Microsoft is weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over a $50 billion cloud deal that could bypass its exclusive rights to host OpenAI model. The Financial Times has more here.

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By Rebecca Szkutak

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was years ahead of the market when he pushed the company to start tinkering with building AI-specific chips back in 2010, more than a decade before the current buzz around AI. A similar move in 2020 — doubling down on data center networking with a strategic acquisition — has led to one of the company’s most lucrative and quickly growing divisions, but with little fanfare.

In just a few years, Nvidia’s networking business, designed to connect data centers, has grown into the company’s second-largest revenue driver behind compute. Last quarter, it reported $11 billion in revenue, a year-over-year increase of 267%, and brought in more than $31 billion for the full year, according to Nvidia’s most recent earnings.

Driven by growth in AI processing, the division includes tech like NVLink, which powers communication between GPUs on a data center rack; Nvidia InfiniBand Switches, an in-network computing platform; Spectrum-X, the ethernet platform for AI networking; and co-packaged optics switches, among others.

Together, Nvidia’s networking business includes all the tech needed for building an “AI factory,” a data center designed for training AI models.

Kevin Cook, a senior equity strategist at Zacks Investment research, told TechCrunch that Nvidia’s networking business is one of the most impressive new segments from the company. “[Nvidia’s networking business] reports $11 billion for the quarter; that number is greater than Cisco’s networking business, almost as big as the full-year estimates,” Cook said, adding it does in one quarter what Cisco’s business does in a year.

Advanced Navigation, a 16-year-old Sydney company that develops navigation systems that operate in environments where GPS signals are unavailable or unreliable, raised a $110 million Series C round led by Airtree Ventures, with Quadrant Private Equity, NRFC, Main Sequence, KKR, In-Q-Tel, Alpha Intelligence Capital, and OIF Ventures also participating. More here.

Andromeda, a two-year-old Austin startup that brokers GPU compute capacity for AI companies, has raised an undisclosed amount from Paradigm at a $1.5 billion valuation. Paradigm has invested a total of $60 million in the company. Upstarts has more here.

RoboForce, a three-year-old startup based in Milpitas, CA, that operates robotics systems that perform physically demanding and repetitive industrial tasks, raised a $52 million round led by YZi Labs, with Jerry Yang as well as previous investors Myron Scholes, Gary Rieschel, and Carnegie Mellon University also joining in. The company has raised a total of $67 million. More here.

Solugen, a 10-year-old Canadian company that produces and sells low-carbon nitrogen fertilizers derived from organic waste for agriculture, raised a $50 million round. Investors included Idealist Capital and Canada Growth Fund. More here.

Xbow, a two-year-old Seattle startup that continuously tests applications for security vulnerabilities using automated attack techniques, raised a $120 million Series C round at a $1+ billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by DFJ Growth and Northzone, with Alkeon Capital, Sofina, Altimeter, NFDG Ventures, and Sequoia Capital also opting in. More here.

BusRight, a nine-year-old New York startup whose platform manages school bus routing, navigation, and real-time student tracking, raised a $30 million round led by Volition Capital. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Conduit Health, a three-year-old New York startup that automates patient communication for Medicare and Medicaid patients, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Drive Capital, with previous investors XYZ Ventures, Twelve Below, and Eniac Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $22 million. More here.

Edra, a 15-month-old New York-based startup founded by two former Palantir veterans to help companies automate workflows by mining the data they already generate — support tickets, emails, logs, chat histories — rather than asking employees to document processes from scratch, has emerged from “stealth” mode with $30 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia, with participation from 8VC and A*. More here.

Eragon, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that enables companies to run business software workflows through natural language prompts, raised a $12 million round at a $100 million post-money valuation. Investors include Long Journey Ventures, Soma Capital, and Axiom Partners. TechCrunch has more here.

Excalipoint Therapeutics, a one-year-old Shanghai startup that develops T-cell engager therapies for cancer treatment, raised a $27.7 million extension round co-led by MPCi and Centurium Capital, with Lilly Asia Ventures and Eisai Innovation as well as previous investors HSG, Apricot Capital, Yuanbio Venture Capital, 5Y Capital, Co-Win Ventures, Med-Fine Capital, and Hony Capital also piling on. The company has raised a total of $68.7 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Foresight, an eight-year-old London startup that operates an AI-powered platform that predicts and manages risks in large-scale infrastructure projects, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Macquarie Capital VC, with Creandum, ISAI Build, i2bf Global Ventures, and Somersault Ventures also chiming in. More here.

