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Behind DeepSeek’s $16 Billion Funding: Chinese Tech Titans and State Players

By Jing Yang and Juro Osawa · Oct 29, 2026 6:08pm PDT

Chinese AI star DeepSeek’s nearly $16 billion funding round this month involved not only a deluge of capital but a who’s who of Chinese tech investors—and some of the country’s most powerful state-backed institutions, according to details of the round obtained by The Information. It was only the second fundraising round for DeepSeek. The... Chinese AI star DeepSeek’s nearly $16 billion funding round this month involved not only a deluge...

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Nvidia Moves to Backstop a Cloud Provider’s $45 Billion Anthropic Project

By Phoebe Liu · Oct 29, 2026 3:40pm PDT

Nvidia is in talks to provide Nscale, a young AI cloud provider, with billions of dollars in credit guarantees for debt to develop a 460-megawatt data center that Anthropic plans to use, according to people with knowledge of the deal discussions. The deal is not yet signed, and terms could change. But it is another example of how Nvidia has... Nvidia is in talks to provide Nscale, a young AI cloud provider, with billions of dollars in...

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Legal AI Startup Bids for Assets of Fallen Law Firm Weil Gotshal

By Valida Pau · Oct 29, 2026 3:11pm PDT

Crosby, a two-year-old startup whose lawyers use AI to speed up contract review and other legal tasks, has submitted a bid for some of the assets of Weil, Gotshal & Manges following the high-profile law firm’s sudden decision to wind down, according to a person familiar with the bid. Crosby on Thursday submitted a letter of intent to... Crosby, a two-year-old startup whose lawyers use AI to speed up contract review and other legal...

Adrian Aoun (left) and Sebastian Thrun (right). Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Sebastian Thrun Raises $130 Million for AI Engineering Startup Dulo

By Rocket Drew · Oct 29, 2026 9:00am PDT

Adrian Aoun (left) and Sebastian Thrun (right). Art by Clark Miller; Getty Images.

Sebastian Thrun Raises $130 Million for AI Engineering Startup Dulo

By Rocket Drew · Oct 29, 2026 9:00am PDT

Sebastian Thrun, the computer scientist who pioneered several AI projects at Google, has co-founded a new startup focused on creating AI models for engineering, according to a person with knowledge of the project. Thrun and co-founder Adrian Aoun started the company, Dulo, earlier this year in San Francisco, and in recent days closed a seed... Sebastian Thrun, the computer scientist who pioneered several AI projects at Google, has...

Art: Clark Miller

Why Publishers Are Adding Invisible Ads for AI Agents

By Alix Coutures · Oct 29, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

For as long as there have been ads on the internet, marketing has targeted human eyeballs. But as AI agents crowd onto the web, advertisers and publishers are beginning to deliver ads only AI can see, sparking consternation among some of the agents’ developers, who fear marketers could try to sway agents to take actions without their users’... For as long as there have been ads on the internet, marketing has targeted human eyeballs. But as...

Art by Mike Sullivan

OpenAI’s Astra Model Becomes Top Distillation Target for China’s AI Labs

By Jing Yang, Juro Osawa and Qianer Liu · Oct 28, 2026 6:00pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra, the most powerful model the company has released, has met with strong demand since its release in early September. One growing customer base: Chinese AI labs that look to extract Astra’s capabilities. DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, two of China’s leading AI developers, relied heavily on outputs from Astra when training their own... OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra, the most powerful model the company has released, has met with strong...

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Amazon Hedges Against AI Shopping Agents With 250 Million Outside Listings

By Catherine Perloff · Oct 28, 2026 6:00am PDT

For more than a year, Amazon has blocked outside shopping agents from its site while finding ways for its own customers to shop elsewhere. Now a new wave of AI assistants like Meta’s Muse is raising the stakes. In recent months Amazon has stepped up its Shop Direct initiative, which promotes products from brands that don’t sell on Amazon’s site,... For more than a year, Amazon has blocked outside shopping agents from its site while finding ways...

Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO of Onsemi. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images.

Chipmaker Onsemi in Talks to Buy Startup for About $1 Billion

By Valida Pau · Oct 27, 2026 5:51pm PDT

Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO of Onsemi. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images.

Chipmaker Onsemi in Talks to Buy Startup for About $1 Billion

By Valida Pau · Oct 27, 2026 5:51pm PDT

Semiconductor component maker Onsemi has been discussing an acquisition of 16-year-old chip startup Ferric for close to $1 billion, say people familiar with the matter—a deal that reflects growing demand for technology that can manage the intense energy needs of AI chips. Onsemi’s talks with Ferric follow a similar acquisition by rival... Semiconductor component maker Onsemi has been discussing an acquisition of 16-year-old chip...

Art by Clark Miller

OpenAI, a Longtime Nvidia Customer, Plans to Buy Google’s AI Chips

By Ryan Barwick · Oct 27, 2026 4:59pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenAI plans to buy Google’s AI chips, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a boost for a rising competitor to OpenAI backer Nvidia. Financial terms and other details of OpenAI’s planned purchase couldn’t be learned. But any deal for it to buy tensor processing units would be a big win for Google’s chip business, which is a growing... OpenAI plans to buy Google’s AI chips, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a boost...

Art: Mike Sullivan (photos: Getty Images)

Can AI Help Ray Kurzweil Cheat Death?

By Amy Dockser Marcus · Oct 27, 2026 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Ray Kurzweil does not want to die, but at the age of 78, he has been thinking more about it, a preoccupation that he describes as a “major motivating force of human beings.” So over the past year, Kurzweil, whose keen observations and 2005 bestseller “The Singularity Is Near” have made him one of the most influential prophets of the AI age, has... Ray Kurzweil does not want to die, but at the age of 78, he has been thinking more about it, a...

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Stripe’s AI Shopping Lead Puts Card Giants on Edge

By Yueqi Yang · Oct 26, 2026 6:01am PDT

As AI assistants like Instinct and Meta Platforms’ Muse start to gain traction in shopping, Stripe has taken a leading position in how the agents pay. That’s putting the credit card giants on edge. The reason for their apprehension: Stripe in many cases is enabling AI agent purchases through virtual cards for one-time use, which can leave... As AI assistants like Instinct and Meta Platforms’ Muse start to gain traction in shopping,...

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Instacart Is Exploring a Sale

By Valida Pau, Jessica E. Lessin and Cory Weinberg · Oct 23, 2026 12:54pm PDT

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Instacart Is Exploring a Sale

By Valida Pau, Jessica E. Lessin and Cory Weinberg · Oct 23, 2026 12:54pm PDT

Instacart is in talks to sell itself in a transaction that would cap the grocery delivery app’s 14-year run as a standalone company. Currently valued at $12 billion, Instacart has been working with an investment bank to weigh its options and held at least preliminary conversations with DoorDash and Uber, according to people familiar with the... Instacart is in talks to sell itself in a transaction that would cap the grocery delivery app’s...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

VC Firms Tap LP Pools, Warehouse Loans for Speedy AI Cash

By Julia Hornstein · Oct 23, 2026 7:00am PDT

When Reflection AI set out to raise $2.5 billion early this year, one of its existing venture backers, B Capital, was eager to invest again in the startup, which has emerged as the most high-profile U.S. maker of open-source AI models. But Reflection’s valuation had more than tripled in just six months, forcing investors to write big checks for... When Reflection AI set out to raise $2.5 billion early this year, one of its existing venture...

Art: Clark Miller (photos: Getty Images)

Ramp Investors Went Nuclear Against Airwallex After Doomed Deal

By Michael Roddan · Oct 23, 2026 6:09am PDT

In April 2025, Eric Glyman, co-founder and co-CEO of Ramp, received some bad news: A deal was falling apart. Glyman had been hoping Ramp, a highly valued startup that sells corporate credit cards and expense management software, could strike a partnership with Airwallex—a fast-growing fintech founded in Melbourne, Australia—that... In April 2025, Eric Glyman, co-founder and co-CEO of Ramp, received some bad news: A deal was...

