AI/ML News & Innovations Hub

Bajaj Finserv Ventures leads $10 Mn pre Series B round in Kapture CX

Verticalized full stack agentic AI platform Kapture CX has raised $10 million in a pre Series B funding round led by Bajaj Finserv Ventures (BFSV), part of Bajaj Finserv, with participation from its existing investors Cactus Venture Partners and India Alternatives. Prior to this, the Bengaluru based company had secured $4 million led India Alternatives extended Series A round in December 2023 and $4 million in a Series A round led by Cactus Venture Partners (CVP) in July 2023. The fresh proceeds will be utilized for expansion into multiple global markets and continued investment in R&D and product development, Kapture CX said in a press release. Co-founded in 2014 by Sheshgiri Kamath and Vikas Garg, Kapture CX is a verticalized, full stack agentic AI platform built to orchestrate high stakes workflows for large enterprises. Through its deep tech capabilities, it brings AI agents, operational intelligence, and human oversight into one system, allowing enterprises to run complex operations at scale. Kapture CX said that enterprises face a fragmented market with point products from multiple providers, making AI adoption a high effort exercise. According to the company, enterprises need a full stack agentic AI platform that understands industry specific requirements and delivers customized solutions for complex workflows. This is the gap Kapture aims to address. By owning and optimizing the full technology stack, from the models to the agentic layer and the user interface, Kaptu…

Chamath Palihapitiya raises $135M Series A for his AI coding startup, takes CEO role

VCs remain thirsty to fund AI coding startups. This one, founded by investor Chamath Palihapitiya, is no exception.

Exclusive: Index to lead investment into Berlin’s Nomos Energy

Delhi EV policy to accelerate electric two wheeler adoption

The Delhi government on Monday approved a new Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy that is expected to accelerate electric two wheeler adoption through purchase incentives, mandatory EV only registrations from 2028 and a major expansion of charging infrastructure. The policy offers incentives of Rs 30,000 for electric two wheelers in the first year, Rs 20,000 in the second year and Rs 10,000 in the third year. From April 1, 2028, only electric two wheelers will be eligible for fresh registration in Delhi. Existing petrol and diesel vehicles can continue to be used as per the current rules. The move is expected to benefit electric two wheeler manufacturers such as Ather Energy, Ola Electric, TVS Motor Company, Bajaj Auto and Ultraviolette Automotive. Delhi is one of the country's largest two wheeler markets and the policy provides long term visibility for EV adoption. Reacting to the announcement, Tarun Mehta, cofounder and CEO of Ather Energy, said that Delhi has approved one of the most significant city level EV policies in India. "The combination of incentives, phased electrification mandates and charging infrastructure creates a very strong foundation. If Delhi can become a majority EV market, it has the opportunity to become a benchmark for the rest of the country," Mehta said in a post on X . He added that long term policies give the EV ecosystem the confidence to continue investments and product development. Narayan Subramaniam, CEO and Head of Design at Ultraviolette Automoti…

Arena, the AI leaderboard everyone uses, is now a $100M business

The startup, which runs a popular free AI leaderboard, launched its commercial service just last September.

$1M AI x-risk grant round is live on grantmaking.ai - apply for funding, review applicants, or fund projects

TLDR: what is the grant round? grantmaking.ai is launching a $1M grant round , distributing $5k to $50k per successful application to people and projects working to reduce x-risk from AI. Applications will be reviewed by Gavin Leech , Ryan Kidd , and Marcus Abramovitch . We aim to make all funding decisions by July 28th. Applications submitted by July 13th are guaranteed a priority review. You can still apply after July 13th, and we will make our best effort to review late submissions as long as funding remains. Grant applications will be mostly public, though we allow certain sensitive details to be kept private. Even if you are not applying, we invite you to join the platform to review and comment. We have set aside $100k of the budget to be given to top commenters as regranting budgets, so please share your thoughts and help us pick out awesome projects! Who are we? grantmaking.ai was initialized by Anton Makiievskyi, who is funding this round and brought the team together, built by Matt Brooks (lead dev) and Melissa Samworth (ui/ux), and advised by Austin Chen with Manifund handling grant distribution. Why we’re building this platform & launching a grant round You can read our initial pre-launch post to learn more about what we’re building and why. In short, we want to build the most comprehensive public repository of donation opportunities in existential AI safety space with essential information like up-to-date funding needs, theory of impact, references, endorsements,…

Miroma Group Acquires Ad Results Media For Big U.S. Push

ARM oversees $750M in media investments annually.

Visual Studio Code locks down untrusted code

Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code editor has reached version 1.126, which is highlighted by a new security mode for untrusted code. Also with the new release, VS Code now displays total cost for chat sessions (instead of just for individual turns) and allows users to manage multiple chats side-by-side in a single agent host session. Published June 24 , VS Code 1.26 can be downloaded from code.visualstudio.com . VS Code 1.26 introduces a new security enhancement, Workspace Trust , that lets users decide whether project folders can automatically run code and adds a layer of security when working with unfamiliar code. Previously, opening a new folder immediately raised a dialog asking the user whether to trust the folder before they could look at its contents. Now, new folders open in Restricted Mode to prevent automatic code execution. Developers can browse the code safely first and then choose whether to trust the folder. Simplified model hovering also is featured in VS Code 1.126. The model hover now shows a one-word descriptor of the model’s capabilities and includes deep link buttons that take a user directly to the relevant configuration. In an enhancement to the Agents window , the dedicated companion window for exploring agent sessions across projects and machines, a Copilot session started from an agent host now can hold several chats at once. Because the chats share the same session and working context, users can keep more than one conversation going in the same workspac…

Dbrand cancels Companion Cube because it didn’t actually ask Valve for permission

Dbrand announced Monday that it's refunding everyone who bought its Steam Machine Companion Cube, which it said it made "without a license from Valve." Dbrand announced the Portal-themed Steam Machine accessory in November and took preorders for it last Monday. But a few days later, the product had disappeared from the company's website and the […]

Deno update streamlines creation of desktop apps

Deno Land has published Deno 2.9, an update of the company’s JavaScript / TypeScript / WebAssembly runtime that features deno desktop , a mechanism for building native desktop applications from the web stack developers already know. Introduced June 25 , Deno 2.9 also improves startup time, memory use, and HTTP throughput, the company said. Deno installation instructions can be found at docs.deno.com . With Deno 2.9, users can point deno desktop at a script or a web framework project to produce a native and self-contained desktop application where the UI runs in a webview and the logic runs in Deno. Because deno desktop is built on the same machinery as deno compile , the output is a single, distributable binary with code and assets embedded, Deno Land said. Also in Deno 2.9, a hello-world program now cold-starts in about half the time it took in 2.8 (34ms down to 17ms), the company said. This improvement results from a combination of factors including lazy-loading node: globals out of the snapshot, gating the eager Node bootstrap to Node workers, a V8 code cache for residual lazy-loaded ESM modules, and a minified snapshot. Deno 2.9 also brings improvements in memory usage, specifically memory under load. In Deno 2.8, resident set size grew with the workload, from roughly 94 MB serving plaintext to 197 MB streaming 1 MiB bodies, whereas in Deno 2.9 it stays essentially flat, holding around 62 MB no matter what the server is doing. This works out to 2.2x less peak resident se…

Agent confidence on the technical frontier

Enterprise investment in AI is booming. Gartner is calling 2026 an “inflection year” for organizations to align their AI projects with strategic business objectives. As the pressure to prove ROI mounts, executives and technology leaders are looking to agentic AI to drive the measurable financial outcomes their businesses seek. A prime opportunity for AI agents…

Vegvisir raises funding to connect allied unmanned systems through a unified command platform

Vegvisir, an Estonian defence technology company building the command-and-control software layer for the multi-domain battlefield, today announced a venture investment from Iron Wolf Capital (IWC). V...

P101 expands into seed investing with PranaVentures integration and €100M fund

Italian VC P101 has integrated PranaVentures, an operational venture capital company specialising in Seed investments. The combination brings together more than €600 million in assets raised, creating...

Robot hand company settles Tesla trade secret suit and announces $11M raise

The startup, Proception, is taking a unique approach to collecting training data to tackle one of the hardest problems in robotics: hands.

Subatron secures €162K to tackle one of underwater tech's biggest communication challenges

Swiss engineering startup Subatron has obtained €162,000 (CHF 150,000) from Venture Kick to develop a new generation of underwater communication technology. The solution aims to enable faster, more r...

Healthcare startup MyKare.ai raises $3.2 Mn

Healthcare startup MyKare.ai has raised $3.2 million, including an additional $1 million in Series A funding round. The round saw participation from Andrew and Alfredo, founders of Papa.com, and a leading family office from the Middle East. The fresh funds will be used to enhance AI capabilities, accelerate product development, and support global expansion, MyKare said in a press release. Co-founded in 2021 by Senu Sam, Rahmathulla T M, and Joash Philipose, MyKare.ai develops an AI native healthcare operating system for clinics and hospitals. Its platform helps automate patient acquisition, appointment booking, follow ups, communication, feedback collection, and other administrative workflows through AI agents and voice AI. The startup aims to improve operational efficiency and patient experience by integrating these functions into a single platform. Its AI agents can also manage patient queries, identify intent, answer calls, update CRM records, and support patient retention. According to the company, it serves healthcare organizations across India, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It directly competes with the other notable players in this space such as Yellow.ai, Haptik, Senseforth.ai, Hyro, and Cognigy.

Why Holocene raised a $3 million fund to solve Africa’s climate-tech exits

Holocene is not trying to build the next billion-dollar climate company in Africa but is trying to build several worth $30 to $50 million each and sell them within three to five years.

Omen AI’s plan to optimize data centers is all wet

Omen AI raised a $31 million Series A to monitor chip coolant and stop bacterial outbreaks in data centers.

How far we are from Conscious AI right now?

How far are we actually from conscious AI? Achieving AGI has become a matter of just a couple of years, even though the last time this question was seriously raised—eight years ago—it felt like pure sci-fi. We have almost cracked intelligence, but what about self-awareness?

The hackathon that became Europe's defence startup ecosystem

Here in Europe, a new generation of defence startups is emerging far outside the traditional military-industrial complex. Across weekend hackathons, engineers, software developers, drone builders, res...

Want a big tech job? Startups may be your best shot now - here's why

AI is reshaping tech hiring, and smaller companies may offer some of the best opportunities today.

Oman, France sign strategic investment deals led by Muscat Metro project

US nuclear firm aims to get UAE plans back on track

Nano Nuclear is also in talks to get investment from an Abu Dhabi state-linked firm to fund expansion.

AI's next bottleneck is power. That's why I left the creator economy to build a data center startup.

Leonhard Soenke founded a creator economy startup. Now he splits his time between San Francisco and Texas working in data centers. Here's why.

Semiconductors: 10 companies that raised the most in 2025

European semiconductor companies attracted strong investmentin 2025 as governments and investors doubled down on technologies underpinningAI, high-performance computing, next-generation communications...

Investment banks optimistic about global economy

The US-Iran truce, a dampening of trade-war rhetoric, and a surge in tech capex are laying “the foundation for a period of strong and balanced global growth,” JPMorgan’s chief economist said.

The AI boom propping up markets could trigger the next crash, central banks warn

The vast surge of investment in AI, which has powered global stock markets to record highs, risks ending in a financial bust, the Bank for International Settlements warns, as the build-up’s hidden costs begin to surface in company accounts and consumer prices alike.

The Capitalist Ventures bags Rs 10 Cr seed round

The Capitalist Ventures, a Hyderabad-based entrepreneurial venture company operating at the intersection of private luxury concierge and culture-driven commerce, has raised Rs 10 crore in a seed funding round from M Sriram and other angel investors. The fresh funds will be utilized to expand luxury product portfolio, accelerate customer acquisition and brand-building initiatives, and strengthen operational infrastructure, The Capitalist Ventures said in a press release. Launched in 2025 by Satyaram Nadimpalli, The Capitalist Ventures is focused on building trust-led ecosystems centered around access, exclusivity, and high-value opportunities. Its two core verticals, The Plug and The Capitalist Concierge, serve India’s evolving premium consumer market, offering access to rare sneakers, streetwear, luxury assets, collectibles, and private deal flow. The Capitalist Ventures operates two distinct verticals, The Plug, a community-driven sneaker and streetwear platform, and The Capitalist Concierge, a private luxury concierge service catering to HNIs and UHNIs seeking access to exclusive collectibles. Together, the verticals position the company as a full-stack access infrastructure for India's growing new-wealth class. The company plans to accelerate market presence, with growing demand for authenticated luxury products and exclusive sourcing, it says that the company is well-positioned to scale both in India and across global luxury hubs including Dubai, Milan and Spain.

We're childhood friends who scaled our startup to $13M by age 21. Dropping out of college was the right move — if anything, we did it too late.

Two childhood friends scaled an AI study app to $13 million in revenue and say using AI to code is powerful but comes at a cost.

I'm 63 and raising 2 grandchildren alone. It's cost me my retirement years, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Rebecca Black, 63, has raised her grandsons since 2020. She left her job to care for them full-time, resulting in financial strain.

Europe’s industrial wake-up call

Europe’s climate ambitions must integrate with industrial competitiveness. The upcoming EU ETS reform should support decarbonization while ensuring affordable energy, investment certainty, energy security and a level playing field.

