Raises

Mentre la leadership di Keir Starmer vacilla, gli investitori avvertono che una sfida per la guida del Labour che ignori le finanze pubbliche e la realpolitik del mercato potrebbe essere disastrosa. • Un aumento dei costi di indebitamento e avvertimenti per evitare un “momento Liz Truss”. • Mentre Keir Starmer affronta una potenziale sfida alla leadership, lo spettro del mercato obbligazionario incombe. • In un clima febbrile a Westminster, la prospettiva che la Gran Bretagna cambi primo ministro per la sesta volta in sette anni ha alimentato un brusco sell-off nel mercato del debito pubblico del Regno Unito. Continua a leggere...

• Recursive Superintelligence, con sede a Londra e fondata nel 2025 da ex leader di OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta AI e Uber AI, ha raccolto 650 milioni di dollari con una valutazione di 4,65 miliardi di dollari in un round guidato da GV e Greycroft, con la partecipazione di AMD Ventures e NVIDIA. • L'approccio tecnologico principale della startup si concentra sull'automazione del processo di ricerca dell'IA stesso, sviluppando sistemi capaci di migliorare la propria architettura, i metodi di addestramento e i processi di valutazione senza una costante supervisione umana. • L'azienda opera attualmente dagli uffici di San Francisco e Londra con oltre 25 ricercatori e ingegneri, e prevede di utilizzare i nuovi fondi per assicurarsi un'infrastruttura di calcolo su larga scala e avviare il suo primo sistema di addestramento autonomo di Livello 1.

• Ditto, startup di IA per la sanità con sede a Rotterdam, ha ottenuto un finanziamento di 7,6 milioni di euro guidato da Heal Capital per espandere la sua applicazione di comunicazione tra paziente e medico basata su IA nei mercati europei. • La piattaforma sfrutta l'IA per automatizzare e personalizzare le interazioni con i pazienti, migliorando l'efficienza della comunicazione sanitaria e il coinvolgimento dei pazienti per i fornitori di cure mediche. • Il finanziamento dimostra la fiducia degli investitori nelle soluzioni di IA per l'amministrazione sanitaria e la gestione dei pazienti, un segmento in crescita all'interno della tecnologia sanitaria.

• Il mese è stato uno dei più secchi mai registrati, con precipitazioni inferiori del 23% rispetto alla media, secondo i dati del Met Office • Uno degli aprile più aridi mai registrati per l'Inghilterra centrale e meridionale ha lasciato i livelli dei fiumi al di sotto della norma, alimentando i timori di siccità in alcune aree durante l'estate. • L'ultima indagine idrologica del Regno Unito – che monitora i livelli dei fiumi e delle acque sotterranee – suggerisce che l'Inghilterra centrale e meridionale e la Scozia orientale subiranno flussi fluviali notevolmente bassi nei prossimi tre mesi, sollevando preoccupazioni per possibili carenze idriche se il tempo secco dovesse persistere. Continua a leggere...

• eyeo, startup di computer vision con sede nei Paesi Bassi, ha ottenuto 40 milioni di euro in finanziamenti Series A guidati da Innovation Industries, portando il totale dei finanziamenti a 55 milioni di euro. • Il round ha visto la partecipazione degli investitori esistenti imec.xpand, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, QBIC fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds e Brabant Development Agency. • I fondi sosterranno il primo team interno di eyeo per la progettazione di chip nanofotonici in grado di dividere la luce invece di filtrarla, recuperando così il 70% della luce attualmente scartata dai sensori d'immagine.

I dibattiti sulla secessione sono stati oscurati dalle rivelazioni che un gruppo legato ai separatisti ha ottenuto l'accesso all'elenco degli elettori

• Il 10 maggio 2026, Two Harbors Investment Corp (TWO) ha rivisto il suo accordo di fusione con CrossCountry Mortgage, aumentando l'offerta in contanti da 11,30 a 12 dollari per azione. • L'aggiustamento dimostra l'impegno di TWO a massimizzare il valore per gli azionisti nel contesto delle trattative in corso per l'unione dei real estate investment trust. • In quanto REIT specializzato in titoli garantiti da mutui residenziali e diritti di gestione, l'operazione segnala fiducia nel potenziale di ripresa del settore ipotecario.

