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Companies, investment, competition, partnerships and adoption.

22 OctOpenAI brings frontier models and Codex to Google CloudGPT-Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna are entering private preview for selected Google Cloud customers. The integration gives enterprises access to OpenAI models alongside Google Cloud governance, infrastructure and existing commitments.→22 OctSpaceX says its AI business became its largest revenue segmentSpaceX reported $14.6 billion in quarterly revenue and $4.4 billion in profit, while its AI business became the company’s largest revenue contributor. Starlink remained the largest profit generator, making the result a mixed picture of AI growth and connectivity economics.→22 OctAnthropic’s draft IPO filing reveals extraordinary future compute commitmentsThe draft filing reportedly lists roughly $450 billion in signed cloud and infrastructure commitments, with broader obligations exceeding $600 billion. Anthropic reported $16.3 billion in first-half revenue and an $80.7 billion accounting loss, much of it tied to financing instruments.→22 OctOpenAI acquires Orchestra Bio to expand Rosalind’s drug-development capabilitiesOrchestra’s agents monitor studies, campaigns and dependencies across biopharma programmes. OpenAI said the acquisition will support agents that connect scientific findings with studies, decisions and next steps needed to advance medicines.→22 OctSierra and Stripe let voice agents take payments during customer callsDuring payment, callers enter card details through the phone keypad, sending them directly to Stripe while the agent receives only transaction status and limited confirmation data. Cedar, an early user, reported that 71.3% of calls in which patients begin payment end successfully.→20 OctAnthropic commits 5% of its shares to a public-benefit fundSubject to stockholder approval, a wholly owned fund will receive 5% of Anthropic’s shares, with the board able to add 2% for each 50% increase in company value above an undisclosed baseline. Anthropic says the fund may support nonprofits, direct distributions and work addressing AI’s labour-market impact.→16 OctCohere agrees to buy AI cybersecurity startup AISLEAISLE said its systems found more than 500 bugs in widely used software during its first year, including 12 OpenSSL vulnerabilities. Cohere said the acquisition would strengthen security and threat-detection capabilities for enterprise and public-sector customers.→16 OctAstraZeneca signs up to $1.5 billion AI drug-discovery deal with insitroAstraZeneca will pay $40 million upfront, with insitro eligible for up to approximately $1.46 billion in development and commercial milestones. Insitro will use its Virtual Human platform to identify causal disease biology for MASH and cardiomyopathies.→16 OctEnterprise AI shifts from adoption to execution risk, CompTIA saysThe research brief says organisations are moving beyond initial AI adoption toward managing operational and execution risks. It identifies governance, cybersecurity and workforce capability as central determinants of whether deployments produce durable value.→14 OctMajor publishers expand coalition against uncompensated AI content useThe Standards for Publisher Usage Rights coalition now has more than 80 members across more than 20 countries. The expansion comes as publishers pursue licensing standards and litigation against AI companies over training and commercial reuse of their material.→14 OctIMF flags AI-driven asset repricing as a financial-stability riskThe IMF’s latest Global Financial Stability Report identified an AI-driven sell-off, higher government-bond yields and major cyberattacks as plausible near-term catalysts. It said concentrated AI investment and existing market vulnerabilities could amplify the effects beyond technology stocks.→13 OctSWI raises €800 million to expand transatlantic AI infrastructureThe financing will support power infrastructure, compute deployments and a development pipeline across Europe and the United States. SWI said the transaction raises its total equity since March 2026 above €1 billion.→13 OctAnthropic and HCLTech form a global governed-agent partnershipHCLTech will establish an Anthropic business unit and centre of excellence for enterprise deployments. HCLSoftware will embed Claude capabilities into selected cybersecurity, automation and business-process products.→13 OctSOAR AI secures a potential $1 billion equity facilityThe facility can provide up to $1 billion, although the company is not required to draw it. Planned uses include data-centre infrastructure, high-density GPU compute and networking.→13 OctVUSSENS launches a multimodal beauty-analytics platform in the United StatesThe platform combines a language model trained on more than 800 billion tokens with multimodal analysis of content from services such as YouTube and TikTok. It is designed to identify consumer personas, emerging trends and product opportunities.→13 OctHR Path acquires SnapAI to expand AI and regulatory-compliance servicesThe acquisition is intended to strengthen HR Path’s AI-based offerings across its consulting, implementation and outsourcing businesses. SnapAI’s focus gives the deal a direct connection to regulated enterprise deployment.→10 OctBits In Glass gains Select status in Anthropic’s Claude partner networkThe designation recognises a certified delivery team and documented customer use cases across risk, compliance, underwriting and case management. It reflects the expansion of services firms that operationalise agentic AI for enterprises.→10 OctGreenCore launches a grocery-focused agentic commerce hub in LondonThe company says its agents have processed 100 million grocery transactions year to date across 20 markets. Orders remain human-supervised, while the platform connects retailers with manufacturers through agent-facing procurement workflows.→10 OctWorkday is named a Gartner market shaper for HR agentsWorkday’s HR agents are designed to support hiring, employee questions and payroll-related workflows. The company emphasises policy, permissions and business-process controls around agent actions.