The $411 billion imperative: Why healthcare investment must follow where the patients are

Concern over AI’s impact on Asia’s real estate sector is misplaced

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative force in economies and financial markets. McKinsey estimates that data centres alone will need a staggering US$6.7 trillion in capital investment across the global data centre value chain in the next five years, and the scale of the investment suggests the world economy is in the early stages of a far-reaching shift that could lead to big gains in productivity. In a report on June 24, Vanguard said the massive buildout of AI infrastructure...

Samsung and SK Hynix plan $590 billion chip investment as AI demand sends memory prices soaring

Samsung and SK Hynix, backed by the South Korean government, are pouring $590 billion into new chip factories and packaging centers as AI data center demand surges. According to Jefferies, memory prices could climb to 50 percent per quarter through 2027. The two companies control nearly 80 percent of the global HBM market. The article Samsung and SK Hynix plan $590 billion chip investment as AI demand sends memory prices soaring appeared first on The Decoder .

This Humanoid Robot Is a Terrifyingly Competent Office Intern

Flexion Robotics, a startup founded by ex-Nvidia engineers, has a clever way of training robots to do useful work.

European tech weekly recap: €2.1B in deals and Tech.eu Funding Explorer

Last week, we tracked more than 75 tech funding deals worth over €2.1 million and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. 📊 The top three industries that r...

Boundless Ventures leads pre-seed round in Lytmus AI

Lytmus AI, a Bengaluru-based startup building AI mentors for competitive exam preparation, has raised Rs 5 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by Boundless Ventures. The fresh capital will be used to strengthen the startup’s AI capabilities, accelerate product development, and expand student acquisition, with an initial focus on the NEET segment, the company said in a press release. Founded in 2024 by Ajit Kumar and Praveen, Lytmus AI develops AI mentors for competitive exam preparation. The platform combines persistent memory and contextual understanding with subject expertise from teachers to create AI mentors that resolve doubts in real time and guide students through their learning journey. It is currently available on mobile with an initial focus on NEET. According to the startup, its platform operates on two layers. The infrastructure layer is trained on the teaching patterns of subject experts to enable AI mentors to explain concepts effectively, while the application layer maintains memory and context for each student to personalise the learning experience. With more than two million candidates registering for NEET every year, the company believes there is significant demand for personalised academic support during exam preparation. Lytmus AI said its platform has been used by over 16,000 students in the past 90 days. According to the company, students using its AI mentor complete up to three times more daily practice than those without such guidance. The startup c…

The Func. Lab raises $1.5 Mn seed round from Nisaba Godrej, Anand Piramal and others

Nutrition-focused startup The Func. Lab has raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round from a group of investors including Nisaba Godrej, Anand Piramal, Abhishek Nayar, Bhakti Modi, Harsh Parekh, and Sahil Vora. The startup will use the fresh capital to expand its product portfolio, strengthen distribution, enhance supply chain capabilities, and scale across digital, quick commerce, and offline retail channels. Founded in 2025 by celebrity fitness trainer Sohrab Khushrushahi, Sahil Kukreja, and Daneesh Davar, The Func. Lab offers nutrition products across hydration, protein, and functional wellness categories. Its portfolio includes electrolytes, whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, and plant protein products. The firm claims its products are free from gums, emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, artificial sweeteners, and proprietary blends, and undergo independent testing for quality verification. Since its launch in July 2025, The Func. Lab has expanded across D2C, ecommerce, quick commerce, and offline retail channels. The startup is now focusing on the hydration segment and plans to expand its range of electrolyte and recovery products while increasing availability across India.

Yash Raj Films makes strategic investment in Rusk Media

Yash Raj Films (YRF) has made a strategic investment in digital first entertainment company Rusk Media. The Delhi headquartered company recently raised Rs 100 crore ($10.6 million) in a pre Series C funding round led by Nazara Technologies. The round also saw participation from Info Edge Ventures, IvyCap Ventures, and a consortium led by Audacity VC. The proceeds will be used to build the next generation of digital IP for India and global markets, Rusk Media said in a press release. Under the partnership, YRF will oversee the creative direction of original animation and vertical micro drama IP, while Rusk Media will produce and distribute the content through its proprietary Alright! TV platform and global digital channels. Co-founded in 2019 by Mayank Yadav, Karanvir Sofat, and Shantanu Singh, Rusk Media is a mobile first, Gen Z focused digital entertainment company that creates premium serialized social and OTT video IP across fiction and unscripted content, as well as social UGC gaming. The company says it generates more than a billion monthly views across its platforms. YRF operates across the filmmaking and content ecosystem, including production, post production, domestic and international distribution, music, digital content, marketing, talent management, licensing, merchandising, brand partnerships, and studio operations. According to Rusk Media, it develops serialized fiction, unscripted formats, animated content, vertical dramas, and live entertainment formats. Rusk…

South Korea unveils US$576 billion megaprojects to dominate global AI, chip market

South Korea rolled out sweeping chip and AI megaprojects on Monday, as President Lee Jae Myung pledged to cement overwhelming industry leadership with investments worth more than US$576 billion over several years. The announcement marks ⁠Lee’s boldest push yet to align South Korea’s AI and chip ambitions with ‌his pledge to narrow regional disparities and revive economies beyond the Seoul metropolitan area. Lee was joined by the leaders of ‌Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the world’s two...

Co-working startup Incuspaze raises Rs 150 Cr led by Bharat Value Fund

Managed workspace provider Incuspaze has raised Rs 150 crore (around $15.6 million) in a funding round led by Bharat Value Fund, with participation from other financial institutions. The fresh capital will be used to expand its presence across key markets, strengthen its technology stack, pursue strategic acquisitions, and prepare for its planned IPO in FY29. The fundraise follows the company's acquisition of Hyderabad-based managed workspace operator iKeva. With the acquisition, Incuspaze plans to expand its Hyderabad portfolio to more than 1 million sq ft in FY27. Founded in 2016 by Sanjay Choudhary and Sanjay Chatrath, Incuspaze offers managed offices, coworking spaces, enterprise leasing, and design and build solutions. The company currently operates more than 80 centres across 18 cities, managing a portfolio of over 4 million sq ft. Over the past year, Incuspaze has also acquired coworking operator TRIOS and real estate SaaS platform VSKOUT as part of its consolidation strategy in the flexible workspace segment. According to industry estimates, India's flexible office market has crossed 100 million sq ft, driven by rising demand from enterprises, global capability centres (GCCs), and high growth companies seeking flexible office solutions. Incuspaze raised its maiden institutional funding of around $8 million in July 2024 from the India Inflection Opportunity Fund (IIOF) and other financial institutions. According to media reports, the company had set a revenue target o…

European deeptech investment hits annual record in just six months

Turtlemint lists at 11.25% discount on market debut

Insurtech startup Turtlemint made a weak debut on the stock exchanges on Monday, with its shares listing at Rs 134.9, an 11.25% discount to its IPO issue price of Rs 152. The company had launched its Rs 883 crore initial public offering (IPO) with a price band of Rs 144-152 per share. The issue received a muted response from investors, resulting in an overall subscription of only 1.2 times. At the listing price, retail investors allotted one lot of 98 shares incurred an immediate notional loss of around Rs 1,676, as the value of their investment dropped from Rs 14,896 to about Rs 13,220. The IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 661 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 1.46 crore shares by founders and existing investors, aggregating Rs 222 crore at the upper price band of Rs 152. The issue is expected to raise approximately Rs 883 crore and value Turtlemint at Rs 4,513 crore (around $475 million). Founded in 2015 by Dhirendra Mahyavanshi and Anand Prabhudesai, Turtlemint operates a marketplace connecting advisors with customers, offering insurance products across motor, health, and life categories. It also provides access to other financial products such as mutual funds and loans, while equipping advisors with digital tools to expand their reach and grow their business. For the first nine months of FY26, Turtlemint reported a 80% year-on-year rise in operating revenue to Rs 741 crore, while its losses widened 25% to Rs 187 crore compared to the Rs 150 crore loss in…

Zerodha eyes investment banking with SEBI merchant banking licence

Bootstrapped stock broking platform Zerodha is preparing to enter the investment banking business, as it expands beyond broking and wealth management. According to a report by Business Standard, the Bengaluru-based company has applied for a Category-I merchant banking licence with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The application was filed in April and is currently awaiting regulatory approval. Confirming the development to Entrackr, a Zerodha spokesperson said, “We have filed an application for the merchant banking (Category 1) licence with SEBI. We’ll be able to share more about our business plans once we receive the licence.” Once approved, the licence will allow Zerodha to manage initial public offerings (IPOs), advise companies on raising capital, and offer other merchant banking services. The move comes at a time when India's IPO market is witnessing strong activity, with several startups and new-age companies preparing to go public over the next few years. The licence could help build a full-stack capital markets business. Over the years, the company has expanded beyond stock broking into mutual funds, asset management, lending, startup investments through Rainmatter, and international investing. Investment banking would further strengthen its presence across the financial services ecosystem. The approval of the licence could also intensify competition in the merchant banking space, which has traditionally been dominated by established players such as…

AI spending boom could end in global bust, report says

The AI spending spree risks an extended “investment bust” that could imperil the global economy, a report warned Sunday.

AI claims to have the answers to life’s big questions. But sometimes not knowing brings us closer to the truth | Amy Galliford

ChatGPT relieves me of my discomfort, but in doing so it robs me of contemplation, of the holy ground between question and answer Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life As a person of faith raised in a religious household, I have a fairly clear picture of what prayer means to me. Prayer is the practice by which I draw closer to God, petition for my needs and desires, request guidance and ask forgiveness. The deal has always been that in times of trouble I cast my anxieties and questions and emerge with either some answers or some sustaining sense of peace. Take it to the Lord in prayer , the song goes. Continue reading...

Only three AI models finished above starting capital in a 500-day startup survival test

Researchers at Princeton University built CEO-Bench, a test where AI agents have to run a fictional software company for 500 simulated days. Most current models go broke, and a simple rule-based heuristic with no AI beats nearly all of them. The article Only three AI models finished above starting capital in a 500-day startup survival test appeared first on The Decoder .

Portugal gains 725 super-rich residents in five years. Why is it a magnet for wealth?

In recent years, Portugal has seen a sharp rise in the number of ultra-wealthy residents, fuelled by property investment, international capital flows and the appeal of the Portuguese way of life.

Hong Kong’s AI push needs a broader vision and more realistic goals

Hong Kong cannot be faulted for not working hard enough to catch up in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. Government funding is flowing generously towards projects focused on AI adoption. In recent years, the government has pumped billions into building the necessary infrastructure, including HK$2.84 billion (US$364 million) for a semiconductor centre, HK$3 billion for an AI subsidy scheme and another HK$1 billion allocated for an advanced AI R&D institute. In March, the government...

AI Weekly Issue #508: The Cutting Edge, Across the Board

One week, the whole frontier. In models, the open weights now run from a 1.6-trillion-parameter behemoth to a 230M model on a Raspberry Pi. In world models and robotics, a startup is training agents on video games to drive real robots and Yann LeCun's team made world models 48× faster. In medicine, GPT-5 Pro cracked a three-year immunology mystery and a founder used Claude to read his own cancer scans. And the agents doing all this reached every phone — and a fresh attack surface. Below: the marquee advances, the deep cuts, and where it's already paying off.

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

Xeno Executor scripts are the heart and soul of the Xeno experience – custom Lua codes that unlock a whole new layer of gameplay in Roblox. These scripts range from simple quality-of-life tweaks, like ESP (seeing other players through walls) or auto-clickers, to complex auto-farming hubs that grind levels, collect rare items, or hatch eggs while you're away from the keyboard. The beauty of Xeno scripts is their variety https://xeno-executordl.com

China’s AI-powered laser mosquito zapper goes viral after crowdfunding success

A Chinese start-up that is developing an AI-powered laser mosquito zapper has raised US$2.7 million on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform as it navigates the challenges of complex sensor calibrations and Western safety regulations. Photon Matrix Lab, based in Changzhou, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, has gone viral around the world with its portable laser mosquito defence system, which compresses industrial-grade lasers into a consumer device. Promising to rapidly detect and eliminate...

The companies most likely to automate your job are now funding a $1 billion program to retrain you

Former US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has launched "Raise Us," a bipartisan nonprofit to prepare American workers for AI-driven job shifts. Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and the OpenAI Foundation are jointly funding the initiative. That the very companies driving the disruption are bankrolling the response will likely raise questions about independence. The article The companies most likely to automate your job are now funding a $1 billion program to retrain you appeared first on The Decoder .

Asian AI startups launch Mythos-like models as Anthropic’s export ban drags on

New models are launching in Asia that promise Mythos-like capabilities without fear of an export ban. U.S. AI labs may never recover this enormous market.

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [June 22 - June 27]

This week, 20 Indian startups raised nearly $1.11 billion across 19 disclosed funding deals, including four growth stage and 15 early stage rounds, while one startup kept its funding amount undisclosed. The week also saw the emergence of a new unicorn, nine key leadership appointments, five executive exits, two acquisitions, 100 layoffs, and the shutdown of two platforms. In contrast, 23 startups had collectively secured about $432 million in the previous week. [ Growth-stage deals ] Growth stage startups raised a total of $1.03 billion across four deals this week, led by Meta's $900 million investment in fintech unicorn CRED through a mix of primary and secondary transactions. The week also saw real estate and mortgage platform Square Yards enter the unicorn club after raising Rs 900 crore (around $95 million) in a debt and equity funding round led by EAAA Alternatives. Meanwhile, home improvement startup AllHome raised Rs 200 crore (over $21 million) in a Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, while Bengaluru-based cyber resilience startup Mitigata secured $15 million in a Series B funding round led by Bessemer, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Titan Capital and WEH Ventures. [ Early-stage deals ] Early stage startups raised $87.39 million across 15 deals this week, led by enterprise AI services startup Hang Ten Systems, which secured $32 million in a seed round led by Mayfield with participation from Aramco Ventures and angel investors. AI marketi…

This week’s top stories — 21-27 June

MGX closes near-$50 billion AI fund as Gulf AI investment accelerates

FTC gives Musk the OK to acquire SpaceX alumni startup Mesh

Mesh came out of stealth in February with a $50 million Series A.

