both of which are reportedly eyeing public listings in 2026. The development that could mean a significant payday for the firm.

Sequoia isn’t only swinging for the foundational AI heavyweights, however. It has also placed bets on other buzzy startups, including Physical Intelligence, the Bay Area robotics startup, and Factory, which builds AI agents for enterprise engineering teams.

The fundraise is also the first major capital raise under Sequoia’s new leadership, with Alfred Lin and Pat Grady now serving as co-stewards of the 54-year-old firm.

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Factory hits $1.5B valuation to build AI coding for enterprises

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More than three years after the emergence of generative AI, AI-assisted coding remains by far the most popular and lucrative use case for the technology.

Although multiple companies — including Anthropic, maker of Claude Code, as well as Cursor and Cognition — are already vying for dominance, investors believe there is room for at least one more player.

On Wednesday, Factory, a startup developing AI agents for enterprise engineering teams, announced it had raised $150 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, and Blackstone. Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures, joined the startup’s board.

Factory founder Matan Grinberg told the Wall Street Journal that the company’s key differentiator is its ability to switch between different foundation models, such as Anthropic’s Claude or Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. However, startups like Cursor also don’t rely on a single model to generate code.

Factory’s customers include engineering teams at Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, and Palo Alto Networks.

The startup was founded in 2023 after Grinberg, then a PhD student at UC Berkeley, cold-emailed Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire. The two bonded over mutual academic interest. (Maguire’s PhD from Caltech is in the same area of physics Grinberg was studying.)

Maguire convinced Grinberg to drop out and launch Factory, with Sequoia backing the startup at the seed stage.

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