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06 May 2026

DeepSeek valuation surges to $45 billion as China's Big Fund leads first investment round

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab known for cost-effective large language models, is raising its first venture capital funding at a valuation that skyrocketed from $20 billion to $45 billion in just weeks. China's state-backed semiconductor fund is leading the round, signaling Beijing's strategic push for AI self-sufficiency amid US technology restrictions.

6 Sources

Anthropic weighs $50bn funding round for near $1tn valuation as revenue explodes to $45bn

Anthropic is considering raising tens of billions this summer to fund a massive expansion in computing capacity, potentially valuing the AI company at $900bn pre-money. The Claude maker's annualized revenue run rate is expected to cross $45bn imminently—a fivefold jump from $9bn at year-end 2025. CEO Dario Amodei revealed the company experienced 80x growth when it had planned for just 10x, creating severe compute constraints.

11 Sources

Blitzy Raises $200M at $1.4B Valuation to Deploy Thousands of AI Coding Agents

Blitzy, an autonomous software development startup, secured $200 million at a $1.4 billion valuation to expand its AI-powered platform that deploys thousands of coding agents in parallel. The Cambridge-based company claims its system autonomously completes months of software work and delivers a 5x increase in engineering velocity for Global 2000 enterprises wrestling with legacy codebases.

2 Sources

ElevenLabs adds BlackRock, NVIDIA, Jamie Foxx as investors after surpassing $500M in revenue

Voice AI startup ElevenLabs revealed new investors joining its $500 million Series D funding round, including BlackRock, NVIDIA, Wellington, and celebrities Jamie Foxx and Eva Longoria. The company surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue and maintains an $11 billion valuation, driven by enterprise deployment of AI voice agents across major businesses.

3 Sources

Krutrim abandons AI model ambitions, pivots to cloud services after leadership exodus

Krutrim, India's first GenAI unicorn founded by Bhavish Aggarwal, is shifting from AI model development to cloud services after facing funding constraints and losing key leadership. The company laid off over 200 employees, scrapped its Bodhi 1 chip, and discontinued its Kruti AI assistant. Despite claiming ₹3 billion in revenue, questions remain about its reliance on parent company Ola's ecosystem.

2 Sources

IREN Acquires Mirantis for $625M to Strengthen AI Cloud Infrastructure Management

AI data center operator IREN announced plans to acquire cloud infrastructure specialist Mirantis in a $625 million all-stock transaction. The deal combines IREN's massive GPU capacity with Mirantis' Kubernetes-based management tools, aiming to streamline AI workload deployment. But industry observers question whether neoclouds can succeed where others have failed.

3 Sources

05 May 2026

CopilotKit Raises $27M as Tech Giants Adopt Its Protocol for App-Native AI Agents

Seattle-based CopilotKit has raised $27 million in Series A funding for its AG-UI protocol that enables AI agents to work inside applications with dynamic interfaces. Major tech companies including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle have adopted the open-source standard, which now sees millions of installs weekly and is used by over half of Fortune 500 companies.

2 Sources

ReFiBuy raises $13.6M seed round to help brands compete in AI-driven shopping era

Raleigh e-commerce startup ReFiBuy, led by serial entrepreneur Scot Wingo, has closed a $13.6 million oversubscribed seed round to accelerate its Agentic Commerce Optimization platform. The company helps brands and retailers prepare product catalogs for AI shopping agents as Bain projects agentic commerce could reach $300 billion to $500 billion in U.S. sales by 2030.

2 Sources

04 May 2026

Sierra raises $950M as AI agents race intensifies with Fortune 50 clients and rapid growth

Bret Taylor's Sierra closed a $950 million funding round led by Tiger Global and GV, pushing its valuation above $15 billion. The company hit $150 million in annual recurring revenue in just eight quarters and now serves over 40% of Fortune 50 companies. The raise signals intensifying competition as enterprises rush to deploy AI agents for customer service, with an estimated $400 billion market shifting toward automation.

5 Sources

02 May 2026

AI chipmaker Cerebras targets $3.5 billion in IPO backed by massive OpenAI partnership

Cerebras Systems is preparing to sell 28 million shares at $115 to $125 each, targeting a $26.6 billion market cap in what could be 2026's largest tech IPO. The AI chipmaker's wafer-scale chips compete directly with Nvidia, and its $20 billion OpenAI deal anchors investor confidence despite customer concentration risks.

11 Sources

01 May 2026

Featherless.ai secures $20M Series A to scale serverless hosting for open-source AI models

Featherless.ai announced $20 million in Series A funding led by AMD Ventures and Airbus Ventures to expand its serverless inference platform. The startup hosts over 30,000 open-source AI models and plans to build a marketplace for specialized models while reducing infrastructure costs for enterprises seeking alternatives to proprietary AI systems.

2 Sources

Deep-Tech Startup Ctruh Raises $2.5M Seed Funding to Build Spatial Internet Infrastructure

Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup Ctruh raises $2.5 million seed funding led by Inflection Point Ventures to advance its browser-native 3D engine and VersaAI generative AI platform. The company aims to democratize immersive 3D and XR experiences, enabling businesses to deploy high-fidelity spatial content in under 30 minutes without specialized hardware or engineering teams.

2 Sources

30 Apr 2026

Nvidia backs legal AI startup Legora at $5.6 billion as rivalry with Harvey intensifies

Nvidia's venture arm NVentures has made its first legal AI investment, backing Swedish startup Legora in a $50 million Series D extension that values the company at $5.6 billion. The investment comes as Legora crosses $100 million in annual recurring revenue and intensifies its competition with U.S. rival Harvey, which recently hit an $11 billion valuation.

3 Sources

Netomi raises $110 million as Accenture and Adobe bet big on AI customer service

San Francisco-based Netomi secured $110 million in Series C funding led by Accenture Ventures, with Adobe Ventures participating. The AI customer service startup, which serves United Airlines, Delta, and Paramount, plans to move beyond chatbots toward proactive AI agents that resolve issues before customers even notice them.

5 Sources

Medical AI startup Aidoc raises $150M from Goldman Sachs and Nvidia, eyes IPO within five years

Medical AI provider Aidoc secured $150 million in a Goldman Sachs-led funding round, with participation from Nvidia's NVentures, General Catalyst, and SoftBank Investment Advisors. The company, which has now raised $520 million total, plans to use proceeds for regulatory approvals and building comprehensive AI models while targeting an IPO in three to five years.

2 Sources

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