SignalPulse

WHAT’S INSIDE

Metropolis gets $1.6B at $5B val, Vulcan $1B, Armis takes $435M, Mercor 22-yo Billionaires, Shopify 7x AI-driven traffic, Moonshot, SB OAI Japan deal, NVIDIA x DT

• Big Movers: The Big tech movers, shakers and partnerships this week

• Making Waves: Companies making a buzz in the Tech world

• Open Deals: Startups raising capital this week

• In The Money: Significant raises last week and why they matter

• Exit Watching: Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

• The Funding Buzz: VC & PE Activity To Watch

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PROTON

BIG MOVERS

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

Big Tech Earnings Reports

Google integrates Gemini AI pre gemini 3 release: from hands-free navigation in Maps, AI Mode button in Chrome= Ironwood TPU chip (4x faster), AI-enhanced Finance platform, + Project Suncatcher orbital data centers launching by 2027.

OpenAI is seeing over $13B in ARR + got secured a $38B, seven-year deal with AWS, breaking its exclusive ms p’ship. It faces legal challenges as seven more families have filed lawsuits alleging ChatGPT contributed to suicides and delusions.

Microsoft — secured export licenses to ship Nvidia GPUs to the UAE, signed a $9.7B five-year AI infrastructure deal with IREN generating $1.94B p/a, and launched a new team focused on developing "humanist superintelligence".

Apple entered a $1B annual deal with Google to integrate Gemini AI into Siri, launched a web-based App Store for browsing apps across devices, and is developing a budget MacBook with iPhone A-series chips targeting under $1k.

Meta — Investing $600B in AI over three years, facing investor concerns due to high opex and lack of competitive AI products. Despite 1B+ users for its AI assistant, Meta's stock fell 12%, losing $200B in market cap on lack of tangible AI results.

Amazon — Transformed a Whole Foods in Pennsylvania into a tech-driven experience with autonomous robots and a microfulfillment center. The pilot aims to tackle inventory issues and boost convenience.

Starlink — Elon Musk envisions future Starlink satellites as orbiting data centers using high-speed laser links using Starship for satellite launches. Musk also plans to launch a flying vehicle by year-end.

Palantir — CEO Alex Karp criticized Michael Burry for betting against Palantir and Nvidia, labeling it "bats--- crazy." Burry's hedge fund holds over $1B in put options against these firms. Karp accused Burry of potential market manipulation.

[OPEN DEALS] RAISING DOLLARS:

Startups, firms or funds raising capital this week

OpenAI — OpenAI is gearing up for an IPO, valuing it at up to $1T, and aiming to raise at least $60B by 2027. It aims to fund expansion and reduce reliance on MS. Revenue is projected at $20 annually, with nonprofit oversight retaining 26%.

Humans& — Eric Zelikman, former xAI researcher, is raising $1B for his AI startup, targeting a $5B valuation. With early Google employee Georges Harik, the company focuses on AI that collaborates with human preferences, requiring significant compute.

Poolside — Nvidia plans to invest up to $1B in this AI coding startup, valuing it at $12B. Based in the AI software development sector, it focuses on enterprise-grade AI solutions, with Nvidia's investment aiming to enhance its capabilities and influence.

MAKING WAVES

Startups making waves, hot trends and signals to watch in the USA this week:

Vulcan Elements — A Research Triangle Park startup, secured over $1B in funding, including a $620M loan from the Department of War and $50M from the Dept of Commerce, to build a rare-earth magnet factory, vital for tech, defense.

Mercor — The AI recruiting and data labelling startup, founded by three 22-year-olds, recently raised $350M, valuing the company at $10B. As Thiel Fellows, they became the youngest self-made billionaires, surpassing Mark Zuckerberg.

IREN — Microsoft's $9.7B deal with IREN underscores bitcoin miners' shift to AI data centers. The agreement grants Microsoft access to Nvidia chips, boosting IREN's transformation and stock value.

Shopify — The e-commerce platform reports a 7x increase in AI-driven traffic and an 11x rise in AI-powered orders since January. Partnering with OpenAI and Microsoft, it is integrating AI to enhance shopping experiences.

Dia — The AI-native browser from The Browser Company, based in the US, is integrating features from Arc after a $610M acquisition by Atlassian. This move aims to simplify the user experience and enhance enterprise appeal.

Perplexity — Signed a multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images to enhance image attribution. Faces potential legal action from Amazon over its Comet AI browser, which autonomously purchases and bypasses Amazon's ad ecosystem.

Extropic — A probabilistic computing chip startup with its XTR-0 chip using thermodynamic sampling units to boost energy efficiency. Early tests show promise for applications in weather forecasting and gen-AI, vis faster AI data centers.

