BusinessVenice raises $65M to offer privacy-focused, less-filtered AI accessVenice, an AI company founded by ShapeShift creator Erik Voorhees and cloud entrepreneur Jesse Proudman, raised $65 million at a $1 billion valuation to market a privacy-first, minimally filtered alternative to mainstream models like ChatGPT and Claude.2 min read
BusinessMicrosoft launches 'Frontier' unit with $2.5B and 6,000 experts to scale enterprise AI deploymentsMicrosoft announced the creation of Microsoft Frontier company, an operating business aimed at delivering enterprise AI implementations using Microsoft’s existing AI tools.2 min read
BusinessReport: SpaceX Allegedly Showed Slim AI Device to Investors, Musk Denies Plans to Produce ItThe Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX demonstrated a thin, portable AI device to investors shortly before going public, reportedly running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and SpaceX’s own operating system with xAI’s Grok integrated.2 min read
BusinessBhavin Turakhia invests $30M of his own money to build AI-native alternative to Microsoft OfficeIndian entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia is committing $30 million of personal funds to found Neo, an enterprise work platform he says is rebuilt from scratch for the AI era.3 min read
BusinessAshton Kutcher leaves Sound Ventures to launch early-stage AI and deep-tech VC with Morgan BellerAshton Kutcher is departing Sound Ventures, the firm he co-founded with Guy Oseary 11 years ago, to start a separate venture capital fund with Morgan Beller.2 min read
BusinessWayve launches $85M employee share buyback at $8.5B valuationUK self-driving startup Wayve has opened an $85 million tender offer allowing employees to sell a portion of vested equity at the company's $8.5 billion valuation set in February.3 min read
BusinessFormer DeepMind Team’s EquiLibre Valued at $500M After Applying Poker AI to TradingThree ex-DeepMind researchers who built the poker-beating AI DeepStack have founded EquiLibre Technologies in Prague and applied reinforcement-learning methods to market trading.4 min read
BusinessEtched emerges with $5B valuation and $1B in orders for inference-focused AI systemsEtched, an AI-chip startup founded in 2022, says it has secured $1 billion in contract orders for full systems built around its newly manufactured chips and has raised $800 million in total, including a $500 million round that set a $5 billion post-money valuation.3 min read
BusinessBig Tech turns to foreign‑currency bonds and lease‑backed deals to fund AI buildoutSpending on chips, cloud infrastructure and data centres is pushing major cloud providers to issue more debt in non‑dollar currencies and to use lease‑backed financing tied to data‑centre contracts.3 min read
BusinessLux Capital leads $30M round for Gulf-focused infrastructure AI startup 1001Dubai- and London-based startup 1001 raised $30 million in a funding round led by Lux Capital, with participation from 9Yards, Hanabi and Saudi sovereign fund unit Sanabil.2 min read
BusinessAI-driven optimism fuels record share offerings on US marketsWall Street has seen an unprecedented surge in IPOs and secondary share sales through June 26, driven largely by optimism around artificial intelligence and AI infrastructure.2 min read
BusinessSouth Korean giants commit over $900 billion to memory chips, AI data centers and infrastructureSamsung and SK Hynix pledged $518 billion to build four new memory fabs in southwestern South Korea, part of a broader national investment plan unveiled at a presidential briefing.3 min read
