AI/ML News & Innovations Hub

OpenAI scraps release of new model over safety concerns in internal testing

GPT-6.1 Astra showed deceptive behavior and tried to use external tools despite knowing it would be unsafe OpenAI is scrapping the release of GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation ⁠AI model planned for an October debut, over safety concerns raised by researchers ⁠during internal testing, the ⁠Wall ​Street Journal reported on Monday. The model, expected to appear in ChatGPT and ⁠Codex, was designed to handle more complex tasks without human assistance, the report said. Continue reading...

African innovators are reinventing their regulators

Many of the problems African startups come across and are trying to solve are institutional.

Pope Leo says concerns about AI doom scenarios are not ‘fake news’

Pope Leo on Monday ⁠said concerns that artificial intelligence ⁠could destroy the world are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, in an apparent rebuke of US President Donald Trump. The first US pope, who has warned of the dangers of AI throughout his 16-month papacy, also directly criticised technology CEOs ‌who argued there should be no guardrails on the technology. “I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously,” the pontiff...

AMD is acquiring AI company World Labs in a deal worth more than $8 billion

AMD announced today that it's acquiring World Labs, an AI research lab co-founded by the prominent researcher Dr. Fei-Fei Li, in an all-stock deal worth approximately $8.2 billion. World Labs launched in 2024 and was valued at $1 billion in a matter of months. The startup launched its first commercial product, a world generation model […]

Source: Inference provider Modal Labs closing in on $750M round at $15.75B valuation

The new financing is expected to more than triples the AI infrastructure startup's valuation from just four months ago.

I raised $200K on Kickstarter for my sunrise alarm clock. The lessons I learned while preparing the campaign were just as valuable.

Emily Byrne's Kickstarter campaign for her alarm clock business helped her learn financial mistakes and get valuable customer feedback early on.

Even if others are less responsible you can still make things worse

Reposted from shortform because I think this is important enough to be a post. A few ways staying in a technology development race still makes things worse, even when there are less responsible actors around: Creating a sense of artificial urgency, which causes people who are competitive and results driven to work harder and cut more corners Providing a guiding star on which technical directions are promising (e.g. reasoning models, CoT, RLHF) Legitimising irresponsible behaviour as valid response to strong competition ("it's a competitive market, this was bound to happen") Entangling the motivations and incentives of the "more responsible" parties with the success of the technology in question, making any warnings seem weak and hypocritical ("if it's so bad, how come you're still doing it"?) Providing an adversary or target to aim for/surpass (similar to artificial urgency) Diffusing media/governance/public attention away from the "more irresponsible" parties, since it's now a multi horse race Driving hype, attention, and funding to the field via your credibility and achievements Becoming trapped in a "we must win" mentality that causes you yourself to cut corners Discuss

Blitzy’s autonomous coding bet: Every codebase is already a graph

Knowledge graphs are moving to the center of autonomous software development as enterprises push coding agents beyond quick fixes and into large, interconnected codebases. The more code an agent touches, the more it needs to know about everything that code connects to. Investors are betting heavily on platforms built for that problem. Blitzy Inc. raised […] The post Blitzy’s autonomous coding bet: Every codebase is already a graph appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Physical AI company SiMa.ai raises $150 Mn in Series C round

Physical AI company SiMa.ai has raised $150 million in a Series C financing round, bringing its total capital raised to $500 million and valuing the company at $1.45 billion. The round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify, with participation from Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital and StepStone Group. AllianceBernstein, Baron Capital and J.P. Morgan also joined the round as new investors. The proceeds will be used to scale Palette Neat, an agentic software environment for Physical AI, and develop next-generation hardware capable of delivering 1,000 TOPS of compute through purpose-built Physical AI silicon, SiMa.ai said in a press release. Founded in 2018 by Krishna Rangasayee, SiMa.ai provides a software-centric platform for Physical AI applications. The company focuses on robotics, automotive, drones, industrial automation, aerospace and defence, smart vision and healthcare. SiMa.ai said it serves more than 150 customers across automotive, drones and robotics, including ARK Electronics, AVerMedia, Bosch, Emerson, Intrinsic, Kontron, L&T Technology Services, Mistral, STIGA, Synopsys and Virya Autonomous Tech, among others. According to market research cited by the company, the global Physical AI devices market, including robotics, automotive and drones, is projected to reach 145 million cumulative shipments by 2035. SiMa.ai said Physical AI applications have traditionally relied on NVIDIA GPUs, which can be expensive and power inten…

Ola Electric to raise up to Rs 1,000 Cr via rights issue

Electric two wheeler maker Ola Electric has approved a plan to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore through a rights issue of partly paid up equity shares. The company’s board approved the proposal on September 28, subject to regulatory and statutory approvals. The issue will be open to eligible shareholders as of a record date, which will be announced later. Ola Electric is yet to finalise the issue price, rights entitlement ratio, record date, issue timeline and payment terms. The number of shares to be issued will also be determined by the board. The latest fundraise comes less than a month after Ola Electric approved a plan to raise up to Rs 1,500 crore through equity shares or convertible securities. The earlier fundraise could be carried out through a further public offer, rights issue, QIP, private placement or other permitted routes, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. In June, Ola Electric raised Rs 780 crore through a QIP by allotting around 21.76 crore shares at Rs 35.86 apiece to qualified institutional buyers. Meanwhile, Ola Electric COO Hyun Shik Park resigned from his position effective September 5, citing personal reasons. The fresh fundraise comes as the EV two wheeler maker faces pressure on market share, customer complaints and its stock performance. In Q1 FY27, its revenue from operations fell 45% year on year to Rs 455 crore, while its net loss narrowed to Rs 336 crore from Rs 428 crore a year earlier. The company recorded 13,170 vehicle registrations…

What Also Happened: #NotOnlyHuggingFace

OpenAI has been holding out on us. First we learned about the HuggingFace incident. They gave us a postmortem , but it was highly incomplete. Even the accompanying holy s*** METR investigation and postmortem was localized and incomplete. Then there were some other incidents involving some Wikis as message boards. Then there were some additional incidents. Then there was that time they got into Australian Medicare data. Then OpenAI dropped news on a Friday afternoon that they were making their way through a pile of various incidents and notifying the targets, but they said remarkably little in the way of new details. There was a report from a startup called Parse diving into the details of exactly how the OpenAI models pulled off parts of the HuggingFace attack, involving creating almost a million URLs and other tricks to get around the extremely narrow nature of their internet access. Then Madison Mills reported in Axios that we can raise the stakes , as OpenAI and Anthropic are collectively probing tens of thousands of security incidents. Remember Jensen Huang’s ‘I know they know how to fix it’ about OpenAI from last week? Wow, did that not age well. Someone might need to be liable for all this. Oh, and there was another buried lede. On September 20th there was another sandbox escape by OpenAI’s latest most advanced model, which is once again paused until they can fix the situation. The official announcement when they shared this was sufficiently buried that Tomek had to ca…

Physical AI chip developer SiMa AI hits $1.45B valuation

The edge computing startup raised a $150 million Series C led by Fidelity and Amplify.

MAVI bets on the AI boom creating demand for a new kind of accountant

Accounting staffing company MAVI emerges from stealth with $4 million in funding.

Everyday personal AI assistant startup Instinct raises $1B at $10B valuation

Instinct, the developer of an artificial intelligence assistant for everyday users, today announced it has raised a colossal $1 billion in a new funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $10 billion. Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Coatue joined the Series C round. The funding comes a month after the company said it raised $250 million, co-led […] The post Everyday personal AI assistant startup Instinct raises $1B at $10B valuation appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

After a deepfake voice fooled her grandfather, this founder sprang into action

After her grandfather was scammed by a deepfake of his brother's voice, Tarini Padmanabhuni founded DetectifAI, a San Francisco startup building AI models small enough to run directly on smartphones and flag fake voices in real time, and it's now one of the companies competing in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt.

How the University of Utah built a sovereign AI factory to accelerate breakthroughs and slash cloud costs

The scaling of artificial intelligence has forced IT leaders to re-evaluate infrastructure. While public clouds offer rapid deployment for general applications, they introduce steep trade-offs for highly regulated, data-intensive workloads. Issues like high latency, unpredictable operational costs, and diminished data control complicate the development of proprietary intellectual property. To bypass these limitations, leading institutions are pioneering a new approach: the sovereign AI factory. At the University of Utah, leadership confronted this issue directly. The institution needed to boost its computational capacity to accelerate clinical and academic work without compromising safety. Because these research avenues rely heavily on sensitive patient records, genomic profiles, and highly regulated healthcare data, a public cloud architecture was insufficient. The university required complete data control, strict compliance, and high performance. By collaborating with HPE and NVIDIA, the University of Utah designed and deployed an integrated, full-stack sovereign AI factory . This public-private-philanthropic co-investment—championed by the university, the State of Utah, and the Huntsman Family Foundation—serves as an example for CIOs managing high-stakes data environments. The challenge: Balancing computational scale with data sovereignty For any organization handling protected information, public cloud environments introduce significant regulatory compliance risks. For t…

Voice AI startup Modulate raises $25M to bring audio-native models to more developers

Voice artificial intelligence startup Modulate Inc. today announced it has raised $25 million in new funding to get its audio-native models in front of more developers. Modulate offers AI models that work on the raw audio of a conversation. Emotion, tone and intent all register as signals, as do signs that a voice is a […] The post Voice AI startup Modulate raises $25M to bring audio-native models to more developers appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Next 5 VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 contenders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Thousands of applications. Multiple rounds of review. Hundreds of hours spent evaluating startups from around the world. Now comes the part everyone has been waiting for. Register for TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today.

Saudi Aramco considers a gas spinoff

The plans are a sign of the pressure the company faces to raise cash for the government and draw foreign investment into the kingdom.

