WHAT’S INSIDE

• Company Watch: Thinking Machines Lab, Anything, Robinhood, Friend

• 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

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BIG MOVERS

Big tech moves, movers and trends to watch this week

Nvidia — Surpassed a $4.5 trillion market cap amid a surge in AI infrastructure deals. A pivotal $100 billion equity stake in OpenAI and a $500 billion data center project drive growth. Nvidia’s AI chips are critical, solidifying its lead in tech investing.

OpenAI — Closed a $6.6B secondary share sale at a $500B valuation, becoming the world's most valuable private company. Acquired Roi to enhance personal finance AI capabilities. Sora AI video generator app reached #3 on the U.S. App Store in 48 hrs.

Google — Google is advancing its AI coding agent, Jules, with the launch of Jules Tools, a command-line interface, and the Jules API. These updates enhance integration into development workflows and systems like CI/CD pipelines.

Apple — Shifting focus from its Vision Pro headset, Apple is developing two smart glasses models to compete with Meta. The display-free model is slated for 2027, while an accelerated display version aims for 2028.

Amazon Grocery — Amazon has introduced Amazon Grocery, a private-label brand with over 1,000 items under $5. Merging Amazon Fresh and Happy Belly products, it targets Walmart and Target's private labels.

Tesla — Delivered 497,099 vehicles in Q3 2025, surpassing analyst expectations by 11% due to a pre-expiry rush for the federal EV tax credit. Despite challenges in Europe, its energy storage business grew. Investors await October 22 financials.

Intel — Intel, a leader in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, saw its stock surge over 50% due to renewed confidence in its foundry strategy and potential AMD partnerships. The U.S. government investment increased to $16B.

[OPEN DEALS] RAISING DOLLARS:

Startups, firms or funds raising capital this week

Unconventional, Inc. — Founded by Naveen Rao, former Databricks AI head, this startup is raising $1B at a $5B valuation to develop a new type of AI computer to compete with Nvidia. A16z, Lightspeed, and Lux Capital are backing this venture.

Black Forest Labs — A German AI startup aiming for a $4B valuation by raising $200-$300M. Previously valued at $1B, it develops AI models with Mistral. The rise in image-editing AI demand boosts its prospects.

MAKING WAVES

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

Thinking Machines Lab — Co-founded by former OpenAI researchers, this company has launched Tinker, a (free for now) tool for automating custom AI model creation. It enables fine-tuning of models like Meta’s Llama and Alibaba’s Qwen.

Robinhood Markets — Achieved top performer status in the S&P 500 with a 229.2% surge. The company is diversifying revenue streams with new products like community trading features and wealth management tools.

Salesforce — Introduced Agentforce Vibes, an AI-powered developer tool enhancing security and code reuse for Salesforce accounts. It offers 50 free requests daily using OpenAI's GPT-5, targeting enterprise AI coding demand.

Anything — The AI coding startup achieved $2M ARR in two weeks post-launch, securing an $11M Series A round at a $100M valuation. The company provides full-stack infrastructure to aid in creating revenue-generating applications.

Friend — The AI startup launched a $1M subway ad campaign in NYC for its wearable AI device, facing criticism for the tech’s perceived surveillance. CEO Avi Schiffman sees the ads as provoking social commentary amid AI skepticism.

Teaming Up

Samsung — Partnering with OpenAI to supply 900,000 DRAM wafers monthly for the Stargate data center initiative. This aligns with Korea's ambition to lead in AI, co-developing infrastructure and exploring floating data centers to optimize land use.

CoreWeave — Specializing in GPU-as-a-service, CoreWeave secured a $14.2B AI infrastructure deal with Meta, boosting its stock by 10%. Following a $6.5B expansion with OpenAI, its recent deals exceed $36B.

IN THE MONEY

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

Massive Deals

Cerebras Systems — The AI inference company raised $1.1B in a Series G funding round, reaching an $8.1B valuation. Despite IPO delays, the funds will expand data centers and U.S. manufacturing, supporting their significant growth.

Nscale — The UK-based AI data centre startup closed a $433M round soon after a $1.1B funding, raising over $1.7B total. The SAFE financing included investments from Nvidia, Nokia, and Dell. Nscale is a key partner for OpenAI in the EU & UK.

Periodic Labs — The AI-driven scientific discovery startup raised a $300M seed. Founded by ex OpenAI and DeepMind researchers, it aims to create autonomous labs for materials discovery, backed by a16z, Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt.

Vercel — The AI Cloud platform company raised $300M in a Series F round, reaching a $9.3B valuation, co-led by Accel and GIC. The funds will boost AI-native application development, with notable growth metrics and new features.

Supabase — The open-source Firebase alternative based on Postgres, founded in 2020, has reached a $5B valuation after a $100M Series E. This follows its $2B valuation four months prior. The company, with 4M devs, has raised $500M total.

Flying Tulip — Andre Cronje's latest crypto project raised $200M at a $1B token valuation, with plans for an additional $800M via public sale. It offers an "onchain redemption right," integrating DeFi functions into a full-stack exchange. L

CyberCube — CyberCube, specializing in cyber risk modeling and analytics for insurers and brokers, raised over $180M from Spectrum Equity. The funding will boost product development and global expansion, reinforcing its market leadership.

Eve — The AI platform for plaintiff law firms, raised $103M in Series B, achieving a $1B valuation. Led by Spark Capital, Eve has expanded to over 350 new firms, processing 200,000 cases annually, and helping recover over $3.5B in settlements.