Moonshot — The Chinese startup has launched Kimi K2 Thinking, an AI model claiming superior capabilities over OpenAI's ChatGPT. Amid rising AI competition, Moonshot's model, costing $4.6M to train, offers innovative agentic features.

TEAMING UP

Startups joining forces via partnerships or joint projects this week:

SB OAI Japan — A 50-50 joint venture between SoftBank and OpenAI, located in Japan, aims to offer localized AI enterprise solutions called 'Crystal intelligence'. SoftBank, the first customer, will internally test these customized enterprise solutions.

NVIDIA and Deutsche Telekom — Partnering on a $1.15B AI factory in Europe, this venture aims to strengthen local AI capabilities and reduce reliance on US cloud services. It positions to rival major players within 18 months.

Disney & Epic Games — Disney has invested $1.5B in Epic Games to launch Disneyland Game Rush within Fortnite. This collection of minigames represents a new hybrid model for branded experiences.

People x MS — Entered a licensing deal with Microsoft amid a decline in Google traffic, positioning People Inc to leverage MS’ extensive reach and tech to enhance its business operations.

Lambda x MS — The AI infrastructure company partnered with MS for a multibillion-dollar deal using Nvidia chips. Plans to build an "AI factory" in Kansas City, aiming to meet rising AI service demands.

Snap — Snap has signed a $400M deal with Perplexity AI to integrate an AI search engine into Snapchat by early 2026. This partnership aims to enhance user interaction and boost revenue, with plans for AI Clips and new AR glasses next year.

IN THE MONEY

Companies that raised money in the past week and why they matter

Massive Deals

Metropolis — The U.S.-based AI payment technology company raised $1.6B at a $5B valuation to expand beyond parking into gas stations and hotels, backed by LionTree and SoftBank.

Armis — The cybersecurity startup raised $435M in a pre-IPO round at $6.1B valuation, up from $4.5B, backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, CapitalG, and Evolution Equity Partners, targeting an IPO by 2027.

Beacon Software — The AI-driven firm raised $250M in Series B, totaling $335M, led by General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and D1 Capital.

Synchron — The New York-based brain-computer interface startup raised $200M in Series D led by Double Point Ventures, bringing total funding to $345M, with plans to develop a Cognitive AI division.

Section Partners — The investment firm raised $189M through Section Capital V, LP and Section Ventures II, LP to support late-stage tech companies, having invested in over 80 companies including Airbnb and Uber.

Braveheart Bio — The U.S.-based biotech secured $185M in Series A to develop BHB-1893 for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, licensed from Hengrui Pharma, aiming for global late-stage testing by 2026.

Hippocratic AI — The AI-integrated healthcare startup raised $126M in Series C at a $3.5B valuation, co-founded by CEO Munjal Shah with partnerships across over 50 healthcare organizations.

Mind Robotics — Rivian's spinoff focused on industrial AI and robotics raised $115M in seed funding led by Eclipse, with RJ Scaringe chairing the board.

EdgeCortix — The Tokyo-based AI processor company secured over $110M in Series B led by TDK Ventures, with backers including CDIB and Jane Street.

Large Deals

Azalea Therapeutics — The genomic medicine company, founded by experts including Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, raised $82M to advance its Enveloped Delivery Vehicle (EDV) platform for in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 delivery.

Reevo Inc. — The AI and product marketing startup raised $80M, valuing it at $500M. Led by Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, Reevo plans to enhance product development and expand its team, currently at 90 employees.

NEOK Bio — The oncology startup, based in South Korea, raised $75M in Series A funding to develop bispecific antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Backed by ABL Bio, it plans clinical trials for two lead candidates by mid-2026, with data expected in 2027.

Giga — San Francisco-based Giga secured $61M in Series A funding to enhance its voice-based AI for customer support. The startup aims to enter regulated sectors like healthcare and finance, leveraging open-source models for data security.

Fastbreak AI — The AI-powered scheduling platform startup, based in the U.S., raised $40M in a Series A round, bringing total funding to over $50M. Investors include Greycroft, GTMfund, and pro athletes. It optimizes sports schedules.

Procurement Sciences — The AI-native government contracting company raised $30M in a Series B round led by Catalyst to enhance Awarded AI, automate the contracting process, hit 10x revenue and expanded to 300+ organizations.

Inception — Inception, led by Stanford professor Stefano Ermon, focuses on diffusion-based AI models. The startup raised $50M in seed funding led by Menlo Ventures. Their Mercury model integrates into development tools.

Smaller Deals

DualBird Inc. — The FPGA-powered data processing startup raised $25M to enhance its platform, promising to reduce hardware costs by up to 90% and boost performance a hundredfold. The platform integrates with Apache Spark.