Corgi, the buzzy Y Combinator-backed insurance tech startup, says it didn’t steal an open source product

Corgi became embroiled in controversy when Papermark accused it of stealing its software. Corgi says it did not, raising new questions about vibe coding.

Stabyl emerges from stealth with $2.7 million for Africa’s FX infrastructure

Stabyl is a liquidity exchange emerging from stealth with a $2.7 million pre-seed investment led by Konga, built to make FX liquidity easier to access.

New Cooley platform provides AI legal help for startups

Built with legal AI startup Legora and trained on Cooley’s data, the platform will roll out to the summer batch of Y Combinator startups first.

You can’t build sovereign infrastructure with Broadcom, says CISPE

Broadcom’s claims that it can support European cloud service providers building competitive sovereign solutions are exaggerated, according to the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers Europe (CISPE). The US company is promoting its VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) software as the enabling technology for the European Union’s Sovereign Cloud, but Broadcom is not the solution to Europe’s technology sovereignty problems, according to CISPE secretary-general Francisco Mingorance . “VCF is a proprietary product with limited interoperability and substitutability, controlled by a foreign vendor that has behaved like a bully towards customers and channel partners. If Europe needs an example of the dangers of over-reliance on dominant overseas players, Broadcom is it,” Mingorance said, according to a post on CISPE’s website . CISPE has cited several reasons why VCF doesn’t fit the bill, in particular highlighting its lack of portability. This means that it doesn’t qualify as resilient under CISPE’s Sovereign and Resilient Cloud Framework . Earlier this month, the EU unveiled proposals for its Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) to strengthen Europe’s digital economy. CADA will encourage investment in European research, lay down conditions for European data centers, and provide a single EU-wide assessment framework for cloud and AI sovereignty. CISPE said that Broadcom is a long way short of fulfilling the conditions proposed for CADA. Broadcom would fail to meet anything but a Level 1 c…

ITU Chief Praises Mozambique’s Digital Transformation Progress, Including Emerging National AI Strategy

The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, has praised Mozambique’s progress in advancing its national digital transformation agenda, emphasizing the role of connectivity, digitalization and innovation in driving inclusive economic growth. She made the remarks following high-level engagements with Mozambican leadership, including discussions with President Daniel Chapo, where they explored priorities under the [...]

Stark bags €500M, Tech.eu Funding Explorer launched, and Luxembourg's big ambitions

This week, we tracked more than 75 tech funding deals worth over €2.1 billion and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.If email is more your thing, you c...

Uber India & South Asia President Prabhjeet Singh steps down, likely to join OpenAI as India MD

Uber India and South Asia President Prabhjeet Singh has stepped down after spending nearly 11 years with the ride hailing company. Confirming the development, an Uber spokesperson said, "India is one of Uber's most important markets globally, an important driver of innovation and long term growth. The strength of our business today reflects the incredible team and foundation built over the years. We thank Prabhjeet for his leadership and lasting contributions in his decade long journey with Uber. We remain deeply committed to our next phase of growth in India." Media reports suggest that Singh is set to join OpenAI as India MD. Singh joined Uber in August 2015 after a stint at McKinsey & Company, where he was an Associate Partner. Over the years, he held multiple leadership roles before being appointed President of India and South Asia in July 2020. As President, Singh led Uber's mobility operations across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Under his leadership, the company diversified beyond four wheeler ride hailing by expanding offerings such as Auto, Moto and Shuttle, while strengthening collaborations with public transport authorities and digital public infrastructure initiatives. Singh's departure comes days after Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi visited India and announced the company's first data centre in the country in partnership with Adani Group, signalling a deeper investment in its technology and infrastructure footprint. In February, Uber also infused nearly Rs 3,000…

Robotaxis drive miles just to get cleaned and charged; this new startup wants to fix that

Aseon Labs, which came out of Y Combinator's 2026 spring cohort, has raised $10 million from Crane Venture Partners and others.

A Soweto startup’s unlikely journey from gadgets to AI healthcare

Founded in Soweto and backed largely with internally generated revenue and founder reinvestment, Khoi Tech initially built its reputation through consumer devices such as the Khoi Afripods true wireless earphones and the Khoi Afriwatch1 smartwatch.

From Nykaa to Zepto: How startups are cashing in on India's Korean wave

The Korean wave is no longer confined to binge-worthy dramas or K-pop concerts. It has quietly become one of India's fastest-growing consumer trends, prompting startups and large consumer brands to reshape their offerings around Korean beauty, food and fashion. Led by Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers, startups such as Nykaa-backed Maccaron, Pilgrim and Quench Botanics are expanding their Korean product portfolios, while quick commerce platforms are dedicating shelf space to Korean food. Legacy companies including Reliance Retail, Nestlé, ITC, Hindustan Unilever and McDonald's are also rolling out Korean-inspired products to tap into the growing demand. According to a recent Jefferies report, what started as an entertainment trend has evolved into a commercial opportunity spanning multiple consumer categories. Beauty leads the Korean boom Beauty has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the Korean wave. India's beauty and personal care market, estimated at around $24 billion in 2024, is expected to grow to approximately $45 billion by 2030. Within this, K Beauty, currently a $400 million segment accounting for about 2% of the overall market, is projected to be the fastest-growing category, expanding at a 26% CAGR to nearly $1.5 billion by 2030, according to Jefferies. Nykaa was among the first platforms to aggressively build the category in India. Besides expanding its portfolio of Korean brands, the company has organised dedicated events including K-Beauty Festival, Nykaaland 3…

Why Shadowfax’s stock nearly doubles since listing despite weak debut

Logistics unicorn Shadowfax has emerged as one of the strongest post-listing performers among new-age tech companies in recent months, with its share price nearly doubling from its listing levels despite a lacklustre market debut. The Bengaluru-based logistics firm, which got listed earlier this year, debuted at a discount of around 9% to its IPO issue price. However, investor sentiment has turned sharply positive over the last two months, pushing the stock to around Rs 223 and taking its market capitalization to approximately Rs 13,037 crore. The rally appears to be steered by a combination of factors: strong financial performance, rapid market share gains, expansion into new growth segments, and growing investor belief that the company may have been conservatively valued during its IPO. Strongest quarter since listing Shadowfax delivered a record performance in the March quarter, reporting a 74% year-on-year increase in operating revenue to Rs 1,237 crore in Q4 FY26. Profitability also improved sharply, with profit after tax reaching Rs 56 crore compared to a loss of Rs 10 crore in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA surged to Rs 58 crore with margins expanding to 4.7%. For the full fiscal year, revenue grew 69% to Rs 4,202 crore while net profit jumped to Rs 112 crore from Rs 6 crore in FY25, reinforcing investor confidence in the company's ability to scale profitably. The company also delivered 22.6 crore orders during the quarter, up 101% year-on-year, while express s…

Finnovate secures $2 Mn in pre-Series A funding from angel investors

Finnovate Financial Services, a financial planning platform, has secured approximately $2 million in a pre Series A funding round from a group of angel investors, including Ramakant Deshpande and others. The latest round comes on the back of the company's successful $1 million raise in 2023. The proceeds will be deployed towards scaling operations, enhancing the mobile application and technology infrastructure, expanding marketing efforts, and strengthening business development initiatives, Finnovate said in a press release. Co-founded by Nehal Mota and Naveen Singh, Finnovate aims to help professionals achieve their financial goals through structured and purposeful investing. The firm recently received its Portfolio Management Services (PMS) license, expanding its presence in the wealth management space and paving the way for the launch of its upcoming Multi Asset PMS Strategy. Designed to provide diversified exposure across multiple asset classes, the new offering aims to help investors navigate market cycles more effectively while pursuing long term wealth creation. The strategy is expected to expand the firm's investment solutions suite and cater to the evolving needs of India's growing investor community. India's wealth management sector continues to witness strong momentum, driven by rising financial awareness, increasing participation in capital markets, and growing demand for professional advisory solutions. The company aims to leverage its personalized advisory capa…

AI vendors fund non-profit to help workers adapt to AI era

AI is here, and we must help workers adapt: That’s the response of a new non-profit organization to the ongoing debate about whether AI will destroy jobs and cause catastrophe or take the economy to new heights. Launched Thursday, Raise Us is a nonpartisan national organization that says it will partner with state governors, employers, workers, and training organizations to help the US workforce make a successful transition to an AI economy. It says it will design and pilot new corporate incentives to retrain and redeploy workers, develop new approaches to support people through job transitions, and create new training models tied to changing employer demand. It has already raised more than $500 million and hopes to bring that up to $1 billion in multi-year commitments from philanthropists and industry sources. Anchor partners include Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, and the OpenAI Foundation, and more than two dozen other organizations including Cisco, IBM, ADP, AMD, and Deloitte have also signed on. The organization is led by two former US state governors, Gina Raimondo, who will serve as CEO and co-chair, and Eric Holcomb, co-chair, and its initial government partnerships are with the states of Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah, which, it said, “will serve as the first proving grounds for outcome-driven pilots.” However, analysts are skeptical that the initiative is anything other than a public-relations effort for the AI industry. Jason Andersen , VP and principal a…

Seraphim Space CEO: “Europe is catching up”

The CEO of UK-based spacetech investor Seraphim Space says Europe is “catching up” to US spacetech, powered by the SpaceX IPO, increased deal sizes, and European spacetech startups pivoting to defence...

Why Agnes Aistleitner trusts founders’ discipline more than genius

The first thing you notice about Agnes Aistleitner, a partner at Africa-focused venture capital firm First Circle Capital, is that she answers questions as though she has been thinking about them for years.

China’s unicorns rise to 381 as ByteDance ranks in top 3 globally: Hurun index

China is breeding a new generation of unicorns – start-ups currently valued at US$1 billion or more – at an accelerating pace, cementing its place alongside the United States in a major global index. The world’s second-largest economy saw 381 Chinese unicorns on the 2026 Hurun Global Unicorn Index, an increase of 38 from last year. The annual list, released on Tuesday, ranks the world’s most valuable start-ups. China now mints a new unicorn every five days on average, double last year’s pace of...

QSR and beverage brand Alienkind raises $3.2 Mn in pre-Series A round

QSR and beverage brand Alienkind has raised $3.2 million in pre-Series A funding round from existing investors like Prakash Sikaria, Flipkart senior VP Ravi Iyer, Arpan Sheth, and others. Prior to this, the Bengaluru-based startup had secured $1.2 million in a Seed funding round at the valuation of $10 million in April last year. The proceeds will be used to support its next phase of growth, including expansion into new markets, Alienkind said in a press release. Co founded in 2024 by Vikram Kakkireni and Abhishek Kumar, Alienkind is a next generation Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain specialising in 100% fresh, functional wellness beverages, and food offerings such as Starship burgers. The company aims to redefine the QSR experience through immersive spaces, category defining products, and community driven experiences. It targets Gen Z and health conscious urban consumers by combining minimalist, sci fi inspired store designs with preservative free beverages and plant forward meals. Since its launch, Alienkind claims to have gained nationwide attention with its differentiated positioning, competitive pricing, and brand strategy. The company says it is on track to achieve an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $10 million by the end of FY27 and plans to expand to 100 stores across major Indian cities by FY28.

PharmEasy co-founders’ startup AllHome raises Rs 200 Cr at Rs 2,000 Cr valuation

Home improvement startup AllHome has raised Rs 200 crore (over $21 million) in a Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a valuation of Rs 2,000 crore ($210 million). The round also saw participation from Strides and several family offices. Founded in June last year by PharmEasy co-founders Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, and Hardik Dedhia, AllHome sells architectural and interior design products through its platform. At launch, the company had also raised an undisclosed funding round at a valuation of $120 million from prominent angel investors, including Siddharth Shah of PharmEasy, Niket Shah and Shalibhadra Shah of Motilal Oswal, Kabir Narang of B Capital, Ankur Gulati of Warburg Pincus, and others. It is learnt that Siddharth Shah joined AllHome as a co-founder in August last year. The fresh capital will be used to expand its network of experience centres, strengthen its technology platform, and grow its portfolio of home improvement brands. AllHome operates a house of brands platform for home improvement products across hardware, bathware, facades, windows, surfaces, and lighting. It currently offers products in four categories: surfaces, hardware and bath fittings, facades and windows, and lighting, and plans to expand its portfolio further. Within 12 months of launch, the startup claims to have reached an annual revenue run rate of over Rs 400 crore and is Ebitda profitable, with margins of 18% to 20%.