Ninja Enterprise bundles AI employees and GPUs into one fixed yearly fee

Artificial intelligence agent startup NinjaTech AI Inc. today launched Ninja Enterprise to let large companies run what the startup calls AI employees inside their own cloud environments for a fixed yearly fee. The graphics processing units those agents need are part of the deal. Ninja Enterprise is aimed at the unpredictable spending that NinjaTech says tends […] The post Ninja Enterprise bundles AI employees and GPUs into one fixed yearly fee appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Moneyview IPO sees nearly 100X subscription on final day

Digital lending platform Moneyview’s IPO saw strong investor demand, with the issue subscribed 98.5X on the final day of bidding. Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) led the demand, with their portion subscribed over 227X. Moneyview’s initial public offering (IPO) was open for subscription from September 24-September 28, with a price band of Rs 32-34 and a minimum investment of Rs 14,112 for a lot size of 441 shares. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of Rs 750 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 10.04 crore shares. At the upper price band, the issue is valued at around Rs 6,000 crore. According to exchange data, the QIB portion was subscribed 227.5X, followed by non-institutional investors (NIIs) at 115.4X, while the retail portion saw 19.6X subscription. Ahead of the IPO opening, Moneyview raised Rs 327.5 crore from anchor investors. The anchor book featured a mix of leading domestic mutual funds and global institutional investors including ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund Goldman Sachs, Amundi Funds, 360 ONE, HDFC Life and others. The company plans to deploy Rs 325 crore from the fresh issue towards loan disbursals, while Rs 250 crore will be infused into its NBFC subsidiary, Whizdm Finance. The remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. Founded by Puneet Agarwal and Sanjay Aggarwal, Moneyview offers financial products including personal loans, insurance, credit cards, and digital gold through its network of banks, NBFCs,…

AIIB plans to double financing by 2030. Can it bridge Asia’s infrastructure gap?

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) plans to double its annual financing to about US$20 billion by 2030 as the Beijing-headquartered multilateral lender enters its second decade, its president said on Monday. Announcing the target at the opening of the bank’s 11th annual meeting in Doha, Qatar, AIIB President Zou Jiayi said member economies had voiced a “remarkably consistent” need for greater project funding. “They need more infrastructure and more financing to build it,” Zou told...

AI infrastructure push draws $6bn in data-centre commitments

At the Tashkent event, industrial uses and internationally active startups offer signs of a broader technology ecosystem taking shape. But affordable access to computing power remains a constraint for local companies.

IMF chief warns AI boom is masking economic fragility from oil shocks

The Middle East conflict is a supply shock dragging global growth down, while the AI investment boom is a demand shock pushing it up, but what happens when one side gives?

Autoheal raises $7.9M to evaluate and fix AI agents with… AI agents

Autoheal AI Inc., an artificial intelligence-native platform engineering startup that’s trying to pioneer the concept of “self-improving software factories,” said today it has raised $7.9 million in seed funding to make that happen. Today’s round was led by Innovation Endeavors and saw participation from Emergent Ventures, U&I Ventures, Darkmode Ventures, Batch Ventures and Param Hansa […] The post Autoheal raises $7.9M to evaluate and fix AI agents with… AI agents appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Start with the strugglers: How to make AI transformation stick

It seems intuitive: Give AI to the people who are crushing it in your organization and watch them fly even higher. So why does it so often fail to work? Why do so many leaders I talk to complain that their AI transformations simply aren’t delivering the results they had hoped fo r? One of the most dramatic and successful AI transformations I’ve seen happened at a bank where the underperforming investment team approached management for help. These folks were struggling and truly needed the help of something like AI. Sure, there was risk involved, but they were willing to take the chance because they had intense motivation to improve. And when they got that help from AI, they helped create a blueprint for what the technology could do in every other part of the bank. The key was recognizing that AI changes how people work , not simply what tools they use. While a conventional technology rollout can often be taught as a new process or capability, AI requires people to rethink how work itself gets done. That’s how this bank approached it. They found the people with enough need and motivation to change, then gave them the support to make that change produce a measurable business result. Not just individual productivity gains, but the kind of improvements in revenue, costs and P&L that got the attention of the entire organization. They started with the scufflers, and it made all the difference. Why your best performers may be the wrong place to start One of the biggest paradoxes of…

Granite raises €4M to bring its agentic cloud infrastructure to market

AI infrastructure company Granite has secured €4million in funding in a round led by Bifrost Studios, alongside private investors, to commercialise itstechnology and bring its software and hardware to...

Space Lasers Are About to Get Their First Real Test Generating Energy

Startup Star Catcher is launching a system that, if successful, would be the first time energy has been beamed between two separate spacecraft.

Complexity is the biggest barrier to enterprise AI

For CIOs, the enterprise ambition to deploy AI is outpacing execution and is impacting everything from talent to technology to operations. The challenge to deploy is not coming from the technology itself, but rather the complexity that we have built into our enterprise IT environments. The more deeply AI becomes embedded across the enterprise, the more dependencies it can introduce. More systems, integrations and data dependencies create additional operational and security considerations that must be managed as AI scales. I saw this firsthand when we started looking at how to simplify our technology landscape. We had more than 1,500 software applications after years of growth, acquisitions and technology investment. That created a broad estate to operate and secure, and when I speak with other CIOs, I hear similar stories. That sprawl has always had a cost. Teams spend time maintaining applications, managing integrations and keeping systems current. Hybrid environments add another dimension as workloads operate across data centers and public and private clouds. AI must work across that same environment. This is why I believe complexity is the biggest barrier to effectively implementing AI across the enterprise. The models will continue to improve, but better models alone will not solve fragmented processes, poor data quality or unnecessary layers. Some of the workflows with the greatest potential for AI are also operationally intricate, which makes preparing people to work d…

My startup is profitable and made over $100M in 6 months. I still worry it could all disappear.

David Rabie grew up in an Iranian immigrant family full of entrepreneurs. Their experience shaped his tolerance for risk as he built Tovala.

Nigeria can build solar power plants, but funding remains elusive

Nigeria has built hundreds of solar mini-grids and connected more than 146,000 households, but expanding distributed power to millions more people will require a financing model that goes beyond grants and absorbs currency and credit risks.

6 steps to weigh compromise and priorities for AI sovereignty

From an enterprise perspective, AI sovereignty means complete control over the entire AI stack. For businesses with the human, technical, and monetary resources, this may be possible. For the vast majority, however, external help is required. The danger, as with any vendor relationship, is being locked in to a supplier or technology. With a mature technology that performs discrete tasks, that may not be a problem. But with an emerging and rapidly evolving one like AI and its ability to impact multiple processes across an enterprise, difficulties could arise. Gartner recently predicted that AI platform lock-in will increase from 5% now to 35% next year. So how do you avoid being in that high percentile? 1. Be clear of the trade-offs As might be expected, there’s an inverse relationship between lock-in risks and operational overheads, including upfront costs, longer-term licensing fees, and internal talent requirements. Relying on open-source models, applications, and self-hosting is the lowest risk in terms of lock-in, but it requires a significant investment in AI engineering skills and infrastructure. In the middle, a multi-cloud or hybrid API approach provides high flexibility to swap underlying models, but relies on managing the abstraction layer. The fastest way to AI deployment is contracting a proprietary all-in-one platform requiring less operational overhead, but risks longer-term vendor dependency. 2. Break down the stack A key priority to reduce AI lock-in is decou…

The CEO of language-learning startup Preply asks job candidates these questions

CEO Kirill Bigai said he spends 50% to 60% of his time on hiring these days and has a "playbook" he uses in interviews.

The Next Evolution of AI Is Learning From Your Dodgy Gaming Skills

A British startup is shaping video game inputs into training data for AI models that can navigate the physical world.

Girls Talk Tech: 7,000 students and the next generation of women tech leaders

A high school teacher had three girls sign up for her computer science class—three for the whole year. Then a group of ConocoPhillips technologists came in to talk about their careers, and more than 20 students registered. The school had to add a half-day CS teacher to handle them. That is Girls Talk Tech working exactly as designed. A group of women in the ConocoPhillips IT organization formalized the program in 2018 with a clear mission: educate, encourage, and empower young women to embrace technology for the future. The gap it addresses is well documented. According to the National Center for Women & IT, women make up 57% of the US professional workforce and hold only 26% of IT roles , and the disparity widens in engineering and computing. “It’s really an outreach education program,” says Billy-Joe Lafortune, general manager of Lower 48 Digital Technologies and Global Strategy at ConocoPhillips. “It’s about reaching out to young women in middle school and high school, and it’s about inspiring them and preparing them to consider or pursue a career in technology and STEM.” Lafortune has been a co-sponsor since 2019, when the team asked her to take the role alongside the CIO at the time. Her day job spans two responsibilities: she is the business unit technology leader for ConocoPhillips’ Lower 48 segment, the largest piece of the portfolio, and she leads global digital strategy, deciding where the investments go and then delivering them. She reached that seat over two deca…

European tech weekly recap: Over €2B invested across 65+ deals

Last week, we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €2 billion and over 4 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. 📊 The top three industries that rai...

Complaion raises €13.5M to simplify compliance for European SMEs

Complaion, an Italian company helping SMEsmanage certifications and regulatory compliance, has raised €13.5 million infunding to expand its team, develop its technology and support itsinternational gr...

Agricultural machinery company Balwaan Krishi raises Rs 100 Cr in Series B round

Agricultural machinery company Balwaan Krishi has raised Rs 100 crore in a Series B funding round led by First Bridge India Growth Fund Private Equity, with participation from other institutional investors. The Jaipur-based company had earlier raised $2 million in a pre-Series A round led by Caspian Leap for Agriculture Fund, with participation from angels including Deepak Agarwal, Rishab Jain and Pulkit Bachhawat in May 2023. The fresh capital will be used to expand domestic manufacturing capacity, strengthen dealer and service networks in Southern India, and develop farm equipment with predictive maintenance and IoT capabilities, Balwaan Krishi said in a press release. Founded in 2016 by Rohit Bajaj and Shubham Bajaj, Balwaan Krishi makes agricultural equipment for Indian farming conditions. The company has more than 800 dealers across Northern India, along with an e-commerce presence, and serves over four lakh farmers across the country. Balwaan Krishi said around 86% of Indian farmers are small and marginal farmers cultivating less than two hectares. Its product portfolio is priced between Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh, targeting this segment through a hybrid B2B and B2C distribution model. The company plans to expand its manufacturing capabilities in India to improve control over product quality, supply chains and availability, while reducing dependence on imported machinery and components. It also plans to expand its presence in Southern India, with a focus on product availa…

‘Shopify of mobile apps’ bilt.me raises $700K to turn ideas into mobile businesses

Estonian AI app-building platform bilt.mehas raised $700,000 in pre-seed funding in a round led by Superhero Capital,with backing from Bolt founder Markus Villig and Lightyear founder Martin Sokk.Foun...

