The companies raising, building, and breaking things.
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This desk follows the companies on the other side of the term sheet. Not product reviews and not launch coverage — the questions here are commercial: what a company sells, who pays for it, how quickly revenue is compounding, and whether the valuation attached to it is supported by anything beyond sector enthusiasm. We cover the raise, the hiring and the expansion, but also the down rounds, the recapitalisations and the quiet wind-downs, because the failures explain the market as clearly as the breakouts do. Where a story is genuinely about technology, we take the money-and-market angle: who funded it, at what price, against which competitors, and what has to prove true for the round to make sense.
AI chip startup Etched has seen its valuation double to $21 billion in a month after quantitative trading firm Jane Street installed its first cluster system and led a massive new round.
Higgsfield has quadrupled its valuation in just eight months, securing a $400 million Series B to accelerate its generative AI video platform.
Venture capital's obsession with AI software development tools is hitting unprecedented heights, marked by Cognition's rumored valuation talks and Lovable's massive new capital injection.
A massive $1.1 billion funding round for a two-month-old AI startup highlights the venture market's insatiable appetite for elite engineering pedigree over proven business models.
A massive surge in venture capital funding for artificial intelligence, robotics, and silicon has minted 195 new unicorns in the first half of 2026, eclipsing the entire total of the previous year.
Embattled hedge fund Situational Awareness has deployed $400 million into Source Foundry, highlighting the massive capital requirements and high-stakes risks of the AI hardware race.
A new analysis of Y Combinator's historical data reveals a sharp upward trend in backing second-time founders, signaling a systemic shift away from the accelerator's classic hacker-in-a-dorm-room archetype toward de-risked bets in a capital-constrained market.
Despite seasonal expectations, July venture activity remained robust as elite funds and corporate strategists accelerated deployment, signaling a deeply bifurcated market.
Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian has raised $1.37 billion at an $8 billion valuation, signaling a massive venture capital bet on rebuilding the US defense supply chain.
Google's legendary chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving the search giant to launch an AI startup focused on scientific discovery, a move poised to ignite a highly competitive venture capital race.
Sequoia Capital is leading a $1 billion investment in Valar Atomics at a $6 billion valuation, underscoring how the massive energy requirements of AI are forcing top-tier venture firms into capital-intensive infrastructure plays.
AI deployment startup June has emerged from stealth with a massive $20 million pre-seed round backed by Marc Benioff, highlighting intense investor appetite for enterprise integration tools.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems is showing fresh signs of a public market debut within two to three years, setting the stage for a significant liquidity event in the capital-intensive fusion energy sector.
Repeat founder Ryan Williams has emerged from stealth with a $10 million seed round for Ellis AI, aiming to sell specialized artificial intelligence tools to the rapidly expanding private credit market.
Synthetic-user startup Simile has raised $200 million at a $2 billion valuation, marking a rapid escalation in capital and valuation just five months after its Series A.
Microsoft confirmed plans for a Copilot 'super app' integrating chat, coding, and agent capabilities across consumer and commercial markets, signaling AI's deeper enterprise integration.
Spur Intelligence raised a $200 million round led by Insight Partners to scale its bot-detection platform, signaling investor focus on cybersecurity and traffic quality solutions.
Antares raised $470 million to build compact nuclear reactors powering U.S. Air Force bases, signaling strong defense sector interest in advanced energy tech.
Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Company, is reportedly pursuing a major funding round that values it at $20 billion, signaling renewed investor interest in infrastructure tech.
AegisAI, founded by former Google security executives, secured $36 million to develop AI agents that detect sophisticated spear phishing attacks, addressing a growing enterprise security threat.
June saw 34 new unicorns add over $110B in value, with AI frontier labs dominating at $65B, signaling continued investor appetite for AI innovation hubs.
Glow's $1.2 billion valuation debut signals investor confidence in AI-driven endpoint security, a critical frontier as enterprises adopt AI agents and developer tools.
Netflix paid $587 million for InterPositive, a startup co-founded by Ben Affleck, marking a significant investment in AI filmmaking technology. The deal highlights the growing importance of AI in the entertainment industry.
Databricks extends its dominance in AI enterprise solutions with a new $188 billion valuation, reflecting strong investor confidence amid a competitive AI startup landscape.