Databricks Closes $5 Billion Round at $190 Billion Valuation
Databricks raised $5 billion in funding at a $190 billion valuation, representing a 42% increase in six months. The company has achieved a revenue run-rate exceeding $7 billion with year-over-year growth above 80%.
Anthropic’s $2trn IPO is priced below what AI stocks already fetch
Anthropic investors project the company could reach a $2 trillion valuation in an autumn initial public offering, exceeding SpaceX's $1.77 trillion IPO valuation from June. Anthropic has not confirmed any listing plans or valuation figures itself.
DeepSeek built a Claude Code rival, then quadrupled its prices
DeepSeek increased API prices for DeepSeek-V4-Pro from $0.87 to $3.96 per million output tokens at peak rates starting August 16, while V4-Flash prices rose from $0.28 to $1.32. Off-peak rates were set at half the peak price for both models.
Google’s new Tensor G6 brings performance, efficiency, and post-quantum security to the Pixel 11 series
Google's Tensor G6 chip delivers 25% faster browsing and 20% better power efficiency alongside a TPU with 50% more compute capacity. The Pixel 11 models include a new Titan M3 security coprocessor that adopts NIST's post-quantum cryptography standards for the first time on a Google phone.
Cisco’s AI Outlook Disappoints Investors Seeking Bigger Payoff
Cisco projects $7.5 billion in AI data center sales for the current fiscal year, below the $9.3 billion in AI-related orders accumulated over the past year. Investors viewed this forecast as disappointing given the company's position as the largest networking gear supplier.
Uber is working on letting 10-year-olds ride alone
Uber's iOS app code shows development of a feature allowing children aged 10 to 12 to ride alone with a trusted adult contact and optional requirement for an adult at pickup. The company stated this is not yet a live product, with its current teen offering limited to ages 13 to 17.
Pixel 11 puts Gemini in the operating system, weeks before Siri gets the same models
Gemini Intelligence is now integrated directly into Pixel 11's operating system to function across apps rather than confined to a chatbot interface. Google launches this capability weeks before Apple rebuilds Siri using Google's models, while device chief Rick Osterloh confirmed memory shortages will increase Pixel prices.
Nvidia is building a trillion-parameter open model, and it would still be smaller than China’s
Nvidia released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, a 30 billion parameter mixture-of-experts model with three billion active parameters and a one million token context window. The model combines Mamba-2, MoE, and attention layers, with weights available on Hugging Face and ModelScope.
Crypto impersonation scams grew 1,400% as AI supercharged fraud
Impersonation scams increased 1,400% year over year in 2025, with average payments rising over 600%. The average crypto payment across all scam categories climbed from $782 to $2,764.
SpaceXAI's Grok Bot turns agents into persistent digital coworkers that can operate your apps for $120-per-month
Persistent AI agents called Grok Bots can operate software applications continuously and autonomously across multiple platforms for $120 per month. Each Bot accesses applications through its own computer environment, continues working when the user's laptop is closed, and returns when needing approval or completing assignments.
SpaceXAI launches Grok Bot as the agent race moves to office work
SpaceXAI released Grok Bot, AI agents that sign into apps and websites while retaining context between tasks and coordinating with each other. Initial access is limited to SuperGrok Heavy, Cursor Ultra, and Cursor Teams Premium subscribers, with an enterprise waitlist available.
Anthropic models will soon inject watermarks identifying AI-generated text
Anthropic will embed invisible watermarks in all text generated by Claude models starting August 2, 2026, to identify AI-generated content across all countries. The watermark persists when text is copied and pasted, and earlier models must be upgraded by December 2 to comply with EU AI Act transparency requirements.
IBM bets $240m on cheap, open-source inference to take on the hyperscalers
IBM is investing $240 million in a multi-year deal with startup Together AI to deploy Nvidia Blackwell systems on IBM Cloud, betting that enterprises prioritize inference cost over model prestige. The partnership focuses on making cheaper open-source AI inference available to enterprises through IBM Cloud infrastructure.
Mistral AI wants to build 1 gigawatt of European compute by 2030 — and lock in customers now.
Mistral AI announced plans to build one gigawatt of European compute capacity by 2030 through multi-year customer commitments, with 200 megawatts operational by 2027. The company is also introducing regional inference endpoints, uptime guarantees for mission-critical workloads, and hosting third-party open models like GLM-5.2 from Chinese lab Z.ai.