Sofinnova Partners closes oversubscribed €82M Sofinnova MD Start IV fund

European life sciences venture capital firmSofinnova Partners has closed its fourth medtech fund, Sofinnova MD Start IV,at €82 million. The oversubscribed fund will expand Sofinnova’s medtechcompany-c...

Ukraine funding gap looms over Brussels defence talks

Good morning. This is Mared Gwyn with your Monday newsletter from Brussels. Today: the question of Ukraine's funding gap looms over EU defence talks, and the bloc's energy chief cautions over low energy storage. Let’s dive in.

Alive App raises $1 Mn from Powerhouse, Flipkart Ventures

Alive App, an AI-powered experience-tech platform, has raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by Powerhouse Ventures, with participation from Flipkart Ventures. The Bengaluru-based startup had previously raised Rs 6 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by Powerhouse Ventures last year. The company will use the fresh capital to expand its product and experience supply as it seeks to increase the frequency of leisure and experience-based activities among urban consumers, Alive App said in a press release. Founded in 2023 by Vivek Kumar, Alive App helps users discover curated experiences across adventure, food, wellness, art, culture and learning. The startup is building technology and supply infrastructure for India's experience economy. Alive App currently operates across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Goa, offering more than 500 experiences through a network of over 400 creators and partners. The company is targeting 3X revenue growth over the next few months and plans to focus on increasing user frequency on its platform. The startup said it has recorded its first profitable quarter in Bengaluru, its first and largest market. Over the past six months, it has expanded to Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, in addition to its presence in Goa. Its experience supply in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Goa has grown five times faster than during its initial expansion phase. Alive App currently adds around 100 new experiences every month, it said. Experience-tech platf…

Beauty and wellness startup Amaani raises $5 Mn led by BECO Capital

Amaani, a new-age consumer company reimagining beauty and wellness from the Middle East, which owns AÏZA, has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by BECO Capital, with participation from Homegrown Ventures and Peak XV’s Surge. The latest round takes Amaani’s total funding to $8 million. Last year, Amaani had raised $3 million in seed funding from Peak XV’s Surge. The fresh capital will be used to expand AÏZA across the GCC, with Saudi Arabia as the immediate priority. The brand is set to launch at Ulta Beauty stores in Jeddah and Riyadh by the end of September, while Kuwait and Qatar launches are planned for Q4. Founded in Dubai in 2023 by Shubham Poddar, AÏZA was launched in December 2024 and offers skincare and haircare products inspired by ingredients and beauty practices from the Arab world. Its products use ingredients such as dates, black seed, frankincense, rose and bakhoor, with formulations developed in laboratories across Korea, Japan and Italy. AÏZA’s hero products include the Sukkar Rush lip treatment, Scent Storm hair mist, and Date Setter brow & lash serum. The brand’s formulations are vegan, cruelty-free, alcohol-free, and meet “Clean at Sephora” standards. The company claims AÏZA’s net revenue grew more than 9X year-on-year in the first half of 2026 as it expanded from an online-first business into retail. The brand is currently available through its website, Ounass and Ulta Beauty in the UAE, where it ranks among the top 10 brands across more t…

Orange pledges AI training for 200,000 Egyptians

Orange earmarks €25 million for AI startups; universities to get new tech labs

China’s fund managers warn of premium risks as fresh quotas fail to ease demand

Several Chinese mutual funds investing in US stocks have warned investors about risks associated with hefty premiums to their net asset values, highlighting persistent demand for US equities even after Beijing expanded quotas for outbound investment. At least six fund houses, including China Asset Management, Hua An Fund Management and China Universal Asset Management, issued warnings last week after the market prices of some of their funds rose substantially above their net asset values,...

Orange expands Egypt AI skills, startup funding

Listen now (1 min) | Middle East AI News Minute - 28-Sep-26

Hong Kong to close deals with firms from strategic sectors in months: Paul Chan

A handful of leading firms from emerging industries are expected to receive preferential policy packages and set up operations in Hong Kong within the “next couple of months”, the city’s finance chief has said, as part of efforts to attract investment. In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po provided an update on the city’s drive to draw international and national brands and strategic enterprises to set up business in Hong Kong through...

Securing AI Research Needs an Owner

TL;DR In light of recent incidents, securing common AI research use cases needs a small set of building blocks that work together: hardened no-network sandboxes, real-time control monitors, monitoring-lifecycle infrastructure, and automated validation of security properties. Pieces of this exist. Nobody owns hardening them, making them secure by default, making them work together, fitting them to how research orgs actually operate, and keeping them working as models, frameworks and use cases change. By default we will get ad-hoc solutions rather than something well thought-out and it matters. This is a call for someone to step up and drive the effort. I can help connect you with funding opportunities and relevant people. Introduction The recent incidents ( OpenAI - HuggingFace , Anthropic , AISI ), where an agent with lowered safeguards either escaped a sandbox or attempted an attack on a 3rd party system, demonstrate we are now in a new regime: the AI models we study should be considered capable threat actors. Even if labs put in safeguards for the expected use, researchers often need to put models in contexts that increase the risk of misaligned and harmful actions. This requires appropriate mitigations - the alternative is either risking real harm, or missing out on important research and evaluations. A key assumption is we need to build measures effective against really strong models and agent swarms - at least a well-resourced top cyber offensive expert. Assuming anythi…

Foreign investors buy into US equities at record rate

Net purchases of US equities and investment fund shares by foreign investors reached a record $426 billion in the second quarter.

Engram is a sampler that turns broken AI hallucinations into music

Music startup Thoughtful Things has just launched the Kickstarter campaign for its first instrument, Engram. It's a sampler and groovebox that uses AI to mangle incoming audio and even hallucinate completely new sounds. This isn't Suno in a box, though. This isn't a "push-button, get-song" device, aimed at creating something that sounds ready for top-40 […]

The startup trap that kept this longevity app founder stuck

Death Clock CEO Brent Franson says the most dangerous startups can be the ones that seem "pretty good."

AI investment boom leaves social impact behind

Azerbaijan agrees multi-billion-dollar deals with investment giants

Nearly $11 billion (€9.7 billion) worth in contracts have emerged from the Azerbaijan International Investment Forum, where some of the world’s biggest investment managers gathered for talks ranging from infrastructure and technology to energy and transport.

Goldman Sachs expects Big Tech to spend $1.2 trillion on AI infrastructure by 2027, dwarfing Wall Street estimates

Goldman Sachs projects that Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Oracle, and Meta will pour a combined $1.2 trillion into AI infrastructure in 2027, more than 50 percent above this year's levels. Measured against GDP, it would be the biggest investment cycle since railroad construction in the 19th century. Bottlenecks in power, labor, and memory chips could slow the pace, though. The article Goldman Sachs expects Big Tech to spend $1.2 trillion on AI infrastructure by 2027, dwarfing Wall Street estimates appeared first on The Decoder .

MBA in 2026: Is it still worth the investment?

PNOE’s new face mask wants to make lab-grade breath testing a self-serve affair

PNOĒ, the Malden, Mass.-based startup whose breath-analyzing mask used to bear an unfortunate resemblance to Bane's, is launching a sleeker self-serve version on October 1 that lets gym-goers measure their VO₂ max and other metabolic markers in eight minutes without a trained operator.

Two-thirds of IT leaders report AI results, but few would interrupt the CEO's vacation over them

Speaking to 160 IT vice presidents in Las Vegas, tech entrepreneur Azeem Azhar asked who had measurable AI results. Two-thirds raised their hands. Then he asked who had results good enough to interrupt the CEO's summer vacation. Only eight did. Whether that slow pace of progress justifies the massive investments is one of the key questions in the AI bubble debate. The article Two-thirds of IT leaders report AI results, but few would interrupt the CEO's vacation over them appeared first on The Decoder .

Claude Opus 5.5 Should Raise Your Ambitions

When it comes to making things, or doing most things in general, Fable 5.1 and especially GPT-6 Astra raised my ambition level. They should have raised yours, too. Claude Opus 5.5 should raise your ambition levels again. It just works, and it persists, like Astra does. It does the things. And it is highly pleasant to talk to, and its writing is pleasant to read, while you are at it. The game has been changed, again. Feedback is almost universally positive. Claude was never gone, but also is so back. The benchmarks are excellent, but ignore the benchmarks. Be ambitious. Go out and do things. Get curious. Have more interesting conversations. If one of those things is Pacing the Frontier or otherwise ensuring that AI does not kill everyone, leaving us to enjoy our bounty? That’s even better. By Claude Opus 5.5, for this post The Official Pitch The pitch is Fable-5.1-level performance at lower Opus-level price. Good pitch. We’re introducing Claude Opus 5.5, the first model in our new Claude 5.5 family. It performs at the level of Claude Fable 5.1 on most work and costs 40% less to run than Opus 5. They could have reasonably pitched this as above-Fable-5.1-level performance. Better pitch, but Anthropic tends to keep its pitches conservative. They highlight agentic coding, security and improved communications. The early tester blurbs flag as AI generated and they have a set for each feature area. They praise agentic coding skills, efficiency, readability and communication, and abi…

Kenyan Startup Builds Robotic Sign Language Interpreter — and the African Dataset to Train It

Kenyan computer scientist Norah Kimathi has built a robotic system that translates a teacher’s spoken words into sign language in real time — and, alongside it, a database of African sign languages to train the models that make it work. Kimathi, 22, co-founded ZeroBionic in 2023 and completed her BSc in Computer Science at Strathmore [...]

I was laid off by Google, then asked to come back. I gave up a 6-figure salary and unvested stock to bet on my startup.

After being laid off from Google, Rob Waters was offered a new six-figure role. He turned it down and moved to San Francisco to build his AI startup.

Baku's week of F1 racing, global security, and record investments

Baku has completed a week of octane-fuelled racing, high-level security facilitation and secured record investments in one of its most dynamic events-filled weeks of the year.

When his wife got sick, this doctor turned to an AI chatbot to navigate her rare cancer diagnosis. Then he invested.

An AI healthcare chatbot helped Dr. Munjal Shroff support his wife through her cancer diagnosis. He ended up investing in the startup.