• RadNet, Inc. ha riportato ricavi per il primo trimestre del 2026 pari a 575,6 milioni di dollari il 10 maggio 2026, segnando un aumento del 22,1% rispetto ai 471,4 milioni di dollari del primo trimestre del 2025. • L'azienda ha rivisto al rialzo le previsioni per il 2026 relative ai ricavi dei centri di imaging, all'EBITDA rettificato e al flusso di cassa libero, riflettendo un forte slancio operativo. • Questo risultato sottolinea la crescente domanda di servizi di diagnostica per immagini in un contesto di espansione del settore sanitario e investimenti in capacità.

• Shield AI, con sede a San Diego e fondata nel 2015, ha ottenuto 1,5 miliardi di dollari nel suo round di finanziamento di Serie G nel marzo 2026, portando il finanziamento totale a 2,5 miliardi di dollari. • L'investimento sostiene l'avanzamento di sistemi autonomi gestiti dall'IA per applicazioni di difesa, potenziando le capacità di sicurezza nazionale. • Questo massiccio round sottolinea la crescente fiducia degli investitori nelle startup statunitensi di tecnologia per la difesa in un contesto di crescenti tensioni geopolitiche.

• Sierra, an AI customer experience startup, secured $950 million in a Series E funding round led by Tiger Global and Google Ventures on May 8, 2026, achieving a valuation exceeding $15 billion. • The round highlights the strength of high-growth vertical AI companies amid surging demand for agentic AI solutions in enterprise settings. • This funding victory underscores investor confidence in specialized AI applications, positioning Sierra as a leader in automating customer interactions.

• AI-native startup Pit, officially Pitdotcom Sweden AB, announced a $16 million funding round on May 7, 2026, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Lakestar and executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Revolut, and Deel. • The platform acts as an AI 'product team-as-a-service,' replacing spreadsheets, emails, and SaaS tools with customized, production-grade software for internal operations in telecom, e-commerce, healthcare, and logistics. • Early adopters report 10,000 hours saved annually per deployment, 99% automated invoice acceptance rates, and 85% reduction in marketing campaign execution time, enabling scalable business automation beyond fragile prototypes.

• Moonshot AI, a leading Chinese chatbot maker focused on commercial AI applications, secured $20 billion in its Series E funding round led by Meituan. • The massive investment, one of the largest in AI history, will accelerate development of advanced AI models and expand commercial deployments across Asia. • This funding underscores China's aggressive push in AI amid global competition, positioning Moonshot to challenge U.S. giants like OpenAI.

• Cogent Security, a vulnerability management developer, secured $42 million in Series A funding in February 2026 at a post-money valuation of $295 million. • Bain Capital Ventures led the round with participation from OpenAI, Datadog, and existing investor Greylock Partners, bringing the company's total capital raised to $53 million since its seed round. • The investment reflects growing enterprise demand for AI-powered vulnerability management tools as organizations prioritize cybersecurity infrastructure upgrades.

• OPEC+ announced fresh oil production increase for June 2026, with seven key members—Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman—collectively raising output by 188,000 barrels per day. • The move follows UAE's exit from the bloc and represents a gradual rollback of voluntary production cuts first introduced in 2023, with officials emphasizing flexibility to adjust output based on market conditions. • This supply boost decision comes amid volatile global crude prices and could directly impact fuel costs and inflation worldwide, particularly affecting energy-dependent economies like India.

• AI agent startup Sierra Technologies announced a $950 million funding round at a $15 billion valuation, just eight months after closing a $350 million Series A round. • Alphabet Inc.'s GV venture capital arm and Tiger Global led the investment round, joined by Benchmark, Sequoia, Greenoaks, and several other investors. • The rapid $15 billion valuation reflects investor confidence in Sierra's AI agent capabilities for enterprise applications.

• ReN3, an enterprise agentic AI work productivity platform, announced a US$5 million seed funding round to expand operations across Southeast Asia, focusing on accuracy and deployment flexibility for regional enterprises. • The funding will support ReN3's growth in the region as it positions itself as a solution for enterprise productivity automation through agentic AI technology. • The investment reflects growing venture capital interest in AI-powered enterprise solutions targeting the Southeast Asian market, where digital transformation adoption is accelerating.

• DeepInfra, a Palo Alto-based AI infrastructure company, secured $107 million in Series B funding to expand its global AI inference cloud platform. • The funding will be used to enhance the company's cloud infrastructure capabilities and support for AI model deployment across regions. • DeepInfra competes in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market alongside companies like Together AI and Replicate, addressing demand for cost-effective inference services.

