Sakana AI
● 6 sources
Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based AI research company, announced a Series A funding round raising approximately $200M led by New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital, with participation from NVIDIA and major Japanese financial and industrial firms. The company will leverage NVIDIA GPU access and collaborate on research, infrastructure, and community building to develop nature-inspired foundation models. Sakana AI aims to establish a world-class AI lab in Japan to help the country address demographic decline and geopolitical challenges while building competitive advantage in AI development.
Sifted
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6 days ago
● 3 sources
Mistral is raising a €3 billion Series D round at a €20 billion valuation, with the EU's €5 billion Scaleup Fund in talks to lead or co-lead the investment. The round values the French AI company at approximately €20 billion, marking a significant capital injection into the European AI sector. The fundraise positions Mistral as Europe's answer to Palantir, a shift that influences valuation metrics and investor interest in the company.
Tech.eu
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6 days ago
● 2 sources
Humanoid, a UK robotics startup, raised $152 million in Series A funding at a $1.35 billion valuation to develop wheeled humanoid robots for manufacturing and logistics. The company plans to deploy thousands of robots starting in Q4 2026 under a major agreement with industrial supplier Schaeffler. This funding accelerates Humanoid's move toward commercial deployment of its proprietary robots across industrial sectors to address labor shortages.
Tech.eu
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6 days ago
Cascade, a London-based startup using AI to predict engineering and construction projects before public announcement, raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by a16z Speedrun. The company claims to have identified over $10 billion in project opportunities for clients by analyzing signals like bond filings, permits, and earnings transcripts. Contractors can now identify potential projects earlier and reduce time spent on manual prospecting.
The Neuron
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1 week ago
Natural, a startup focused on enabling AI agents to conduct financial transactions, raised $30 million in Series A funding. The platform provides APIs for payments, wallets, cards, and billing specifically designed for autonomous agents, with features including agent identity verification, dispute mediation, and full transaction auditability. The funding positions Natural to become infrastructure for a growing economy where AI agents handle payments autonomously rather than humans initiating transactions manually.
Last Week in AI
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1 week ago
● 3 sources
The LWiAI podcast episode 247 covers major AI developments including Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 release with Dynamic Workflows, Microsoft's Scout assistant and new MAI models, and Anthropic filing for an IPO at a $965 billion valuation. Cognition raised $1 billion at $25 billion valuation, and MiniMax-M3 achieved benchmark performance matching GPT-5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro at 5-10% of the cost. Policy moves included Trump's voluntary AI testing framework, tighter US Nvidia export controls, China restricting AI expert travel, and expanded biodefense initiatives.