Poverty in the midst of abundance: AI will make goods cheaper, but your labor will get cheaper faster

Very simple idea, but I thought it'd be worth making a post on this. Some people are saying AI will make all goods cheaper, so you'll be able to afford a nicer life by working. Without any redistribution, just by market mechanisms. These people are wrong. AI will lower the price of goods you need to survive, and also the price of your labor. The question is which will get cheaper faster. Let's use energy cost as a proxy. A day's worth of labor equivalent to yours can be done by AI for just a few cents in electricity on tokens. But feeding you with e.g. apples for a day will cost more energy than that, because growing apples can only be energy-optimized so far. So selling your labor at market price will leave you unable to afford apples. This means a future with economic AI might look like "poverty in the midst of abundance": all goods are cheap, but somehow you can't find a job paying even that much. In economic terms, many previous inventions were complements to human labor, while AI is a general substitute for human labor, lowering its exchange rate vs other goods. Maybe the problem can be solved by redistribution, or by everyone having investments, or something else - that's a bigger discussion. In this post I just want to make the basic point above. Discuss

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [Sep 21 - Sep 26]

This week, 17 Indian startups raised $188.49 million across two growth-stage deals, 12 early-stage deals, and three undisclosed rounds. The week also saw 2 key appointments, one fund launch and one merger and acquisition. In contrast, 17 startups had collectively secured about $61.8 million in the previous week. [ Growth-stage deals ] Growth-stage startups raised $162 million across just two deals this week. Electric mobility startup Ultraviolette secured $85 million in a round led by Yali Capital and TDK Ventures, with participation from Walden International chairman Lip-Bu Tan and existing investors. Enterprise AI startup Ema raised the remaining $77 million in a Series B round led by Creaegis. Ema was founded by Surojit Chatterjee, a former executive at Google and Coinbase. [ Early-stage deals ] Early-stage startups raised $26.49 million across 12 deals this week. Electric commercial mobility startup Drivn’s Indian entity raised Rs 45 crore ($4.7 million) in a seed round led by Avaana Capital. AI-powered health coaching platform Disha, formerly Curelink, secured Rs 43.88 crore in a Series A round led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investor Elevation Capital. Medicine quick-commerce platform Rio Health raised Rs 43.08 crore ($4.5 million) in a pre-Series A round led by Version One Ventures, with participation from Xeed Ventures, Good Capital and Amplify Partner. Proactive AI startup Sol raises $4 Mn from General Catalyst, Nexus VP, and others Other f…

Abu Dhabi, Dubai rank in EMEA top five by AI Cities Index

Abu Dhabi ranks as 11th global AI city, Dubai tops EMEA on public investment

Abu Dhabi property draws record foreign investment in H1

Closing the gap between your AI eyes and stomach at HumanX

Fresh off my jaunt to AGNTCon + MCPCon Europe last week, I headed back to Amsterdam for the first European installment of the artificial intelligence-focused HumanX conference so I could meet with another round of AI startups. As always, my goal was to uncover the untold stories of innovation across the software landscape – and […] The post Closing the gap between your AI eyes and stomach at HumanX appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Ahead of US IPO, British AI neocloud Nscale secures $3.36B in convertible financing

The funding, which comes from Third Point, Nvidia, and others, will fuel the company's massive AI data center buildout.

TEKEVER raises $580M Series D, DTCP closes €455M defence fund, and the challenge to reinvent chip design

This week, we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €2 billion and over 4 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. If email is more your thing, you...

Nigeria and US sign minerals agreement

The investment framework is the latest step in Abuja’s push to compete for investment dollars flowing into Africa’s minerals sector.

Gaming’s biggest horror series are more vital than ever

For the third year in a row, I've been scared out of my wits by a new Silent Hill game. First it was the modern remake of Silent Hill 2, then the Japan-set spinoff Silent Hill F. Now I find myself slowly crawling through a quaint Scottish town in Silent Hill: Townfall, trying my best […]

Last 24 hours to save up to $200 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Reason 5/5 to attend: Leave further ahead.

Last 24 hours to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass. Leave the event further in your startup's trajectory than where you started. Don't miss your chance to save and to push the needle.

Is your AI strategy creating “dark zombies”?

Innovation is about balancing control with autonomy. But when a “perfect prototype” developed with high autonomy meets the reality of enterprise-wide deployment, many organizations find themselves unprepared for the complexities of scaling. According to KPMG’s 2026 Global Tech Report , roughly 60% of organizations say AI investment is outpacing their governance capabilities. Enterprise AI puts new demands on IT operations. As AI takes on a larger role, CIOs need the structures to govern and manage it over time. An IT maturity assessment can help CIOs prioritize the investments and improvements needed to support their AI goals. The IT maturity gap behind AI AI can move quickly with a prototype because teams tightly control where and how it operates. In full-scale production, AI has to work within the parameters of existing technology and processes, including legacy systems, architecture constraints, and security requirements. For example, one KPMG LLP insurance client found that its underwriting AI team had to develop enterprise architecture rules as it tried to move its solutions into production. As you might expect, those rules were overwritten when they went to scale. This leads to what can be called the “perfect prototype problem.” A team becomes anchored to a solution that works perfectly in isolation but resists the necessary controls required to scale. Further, without clear ownership and lifecycle management, organizations risk growing a population of “AI dark zombies…

Zelenskyy warns $27B funding gap could leave Ukraine short of weapons

The president said he received a positive and constructive response from the EU during his diplomatic talks this week.

The vacuum Lisk’s exit leaves in Africa’s Web3 funding

By May, the restructuring had also made several roles redundant; it affected Lisk blockchain’s regional leads and business development teams as the company pulled back from blockchain expansion.

Accel, 360 ONE offload 4.07% stake in BlueStone for Rs 513 Cr via bulk deals

Venture capital firm Accel and investment firm 360 ONE have sold a combined 4.07% stake in jewellery retailer BlueStone for around Rs 513 crore through bulk and block deals. According to BSE data, Accel India III (Mauritius) sold 28 lakh shares, representing a 1.84% stake, while funds managed by 360 ONE offloaded around 33.98 lakh shares, or a 2.23% stake. The shares were sold at Rs 827.60 per share, taking the total deal value to around Rs 513 crore. As per the stock exchange, the shares were picked up by a mix of domestic and overseas institutional investors. Mirae Asset Mutual Fund bought around 20.8 lakh shares, while Nippon India Mutual Fund, SBI Life Insurance and Bajaj Life Insurance acquired around 9.5 lakh shares each. Other buyers included Bandhan Mutual Fund, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Global Markets Singapore and Kuwait Investment Authority. Following the transaction, Accel’s holding through its affiliates declined to 8.71% from 10.55%. SBI Life’s stake, meanwhile, increased to 5.02% from 4.4% after it bought more than 9.5 lakh shares worth around Rs 79 crore. This is the second major stake sale by Accel and 360 ONE in BlueStone this year. In June, Accel, 360 ONE and IvyCap Ventures sold shares worth around Rs 243 crore through multiple open-market transactions. The stake sale comes at a time when BlueStone has been showing an improvement in its profitability. The jewellery retailer recently reported its third consecutive profitable quarter, following a sharp impro…

The business of peace: US investment push takes the TRIPP corridor from diplomacy to trade

Washington grants millions to the so-called Trans-Caspian Enterprise Fund to act as a catalyst for private investment in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Germany's startup boom: What is working and what is holding them back

The German startup ecosystem is gaining momentum, with 3053 startups founded in 2026, the highest number since 2019. With the right policies — both at the national and the EU level — the upturn could be amplified many times over.

The wrong million tokens

Last month I made the case for an ROI exchange rate : the formula you negotiate with finance before deployment that converts KPI movement into dollars. One point of first-call resolution equals this many dollars. One hour of engineering time recovered equals that many. A common objection was a version of the same question. Fine, we agreed on what the benefit is worth. What did it cost? That column is empty at most companies. Not “roughly known” or “we’re working on it.” Empty. And an empty denominator makes the numerator useless. You can prove the KPI moved and still lose the argument, because the CFO is not funding improvements; she is funding improvements that cost less than they return. Which brings me to the most-discussed AI budget story of the year, and why I think almost everyone drew the wrong lesson from it. What Uber actually ran out of We owe Uber some thanks for being this transparent. They rolled out Claude Code in December 2025. By February, 32% of engineers were on agentic coding tools; by March, 84%. Somewhere in there, the company burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in four months, a number CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga confirmed to The Information in April. In June, Bloomberg reported the response: a hard cap of $1,500 per employee per month, per tool . Simon Willison called the cap rational , and he is right. Given a budget set before agentic coding existed, a ceiling was the correct emergency move. I would have done the same thing. But look at what Uber’…

A doctor shares her muscle-building routine for longevity, from quick weightlifting workouts to daily protein

Building muscle is an investment in your future health, according to a longevity doctor. Her routine includes weightlifting, protein, and supplements.

Exclusive: Edtech startup Arivihan raising Rs 96 Cr at Rs 570 Cr valuation

AI Edtech startup Arivihan is set to raise Rs 95.86 crore or $10 million in a Series A round co-led by existing investors Accel and Prosus. This will be the second fundraise for the two-year-old firm in the past 15 months. According to its regulatory filings accessed by Entrackr , the company’s board has approved the issuance of 4,648 Series A CCPS at an issue price of Rs 2,06,248.06 per share to raise the aforementioned amount. Accel and Prosus will lead the round with an investment of Rs 47.48 crore each. Angel investors Dinesh Chandra Agrawal, Dinesh Gulati, Rajesh Sawhney (Founder and CEO of GSF Accelerator), and Gaurav Kapur collectively will invest around Rs 91 lakh in the round. As per Entrackr’s estimates, Arivihan’s valuation has surged nearly 3.3X to around Rs 570 crore in its Series A round, compared to Rs 171 crore in the previous pre-Series A round. According to the filings, the company plans to use the fresh capital to meet working capital requirements and support its expansion and growth. The Indore-based company previously raised $4.17 million (around Rs 36 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by Prosus and Accel, with participation from GSF Investors. Founded in 2024 by Ritesh Singh Chandel, Sonu Kumar and Rushabh Kothari, Arivihan offers AI-powered personalised learning for students in tier-II cities and rural areas, with coaching, doubt-solving and study plans for Class 12, CBSE and NEET. A Moneycontrol report had earlier said that Arivihan was in talks to r…

Ras Al Khaimah Chamber, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce strengthen trade, investment ties

Ras Al Khaimah Chamber, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce strengthen trade, investment ties

'Soar' wars: Inside two AI startups' messy fight over the same name

A founder known for viral antics sent a LinkedIn request to the CEO of Soar, a travel startup. Days later, he launched a rival — also called Soar.

