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20 Aug 2026

British AI chip startup Fractile's valuation soars to $6.5bn after securing Anthropic deal

Fractile, a British AI chip startup, is raising $600mn at a $6.5bn pre-money valuation—more than six times its May price. The leap follows an initial $250mn chip deal with Anthropic, though delivery won't happen until 2027. The startup focuses on AI inference tasks, competing in a market dominated by Nvidia.

3 Sources

19 Aug 2026

Prevalent AI Raises $22M After Nine Years to Fix the Data Problem Behind Failing AI Projects

London-based Prevalent AI, founded by GCHQ alumni, secured $22 million from Integrity Growth Partners—its first primary capital in nine years of profitable operations. The cybersecurity data company built an AI-native data fabric that transforms fragmented enterprise data into sovereign knowledge graphs, addressing the root cause of AI project failures across global banks and critical infrastructure operators.

3 Sources

Sebastian Thrun Unveils Dulo, A Stealth Robotics Startup Targeting Hardware Design

Sebastian Thrun, founder of Google's self-driving project, announced Dulo at the Actuate robotics conference in San Francisco. The stealth robotics startup is developing foundation models for hardware design to enable manufacturing at lightspeed. Backed by a team from Waymo, Google Brain, and Stanford's AI Lab, Dulo enters a market where physical AI companies raised $16.3bn in Q1 2026.

3 Sources

AI Accounting Startup Rillet Becomes Unicorn in 48 Hours With $100M Series C From ICONIQ

Rillet raised $100 million at a $1 billion valuation in under 48 hours, led by ICONIQ with backing from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The AI-native accounting platform doubled its ARR in three months and now serves over 600 customers replacing legacy ERP systems from Oracle, NetSuite, and SAP with AI agents that work inside the general ledger.

5 Sources

18 Aug 2026

AI Chip Startup Etched Doubles Valuation to $21 Billion in Under a Month

Etched raised $700 million in a funding round led by Jane Street, doubling its valuation to $21 billion in less than a month. The AI inference hardware startup has secured over $1 billion in customer contracts and shipped its first data center rack to Jane Street after successful testing.

6 Sources

Velaura AI Raises $110M Series A at $1B+ Valuation for Power-Efficient AI Chips

Chip designer Velaura AI raised $110 million in Series A funding, crossing a $1 billion valuation on Tuesday. Led by Seligman Ventures, the round backs the startup's Titan Core platform that promises to cut AI data center power consumption by two to four times through ultra-low-power silicon and licensing model.

6 Sources

Smack Technologies Raises $61M as Pentagon Urgency Fuels AI Battlefield Tools Boom

Smack Technologies secured $61M in Series B funding as Pentagon demand for AI battlefield tools accelerates. The defense software startup is scaling production of Omega, its fires-planning software, and developing Alpha, a forearm-mounted display for troops. The raise reflects a broader shift as military branches seek faster AI vendors after the Anthropic supply-chain rupture.

2 Sources

17 Aug 2026

Groq Raises $350 Million at $3.5 Billion Valuation as Nvidia Joins Funding Round

Groq has secured $350 million in Series A funding led by Disruptive, with Nvidia joining the round. The AI infrastructure company is valued at $3.5 billion, down from $6.9 billion last September. This marks Groq's continued pivot from AI chip maker to neocloud provider following Nvidia's $20 billion licensing deal that took its founder and key talent.

3 Sources

Higgsfield raises $400M Series B, valuation quadruples to $5.4B in 8 months with $700M revenue

AI video platform Higgsfield announced a $400 million Series B funding round at a $5.4 billion valuation, four times its worth from January. The company's annualized revenue surged from $20 million to $700 million in a year, driven by enterprise adoption as 390 Fortune 500 companies now use its AI-powered video generation platform for marketing content.

8 Sources

SoftBank Backs Gravis Robotics With $200M Series A for AI-Powered Construction Automation

Swiss startup Gravis Robotics raised a $200 million Series A led by SoftBank, marking the largest funding round in construction robotics history. The ETH Zurich spinout develops AI-driven software that transforms excavators into autonomous machines, claiming up to 30% productivity gains over manual operation.

5 Sources

Wispr Secures $280M Series B at $2B Valuation, Unveils Canto Model to Fix Dictation Errors

AI speech recognition startup Wispr raised $280 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation, led by Menlo Ventures. The company unveiled its proprietary AI model Canto, designed to reduce transcription error rates from over 30% to between 5-10% in challenging conditions with background noise and accents.

7 Sources

13 Aug 2026

Databricks Raises $5 Billion at $190 Billion Valuation as AI Demand Surges to $15 Billion Interest

Databricks closed a $5 billion strategic funding round led by Coatue at a $190 billion valuation, marking its second $5 billion raise in six months. The data and AI company surpassed $7 billion in annualized revenue with over 80% year-over-year growth as investor demand for AI infrastructure intensifies.

10 Sources

Legal AI Start-Up Legora Targets $10bn Valuation Just Months After Previous Funding Round

Swedish legal AI start-up Legora is pursuing a new funding round at over $10bn valuation, nearly double the $5.6bn it achieved in April. The company's annual recurring revenue jumped 50% to $150mn in Q2 2024, while customer count grew 25% to 1,500 firms including Linklaters and Deloitte.

2 Sources

HSBC Investment Backs Model ML AI Platform as Financial Services Embrace Model-Agnostic Solutions

HSBC Asset Management invested in Model ML through its venture capital strategy to support the AI modeling firm's expansion. Model ML has raised over $100 million in less than two years, offering a model-agnostic approach that automates research, due diligence, and financial analysis for banks and asset managers.

2 Sources

Lovable Secures $400M Series C Funding, Doubles Valuation to $13.3B in Eight Months

Swedish AI coding startup Lovable raised $400 million in Series C funding at a $13.3 billion valuation, doubling from December's $6.6 billion. The vibe-coding platform enables non-technical users to build full-stack web applications using plain English, with Fortune 500 companies including NVIDIA and Adidas among its enterprise clients.

5 Sources

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