WHAT’S INSIDE

Lovable Open Deal, Yann LeCun's World Model Startup, World Labs Launch, Altman’s Exowatt, Polymarket POLY in US, xAI $15B Raise, + Gamma, CHAOS, d-Matrix Rounds

• Big Movers: The Big tech movers, shakers and partnerships this week

• Making Waves: Companies making a buzz in the Tech world

• Open Deals: Startups raising capital this week

• In The Money: Significant raises last week and why they matter

• Exit Watching: Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

• The Funding Buzz: VC & PE Activity To Watch

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BIG MOVERS

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

OpenAI — Paid Microsoft $493.8M in 2024, increasing to $865.8M in early 2025. Despite projected revenues exceeding $20B, rising inference costs to $8.65B may pose financial challenges, raising sustainability concerns in the AI sector.

Google — Launched Deep Research for AI web browsing and report synthesis in NotebookLM, upgraded Gemini Live across its apps, relaunched Cameyo to run Windows apps in ChromeOS browsers, and deployed AI shopping agents.

Meta — Investing $1B in a new data center in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, optimized for AI workloads. Revamped Marketplace with AI shopping assistants and collaborative buying.

Anthropic — Committed $50B to build AI data centers in Texas and NY by 2026. This investment aims to boost American AI infrastructure, create 800 jobs, and shift towards owning computing resources.

SoftBank — Sold its entire $5.8B stake in Nvidia to invest $22.5B in OpenAI, marking a shift from AI hardware to applications. Despite concerns from investor Michael Burry, CEO Masayoshi Son is confident in OpenAI's potential.

Apple — Introduced a Digital ID feature for iPhone and Apple Watch users in the U.S. Canceled the second-gen iPhone Air due to low sales and is cutting production. Focus shifts to two flagship devices for fall 2026.

[OPEN DEALS] RAISING DOLLARS:

Startups, firms or funds raising capital this week

Lovable — The Stockholm-based vibe coding startup is raising at a $6B valuation, up from $1.8B in July, with $100M annualized revenue and 8M users in eight months.

OpenAI — OpenAI is gearing up for an IPO, valuing it at up to $1T, and aiming to raise at least $60B by 2027. It aims to fund expansion and reduce reliance on MS. Revenue is projected at $20 annually, with nonprofit oversight retaining 26%.

Humans& — Eric Zelikman, former xAI researcher, is raising $1B for his AI startup, targeting a $5B valuation. With early Google employee Georges Harik, the company focuses on AI that collaborates with human preferences, requiring significant compute.

MAKING WAVES

Startups making waves, hot trends and signals to watch in the USA this week:

Yann LeCun's World Models Startup — Yann LeCun, formerly Meta's chief AI scientist, is launching a venture focused on world models to simulate environmental understanding.

World Labs — Launched Marble, a platform generating 3D worlds from text prompts, backed by $230M in funding. Led by Dr. Fei-Fei Li, it targets game developers and filmmakers, competing with Meta to make 3D creation accessible.

CoreWeave — The AI infrastructure b startup reported $1.36B revenue, up 134% y-o-y, with key deals from Meta and OpenAI. Despite acquisition setbacks, its $55.6B backlog and strategic partnerships drive growth.

Exowatt — Sam Altman-backed startup aims to deliver electricity at $0.01 per kw-hour using solar-thermal batteries with superheated rocks. Targeting AI data centers to revolutionize energy supply.

Polymarket — The U.S. platform has relaunched in beta, letting select users place real contract bets. Following a 2022 settlement with the CFTC, it partnered with PrizePicks and Yahoo Finance. Will introduce POLY.

Joby Aviation — Successfully completed its first military drone test flight with L3Harris, demonstrating a hybrid aircraft for autonomous and piloted operations. Aligns with significant $175B defense investments and a pipeline for more.

Gamma — The visual storytelling platform has raised $68M in Series B funding at a $2.1B valuation, surpassing $100M ARR. Profitable for over two years, Gamma aims to enhance product development and team expansion.

Hyperlink — The Hyperlink app for NVIDIA RTX PCs enhances productivity with 3x faster indexing and 2x faster LLM inference, reducing file search processing time to 4-5 minutes.