→10 OctHexaware corrects and expands its Anthropic partnership announcementThe partnership combines Claude with Hexaware’s Zerovity and AgentVerse platforms for enterprise AI services. The corrected release materially updates the public description of the commercial arrangement.→8 OctThoughtworks survey finds AI adoption is outpacing enterprise governanceEighty-eight percent of surveyed CIOs said AI adoption is moving faster than governance, while 89 percent said their role increasingly includes redesigning workforce workflows. The survey also found that responsibility for AI budgets and workforce impacts is fragmented across organisations.→8 OctIMF chief warns that the AI infrastructure boom is widening economic risksGeorgieva said AI investment is becoming a major driver of national economic fortunes while concentrating benefits in countries with strong technology sectors. She also highlighted risks from the rapid expansion of data-centre capacity and associated financial and inflationary pressures.→7 OctPrimitive Labs receives Sony backing for models of human behaviourInstinct is designed to model customer populations and simulate how people interact with digital products before launch. Primitive Labs says the system aims to make behavioural modelling a reusable layer in software and product decisions.→7 OctRealtor.com launches an AI workspace for 192,000-plus agentsRealAssist automates client setup, surfaces daily insights and recommends next actions for real-estate professionals. The company says the broader platform has reached up to 10% agent adoption in live markets.→7 OctA study finds radiology dominates FDA-authorised AI medical devicesThe analysis covered 1,430 authorisation records and found that 76.5% were reviewed by the FDA’s radiology panel. The authors use the result to highlight how clinical AI deployment remains concentrated in imaging workflows.→7 OctSkyword study finds AI-assisted comparison is creating brand samenessIn a survey of 1,000 US adults, 70% said they had used AI tools or encountered AI-generated summaries when researching a company or product. Forty-five percent said AI-generated answers had made it harder to choose between companies because they sounded too similar.→2 OctElevenLabs closes a $300 million tender at a $22 billion valuationThe tender was led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, with several new institutional investors joining the cap table. ElevenLabs said enterprise customers now generate 55% of revenue and that ElevenAgents handles more than 15 million conversations weekly.→2 OctMicron warns AI demand will keep DRAM supply tight through 2028Micron reported a 90% gross margin in datacenter DRAM and said much of its 2027 output is already committed at higher prices. The company plans $25 billion in capital expenditure in the first half of fiscal 2027, with new factories expected to arrive in 2028.→30 SeptMeta creates an enterprise AI platform around Muse and Meta Business AgentMeta Enterprise Platform will initially package Muse, Meta Business Agent, Muse API and Muse Code for business use. Meta appointed former MongoDB CEO Chirantan Desai to lead the platform.→30 SeptAMD agrees to acquire World Labs for $8.2 billionAMD announced an all-stock acquisition of World Labs valued at approximately $8.2 billion. World Labs develops models for interactive 3D environments, robotic learning and simulation, while Fei-Fei Li will become AMD’s chief scientist.→30 SeptSamsung commits $1 billion to KKR-backed Helix AI infrastructureSamsung Electronics will provide $500 million, with five other affiliates supplying the remainder. Helix combines hyperscale data centres, power generation, transmission, distribution and fibre infrastructure for AI workloads.→30 SeptAnthropic IPO prospectus reveals unprecedented compute commitments and lossesThe prospectus reportedly shows Anthropic lost about $42 billion in 2025 while planning $518 billion in future cloud, compute and infrastructure obligations. The proposed listing could value the company above $2 trillion and would expose frontier-lab economics to public-market scrutiny.→30 SeptFirmus and Meta expand AI-factory agreements across Southeast AsiaThe agreements cover compute for Meta’s AI research, model development and training using NVIDIA’s DSX platform. They extend an existing relationship in Australia, where Meta is already using GB300 NVL72 systems at Firmus’s Melbourne facility.→30 SeptSEMIFIVE wins a $52 million contract for a next-generation AI inference acceleratorThe accelerator will combine LPDDR6, PCIe Gen5 and large-die technologies, with tape-out targeted for the first half of 2027. Global mass production is planned for 2028, with hyperscalers and cloud providers as target customers.→30 SeptMeta extends Muse into small-business operationsThe service lets small businesses connect tools including QuickBooks, Shopify, Slack, Canva, Dropbox, Figma and Zoom, then ask Muse to analyse operations or prepare campaigns. Meta says users retain approval control over anything that publishes, sends or spends.→29 Septdv01 launches agentic infrastructure for structured financeThe platform includes agents for DealStudio and Credit Facility Management that can prepare analyses from offering documents, credit agreements and loan data. Its MCP server lets external agents call dv01's governed data and analytical capabilities instead of interpreting raw loan data independently.→29 SeptHut 8 secures $1.07 billion facility for AI infrastructure expansionThe facility provides $1.07 billion of committed liquidity and includes a letter-of-credit sublimit for interconnection deposits, site development and equipment obligations. Hut 8 said the financing supports its River Bend and Beacon Point AI data-centre projects.→29 SeptSalute says customers now cover more than 20 GW of NVIDIA AI infrastructureSalute said it reached the figure in less than 12 months as a member of NVIDIA's partner network. Its offering focuses on operating high-density liquid-cooled facilities, including coolant management, leak detection, commissioning and specialised maintenance.→29 SeptAutomation Anywhere reports fivefold annual growth in agent executionsThe company said AI represented nearly 70% of new or upsell bookings over the previous six quarters and that AI agent executions grew fivefold year over year. It also reported a record customer Net Promoter Score of 72, with the figures coming from the company's own financial and operating disclosures.