Truffle Security — The secrets detection startup raised $25M to advance its TruffleHog Enterprise solution, led by Intel Capital and a16z. This funding will address software security challenges and includes a new GCP Analyze add-on.

Tempo — Supported by Stripe and Paradigm, secured $25M for Commonware, a crypto infrastructure company focused on advancing blockchain payment processing in the evolving crypto landscape.

Amae Health — The US-based mental health startup raised $25M in Series B to expand clinics and enhance its AI-driven care platform, with CEO Stas Sokolin planning to integrate wearable technology and predictive analytics.

Wabi — Founded by Eugenia Kuyda, the social platform for creating mini apps using prompts raised $20M in pre-seed funding, focusing on user-friendly, ad-free experience with plans for team expansion and monetization.

Evotrex — The hybrid RV startup based in China and California, backed by Anker, raised $16M in seed funding with co-founders Alex Xiao and Stella Qin planning to debut a gas engine-powered travel trailer at CES 2026.

Parable — The enterprise platform raised $16.5M to enhance AI application productivity measurement, integrating with workplace apps to visualize inefficiencies and help organizations make informed AI investment decisions with significant cost savings.

Flint — The education technology startup focused on personalized learning raised $15M in Series A funding to enhance its AI-powered platform's capacity for individual student needs and interactive learning.

Liquid — The New York City crypto startup secured $7.6M in seed funding led by Paradigm, aggregating decentralized perpetual futures exchanges with yield vaults and automated risk management, processing over $500M in trading volume.

Ruli AI — The San Francisco legal intelligence platform raised $6M in seed funding led by Album VC for team expansion and AI-driven product development, with total funding of $8M and Michele Lee joining as Board Advisor.

Harmonic — The infrastructure startup focusing on Solana raised $6M in seed funding led by Paradigm to develop an open block-building system, turning block production into a competitive marketplace akin to Nasdaq.

GitLaw — The US-based AI legal agent startup secured $3M in pre-seed funding led by Jackson Square Ventures, aiming to automate up to 90% of routine legal work for small businesses in the US and UK.

EXIT WATCHING

Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

Google — Google ended its partnership with Movies Anywhere on October 31, 2025, stopping movie syncs from Google Play and YouTube amid Disney-YouTube TV disputes, signaling fragmented digital media ecosystems.

Beta Technologies — The US-based electric aircraft company debuted on the NYSE, raising $1B with shares closing at $36, founded in 2017 by Kyle Clark despite remaining unprofitable.

Kimberly-Clark — The consumer goods giant is acquiring Kenvue for $40b, despite Kenvue's litigation over Tylenol. Includes a 46% premium, promising $2.1b in annual cost savings and projected $32B. Completion is expected in late 2026.

IPO Watch

Open or upcoming IPOs to watch:

BillionToOne Inc. — The California-based prenatal diagnostics biotech saw shares surge 82% on debut after raising $273.1M in an upsized IPO, closing at $108.94 versus $60 IPO price.

OpenAI — CFO Sarah Friar clarified an IPO isn't imminent, prioritizing growth and R&D over profitability, while seeking federal government support for future data-center deals.

THE FUNDING BUZZ

VC & PE Activity To Watch

JPMorgan Chase — The bank tokenized a private-equity fund on its blockchain platform to simplify access for wealthy clients, preceding the launch of its Kinexys Fund Flow platform and aligning with post-Genius Act efficiency trends.

Lowercarbon Capital — Led by Chris Sacca, raising a second, larger nuclear fusion fund after its $250M fund in 2022 to back fusion energy breakthroughs, with prior investments including Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

Beacon Software — Founded by Nilam Ganenthiran and Divya Gupta, raised $250M for its AI-driven roll-up strategy, targeting niche software businesses with permanent ownership model, contrasting traditional private equity approaches.

Section Partners — The California-based firm raised $189M through Section Capital V, LP and Section Ventures II, LP for personal financing and growth capital for late-stage, venture-backed tech companies, known for Airbnb and Uber investments.

CMT Digital — The Chicago-based firm raised $136M for its fourth venture fund, focusing 25% on stablecoin startups, with portfolio successes including Circle and Figure.

MVP Ventures — Closed its second fund at $125M, up from initial $35M, with assets over $300M, focusing on early-stage startups and providing extensive support before first funding rounds.

Andreessen Horowitz — Pausing its Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund, which supported over 60 companies since 2020, to reassess integration with a16z's broader strategy amid industry-wide diversity commitment reevaluation.

Balnord — Baltic Sea region VC firm launched €70M fund for frontier and dual-use technologies in space, healthcare, and industrial resilience, aiming to grow to €100M by 2026.

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