Exclusive: JiviAI shuts down; founder Ankur Jain may rejoin BharatPe

JiviAI, an AI healthcare startup founded by former BharatPe Chief Product Officer Ankur Jain, has shut down operations, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The development comes less than two years after the startup entered the crowded generative AI healthcare space. The company had bet on proprietary AI models to deliver medical assistance and healthcare related services. The startup also raised an undisclosed funding in late 2024. According to sources, the shutdown came amid rising infrastructure costs, funding challenges, and failed acquisition discussions. “Building and running proprietary AI models became increasingly expensive. When you’re up against companies like OpenAI and Google, it becomes very difficult to make the economics work,” said a person familiar with the matter, requesting anonymity. According to another source, investors who had initially shown interest in backing the company did not participate in its planned funding round, putting additional pressure on its finances. “There were a few acquisition discussions as well, but none of them materialised. Once those fell through, the company had very few options left,” the person said. Sources said employees have been informed about the shutdown and have been asked to leave as the company winds down operations. Industry sources also suggest that Jain is evaluating his next move. Some industry observers have speculated about a possible return to BharatPe following the recent departure of Gr…

The voice-controlled drones startup backed by Lakestar and Seedcamp

The French & Benelux startups making €100m+ in revenue

Presight accelerator draws global AI startups

Listen now | Middle East AI News Minute - 26-Jun-26

HKEX pushes deeper into index business as AI reshapes Hong Kong market

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) is expanding into the index business with plans to launch more proprietary benchmarks and related investment products, as traditional market gauges have lagged regional peers during the artificial intelligence-driven technology rally. The operator of Hong Kong’s stock exchange will debut the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking its HKEX Tech 100 Index on Friday. The index, launched on December 9, tracks the 100 largest technology companies listed in...

Apple just raised prices: See which devices cost more now

Table of contents Which Apple products got more expensive? Full Apple price increase breakdown Which Apple products are still at the old price Why Apple raised its prices Is the iPhone affected too? What about prices outside the US? Should you buy now? How long will prices stay high? Sub Heading 2 Apple raised prices […]

10 Years of MongoDB Atlas: Built for What’s Next

Nearly a decade ago, I joined MongoDB as a Senior Product Manager to help build the company’s new cloud product, MongoDB Atlas. Our customers had been telling us they wanted to bring MongoDB’s familiar developer experience to the cloud, with the reliability and confidence teams needed to run in production. Atlas was our answer. Today, we’re celebrating 10 years of MongoDB Atlas, the generational data platform for AI applications, and the customers who pushed us to build it. Atlas was shaped in close conversation with those customers and scaled alongside them every step of the way. Today, more than 250,000 builders get started on Atlas every month. Atlas serves more than three trillion queries a day (a roughly threefold increase just since 2023!), and represents 75% of MongoDB’s revenue. Those numbers reflect something more important than growth: the trust builders and customers have placed in us to scale their businesses. That trust was earned by listening closely. Every major capability and architectural investment in Atlas was rooted in what customers asked for: the flexibility and speed of MongoDB’s document model, delivered in a platform that removed operational overhead and could scale with their applications. Over time, Atlas expanded beyond a managed database into a broader data platform, because builders kept asking for more flexibility, more simplicity, and more room to build. That matters even more in the AI era. AI applications create new demands, but the underlyi…

Sofina Ventures offloads Rs 177 Cr worth stake in Mamaearth parent

Sofina Ventures has sold its 1.28% stake in Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth through a Rs 177 crore bulk deal on NSE on Thursday. According to exchange data, the Belgium-based investment firm sold 41.78 lakh shares, representing a 1.28% stake in the company, at an average price of Rs 424.07 apiece, valued at Rs 177.2 crore As per the company's March 2026 shareholding data, Sofina Ventures owned a 3.29% stake in Honasa Consumer. Following the sale of 1.28% shares through the bulk deal, its stake is estimated to have reduced to nearly 2%. The deal comes at a time when several venture capital and private equity firms are monetising their investments in listed startups. Recent transactions include Actis’ Rs 371 crore bulk deal in Pine Labs , Alpha Wave’s stake sale in Delhivery , and partial exits by SoftBank and ADIA in Lenskart . In Q4 FY26, Mamaearth reported strong 23% year-on-year growth in its revenue from operations to Rs 657 crore from Rs 534 crore in Q4 FY25, while posting a profit of Rs 69.4 crore during the quarter. Earlier this week, the Gurugram-based company acquired a majority stake in Fluence Pharma , its second acquisition in six months after the purchase of Reginald Men , which marked its entry into the men’s grooming category. Honasa’s shares closed at Rs 421.7 on the NSE on Thursday, valuing the company at a market capitalization of approximately Rs 13,595 crore ($1.51 billion).

What it actually takes to scale AI in Europe: ‘The best founders aren’t building for the next funding round’

EBRD and Microsoft Partner to Help African Startups Adopt AI and Scale

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Microsoft have entered a partnership aimed at helping promising African startups use artificial intelligence to improve their operations and prepare for expansion. The organizations signed a memorandum of understanding during the EBRD’s annual meetings in Amsterdam. The agreement establishes a framework for a pilot programme focused on [...]

Serpier raises €1.4M to help online retailers improve digital visibility

Danishmartech startup Serpier has raised €1.4 million in funding from True Collectiveand the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) to expand its AI-poweredmarketing platform for e-commerce busi...

Warp lands $60M to automate payroll, compliance and HR with AI

Employee management startup Warp today said it has raised $60 million in new funding to expand a platform that uses artificial intelligence to run payroll and other back-office work with little staff involved. The New York-based company pitches itself as an AI-native alternative to legacy human capital management software, the category long dominated by Workday […] The post Warp lands $60M to automate payroll, compliance and HR with AI appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Health unicorn Alan raises €480m Series G round led by Prosus

Amazon, Flipkart expansion plans trigger dark store race in quick commerce

E-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart are accelerating their quick commerce ambitions through large scale investments in micro fulfillment centres amid intensifying competition with Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket and JioMart. On Wednesday, Flipkart Minutes announced that it had crossed 1,000 micro fulfilment centres (dark stores) across more than 130 cities and 8,000 pincodes, less than two years after its launch in August 2024. Sources indicate that the company is on track to surpass 1,500 micro fulfilment centres within the next few months. The Walmart-owned company also claimed a 5X increase in order volumes over the past year, led by rapid expansion across tier II and tier III markets. Meanwhile, Amazon unveiled plans to expand Amazon Now, its quick commerce service, to more than 300 cities across India. The e-commerce giant plans to support the rollout through a network of over 1,000 micro fulfilment centres and more than 100 urban fulfillment centers . Currently, it operates more than 500 centres. The expansion plan was unveiled during CEO Andy Jassy's visit to India, where he met government officials, industry leaders and company employees. The firm had earlier announced a $300 million investment to strengthen its infrastructure and operations, with a portion of the capital allocated to expand the footprint of its quick commerce vertical. The latest developments show how India's largest e-commerce companies are increasing their focus on quick commerce, a…

Blue Lake VC closes in on first fund with British Business Bank backing for immigrant-led startups

UK-based Blue Lake VC has secured a cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank, the UK’s largest institutional investor in venture capital. Ukrainians David Gilgur and Lyubov Guk, founding...

French health insurance outfit Alan agrees €480M funding round

French health insurance company Alan says it has reached an agreement on a €480m funding round, valuing it at €5.5bn. The new Series G funding round follows just months after Alan announced a €100m ...

Presight picks 12 startups for AI accelerator

Global AI startups land spots in Presight AI-Startup Accelerator Cohort II

Amazon to invest $48 Bn in India by 2030 after CEO Andy Jassy meets PM Modi

Multinational technology company Amazon has announced plans to invest $48 billion in India between 2026 and 2030 following a meeting between CEO Andy Jassy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The investment includes an additional $13 billion to expand the company’s artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure in India by 2030. The latest commitment comes about six months after Amazon announced plans to invest $35 billion in the country, highlighting its long term focus on India as a key market for digital infrastructure, cloud computing and AI. Amazon is also accelerating its quick commerce push through Amazon Now. The company plans to expand the service to 300 cities and build a network of 1,000 micro fulfilment centres. The expansion comes as competition in quick commerce intensifies, with players rapidly widening their offerings beyond groceries to categories such as electronics, beauty, fashion and household essentials through near instant delivery.

Wayout raises €2.42M to scale decentralised drinking water infrastructure platform

Wayout International, the Swedish developer of Distributed Drinking Water Infrastructure, today announced the successful closing of a €2.42 million (SEK 26.6 million) Series A extension. The round was...

Kalipso raises $3.2M to scale regulatory compliance platform

Barcelona-based Kalipso, a regulatorytechnology platform built by lawyers and engineers to help organisationsoperationalise regulatory change, has raised $3.2 million in funding. The roundwas backed b...

Logistics platform NimbusPost appoints Ankit Sood as CEO

NimbusPost, a tech enabled logistics platform for D2C brands, has appointed Ankit Sood as its Chief Executive Officer. Sood will replace Irwin Anand, who has been leading the company since April last year. Sood brings over 20 years of experience in scaling high growth businesses across logistics, consumer internet, and enterprise technology in India and the APAC region. Prior to joining NimbusPost, he held senior leadership roles at Shiprocket, Zomato, and OYO, where he led businesses through rapid scale, international expansion, and technology transformation in private equity and venture capital backed environments. “NimbusPost is uniquely positioned to address these challenges at scale and help shape the future of logistics for digital first businesses. I’m excited to join the company at this pivotal stage and be part of its next phase of growth,” said Sood on his appointment. The company said that under Sood’s leadership, it plans to accelerate investments in AI powered logistics intelligence, enhance the seller experience, and launch a new technology platform early next quarter. NimbusPost claims to serve more than 100,000 brands and resellers across India through its multi courier delivery network, warehousing services, and value added offerings. Founded as a shipping and fulfilment platform for D2C brands, NimbusPost offers multi courier delivery, warehousing, AI backed logistics insights, and other services designed to help merchants manage their logistics operations.

Almetra secures €16.3M Series A to drive smarter manufacturing

Berlin-basedmanufacturing intelligence company Almetra, formerly known as Deltia, hasraised €16.3 million in a Series A funding round led by blisce/, with participation from NAP, Merantix Capital, Rob...

Shopping assistant startup Zave raises bridge round led by IPV

AI shopping assistant startup Zave has raised Rs 4.7 crore in a bridge funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, with participation from Mucker Capital. The fresh capital will be used to strengthen its AI-powered product, improve platform infrastructure and scalability, and enhance its AI capabilities to support its reported 50% month-on-month growth. Founded in late 2024 by Hiren Patel and Ravi Kumar, Zave is an AI-native shopping assistant that helps consumers discover products, compare prices, and make purchase decisions across ecommerce platforms. The startup integrates with Amazon, Flipkart, and more than 5,000 brand websites. According to the company, it has crossed 500,000 app installs and 50,000 daily active users, while facilitating over Rs 15 crore in monthly transactions through its AI-powered recommendation engine. Its platform understands shopper intent in real time and recommends alternatives, better deals, and product insights without requiring users to switch between multiple ecommerce platforms. The startup plans to become a shopping assistant for consumers globally by simplifying product discovery and purchase decisions.

Visionaries general partner Judith Dada joins AI startup Langdock as co-CEO

Lightspeed leads $7 Mn Series A round in SuperLiving

Wellness and preventive healthcare platform SuperLiving has raised $7 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed, with participation from existing investors Kae Capital and All In Capital. Prior to this, the Bengaluru based startup had raised $2 million in a funding round led by Kae Capital, with participation from All In Capital and other angel investors, five months ago. It had also secured Rs 2 crore from All In Capital in September 2025 after winning the "Elevator Pitch" event. The proceeds will be used to strengthen its AI capabilities, expand its vernacular content ecosystem, accelerate product development, and scale user acquisition across tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, SuperLiving said in a press release. Co-founded in 2025 by Manavdeep Singh Grover and Gurjot Kaur, SuperLiving offers an AI powered preventive lifestyle platform covering nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, and daily habits. The platform provides bite sized courses, vernacular content, and a 24×7 AI companion designed to help users build sustainable daily routines. According to the company, its proprietary memory layer captures and learns from user interactions over time, enabling the system to understand individual goals, challenges, habits, and progress with increasing context. This allows its AI companion to provide recommendations that evolve alongside each user rather than resetting with every interaction. The platform also brings together capabilities that would traditionally be de…

Europe’s investors eye nuclear startups amid ‘massive scramble’ for sovereign energy

UAE Trade Minister to chair AI startup AIREV

Listen now | Middle East AI News Minute - 25-Jun-26

Ornn raises $33M to help companies buy and sell AI compute as a commodity like oil

Artificial intelligence startup Ornn AI Inc. made a big splash today as it raised $33 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto-focused fund and others to build out a marketplace for computing power. The round was co-led by Galaxy Ventures and saw participation from Nordstar and SV Angel, plus existing investors Crucible Capital, Vine […] The post Ornn raises $33M to help companies buy and sell AI compute as a commodity like oil appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Agentic infrastructure startup Seltz raises $12.5M to help AI agents search the web for answers

Agentic search startup Seltz Inc. said today it has bagged $12.5 million in seed funding to build a more optimal infrastructure so that artificial intelligence agents can find their way around the web. The round was led by Speedinvest and B Capital. Also participating were Italian Founders Fund, Future Back Ventures, futurepresent, Arc Investors, Vento Ventures, Mango […] The post Agentic infrastructure startup Seltz raises $12.5M to help AI agents search the web for answers appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

