U.S. stocks ended lower as semiconductor shares sold off sharply, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index falling 7.9% and Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Marvell, Micron, and SanDisk all sliding amid growing concern over debt-funded AI spending and a more hawkish Fed outlook. Reuters has more here.

Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly directed Meta to build “Arena,” an experimental stand-alone prediction markets app that would let users bet with points, rather than money, on future events as Meta looks to chase the fast-growing popularity of Polymarket and Kalshi. The New York Times has more here.

China’s LineShine supercomputer in Shenzhen was declared the world’s fastest, topping the U.S. system El Capitan by more than 20% and giving China the number one spot for the first time since 2017 despite relying on standard CPUs rather than Nvidia-style GPUs. The New York Times has more here.

Fidelity — Your Pitch Isn’t the Only Thing Investors Are Evaluating 

Investors don’t just listen to what you say - they look at how your company operates. Is ownership clear? Do your numbers match your story? Can you answer follow-up questions without digging through spreadsheets? The Fundraise-Ready Startup Kit equips founders with the materials investors expect to see, before pressure is on. Because confidence in the room doesn’t come from slides. It comes from preparation.

By Julie Bort

Menlo Ventures announced $3 billion in funds on Tuesday, the largest raise in its 50-year history, driven in large part by its AI portfolio, especially Anthropic. Its stake in the model maker is now worth about $14 billion, sources told Bloomberg.

To hear the folks at Menlo talk about it, they were white-knuckling it when they made a bet-the-firm $750 million investment in Anthropic in 2024, preemptively leading the model maker’s Series D. At the time, that round quadrupled the startup’s valuation to $18.4 billion.

While the bet itself was arguably not wildly risky, the means by which the firm raised that kind of capital was more so.

Menlo had been an early investor in the Series C, before Anthropic had a product. By 2024, long before Claude Code and Claude Mythos, the company was showing signs of success. It had landed a $4 billion deal from Amazon and was being hotly pursued by VCs, having been founded by former OpenAI researchers, including siblings CEO Dario Amodei and president Daniela Amodei. It was a rising-star AI company, as so many startups founded by OpenAI alum still are today.

But how Menlo raised the funds was eye-popping. In 2024, the venture world was just rebounding from the post-pandemic VC winter, with big-money firms like SoftBank and Tiger Global still licking their wounds. No one was writing checks for three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Menlo structured the bulk of deal, about $500 million worth, as a special purpose vehicle, or SPV — a one-off investment entity created to pool money from multiple sources for a single deal. Menlo also contributed $250 million from its own fund and contributions from Menlo insiders, sources told Forbes at the time, bringing the total round to $750 million.

Engram, an eight-month-old San Francisco startup that develops AI models that learn and reuse an organization’s internal knowledge to make enterprise agents faster and cheaper to run, announced that it has raised $98 million in funding from General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Factory, Modern, Amplify Partners, and Neo as well as angel investors including Assaf Rappaport, Andrej Karpathy, and Pieter Abbeel. More here.

Peregrine Technologies, an eight-year-old San Francisco startup that develops data integration software for public safety agencies and local governments, raised a $250 million Series D round at a $6.8 billion valuation from previous investors Fifth Down Capital, Sequoia Capital, OG Venture Partners, Goldcrest Capital, XYZ Ventures, and Godfrey Capital. Fortune has more here.

Stark, a two-year-old Berlin startup that makes attack drones and other defense systems for European militaries, raised a $569.2 million round at a $4 billion post-money valuation from investors including Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, the NATO Innovation Fund, Project A, and Döpfner Capital. The Financial Times has more here.

xLight, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that hopes to eventually replace ASML's tin-plasma light source with a centralized particle accelerator, beaming hyper-powerful EUV light into multiple ASML scanners to double factory throughput, is reportedly in the market to raise a $350 million round co-led by Boardman Bay and Bain Capital. The Information has the scoop here.

Attention, a five-year-old New York startup that automates CRM updates, analyzes customer interactions, identifies deal risks, and recommends next steps for sales teams managing pipelines, raised a $30 million Series B round led by RTP Global, with Linea Ventures as well as previous investors Aglae Ventures, Eniac, and Alven also participating. More here.

