Why Sequoia And A16z Paid $40 Million For A Plumbing Dispatch Seat

One startup pays cleaners to film your kitchen while another gets paid to run plumbing dispatch. Both are chasing the data the physical world never uploaded.

How This New Fintech Billionaire Is Cashing In On Cross-Border Payments

Amid allegations of sharing customer data with China, Australian payments startup Airwallex, now valued at $11 billion, is gunning for Stripe and Ramp.

Apple’s suppliers are racing to Hong Kong to fund their robot pivot
Apple’s suppliers are racing to Hong Kong to fund their robot pivot

Two of Apple’s biggest Chinese suppliers are racing to Hong Kong in the same week. Luxshare wants about $3bn, Lingyi just banked $1.1bn. Both are using the cash to pivot from smartphone parts to AI hardware and humanoid robots. The companies that build…

Hadrian’s reported $7.5bn round and the physical-AI rush
Hadrian’s reported $7.5bn round and the physical-AI rush

Bloomberg says defense-factory startup Hadrian is in talks to raise as much as $1bn at a $7.5bn valuation. Hadrian calls that “inaccurate”. Either way, the rumour shows how hot physical AI and US reindustrialisation have become. Here is a number, and a…

Main Capital raised the Netherlands’ biggest-ever fund on boring software
Main Capital raised the Netherlands’ biggest-ever fund on boring software

While public markets panic that AI will gut enterprise software, a quiet Dutch firm just raised €5.25bn on the opposite bet. Main Capital’s pitch: boring, essential software is exactly where the next decade of value sits. Charly Zwemstra has spent 23 y…

Menlo Ventures raises $3bn on the back of one Anthropic bet
Menlo Ventures raises $3bn on the back of one Anthropic bet

Menlo Ventures has raised $3bn, the biggest haul in its 50-year history. It is funded, in effect, by a single bet on Anthropic that is now worth about $14bn. Most venture funds are sold on a promise. Menlo Ventures’ new $3bn is sold on a receipt. The f…

Walmart buys Vibe.co for $1.4bn to chase Amazon in ads
Walmart buys Vibe.co for $1.4bn to chase Amazon in ads

Walmart is paying a reported $1.4bn for a connected-TV ad startup worth $410m nine months ago. The price tells you how far retailers will now go to catch Amazon in advertising. Walmart has agreed to buy Vibe.co, a connected-TV advertising platform. Two…

Zhipu weighs multibillion-dollar raise after 2,000% surge
Zhipu weighs multibillion-dollar raise after 2,000% surge

A 2,000% rally has handed Beijing’s Zhipu a rare fundraising window, and Anthropic’s vanished Fable 5 widened it. The harder question is whether a deeply unprofitable lab can turn the moment into a durable business. Six months ago, Zhipu was a Chinese …

Tin Stars As The AI Data Center Building Boom Heats Up

The price of tin is being driven up by strong demand for the old metal in modern electronics, including data centers being developed for artificial intelligence (AI)

Bernie Sanders Wants A U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund For AI

Bernie Sanders wants Americans to own a stake in AI through a national sovereign wealth fund.