→29 SeptSubmer launches Corenix for factory-built AI data-centre modulesCorenix will factory-build and test complete modules based on NVIDIA reference designs before shipping them for site commissioning. Submer said the new business addresses constraints in AI infrastructure deployment speed, thermal density, power availability and data sovereignty.→26 SeptwebAI secures a $30 million enterprise deployment commitmentThe partnership will deploy AI systems around proprietary data, workflows and operations on infrastructure controlled by customers. It signals continued movement from general-purpose model building toward specialised, privately operated enterprise systems.→26 SeptBold Penguin launches DeX ai for insurance-marketplace operationsDeX ai was announced as the intelligence layer running Bold Penguin's digital exchange. The product targets insurance distribution workflows by making marketplace intelligence available through callable AI services.→25 SeptLuxor launches a full-stack AI infrastructure businessThe new Luxor AI business combines power procurement, GPU and server brokerage, compute contracts, derivatives and cloud products. Luxor says its agentic cloud has processed 1.8 million workloads year to date.→25 SeptDun & Bradstreet exposes governed commercial intelligence through agentsThe service connects business identity, relationships and credit intelligence from the D&B Commercial Graph to Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Copilot and Databricks integrations. The company says the system is designed to produce consistent, traceable and auditable outputs for finance workflows.→25 SeptVertafore launches AI agents across insurance underwriting workflowsThe Change Request Agent identifies and summarises changes across applications, while another agent supports submission and underwriting preparation. Vertafore says early testing showed up to 70% less review time and up to 98% fewer missed changes, with general availability expected in autumn.→24 SeptMicrosoft adds Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol to Copilot model choiceThe update expands Copilot’s model-selection layer beyond Microsoft and OpenAI offerings. It follows same-day releases of both models and gives enterprise users another route to access competing frontier systems within Microsoft’s product ecosystem.→22 SeptSoftBank launches $11 billion bond sale to fund OpenAI investmentReuters reported that SoftBank’s proposed bond sale would fund a planned $10 billion payment for a further OpenAI investment. If completed at the planned size, it would rank among the largest corporate bond offerings in Asia-Pacific and globally this year.→22 SeptAbbVie and Iambic partner on AI-driven small-molecule discoveryThe partnership will use Iambic’s Enchant v3 model and NeuralPLexer technology to evaluate many molecular properties and design hypotheses in parallel. Iambic will receive an upfront payment and may receive milestone payments and royalties, but the release does not disclose the financial terms or clinical outcomes of the collaboration.→18 SeptDigital Realty survey finds infrastructure is now the main AI deployment constraintAmong 2,131 respondents across 19 countries, 40% identified specialised infrastructure as their primary AI constraint, up from 9% in 2024. The survey also found that 86% are pursuing sovereign AI initiatives and more than half host AI workloads in private clouds.→17 SeptCohere and Aleph Alpha sign definitive transatlantic sovereign-AI dealCohere and Aleph Alpha announced a definitive business-combination agreement on 16 September, following an earlier plan to combine. The proposed company would be headquartered across Toronto and Berlin, retain Aleph Alpha's Heidelberg research centre and target sovereign deployments with partners including Germany's STACKIT.→17 SeptAI becomes a mainstream shopping channel in new consumer studyA new Acosta Group study released on 16 September found that 34% of shoppers use AI tools to shop. It also reported that 74% of Gen Z and millennials use generative AI, 22% trust agents to make purchase decisions and 48% are concerned about how their data is stored or protected.→16 SeptAnthropic connects Claude to the financial-adviser software stackAnthropic launched Claude for Financial Advisors with connectors to tools from BlackRock, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, iCapital and other providers. The suite supports meeting preparation, research, portfolio analysis, follow-up and compliance workflows.→16 SeptOpenAI reportedly buys AI camera company Glass ImagingTechCrunch reported, citing The Wall Street Journal, that OpenAI bought Glass Imaging, a startup founded by former Apple camera engineers. Glass uses neural networks during image capture to improve smartphone photography rather than applying edits only after capture.→16 SeptEUCLYD raises more than €200 million for efficient AI infrastructureEUCLYD announced a Series A financing round exceeding €200 million, co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners and Scaleup Europe Fund. The company is developing specialised silicon, memory architecture and data-centre systems intended to reduce the power and cost of AI inference.→15 SeptAnthropic reportedly expects another profitable quarterAnthropic told investors it expects adjusted operating income to remain positive for a second straight quarter, the Financial Times reported through Reuters coverage. The claim is a reported investor update rather than an audited public result from Anthropic.→15 SeptAnthropic selects Nasdaq for potential IPOAnthropic PBC selected Nasdaq ahead of a potential initial public offering, according to Bloomberg Law citing a person familiar with the matter. The company could seek to raise as much as or more than SpaceX, with a possible October listing still unconfirmed.→14 SeptOpenAI rules out a 2026 IPO amid safety concernsAltman said OpenAI would not pursue a public listing this year despite reports that the company had prepared confidential IPO filings. He linked the decision to concerns about increasingly capable systems and the need to manage safety risks.