Funding Bill

• अमेरिकी प्रतिनिधि सभा ने 29 अप्रैल, 2026 को सीनेट द्वारा अनुमोदित बजट प्रस्ताव को अपनाया, जिससे Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) और Customs and Border Protection (CBP) के लिए अरबों की फंडिंग का रास्ता साफ हो गया। • रिपब्लिकन ने इस ब्लूप्रिंट को आगे बढ़ाने के लिए फिलीबस्टर-स्कर्टिंग (नियमों से बचने वाली) प्रक्रिया का उपयोग किया, जिसकी कांग्रेस महिला Doris Matsui जैसे डेमोक्रेट्स ने अन्य आवश्यकताओं की तुलना में प्रवर्तन को प्राथमिकता देने के रूप में आलोचना की। • यह कदम चल रही सीमा सुरक्षा बहसों और मध्यावधि चुनाव के दबावों के बीच Trump प्रशासन की आव्रजन नीतियों का समर्थन करता है।

• Anthropic announced a $4 billion Series E funding round on April 25, 2026, with lead investments from Amazon and Google, valuing the AI safety firm at $61.5 billion post-money. • The capital will accelerate development of Claude 4 models and expand enterprise AI infrastructure across US data centers in California and Virginia. • This funding underscores intensifying competition in AI amid regulatory scrutiny, positioning Anthropic as a key challenger to OpenAI's dominance.

• Perplexity AI announced a Series D funding round of $500 million at an $8.5 billion post-money valuation on April 19, led by prominent venture capital firms and strategic investors including Nvidia and Saudi PIF. • The funding will support expansion of Perplexity's AI search engine capabilities, development of enterprise API offerings, and geographic expansion into European and Asian markets with localized language models. • The round positions Perplexity as a serious challenger to Google Search and reflects growing investor confidence in AI-powered search alternatives and conversational information retrieval platforms.

• Databricks announced a Series H funding round of $10 billion at a $43 billion valuation on April 18, led by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, to accelerate development of its AI and data platform. • The funding will support expansion of Databricks' lakehouse architecture, which integrates data warehousing and data lakes, and fund aggressive hiring in engineering and sales across North America. • The round positions Databricks as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies and signals strong investor confidence in the competitive data infrastructure market dominated by Snowflake and others.

• Anthropic secured $8 billion in its Series E funding round on April 9, 2026, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from US-based investors including Amazon and Google. • The funds will accelerate development of Claude 4 AI models and expand enterprise AI infrastructure in US data centers. • This round values Anthropic at $61.5 billion post-money, solidifying its position as a leading US AI challenger to OpenAI amid intensifying competition.

• Scale AI raised $1 billion on April 9, 2026, at $2.5 billion valuation from Accel and Founders Fund for US data labeling expansion. • Funding supports hiring 1,000 engineers in San Francisco to improve RLHF datasets for models like Llama 4. • Positions Scale as critical US AI infrastructure player, with CEO Alexandr Wang noting 'data is the new oil.'

• Shield AI, a U.S.-based developer of autonomous pilot platforms, secured $1.5 billion in Series G funding as part of a $2.25 billion capital package on April 4, 2026. • The round values the company at $12.7 billion, a 140% increase in one year, with its Hivemind platform selected by the U.S. military for defense applications. • This funding underscores surging investor confidence in AI-driven defense tech amid rising geopolitical tensions.

• Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act has darkened the outlook for approximately 17,000 federally-funded health clinics across the United States, which collectively stand to lose $32 billion in government support. • The policy represents a significant threat to community health infrastructure that serves vulnerable populations, though specific implementation details and timeline remain under review. • Federal health clinics provide essential services including primary care, preventive services, and treatment for underinsured and uninsured Americans in underserved communities.