AI coding token costs are on track to rival human payroll

Enterprises may soon be paying as much for their developers’ AI token usage as they do for their salaries. According to Gartner , these costs will meet, or even exceed, the typical software engineer’s monthly salary within the next two years. This is not only because developers are increasingly adopting generative AI and agentic tools , it reflects a trend toward consumption-based licensing models as vendors balance infrastructure investments with profitability. Rather than the flat per-seat SaaS model of the past, enterprises now pay for developer token use as well. Gartner senior principal analyst Nitish Tyagi explained that it’s important to note that Gartner’s prediction is based on a global average salary of $2,000 per month; it doesn’t mean AI token usage will exceed all salaries. For instance, in the US, yearly pay rates can be six digits or more. However, that kind of spend is not out of the realm of possibility, Tyagi emphasized. “I have heard scary numbers like ‘My developer consumed $20K last month,’ or ‘A business user consumed $32K’.” If these amounts sound shocking, that’s the point. “The goal is to alarm the industry about the impact of token cost if it is not governed and controlled,” he said. Lack of visibility, immature oversight Enterprises are quickly moving from experimentation to scaled deployment of AI coding agents , but many still underestimate token costs, Tyagi noted. This is because cost structures for software engineering workloads are “highly va…

Qualcomm shares jump 14% on Modular acquisition, guidance upgrade

Qualcomm Inc.’s stock jumped 14% in after-hours trading today after it shared a series of updates about its artificial intelligence roadmap. The company announced plans to acquire an inference software startup called Modular Inc. and previewed two upcoming AI chips. Additionally, Qualcomm significantly raised its fiscal 2029 guidance. The chipmaker now expects its non-handset revenue […] The post Qualcomm shares jump 14% on Modular acquisition, guidance upgrade appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Grammarly parent Superhuman buys AI detector GPTZero

Superhuman Inc., the company formerly known as Grammarly, said today it has agreed to acquire GPTZero Inc., the startup whose detection tools tell teachers, editors and hiring managers when a piece of writing came from a machine. The acquisition price was not disclosed. The acquisition is arguably ironic. Grammarly spent years building tools that help […] The post Grammarly parent Superhuman buys AI detector GPTZero appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Congresswoman denies staff used AI to write defense funding amendment

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) says her staff used AI for "spellcheck" in an amendment summary for a major defense bill, but denies it was used for the bill text itself and says "NO Legislation is ever drafted with AI." Luna issued the response after accounts on X began sharing screenshots of an amendment summary […]

Mirae Asset trims Shadowfax stake by 0.97% for Rs 120 Cr

Mirae Asset Late Stage Opportunities Fund sold a 0.97% stake in logistics unicorn Shadowfax for nearly Rs 120 crore through a bulk deal on Wednesday. BSE bulk deal data shows that Mirae Asset Late Stage Opportunities Fund sold 56.5 lakh shares of Shadowfax at Rs 212 apiece, taking the deal value to Rs 119.8 crore. As of March 2026, Mirae Asset held a cumulative 6.73% stake in Shadowfax through multiple funds. The latest transaction represents around 0.97% of the company’s equity, reducing the asset manager’s overall holding in the logistics and quick-commerce delivery platform. Founded in 2015 by Abhishek Bansal, Vaibhav Khandelwal, Gaurav Jaithliya and Praharsh Chandra, Shadowfax operates in the last-mile and hyperlocal logistics space, serving ecommerce marketplaces, D2C brands and quick commerce players. It competes with players such as Delhivery, XpressBees, Ecom Express and Ekart, in a segment marked by intense competition. For Q4 FY26, Shadowfax reported a 74% year-on-year increase in operating revenue to Rs 1,237 crore from Rs 712 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. The company also turned profitable, posting a net profit of Rs 56 crore against a loss of Rs 10 crore in Q4 FY25. Shadowfax had a muted debut on the stock exchanges earlier this year, with its shares listing at a 9% discount to the IPO price. However, the stock has nearly doubled over the past two months to Rs 230.50 apiece, pushing the company's market capitalization to Rs 13,484 crore.

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's Hang Ten Systems raises $32 Mn Seed round

Enterprise AI services startup Hang Ten Systems has raised $32 million in a seed funding round led by Mayfield, with participation from Aramco Ventures and a group of angel investors. Founded by former Infosys CEO and SAP executive board member Vishal Sikka, the Palo Alto-based company helps large enterprises deploy artificial intelligence across business operations and software systems. The fresh capital will be used to expand the company's team and scale its engagements with global enterprises, the company said in a press release. Hang Ten focuses on building and operating enterprise software using AI-native approaches, including agentic code generation, reusable skills libraries, and domain-specific expertise. The company aims to help enterprises reduce the cost and time required for software development, customization, integration, and maintenance. In a LinkedIn post announcing the launch, Sikka said Hang Ten is already working with large enterprises, including Fresenius and Siemens entities, to help them deploy AI across business operations. He described the company as an enterprise AI services firm focused on helping organizations adopt AI at scale. "Every single enterprise will be transformed by AI. A few are already reaping massive benefits, building in days what used to take years. But most are stuck at the starting line, or worse, and the gap is widening every day," said Sikka. According to the company, it is currently working with customers across several industri…

I was wary of driverless cars and their tech overlords – but they could give me a different future | Gabriel Stewart

For those of us who can’t drive due to disabilities, the drawbacks of these vehicles are vastly outweighed by the possibilities they offer The robotaxis are coming! The robotaxis are coming! Well, actually, they’re already here. Until now they’ve been the stuff of science fiction, but this summer London’s streets have seen Silicon Valley-based company Waymo testing out self-driving cars. It hasn’t been the smoothest of introductions – from cars getting stuck in a cul-de-sac and repeatedly waking up the residents of Shoreditch to one driving into a crime scene , after a double stabbing in Harlesden. The automated vehicles (AVs) have so far had trained drivers waiting behind the wheel to take control if needed, but will soon be shedding their human minders. Waymo and British rival Wayve are hoping to launch driverless minicabs in the capital this year, subject to approval from the British government and Transport for London, among others. A subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, Waymo currently operates ride-hailing services in 10 US cities, but London, with its narrow streets and densely populated centre, will serve as one of its biggest challenges yet. Gabriel Stewart is a freelance writer and an intern on the Guardian’s positive action scheme 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...

Coval raises $28M as enterprises push voice agents into production

Voice artificial intelligence testing startup Coval Inc. revealed today that it has raised $28 million in new funding to expand its platform as more enterprises put voice agents into production. Founded in 2024, Coval offers software that runs simulations, tracks live performance and labels data for AI voice and chat agents. Companies use it to […] The post Coval raises $28M as enterprises push voice agents into production appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

Compri secures €3.2M to build AI-powered procurement teams

Compri, a Milan-based startup developingAI-powered procurement software for industrial companies, has raised €3.2million in a seed funding round led by Picus Capital, bringing its totalfunding to more...

Wakeline lands €2.1M to bring continuous learning to AI

Düsseldorf-basedWakeline, a deeptech startup developing continuously adaptive AI systems, hasraised €2.1 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Aachen-basedTechVision Fonds (TVF), with part...

New €34M Nucleo Ventures fund targets startups and SMEs across Central and Eastern Europe

Fortech Ventures announces the launch of a €34 million investment fund and its transition to a new public identity, Nucleo Ventures. Developed in partnership with the North-West Regional Development ...

Tissium raises €30M in equity funding, €30M in debt

A French startup which uses a novel technology to reconstruct damaged tissue and restore it to its natural state has raised €30m in equity funding and taken out up to €30m in debt financing, it said t...

Small country, big ambitions: What Nexus Luxembourg 2026 revealed about Europe’s tech future

One of the best parts of my job is discovering lesser-known cities and exploring their tech and startup ecosystems. Often, it's the places that attract the least attention that leave the biggest impre...

LabCycle secures £430K to commercialise lab plastic recycling system and cut incineration waste

UK-based startup LabCycle has received £180,000 in funding from the British Design Fund (BDF) to support the development of what it calls the ‘world’s first’ AutoDecon system, designed to safely recyc...

Car subscription company Finn becomes Germany’s newest unicorn

Tunisia’s RoboCare lands six-figure backing

AI farming startup funding to drive Africa and Middle East expansion

Records broken as eight European startups raised $1bn+ rounds in 2026

Startups are relocating the wrong person

DeepMind handpicked this startup for its robotics accelerator. Now it’s raised an $11.7m seed round

This Bengaluru startup isn’t building faster chips than Nvidia. It’s building cheaper AI

The post This Bengaluru startup isn’t building faster chips than Nvidia. It’s building cheaper AI appeared first on The Ken .

Orderful nabs $35M to streamline supply chain data management

Orderful Inc., a startup using artificial intelligence to make supply chains more efficient, today announced that it has raised $35 million in funding. The Series C round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies with participation from NewRoad Capital. It brings Orderful’s total outside funding to $85 million. Retailers regularly exchange documents with their suppliers and […] The post Orderful nabs $35M to streamline supply chain data management appeared first on SiliconANGLE .

EU: Shepherded by Brussels, Europe awakens to Chinese technology

EU: Shepherded by Brussels, Europe awakens to Chinese technology c.groth Tue, 06/23/2026 - 16:23 picture alliance / Long Wei / Costfoto Download (pdf - 3.72 MB) Jun 30, 2026 14 min read EU: Shepherded by Brussels, Europe awakens to Chinese technology You are reading the EU chapter of the 2026 report of the European Think Tank Network on China (ETNC) " Fragmented Europe: Dealing with China as a technology and innovation power ". Go back to the main page . By Rebecca Arcesati EU-China innovation relations have turned more difficult in recent years. Although government policies cannot undo deep interdependencies in science and business overnight, cooperation no longer goes uncontested. The exclusion of Chinese entities from large parts of the Horizon Europe funding program and capitals’ increased scrutiny of Chinese investments into high-tech sectors are just two examples of a wider transformation: From largely unconditional openness to China in science and technology, the EU’s approach has shifted towards a logic of “de-risking” and economic security. 1 Technology and innovation in EU-China relations: from openness to economic security Amid intense geopolitical and technological rivalry between Beijing and Washington, Euro-peans increasingly find themselves in a position of relative disadvantage and dependency. To be sure, European companies control “chokepoints” on some of the world’s most critical technology value chains, such as advanced semiconductor fabrication, and occup…

Unpacking sandbox startup latency: why started ≠ ready

Building performant sandbox systems goes way beyond the initial container boot. Here, we unpack what that means, and discuss some tools to help you manage the entire lifecycle.

France Advances Europe’s AI Future With NVIDIA Technologies

A year ago at NVIDIA GTC Paris at VivaTech, France laid out plans to advance local AI — from new AI factories and national compute capacity to open frontier models and industrial platforms. Now, that AI infrastructure is coming online. AI agents are running in production, startups are deploying applications and the French AI ecosystem […]

How Musicians Can Get Paid for Training AI

Musicians are accustomed to getting paid each time their creative work is used. Across vinyl/CD sales, streams, radio, cover versions, and those numerous niches like karaoke, there are agreements in place about what “use” means. Underlying this is a simple economic principle: The more something is used, the more money it makes. Generative AI has complicated the definition of use . On the one hand, you could argue that the use of a piece of musical training data happens just once, at the point of training. On the other hand, creators would be right to complain that the creative essence of their work lives on in the structure of the model, used every time the model produces an output. Now, companies like Sureel and SoundVerse are working to re-create the essential economic principle that motivates creativity in an era of AI. Such initiatives aim to turn the generative AI industry from one guilty of “the biggest act of copyright theft in history” into one that coexists harmoniously with hardworking artists. Music Royalties for the AI era Sureel , a startup Warner Music Group just acquired , has partnered with the Swedish copyright agency STIM to explore the potential for music creators to get paid when their music is used to train generative AI tools . Sureel’s software labels online media, such as a music file, with instructions determined by the owner. The instructions specify whether an AI company may use the media freely in training, limit its influence in any given trainin…

2026 State of the Digital Decade report shows progress but urges closing structural gaps to reach 2030 goals

2026 State of the Digital Decade report shows progress but urges closing structural gaps to reach 2030 goals Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/17/2026 - 11:35 The European Commission published the fourth State of the Digital Decade report, showing that Europe has made progress on its 2030 digital transformation targets, such as secure and sustainable digital infrastructures and the digitalisation of public services – but the challenge now is delivering results at scale, speed and consistency. The report comes as the Commission published the last Special Eurobarometer , showing that an overwhelming majority of Europeans rank digital policy as a top EU priority, firmly backing a more autonomous European digital future. The Digital Decade Policy Programme serves as the EU's strategic compass for advancing and investing in Europe's digital competitiveness and sovereignty. The report evaluates progress made by the EU in its digitalisation across the board, including in critical infrastructures, digitalisation of business, digital skills, and digitalisation of public services. This year, the report goes beyond stocktaking, outlining priority reforms and investments at EU and Member States level in an attempt to guide digital funding allocations in the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework. Henna Virkkunen , Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said: With the Digital Decade policy programme, the foundations of the EU’s digital transformation are i…

Digital Decade 2026 - Monitoring of 2025 EU-level recommendations

Digital Decade 2026 - Monitoring of 2025 EU-level recommendations dumimar Wed, 06/17/2026 - 09:22 This document reviews EU and Member State progress on implementing Digital Decade recommendations since the 2025 State of the Digital Decade report. The document focuses on concrete digital measures and policy advancements, including legislative initiatives, targeted funding, the adoption of strategies and the implementation of joint projects. Given the cooperative nature of the Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP) , the assessment evaluates both joint actions – involving the Commission and EU countries – and individual Member State initiatives that have cross-border impact on the EU’s digital transformation. Find out more about the 2026 State of the Digital Decade package . Downloads Commission Staff Working Document - Digital Decade 2026 - Monitoring of 2025 EU-level recommendations Download Related topics Digital Decade Digital Decade reporting Digital Decade 2026

State of the Digital Decade 2026 - Closing structural gaps and mobilising investments for 2030 and beyond

State of the Digital Decade 2026 - Closing structural gaps and mobilising investments for 2030 and beyond dumimar Wed, 06/17/2026 - 09:15 The State of the Digital Decade 2026 report assesses the EU’s progress toward the 2030 Digital Decade targets. The 2026 report highlights that, while the foundations of the EU’s digital transformation are in place, the scale, speed and coordination of implementation need to be significantly reinforced. The EU has advanced in several areas, including connectivity, business digitalisation and the deployment of common digital infrastructures. However, significant gaps remain in foundational technologies, computing capacity, cybersecurity, advanced digital take-up, digital skills and scale-up capacity. Moreover, the progressive phase-put of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) creates a risk of investment discontinuity. The 2026 State of the Digital Decade report thus calls on Member States to use the next adjustment of their Digital Decade national roadmaps (December 2026) to address existing gaps through concrete measures and reforms, while ensuring stronger alignment with the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) and the future EU Competitiveness Fund. The report also stresses the need for deeper EU-level coordination. On this page, you can find the report’s main communication and Annex 1, together with the short versions of the 27 country reports. See also The full country reports and the country fact pages The full State of th…

AI Weekly Issue #504: America blocked its best AI. China just raised $7.4 billion.

