The unsexy layer AI agents actually need: DataBahn raises $40m to sell it
The unsexy layer AI agents actually need: DataBahn raises $40m to sell it

The glamorous part of AI is the models. The expensive, unglamorous part is getting them the right data. A startup just raised $40 million betting that job is the next big enterprise layer. DataBahn, a Texas company founded in 2023, has closed a $40 mil…

The chips that wire GPUs together are the new prize. Xsight raised $300m to sell an open one.
The chips that wire GPUs together are the new prize. Xsight raised $300m to sell an open one.

The AI boom made GPUs famous. The dull chips that wire thousands of those GPUs together are quietly becoming just as valuable. Xsight Labs, an Israeli chipmaker, has raised more than $300 million at a $2.8 billion valuation, it said on Thursday. Fideli…

Why the GTM playbook stopped working.
Why the GTM playbook stopped working.

The old SaaS GTM playbook is getting expensive and invisible. Three startups stopped optimising it and started building things buyers actually wanted. The go-to-market playbook didn’t stop working because it was wrong. It stopped working because it was…

AI is coming for the cheap seats on your favourite flight route
AI is coming for the cheap seats on your favourite flight route

The lucky dip of stumbling on a cheap seat on a popular flight is starting to disappear. Airlines are handing their pricing to artificial intelligence, and on busy routes that mostly means one thing: higher fares. Carriers have long priced seats with a…

Intel is handing its Atom chip tech to a startup run by the CEO’s longtime partner
Intel is handing its Atom chip tech to a startup run by the CEO’s longtime partner

Intel is quietly handing one of its crown jewels to a tiny, stealthy startup. And that startup is run by a longtime business partner of Intel’s own chief executive. The chipmaker is giving RosaicLabs access to its Atom processor technology, according t…

Ex-Anduril founders raise $30mn to build Europe’s synthetic battlefield for defence AI
Ex-Anduril founders raise $30mn to build Europe’s synthetic battlefield for defence AI

A London startup building the training grounds for Europe’s autonomous weapons has come out of stealth with $30mn. It is one of the region’s largest defence-tech seed rounds this year. Agon is not building the weapons themselves. It is building the inf…

Everyone hated Friend’s AI necklace, so it came back at double the price
Everyone hated Friend’s AI necklace, so it came back at double the price

The AI necklace that a chunk of New York wanted gone is back, and this time it talks. Friend, the pendant that listens to your day and pipes up with commentary, has re-launched with a speaker so it can reply out loud. It also costs twice as much. The o…

To find out what customers think, this $2bn startup asks their AI twins
To find out what customers think, this $2bn startup asks their AI twins

A startup wants companies to stop asking real people what they think, and ask fake ones instead. Simile has raised $200m at a $2bn valuation to build “agentic twins,” AI stand-ins for real consumers that firms can survey by the million. Greenoaks led t…

Scale AI hired a cloud salesman as CEO. That tells you where it’s going.
Scale AI hired a cloud salesman as CEO. That tells you where it’s going.

A year after its founder left for Meta, Scale AI has a new boss. The choice says a lot about where the company is heading. It has named Francis deSouza, a veteran enterprise-cloud executive, as chief executive. deSouza starts on 10 August, Scale announ…

Nscale owns the power and the data centres. For ~$1.65bn, it just bought the software too.
Nscale owns the power and the data centres. For ~$1.65bn, it just bought the software too.

Nscale, the London AI-cloud company that owns its own power and data centres, is buying its way up the stack. It has agreed to acquire Anyscale, the startup behind the widely used Ray software. Bloomberg reported the deal at about $1.65bn. Nscale annou…