One week out from StrictlyVC NYC!

Nvidia agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion – its second-biggest deal ever – after Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue approached Jensen Huang over the summer. Nvidia says the open-source AI platform will remain open to the broader ecosystem. CNBC has more here.

Speaking of Hugging Face, it turns out that OpenAI’s outside investigation into its rogue-agent Hugging Face hack was tightly constrained: researchers from METR and Redwood got just six days on-site, could examine logs only at OpenAI’s offices, and were limited to examining only a single week of a two-month-long incident. The New York Times has more here.

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By Sean O’Kane

Today could be the day Tesla changes forever.  

In a couple of hours, Tesla will “launch” the Cybercab — a small, gold, two-seater sedan with no steering wheel or pedals that uses cameras and AI to navigate the world — in its hometown of Austin, Texas. 

The company hasn’t said what the launch will entail, exactly. It could be a few cars offering rides in a small area downtown, or a far grander affair in both size and scope. 

Tesla certainly wants you to believe it’s the latter.  

In the run-up to the event, Tesla staged dozens — perhaps more — of its Cybercabs around Austin and in many other U.S. cities. At the time this story was published, 420 autonomous vehicles were registered in Texas, according to the state’s automated vehicle tracker.  

Ashok Elluswamy, the head of Tesla AI, recently said in a post on X that the “streets won’t be the same anymore.” When another user wrote that Tesla is “about to flood Austin,” CEO Elon Musk replied: “Yes.” On Wednesday night, Musk posted a seemingly AI-generated photo of the Cybercab consuming the city alongside a massive dust storm.  

“A Storm of Cybercabs,” Musk wrote in another post. 

Capacity, a nine-year-old startup based in St. Louis, MO, that deploys AI agents that answer customer questions, assist support teams, review interactions, and run outbound messaging campaigns, raised a $54 million Series E round led by Kathy Ireland, the entrepreneur and former Sports Illustrated model. The company has raised a total of $159+ million. More here.

Guardio, a seven-year-old Tel Aviv startup that protects consumers from phishing, scams, malicious websites, and identity theft, raised a $40 million round at a $1.1 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport, ION Crossover Partners, Union Tech Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Cerca Partners, and Emerge Ventures. The company has raised a total of $167 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Thinking Machines Lab, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI systems, is reportedly in talks to raise at least $1 billion at a $40+ billion pre-money valuation. The Information has more here.

Ultrahuman, a seven-year-old Bengaluru startup that makes smart rings and other devices for tracking health and fitness, raised a $65 million round at a $365 million valuation. Investors included Qualcomm Ventures, Labcorp, Alpha Wave, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Alteria Capital. The company also raised $5 million in debt. TechCrunch has more here.

Upwind, a four-year-old San Francisco and Tel Aviv startup that helps companies detect and mitigate security threats across cloud infrastructure and AI applications, is reportedly raising $300 million at a $3.8 billion valuation led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Bloomberg has more here.

Aslan, a one-year-old startup based in Washington, DC, that deploys human-supervised AI agents to infiltrate encrypted criminal and hostile online networks for intelligence, military, and law enforcement agencies, raised a $20.8 million round co-led by Khosla Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital, with BoxGroup, 2048 Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Alumni Ventures also participating. Tectonic Defense has more here.

Atira, a two-year-old Munich startup that automates request-for-quotation review, product configuration, pricing options, and bid documentation for industrial companies selling built-to-order products, raised a $17.5 million round led by Accel, with UVC, Fortino and Booom also buying in. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Critical Materials Group, a one-year-old Austin startup that develops modular, automated manufacturing systems for explosives and other energetic materials used by the defense industry, raised a $10.3 million seed round led by Overmatch Ventures, with Victory Six Advisors and Fulcrum Ventures also participating. More here.

iPremom, a seven-year-old startup based in Valencia, Spain, that develops blood tests that analyze maternal blood RNA signals to predict pregnancy complications before symptoms appear, raised a $15 million seed round co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Asabys Partners, with APEX Ventures also engaging. Femtech Insider has more here.