Four days after Washington cut foreign access to Anthropic's top models, the fallout is clear — and it's flowing to everyone but Anthropic. Cohere says it's drowning in government inbounds, DeepSeek just closed a record $7.4B round, and China's labs are slashing token prices up to 99%. The export control meant to protect America's AI lead is fast-tracking the alternatives. Also this week: 144 poisoned npm packages turn the AI supply chain into an open credential heist.

MERICS Data Insight: EU-China trade

MERICS Data Insight: EU-China trade H.Seidl Tue, 06/16/2026 - 09:27 Comment Jun 16, 2026 1 min read MERICS Data Insight: EU-China trade In this edition of MERICS Data Insights, MERICS Visiting Fellow Esther Goreichy looks at the European Union's trade deficit with China. She finds that the deficit is widening despite the bloc's trade defense measures. Author(s) Esther Goreichy Visiting Fellow Author(s) Esther Goreichy Visiting Fellow Related content about EU-China Outbound investment protections + Expanded export controls + Xi in Pyongyang MERICS Briefs Jun 12, 2026 Chinese investment rises to 7-year high - Chinese FDI in Europe: 2025 Update Report May 20, 2026 EU Industrial Accelerator Act + Critical materials + Platform exports MERICS Briefs Apr 16, 2026 Related content about Trade and Investment Chinese FDI in Europe reaches 7-year high, with Gregor Williams and Andreas Mischer Podcast Jun 05, 2026 China in 26: Diplomatic strength, economic weakness, investment increase Podcast May 22, 2026 Chinese investment rises to 7-year high - Chinese FDI in Europe: 2025 Update Report May 20, 2026

Growing the Cloudflare AI team with talent from Ensemble AI

Cloudflare is deepening our investment in AI with the addition of team members from Ensemble AI, focusing on machine learning infrastructure and efficiency.

🙀 SpaceX raised $75B for AI in space

PLUS: The $75B IPO is really about Starlink, data, and compute

Startups

Startups emilie.germain… jeu, 06/11/2026 - 15:32

How a Google DeepMind Spin-off Hunts Hidden Drug Targets

For more than a decade, artificial intelligence has been touted as a way to dramatically accelerate drug discovery . Yet despite billions of dollars in investment, relatively few AI-designed medicines have made it to patients. That’s partially because the timelines for careful drug testing can’t be easily compressed—and partially because drug development is just really hard. Isomorphic Labs , the Google DeepMind spin-off that’s building on DeepMind’s Nobel Prize-winning work on protein structure prediction , may be making the most progress. The company has signed major drug-discovery partnerships with Novartis and Eli Lilly and recently raised US $2.1 billion in funding . In February, it published a technical report describing its new Isomorphic Drug Design Engine, a system created to discover the “pockets” on proteins where drugs can bind and in general to predict how proteins and drug molecules interact. IEEE Spectrum spoke with Adrian Stecuła , a group leader in the machine learning organization at Isomorphic Labs, about how close AI may be to becoming a practical tool for designing new medicines. Going Beyond AlphaFold AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold3 were massive leaps forward for computational biology. Why weren’t those models sufficient for actually designing drugs? Adrian Stecuła: AlphaFold2 was eventually recognized with the Nobel Prize , because it arguably solved the problem of protein folding. But proteins don’t exist in a vacuum, right? They interact with a wide variet…

Outbound investment protections + Expanded export controls + Xi in Pyongyang

Outbound investment protections + Expanded export controls + Xi in Pyongyang c.groth Thu, 06/11/2026 - 11:57 picture alliance / Xinhua News Agency | Shan Yuqi Download (pdf - 384.22 KB) MERICS Briefs MERICS China Essentials Jun 12, 2026 10 min read Outbound investment protections + Expanded export controls + Xi in Pyongyang Top Story China challenges EU de-risking by boosting outbound investment protections Beijing has taken steps to better protect Chinese overseas investments and deter foreign governments from imposing restrictions on Chinese investors – just as the EU mulls a tougher de-risking approach that could lead to greater scrutiny of Chinese projects in Europe. The State Council’s new regulations on outbound investment, which will come into force on July 1, cover Chinese companies and individuals, and a wide range of investment activity beyond initial investment. They reinforce existing export controls on goods, technology, services and related data, and formalize Chinese countermeasures that can be used in response to foreign trade and investment barriers, including blacklisting foreign individuals or organizations, and trade and investment bans. By placing these measures on a firmer legal footing and embedding them within institutionalized security review, monitoring, and investigation processes, China is creating a framework with major implications for the EU and its companies. Not only do the new regulations limit the EU’s ability to challenge Chinese retaliati…

AI Weekly Issue #502: Your AI can now spend your money — Visa wired it into ChatGPT

Visa just wired ChatGPT to shop and pay on your behalf — an AI agent can now buy at any Visa merchant without you clicking "buy." It capped a week where the labs pushed autonomy and capital to new highs: Anthropic put Claude Fable 5, its most powerful public model, into everyone's hands; Jeff Bezos came out of stealth with Prometheus, a $41B startup building an "artificial general engineer." A self-replicating worm hit 73 of Microsoft's own GitHub repositories through AI coding tools. Anthropic broke with the White House over preempting state AI laws; a German court ruled Google is liable for what its AI Overviews say. The agents got more capable this week — and a lot more autonomous.

Axis error when creating csr_matrix. from merge data

I get an error when creating a csr_matrix data. from two merged pd.read_csv() data. the code is: from scipy.sparse import csr_matrix as csr from pandas import DataFrame as df from pandas import Series as s import pandas as pd df_1 = df({"no": s(["07628", "07628", "07628", "07628", "07628", "07419", "07419", "07419", "07419", "07419"], dtype="str"), "t": ["ex0", "ex1", "ex2", "ex3", "ex4", "ex5", "ex6", "ex7", "ex8", "ex9"], "penilai": ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j"]}) df_2 = df({"no": s(["07628", "07628", "07628", "07628", "07628", "07419", "07419", "07419", "07419", "07419"], dtype="str"), "vec": [8, 17, 1, 89, 37, 19, 53, 72, 8, 94]}) df1_csv = df_1.to_csv("one.csv", sep=";") df2_csv = df_2.to_csv("two.csv", sep=";") readcsv1 = pd.read_csv('one.csv', sep=";", header=0, names=["no", "t", "penilai"], usecols=["no", "t", "penilai"], dtype={"no": "str", "t": "str", "penilai": "str"}) readcsv2 = pd.read_csv("two.csv", sep=";", header=0, names=["vec", "no"], usecols=["vec", "no"], dtype={"no": "str", "vec": "float32"}) merger = readcsv1.merge(readcsv2, on="no", how="outer") row = merger["t"].astype("category").cat.codes col = merger["penilai"].astype("category").cat.codes val = merger["vec"].values csrm = csr((val, (row, col))) the error message is: ValueError Traceback (most recent call last) /tmp/ipykernel_3197/4294466243.py in () 20 col = merger["penilai"].astype("category").cat.codes 21 val = merger["vec"].values ---> 22 csrm = csr((val, (row, col))) 23 24…

Russian propaganda abounds in Chinese social media debate on Ukraine

Russian propaganda abounds in Chinese social media debate on Ukraine c.groth Thu, 06/04/2026 - 10:12 picture alliance / Da Qing/HPIC/dpa | Da Qing Comment Jun 08, 2026 8 min read Russian propaganda abounds in Chinese social media debate on Ukraine This series looks at how China debates the issues the country faces at home and abroad. Covering domestic policy, social change, technology, geopolitics and economics and focusing mainly on expert debates, each article draws on analysis from universities, think tanks, government-linked research institutes, business associations and investment groups. A new analysis suggests that Beijing may be tolerating or even encouraging toxic discourse to undermine the moral and political authority of Kyiv and its Western supporters, says Yurii Poita, MERICS Senior Associate Fellow and Head of the Asia Section at Kyiv-based New Geopolitics Research Network (NGRN). While the Chinese government likes to present itself as “ objective and impartial ” regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, the tone on Chinese social media is radically different. Influencers on Chinese online platform Weibo, many with millions of followers, regularly attack the Ukrainian government, attempt to drive a wedge between Kyiv and its European and US partners, portray Ukrainian armed forces and recruitment centers as “Nazi,” and justify documented Russian war crimes. Given the links between these opinion leaders and the Chinese state, and the characteristics of China’s media sys…

AI Weekly Issue #499: Microsoft proves it doesn't need OpenAI; Alphabet raises $85B

Microsoft used its own developer conference to show it can live without OpenAI, Florida's attorney general sued OpenAI and went after Sam Altman personally, researchers and a new Workday product made plain that nobody trusts AI agents yet, and Alphabet raised a record $85 billion the same week the Fed flagged AI as a systemic risk. The money is moving faster than the trust.

XPeng (小鹏汽车) pushes to increase European manufacturing presence

XPeng (小鹏汽车) pushes to increase European manufacturing presence Linda_Heyer Wed, 06/03/2026 - 10:23 picture alliance / Sipa USA | Imaginechina Comment Jun 03, 2026 2 min read XPeng (小鹏汽车) pushes to increase European manufacturing presence EV-automaker XPeng is reportedly in talks with Volkswagen and other automakers to possibly buy a European factory, which would take the Chinese company a step further in localizing production in the EU. XPeng is currently shifting more production capacity to Europe, a move that helps it to circumvent EU tariffs on Chinese EVs. Already in 2025, XPeng partnered with contract assembly company Magna International’s Austrian plant to produce XPeng’s G6 and G9 models. More models are planned to roll off the assembly line in the near future, but whether these investments will lead to job creation in Europe, or even technology transfers, remains to be seen. In the Magna deal, XPeng uses a semi-knocked down (SKD) approach , which means that car parts are produced in China and then shipped for final assembly to Austria, using already existing assembly lines. That way, XPeng avoids European tariffs that apply only to fully assembled cars while the technological know-how stays in China. This approach has been a lifeline for Magna as BMW and Toyota contracts approached their late 2026 expiration date and Magna’s factories in Europe were underutilized due to a decrease in orders. XPeng has hinted it might go beyond contract manufacturing in Europe and sa…

China’s swift moves on brain-computer interfaces challenge Europe and the US

China’s swift moves on brain-computer interfaces challenge Europe and the US c.groth Tue, 06/02/2026 - 16:55 picture alliance / HPIC | stringer Comment Jun 03, 2026 2 min read China’s swift moves on brain-computer interfaces challenge Europe and the US China in March approved an invasive brain-computer interface (BCI, 脑机接口) for commercial use – the first country in the world to do so. Europe’s risk-averse and ethics-heavy approach to BCI governance may harm its ability to compete in this technology. The interface by Shanghai-based Neuracle Medical Technology (博睿康) has already helped 32 patients with spinal cord injuries to regain hand movement. It consists of a coin-sized electrode placed in the brain to pick up signals when a patient imagines movement. The signals are then wirelessly transmitted to a robotic glove. More than 30 hospitals across China now operate BCI units, with applications expanding to neurodegenerative and psychiatric care. Europe can also boast world-class academic research and pioneering firms in this area, such as MindMaze and CorTec , but it will need to strengthen support via policy and investment to ensure that its BCI industry isn’t left behind. Neuracle’s approval is evidence that Beijing sees this frontier technology as highly strategic and even militarily significant . In 2025, China introduced a roadmap for the development of world-class BCI companies by 2030, while its 15th Five Year Plan endorses BCI as a future industry. The government launc…

IBM to invest $10 billion in quantum computing

The investment will fund R+D, capital expenditure, manufacturing scaling, ecosystem partnerships, and strategic acquisitions.