→14 SeptTrump signals a hands-off US AI regulatory postureThe administration is described as taking a light-touch approach to AI regulation ahead of a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. AI safety remains part of the diplomatic agenda, but the immediate policy emphasis is maintaining technological and strategic advantage.→10 SeptGoogle Cloud and Accenture create a 1,000-engineer Gemini deployment unitThe Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group will combine certified professionals, Google Cloud engineering talent and industry expertise, with plans for a 1,000-person forward-deployed engineering workforce. The initiative is designed to build custom AI applications and accelerate enterprise adoption of Gemini Enterprise.→10 SeptHarvey raises $550 million and expands its legal-AI stackHarvey said the round was co-led by Lightspeed and Diffusion and would support proprietary model development and enterprise expansion. The company also introduced a post-trained open-weight model and Harvey LAB benchmark, while reporting coverage said it acquired agent-security startup Guardrails AI.→9 SeptMistral AI raises €3 billion to scale frontier models and infrastructureSamsung Electronics led the round, with ScaleUp Europe Fund and PSG co-leading. Mistral said the capital will fund frontier research, compute, infrastructure, products and commercial expansion.→9 SeptLightsage raises $4 million to measure how AI agents use softwareThe platform simulates agents using APIs, SDKs, command-line tools, MCP servers and agent skills, then identifies failures in documentation, authentication or execution. Nexus Venture Partners led the round, which Lightsage said will fund broader evaluation, analytics and attribution capabilities.→8 SeptCognizant expands US hiring and skilling plans for the AI workforceThe company plans to hire 1,500 US graduates, create 15,000 specialised engineering and business-operator roles, and double its global AI-skilling target to two million people by 2030. Cognizant also joined the RAISE US coalition, while its broader productivity and economic estimates remain company projections.→8 SeptIQE swings to profit as AI infrastructure drives photonics demandIQE reported adjusted core profit of £6 million, compared with a £0.4 million loss in the prior-year period. The company cited demand from AI data centres and defence, alongside growing interest in indium-phosphide photonics and related capacity expansion.→8 SeptJaipur Robotics raises €4.3 million for industrial computer visionThe round was led by EquityPitcher Ventures and High-Tech Gründerfonds. Jaipur Robotics is developing an AI operating system intended to interpret industrial environments and support automation in waste-to-energy facilities.→7 SeptSeattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over AI trainingThe Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their journalism was used to train AI systems without permission. The complaint argues that AI-generated answers can substitute for visits to publisher sites, threatening advertising and subscription revenues.→7 SeptMoody’s finds Chinese AI firms narrowing the physical compute gapSCMP reported that Moody’s Ratings sees US hyperscalers spending far more on AI infrastructure, but a smaller gap in physical compute because Chinese buildouts are cheaper and benefit from policy incentives and lower-cost green power. The report projects Chinese technology companies’ capital expenditure will rise from about US$65 billion in 2025 to roughly US$140 billion in 2026 and US$165 billion in 2027.→7 SeptAustralian retailers invest in agentic shopping, but mass adoption remains distantABC reported that Wesfarmers, Bunnings, Woolworths and Coles are investing in AI agents that can help customers search, compare and navigate purchases. The systems remain assistive or in beta, and retailers still face high costs, integration limits and privacy concerns before autonomous shopping becomes routine.→4 SeptNvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.93BNvidia said it will acquire Hugging Face for $12.93B, including a $1B employee retention plan. Hugging Face serves more than 18 million developers, researchers and creators, and Nvidia said it will remain an open platform supporting multicloud and multi-accelerator development.→4 SeptBroadcom reports AI semiconductor revenue up 221% year on yearBroadcom reported Q3 fiscal 2026 AI semiconductor revenue of $16.7B, up 221% year on year and 54% quarter on quarter. It guided to $21.7B of AI semiconductor revenue in Q4, while total Q3 revenue was $29.6B.→4 SeptHiddenLayer raises $100M and adds runtime security for AI coding agentsHiddenLayer said Delta-v Capital led its $100M Series B, with participation from Ten Eleven, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft's M12 and Booz Allen Ventures. The financing will expand agentic runtime security and Agent Harness Security, which monitors and protects autonomous coding agents at runtime.→4 SeptWonderful raises $550M at a $5B valuation for a model-agnostic enterprise AI OSWonderful raised $550M in a Series C led by Insight Partners, more than doubling its valuation to $5B in under six months. The company has shifted from customer-service agents towards a model-agnostic AI OS and operates across more than 35 countries.→4 SeptLyte raises $165M to put custom sensing silicon inside physical AILyte announced a $165M Series C led by Maverick Silicon, taking its post-money valuation to $1.6B. Its LyteVision platform combines vision, imaging and inertial sensors with custom silicon to measure motion and deliver synchronised data to robotic systems.→4 SeptAntioch raises $32M to make simulation the scalable data engine for robot trainingAntioch raised a $32M Series A led by Greylock, with participation from A*, Category Ventures, Box Group and Icehouse Ventures. The company says its platform builds high-fidelity simulations for customer hardware and runs thousands of evaluations in parallel, with Amazon Ring as a disclosed customer and Nvidia and Nebius as partners.→3 SeptiPronics raises $125 million to scale programmable optical networking for AI data centresiPronics announced a $125 million Series B co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with NVIDIA participating, bringing its total funding to $177 million. The company plans to scale its ONE optical networking engine, which combines programmable switching, telemetry and APIs to reconfigure connectivity for AI training and inference workloads.