Hanover Park, a two-year-old New York startup whose AI platform automates fund administration workflows for private equity and venture capital firms, raised a $27 million Series A round co-led by Emergence Capital, Lux Capital, and Susa Ventures. More here.

Mestag Therapeutics, a six-year-old startup based in Cambridge, UK, that harnesses fibroblast immunology to develop antibody therapies for cancer and inflammatory diseases, raised a $40 million round. Investors included SV Health Investors, Johnson & Johnson, Forbion, GV, and Northpond Ventures. The company has raised a total of $95+ million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Niv-AI, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that operates sensors and software that measure and manage GPU power usage in real-time across data centers, raised a $12 million round. Glilot Capital, Grove Ventures, Arc VC, Encoded VC, Leap Forward, and Aurora Capital Partners invested in the deal. TechCrunch has more here.

Paraform, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that has designed a platform where recruiters and AI systems collaborate to match companies with candidates for hiring, raised a $40 million Series B round led by Scale Venture Partners, with Felicis also joining in. More here.

Raven, a three-year-old Palo Alto startup that secures applications at runtime, raised a $20 million seed round co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Elron Ventures, with UpWest, RedSeed, SentinelOne, and Jibe Ventures also participating. CTech has more here.

Rivia, a four-year-old Zurich startup whose data platform uses AI to organize and analyze clinical trial data, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Earlybird, with Defiant as well as previous investors Speedinvest, Amino Collective, and Nina Capital also digging in. EU-Startups has more here.

RunSybil, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI agents to automatically test live applications for security vulnerabilities, raised a $40 million round led by Khosla Ventures, with S32, Anthology Fund, Menlo Ventures, Conviction, Elad Gil, Nikesh Arora, Amit Agarwal, and Jeff Dean also contributing. Fortune has more here.

Sequen, a recently founded New York startup that provides real-time personalization and ranking infrastructure for consumer apps, raised a $16 million Series A round co-led by White Star Capital and Threshold Ventures, with previous investor Greycroft also opting in. The company has raised a total of $22 million. TechCrunch has more here.

TransFi, a four-year-old Dubai startup that is building a payments platform that enables cross-border transactions using stablecoins across emerging markets, raised a $14.2 million Series A round. Turing Financial Group was the deal lead. The Block has more here.

WorkFlex, a four-year-old Amsterdam startup that automates compliance for cross-border employee travel and remote work, raised a $42.6 million round. Spectrum Equity led the transaction. EU-Startups has more here.

BambooBox, a six-year-old Bangalore startup that has built an AI platform to automate marketing content creation for e-commerce brands, raised a $6.6 million round led by Peak XV, with Emergent Ventures, Arc180, Uncorrelated, and HAF also taking part. More here.

CiaoDott, a one-year-old Turin startup that is creating an AI platform that supports clinical decision-making for doctors, raised a $1.7 million pre-seed round led by The Techshop, with Vento, Club degli Investitori, Growth Engine, and Alpha Venture also contributing. StartupBusiness has more here.

Elea & Lili, a Finnish startup founded this year that produces a cellulose-based superabsorbent material designed to replace fossil-based polymers in hygiene and agricultural products, raised a $2.9 million seed round led by Lifeline Ventures. The Next Web has more here.

Laminar, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that is building an observability platform to capture and analyze AI agent activity across long-running workflows, raised a $3 million seed round led by Atlantic.vc, with participation from Y Combinator and AAL.vc. More here.

Level Nine, a three-year-old Berlin startup that develops nanozyme-based catalysts that convert biomass and waste into alternatives to fossil-based chemical feedstocks, raised a $4.6 million seed round. Visionaries Tomorrow was the deal lead. ESG Today has more here.

Manifold, a one-year-old San Diego startup that secures autonomous AI agents on enterprise endpoints, raised an $8 million seed round led by Costanoa Ventures, with Cherry Ventures, Rain Capital, and Modern Technical Fund also taking stakes. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Mave Health, a three-year-old startup based in San Francisco and Bangalore that is creating a wearable device that monitors and regulates focus and stress levels in real-time, raised a $2.1 million seed round led by Blume Ventures. More here.

Multiply, a recently founded San Francisco company that uses AI to automate B2B advertising campaign creation and optimization, raised a $9.5 million round led by Mayfield, with Sorenson Capital also engaging. The Next Web has more here.