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick take a photo with workers and local leaders at the Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, that SB Energy is developing.

SB Energy Considers Waiting Until December or Later for an IPO

By Phoebe Liu and Valida Pau · Oct 22, 2026 10:51am PDT

SB Energy, the SoftBank Group–controlled developer of a massive planned Ohio data center project for OpenAI, is considering going public in December or possibly waiting until next year, according to people familiar with the discussions. That is a later timeline than previously expected. The data center developer was aiming to go public as... SB Energy, the SoftBank Group–controlled developer of a massive planned Ohio data center...

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Datadog Offered $4 Billion to Buy Cloud Security Startup ‘Upwind’

By Aaron Holmes and Valida Pau · Oct 22, 2026 10:27am PDT

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Datadog Offered $4 Billion to Buy Cloud Security Startup ‘Upwind’

By Aaron Holmes and Valida Pau · Oct 22, 2026 10:27am PDT

Enterprise software firm Datadog recently offered to buy Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup Upwind Security for nearly $4 billion, according to someone with direct knowledge of the talks, the latest sign of white-hot interest in such firms. Upwind has fielded other takeover attempts from multiple bidders in recent months but hasn’t accepted any... Enterprise software firm Datadog recently offered to buy Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup...

Andreessen Horowitz's San Francisco office. Photo via Getty

Andreessen Horowitz to Drop ‘Crypto’ From Name of Flagship Blockchain Fund

By Leo Schwartz · Oct 22, 2026 4:00am PDT

Andreessen Horowitz, which made one of the boldest bets on blockchain investments in the venture world, is dropping the term crypto from the name of its fund focused on the category. A16z crypto, which has raised nearly $10 billion across five funds, has informed some of its limited partners that it plans to change its name to a16z frontier and... Andreessen Horowitz, which made one of the boldest bets on blockchain investments in the venture...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Hackers Used Claude and Grok to Automate Attacks on Banks

By Aaron Holmes and Cory Weinberg · Oct 21, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

A hacking group called CyberCartel used a web of AI agents powered by models from companies including Anthropic, SpaceX and Chinese lab Moonshot AI to automate cyberattacks against more than 400 Latin American financial targets, according to an investigation by the cybersecurity startup Straiker. The research, shared exclusively with The... A hacking group called CyberCartel used a web of AI agents powered by models from companies...

Firmus Technologies co-founder, Oliver Curtis. Dominic Lorrimer/Fairfax Media via Getty Images.

Nvidia Moves to Back GPU Cloud Provider Firmus After Investors Balk at Its IPO

By Phoebe Liu · Oct 20, 2026 4:40pm PDT · 1 comment

Nvidia is in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian AI cloud provider Firmus, which abruptly pulled its initial public offering early this month, according to people familiar with the talks. The discussion indicates that Nvidia is likely to continue backing a group of unproven firms known as neoclouds that is... Nvidia is in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian AI cloud provider...

An Xbox controller. Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Private Equity Firms Weighed $100 Billion-Plus Buyout of Microsoft’s Xbox

By Valida Pau and Aaron Holmes · Oct 20, 2026 4:07pm PDT · 1 comment

An Xbox controller. Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Private Equity Firms Weighed $100 Billion-Plus Buyout of Microsoft’s Xbox

By Valida Pau and Aaron Holmes · Oct 20, 2026 4:07pm PDT · 1 comment

A group of private equity firms in recent months considered a potential buyout of Microsoft’s Xbox gaming unit that could have valued it between $100 billion and $150 billion, according to people familiar with the discussions. The short-lived discussions by the private firms were exploratory and didn’t turn into a negotiation with Microsoft, the... A group of private equity firms in recent months considered a potential buyout of Microsoft’s...