Valuation

• 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.

• Si riferisce che Tencent parteciperà a un round di finanziamento da 4 miliardi di dollari per la startup cinese di AI DeepSeek, che valuterebbe l'azienda a circa 50 miliardi di dollari e segnerebbe il suo primo finanziamento esterno. • Il rapporto indica che il round aggiungerebbe nuovo capitale a uno dei developer di modelli AI più osservati in Cina, con Tencent e altri grandi investitori tra i sostenitori. • L'operazione è rilevante poiché DeepSeek è diventata un rivale chiave nella rapida corsa all'AI in Cina, e una valutazione di diversi miliardi di dollari sottolineerebbe la continua appetibilità degli investitori per le startup di modelli di frontiera.

• La startup di operazioni di sicurezza agentica Exaforce ha annunciato un round di finanziamento Serie B da 125 milioni di dollari a una valutazione dichiarata di 725 milioni di dollari, segnando uno dei round più consistenti nel mercato emergente dei centri di operazioni di sicurezza basati su AI. • Il round è stato sostenuto da HarbourVest Partners, Peak XV Partners, Mayfield Fund, Khosla Ventures, Seligman Ventures e AICONIC; Exaforce ha ora raccolto un totale di 200 milioni di dollari in seguito a una Serie A da 75 milioni di dollari avvenuta poco più di un anno fa. • Il finanziamento servirà a scalare la piattaforma di operazioni di sicurezza guidata dall'AI di Exaforce e ad ampliare le sue capacità di ragionamento sulle minacce in tempo reale, riflettendo la crescente domanda aziendale di soluzioni di sicurezza autonome.

• The Business Times riporta che l'entusiasmo per l'IA ha spinto i mercati al rialzo, con guadagni concentrati in una manciata di aziende tecnologiche a mega-capitalizzazione, mentre gli utili corporate più ampi rimangono indietro rispetto alle valutazioni in forte ascesa. • Hong Kong è emersa come una piattaforma di lancio per le startup di IA, raggiungendo nel primo trimestre del 2026 il massimo di raccolta fondi degli ultimi cinque anni, parallelamente a un aumento dei finanziamenti VC/PE cinesi che hanno superato i 400 miliardi di yuan (59 miliardi di dollari USA). • L'indice ChiNext ha raggiunto il 23 aprile il massimo intraday di 11 anni a 3.785,23, alimentato da fondi che hanno investito in titoli di comunicazione ottica come Zhongji Innolight ed Eoptolink, scommettendo sulla domanda di infrastrutture IA negli Stati Uniti.

• Sierra, una startup specializzata nell'esperienza cliente basata sull'AI, ha ottenuto 950 milioni di dollari in un round di finanziamento Serie E guidato da Tiger Global e Google Ventures l'8 maggio 2026, raggiungendo una valutazione superiore ai 15 miliardi di dollari. • Il round evidenzia la forza delle aziende di AI verticale ad alta crescita, in un contesto di domanda crescente per soluzioni di agentic AI in ambito aziendale. • Questo successo nel finanziamento sottolinea la fiducia degli investitori nelle applicazioni di AI specializzate, posizionando Sierra come leader nell'automazione delle interazioni con i clienti.

• 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.

• Google, Microsoft, and xAI joined OpenAI and Anthropic in providing the US Commerce Department pre-release access to evaluate their AI models, creating the first voluntary oversight mechanism for all five major frontier AI labs. • The Commerce Department announced the expansion on Tuesday, establishing a framework with no statutory authority and fewer than 200 staff members to address national security concerns before public model releases. • The Mythos crisis forced the US government to confront the absence of formal mechanisms to evaluate powerful AI models that could threaten national security before public deployment.

• Anthropic's valuation skyrocketed from $61B to $900B in approximately 14 months, reflecting unprecedented investor interest in the AI company's capabilities and growth trajectory. • The valuation surge is driven by strong revenue performance and investor confidence in Anthropic's AI models and research, positioning it as a formidable competitor to OpenAI in the generative AI market. • The rapid ascent demonstrates the intensifying capital competition in frontier AI development, with major investors backing multiple AI startups to hedge bets on the technology's transformative potential.

• Berkshire Hathaway's cash and equivalents surged to $168 billion at the end of Q1 2026, its highest level in over a decade, as Warren Buffett continued to reduce equity holdings amid concerns over elevated asset valuations. • The conglomerate reduced its Apple stake by 8% during the quarter and trimmed Bank of America holdings further, citing a lack of compelling investment opportunities in current market conditions. • Investment income from fixed-income holdings generated $3.2 billion in the first quarter alone, demonstrating how Berkshire's massive cash reserve is now earning meaningful returns in a higher-rate environment.