This startup added a new job app requirement for interns: handwritten cover letters

Dumb.co, a modified flip phone startup, said requesting handwritten cover letters helped the company select interns better aligned with its mission.

Elevation Capital leads $6.7 Mn seed round in Dextr AI

Dextr AI, the AI agent platform for hospitality, has raised $6.7 million in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from Foundation Capital. The proceeds will be used to accelerate product development, expand the team and scale deployments across hospitality markets globally, with India among the markets the company is looking to expand into, Dextr AI said in a press release. Co-founded in July last year by Sajid Shariff and Scott Arnold, Dextr AI is the AI agent platform for hospitality, where specialized AI agents automate workflows across guest experience, reservations, staff operations, sales and marketing for hundreds of properties, from independent hotels and resorts to franchised properties. The startup says it currently operates across properties in the US, Canada, UK and Europe, including franchised properties operating under the Hilton, Wyndham, Best Western and IHG flags. It processes over a million interactions every month and is able to make payments by voice, processing tens of millions of dollars through phone reservations every month on behalf of customers. Its deployments have also delivered industry-leading booking conversion rates for payment collected via phone on behalf of customers. Dextr AI addresses the gaps include missed calls, unanswered enquiries, unfilled shifts and guest requests. By automating such workflows, it aims to allow hotel teams to spend more time focused on guests. Dextr’s analysis of India-based contact cent…

What happens when a PoS terminal becomes an investment outlet?

This is the story of a terminal that wants to be more than a cash-collection machine.

Bootstrapping, AI, "building for a flip": Central European VCs have their say

When is the right time for founders to take VC capital? Bootstrapping versus VC backing, “building for a flip”, AI, and many other issues were discussed on the startup stage at a recent conference in ...

Prototype warfare: A defence prime’s playbook for turning technology into battlefield capability

At Tech.eu, I spend a lot of time talking to startups in sectors such as defencetech and spacetech. But startups are only one part of the innovation ecosystem. For founders, understanding how the defe...

Lightspeed targets $250M for new India fund, focusing on early-stage AI

The venture firm is aligning its India fundraising cycle with its global funds for the first time, as it shifts to a shorter investment period.

Exclusive: K12 Techno Services grants fresh ESOPs worth $20 Mn

Education services company K12 Techno Services, which operates the Orchids International school chain, has granted over Rs 190 crore (around $20 million) worth of fresh employee stock options to its employees under its ESOP Scheme 2026. The board at K12 Techno Services has passed a special resolution to grant 6,16,902 ESOPs at an exercise price of Rs 3,122.68 per option, taking the value of the fresh ESOP grant to around Rs 193 crore or $20.1 million. According to the company’s latest filing, the newly granted options are valued at around Rs 193 crore, while the total ESOP pool is now worth approximately Rs 838 crore or $88 million. In July 2026, Vitruvian Partners bought a nearly 16% stake in K12 Techno Services for around Rs 1,159 crore. The deal included both fresh investment in the company and purchase of shares from existing investors, including Peak XV Partners. The transaction valued K12 Techno at around Rs 7,100-7,250 crore. The transaction also reportedly marked a partial exit for Peak XV Partners, which had invested in K12 Techno. Other investors in the company include Kedaara Capital, Navneet Learning, Sofina Ventures, Kenro Capital and Venturi Partners. Founded in 2010, Bengaluru-based K12 Techno Services is an education services company that provides academic, technology, and administrative solutions to schools. Its flagship business is Orchids The International School, while it also operates other education and school partnership businesses. The company current…

AceVector raises Rs 189 Cr from anchor investors ahead of IPO

AceVector, the parent company of Snapdeal, Unicommerce and Stellaro Brands, has raised Rs 189 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering (IPO). The company allotted 5.91 crore shares to 14 anchor investors at Rs 32 per share, the upper end of its IPO price band. The anchor round was completed on September 24, a day before the public issue opens for subscription. Negen Undiscovered Value Fund emerged as the largest investor in the anchor book, receiving shares worth nearly Rs 40 crore. Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund II invested around Rs 27 crore, while Turnaround Opportunities Fund was allotted shares worth nearly Rs 20 crore. Domestic mutual funds accounted for 15.87% of the anchor allocation, with Helios Mutual Fund and Taurus Mutual Fund participating through three schemes. The two fund houses together received shares worth around Rs 30 crore. AceVector’s Rs 420 crore IPO will open for subscription on September 25 and close on September 29. The issue has a price band of Rs 30-32 per share and comprises a fresh issue of Rs 287 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 4.16 crore shares worth around Rs 133 crore at the upper price band. SoftBank, Nexus Venture Partners and other existing investors will sell part of their holdings through the OFS. Co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal are not selling any shares in the IPO. AceVector had earlier planned a larger IPO but has now trimmed the issue size. The company is seeking a valuation of around Rs 1…

Thai PM Anutin and Google discuss data centre standards and US$1bn plan on September 23

The investment plan includes the development of a data centre in Chonburi and a Google Cloud region in Bangkok.

Java 28 starts to take shape

A sixth feature, ahead-of-time (AOT) code compilation, has been proposed for JDK 28 . Java Development Kit 28 is a non-LTS (Long-Term Support) or “feature release” of standard Java due in March 2027. Ahead-of-time code compilation would improve Java application startup and warmup time by making optimized native code for the application instantly available when the Java Virtual Machine starts, according to the proposal. Goals of the proposal include enabling applications to achieve peak performance more quickly and enabling applications to sustain peak performance even as workloads change, without requiring any changes to the code of applications, libraries, or frameworks. The five features previously targeted to JDK 28 include the following: Introduce value objects , which are immutable and lack object identity. Value objects are distinguished by the values of their fields, and can be represented by the JVM in ways that improve performance. A goal of the feature is to give developers a programming model for immutable data in which the == operator, and all other operations, distinguish objects by the values of their fields rather than their identities. Value objects is a preview feature. Switch the default mode of the Shenandoah Garbage Collector (GC) to the generational mode and deprecate the non-generational mode, with the intent to remove it in a future release. Goals include signaling the intent that future development will focus on generational mode, and reducing the mai…

Nexterity wants to automate the hard, dangerous part of pipefitting

The startup's robot can tighten or loosen four bolts at a time, and it fits in a Pelican case.

Meet Feather, the startup building the ‘Android of robotics’ for developers

Feather is betting on a customizable, $30,000 platform built for software developers.

Comment on Direct and Star in Your Own Movie With California AI Startup Rct Studio by Anum Ismail

The idea of using AI to participate in filmmaking is fascinating, particularly because creative technology continues to change how people approach video production. Tools that involve artificial intelligence can open up interesting possibilities for experimentation and storytelling. Readers researching mobile entertainment resources may also encounter thecastleappz.com while exploring application-related content.

The 'ChatGPT for doctors,' OpenEvidence, was valued at $15 billion in a new funding round

The startup has raised nearly $800 million over the past year, from investors including Nvidia, Thrive Capital, Kleiner Perkins, a16z, and Sequoia Capital.

She left Bank of America to start a fragrance brand with $300. Last year, it made $21 million.

Brown Sugar Babe founder Maekaeda Gibbons used $300 to start a fragrance business, growing it to $21 million in revenue without outside funding.

Databricks buys Row Zero and is scouting for more startups to acquire

Databricks has bought cloud spreadsheet startup Row Zero, adding yet another acquisition to its 2026 shopping spree.

How new rules could reshape this country’s digital economy

Azerbaijan is introducing new measures for its technology sector, covering taxation, investment and innovation as it looks to grow its digital economy and attract more international business.

Instinct users say they've noticed a slowdown with the buzzy AI agent

The buzzy personal AI assistant startup is competing with Meta's Muse app for users. Meta has access to much more compute.

Meet the next wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Meet the next wave of VCs judging the Startup Battlefield 200 contenders on the main stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register by September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT, to save up to $200 and to get a front-row seat to one of the most intense startup pitch competitions.

Dar Ventures taps Plug and Play to expand startup programme across Africa

The partnership will give the programme, DarE, access to Plug and Play’s global network of startups, investors and corporate partners.

Europe misses out on €120 billion in investment a year, report finds

Different national rules and systems for transport, energy, technology and skills are holding back investment across Europe, a new study argues.

Ando wants to take on Slack with a team messaging app that lets humans and agents work together

The app gives agents their own identities and inboxes and lets them partake in conversations as naturally as people can.

Five EU countries push Brussels to ease carbon costs for industry

Austria and four Central European countries want more flexibility in the EU carbon market, warning high decarbonisation costs risk driving investment and production overseas.

Europeans in Japan raise $1.2M to put modular humanoid robots to work

O-ID, a Tokyo-based company founded by two Europeans building one of the world’s first fully modular humanoid robots for industrial manufacturing and logistics, has raised $1.2 million in pre-seed fun...

Bentley launches its first EV, and it could be its cheapest model

Bentley’s first fully electric car tests wealthy buyers’ appetite for luxury EVs, and it comes with a €408 million investment in its Crewe factory. The launch supports existing jobs at a time when several high-end rivals have delayed or dropped plans for electric models.

Comment on DeepSeek-V3 New Paper is coming! Unveiling the Secrets of Low-Cost Large Model Training through Hardware-Aware Co-design by ANDRII POZNIAK

Reading advanced machine learning research papers, exploring efficient large language model training techniques, and keeping up with hardware co-design strategies is always so educational for tech enthusiasts. I actually stumbled across https://kingjohnnies.net while browsing through various artificial intelligence publications and looking for quick digital entertainment options during a technical reading break.

OWOW Venture Studio lands €2.65M to build B2B startups for traditional industries

Eindhoven-based OWOW Venture Studio hassecured €2.65 million from eight family offices and angel investors to buildand accelerate early-stage B2B startups, with a focus on manufacturing andoriginal eq...