NaukNauk, a two-year-old virtual startup that uses AI to turn photos of toys and collectibles into animated videos, comics, and music videos for fandom communities, raised $20 million in venture funding from undisclosed investors. More here.

Niural, a four-year-old New York startup that runs global payroll, benefits, payments, and compliance operations for businesses across 150+ countries, automating tax calculations, money movement, and regulatory workflows, raised a $21 million Series A extension. Investors included FOG Ventures and NewView Capital. More here.

Ploy, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that deploys AI agents to design webpages, write marketing copy, run campaigns, and sync data to CRM for companies and agencies, raised a $27 million seed round co-led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Probook, a four-year-old New York startup that automates dispatch, scheduling, and customer communications for home service businesses like plumbing and HVAC companies to coordinate technicians and manage jobs efficiently, announced that it raised a $34 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $6 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Tech Funding News has more here.

Tetrix, a three-year-old New York startup that collects and structures private market fund data from documents to help institutional investors analyze portfolios, assess risk, and identify investment opportunities, raised a $15 million Series A round co-led by White Star Capital and Innovation Endeavors. More here.

VARM, a three-year-old Berlin startup that trains and deploys insulation workers to help homeowners plan, finance, and complete home insulation upgrades with standardized pricing and quality control, raised a $19.9 million Series A round. ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and GET Fund were the co-leads, with Aurum Impact as well as previous investors Emerge Partners, Pale Blue Dot, Emerge VC and noa also anteing up. EU-Startups has more here.

Anchorbase, a six-month-old Calgary startup that aims to use AI to automate payment collection, reconciliation, reporting, and back-office workflows inside existing business software, raised a $2 million pre-seed round backed by Cambrian VC and TTV Capital. More here.

ChemT, a three-year-old Singapore startup that simulates and predicts cell behavior during biomanufacturing to help pharmaceutical and biotech companies improve yields, reduce timelines, and scale production, raised a $4 million seed round led by Wavemaker Ventures, with SEEDS, Wavemaker 360 Health, Draper University Ventures, and Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator also taking part. The company has raised a total of $5 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Fika Jobs, a one-year-old Stockholm startup that develops a video-first hiring platform where AI agents interview candidates and turn their responses into short-form profiles, raised a $4 million pre-seed round led by Luminar Ventures, with Alliance VC and King co-founders Sebastian Knutsson and Riccardo Zacconi also opting in. TechCrunch has more here.

H3 Zoom, an 11-year-old Singapore company that uses computer vision, drones, and workflow automation to help asset owners inspect buildings and infrastructure, detect defects, and produce standardized inspection reports, raised a $3.6 million Series A round led by JRE Ventures, with SGInnovate, M7 Holdings, AC S525, Moringa Ventures, and Lotus One Investment also contributing. More here.

HaloBraid, a four-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that develops a robotic hair-braiding assistant for professional stylists, raised a $7 million seed round led by Seven Seven Six, with AlleyCorp and Bling Capital also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Kyrok, a one-year-old Berlin startup that builds an AI system that sits on ERP systems to help pharmaceutical and chemical SMEs manage supply chain workflows and capture operational knowledge, raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Speedinvest and including Arve Capital. Tech.eu has more here.

Ladder Health, a two-year-old New York startup that delivers virtual pediatric developmental therapies and works with health systems to help families access speech and occupational care at home, raised a $7 million seed round led by Nina Capital, with Mairs & Power Venture Capital, South Dakota First Capital, 25madison Health, Hatteras Venture Partners, Create Health Ventures, Jumpstart Capital, White Oak Enterprises, Groove Capital, and 7Rock Ventures also piling on. More here.

Trustap, a nine-year-old Dublin startup that provides transaction and escrow infrastructure for marketplaces and ecommerce platforms to verify sellers, manage payments, and enable secure purchases including by AI shopping agents, raised a $10 million round led by Aperture Capital, with TX Ventures also pitching in. Silicon Republic has more here.

Tugboat Solutions, a four-year-old startup based in Grand Forks, ND, that helps homeowners navigate property insurance claims by analyzing insurer communications and generating dispute strategies to secure fair settlements, raised a $3 million seed round led by ResilienceVC, with South Dakota First, gener8tor, Sure Ventures, Acumen America also stepping up. More here.

