Top News

Nvidia said it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI through non-voting shares tied to massive chip purchases, a blockbuster partnership that deepens their mutual dependence, locks up scarce compute for OpenAI, and is almost certain to draw antitrust heat. Reuters has more here.

A White House official revealed today that TikTok’s US arm will be moved into an American-owned joint venture with Oracle monitoring its algorithm and ByteDance retaining less than a 20% stake, a deal that could force US users to re-download the app once control shifts. TechCrunch has more here.

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The Billion-Dollar Infrastructure Deals Powering the AI Boom

By Russell Brandom

It takes a lot of computing power to run an AI product – and as the tech industry races to tap the power of AI models, there’s a parallel race underway to build the infrastructure that will power them. On a recent earnings call, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang estimated that between $3 trillion and $4 trillion will be spent on AI infrastructure by the end of the decade – with much of that money coming from AI companies themselves. Along the way, they’re placing immense strain on power grids, and pushing the industry’s building capacity to its limit.

Below, we’ve laid out everything we know about the biggest AI infrastructure projects, including major spending from Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI. We’ll keep it updated as the boom continues, and the numbers climb even higher.

Microsoft’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI

This is arguably the deal that kicked off the whole contemporary AI boom: in 2019, Microsoft made a $1 billion investment in a buzzy non-profit called OpenAI, known mostly for its association with Elon Musk. Crucially, the deal made Microsoft the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI – and as the demands of model-training became more intense, more of Microsoft’s investment started to come in the form of Azure cloud credit rather than cash. It was a great deal for both sides: Microsoft was able to claim more Azure sales, and OpenAI got more money for its biggest single expense. In the years that followed, Microsoft would build its investment up to nearly $14 billion – a move that is set to pay off enormously when OpenAI converts into a for-profit company.

The partnership between the two companies has unwound more recently. In January, OpenAI announced it would no longer be using Microsoft’s cloud exclusively, instead giving the company a right of first refusal on future infrastructure demands but pursuing others if Azure couldn’t meet their needs. More recently, Microsoft began exploring other foundation models to power its AI products, establishing even more independence from the AI giant.

Massive Fundings

AppZen, a 13-year-old company based in San Jose, CA, that uses AI agents to automate finance workflows for global enterprises, raised a $180 million Series D round led by Riverwood Capital. The company has raised a total of $290 million. Crunchbase News has more here.

Cardless, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that helps companies design and launch their own credit cards in-house, raised a $60 million Series C round led by Spark Capital and including Activant Capital, Industry Ventures, and Pear VC. The company has raised a total of $170+ million. More here.

Distyl AI, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that helps large enterprises integrate and scale AI across their operations, raised a $175 million Series B round at a $1.8 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Coatue, Dell Technologies Capital, and DST Global also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $200+ million. Crunchbase News has more here.

Ensoma, a Boston company that develops in vivo therapies to engineer stem cells for genetic and immune disorders, raised a $53 million financing round. Investors included Gilead, 5AM Ventures, Catalio Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management, Delos Capital, F-Prime, the Gates Foundation, Hanwha Impact Partners, Mirae Asset Financial Group, Qatar Investment Authority, RTW, Solasta Ventures, SymBiosis, and Viking Global Investors. More here.

Omnea, a three-year-old London startup that helps enterprises manage supplier relationships and procurement with AI, raised a $50 million Series B round co-led by Insight Partners and Khosla Ventures, with additional investors including Accel, Point Nine Capital, First Round Capital, and Prosus. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Oura Health, a Finnish company that makes the popular Oura smart ring, is raising an $875 million Series E round, according to Bloomberg. The valuation is approximately $10.9 billion, doubling last year’s mark. TechCrunch has more here.

Tide, an eight-year-old London startup that provides small businesses with digital banking and admin services such as accounting, invoicing, and payments, raised a $120 million round at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by TPG, with previous investor Apax Digital Funds also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Circuit & Chisel, a New York startup founded this year that is building infrastructure to power payments between AI agents, raised a $19.2 million seed round co-led by Primary Venture Partners and ParaFi Capital, with Stripe, Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures, Samsung Next, and Polygon Labs also stepping up. More here.

Grvt, a three-year-old Singapore startup that operates a decentralized exchange for private onchain trading powered by zero-knowledge technology, raised a $19 million Series A round. Investors included ZKsync, Further Ventures, EigenCloud, and 500 Global. More here.

Sevaro Health, a six-year-old New York startup that provides virtual neurology care supported by AI to help hospitals address staffing shortages and patient demand, raised a $39 million Series B round co-led by Valtruis and Intermountain Ventures, with previous investors Catalyst and APA also taking part. HIT Consultant has more here.

Sunhat, a three-year-old startup based in Cologne, Germany that helps enterprises automatically validate and share ESG and compliance data, raised a $10.6 million Series A round led by CommerzVentures, with Capnamic, EnBW New Ventures, xdeck, and WEPA Ventures also opting in. More here.