• Port, an AI startup in cybersecurity, raised $100 million in its third funding round led by General Atlantic, achieving an $800 million valuation. • The funding supports expansion in cloud infrastructure protection technologies. • This round reflects investor confidence in AI-driven defenses against evolving cyber threats in the US market.

• Silicon Valley-based Resolve AI secured $40M in Series A extension funding, boosting its valuation to $1.5B to establish Resolve AI Labs focused on AI models optimized for production environments. • The funding supports development of reliable AI systems tailored for enterprise-scale deployment in US tech sectors. • This round highlights investor confidence in Resolve AI's infrastructure for bridging research-to-production AI gaps amid booming demand.

Bets placed on Middle East conflict has led to US firm experiencing big increase in volumePolymarket, the online prediction platform that hosts bets on events such as the Iran war, is in talks to raise $400m (£296m) at a valuation of up to $15bn.The company has gained notoriety in recent months over wagers placed on the Middle East conflict, including on the timing of US-Israel strikes against Iran, and on a US-Iran ceasefire, some of which appeared to bear signs of insider trading. Continue reading...

• Elon Musk's xAI announced a $6 billion Series C funding round on April 19, 2026, led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the startup at $24 billion post-money. • Funds will expand the Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, to 300,000 Nvidia GPUs for Grok AI training. • Investment accelerates US AI infrastructure race, countering China's advances and supporting domestic chip production.

• 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.

• 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.

• Satark AI, an India-based cybersecurity startup, raised pre-seed funding at a $4 million valuation to develop an AI-driven decision layer for reducing security alert noise. • The startup focuses on a critical enterprise security challenge: alert fatigue from excessive false positives that can slow incident response and waste analyst resources. • Satark AI's funding demonstrates investor confidence in AI-powered solutions targeting operational efficiency within security operations centers across global enterprises.

• Factory, a three-year-old startup, raised $150 million led by Khosla Ventures, achieving a $1.5 billion valuation on April 17, 2026. • The funding targets AI coding tools that automate software development for enterprises, freeing developers for complex tasks. • This round reflects booming investor interest in AI automation amid US tech sector's push for efficiency.

• Business banking startup Slash Financial announced $100 million in Series C funding at a $1.4 billion valuation, led by Ribbit Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Goodwater Capital. • The funds will accelerate development of its AI-driven back office for small and midsized online businesses. • Founded in 2020, Slash provides an autonomous finance platform, positioning it as a key player in fintech automation.

Adult video platform to sell minority stake to increase stability after death of its founder Leonid RadvinskyBusiness live – latest updatesOnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian. Continue reading...

• 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.'

• OpenAI reached an $852 billion valuation and launched the ChatGPT super app on April 4, 2026, integrating chat, coding, search, and AI agents into a unified platform. • The app serves 900 million weekly users, positioning it as a comprehensive AI workspace for enterprise and personal use. • This launch intensifies competition in multimodal AI tools amid surging demand for integrated platforms.

• SpaceX confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Wednesday, April 2, 2026, signaling major movement toward going public. • The aerospace company is targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation in the IPO, reflecting investor confidence in the commercial space sector. • The filing comes as Elon Musk's companies face increased market scrutiny, with analyst focus expected to intensify on SpaceX developments.

• US defense AI startup Shield AI raised $1.5 billion in Series G funding, valuing it at $12.7 billion post-money, a 140% increase from prior rounds. • The investment supports scaling autonomous drones via Hivemind AI pilot software, following a US Air Force contract and acquisition of simulation firm Aechelon. • With projected $540 million revenue this year, Shield AI leads in military AI, enhancing US drone capabilities against global threats.

• OpenAI secured $122 billion in funding, achieving an $852 billion valuation while advancing toward an AI superapp. • The massive round fuels rapid growth and preparations for a potential IPO in the US market. • This positions OpenAI as a dominant force in AI innovation, attracting top talent and resources.

• Shield AI, a San Diego-based defense tech firm, raised new funding that more than doubled its valuation to $12.7 billion on March 27, 2026. • The company projects revenue exceeding $540 million this year, driven by its Hivemind autonomy software used in drones and fighter-jet programs. • This funding underscores growing investor confidence in AI-powered military autonomy amid rising defense tech demand in the US.

• Oracle reported earnings that exceeded expectations, lifting its stock price, while Adobe continues to face investor skepticism over its AI strategy and competitive positioning amid broader tech sector repricing. • Morningstar downgraded Adobe's economic moat rating alongside Salesforce and ServiceNow, citing concerns that AI disruption could erode traditional software competitive advantages and justify lower valuation multiples. • The broader earnings season reveals a disconnect between traditional valuation metrics and AI disruption risks, prompting investors to reassess which software companies can sustain pricing power and market share in an AI-transformed landscape.