Binance says North Korean hackers stole $6.3 billion after posing as recruiters and tricking a wallet engineer into downloading malware despite years of industry warnings about the tactic and at least 57 suspected North Korean attacks against the company itself. TechCrunch has more here.

Speaking of not heeding warnings, OpenAI employees warned executives and the board for years that lax internal security could expose sensitive technology to outsiders, including foreign governments, with some concluding that management prioritized keeping pace with rivals over tightening defenses. The concerns gained new urgency after an OpenAI engineer was charged last month with planting a hidden recording device in an executive conference room. Reuters has more here.

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By Julie Bort

The data analysis company Palantir delivered such a huge third-quarter earnings report on Monday that its press release even bragged that the numbers were “crushing consensus expectations.”

Yet retail investors were lukewarm on the company on Tuesday, with the stock trading slightly down. That’s because Palantir’s enterprise sales, its big growth area, showed signs of slowing.

First, the good news for the company’s investors. Revenue grew 96% from a year earlier, and 20% from the previous quarter, to $2.31 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. It was the first time Palantir has topped $2 billion in a quarter. Palantir also reported adjusted earnings per share (profit per share, excluding certain one-time items) of 44 cents, compared with analysts’ expectations of 41 cents. The company even raised its revenue guidance, or forecast, for the full year. Normally, that alone would send a stock soaring.

The clincher was that Palantir’s U.S. commercial revenue surpassed U.S. government revenue for the first time ever. The company reported $984 million in commercial contracts (up 148% from the year-ago quarter), versus $953 million in U.S. government revenue.

The reason for all this love from enterprises? They are signing up for the company’s AI software that can run frontier models and custom-train open-weight models securely, without sharing any of their data and business processes with outside AI labs. Plus, Palantir has long offered what is today known as “forward-deployed” software engineering, in which its own engineers work directly with customers to customize the software.

However, Palantir also revealed a less-than-rosy signal: Even as enterprises are moving faster than ever, they are often signing short-term trials.

Applied Compute, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that trains, deploys, and continually improves custom AI models for enterprises, raised a $350 million round at a $3.25 billion valuation. The deal was led by Elad Gil, with additional support from Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, Hanabi Capital, NVIDIA, Blackstone, Shopify Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, Diffusion, Definition, Timeless, Layer Global, Neo, Abstract, Nova, Quantum Light, First Harmonic, and Swish. More here.

Fal, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that provides infrastructure for running image, video, and audio AI models, raised a $1.3 billion round at a $16 billion valuation, double the valuation it commanded in April. Bessemer Venture Partners was the deal lead, with NVIDIA, Sound Ventures, HOF Capital, and T. Rowe Price also participating. Bloomberg was the first to report the news. TechCrunch has more here.

Ornn, a one-year-old New York startup that provides a marketplace and financial infrastructure for buying, selling, and pricing GPU compute capacity, is reportedly in talks to raise a third tranche of its Series A at a valuation of more than $1 billion shortly after closing a second tranche at an $800 million valuation. Axios was the first to report the news. More here.

Clark, a one-year-old New York startup that develops AI agents that review documents, perform tests, prepare workpapers, and follow up with audit clients, raised an $11 million seed round led by Touring Capital, with previous investors Marathon Management Partners, Rerail, and Sofeon Ventures also investing. The company has raised a total of $16 million. The SaaS News has more here.

Corridian, a one-year-old Boston startup that designs autonomous underwater vehicles that carry military cargo and surveillance equipment across long ocean distances, raised a $38 million seed round led by Point72 Ventures, with Balerion Space Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, DCVC, and Marlinspike also opting in. More here.

Guava, a Los Angeles startup founded this year that builds proprietary voice models and developer tools for AI agents handling customer calls, raised a $12.5 million seed round led by Acrew Capital, with Flourish Ventures, WillowTree Ventures, and Clocktower Ventures as well as previous investor Commerce Ventures also chipping in. More here.

Quint Computing, a one-year-old startup based in Erlangen, Germany, that develops superconducting quantum processors that integrate error correction into chip architecture for fault-tolerant quantum computers, raised a $10.2 million round led by Vsquared Ventures, with Quantonation, Nucleus Capital, Faber, Vanagon Ventures, and ZOHO.VC also anteing up. It also secured a $2.5 million European Innovation Council Pathfinder grant. Tech Funding News has more here.

Specific Biologics, a nine-year-old Toronto startup that develops gene-editing therapies that remove disease-causing repetitive DNA sequences linked to serious genetic disorders, raised a $35 million Series A round led by Hatteras Venture Partners, with Genesys Capital, BDC Life Sciences Venture Fund, DeepWork Capital, and Seido Capital as well as previous investors Lumira Ventures and adMare BioInnovations also chiming in. More here.

StimCardio, an 11-year-old Los Angeles company that develops a wrist-worn device that stimulates nerves to reduce atrial fibrillation recurrence after catheter ablation, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Metis MedTech, with Catalyst Health Ventures also chipping in. More here.

Syncere, a one-year-old Palo Alto startup that develops robotic floor lamps that use local AI to fold laundry, tidy rooms, and make beds, raised an $11 million pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Draper Associates, Physical World, Sequel, and SeaX Ventures also digging in. More here.