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From AI-native startups to breakout growth companies, founders are scaling faster than ever in an increasingly complex market. Growth brings new expectations from investors, boards, and future stakeholders. Can your reporting, governance, and finance operations keep pace? PwC helps emerging companies build the capabilities needed to navigate growth with confidence and prepare for what comes next - from rapid expansion to public company readiness. Explore Emerging Company Solutions. 

MGX, a two-year-old Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm that backs companies across the AI stack, including OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and data-center infrastructure projects, raised nearly $50 billion for its first AI fund. The Next Web has more here.

Walmart agreed to acquire Vibe.co, a streaming TV ad platform that helps advertisers create and buy digital ads, as the retailer looks to bring more small and midsize marketers onto Walmart Connect and expand its push into commerce media. Terms were not disclosed. Vibe.co has raised a total of approximately $78.8 million and was last valued at $410 million in a September, 2025, round led by Hedosophia. Variety has more here.

Qualcomm is reportedly in talks to buy Modular, a four-year-old Palo Alto startup whose software enables developers to run existing machine learning models on different types of processors without requiring changes to the source code. Although the purchase price has not been disclosed, the transaction would value the startup at approximaentely $4 billion, a sharp increase from its $1.6 billion valuation in September, 2025. Modular has raised a total of approximately $380 million. Investors include US Innovative Technology Fund, General Catalyst, DFJ Growth, GV, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, and Factory. Bloomberg has more here.

Momenta, a 10-year-old Chinese autonomous driving developer backed by Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, SAIC, General Motors, Bosch, Temasek, Yunfeng Capital, and Tencent, is preparing to launch a Hong Kong IPO that could raise about $900 million and value the company at roughly $9 billion. Reuters has more here.

The Wall Street Journal mapped more than 80 of Sam Altman’s personal investments and found that at least 10 have done or recently discussed business with OpenAI, including Helion, whose OpenAI-linked partnerships and backing from major OpenAI investors helped lift Altman’s stake in the fusion startup to at least $4.1 billion. More here.

Josh Elman is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a partner focused on consumer technology and AI after more than 25 years across product, growth, and investing roles at Apple, Robinhood, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Greylock. More here.

Annie Shapiro was promoted to partner at Inspired Capital, the New York venture firm, after serving as VP of platform and helping portfolio companies including Rho, ShopMy, Habi, Teamshares, and Duckbill with hiring, fundraising, operations, and AI adoption. More here.

The Ethereum Foundation is cutting roughly 20% of its workforce, eliminating 54 jobs as part of a restructuring that follows the departures or transitions of about nine senior figures over the past six months and comes as Ethereum faces growing competition from rival blockchain ecosystems. CoinDesk has more here.

Google is reportedly developing an AI startup incubator built around its alumni network of “Xooglers,” a defensive and opportunistic move aimed at keeping former employees close as ex-Google and DeepMind researchers leave to launch or join richly funded AI startups. The Next Web has more here.

AI-enhanced apartment listings are making rental hunting even more maddening, with brokers using virtual staging tools to add fireplaces, furniture, plants, and “spa-like” language to apartments that can look far smaller and shabbier in person. The Verge has more here.

Japan’s sleep-deprived workers are fueling a billion-dollar sleep-tech industry, with companies pitching everything from 20-minute nap wearables and standing nap boxes to capsule hotels that analyze guests’ breathing, snoring, and body movement while they sleep. The Washington Post has more here.

The American Diabetes Association’s annual conference has become something like Cannes for weight-loss drugs, with Eli Lilly’s experimental triple-agonist retatrutide drawing gasps after data showed patients lost an average of 28.3% of their body weight over 80 weeks. New York magazine has more here.

Why ranch dressing has suddenly become synonymous with America.

In search of the most attractive golden visas.

Meta launched a new line of $299 smart glasses under its own brand, expanding its partnership with EssilorLuxottica beyond Ray-Ban and Oakley with display-less frames that include a camera, speakers, Meta AI access, and more than eight hours of battery life. TechCrunch has more here.

TechCrunch reviews Kiwibit’s AI-powered bird feeder, a $179.99-to-$249.99 backyard gadget with a 4K camera, solar charging, cloud storage, and an app that identifies more than 10,000 bird species while also flagging the inevitable squirrel raids. More here.

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