After Action Report: Canadian Sovereign AI at Nrth 2026

This report is authored in a personal capacity and does not contain any confidential or privileged information. We appreciate Nrth's generous support in enabling our attendance. Executive Summary We cover the first 48 hours of an innovation event occurring Sep 22 to Sep 24, 2026. Main outcome: Intros to Dell (50 + 80 MW, GB300 NVL72, BC), Columbia Data Vault (20 MW, H100/H200 HGX, ON), and startup founders/execs operating in Canada. Primary update: Change in planned activities scheduled for Sep 24, 2026. Before: Nrth Day 3, Socratica Kickoff F26 in Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario. After: Limitless 2026 and Nuclear Generating Station in Pickering, Ontario. Target Audience We aim to write in a register comfortable to readers from backgrounds in industry or government. Our expectation is that the bulk of the elements discussed in this work will be familiar to attendees. Anyone is welcome to share or respond to this piece. Goals What do you want to achieve in general? Our top strategic priority is to advance security research on inference-only compute verification. This is a prerequisite for agreements to pace frontier AI development. What does going to this event have to do with that? Nrth features an impressive speaker list : This year's lineup includes Sudip Roy, Mike Shaver, Michael Buhr, Mark Schaan, Jaxson Khan, Elissa Strome, Vass Bednar, Mark Robbins, Sarah LaRose, John Weigelt, Vic Fedeli, and Lucy Hargreaves. It's possible to request 20-min meeting slots with other attend…

India’s biggest payments app PhonePe enters UAE

The UAE fintech industry is projected to nearly double by 2029, after drawing in a third of all startup funding in the country in 2024.

Microsoft doubles down on investment in the Gulf

Microsoft is planning to spend at least $10 billion by 2030 to shore up the region’s digital resilience.

Kontext raises $4M for runtime security platform for AI agents

AI security company Kontext has raised $4million in funding to expand its runtime security platform for AI agents. Thefinancing was led by 42CAP, with backing from a16z CSX and HTGF.Founded by Jens Er...

AI’s real bottleneck isn’t compute — it’s the network underneath

For such a rapid innovation cycle, AI has been given unprecedented levels of responsibility. According to the Stanford AI Index 2026 , 88% of organizations used AI in 2025, with 70% using generative AI in at least one business function. Most analysts agree that this technology, particularly when it comes to generative and agentic AI, is yet to reach full maturity, yet it’s already making itself indispensable to most enterprises. Employees expect LLM-based copilots to respond as readily as any other business application, customers are increasingly exposed to AI as part of their user experience, and emerging agentic models need to communicate continuously with applications and infrastructure as they crunch data and carry out tasks. Any hint of delay within those interactions has the potential to disrupt productivity, sow mistrust in the technology, and limit any return on investment (ROI). Most businesses now inhabit a multi-cloud environment that spans countries and continents. When an AI request depends on information stored in one cloud environment, processing capacity hosted in another, and an application delivered somewhere else entirely, latency becomes the deciding factor. Each network hop, particularly through public Internet pathways, increases response time. Repeat these delays across hundreds, thousands, or even millions of individual requests – from both humans and AI agents – and the whole organization becomes artificially hampered. Sometimes connectivity becomes…

Nykaa and L’Oréal’s venture fund BOLD join hands to invest in Indian beauty startups

Beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa has partnered with BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development), the corporate venture capital fund of global beauty giant L’Oréal , to jointly invest in emerging Indian beauty and personal care brands. The collaboration will focus on high-growth beauty and wellness startups with strong consumer traction and differentiated offerings, according to Nykaa’s regulatory filing with the stock exchanges. Under the partnership, Nykaa and BOLD will acquire minority stakes in emerging brands through financial investments. The founders will retain operational and creative control of their businesses and continue to operate independently with their existing teams and brand identities, the disclosure added. Beyond capital, the two companies will provide strategic mentorship and guidance to help startups scale their businesses. The partnership will also combine L’Oréal’s global beauty expertise with Nykaa’s omnichannel retail network, distribution capabilities and understanding of Indian consumers. Launched in 2018, BOLD invests in innovative, high-growth startups across the beauty value chain. Its investments span two verticals: beauty and wellness brands, and science and technology for beauty. Nykaa, meanwhile, has been expanding its portfolio of owned and acquired brands, including Dot & Key, Kay Beauty, and Earth Rhythm. As of June 30, 2026, the company served over 60 million customers through its online platforms and operated 324 offline bea…

Global bond sell-off piles new pressure on UK borrowing costs before budget

Rising cost of 10-year gilt to near 19-year high hikes upfront cost of government investment and limits chancellor’s room for manoeuvre Business live – latest updates International bodies warn of rising debt and borrowing risks Burnham stands by claim UK is ‘in hock’ to bond markets A global sell-off in government bonds has put fresh upward pressure on UK borrowing costs, before a tough budget for John Healey next month. The yield – effectively the interest rate – on 10-year UK bonds, known as gilts, had risen to 5.38% by mid-morning on Thursday, approaching the 19-year high set last week. Continue reading...

AI platform Reply Next secures €400K pre-seed funding

Reply Next, an AIplatform for managing the digital presence of businesses with multiplelocations, has raised €400,000 in pre-seed funding. The round was led byindependent investment firm 4Founders Cap...

Switzerland's top-funded tech companies in H1 2026

Swiss tech companies raised more than €1.1 billion duringthe first half of 2026. Capital was relatively concentrated, with the tenlargest funding rounds accounting for around two-thirds of the total.L...

Amazon Pay India’s FY26 losses widens to Rs 1,149 Cr despite double digit revenue growth

Amazon Pay India, the digital payments arm of e-commerce giant Amazon, continued to face profitability challenges in FY26, with its losses widening 33% despite a return to double-digit revenue growth after a decline in FY25. The company also witnessed intensifying competition in the UPI ecosystem, as newer players gained ground and its market share declined. Amazon Pay India’s revenue from operations rose 18.5% year-on-year to Rs 2,484.4 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2026 from Rs 2,096.6 crore in FY25, according to its standalone financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Amazon Pay India enables users to make payments for shopping on Amazon and other services, including utility bills, mobile recharges, ticket bookings, and peer-to-peer UPI transfers. The company also offers digital wallets, insurance, and credit products. Revenue from payment processing fees and commissions constitute its primary sources of income. Amazon Pay also earned Rs 108.2 crore from non-operating activities like interest on current investments which took its total income to Rs 2,592.6 crore in FY26, compared to Rs 2,195.1 crore in the previous fiscal year. On the expense front, advertising and promotional costs remained the largest expenditure, rising 11% to Rs 1,767.6 crore in FY26. These costs included cashbacks, customer incentives, payments to banks for RuPay cards, advertising and publicity campaigns, B2B activities, and sponsorships. Payment processor fees surged…

MyRx raises seed round led by SteerX VC to expand primary healthcare infrastructure

Primary healthcare infrastructure company MyRx has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by SteerX VC. The proceeds will be deployed for clinical network and technology infrastructure needed to make doctor-led primary care accessible at scale, MyRx said in a press release. Co-founded in 2019 by Sourav Das, Surjit Das, and Neel Rath, MyRx is a primary healthcare infrastructure company that combines a doctor network with teleconsultation, electronic prescriptions and clinical workflow technology. It aims to make doctor-led primary care accessible through connected digital services and an expanding healthcare partner ecosystem. According to MyRx, it is building shared healthcare infrastructure that connects patients, doctors and enterprise partners. By combining a clinical network with technology for consultation allocation, workflow monitoring and audit, MyRx aims to help partners expand healthcare access while maintaining visibility and accountability across service delivery. The Hyderabad startup says that it currently manages 35,000 teleconsultations a day and reports 15% month-on-month growth. Its model brings together doctor availability, teleconsultation, electronic prescriptions and clinical workflow management, enabling partners to integrate access to medical care into their services. MyRx plans to expand the doctor network, strengthening technology and clinical quality systems, and simplifying enterprise integrations. MyRx also intends to develop it…

The personal AI agent horror stories are rolling in

Early users say personal AI agents have not been forthright about account access, fabricated personal details, and raised cybersecurity concerns.

Crux Analytics raises €1.9M to help banks win and retain small business customers

Crux Analytics, a fintech fixing the relationship between financial services companies and the small businesses they serve, has raised €1.9 million in seed funding to help institutions engage, acquire...

Cerebionics wants to turn human intent into commands for machines

Sometimes you hear about a startup doing something just so completely out of left field that you have to find out more. For me, that startup is Cerebionics. What started as Norwegian founder Agnessa P...

China’s humanoid robot IPO slowdown no threat to firms with ‘genuine strength’: Deloitte

Beijing’s recent tightening of approvals for humanoid robot makers seeking initial public offerings (IPOs) poses no threat to companies with clear commercialisation strategies, as funding channels remain wide open for qualified players, according to Deloitte China. “Market funds are shifting from the ‘blind rush’ of the past to ‘fine screening’,” said Dick Kay, Deloitte China’s capital market services group national leader, at a press conference on Thursday. Investors and regulators now placed...

Abu Dhabi firms are hunting energy assets beyond the Gulf

ADNOC’s investment arm XRG is in talks to buy into a Shell-led LNG export project in Canada, Bloomberg reported.

Abu Dhabi lands EQT Middle East investing platform

The $390 billion investment firm has 10 staff in its new ADGM office covering deals and investor relations.

Egypt and NVIDIA Prepare AI Cooperation MoU Covering Compute, Skills and Startups

Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is preparing a memorandum of understanding with NVIDIA covering AI, computing, digital skills and innovation support, following a meeting between ICT Minister Raafat Hindi and NVIDIA vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Paolo Guglielmini. The MoU has not been signed and no value, timeline or [...]

Al Ain new business licences jump 35% as investment gathers pace

US admits there were eight suicide attempts on US aircraft carrier during record Middle East deployment

In August, military families and lawmakers raised the alarm about reported suicide attempts and other serious mental health issues, food shortages and poor hygiene.

Bulgaria's battery storage boom pays off as summer drought hits power plants

Low administrative hurdles, a receptive market for clean energy and EU funding are among the reasons expert cite for the country's leading green energy role in the region.

Duqu raises €1.5M to give businesses faster access to working capital

Amsterdam-based fintech Duqu has raised €1.5million in pre-seed funding from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures. The companyprovides short-term advances against outstanding B2B invoices and developsAI-...

Sharjah Investment Forum 2026 to bring 10,000 investors and business leaders together

Clastix bags €2.9M to tackle the complexity of Kubernetes at scale

Italy-based Clastix, a company developingtechnology for managing Kubernetes operations at scale, has raised €2.9 millionin seed funding to expand its team and accelerate the development of itsplatform...

Estonian Defence Forces sign three-year defence tech partnership with VC Archangel

The Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) and defence-focused venture capital fund Archangel have signed a three-year cooperation agreement to strengthen cooperation and support the development of the defence...