PatientIQ, a 10-year-old Chicago company that collects and analyzes patient-reported outcomes within electronic health records for healthcare organizations, device makers, and life sciences companies, raised a $30 million Series C round led by Hughes & Company, with Health Enterprise Partners and August Capital also opting in. More here.

BackBone, a 10-month-old Brussels startup that uses AI agents to automate quality-control and compliance processes for food producers, raised a $4.6 million seed round led by Pitchdrive, with PROfounders Capital, Passion Capital, 100IN, Agristo, and Darta also joining in. Dealroom has more here.

Helogen, a four-year-old New York startup that operates in-orbit manufacturing equipment to make biomaterials for medical implants and customer-funded biological product research, raised a $7.1 million seed round co-led by RRE Ventures and Oceans, with One Way Ventures and Blisce also digging in. Payload has more here.

Konko AI, a three-year-old New York startup that automates patient scheduling, intake, communications, and follow-up for healthcare clinics and hospitals, raised a $6 million round led by Hi Ventures, with LifeX Ventures, SquareOne Capital, GroundUp Ventures, and Phoenix Fund also participating. MobiHealthNews has more here.

Zeit AI, a two-year-old Munich startup that automates data cleaning, integration, reporting, alerts, inventory optimization, and procurement analysis for mid-sized industrial companies, raised a $5 million seed round. Investors included Y Combinator, University of Oxford’s Oxford Seed Fund, Sequoia Capital Scout Fund, ACE Ventures, and HPVC. Tech Funding News has more here.

Swish Ventures, the one-year-old venture firm founded by former NBA player Omri Casspi, raised a $250 million third fund to back roughly 12 seed and Series A startups, bringing assets under management to $800 million after early bets on companies including Cognition, Wonderful, and Upwind. CTech has more here.

Moonshot AI, a three-year-old Beijing startup behind the Kimi large language model, has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO seeking roughly $3 billion after being valued at $50 billion in an ongoing funding round and raising more than $5.5 billion to date. Reuters has more here.

Oura, the 13-year-old smart-ring maker, filed publicly for an IPO after nine-month revenue jumped to $1.2 billion from $697 million a year earlier; the company has roughly 5 million paid members and is reportedly seeking to raise $3 billion at a valuation around $16 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

PlusAI, a 10-year-old autonomous-trucking software company based in Santa Clara, CA, agreed to go public via a SPAC merger at an $800 million pre-money equity value, with the transaction potentially providing $300 million in capital as it targets a 2027 commercial launch of its Level 4 driving system. Reuters has more here.

A who’s who of tech leaders — including Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Alex Karp — directly lobbied G20 officials in North Carolina to keep AI regulation light, arguing that tougher rules could slow innovation and blunt the technology’s economic benefits. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

At least 95 investors – including Sequoia, Founders Fund, Coatue, and Altimeter – now hold stakes in both Anthropic and OpenAI, as the AI boom upends the old VC taboo against backing direct competitors and leaves much of Silicon Valley exposed to the fortunes of the same few companies. The New York Times has more here.

When OpenAI announced that it was terminating its relationship with Cursor because it couldn’t trust Elon Musk, it walked away from more than $1 billion in annualized revenue. Wired has more here.

This year’s El Niño is forecast to become the strongest on record as soon as this month, with Pacific temperatures expected to rise more than 3°C above average and remain exceptionally high through February, increasing the risk of powerful storms, flooding, drought, and extreme heat worldwide.

Social-media influencers interrupted Naomi Osaka’s first-round U.S. Open match by staging a photoshoot in a hospitality suite during play, prompting the chair umpire to stop and tell them to sit down before Osaka could resume serving.

Watching robots fail has become a booming comedy genre.

Burning Man is getting older and richer: just 10% of attendees were in their 20s last year, down from nearly 30% in 2014, while people in their 40s and 50s have overtaken 20-somethings, and more than 30% of Burners now earn over $150,000 a year.

Rolex unveiled four one-of-a-kind Cosmograph Daytonas inspired by the seasons, each decked out in precious metals, natural stone dials, gemstones, and 54 diamonds; all will be auctioned Sept. 28 to benefit charities backed by Roger Federer and Leonardo DiCaprio.

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