What it takes to be a player in the international AI game​​​​‌‍​‍​‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌​‌‍​‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌​‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍​‍​‍​​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​​‍‍​‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‌‌​​‍‍‌​‌‌​‌‍​‌‌‍​‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌‍‌‍‌‍​‌‍‌‌​‍‍‌‍​‌‍​‍‌‍…

From the floor of HumanX, Ryan welcomes Songyee Yoon, managing partner at Principal Venture Partners (PVP), to chat about AI development outside the US, from the need to adapt models to local languages and culture to the challenges of the global supply-chain for things like semiconductors to how venture capital is looking at international AI companies. ​​​​‌‍​‍​‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌​‌‍​‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌​‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍​‍​‍​​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​​‍‍​‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‌‌​​‍‍‌​‌‌​‌‍​‌‌‍​‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌‍‌‍‌‍​‌‍‌‌​‍‍‌‍​‌‍​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌​​‌​​‍​​​​​‌‍​‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌​‌​‌‌​‍‌‌‍‌‍​​‍‌‍​​​‌​‍‌​‌​​‌‍‌‍‌​​‍‌​‍‌​‍​​‌‌​​​‌​​‍‌​‌​​​​‍​​​​‍‌​​​‌‍‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‍​‍​​‍‌​‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‍‌‌​‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‌‍‌‌‌​​‌‍‌​‌‌​​‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍​​‌‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‍​‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌​​‌‌​​‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌​‍‌‍​​‌‌‍‍​‌‌​‌‌​‌​​‌​​‍‌‌​​‌​​‌​‍‌‌​​‍‌​‌‍​‍‌‌​​‍‌​‌‍‌‍​‌‍‌‌​​‍‍‌​‌‌​‌‍​‌‌‍​‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌‍‌‍‌‍​‌‍‌‌​‍‍‌‍​‌‍​‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌​​‌​​‍​​​​​‌‍​‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌​‌​‌‌​‍‌‌‍‌‍​​‍‌‍​​​‌​‍‌​‌​​‌‍‌‍‌​​‍‌​‍‌​‍​​‌‌​​​‌​​‍‌​‌​​​​‍​​​​‍‌​​​‌‍‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‍​‍​​‍‌​‍‌‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‍‌‌​‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‌‍‌‌‌​​‌‍‌​‌‌​​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍​​‌‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‍​‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌​​‌‌​​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌​‌​​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‍​…

New Server Hopes to Break Through AI’s “Memory Wall”

Memory is arguably the most serious constraint on modern AI large language models (LLMs). According to one influential paper , LLM token generation is an inherently memory-bound task, meaning the rate at which models output text is limited by how quickly data can be read in from memory. The severity of this bottleneck grows with model size. This creates a “memory wall” that holds back LLM inference performance. AI hardware startup Majestic Labs is taking a direct—and comprehensive—approach to solving this problem. It’s developing a new AI server, Prometheus, with up to 128 terabytes of memory. That’s over 60 times more than Nvidia’s DGX B300 server , a cutting-edge AI processing rack. Sha Rabii , co-founder and president of Majestic Labs, believes that this drastic increase in memory will provide his company an edge. While he acknowledges that “Nvidia’s done a phenomenal job creating a system that can scale out,” he argues that it becomes less economical as models grow and “ends up greatly over-provisioning on compute and starving on memory.” DRAM-Centric Architecture for LLM Memory Majestic Labs plans to surmount the “memory wall” with an architecture that fundamentally differs from competitors’. Nvidia’s current servers have fast high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is typically used to read in an LLM’s model weights. In addition, there’s an often larger but slower pool of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which handles LLM and server overhead. Majestic instead goes all i…

Chinese experts urge Beijing to push past obstacles to a unified national market

Chinese experts urge Beijing to push past obstacles to a unified national market Linda_Heyer Mon, 06/01/2026 - 14:43 picture alliance/dpa Comment Jun 02, 2026 5 min read Chinese experts urge Beijing to push past obstacles to a unified national market This series looks at how China debates the issues the country faces at home and abroad. Covering domestic policy, social change, technology, geopolitics and economics and focusing mainly on expert debates, each article draws on analysis from universities, think tanks, government-linked research institutes, business associations and investment groups. The upside of undoing the country’s patchwork of regional protectionism is seen as greater than ever, says Alexander Davey. The challenge will be to bring local cadres along. Integrating China’s domestic market for goods and services will help Xi Jinping realize his key goals of insulating the economy against external risks, boosting industrial upgrading, and reducing the country’s reliance on exports, according to Chinese scholars. A MERICS Expert Debate Analysis shows why the task – widely recognized as a huge challenge – appears more urgent than at any time since economic liberalization began in the 1980s. Although Xi raised the issue after coming to power in 2012, it was not until 2022 that Beijing began legislating to undo the patchwork of regional rules and protectionism – and progress has been slow. Exhibit 1 Experts cast the unified national market as China’s shield against…

Startup offers free home cleaning—if it can record it all for robot training

The latest twist in paying humans to wear head cameras for robot training data.

Modal's Series C: Raising $355M at a $4.65B valuation

We've raised $355M at a $4.65B valuation to continue building the production cloud for AI.

Expanding our AI and Healthcare Portfolio

The healthcare industry is ground zero for AI companies and the rollout of their products: Microsoft tells us that AI is better than doctors at diagnosing complex medical conditions. Nvidia claims that its chatbot, a partnership with the startup Hippocratic AI, can outperform nurses on detecting over the counter drug toxicities. AI firms suggest that […] The post Expanding our AI and Healthcare Portfolio appeared first on AI Now Institute .

Advancing Collaborative Research: Introducing URP 3.0

Advancing Collaborative Research: Introducing URP 3.0 robyn.cherinka… Fri, 05/15/2026 - 14:48 By Kate Tsui, Program Director, University Research Partnerships University Research Program 3.0 Kick-Off Event at TRI HQ At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we believe meaningful innovation happens when industry and academia work side by side. Today, we are introducing the next five-year phase of our University Research Program, called URP 3.0 , which expands our collaboration with leading North American universities and welcomes new partners into the community. Starting in 2026, URP 3.0 supports 69 research projects across 31 universities, bringing together 88 TRI researchers and 104 faculty members . This is the biggest cohort since the program’s inception, with 11 new institutions participating for the first time and bringing fresh perspectives and expertise. The program also continues to build on long-standing relationships with foundational research partners, such as MIT, Stanford, and the University of Michigan. TRI funds collaborative university research projects that are intentionally structured for deep collaboration. Each project is co-led by a university researcher and a TRI co-investigator working as peers to ensure that fundamental research and real-world application evolve together. The portfolio also includes 10 Young Faculty Research projects, continuing TRI’s investment in the next generation of researchers. Although these projects span very different domains, many…

Chinese investment rises to 7-year high - Chinese FDI in Europe: 2025 Update

Chinese investment rises to 7-year high - Chinese FDI in Europe: 2025 Update c.groth Wed, 05/13/2026 - 12:39 Download (pdf - 1.28 MB) Report May 20, 2026 20 min read Chinese investment rises to 7-year high - Chinese FDI in Europe: 2025 Update Report by Rhodium Group and MERICS Key findings Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe (EU and UK) rose for the second consecutive year, reaching its highest level since 2018. It increased by 67 percent to EUR 16.8 billion in 2025. M&A activity drove the rebound, rising 89 percent year-on-year to EUR 7.9 billion. But greenfield investment remained the primary channel for Chinese FDI in Europe, increasing by 51 percent to a record EUR 8.9 billion. Europe made up nearly a quarter of global Chinese FDI in 2025, up from 17 percent in 2024. While Hungary remains the primary destination for Chinese FDI in Europe, more investment is once again flowing into Germany and France. Hungary attracted Chinese investments worth EUR 3.9 billion in 2025, up from EUR 3.2 billion in 2024. Germany (EUR 2.5 billion) and France (EUR 1.9 billion) ranked second and third. Germany’s share of total Chinese FDI in Europe rose to 15 percent from 10 percent in 2024, while France’s increased to 12 percent from 5 percent. The automotive sector attracted more Chinese FDI in 2025 than any other industry. Investments in the sector totaled EUR 7.6 billion, with 93 percent of them focused on the EV supply chain. The auto sector’s share of total Chinese FDI in Eu…

Media Briefing on the Trump-Xi Meeting

Media Briefing on the Trump-Xi Meeting J.Heller Wed, 05/13/2026 - 11:31 Video May 13, 2026 1 min read Media Briefing on the Trump-Xi Meeting US President Donald Trump is set to meet Xi Jinping in his first visit to China since 2017. The meeting, originally delayed due to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, arrives at a moment of deep structural tension between the world's two largest economies, with disputes over trade tariffs, rare earth access, Taiwan, and AI technology still unresolved. What makes this summit uniquely complex is the Iran war looming over the agenda. The ongoing conflict has inadvertently strengthened China's negotiating hand, and Washington is pressing Beijing to use its leverage with Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. MERICS Heads of Program Jacob Gunter (Economy and Industry) and Helena Legarda (Foreign Relations) assess what this summit means for the trajectory of US-China relations, the outlook for global trade, and the broader implications of an Iran conflict that is reshaping great power dynamics. The session is moderated by Claudia Wessling , Director of Communications & Publications at MERICS. Related content about US-China Trump's remarks after China Summit compromise Taiwan's security Tracker Jun 18, 2026 China in 26: Diplomatic strength, economic weakness, investment increase Podcast May 22, 2026 US-China summit: Xi warns Trump about Taiwan (ZDF) External publication May 15, 2026

Monitoring, Audit Trails, and Compliance with ClearML

By Adam Wolf and Damian Erangey The previous posts in this series built the security model layer by layer: identity, configuration governance, service account automation, compute policies, and production model serving. This final post covers what holds all of it together: the monitoring and audit layer that records every action, every API call, and every […]

Partnership on AI Receives $500K Investment From Collaborative Philanthropic Initiative to Advance AI Transparency and Accountability

The post Partnership on AI Receives $500K Investment From Collaborative Philanthropic Initiative to Advance AI Transparency and Accountability appeared first on Partnership on AI .

Open by design: Ai2 brings fully open AI infrastructure online with NSF OMAI

Ai2 is bringing NSF OMAI compute online to power a fully open AI research ecosystem, turning national infrastructure investment into reusable models, data, methods, and tools that can accelerate scientific discovery.

Government-Funded Research Seeds Entire Industries. What Would Be Lost Without It.

CSET’s Steph Batalis, Katherine Quinn, and Rebecca Gelles shared their expert analysis in an op-ed published by Barron's. Their piece examines the economic and scientific impact of proposed funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), arguing that NIH-backed research plays a foundational role in driving medical innovation, biotechnology growth, and U.S. competitiveness. The post Government-Funded Research Seeds Entire Industries. What Would Be Lost Without It. appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology .

Kubernetes v1.36: Admission Policies That Can't Be Deleted

If you've ever tried to enforce a security policy across a fleet of Kubernetes clusters, you've probably run into a frustrating chicken-and-egg problem. Your admission policies are API objects, which means they don't exist until someone creates them, and they can be deleted by anyone with the right permissions. There's always a window during cluster bootstrap where your policies aren't active yet, and there's no way to prevent a privileged user from removing them. Kubernetes v1.36 introduces an alpha feature that addresses this: manifest-based admission control . It lets you define admission webhooks and CEL -based policies as files on disk, loaded by the API server at startup, before it serves any requests. The gap we're closing Most Kubernetes policy enforcement today works through the API. You create a ValidatingAdmissionPolicy or a webhook configuration as an API object, and the admission controller picks it up. This works well in steady state, but it has some fundamental limitations. During cluster bootstrap, there's a gap between when the API server starts serving requests and when your policies are created and active. If you're restoring from a backup or recovering from an etcd failure, that gap can be significant. There's also a self-protection problem. Admission webhooks and policies can't intercept operations on their own configuration resources. Kubernetes skips invoking webhooks on types like ValidatingWebhookConfiguration to avoid circular dependencies. That mea…

Expand Financing Support to Science and Technology Enterprises

Read our translation of a May 2025 press conference featuring several Chinese government finance officials, who discussed a recently issued policy encouraging greater capital market funding for tech companies. The post Expand Financing Support to Science and Technology Enterprises appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology .

Certain Policy Measures to Accelerate the Construction of the Science and Technology Finance System and Strongly Support a High Level of Self-Reliance in Science and Technology

Read our translation of a series of Chinese policy measures designed to provide greater financing to tech startups. The post Certain Policy Measures to Accelerate the Construction of the Science and Technology Finance System and Strongly Support a High Level of Self-Reliance in Science and Technology appeared first on Center for Security and Emerging Technology .