50skills raises $6M to scale its AI operating system for people workflows

50skills, the AI operating systemfor people workflows, has raised $6 millionin funding to expand its platform for automating HR and people workflows. Theround was co-led by Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Pos...

Authorities are investigating Comma AI's hands-off driving tech after fatal crashes

NHTSA opened a probe into Comma AI's hands-off driving devices after fatal crashes raised questions about the tech's ability to detect stopped cars.

The Transformation Edge: Why AI is forcing the CFO and CHRO to rewrite the enterprise together

There was a time when the org chart told you how the company worked. Finance managed capital. Human resources managed people. Information technology managed systems. Operations managed workflows. AI is blowing that model apart, creating a new discipline of “workforce economics,” where human talent, digital labor, technology investment and productivity increasingly have to be managed […] The post The Transformation Edge: Why AI is forcing the CFO and CHRO to rewrite the enterprise together appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

AI drug discovery startup Basecamp Research raises $140M

Basecamp Research Ltd. today announced that it has raised $140 million in funding from a group of prominent investors. S32, a fund affiliated with Google LLC co-founder Bill Maris, led the Series C round. It was joined by more than a dozen other investors. The group included NATO, Nvidia Corp. and the Anthology Fund, a […] The post AI drug discovery startup Basecamp Research raises $140M appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Modal Motors is trying to cut China out of electric motors entirely

The startup is working on small, light motors with no rare-earth magnets that are suited for drones, fans, and robots.

Microsoft expands investment in the Middle East with focus on AI, digital resilience and people

The post Microsoft expands investment in the Middle East with focus on AI, digital resilience and people appeared first on Source .

The old cybersecurity model is breaking

As concern over AI safety and rogue agents continue to make headlines, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity stocks are rising, or that investors are pouring massive amounts of capital into startups trying to build the next generation of security for an AI-native world. We’re even seeing companies like Instinct and Simile bring in nine-figure checks and valuations that wouldn’t have made sense a […]

The Guardian view on Russian disinformation: a foreign threat that relies on UK complicity | Editorial

Andy Burnham’s accusation against the Kremlin tells half the story. Domestic extremists amplified by US big tech are part of the same problem In November 2020, Barack Obama warned of an “ epistemological crisis ” facing western democracies. Polarisation and radicalisation were corroding trust in established information sources. “If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work,” the former US president said. That vulnerability has grown since then. Democracy’s enemies have become more determined to exploit it. This is the threat that Andy Burnham highlighted in a speech at the United Nations this week. The prime minister accused Russia of waging an “industrial-scale assault” on the UK’s information environment using bot armies and fake websites to spread falsehoods, interfere in elections, foment discord and poison inter-community relations. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...

Acumen backs Sun King with $5 million to expand solar access in Zambia

The investment comes as Zambia tries to close a large electricity-access gap while reducing its dependence on hydropower.

Rabbit returns with OS3, a personal AI agent that can access files and connect computers

Artificial intelligence startup Rabbit Inc., best known for launching the consumer-oriented R1 AI-enabled mobile device that fits in a pocket, Tuesday unveiled OS3, a personal AI agent that runs in the cloud and connects to personal devices. Although OS3 runs in the cloud, it connects and operates on a user’s PC and other devices through […] The post Rabbit returns with OS3, a personal AI agent that can access files and connect computers appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

South Africa faces US investment freeze warns ambassador

L. Brent Bozell III said Pretoria’s measures aimed at redressing inequalities caused by apartheid were barriers to investment.

A New National Security Architecture: An Economic Security & Strategic Investment Framework for the Western Hemisphere

This report from the second CEF cohort provides an economic security framework for the U.S. and globally demonstrating accountability and democratic governance.

Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investment

A cash injection from SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk could reduce investor Larry Ellison’s financial burden and bolster the deal’s investor base.

StrictlyVC at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Inside the changing rules of venture capital

StrictlyVC joins TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to discuss the changing VC landscape thanks to AI. Get your Investor Pass to join these exclusive sessions. Save $200 before September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Bird raises $450M in debt, headcount cut from 1,000 peak to 120

Bird, the business communications platform once seen as a European rival to the US's Twilio, has raised $450m in debt financing, as it underscored its repositioning as an AI business, a shift which ha...

Inside Basecamp Research, the AI startup turning evolution into training data

Basecamp Research has raised $140 million from investors including Nvidia and Anthropic's Anthology Fund. The London company trains AI models on genetic material from rainforests, oceans, and hot springs to design antibiotics and tools for cell therapies. In an interview with THE DECODER, CTO Philip Lorenz explains why biology is a far bigger problem for AI than language, and why good scores on paper don't guarantee good molecules. The article Inside Basecamp Research, the AI startup turning evolution into training data appeared first on The Decoder .

Small Talk With Prasun Kumar, CEO and Founder of Oppex AI

What is Small Talk? Small Talk is our short Q&A with founders from the JetBrains Startup Program. They answer a handful of questions in their own words about what they’re building, why they started, and what they’ve figured out along the way. No pitch, no polish – just a two-minute read to meet the person […]

ZeroDrift launches three models for real-time AI compliance checks

ZeroDrift Inc., a startup that automates compliance for artificial intelligence communications, today launched Anchor 3.0, a family of small language models designed to check messages generated by AI agents before they’re sent. The company said the models can enforce financial regulations and internal corporate policies while operating fast enough to examine every outgoing message in […] The post ZeroDrift launches three models for real-time AI compliance checks appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

NextLM brings its precision prospecting agent to Google Cloud Marketplace

NextLM Inc., which makes software that uses behavioral analysis and custom artificial intelligence models to help sales professionals identify and rank individual sales leads, is bringing its AI Prospecting Agent to Google LLC’s Cloud Marketplace and Gemini Enterprise. The New York-based startup says its agent analyzes behavioral signals, identifies individuals it believes are researching a […] The post NextLM brings its precision prospecting agent to Google Cloud Marketplace appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Nosike Nwigene: From flunking medicine to shaping Africa’s AI policy

Nosike Nwigene set out to become a doctor but was eventually kicked out of medical school. A career in communications followed, taking him from startup public relations to policy advocacy and the Nigeria Startup Bill. Now, he is building an advisory while deepening his work in technology policy and AI governance across Africa.

Ema raises $77M in funding to deploy AI employees across enterprise HR, IT and finance departments

Agentic artificial intelligence employee startup Ema Unlimited Inc. is prepping for a massive expansion of its autonomous workers in the enterprise after raising $77 million in funding today. The Series B round was led by Creagis and saw the participation of existing backers including Accel, S32 and Posus, which each returned with a substantially larger […] The post Ema raises $77M in funding to deploy AI employees across enterprise HR, IT and finance departments appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Anthropic with Menlo Ventures and Nvidia back Basecamp Research in $140M Series C

A UK life sciences startup using AI to develop new medicines faster to treat diseases has raised $140m in funding, in an investmentround featuring AI powerhouses Nvidia and new investor Anthropic, who...

PitPro’s first tire-changing robot goes live in Canada

The startup says its automated system can change four tires in under 15 minutes.

London traveltech Stasher secures £3M for global expansion

London-founded traveltech companyStasher has secured £3 million in new funding to expand its global luggagestorage marketplace and smart locker network. The funding comprisesapproximately £2 million i...

Why African startups can be profitable and still look too risky to finance

Africa’s startup funding problem may be less about a shortage of capital than a shortage of businesses investors can understand, assess and back.

Ekai raises $1.7M to give enterprise AI agents verified business context

Enterprise data startup Ekai Inc. today announced $1.7 million in new funding for software that builds the business context artificial intelligence agents need before they can be trusted with corporate data. Ekai provides a platform that writes the semantic models and data transformation code AI tools rely on to read a company’s data warehouse correctly. […] The post Ekai raises $1.7M to give enterprise AI agents verified business context appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Legal AI startup Spellbook hired a new CMO — and she has strong opinions on avoiding 'creepy' AI marketing

Meltem Kuran-Berkowitz wants Spellbook to become the default brand people associate with managing contracts.

Adtech vet Brian O'Kelley's startup is pivoting to AI agents and rebranding with a new name

Scope3 no more. Enter, Apostra, a startup that wants to replace programmatic advertising with AI agents.

Ema raises $77M as AI starts eating into enterprise software and services

Ema has raised $140 million to date and has more than 50 enterprise customers, including Google and Microsoft.

A Startup Wants to Power Data Centers With ‘Supercritical’ Carbon Dioxide

The technology could strap onto existing gas turbines and make them more efficient—but it wouldn’t do away with their emissions entirely.

Turkey arrests Tera chairman as ‘Ponzi-like’ fund probe affects 450,000 investors

Turkish authorities arrested the chairman of Tera Yatirim Menkul Degerler AS on Wednesday morning, the brokerage at the centre of the country's current investment fund scandal, with funds worth more than $18 billion (€15.7bn) and held by over 450,000 people now being liquidated.

StandardX launches with £10M to expand isotope production for medicine and fusion

Deeptech company StandardX has raised £10million in seed funding to develop its accelerator-based isotope refinery andincrease production of rare isotopes used in medicine and energy. The round wasled...

German AI startup mika raises €6M to simplify accounting and tax for SMEs

Berlin-basedvertical AI startup mika has raised €6 million in a seed round led bypan-European investor Smedvig Ventures. Basel-based family office Wecken &Cie. (Care4 AG) also participated, alongs...

Palma.ai raises $1.8M to bring governed AI agents to more enterprises

Palma.ai, an enterprise platform for governing AI agents atruntime, has raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led byD11Z, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures, Deel, Scale N...

F13 emerges from stealth with $5M for vector graphics AI

F13, an AI company developingfoundation models for generating vector graphics, has emerged from stealth with$5 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Credo Ventures and Point Nine Capital, ...

Comment on An Overview of China’s Top-Funded AI Startups by cici

Worth a look if you need something like hingesignals without rebuilding everything. hingesignals

Could Europe’s start-ups help solve the power problems created by the AI boom?

Euronews Next looked at startups in Europe that are trying to make better use of existing grid capacity, reduce the electricity used for cooling and put waste heat to work.

CIOC Energy secures €3M for solar and battery optimisation

Belgian energyoptimisation company CIOC Energy has raised €3 million from renewable energydeveloper CleverNett, which has taken a minority stake in the company. CIOCEnergy will remain independent.Foun...