Large Deals

DualEntry — The AI startup focused on the ERP market, raised $90M in a Series A round at a $415M valuation. The funds will expand the team and enhance product development, tackling challenges of legacy systems with its AI-native platform.

Modal — The AI-native infrastructure company raised over $80M in a Series B round, reaching a $1.1B valuation. Modal offers tools for inference, sandboxes, and batch processing to streamline AI workloads and expedite the ML lifecycle for devs.

Pacaso — Pacaso, based in the U.S., raised $72.5M for its luxury vacation home co-ownership platform, totaling $300M in funding. Supported by over 17,500 individual investors, this round will fuel international expansion and tech development.

Axiom Math — A San Fran startup focused on developing an AI mathematician has secured $64M in seed funding. Backed by B Capital, Greycroft, Madrona, and Menlo Ventures, it aims to revolutionize math problem-solving and problem creation.

Simple — Kevin Hart's Hartbeat Ventures led a $35M Series B for the AI-powered weight-loss app with $160M in annual revenue and 700,000 subscribers. The app uses AI coach Avo for personalized feedback.

Dash0 — The AI-native observability company secured $35M in Series A funding, co-led by Accel and Cherry Ventures. The platform transforms telemetry data into insights, addressing noise in observability tools, and has gained over 270 customers.

Oneleet — The cybersecurity platform raised $33M in a Series A round to integrate security tools and automate compliance. The funding will enhance engineering, AI investment, and go-to-market strategies, aiming for improved cybersecurity efficiency.

Smaller Deals

Paid — Manny Medina's startup, a pioneer in results-based billing for AI agents, raised $21.6M in a seed round. This innovative model allows charging based on value delivered. Early adopters include Artisan and IFS.

Alex — The AI startup focused on automating job screening calls raised $17M to enhance its capability in conducting thousands of interviews daily for major firms. Aims to build richer professional profiles, addressing concerns in AI interviewing.

Datawizz — The AI startup focused on Specialized Language Models, secured $12.5M in seed funding led by Human Capital. The funds will enhance product development, expand the team, and facilitate market entry in the U.S. and Europe.

Maximor — The AI-driven finance startup founded by former Microsoft executives secured $9M to replace Excel in finance teams. Aiming at mid-market firms, it automates tasks, offers real-time financial insights, and reduces month-end closing.

Flai — Founded by former HappyRobot engineers, this startup enhances car dealership experiences with AI-driven omni-channel software for managing communications. Raised $4.5M in a seed round to expand its operations.

EXIT WATCHING

Mergers & Acquisitions and IPOs

OpenAI — OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance app, with only its CEO joining the company. This move supports OpenAI's strategy in personalized consumer AI to improve user engagement.

Atlantic Quantum — Google has acquired this startup focused on advanced quantum computing hardware. This strategic move aims to integrate Atlantic Quantum's modular chip technology, enhancing superconducting qubit systems.

Segments.ai — Uber has acquired Segments.ai, a platform specializing in multi-sensor data labeling for robotics and autonomous driving, to enhance its lidar annotation capabilities. The acquisition will integrate Segments.ai's team into Uber.

Perplexity — Perplexity has acquired the team from Visual Electric to create an Agent Experiences division, focusing on AI agents for design and production. This strategic move aims to boost Perplexity's competitive edge.

Bending Spoons — Italian tech company Bending Spoons is in advanced talks to acquire AOL from Yahoo for approximately $1.4B. This acquisition aims to enhance Bending Spoons' portfolio and prepare for a potential U.S. IPO.

IPO Watch

Cerebras Systems — Cerebras Systems, an AI processor company based in the U.S., has withdrawn its IPO plans after raising over $1B. The company will shift focus from systems sales to cloud services.

Wealthfront — Wealthfront, a fintech company based in the U.S., has filed for an IPO after 17 years, reporting a net profit of $123 million on $339 million in revenue. With 1.3 million customers and $88 billion AUM, it plans to expand into mortgages.

DeepL — The German AI language platform is considering a US IPO and has initiated talks with advisers. A potential share sale could occur next year, positioning DeepL for greater market expansion and competition with Google Translate.

THE FUNDING BUZZ

VC & PE Activity To Watch

AI Investment Surge — AI dominates 2025 startup funding with $192.7B of $366.8B total VC investments, AI Startups raised $73.1B in Q1 2025, with some valued at $400M to $1.2B per employee, sparking concerns over a bubble.

Blackstone — New York-based PE firm reached its $10 billion target for its Asia buyout fund, driven by investor confidence in India and Japan, with potential to hit $12.9B hard cap as 90% of previous investors increased commitments.

Toyota — Toyota has allocated $1.5 billion across two funds for early-stage Japanese startups and growth-stage global firms in AI, mobility, and climate tech, leveraging Woven City for real-world testing to enhance competitiveness.

Wave Function Ventures — Jamie Gull has launched a $15.1M deep tech fund for nuclear energy and robotics, planning 25 seed/pre-seed investments with aerospace expertise to drive long-term returns despite high initial capital reqs.

American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp. — Chamath Palihapitiya’s new $345M SPAC targets sectors like AI, energy, defense, and defi. Primarily for institutional investors, it aims for transparency and price-linked compensation.

Lobster Capital — French engineer Gabriel Jarrosson raised a $12M fund exclusively for YC startups, building on $36M invested since 2020 through his YouTube presence, focusing on early revenue & and retention in AI startups.

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