→2 SeptWorkplace generative AI adoption is widespread but shallowResearch based on nationally representative Dallas Fed survey data found generative AI present across roughly 80% of occupations and more than 40% of tasks, but most tasks had adoption below 50%. Usage was highest in management, professional and computing roles and much lower in manual and personal-service work.→2 SeptEnovis makes €155 million binding offer for eCential RoboticsEnovis announced a binding offer valuing eCential Robotics at €155 million, with completion expected around the end of 2026 subject to customary approvals. eCential develops robotic-assisted surgery systems and enabling technologies for spine and orthopaedic procedures.→1 SeptNvidia invests $3.5 billion in MediaTek and expands NVLink FusionNvidia invested $3.5 billion in convertible bonds issued by MediaTek. MediaTek will adopt NVLink Fusion, giving customers a prevalidated route for custom XPUs to connect to Nvidia-powered rack-scale AI systems.→1 SeptChatGPT Ads reaches a $1 billion annualised revenue run rateOpenAI said ChatGPT Ads reached a $1 billion annualised revenue run rate in less than 200 days and is now used by tens of thousands of advertisers. Self-service Ads Manager access is expanding across India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.→1 SeptFSB chair warns AI-driven cyber risk could destabilise global financeIn a letter to G20 finance ministers and central-bank governors, Bailey warned that AI could change the speed, scale and economics of cyberattacks. He also cited dependence on a small number of technology providers and the lack of deployment protocols in many countries.→1 SeptOpenAI reportedly tests outcome-based pricing with major customersThe Information reported that some large OpenAI customers can pay only when the system completes defined work, initially including customer-support interactions. The arrangement is selective, has not been publicly announced by OpenAI and has not been independently verified by The Next Web.→31 AugGrok Bot links X profiles to automatically provisioned developer accountsGrok Bot's official account announced the improved X connection on 29 August, saying an X profile connection automatically creates a developer account with included credits. The update lowers the setup barrier for using X data inside an agent, although the post does not specify the credit amount or the full set of supported actions.→31 AugAnthropic's Claude Code limit raise becomes a 17% cut against the current promotionAnthropic said standard weekly limits for Pro, Max, Team and seat-based Enterprise plans will permanently rise 25% from 14 September, while the current 50% boost remains until then. A follow-up quantified the change against the active promotion as a 17% reduction in weekly capacity, making this a meaningful usage-policy change rather than a straightforward increase.→31 AugAGENTPR appointed media-intelligence platform for WPRF AbujaCihan Media said the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations appointed AGENTPR as the official media-intelligence platform for WPRF Abuja 2026. The release says it will monitor Nigerian, African and international media, detect issues and interpret narrative and reputation signals before, during and after the forum.→30 AugOpenAI will end its model supply agreement with SpaceX-owned CursorOpenAI said on 28 August that Cursor’s direct access to its models will end on 12 November following SpaceX’s acquisition. Existing access remains until then, but Cursor will not receive future OpenAI models under the proposal.→30 AugSony and Warner sue Anthropic over alleged music-training piracySony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell named Anthropic, Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann in a complaint filed late Friday. The publishers allege Anthropic obtained and used copyrighted musical works at scale without permission; the claims remain allegations.→29 AugAnthropic abandoned a proposed $7 billion MatX acquisition while pursuing custom siliconAnthropic explored acquiring MatX for roughly $7 billion to accelerate its internal chip-design effort, according to people briefed on the matter. MatX is now seeking funding at an approximately $4 billion valuation, while Anthropic continues to examine multiple chip approaches.→29 AugBlue Owl leads $2.4 billion financing for IREN’s NVIDIA AI infrastructureThe financing consists of a $1.2 billion senior secured term loan and $1.2 billion of senior secured notes. The proceeds will fund air-cooled NVIDIA Accelerated Computing Infrastructure for IREN’s Mackenzie campus and support its reported global development pipeline of more than 5GW.→29 Auga16z raises $1.1 billion Machine Age fund for AI’s physical buildoutThe Machine Age Fund will invest across chips, memory, networking, power, cooling, data centres, edge devices and robots. The fund reflects a16z’s view that AI expansion increasingly depends on physical infrastructure beyond software and model development.→28 AugAWS and NVIDIA line up 2 million more GPUs for agentic and physical AIAmazon and NVIDIA announced an expanded partnership adding another 2 million NVIDIA GPUs to AWS data centres in 2027 and 2028, including Blackwell Ultra, Rubin and Rubin Ultra. The agreement also extends NVIDIA networking, CPUs, open models and physical-AI systems across AWS, with no financial terms disclosed.→28 AugAnthropic signs reported $45 billion compute deal with NscaleAnthropic has signed a deal to rent about $45 billion in AI compute from British infrastructure company Nscale, using NVIDIA Vera Rubin systems. The reported six-year arrangement is expected to begin powering Anthropic services in late 2027.→28 AugNVIDIA reportedly nears $12.9 billion Hugging Face acquisitionThe Information reported that NVIDIA agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, while another report said the talks were not signed and could still collapse. Neither company confirmed the transaction to TechCrunch.