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22 Apr 2026

Mary Minno and Wojcicki family launch AI Health Fund to back academic healthcare startups

Former Google product manager Mary Minno has launched Treehub, a six-month residency program, alongside the AI Health Fund, targeting $10 million to invest in startups at the intersection of healthcare and AI. Backed by Tim Draper, Anne Wojcicki, and Esther Wojcicki, the venture aims to bridge the gap between academic research and fundable companies, with early checks ranging from $50,000 to $150,000.

4 Sources

NeoCognition raises $40M to build self-learning AI agents that specialize like human experts

NeoCognition, an AI research lab spun out of Ohio State University, has emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding to tackle a critical problem: current AI agents complete tasks successfully only 50% of the time. The startup is developing agents that learn like humans by building world models of their operating environments, enabling them to rapidly specialize in any domain rather than remaining unreliable generalists.

3 Sources

21 Apr 2026

Jeff Bezos's Project Prometheus AI lab closes $10 billion round at $38 billion valuation

Jeff Bezos has returned to an operational role for the first time since leaving Amazon in 2021, co-leading Project Prometheus with Google veteran Vik Bajaj. The artificial intelligence lab has closed a $10 billion funding round at a $38 billion valuation, attracting investors like JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock who are betting on AI that understands the physical world.

7 Sources

18 Apr 2026

Cursor seeks $2 billion funding round at $50 billion valuation as AI coding competition heats up

AI coding startup Cursor is in talks to raise at least $2 billion in fresh capital at a $50 billion valuation, nearly doubling its worth from six months ago. Led by returning investors Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, and Nvidia, the oversubscribed round reflects surging enterprise demand. The company projects ending 2026 with over $6 billion in annualized revenue, despite intensifying competition from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google.

7 Sources

Cerebras Systems files for IPO after landing $20 billion OpenAI deal and challenging Nvidia

Cerebras Systems, an AI chipmaker building wafer-scale processors, has filed publicly for an IPO months after withdrawing a previous attempt. The company brought in $510 million in revenue in 2025 with a $24.6 billion backlog, including a massive $20 billion deal with OpenAI. But despite 20x revenue growth since 2022, Cerebras remains operationally unprofitable with 86% of revenue coming from just two customers.

11 Sources

Loop Raises $95M Series C Funding to Build Supply Chain AI That Predicts Disruptions

San Francisco-based Loop has secured $95 million in Series C funding led by Valor Equity Partners to expand its AI-driven platform for supply chain management. The startup uses its proprietary DUX AI models to transform fragmented supply chain data into predictive insights, helping companies reduce costs and improve visibility across global operations.

3 Sources

17 Apr 2026

DeepSeek valuation doubles to $20 billion as Tencent and Alibaba join funding talks

DeepSeek is raising funds for the first time, with Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba in discussions to invest at a valuation exceeding $20 billion. The funding aims to retain AI talent through stock options as the startup faces poaching from rivals. This marks a sharp increase from initial talks targeting a $10 billion valuation.

7 Sources

Manycore shares surge 140% in Hong Kong IPO as Chinese AI firm bets on spatial intelligence

Manycore Tech raised $160 million in an oversubscribed Hong Kong IPO, with shares rallying 140% on debut. The Hangzhou-based Chinese AI firm is pivoting from its real estate software roots to spatial intelligence, targeting robotics and world models. Co-founder Victor Huang, a former Nvidia engineer, believes robotics will define the era as the company leverages 500 million 3D assets to train AI for the physical world.

3 Sources

Upscale AI targets $2 billion valuation in third funding round since September launch

AI infrastructure startup Upscale AI is negotiating a new funding round that would value the company at $2 billion, just seven months after emerging from stealth. The Santa Clara-based company aims to raise $180-200 million despite not yet releasing a product, betting on custom chips and full-stack infrastructure solutions to transform how AI data centers operate.

2 Sources

Solidroad Secures $25M Series A to Automate Quality Assurance for Customer Support with AI

Dublin and San Francisco-based Solidroad has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Hedosophia to automate quality assurance for customer support teams. The AI-powered platform reviews 100% of customer interactions versus the industry standard of 1-3%, serving clients like Ryanair, Crypto.com, and Oura while delivering up to 90% reduction in manual review time.

3 Sources

American Express acquires Sam Altman-backed Hyper to deploy AI agents for expense management

American Express announced it will acquire Hyper, an AI-focused expense management startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The deal, expected to close in Q2 2026, positions AmEx to deploy autonomous AI agents that categorize expenses, file reports, and handle compliance checks automatically, marking a shift from traditional expense software to agentic finance.

6 Sources

Antioch raises $8.5 million to build simulation tools that accelerate physical AI development

Antioch, a New York-based startup, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding at a $60 million valuation to develop simulation tools for physical AI. The company aims to close the sim-to-real gap by providing cloud-based simulation software that allows robot developers to test AI-enabled robots in virtual environments before deploying them in the real world.

2 Sources

16 Apr 2026

Spektr Raises $20M Series A to Deploy AI Agents Across Financial Compliance Operations

Copenhagen-based Spektr has secured $20 million in Series A funding led by NEA to scale its AI-powered compliance platform. The fintech compliance startup deploys specialized AI agents that automate KYC and KYB work, transforming manual processes that take hours into automated tasks completed in minutes. With customers including Santander Leasing and Pleo, Spektr plans to expand its engineering team and open offices in London and New York.

4 Sources

AI Startup Hilbert Secures $28M Series A to Transform How Companies Act on Customer Data

Hilbert AI has raised $28 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz to help consumer brands automate business decisions. The platform uses AI agents to analyze complex customer datasets and suggest actionable steps, promising to complete analytics projects in weeks instead of months. Major customers include Walmart and FreshDirect.

2 Sources

15 Apr 2026

Accel raises $5 billion fund for AI investments after Anthropic and Cursor valuations soar

Venture capital firm Accel has raised $5 billion in new capital to back late-stage AI startups, following massive returns from its Anthropic stake (invested at $183B, now near $800B) and Cursor (backed at $9.9B, now around $50B). The raise includes a $4 billion Leaders Fund V targeting 20-25 investments at $200 million average cheque size.

4 Sources

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