LTX-2.5 can generate a 10-second AI video from an image in just 6.8 seconds on Nvidia superchips — and it's open weights
LTX-2.5 generates a 10-second AI video from a single image in 6.8 seconds on Nvidia superchips. The open-weights model is now available on Hugging Face, integrated into ComfyUI, and accessible through the LTX API for teams.
Nvidia's Switchyard router reshuffles AI models mid-task, cutting task costs to a third in its own tests
Nvidia released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning, a 30-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model, alongside NeMo Switchyard, a routing library that directs each workflow step to the most appropriate model. According to Nvidia's tests, the combination achieves frontier-level task completion while reducing costs to approximately one-third compared to running Opus 4.8 alone.
Corma raised $60M from Sequoia to build the defensive AI that cybersecurity is missing
AI models successfully planted persistent threats in 88% of simulations testing Fortune 500 company defenses. Corma raised $60 million from Sequoia to develop defensive AI that identifies security vulnerabilities by simulating attacks across dozens of security tools.
Point2 raised $136M to solve AI’s wiring problem. Its RF cables beat copper on reach and optics on latency.
RF cables that outperform copper on range and optics on latency are being commercialized after Point2 Technology raised $136 million in Series B funding. The cables are designed to replace both copper and traditional optical connections inside AI data centres.
OpenAI is hiring a power trader, because electricity is now a position on its books
OpenAI is hiring a power trader to manage its electricity trading and commodity hedging strategy across data centers. The new role will initially have no direct reports and represents the company treating electricity as a significant business position.
Mark Zuckerberg lays out Meta’s AI vision in a 6,500-word essay: 6 things to know
Meta announced a $1 billion fund to invest in communities where its data centers operate and introduced its new open-weight AI model called Muse Glimmer. Zuckerberg argued in his 6,500-word essay that open-source AI models prevent harmful centralization and empower users more effectively than closed systems.
Nvidia Taps Wall Street for $500 Billion Funding Commitment
Nvidia secured a $500 billion financing commitment from Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, and Brookfield Asset Management for artificial intelligence infrastructure. The funding will support the development and deployment of AI computing systems.
Sony, TSMC to Invest $6.4 Billion in Japanese Sensor Plant
Sony and TSMC plan to invest $6.4 billion in a Japanese image sensor factory. The combined investment of ¥1 trillion will fund their planned manufacturing facility in Japan.
Google’s top hacker hunter explains why hacking groups get codenames
Google changed its naming convention for hacking groups instead of using traditional animal-based or mythological names. The company now uses more descriptive names based on the groups' characteristics, locations, or tactics they employ.
Singapore to Ensure AI Helps Workers Worried About Jobs, PM Says
Singapore's government is using artificial intelligence to increase worker productivity and create better jobs as AI rapidly expands. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong stated this approach addresses worker concerns about their livelihoods amid technological change.
No cloud, no GPUs, no problem: Liquid AI's new model LFM2.5-2.6B brings powerful AI agents to devices as small as a Raspberry Pi
Liquid AI released LFM2.5-2.6B, a 2.6 billion parameter language model designed to run on local devices including Raspberry Pi without cloud or GPUs. The model handles agentic tasks like tool calling, document management, and workflow automation in connectivity-limited environments.
China’s Unitree Seeks $904 Million in First Mainland Robotic IPO
Unitree Robotics seeks to raise 6.1 billion yuan through an initial public offering that would establish it as mainland China's first publicly traded humanoid robot maker. The IPO valuation would represent a significant milestone for the robotics industry in China's capital markets.
Why Lightspeed is going all-in on creator-led venture capital
Lightspeed Venture Partners hired Claire Zau, a seed investor with a major Instagram following, to build trust with next-generation founders. The move follows similar investments by a16z in Erik Torenberg's Turpentine podcast and OpenAI in TBPN, reflecting a trend of venture firms leveraging creators' influence.
Anthropic confirmed it is designing custom chips for Claude. It wants engineers who have “shipped silicon.”
Anthropic is designing custom silicon chips for its Claude AI model to improve performance and efficiency at scale. The company is building an internal team and seeking engineers with experience shipping silicon products.