→28 AugInstinct reportedly raises $250 million at $2.5 billion valuationInstinct, an invite-only assistant from Spear Street Technology, is reportedly raising $250 million at a $2.5 billion valuation in a round co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark. The financing would bring total funding to $350 million for an assistant designed to handle phone- and text-based tasks such as email, calendars, travel and home services.→28 AugOpenAI brings ChatGPT ads to India’s free and Go tiersOpenAI said it will begin showing ads on ChatGPT Free and Go tiers in India, initially featuring 50 brands and partnerships with WPP and Omnicom. It plans to launch an ads manager the following month with a stated minimum daily budget of ₹725.→27 AugMicrosoft and HUMAIN plan enterprise distribution for ALLAM modelsHUMAIN and Microsoft announced a long-term collaboration centred on making HUMAIN’s ALLAM Arabic-language models available through Microsoft Foundry and the Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem. The companies also plan to pair HUMAIN specialists with Microsoft’s forward-deployed engineers to help organisations move from pilots to production across Saudi Arabia and the wider region.→27 AugMoonshot AI reportedly explores Kimi K3 revenue-sharing dealsReuters reported that Moonshot AI is in preliminary talks with Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet’s Google to host its Kimi K3 model on Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. The Chinese company is seeking up to 30% of related service revenue, but the discussions may not produce agreements and unresolved issues include revenue splits, data access and token-use auditing.→27 AugMiniMax reports rapid platform growth alongside heavy lossesMiniMax reported first-half revenue of US$116.6 million, up 283.1% year on year, while revenue from its Open Platform and other AI enterprise services rose 703.1% to US$73.9 million. Gross profit increased sharply, but adjusted net loss reached US$293.0 million, showing that commercial scale and compute-heavy spending are expanding together.→27 AugGoogle Cloud adds budget controls and usage-based pricing to Gemini EnterpriseGoogle Cloud is adding a pay-as-you-go option to Gemini Enterprise alongside per-seat subscriptions and letting customers set monthly project limits that pause an agent’s API calls when budgets are exhausted. Google also announced term discounts and a planned off-peak option that could cut token costs by up to 50%, making cost governance part of the product’s on-ramp.→27 AugUS Labor Department partners with AI companies to track job effectsActing Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling told Axios that the department has signed data-sharing agreements with companies including OpenAI, Google, Meta and Amazon to understand AI adoption and its effect on hiring. The private-sector information is intended to supplement Bureau of Labor Statistics data, with the department saying findings will be made public.→27 AugGlean launches Tau enterprise desktop AI experienceGlean launched Glean Tau at its Glean:GO conference, extending its enterprise context and controls to work across local files, applications and code. The company also reported a benchmark in which Glean used 81% fewer tokens and was preferred 78% of the time against Claude Cowork, though those comparisons were vendor-run rather than independent evaluations.→26 AugOpenAI publishes first benchmark results for Jalapeño inference chipOpenAI says Jalapeño delivered higher throughput, lower latency and better energy efficiency than comparison systems when serving GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek R1 and Kimi K2.5 1T. The results are vendor benchmarks for inference hardware, not training, and OpenAI says limited systems will be deployed this year.→26 AugGeneralist raises another $200 million for robot foundation modelsAxios reported that Generalist raised around $200 million in a round led by 8VC, with the company’s federal filing disclosing the financing. Generalist builds models rather than robot hardware and was founded by alumni of Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics.→26 AugGoogle Cloud launches Gemini Enterprise solutions for legal and financial servicesGemini Enterprise for Legal and Gemini Enterprise for Financial Services entered preview with purpose-built agents, MCP connectors, domain skills and centralised audit and permission controls. The financial-services release includes more than 50 skills and 13 connectors, while the legal offering targets contract review, diligence, regulatory monitoring and privacy workflows.→26 AugStability AI raises $76 million from entertainment and technology investorsStability AI raised $76 million, bringing total funding to $232 million under CEO Prem Akkaraju. Investors include Electronic Arts, Sony Music Group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, AMD Ventures and Pacific Alliance Ventures, with the company directing capital towards creative products, applied research and professional services.→25 AugMistral and HUMAIN plan a sovereign-AI stack for Saudi ArabiaThe plan includes frontier Arabic models, cybersecurity and voice work, use of HUMAIN data-centre infrastructure, and joint sales into regulated sectors. The companies describe investment in the hundreds of millions of euros, but the announcement represents a planned collaboration rather than an already deployed regional stack.→25 AugXPENG’s robotics arm raises more than US$900 million for humanoid productionThe funding is earmarked for humanoid hardware and software, physical-AI model iteration, data generation, production capacity and international expansion. XPENG targets mass production by the end of 2026, followed by deliveries in China and overseas in 2027.→25 AugNVIDIA backs Lancium’s gigawatt-scale AI-factory pipelineLancium says it has 4 GW of leased capacity and more than 15 GW of powered-land development pipeline. The plan uses NVIDIA’s full-stack platform and DSX reference designs, including grid-responsive power-management capabilities; the portfolio figures are company-reported.→25 AugGoogle Cloud and Verizon extend Gemini Enterprise into telecom operationsVerizon plans to use the stack for an autonomous network-intelligence framework intended to predict and resolve anomalies before customers are affected. Gemini Enterprise will also support agent orchestration and workflows in customer experience, marketing, security and other operations.