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Bret Taylor’s AI startup Sierra raises $950M at $15.8B valuation as demand for AI agents surges

Sierra, the AI startup founded by Bret Taylor, has raised $950 million in new funding at a $15.8 billion post-money valuation, according to CNBC. The raise lands in the middle of a deal surge, as investors race to back companies […]

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Blackstone targets $1.7B IPO for data center REIT as AI infrastructure boom accelerates

Blackstone is making a fresh move in one of the hottest corners of the market: the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence. The private equity giant is taking a newly formed investment vehicle public, aiming to raise just over $1.7 billion in […]

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Enzo Health raises $20M Series A to scale AI-powered platform for booming home health market

Enzo Health is betting that the future of care doesn’t sit inside a hospitalβ€”it starts at home. The AI startup has raised a $20 million Series A round led by N47, bringing its total funding to $26 million, at a […]

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SAP acquires Prior Labs in €1B to build next-gen AI for business data

SAP is making a bold call on where enterprise AI is headedβ€”and it’s not betting on chatbots. The German software giant has agreed to acquire Prior Labs, a young startup focused on a niche many in AI have overlooked: structured […]

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Elon Musk admits xAI distilled OpenAI models as trial reveals last-minute settlement push

The courtroom battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman is starting to pull back the curtain on how AI models are actually builtβ€”and the latest revelation could have far-reaching consequences. During testimony this week, Musk acknowledged that his startup xAI […]

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AI chip startup Cerebras targets $3.5B IPO on Nasdaq as AI race heats up, eyes $26.6B valuation

Cerebras is aiming to raise up to $3.5 billion in a Nasdaq listing, according to an updated prospectus filed Mondayβ€”a move first reported by CNBC. The company plans to sell 28 million shares priced between $115 and $125. At the […]

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US Navy signs deal with AI firm for training underwater drones to detect mines in Strait of Hormuz β€” $100 million would allow drone minesweepers to update their detection algorithms in days instead of months

The U.S. Navy just signed a $99.7 million deal with Domino Data Lab to build software to monitor other AI mine detection systems, identify failures, and push corrections in the field.

AI agent forms its own U.S. company, gets EIN in first-of-its-kind breakthrough

An AI agent has crossed a line that, until now, belonged strictly to humans. It didn’t just write code or automate tasks. It formed a company. ClawBank, a project focused on building infrastructure for autonomous software, says its in-house agent, […]

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Pentagon signs AI deals with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon for classified networks, leaves out Anthropic

The Pentagon is opening its doors wider to artificial intelligenceβ€”and closing one, at least for now. On Friday, the Department of Defense said it has reached agreements with a group of major AI providers to bring their tools into its […]

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KKR launches $10B AI infrastructure startup Helix, taps ex-AWS CEO Adam Selipsky to lead

KKR is making a $10 billion bet that the real bottleneck in artificial intelligence isn’t models or chips. It’s everything around them. The private equity giant has launched Helix Digital Infrastructure, a new standalone company built to supply the physical […]

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Top Startup and Tech Funding News – April 30, 2025

It’s Thursday, April 30, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s rounds highlight a clear shift toward AI infrastructure, autonomous systems, energy technology, and real-world deployment layers. From customer service automation to legal AI, […]

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Huawei could seize China’s AI chip crown in 2026 as Nvidia's H200 shipments stall in regulatory limbo β€” Beijing pushes homegrown AI hardware dominance in a market projected to hit $67 billion by 2030

Huawei is reportedly on track to become China’s top AI chip supplier as Nvidia faces export restrictions and customs delays. Analysts forecast China’s domestic AI chip market could hit $67 billion by 2030.

Blue Owl sells half its SpaceX stake at $1.25 trillion valuation for 10x return, co-CEO says

Blue Owl is cashing in on one of its most lucrative bets.Β The alternative asset manager has sold roughly half of its stake in SpaceX at a $1.25 trillion valuation, turning an early investment into a 10x return. The update came […]

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Nvidia invests in AI legal startup Legora at $5.6B valuation, deepening push into agentic AI

Nvidia is tightening its grip on the next wave of AI by backing a fast-rising legal tech startup now valued in the billions.Β The chip giant’s venture arm, NVentures, has backed Swedish startup Legora at a $5.6 billion valuation, according to […]

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Talent over tokens: AI models are becoming more expensive to run, and productivity gains are limited β€” efficient workers might be the solution to strained budgets

Major firms are finding the rising costs of AI hard to manage, as human workers are now often more affordable alternatives to AI within certain contexts. With many platforms switching to per-token billing and rising model costs, we may be reaching an inflection point where human workers are a more efficient way to spend.

Exploding number of AI data center build-outs delay Texas housing projects β€” data centers' high demand for electricians prices out contractors, homes now take two months longer to complete

Housing construction projects in Texas are facing delays of up to two months as contractors are having a harder time finding and keeping electricians. Data center projects are pricing out housing projects from the labor force as they offer 75% higher salaries and more benefits.

OpenAI has effectively abandoned first-party Stargate data centers in favor of more flexible deals β€” company now prefers to lease compute and says Stargate is an umbrella term

OpenAI has reportedly modified its arrangement on several Stargate projects, leaving the direct ownership set up and instead preferring to lease compute from other partners who took on the direct risk of investing in the infrastructure.

Nvidia exec says AI is more expensive than actual workers β€” yet some companies don't see the extra costs as a negative

As advanced LLMs do more and more for modern businesses, the outlays to cover all those tokens can cost more than worker salaries alone. But some companies don't see the added costs as a negative as they look toward a more automated future.

Zuckerberg's Meta will beam sunlight from space to power AI data centers, solar-collecting satellites will orbit 22,000 miles above Earth β€” firm reserves 1 Gigawatt of orbital solar energy and 100 Gigawatt-hours of long-duration storage

Meta has announced plans to help power its AI data centers using sunlight beamed from space through a partnership with Overview Energy, alongside a 100 GWh long-duration storage deal with Noon Energy, as the AI industry’s energy demands continue to surge.

Market slumps as OpenAI reportedly misses internal targets for active users and revenue β€” Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, and CoreWeave shares all tremble on the news

Nvidia, Oracle, SoftBank, and CoreWeave saw their stock prices go down because of news that OpenAI has been missing its internal targets. SoftBank stock lost 9.9% of its value on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nvidia, AMD, Oracle, and CoreWeave also dropped during pre-market trading and remain down after the market opened.

OpenAI and Microsoft's alliance fractures as cloud exclusivity deal ends β€” Azure's single-provider monopoly for ChatGPT is officially over

Microsoft and OpenAI have announced a restructuring of their relationship. No longer will Microsoft pay OpenAI a revenue share, but it will continue to flow the other way. Microsoft will also retain model access and a first-refusal for its Azure server services, but OpenAI will be able to work with other CSPs.

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