TEAMING UP

Startups joining forces via partnerships or joint projects this week:

Tether — The stablecoin issuer plans a $1.16B investment in Neura Robotics, valued at $9.29B-$11.6B. Tether, with $10B in profits this year, seeks to diversify. Competing with Tesla, it aims to produce 5M devices by 2030.

Google x Golden Goose — Google partners to launch AI-powered sneaker customization in 40+ retail locations using the Gemini app.

Grab Holdings — The Singapore-based company is investing $60M in Vay Technology to enhance its ride-hailing platform with autonomous vehicles. An additional $350M investment is possible if milestones are met.

IN THE MONEY

Companies that raised money in the past week and why they matter

Massive Deals

Cursor — The AI coding company raised $2.3B at a $29B valuation, with over 300 employees and $1B annualized revenue, backed by Accel, Thrive Capital, and Nvidia.

xAI — Elon Musk's AI startup raised a record $15B at a $200B valuation, focusing on acquiring graphic processing units to enhance AI capabilities, with potential synergies with Tesla being explored.

CHAOS Industries — The U.S.-based radar systems company raised $510M Series D at $4.5B valuation, led by Valor Equity Partners, to boost drone and airborne threat detection for U.S. and allied forces.

d-Matrix — The AI platform company secured $275M Series C at $2B valuation, led by Bullhound Capital, Triatomic Capital, and Temasek, raising $450M total to enhance AI inference and energy.

Gopuff — The U.S. and U.K. instant commerce leader secured $250M led by Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity Partners to boost AI, consumer experience, and infrastructure, with Matt McBrady joining as CFO.

Forterra — The defense technology company secured $238M Series C led by Moore Strategic Ventures to enhance communications and command systems, with a $114M DoD contract and partnerships with Volvo and BAE.

Harbinger — The U.S.-based commercial EV startup raised $160M Series C co-led by FedEx, which ordered 53 chassis, marking commercial EV market maturation as Harbinger expands into Canada.

Alembic Technologies — The marketing intelligence startup focused on causal AI raised $145M Series B to invest in a Nvidia supercomputer, boosting real-time insights for enterprise AI models.

Parallel Web Systems — Parag Agrawal’s web search infrastructure startup raised $100M Series A at $740M valuation, co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures, to enhance AI systems' access to real-time online data.

Wonderful — The Israeli AI startup raised a $100M Series A led by Index Ventures, focusing on AI customer service agents with an 80% resolve rate. Expanding in 11 markets.

Large Deals

Scribe — The workflow documentation company raised $75M Series C at a $1.3B valuation led by StepStone to launch Scribe Optimize, serving 94% of Fortune 500 companies.

Gamma — The AI presentation startup, valued at $2.1B, boasts $100M ARR and serves 70M raised a $68M Series B funding led by a16z, Gamma sets industry benchmarks, challenging Microsoft.

Lighter — The Ethereum-based zk-rollup exchange raised $68M at $1.5B valuation, backed by Founders Fund and Robinhood, with $279.5B 30-day trading volume and zero fees for retail users.

Gate Bioscience — The Brisbane, California-based biotechnology company raised $65M Series B led by Forbion with Eli Lilly participating, totaling $135M raised to expand inflammation research and molecular gate programs.

Maybern — The financial technology company received $50M from Battery Ventures to modernize private markets technology, replacing outdated systems in managing asset strategies.

Fabric8Labs — The U.S.-based advanced manufacturing company raised $50M led by NEA and Intel Capital to boost output to 22M components annually, focusing on thermal management and power electronics using ECAM technology.

BoomPop — The AI-powered event planning company raised $41M to expand its platform targeting the $1T corporate events market, having facilitated over 60,000 hotel nights for major clients.

AirOps — The content adaptation platform raised $40M Series B led by Greylock, totaling $60M raised, focusing on AI-driven content to aid enterprise marketing amid AI search shifts with plans for international expansion.

Foxglove — The Physical AI platform raised $40M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners to enhance data and observability tools for sectors like manufacturing and logistics.

Code Metal — The New York-based AI coding tools startup raised $36.5M Series A led by Accel, aiming to enhance developer productivity by understanding code architecture and business logic beyond basic autocomplete.

1mind — The AI sales agents startup raised $30M with over 30 companies including HubSpot and LinkedIn using AI agent Mindy,.