→24 AugAlibaba prices HK$80 billion share placement to fund full-stack AIAlibaba said the placement will support its global AI strategy and infrastructure expansion. The transaction gives a major Chinese technology company substantial fresh capital for the compute race.→24 AugChinese consumer platforms increasingly build their own AI modelsThe report said companies are increasingly developing models tailored to their own data and platforms rather than relying entirely on external providers. RedNote’s Dots Studio has also released the 280-billion-parameter open-weight Dots3-Note Preview.→24 AugChinese AI models gain traction among African businessesNigeria-based Curacel has added GLM-5.3 to its model mix while retaining Western systems for more demanding reasoning and reliability-sensitive work. The examples show procurement decisions becoming more pluralistic as model providers compete globally.→23 AugMicrosoft receives first production Vera Rubin systems as Nvidia ramps the platformThe delivery was described as supporting frontier-model training as Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform enters full production. The systems are reported to provide about three times GB300 compute and 2.7 times its memory bandwidth, though those figures await independent operational validation.→23 AugDeepSeek removes peak-hour API pricing on weekendsThe update changes the peak/off-peak schedule introduced earlier in August so Saturdays and Sundays use the lower off-peak rate. Weekday peak pricing remains in place, making this a targeted capacity-management change rather than a blanket price cut.→23 AugUBS sees $4.1 trillion of hyperscaler AI infrastructure spending through 2028The forecast says Amazon, Google and Microsoft could spend about 102% of cloud revenue on capital expenditure in 2026, with Google the largest projected spender in the cited breakdown. The estimate is a forecast rather than realised spend and depends on continued AI demand, power availability and model economics.→22 AugStarcloud raises $250 million for orbital AI datacentres at a $2.3 billion valuationStarcloud announced a $250 million Series A extension at a $2.3 billion post-money valuation, taking total capital raised to $450 million. It said the funding will support Starcloud-3 manufacturing and work with NVIDIA on a Space-1 Vera Rubin module, while its proposed 88,000-satellite and 20-gigawatt constellation remains a roadmap.→22 AugAlibaba expects its second-generation T-Head AI chip to enter production this yearAlibaba CEO Eddie Wu said the second-generation T-Head chip is expected to begin tape-out and production in the second half of this year. TechNode reports that Alibaba expects stronger computing performance and interconnect bandwidth, and believes the chip can support large-model training workloads.→22 AugNVIDIA invests in Cloverleaf to accelerate AI-factory site developmentCloverleaf said NVIDIA made a minority investment and will work with it on US AI-factory sites. The companies are combining Cloverleaf's land, power and site-development work with NVIDIA's infrastructure expertise, while Cloverleaf says its pipeline includes multiple gigawatt-scale projects.→22 AugKakao to split its chat and AI platform business into a new KakaoAI companyKakao said it will spin out the KakaoTalk-centred platform business into a new company tentatively named KakaoAI, while KakaoX retains investment operations. Reuters reports that KakaoAI will cover AI, advertising, commerce and KakaoTalk, with a planned January 2027 relisting and a 2030 revenue target of at least 6 trillion won.→21 AugSharon AI accepts the first phase of a US$950 million Australian AI-cloud contractSharon AI says the acceptance completes a milestone in a five-year agreement with an initial value of about US$950 million and covers NVIDIA GPU clusters across Australian data centres. It also says it has secured 212 MW of AI-factory capacity, including 120 MW under multi-year take-or-pay contracts; the customer and independent contract details were not identified in the release.→21 AugThomson Reuters makes CoCounsel Legal generally available as an agentic workflowBuilt on Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK, CoCounsel Legal can move from legal research and issue analysis to a first-draft brief while checking cited authority. Thomson Reuters also announced an expanded MCP connection with Claude and said one million professionals in 107 countries and territories rely on CoCounsel.→20 AugDataVita secures £300 million for Scotland AI Growth ZoneDataVita secured £300 million to expand Scotland’s Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, with its 40MW DV1 and DV3 facilities leased to CoreWeave for 15 years, The Register reported. The UK National Wealth Fund is guaranteeing £202 million, while the project is expected to create 600 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles.→20 AugRelativity Networks raises $22 million for faster data-centre fibreRelativity Networks announced $22 million in SAFE funding and a further $40 million order from an unnamed hyperscaler, TechCrunch reported. Its hollow-core fibre is designed to cut propagation latency to about 3.5 microseconds per kilometre, compared with roughly 5 microseconds for conventional fibre.→20 AugAmazon makes Alexa+ free on compatible Fire TV devicesAmazon is making Alexa+ available at no extra charge on compatible Fire TV devices in the United States, including for customers without Prime, TechCrunch reported. The assistant supports conversational content search, smart-home controls and AI recommendations, while the previously announced non-Prime monthly charge no longer applies to this Fire TV access.→20 AugUnitree shares soar in Shanghai humanoid-robot debutUnitree shares rose as much as 629% in their Shanghai trading debut, AP reported. The company raised about 6.1 billion yuan, or roughly $904 million, and its shares closed 460% above the IPO price.→20 AugChina opens World Robot Conference with 3,000 products on displayChina opened the 2026 World Robot Conference, where about 3,000 robotic products are being shown over five days, AP reported. The exhibition includes Unitree humanoids and robot dogs demonstrating boxing, dancing and table tennis.