Smaller Fundings

ANYbotics, a nine-year-old Zurich company that develops AI-powered four-legged robots for industrial inspections, raised an undisclosed amount from Climate Investment. The company has raised a total of $150+ million. EU-Startups has more here.

Brineworks, a two-year-old Amsterdam startup that develops direct air capture systems with hydrogen co-production to supply feedstocks used in sustainable aviation and shipping fuels, raised a $5.9 million seed round led by SeaX Ventures, with additional participation from Pale Blue Dot, First Momentum, AiiM Partners, Energie360°, and Katapult. Fortune has more here.

Earthmover, a three-year-old Berkeley startup that helps companies manage and analyze large-scale weather and geospatial datasets, raised a $7.2 million seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital, with Costanoa Ventures and Preston-Werner Ventures also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Helios AI, a New York startup founded this year that uses AI to help food businesses forecast prices and manage supply chain risks, raised a $4.7 million seed round led by Collide Capital, with S&P Global Ventures, Stray Dog Capital, Angeles VC, Equity Alliance, and Supply Change Capital also investing. CityBiz has more here.

Mycroft, a Toronto startup that uses AI agents to manage security and compliance for companies, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Luge Capital, with Brightspark Ventures, Graphite Ventures, Ripple Ventures, Developer Capital, Antler, and BoxOne Ventures also pitching in. SecurityWeek has more here.

Rekord, a one-year-old Dublin startup that uses AI to streamline credit decisioning for lenders, raised a $2.1 million pre-seed round led by Point Nine Capital, with Octopus Ventures, Hello World, and Baseline also joining in. Silicon Republic has more here.

Salt AI, a two-year-old Los Angeles startup that develops contextual AI tools to help life sciences and health tech companies build and deploy workflows for drug discovery, clinical development, and healthcare operations, raised a $10 million round led by Morpheus Ventures, with Struck Capital, Marbruck Investments, and CoreWeave also contributing. More here.

Shield, a three-year-old Miami startup that enables exporters and importers to conduct cross-border transactions in U.S. cryptocurrencies with built-in compliance checks, raised a $5 million seed round led by Giant Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz, Factor Capital, Coinbase, and Bank of America also engaging. TechCrunch has more here.

Unit 221B, a 10-year-old New York company that tracks and disrupts hacker groups, raised a $5 million seed round led by J2 Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

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Exits

eBay is buying Tise, an 11-year-old Oslo-based company that runs a social marketplace for secondhand fashion and home goods, in a deal that underscores eBay’s push to court Gen Z and millennial shoppers with a more community-driven resale experience. Terms were not disclosed. Tise has raised $45 million in funding. TechCrunch has more here.

Going Public

MapLight Therapeutics, a six-year-old Redwood City, CA, company that develops drugs for neurological diseases, has filed for an IPO to fund late-stage trials of its schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s psychosis candidate as it takes aim at Bristol Myers’ newly approved Cobenfy. The company has raised $500+ million from investors such as Blue Owl, Sanofi, Novo Holdings, 5AM Ventures, T. Rowe Price. BioPharma Dive has more here.

People

Cloud computing veterans Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia have been promoted to co-CEOs of Oracle, underscoring the company’s shift from ERP stalwart to a cloud infrastructure behemoth that is pouring billions into data centers and chasing mega AI contracts. Bloomberg has more here.

New Funds

Remember Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder who spent four months in jail last year? Well, his $10 billion investment firm YZi Labs is sitting on so much cash that its team is struggling to find enough good crypto deals to invest in. Now they're considering opening the fund to outside investors for the first time, which would put one of the world's biggest crypto war chests under serious regulatory scrutiny. The FT has the story here.

Post-Its

Essential Reads

Meta is rolling out an AI assistant inside Facebook Dating to cut down on “swipe fatigue.” TechCrunch has more here.

Seattle’s long tech-fueled boom is showing cracks as Amazon and Microsoft slash tens of thousands of jobs, with AI-driven efficiency gains leaving ripple effects across housing, retail, and restaurants. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The MBA-to-VC pipeline is still alive, but new research shows its dominance is fading as firms hunting for AI and hardware expertise increasingly poach operators from the likes of OpenAI and SpaceX rather than shelling out for freshly minted MBAs. TechCrunch has more here.

The Oakland Ballers let AI manage a full game to test data-driven decision-making, but the stunt backfired with fans who saw it as another case of corporations prioritizing techies over baseball fans. TechCrunch has more here.

Detours

Sorority rush videos have morphed into a full-blown influencer economy, with brands from Skims to Poppi paying college women to turn viral TikToks into six-figure side hustles.

So many foreigners have flocked to Copenhagen to marry that the city is capping access to the number of weddings that can be held for non-residents and funding thousands more ceremonies to placate frustrated locals who can’t secure their own spots at City Hall.

An unsettling week with an AI toy.

Brain Rot

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