Arrived — The Seattle-based startup raised $27M to expand its platform for fractional rental property investment. Founded in 2019, it boasts over 900K investors and $340M invested. Recently launched a Secondary Market for share trading.

Smaller Deals

Evidium — The healthcare AI startup raised $22M Series A, co-led by Health2047 and WGG Partners, to scale computational medical knowledge and enhance clinical reasoning with transparent AI systems.

TandemAI — The AI drug discovery company raised $22M Series A extension, totaling over $80M, with 300+ professionals and ten clinical candidates developed.

Sunday — The QR code payment system for restaurants raised $21M to expand beyond 3,500 restaurants, adding features like Google reviews and data analytics.

Humanix — The cybersecurity platform raised $18M to combat social engineering attacks using real-time AI detection, addressing weak defenses that prevent less than 2% of incidents.

Vend Park — The AI-driven parking management company secured $17.5M Series A led by Blue Heron Capital to expand into major markets after 35x growth.

Anzen Insurance — The San Francisco-based commercial insurance automation platform raised $16M led by Madrona, totaling $26M, focusing on specialty and liability coverage for brokers.

Red Queen Bio — The biotech startup raised $15M Seed led by OpenAI to prevent AI-enabled biological weapons, with backing from Cerberus Ventures and Fifty Years.

Milestone — The enterprise-focused AI coding metrics platform secured $10M to connect tool usage to engineering outcomes, clients like Kayak and Monday.com.

Seismic — The crypto startup raised $10M led by a16z crypto, totaling $17M, to develop an encrypted blockchain for secure fintech transactions.

Netic — The AI-driven home services platform raised $23M Series B to enhance AI agent technology for automating client outreach and bookings for trade businesses nationwide.

EXIT WATCHING

Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

Rumble — Acquiring German AI cloud company Northern Data for approximately $767M in an all-stock deal. Post-deal, ND will own 30.4% of Rumble. Includes a $150M GPU-leasing agreement with Tether.

Doti AI — Salesforce is acquiring Israeli startup for estimated $100M to boost AI R&D capabilities; founded by ex-Wix engineers, Doti AI builds Work AI platform for secure real-time knowledge access.

Propy — Acquires Delta South Title in Alabama with 40% market share in Mobile County under a $100M AI strategy to digitize U.S. title and escrow industry using AI and smart contracts.

Kaltura — Acquired conversational avatar startup eSelf for $27M, including Alan Bekker, creator of Snap's AI tech, to enhance interactive AI video offerings supporting 30+ languages for 800+ enterprise clients.

Einride — Swedish battery-electric and autonomous freight truck startup plans SPAC merger with Legato Merger Corp. III valuing it at $1.8B; operates in seven countries with world's first autonomous border crossing.

IPO Watch

Open or upcoming IPOs to watch:

Ledger — The French hardware wallet for crypto security company is considering an IPO or fundraising in 2025 due to rising demand, with $100B in secured bitcoin. Expanding in NYC amid increased crypto investment and security challenges.

Pine Labs — The India-based payment solutions provider launched its $440M IPO, closing first trading day 14% higher despite reduced valuation, with strong domestic investor interest.

Grayscale Investments Inc. — The crypto asset manager filed for IPO with $203.3M net income on $318.7M revenue for first nine months of 2025, down from prior year's $223.7M and $397.9M.

Groww — Indian online brokerage raised $748M in IPO reaching $9B market cap; founded in 2016, serves over 14M active users with plans for tech expansion.

THE FUNDING BUZZ

VC & PE Activity To Watch

Robinhood — Launching a closed-end fund to democratize retail investor access to private AI companies, typically reserved for institutional players, while addressing risks like illiquidity and volatility.

Glasswing Ventures — Boston-based VC closed Fund III at over $200M for pre-seed and seed-stage investments in AI and Frontier Technology startups across enterprise and security markets, planning to back 25 startups.

359 Capital — Formerly Sapphire Sport, now managing $300M AUM after spinning out from Sapphire Ventures, focusing on Series A and B investments of $2-10M per company in the sports sector.

Code Metal — Accel leads a $36.5M Series A for this AI coding tool developer focused on architectural understanding and complex business logic beyond autocomplete, with funds to expand engineering and develop enterprise solutions.

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