→19 AugEtched raises $700 million at a $21 billion valuation for specialised inference systemsEtched announced a $700 million round at a $21 billion valuation, led by Jane Street, roughly doubling its reported valuation in a month. The company is building full inference systems around a specialised prefill chip and cluster-scale memory, claiming the systems can run frontier models.→19 AugBeazley says agentic AI drove a 36% jump in disclosed vulnerabilitiesBeazley Security reported that newly disclosed vulnerabilities rose 36% quarter over quarter in Q2 2026, while confirmed exploitation in the wild rose 10%. Its report attributed the disclosure increase to agentic AI in vulnerability research and said compromised credentials were the initial access vector in 67% of ransomware intrusions it investigated.→19 AugAnthropic’s reported annualised revenue run rate passes $65 billionTechCrunch reported that Anthropic’s annualised revenue run rate passed $65 billion at the end of July, up from $47 billion in May and $9 billion at the end of 2025, citing Bloomberg. The report said investors expect the run rate to reach $100–120 billion by the end of 2026, but Anthropic did not confirm the figures to TechCrunch.→18 AugStripe reportedly agrees to acquire OpenRouter for more than $7 billionTechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, reported that Stripe had finalised a deal worth more than $7 billion for OpenRouter. OpenRouter provides access to more than 400 models and reported 8 million users.→18 AugGroq raises $350 million as it pivots from AI chips to neocloudGroq raised $350 million at a $3.5 billion valuation, with Disruptive leading and Nvidia planning to participate. The company said it will expand its neocloud capacity from 54 megawatts to more than 200 megawatts in 2027.→18 AugWispr raises $280 million at a $2 billion valuationWispr raised $280 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures at a $2 billion post-money valuation. The company said the capital will support expansion beyond dictation, including its meeting note-taker product.→18 AugNvidia invests $1.5 billion in SB Energy for an Ohio AI campusNvidia said it will invest $1.5 billion in SB Energy and secure capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus. Nvidia said the initial AI-factory deployment is expected to provide 4.25 gigawatts, with OpenAI as tenant.→18 AugSoftBank invests $200 million in construction-robotics company GravisGravis Robotics raised $200 million in Series A funding from SoftBank, according to Axios Pro Rata. The company develops autonomous construction robots and earthmoving systems.→18 AugGallos raises $50 million for security and defence technologyGallos Technology raised $50 million in a round led by Ventura Capital and Aberdeen Investments, according to Axios Pro Rata. The company builds and invests in security, defence, resilience, artificial-intelligence and autonomous-systems businesses.→18 AugVals AI raises $40 million to expand model evaluationVals AI raised $40 million in Series A funding led by a16z, with participation from HRT Ventures, Next Ladder Ventures and existing investors. The company evaluates models on domain-specific tasks in areas including finance, law, healthcare and coding.→18 AugAmber raises €7 million for its AI-powered business knowledge platformAmber raised €7 million in Series A funding led by Ventech and NRW.Venture, according to Axios Pro Rata. Tech.eu reported that the company is expanding an AI-powered platform for organising and using business knowledge.→17 AugAMD unveils Helios rack-scale system for frontier AIAMD introduced Helios alongside new data-centre hardware and named OpenAI, Meta, Oracle, Anthropic and Microsoft among planned users. The system is designed to combine large numbers of processors and accelerators for high-scale AI workloads.→17 AugAegisAI raises $36 million for AI-driven spear-phishing defenceAegisAI raised a $36 million Series A led by Battery Ventures, bringing its total funding to $49 million. The company says its systems analyse message context and suspicious attachments that conventional rule-based filters may miss.→17 AugEtched reaches a $10.3 billion valuation with specialised inference hardwareEtched’s Series C was led by Sequoia, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, SK Hynix and Jane Street. The company says it has manufactured its chips, is testing complete systems with customers and has booked $1 billion in orders.→17 AugGemini approaches one billion monthly usersAlphabet reported that Gemini’s monthly users have grown from 750 million in February to more than 950 million. Google also said its AI search mode has passed one billion users, while third-party data showed Gemini gaining share among AI assistants.→16 AugOpenAI undergoes a senior leadership reset ahead of a possible IPOChief revenue officer Denise Dresser is leaving and will be replaced by Dali Rajic, while former COO Brad Lightcap and several safety, ethics and futurist leaders have also departed. Axios reported that Brockman is becoming more involved across customers, teams and company execution.→16 AugBig Tech's AI spending has not yet broken returns on invested capitalAn Axios analysis found that Alphabet and Amazon's return on invested capital had risen, Microsoft's was broadly steady and Meta's had declined. It cautioned that off-balance-sheet obligations may make reported returns look more favourable than underlying economics.→15 AugOpenAI undergoes a senior leadership reset ahead of a possible IPOChief revenue officer Denise Dresser is leaving and will be replaced by Dali Rajic, while former COO Brad Lightcap and several safety, ethics and futurist leaders have also departed. Axios reported that Brockman is becoming more involved across customers, teams and company execution.→15 AugBig Tech's AI spending has not yet broken returns on invested capitalAxios's analysis of recent results found that Alphabet and Amazon's return on invested capital has risen, Microsoft's has been broadly steady and Meta's has declined. The analysis also notes that off-balance-sheet obligations may make the picture less favourable than reported figures suggest.→