19 stories · “funding”.
OpenAI is close to a round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, led by UAE investors and Coatue, $150 billion below its earlier target.
DeepSeek is reported to have raised about $15 billion at a roughly $74 billion valuation, two days after DHS ordered its removal from federal civilian systems.
Crunchbase reports global venture funding of $159 billion in Q3 2026, down 25% from Q2 but up 53% year on year, with a record 27 billion-dollar rounds.
Impulse Space raised a $308 million Series D extension on 16 September 2026, taking the round to $808 million at a reported valuation of $5.6 billion.
S&P Global led a strategic investment that extends Kaiko's Series B to $110 million, with BNP Paribas, Nasdaq Ventures and Coinbase Ventures among the backers.
Factory raised $200 million on September 15, 2026, at a $5 billion valuation, more than tripling its April mark and pushing total funding past $400 million.
Vishal Sikka's Hang Ten Systems closed a $53 million second seed led by Temasek-backed Xora, taking total funding to $85 million five weeks after launch.
Manus is in talks to raise about $500 million at a $4 billion valuation, the Wall Street Journal reported, doubling its mark as it considers a Hong Kong listing.
Profound, which helps brands show up in AI answers rather than blue links, raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation on September 15.
Cohere and Germany's Aleph Alpha signed a definitive merger on September 16, creating a transatlantic AI company built to keep regulated data outside US cloud reach.
Crusoe closed a $3.9 billion Series F at a $30.9 billion valuation, betting power-first campuses and truck-ready AI factories can turn contracts into compute.
Temporal raised $550 million at a $12.55 billion valuation, more than doubling its worth in seven months as demand grows for durable execution in AI agents.
Open Cosmos raised €300 million on 14 September to expand satellite manufacturing and sovereign connectivity, the latest round in a European space funding wave.
The Boring Company, Elon Musk's tunnelling startup, raised $3 billion at a $23 billion valuation in a UAE-led round to build 150 km of tunnels in the Gulf.
Jeff Dean's weeks-old AI startup Discovery Loop is reported to seek a $50 billion valuation, up from about $10 billion in August. The round is not confirmed.
France's Mistral AI raised €3 billion at a €21 billion valuation, the largest equity round in European tech history, to prove sovereign, open-weight AI can compete at the frontier.
Legal-AI startup Harvey raised $550M at a $15.5B valuation and acquired Guardrails AI, its fourth deal of 2026, as the vertical-AI race accelerates further.
Databricks closed a $5 billion round at a $190 billion valuation, six months after a $134 billion mark, as it defers an IPO and bets on enterprise AI.
Small teams are beating well-funded incumbents by building vertical AI products. Here's the playbook we keep seeing work.