• Startup TextWeave secured $10 million in seed funding last month to leverage LLMs for generating marketing copy for small shops. • The platform addresses niche needs in content creation, demonstrating how specialized AI fixes fuel startup growth. • This funding aligns with enterprise adoption trends, where generative AI tops technology startup news for tasks like automated writing.

US president says tariff on cars and lorries will rise to 25% and accuses European Union of non-complianceDonald Trump has said he is tearing up part of the tariff deal he struck with EU leaders at his golf course in Scotland last summer, criticising Brussels for taking so long to ratify the deal.Blindsiding Brussels late on May Day bank holiday on Friday, he announced that he would be increasing tariffs on cars and lorries imported into the US from the EU from 15% to 25% from next week. Continue reading...

Critics say women face unequal treatment but others say tighter controls reflect legitimate medical concernsA psychologist who was denied sterilisation on the NHS has successfully challenged the decision after taking her case to the health ombudsman, raising questions over how accessible the procedure should be.Leah Spasova spent years seeking an operation to prevent pregnancy by blocking the fallopian tubes. Many argue that barriers faced by women, from funding refusals to stricter eligibility criteria, amount to unequal treatment compared with men seeking vasectomies, and limit bodily autonomy. Continue reading...

Reform leader went public after approach from Guardian, but does his claim stack up that money was for his security?Nigel Farage was given undisclosed £5m by crypto billionaire in 2024Nigel Farage has admitted he received a personal gift of £5m from the Reform UK mega-donor Christopher Harborne shortly before the general election in 2024.He did not disclose that gift at the time. And he made no mention of it in the year since. That is, until Wednesday morning, when the Daily Telegraph published a story in which Farage admitted receiving the money from Harborne – saying it was for his personal security. Continue reading...

Leader mentions for first time lengths to which troops go to avoid falling into enemy hands while fighting for RussiaKim Jong-un has praised North Korean soldiers who blew themselves up with grenades in order to avoid capture while fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, confirming the existence of the extreme battlefield policy.Mounting evidence, including from intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors, has indicated North Korean soldiers are explicitly told to resort to self-detonation or other forms of suicide to avoid falling into enemy hands. Continue reading...

Remarks marking 250th anniversary of American independence tell US lawmakers: ‘The actions of this great nation matter’King Charles has extolled the importance of Britain’s “special relationship” with the United States in a speech to US Congress that made pointed reference to the importance of Nato, the defence of Ukraine and the climate crisis.In a speech that will be read as a veiled plea to Donald Trump to return to the United States’ traditional European alliances and restore his country’s role as a defender of liberal values, Charles said: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.” Continue reading...

Nuclear submarine mentioned in part of king’s speech that emphasised defence ties. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.Consumer price data coming out today is expected to show the sharp shock that the US-Iran war has dealt to our economy (and our wallets). Continue reading...

Motorists are forced to queue up to six hours for fuel or pay more on the black market, while farmers lack fuel to operate machinery and harvest crops.

• Blocks, an AI startup, secured $20 million in Series A funding led by Entrée Capital to develop autonomous digital workforces. • The funding will support deployment of AI agents capable of handling complex tasks independently. • This investment highlights growing VC interest in agentic AI technologies amid enterprise automation demands.

Sarah Mullally hails Leo for addressing the ‘many injustices in our world’ after private meeting with pope in RomeThe archbishop of Canterbury praised Pope Leo on Monday for speaking “powerfully about the many injustices” in the world, in an apparent reference to the pontiff becoming more outspoken in recent weeks, particularly in his criticism of the US-Israeli war on Iran.Sarah Mullally, who in March became the first woman to lead the Anglican church, arrived in Rome on Saturday for a visit aimed at reinforcing relations with the Vatican. Mullally had a private meeting with Leo, the first US-born leader of the Catholic church, at the Apostolic Palace, the pope’s official residence. Continue reading...

Musician Chris Martin, tennis star Iga Świątek and footballer Robert Lewandowski join Piotr Garkowski in epic fundraiserA Polish social media influencer has raised more than £50m after a nine-day, non-stop online stream during which he was joined by a parade of celebrity guests to help a charity supporting children battling cancer.Streaming from a studio flat in right-bank Warsaw, social media influencer Piotr Garkowski, 23, nicknamed Łatwogang, listened to a charity song dedicated to children battling cancer on loop for nine days straight, filling time with entertaining dares and celebrity appearances. Continue reading...