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31 Jul 2026

Xsight Labs Raises $300M at $2.8B Valuation to Challenge Nvidia with Programmable Networking Chips

Israeli chipmaker Xsight Labs raised over $300 million at a $2.8 billion valuation, led by Fidelity, to expand its programmable networking chips that connect thousands of GPUs in AI data centers. The company's E1 processor and X2 switch already power SpaceX's Starlink V3 satellites and are being evaluated by Tier-1 hyperscalers as an open alternative to Nvidia's closed networking architecture.

2 Sources

Smallest.ai Raises $13M Series A to Build Ultra-Fast Voice AI That Mimics Human Conversation

Smallest.ai secured $13 million in Series A funding led by Seligman Ventures to develop voice AI that sounds genuinely human. The startup unveiled Hydra, an asynchronous speech-to-speech model built on Voice 4.0 architecture, designed to eliminate latency and enable real-time conversational flows. Unlike traditional systems, Hydra processes listening, reasoning, and responding simultaneously rather than sequentially.

2 Sources

30 Jul 2026

Nscale Acquires Anyscale for $1.65B to Control Full AI Compute Stack from Power to Software

British AI cloud provider Nscale is buying AI software startup Anyscale for $1.65 billion to expand beyond GPU rentals into workload management. The deal combines Nscale's ownership of power, data centers, and compute with Anyscale's Ray-based platform that optimizes AI workloads across thousands of chips, creating what the companies call the first full-stack AI hyperscaler.

5 Sources

Simile AI startup raises $200M at $2B valuation to simulate consumers with digital twins

Simile, a year-old AI startup, secured $200 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation just five months after its $100 million Series A. The Palo Alto company creates AI agentic twins—synthetic users that simulate real consumers for market research. CVS Health, Deloitte, and Wealthfront are already using these AI-generated replicas to test products and predict consumer behavior.

4 Sources

29 Jul 2026

Eliyan raises $145M at $1B valuation to tackle AI chip data bottlenecks in data centers

Silicon Valley startup Eliyan has raised $145 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation, backed by Cisco and Lumentum. The company develops electro-optical interconnects to solve a critical problem: AI chips can process data much faster than they can send or receive it, leaving expensive GPUs sitting idle 60-70% of the time.

2 Sources

ChipAgents raises $60M to accelerate AI chip design, expands Nvidia partnership

ChipAgents has secured $60 million in Series A2 funding, bringing its total raised to $134 million in under a year. The startup, which uses autonomous AI agents to automate semiconductor design and verification, is expanding its collaboration with Nvidia to develop specialized AI models. The company reports 6x growth in annual recurring revenue and deployments at over 120 semiconductor companies.

3 Sources

Moonshot AI Closes $3.5B Funding Round at $35B Valuation, Eyes $50B IPO After Kimi K3 Success

Moonshot AI secured $3.5 billion in funding at a $35 billion valuation, far exceeding its initial $1-2 billion target. The Beijing-based startup behind the Kimi K3 model is now pursuing additional funding at a $50 billion pre-money valuation ahead of a planned Hong Kong IPO later this year.

4 Sources

Freehand Raises $75M to Deploy AI Agents That Automate Enterprise Supply Chain Spend

San Francisco-based Freehand has raised $75 million to scale its autonomous AI agents that manage complex supply chain spend for Fortune 500 companies including Meta, Unilever, and Pfizer. The startup's agents negotiate contracts, process invoices, and handle payments autonomously, recovering 5-10% of spend while shortening procure-to-pay cycles by over 70%.

4 Sources

Cyera acquires Oasis Security for $1B to secure proliferating AI agents and non-human identities

Data security company Cyera signed a letter of intent to acquire Oasis Security for approximately $1 billion, mostly in cash. The deal brings together Cyera's data security capabilities with Oasis's non-human identity platform to create a unified security solution for AI agents. As AI agents proliferate across enterprises, the acquisition addresses growing demand for cybersecurity that monitors agent behavior and manages access permissions.

2 Sources

28 Jul 2026

Andrew Ng launches LearnVector with $100 million to train workers as AI reshapes jobs

Andrew Ng, Coursera co-founder, unveiled LearnVector with $100 million backing to teach white-collar workers new skills to adapt as AI transforms professional work. The AI-powered ed tech startup will use AI agents as personal tutors to deliver adaptive courses, with first products launching early 2027.

2 Sources

Fish Audio raises $50M seed to build expressive AI voice models for creators and enterprises

Fish Audio, which started as a weekend project by a former NVIDIA researcher, has raised $50 million in seed funding led by Coreline Ventures and Capital Today. The Palo Alto-based startup now serves over 8 million users with its library of more than 15,000 natural language controls and generates $21 million in annual recurring revenue.

2 Sources

27 Jul 2026

Multiverse Computing targets $570M Series C to shrink AI models and slash inference costs

Spanish AI startup Multiverse Computing has opened a $570M Series C funding round at a $1.7B valuation, betting that AI model compression will outpace the race for scale. The company's CompactifAI technology uses tensor networks from quantum physics to shrink large language models by up to 95% with minimal accuracy loss, targeting the growing inference cost burden facing enterprises.

2 Sources

24 Jul 2026

Anduril pursues $100B valuation funding round, tripling value in months as defense tech surges

Defense tech company Anduril is in talks to raise capital at a $100 billion valuation, more than tripling the $61 billion mark it achieved just months ago in May. The fundraise reflects surging demand for AI-powered defense technologies and autonomous systems as conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe drive an unprecedented revival in the sector.

2 Sources

Sam Altman's World Foundation raises $52.5M to scale proof of human verification system

The World Foundation secured $52.5 million led by Pantera Capital to expand World ID, its iris-scanning verification system designed to distinguish humans from AI. With 39 million users and 18 million verified through the Orb device, the project faces growing demand despite regulatory pushback in multiple countries over biometric data handling.

2 Sources

Genesis AI in talks to raise $500M at $3B valuation for robot foundation models

Genesis AI, the robotics startup building foundation models for robots, is reportedly in discussions to raise about $500 million at a $3 billion pre-money valuation. The physical-AI startup emerged from stealth just last July with a $105 million seed round, and the new funding round would mark a steep climb for the company developing its universal robotics model GENE-26.5.

2 Sources

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