AI Opportunities in Africa: New Policies, Infrastructure Investment, and Innovation Programs Drive Continental AI Growth

Here is what happened in AI in Africa this week: 1. South Africa Releases New Draft National AI Policy […]

AI Opportunities in Africa: New Grants, Fellowships, and Research Funding Open for Innovators and Researchers

Here is what happened in AI in Africa this week: 1.Digital Minds AI Research Fellowship 2026 A newly opened […]

South African AI Association Enters 4th Year After Busy 2025

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA 3rd March – South African AI Association (SAAIA) SAAIA operated on a funded basis for the second time from 1st March 2025 to 28th February 2026. This was achieved via the amazing sponsorship from Google, Huawei and other vendors who contributed to the years funding tranche for which we are very grateful. […]

AI Opportunities in Africa: $10B Investments, Policy Moves, and Global Partnerships Shape the Future

Here is what happened in AI in Africa this week: 1. $10 B AI Initiative Launched to Boost Jobs […]

Innovating with MongoDB | Customer Successes, February 2026

Who says that winter is when things slow down? MongoDB has had a busy start to the year, with a steady stream of announcements and product features—all against the backdrop of an industry moving at warp speed. It's been a lot, and it's been a blast! For example, the energy at January’s MongoDB.local San Francisco—where we announced capabilities to help teams ship production AI faster—was infectious. MongoDB isn’t just starting a new chapter in AI; we’re rewriting the book in real time. The next generation of AI companies isn't just looking for a temporary place to store data; they’re looking to build on a generational modern data platform. Indeed, the most innovative founders are moving away from rigid, legacy systems and embracing a single, fluid foundation that can grow with them. At MongoDB.local SF, our message was clear: Choose your data platform strategically in order to ship faster. From our new Voyage 4 models to the general availability of our Intelligent Assistant, we are obsessed with anticipating what developers need next. This assistant is particularly impactful because it embeds MongoDB-specific expertise directly into Compass and MongoDB Atlas, allowing developers to troubleshoot performance without the "context-switching" that traditionally slows them down. In this issue, I’m thrilled to spotlight four startups who are building the future on the right foundation. You’ll see how Modelence and Thesys are using our flexible document model to eliminate 'operation…

Demo Day: How the Vector Institute helps Canadian startups turn innovative ideas into commercial reality

By Daniel Kitts “Where were those 10 years ago in AI?” said Stephen Southin to the crowd at Vector’s first Demo Day. The AI industry veteran was energized after hearing […] The post Demo Day: How the Vector Institute helps Canadian startups turn innovative ideas into commercial reality appeared first on Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence .

How We Protect Confidential Information

METR works with AI developers, governments, and other research organizations who sometimes provide nonpublic model access and proprietary information. Over time, we’ve developed confidentiality and security measures to protect such access and information. This post describes our approach at a high level. Confidentiality measures Our confidentiality policy, setup, and norms primarily address the risk of leaks during conversation and in infrastructure, though they also reduce insider threat risk by limiting who knows what. Policy Our confidentiality policy assigns information—including (but not limited to) nonpublic access, lab relationships, policy work, and funding—to our six confidentiality levels, ranging from public to internally siloed, based on sensitivity. At the most restricted end, information about nonpublic models (including capabilities, evaluation timelines, and which developer we’re working with) is limited to researchers directly involved and discussed only by codename. Our own methodology, tasks, and infrastructure are available more broadly within METR, and much of this work is eventually published. Our policy also provides standard responses for sensitive questions, guidance on edge cases, quick rules of thumb with examples and FAQs, and possible slip-ups to watch out for. Table of Contents Commenting on AI developers Easy places to slip up Don’t comment on labs based on non-public info. Any comments […] should be rigorously substantiated by public informati…

Inside an AI-Run Company

AI agents are moving from demos to real workplaces, but what actually happens when they run a company? In this episode, journalist Evan Ratliff, host of Shell Game , joins Chris to discuss his immersive journalism experiment building a real startup staffed almost entirely by AI agents. They explore how AI agents behave as coworkers, how humans react when interacting with them, and where ethical and workplace boundaries begin to break down. Featuring: Evan Ratliff – LinkedIn , X Chris Benson – Website , LinkedIn , Bluesky , GitHub , X Links: Shell Game Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here !

Inurgural ITU AI for Good Impact Africa Event in Partnership with AI Expo Africa Delivers Success

AI for Good Impact Africa, our second regional event brought together innovators, policymakers, startups, and youth from across the continent for the transformative week of dialogue and discovery. Held alongside AI Expo Africa in Johannesburg, the event marked a milestone in fostering local innovation, building capacity, and strengthening partnerships to advance responsible artificial intelligence across […]

2026, the year we shine

Vukosi Marivate is a Professor of Computer Science and the ABSA UP Chair of Data Science at the University of Pretoria, South Africa🇿🇦. Vukosi leads the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI). Additionally, he co-founded both the Deep Learning Indaba, co-founder of Lelapa AI, an African startup focused on AI for Africans […] The post 2026, the year we shine appeared first on Deep Learning Indaba .

Dubai joins South Africa AI Association initiative to launch global AI trade & investment hub

The hub will serve as a catalyst for collaboration and platform for startups in high-potential, emerging markets. Dubai – Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), through the Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DCAI), has partnered with the South African Artificial Intelligence Association (SAAIA) to help launch a dedicated AI trade & investment hub with the aim of fast-tracking […]

The AI Agent Race Heats Up: Who’s Leading in 2025?

Autonomous AI agents – once a sci-fi concept – are rapidly becoming a mainstream reality. These agents don’t just chat; they plan, reason, and act across digital environments to achieve user goals independently. As we move into 2025, the race to build these agents is in full swing, with tech giants and nimble startups alike […] The post The AI Agent Race Heats Up: Who’s Leading in 2025? appeared first on TOPBOTS .

From research to startup: Polybot receives order for AI-based harvesting robotics

ELLIS Institute Tübingen and Tübingen AI Center achieve important milestone for innovation in automated agriculture.

The AI Investment Landscape: Who’s Funding the Next Wave of Innovation?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the tech landscape, attracting a diverse array of investors eager to capitalize on its potential. In this article, we explore the key players driving investments in AI, from tech giants and venture capital funds to angel investors, and examine the companies they are betting on. The post The AI Investment Landscape: Who’s Funding the Next Wave of Innovation? appeared first on TOPBOTS .

AI in Finance Global Challenge Startup Grant Awardee

In June 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the 8th edition...

Learning to Generate Unbounded 3D Scenes from Image Collections

Introduction Scene generation has raised considerable attention in recent years, addressing the growing need...

Financial Market Applications of LLMs

The AI revolution drove frenzied investment in both private and public companies and captured the public’s imagination in 2023. Transformational consumer products like ChatGPT are powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) that excel at modeling sequences of tokens that represent words or parts of words [2]. Amazingly, structural

Qdrant Hybrid Cloud and Scaleway Empower GenAI

In a move to empower the next wave of AI innovation, Qdrant and Scaleway collaborate to introduce Qdrant Hybrid Cloud , a fully managed vector database that can be deployed on existing Scaleway environments. This collaboration is set to democratize access to advanced AI capabilities, enabling developers to easily deploy and scale vector search technologies within Scaleway’s robust and developer-friendly cloud infrastructure. By focusing on the unique needs of startups and the developer community, Qdrant and Scaleway are providing access to intuitive and easy to use tools, making cutting-edge AI more accessible than ever before.

How Egyptian prop-tech startup Partment enables hassle-free 2nd home ownership

Egyptian prop-tech startup Partment is working to redefine second-home ownership and real estate investment via its “invest and experience” co-ownership platform. Founded in 2022, Partment offers users the chance to part-invest in meticulously curated properties, enabling personalised and diversified real estate portfolios. Through fractional ownership, co-owners access a set number of nights for personal use [...]

UNDP launches “timbuktoo” financing initiative for African startups

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched the “timbuktoo” initiative together with African countries, which it said is positioned to be “the world’s largest financing facility”, bringing catalytic and commercial capital together to support Africa’s startup ecosystem. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, African Continental Free Trade Area secretariat secretary [...]

10 startups selected for Africa Tech Summit Nairobi Investment Showcase

Africa Tech Summit Nairobi has announced the 10 African tech ventures that will showcase their solutions to an audience of industry experts, investors and fellow innovators on February 14-15. Africa Tech Summit Nairobi is a leading African tech event providing insight and networking with the African tech ecosystem, bringing together tech leaders, MNOs, banks, international [...]

Egyptian e-health startup Yodawy banks $10m funding

Egyptian digital healthcare startup Yodawy, which has pioneered a pharmacy benefit management platform in the MENA region using technology, expert pharmacists, and state-of-the-art logistics, has raised US$10 million in extra funding, taking its total raised capital to US$34.5 million. Founded in 2018, Yodawy enables its partners – insurance companies, medical providers, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical/FMCG companies [...]

Third episode of new Disrupt Podcast series shines light on Africa’s ed-tech space

Disrupt Africa has released the third – and last – episode of its three-part podcast series zeroing in on the state of Africa’s ed-tech space, looking at trends, opportunities and challenges within the vital sector. Disrupt Podcast has released a number of focused series in the last couple of years, including ones on venture capital, [...]

​​5 Meme Coins on Investor’s Watch Lists for Upcoming Alt Coin Season 2024

Finding the next meme coin with the potential for a 100x return on investment can be a daunting task in the current crypto landscape. The market is saturated with numerous meme coins, making it challenging to identify promising projects that stand out. However, there are strategies to improve your odds of success, such approaches many [...]

Generation configurations: temperature, top-k, top-p, and test time compute

ML models are probabilistic. Imagine that you want to know what’s the best cuisine in the world. If you ask someone this question twice, a minute apart, their answers both times should be the same. If you ask a model the same question twice, its answer can change. If the model thinks that Vietnamese cuisine has a 70% chance of being the best cuisine and Italian cuisine has a 30% chance, it’ll answer “Vietnamese” 70% of the time, and “Italian” 30%. This probabilistic nature makes AI great for creative tasks. What is creativity but the ability to explore beyond the common possibilities, to think outside the box? However, this probabilistic nature also causes inconsistency and hallucinations. It’s fatal for tasks that depend on factuality. Recently, I went over 3 months’ worth of customer support requests of an AI startup I advise and found that ⅕ of the questions are because users don’t understand or don’t know how to work with this probabilistic nature. To understand why AI’s responses are probabilistic, we need to understand how models generate responses, a process known as sampling (or decoding). This post consists of 3 parts. Sampling : sampling strategies and sampling variables including temperature, top-k, and top-p. Test time compute : increasing the compute allocated to inference, e.g. sampling multiple outputs, to help improve a model’s performance. Structured outputs : how to get models to generate outputs in a certain format. Sampling Given an input, a neural networ…

Open challenges in LLM research

[ LinkedIn discussion , Twitter thread ] Never before in my life had I seen so many smart people working on the same goal: making LLMs better. After talking to many people working in both industry and academia, I noticed the 10 major research directions that emerged. The first two directions, hallucinations and context learning, are probably the most talked about today. I’m the most excited about numbers 3 (multimodality), 5 (new architecture), and 6 (GPU alternatives). 1. Reduce and measure hallucinations Hallucination is a heavily discussed topic already so I’ll be quick. Hallucination happens when an AI model makes stuff up. For many creative use cases, hallucination is a feature. However, for most other use cases, hallucination is a bug. I was at a panel on LLM with Dropbox, Langchain, Elastics, and Anthropic recently, and the #1 roadblock they see for companies to adopt LLMs in production is hallucination. Mitigating hallucination and developing metrics to measure hallucination is a blossoming research topic, and I’ve seen many startups focus on this problem. There are also ad-hoc tips to reduce hallucination, such as adding more context to the prompt, chain-of-thought, self-consistency, or asking your model to be concise in its response. To learn more about hallucination: Survey of Hallucination in Natural Language Generation (Ji et al., 2022) How Language Model Hallucinations Can Snowball (Zhang et al., 2023) A Multitask, Multilingual, Multimodal Evaluation of ChatGPT…

How to discover/approximate the causations/correlations between multiple time-series and related open source libraries?

I have the following time-series data with two value columns. (t: time, v1: time-series values 1, v2: time-series values 2) t | v1 | v2 ---+----+---- 1 | 1 | 0 2 | 2 | 2 3 | 3 | 4 4 | 3 | 6 5 | 3 | 6 6 | 4 | 6 7 | 5 | 8 (7 rows) I am trying to discover (or approximate) the correlation between the $v1$ and $v2$ , and use that approximation for the next step predictions. Please note, the most obvious correlation is $v2(t)=2.v1(t-1)$ . My question is, what are the algorithms to employ for such approximations and are there any open source implementations of those algorithms for SQL/python/javascript?

Understanding train vs validation loss chart

I am training an LSTM to a univariate time series and I have some questions about how to evaluate the train vs validations loss charts and which number of epochs to use in the model. To give more context about my data. It is a monthly univariate time series and the LSTM wants to predict the next 12 data points. The data is in sliding window format with 12 inputs and 12 outputs. A summary of the model is below. In both charts I see that the error in the validation dataset is smaller than the error in the training set. It means that I cannot generalize well so I am underfitting, right? The training and validation loss seems to converge around 40 epochs for the MAE loss and for the MSE. Should I use MAE as loss? As far as I know, MAE and MSE are the error metrics generally used for time series. Which number of epochs should I use for this model? #DEFINE THE MODEL lstm_model % layer_lstm(units = 12, #24, # size of the layer batch_input_shape = c(1, 12, 1), # batch size, timesteps, features return_sequences = TRUE, stateful = TRUE, name = "LSTM") %>% time_distributed(keras::layer_dense(units = 1), name = "Output") #COMPILE lstm_model %>% compile(loss = 'mae', optimizer = optimizer_adam(lr = 0.001, decay = 1e-6), metrics = 'mse') summary(lstm_model) #FIT THE MODEL validation_split = 0.25 train_history = lstm_model %>% fit( x = x_train_arr, y = y_train_arr, batch_size = 1, epochs = 100, verbose = 1, validation_split = validation_split, shuffle = FALSE )

Comment on Dubai fintech accelerator to assist African startups by Dejene Mulugeta

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Comment on 20 startups to pitch to investors at Angel Fair Africa by Dejene Mulugeta

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Comment on Flippy Campus Qualifies for DEMO Africa 2015 by Kenyan Shield Finance Is The Second Startup To Qualify For DEMO Africa Main Event | techcabal.com

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Comment on 88mph halts investments in African startups by Africa’s best-known tech funder is taking a break from investing in startups - Quartz

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Funding Opportunities for Promoting AI Research

AI Is Learning to Read the Room