Most European men would try new contraception methods if available, survey finds

Most men would embrace contraception designed for them, such as on-demand pills taken before sex, a daily hormonal gel or a thermal silicone ring, but funding gaps are keeping these products years away from pharmacy shelves.

Noxtua raises more than €100M as C.H.BECK takes majority stake German legaltech

Noxtua has closed its Series C funding round totalling more than €100 million. Founded in Berlin in 2017 and spun out of research at Oxford University and Imperial College London, the scale-up launche...

Training data provider Snorkel AI raises $350M at $3.5B valuation

Snorkel AI Inc., a provider of artificial intelligence training data, today disclosed that it has raised $350 million in funding. Insight and S32 led the Series E deal. They were joined by more than a half-dozen other backers including Alphabet Inc.’s GV startup fund. Snorkel AI was founded in 2019 by researchers from the Stanford […] The post Training data provider Snorkel AI raises $350M at $3.5B valuation appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

China’s AI self-reliance presents opportunities but valuations, geopolitics are risks: BofA

China’s push for tech self-reliance is opening new investment opportunities in artificial intelligence stocks, but stretched valuations and geopolitical tensions make the sector an increasingly risky bet, according to Bank of America. The country’s tech firms are catching up with overseas rivals while a wave of high-profile listings has broadened investment opportunities, Winnie Wu, head of Asia-Pacific equity strategy research and co-head of China equity research at Bank of America, said in a...

Marc Benioff says Salesforce's investment in Anthropic was a plan B that could pay off in ‘tens of billions’

Marc Benioff said Salesforce backed Anthropic after it could not invest in OpenAI, a bet he thinks could be worth tens of billions.

Web scraping startup Firecrawl closes $75M investment

Firecrawl Inc., a provider of web scraping tools for artificial intelligence agents, today announced that it has raised $75 million in funding. Los Angeles-based venture capital firm Smash Ventures led the Series B round. It was joined by Y Combinator, Altos Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Freestyle and Offline Ventures. AI agents rely on information from […] The post Web scraping startup Firecrawl closes $75M investment appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Snorkel AI triples valuation to $3.5B as demand for AI training data booms

The seven-year-old startup has raised a $350 million Series E to fuel its data-as-a-service approach.

Rabbit’s new AI agent doesn’t need an R1 to run

Rabbit, the company behind the underwhelming R1 device, is rolling out a standalone AI agent that you don't need its hardware to use, as reported earlier by Wired. The startup says its new OS3 "agentic operating system" runs in the cloud but operates locally across Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. According to Rabbit, you can […]

Saudi Arabia’s new Exobot EVs make the Cybertruck look normal

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is mostly known for its global dominance over petroleum production and oil reserves - not necessarily cars and auto manufacturing, and certainly not electric vehicle production. So it was a little surprising on Monday when a Saudi startup called Ceer unveiled a pair of hyper-angular, spaceship-like EVs, with plans to […]

Trump praises Burnham despite tensions over AI, Chagos Islands and Iran

US president calls UK prime minister ‘a natural businessperson’ as leaders meet at UN assembly in New York Donald Trump has asserted his relationship with the UK is “more up” with Andy Burnham than under Keir Starmer despite tensions between the two countries on a range of thorny issues including regulation of artificial intelligence, the Chagos Islands and the war in Iran. At their first face-to-face meeting, the US president praised Burnham, who sat nervously alongside him, as a “natural businessperson”, saying he thought he had “lots of assets on his side” and would be a “great” prime minister. Continue reading...

Fintech startups that hated banks are now becoming them

SoFi is now a bank, the 46th biggest in America. So are Klarna and PayPal. Chime is the latest to bite the bullet.

Trump praises Takaichi for doing ‘tremendous job’ ahead of Xi’s visit to US

US President Donald Trump praised his strong relationship with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in New York on Tuesday, days before he is due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The talks, held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, come as relations between Beijing and Tokyo show no signs of thawing. Both leaders hailed their good working relationship, with Takaichi saying the two countries looked forward to deepening ties. Trump lavished praise on the Japanese...

Trading firms could control meaningful amounts of compute by 2030

It's pretty crazy that right now, the highest margin thing to do with these models seems to be simply selling them through an API. Dwarkesh's blog prize [1] questioned how this dynamic could ever result in lab profitability, simply because the scale of reinvestment into model training and research requires constantly reinvesting more than you're making. Well, Anthropic is likely already profitable, [2] and it hasn't required any of the schemes I saw proposed in answers to his question. It turns out that the margin on selling frontier intelligence through an API is just really high! So high, that AI training and inference is consuming supply chains that used to serve other high-margin industries. Memory and fab space is being redirected from consumer devices, [3] and compute that used to serve Bitcoin mining is being repurposed to capture a slice of those frontier lab margins. [4] This dynamic reinforces classic concentration of power risks, with some estimating OpenAI and Anthropic will soon control over 80% of worldwide compute. [5] As long as supplying frontier labs is the highest margin usage of compute, it's hard to not see this becoming the case. However, I think there is a decent case to be made that trading will become a threat to research compute, in the same way that research is now a threat to compute in consumer products, due to better profitability and the rapid growth. Trading firm AI use Hedge funds and trading firms have used "AI" for decades, as that amorphou…

Andreessen Horowitz is launching an ‘academy’ with no homework and partnerships with Palantir, Google, and Meta

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is creating an "academy" positioned as a pipeline for young people to build or join a Silicon Valley startup. The "Horowitz Andreessen Academy" will launch with 10 partners, including Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe, along with $42 million in funding led by a16z. […]

Major gaps remain to tripling global renewable energy capacity

Delivering the extra capacity requires an additional $8.6 trillion in investment over 2026-2030.

Qatar Investment Authority deepens US ties with JPMorgan

The deal includes a $15 billion customized public equities portfolio managed by the US bank and a $5 billion private markets initiative.

US hasn’t lost to China in Africa, DFC CEO says

Washington can take on risky investments abroad while also delivering value to American taxpayers, Ben Black said at Semafor’s The Next 3 Billion.

Nick Clegg could make £30m windfall from datacentre startup Nscale flotation

The former UK deputy prime minister is a board member of the UK-based company and owns 917,000 shares Nick Clegg could make approximately $40m (£30m) from the planned float of Nscale as the UK-based datacentre company prepares for a US stock market listing. The former UK deputy prime minister owns more than 917,000 shares in the startup, which is reportedly seeking a valuation of up to $35bn in a flotation. Based on Clegg’s stake of 0.12%, that could yield a valuation of about $42m for the ex-Liberal Democrat party leader. Continue reading...

NATO Innovation Fund co-leads €11M investment in Swedish defence tech outfit Terasi

Stockholm-based defence startup Terasi has wonan €11 million seed investment, co-led by the NATO Innovation Fund, thestartup said today.Terasi builds communication technology geared towardsthe battlef...

Exhibit tables added: One last chance to showcase your startup at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

We have reopened our exhibitor program for 1 more week. Book your exhibit table by September 30 at 11:59 p.m. PT and showcase your startup in front of 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders at SF's Moscone West from October 13-15.

Why China’s frontier AI pioneers are expected to miss this week’s Xi-Trump summit

As President Xi Jinping prepares to travel to the United States to meet his American counterpart Donald Trump, attention is turning to the group of business leaders who could join him. The South China Morning Post previously reported that executives from electric vehicle maker BYD, smart manufacturing giant Xiaomi and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited were likely to accompany Xi on the trip – though Beijing has yet to officially confirm the delegation. What has raised...

A tiny software layer from lab-grown neurons promises faster, cheaper AI video

The Biological Computing Co. wants to team up with AWS to sell a text-to-video model that's supposed to run five times faster and 80 percent cheaper thanks to a software layer derived from real nerve cells. The tiny layer adds less than 0.1 percent to the base model, but the startup won't say which model that is. The article A tiny software layer from lab-grown neurons promises faster, cheaper AI video appeared first on The Decoder .

Beyond the limits of air: Why liquid cooling is becoming a strategic imperative for AI

In the rapidly evolving information technology landscape, the data center of the future has arrived ahead of schedule. As AI workloads move to become core business drivers, the underlying infrastructure is hitting a thermal wall. For CIOs, the transition from traditional air cooling to liquid cooling is no longer a niche technical choice for supercomputers—it is a critical financial and operational investment in long-term enterprise viability. Working together, HPE and NVIDIA are redefining what’s possible, but realizing the full potential of these advancements requires a fundamental shift in how we cool the infrastructure that powers them. The physics of performance: Why air is no longer enough For decades, air cooling has been the workhorse of the data center. However, the math is changing. Standard CPUs and early-generation GPUs could be kept within operational limits by moving massive volumes of air through the rack. But with the advent of next-generation GPUs like the NVIDIA Blackwell series, power densities are skyrocketing. The power density gap: A fully populated modern GPU rack can draw upwards of 132 kW, with next-generation architectures projected to reach 240 kW per rack—and eventually 1 MW per rack . Thermal limits: As chip density rises, the thermal tolerance of these processors is actually decreasing . Air simply does not have the thermal conductivity required to pull heat away fast enough to prevent thermal throttling. The cooling-to-compute ratio: Traditiona…

Singapore’s Nexstrom wants to bring 2D semiconductors to chip fabs

Singapore-based Nexstrom has raised new funding to develop equipment that could help chipmakers manufacture 2D semiconductor materials at scale.

With $35M in early funding, Baselayer is building the trust layer for the agentic economy

Business identity and risk infrastructure startup Baselayer is shifting its attention to artificial intelligence agents after raising $35 million in early-stage funding today. Alongside the Series A round, it’s announcing the launch of its Agentic Identity Suite, which it says is the first interoperable trust layer and fraud prevention platform designed specifically for the agentic […] The post With $35M in early funding, Baselayer is building the trust layer for the agentic economy appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Heidi Health nabs $340M to deepen adoption of AI agents within health systems globally

Heidi Health Trading Pty Ltd., a healthcare artificial intelligence startup, today announced it has raised a total of $340 million in new funding to support the company’s next phase of growth and deepen adoption throughout health systems. The funding comes from a combination of a $100 million Series C round led by Blackbird, with participation […] The post Heidi Health nabs $340M to deepen adoption of AI agents within health systems globally appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy bets these 21 startups will shape energy’s future

To the investors at Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy, the coming wave of electrification will make data center energy demands look quaint by comparison. Here's how they're preparing.