Defense tech Hadrian raises $1.37B at $8B valuation
Hadrian is building automated factories to mass produce parts for defense vehicles like submarines. It's backed by a long list of well-known investors.
Julie Bort
Source-attributed coverage written by this author across active feeds.
Trump’s DOJ gains oversight of OpenAI’s green-card employee sponsorships
The DOJ alleged that OpenAI did not meaningful attempt to hire U.S. citizens before seeking permanent residence for Visa-holding employees.
Robinhood to list a fund that lets anyone back Y Combinator startups
Robinhood's latest financial instrument intends to let any retail investor feel like they, too, can make money by backing Y Combinator startups.
AWS is helping vibe-coding startup Superblocks, and the implications are big
AWS now allows vibe coding tool Superblocks to be embedded into the private clouds of AWS customers. It's another step towards decoupling apps from models.
Claude Opus 5 became downright ruthless when tasked with running a vending machine
Andon Labs' latest vending machine simulation shows Opus 5 lied and colluded its way to become the best AI capitalist ever.
Bot-detection startup Spur nabs $200M from Insight
Spur Intelligence has raised a $200 million round from Insight Partners for its tech that can identify legit human traffic from bots.
AI chip startup Etched defies skeptics, hits $10.3B valuation from big-name investors
Etched, founded by three Harvard dropouts, has created new chips and memory components that speed up inference on any AI model -- no GPUs required, it says.
Arcee, a US open source AI lab, says Chinese models are not inherently dangerous
As Chinese AI models grow in capability and popularity among US companies, the arguing over what should be done about them has reached a fever pitch.
Databricks hits $188B valuation, extending its run as AI’s favorite second act
Databricks has remade its image into an AI company and has published research on the cost savings of open weight AI models for coding.
Popular open source AI developer tool Ollama raises $65M, grows to nearly 9M users
Benchmark-backed Ollama has amassed 176,000 stars, and nearly 17,000 forks on Github by helping developers easily run AI on their PCs.
Savi’s app aims to protect consumers from realistic AI scams like kidnappers demanding ransom
The company just raised $7 million in seed funding, and is launching its app for iPhone and Android on Tuesday.
Nvidia competitor Etched hits $5B valuation, $1B in sales for AI chip
Nvidia AI chip competitor Etched says it has already booked $1 billion under contract for the inference systems powered by its chip.
Corgi, the buzzy Y Combinator-backed insurance tech startup, says it didn’t steal an open source product
Corgi became embroiled in controversy when Papermark accused it of stealing its software. Corgi says it did not, raising new questions about vibe coding.
AI chipmaker Groq confirms $650M raise, re-staffs after Nvidia’s $20B not-acqui-hire deal
What does an AI company do after one of those not-acqui-hire deals? Groq raised money, is leaning into its neocloud business, and is hiring new execs.
World model maker Odyssey nabs $1.45B valuation backed by Amazon and other big names
World models are the next big thing in AI beyond LLMs and, with this round, Odyssey has cemented itself as one of the startups to watch.