Athena, a San Francisco startup founded this year that uses AI agents and affiliated attorneys to prepare and review commercial real estate deal documents for fixed fees, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Bioliberty, a six-year-old Edinburgh startup that develops robotic gloves and interactive software that help stroke survivors and neurological patients restore upper-limb mobility, raised a $3.3 million Series A extension. Investors included TGH Ventures, Ballad Ventures, 25M Health, and Whiterock. More here.

CyberKord, a Milan startup founded this year that uses AI to identify, investigate, and resolve companies' IT and cybersecurity issues with less manual intervention, raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by 360 Capital, with Plus Partners, Addendum Capital, and Vento also pitching in. More here.

Gallium Defense, a Paris startup founded this year that develops radars that detect and track small drones for armed forces and critical infrastructure operators, raised a $7.9 million seed round co-led by Keen Venture Partners and 360 Capital, with Omnes Capital and Polytechnique Ventures also taking part. Tech Funding News has more here.

Kodiact, a San Francisco startup founded this year that helps manufacturers analyze raw-material markets and simulate sourcing decisions before price changes affect their margins, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed round led by Supply Change Capital, with additional participation from Green Circle Foodtech Ventures and Velocity Catalyst. The SaaS News has more here.

Roleo, a one-year-old startup based in Tallinn, Estonia, that uses an AI career agent to match technology professionals with relevant jobs without requiring applications, raised a $3.2 million round led by Practica Capital, with Inventure also buying in. The company has raised a total of $3.9 million. EU-Startups has more here.

Viridi, a five-year-old startup based in Southampton, UK, that develops catalysts that let manufacturers turn captured carbon dioxide into surfactants and other chemicals using existing factory equipment, raised a $3 million round led by Odyssey Ventures, with TOP Ventures and Alphatron Impact Ventures also engaging. EU-Startups has more here.

Enginsight, a nine-year-old cybersecurity company based in Jena, Germany, that combines vulnerability management, threat detection, compliance monitoring, and automated incident response, raised an undisclosed round led by Verdane, with previous investors UVC, HDI, and SI Ventures also investing. More here.

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The House Fund, a 10-year-old venture firm based in Berkeley, CA, that is focused on backing UC Berkeley founders, has raised $52.1 million for House Fund Breakout XII Alpha. The SEC filing has more here.

Evertrue Capital, a one-year-old London venture firm led by former Phoenix Court partner Yvonne Bajela, has closed its debut fund at $17 million. Bajela previously backed companies including Wise, Moove, and Marshmallow. TechCrunch has more here.

Robin Capital, a three-year-old Berlin venture firm led by solo GP Robin Haak, has raised a €15 million second fund to back European startups at pre-seed and seed across enterprise AI, proprietary data, robotics, space, and other defensible technologies. Tech.eu has more here.

CrowdStrike agreed to acquire AI security startups Fiddler AI and Dreadnode for a combined $495 million, paying roughly $400 million for Fiddler, which monitors and explains AI-agent behavior, and about $95 million for Dreadnode, which tests models and agents for vulnerabilities before deployment. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Anthropic is still grappling with the economics of compute, with infrastructure costs rising to $10 billion in the third quarter — 58% of revenue, up from 48% the prior quarter — putting pressure on margins even as sales climbed to $17 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

OpenAI has hired former U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to advise on national-security modernization, cybersecurity, and the use of AI in defense as the company deepens its work with the Pentagon and other government customers. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Speaking of OpenAI, the company has hired Uber president Jill Hazelbaker to become OpenAI’s chief corporate affairs officer, where she will oversee global communications and corporate positioning. She previously held senior communications and policy roles at Snapchat and Google. Investing.com has more here.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan’s use of facial-recognition and other surveillance technology, backing proposed city legislation that would restrict the collection of biometric data in public places; WIRED has previously reported that MSG uses face-scanning tools to track visitors across and outside its venues. TechCrunch has more here.

Canva, the 13-year-old Sydney design software company, is carrying out its first major round of job cuts, with 1,271 employees or 22% of its workforce affected via layoffs, role changes, or relocations as the company restructures amid slowing growth and intensifying AI competition. The Australian Financial Review has more here.

OpenAI says ChatGPT now handles search queries equal to about 20% of Google’s search volume, a sharp contrast with Bing’s roughly 3% share cited during Google’s 2023 antitrust trial; the company did not disclose the source of its Google volume estimate. The Verge has more here.

Old jet engines pulled from aircraft boneyards are being converted into generators to power AI data centers, giving developers a way to secure electricity in as little as two years rather than wait through multi-year grid-connection delays. The New York Times has more here.

Google DeepMind employees in Britain are pushing the company to remove lifetime non-disparagement clauses from their contracts, arguing that the restrictions could deter researchers from publicly warning about AI risks; Google says it has dropped the post-employment clause for new hires and does not enforce it against former employees. The Washington Post has more here.

Forty-somethings are in denial about needing readers: restaurant lighting keeps getting “worse,” computer screens are mysteriously blurry, and some diners are ordering beet carpaccio after swearing the menu said beef. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Collins Dictionary has named “mogging” its 2026 Word of the Year, reflecting how the slang term for outshining or outperforming someone has moved from bodybuilding and manosphere culture into mainstream use among Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Minecraft creator Markus Persson is asking $70 million for his 22,300-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills’ tony Trousdale Estates enclave, a furnished eight-bedroom, 15-bath spread with sweeping Los Angeles views, a curving pool, multimillion-dollar recording studio, nightclub with a DJ booth and dance floor, movie theater with a candy bar, gym, wine cellar, and multiple bars.

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