Obin AI, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to leverage AI to automate financial analysis workflows for investment firms, raised a $7 million seed round. Motive Partners led the transaction. More here.

Rubi, a six-year-old San Francisco startup whose platform converts carbon dioxide into raw materials for manufacturing textiles, raised a $7.5 million round co-led by AP Ventures and FH One Investments, with Talis Capital, CMPC Ventures, H&M Group, and Understorey Ventures also stepping up. More here.

Steward, a three-year-old New York and London startup that automates investor onboarding and AML compliance workflows for investment managers using AI, raised a $5 million round led by Motive Partners and including Outward VC and Cooley. The Next Web has more here.

VerbaFlo, a one-year-old UK startup that employs conversational AI to automate leasing inquiries and tenant communication for real estate businesses, raised a $7 million seed round led by Pi Labs, with Haatch, Navigate Ventures, and Old College Capital also stepping up. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Webel, an eight-year-old Madrid startup that runs a marketplace that connects users with local professionals for home services such as cleaning, repairs, childcare, and moving, raised a $5 million seed round led by Trind Ventures and including Decelera Ventures and Tiburon. Tech Funding News has more here.

Wikifarmer, an eight-year-old Athens startup that has built a B2B marketplace that connects farmers with buyers for agricultural products, raised a $7.7 million round co-led by Brighteye Ventures and Piraeus Bank, with previous investors Point Nine Capital and Metavallon VC also anteing up. EU-Startups has more here.

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Jabbok and Willy Schlacks, the brothers who founded Columbia, Missouri-based construction technology company EquipmentShare — now a publicly traded company with a $6 billion market cap — have launched Redbud VC, a $25 million pre-seed fund based in their hometown. The fund, which counts the University of Missouri System Endowment among its limited partners, will back early-stage startups, with a particular focus on the kind of unglamorous, industrial-minded companies the Schlacks know best from building EquipmentShare into a construction tech powerhouse. More here.

Kraken, a 14-year-old crypto exchange based in San Francisco that operates a digital asset trading platform, has paused plans for a multibillion-dollar IPO after confidentially filing with the SEC in November as weaker crypto markets dampen investor appetite. CoinDesk has more here.

Pardoned Nikola founder Trevor Milton is looking to raise $1 billion to build AI-powered light jets after acquiring SyberJet and recruiting former Nikola staff, aiming to develop autonomous flight systems and pursue defense contracts. TechCrunch has more here.

The FBI has resumed buying Americans’ location data from data brokers, sidestepping traditional warrant requirements, according to testimony from director Kash Patel. TechCrunch has more here.

Val Kilmer will star in a new movie by director Coerte Voorhees despite the fact that Kilmer never acted in the film. (Thanks, AI!) Variety has more here.

You can try Kagi here.

Anthropic is capturing 73% of first-time enterprise AI spending, up from a roughly even split with OpenAI 10 weeks ago. Axios has more here.

Silicon Valley heavyweights like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Palantir are quietly backing Anthropic in a Pentagon dispute over AI use in weapons and surveillance, seeking to avoid a precedent that could threaten their own government business and their investments in the company. The New York Times has more here.

A Stanford study of 391,000 chatbot messages found AI systems affirmed users’ statements in nearly 66% of responses, often reinforcing delusions and suicidal thoughts and in some cases encouraging harmful behavior, raising safety and liability concerns. The Financial Times has more here.

AI startups flush with venture funding are leasing multimillion-dollar San Francisco mansions as live-work headquarters, with rents reaching $30,000 to $75,000 per month, as investors and founders prioritize small teams and immersive environments. The San Francisco Standard has more here.

The National Labor Relations Board argues Atlassian illegally fired an employee who mocked CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes as a “rich jerk” during a layoff dispute, setting up a test of whether harsh internal criticism of leadership is protected under U.S. labor law. Fast Company has more here.

Polymarket is teasing the idea of a Washington, D.C., bar built around “monitoring the situation,” with live feeds of news, markets, and flight data embodying a real-world extension of its prediction platform. The concept is already drawing social media jokes about it being the “the Worst First Date Option In DC History.”

The secret lives of body doubles.

The best baseball catch ever? (H/T Jason Kottke)

Airbus and Mercedes-Benz have unveiled a new $10 million helicopter with a Maybach-style interior featuring wood flooring, leather upholstery, sculpted seating, and customizable trim.

The Laundry Chair. (Available here.)

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