The Register
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5 days ago
● 5 sources
Software vendors including Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub, and Microsoft are shifting from flat-rate subscriptions to usage-based billing models to pass AI infrastructure costs to customers. A Forrester survey of 2,600 decision-makers found that 80 percent expect data and software budgets to rise in 2027, with Bain & Company estimating AI datacenter build costs will reach $2 trillion by 2030. Organizations will need to adopt new financial operations practices with cost controls like model routing and semantic caching to manage unpredictable token-based AI expenses.
Sifted
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5 days ago
Swedish investment firm EQT is in talks to lead or co-lead a Series D funding round for French AI company Mistral through its €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund. The round values Mistral between €8 billion and €16 billion according to sources familiar with the deal. EQT's involvement as a lead investor would provide significant capital to support Mistral's continued development and expansion of its AI models and services.
Sequoia
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5 days ago
Sequoia Capital is partnering with Sable, an AI company building AI employees that conduct customer calls using vision, voice, and real-time browser interaction. Sable has over 150 companies on its waitlist and is deploying its AI employee named Aidan at frontier companies like Notion and Decagon, with Sequoia leading the company's seed round and co-leading its Series A. This partnership aims to help enterprises bridge the gap between rapid AI capability development and practical deployment of AI agents in customer-facing roles.
Ars Technica
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5 days ago
Energy companies raised $12.6 billion through IPOs in the first half of 2024, the highest half-year total since 1999, as investors seek exposure to the power demands of AI data centers. This surpasses the full-year 2025 total of $4.3 billion and represents a marked acceleration in energy sector fundraising. The capital influx reflects growing recognition that electricity supply has become a critical constraint limiting expansion of AI infrastructure.
TechCrunch AI
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5 days ago
Andrew Dai, a former DeepMind researcher, founded Elorian to develop visual AI models and raised a $55 million seed round at a $300 million valuation within months of leaving Google. The company secured backing from strategic investors including Nvidia and Menlo Ventures, prioritizing investor quality and understanding of frontier AI development over maximum valuation. Elorian aims to advance visual understanding and reasoning in AI systems, an area Dai identified as having uneven progress compared to progress in mathematics, physics, and coding.
Menlo Ventures
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5 days ago
Menlo Ventures led a $1.5 billion Series D funding round for Fireworks, a platform for deploying and optimizing specialized AI models in production. Fireworks has grown daily token volume to 43 trillion tokens (nearly tripled since late 2024) and reached $1 billion annualized revenue, serving customers like Cursor, Vercel, and Factory. The funding reflects growing demand for inference infrastructure as companies increasingly deploy custom and open-source models alongside frontier models to balance cost, speed, and performance.
Tech.eu
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5 days ago
Resist.UA, a Ukrainian defence-tech investment fund founded in 2023, has invested in over 100 defence technology startups including AI-powered intelligence software and autonomous drones, with its first fund building a portfolio valued at over $10 million. By the end of 2025, Ukrainian defence startups had raised more than $129 million in publicly disclosed investments and grants, making defencetech the fastest-growing sector in Ukraine's technology ecosystem. The fund aims to develop founders into long-term industrial leaders who will shape Ukraine's post-war economy and attract sustained international investment.
Sifted
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5 days ago
Munich robotics startup Microagi raised $55 million in Germany's largest seed round to develop humanoid robots trained on factory and household task data. The funding was led by Hummingbird with participation from Northzone, LocalGlobe, Village Global and Redalpine, coming 10 months after the company's founding by former Formula 1 engineers. Microagi plans to deploy humanoid robots across European manufacturing and household sectors, with the CEO predicting robots capable of performing roughly 10 routine tasks autonomously within one year.
The Neuron
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5 days ago
Israeli startup Oak emerged from stealth with a unified identity management platform designed to govern access across humans, applications, and AI agents in enterprises. The company raised $60 million in seed funding led by Accel, CRV, and Greylock Partners, and is already deployed with enterprise clients. Oak's AI-native solution automates permission management in real time rather than through periodic manual reviews, addressing security vulnerabilities that the company argues legacy identity tools cannot adequately handle.
Tech.eu
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5 days ago
● 2 sources
Hyperion Robotics raised $7.4 million to expand robotic microfactories that use AI and automation to manufacture infrastructure components near project sites. The company's technology produces components three times faster, reduces costs by 50 percent, and cuts carbon emissions by 70 percent compared to conventional construction methods. The funding will enable launch of Hyperion's first UK microfactory in Flixborough and support expansion across European infrastructure markets.
Anthropic News
● 2 sources
Anthropic committed $10 million CAD to Canadian AI research institutions including Amii, Mila, Vector Institute, and several universities to fund work in AI safety, responsible applications, and domain-specific projects. The funding includes Claude API credits distributed across eight partnerships, with hundreds of Canadian startups receiving at least $5,000 USD each in credits through the Anthropic for Startups program. Canada ranks eighth globally in Claude.ai usage with per-capita adoption more than four times higher than its population would predict, indicating stronger integration of AI tools into Canadian professional work.
Tech.eu
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5 days ago
● 2 sources
Applied Computing, an AI company building foundation models for energy operations, raised $20 million led by KBR with participation from Databricks Ventures. The company's flagship platform Orbital combines physics-informed AI with chemical engineering and forecasting models, designed specifically for upstream, downstream and petrochemical operations. The funding will accelerate international expansion, opening a Houston office, and increase commercial deployment of Orbital across major energy customers globally.
TechCrunch AI
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5 days ago
● 2 sources
Applied Computing, a London-based startup, raised $20 million in Series A funding to deploy an AI model called Orbital that helps oil and gas facilities integrate sensor data, engineering documentation, and physics-based analysis. The company claims Orbital can compress investigations that previously took days or weeks into seconds, and is already generating double-digit millions in annual recurring revenue across unnamed large, publicly listed energy operators. With the funding, Applied Computing plans to expand internationally, hire AI researchers, and establish operations in Houston and the Middle East to serve more energy clients.
