Tootfinder

AI infrastructure startup Modal raised a $750M Series D led by Accel at a $15.75B post-money valuation, taking its total funding to $1.2B, and passes $1B ARR (Chris Metinko/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-deals/2026/10/14/moda…

Exclusive: Modal raises $750M and passes $1B in ARR
Modal may look to acquisitions to help grow.

eMarketer: chatbots like ChatGPT and Google AI Mode will generate less than $1B in ad revenue in 2026; OpenAI projected $2.5B in ChatGPT ad revenue this year (Trishla Ostwal/Adweek)
https://www.adweek.com/media/openais-ad-business-is-o…

OpenAI’s Ad Business Is on Pace to Miss Its Own Forecast By 90%, Analyst Says
OpenAI is projecting $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030. Emarketer puts the ceiling for the entire chatbot ad market at just $5.41 billion. 

Sundar Pichai says Gemini has hit 1B MAUs, the company's fastest-growing product ever and its 14th product to hit the 1B-user mark (Sundar Pichai/@sundarpichai)
https://x.com/sundarpichai/status/2087222656819241292

Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) on X
1B+ people are now using @Geminiapp every month to spark new ideas and get things done. It’s our fastest growing product ever, and our 14th to hit the 1B-user mark. Kudos to @JoshWoodward & the entire Gemini team, and thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with us -

CNN plans to launch a digital subscription in the UK and Canada, for £4.99 and CA$7.99 per month, on October 20, as it seeks $1B in subscription revenue by 2030 (Anna Nicolaou/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/1e190204-ebe8-48d7-936e-72835fc49742

AI startup Reflection says it has signed a $1B deal to secure computing capacity from Nebius, including access to Nvidia chips, following a deal with SpaceX (Aditya Soni/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/ai-startup-r…

Sources: former Google exec Jeff Dean is in talks for $1B in funding at a ~$10B valuation for his new science and engineering-focused AI startup, Discovery Loop (Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/former-google-exec-jeff-dean-va…

Former Google exec has been in talks for a $10 billion valuation for AI startup
The legendary Google engineer has been in discussions for a $1 billion funding round in his new AI startup, Discovery Loop.

The ignorant racist bigotry of #Vance shows up over and over. These arrogant imbiciles are enamored with DEI fires. This does not protect foreign born workers from exploitation, and does not create massive job opportunities for US workers. It will encourage the development of overseas software development sites.
Microsoft suspended from applying for green cards for H-1B workers, JD Vance says…

Microsoft suspended from applying for green cards for H-1B workers, JD Vance says
Vice-president also says Adobe is barred from visa program that allows high-skilled workers to apply for US residency

The ignorant racist bigotry of #Vance shows up over and over. These arrogant imbiciles are enamored with DEI fires. This does not protect foreign born workers from exploitation, and does not create massive job opportunities for US workers. It will encourage the development of overseas software development sites.
Microsoft suspended from applying for green cards for H-1B workers, JD Vance says…

Microsoft suspended from applying for green cards for H-1B workers, JD Vance says
Vice-president also says Adobe is barred from visa program that allows high-skilled workers to apply for US residency

Sources: Bumble is in advanced talks to be taken private at a ~$1B valuation; the buyer is Ithaca Holdings, a firm founded recently by two Silicon Valley execs (Cara Lombardo/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/dating-

Second judge blocks Trump's $100,000 fee for new H-1B worker visas
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/second-judge-blocks-trumps-100000-fee-new-h-1b-worker-visas-2026-10-01/

JD.com reports Q2 revenue down 2.9% YoY to ~$51.4B and net income of ~$1.1B, above ~$964M est., driven by JD Retail profitability and narrowing food losses (Luz Ding/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-13…

eMarketer: chatbots like ChatGPT and Google AI Mode will generate less than $1B in ad revenue in 2026; OpenAI projected $2.5B in ChatGPT ad revenue this year (Trishla Ostwal/Adweek)
https://www.adweek.com/media/openais-ad-business-is-o…

OpenAI’s Ad Business Is on Pace to Miss Its Own Forecast By 90%, Analyst Says
OpenAI is projecting $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030. Emarketer puts the ceiling for the entire chatbot ad market at just $5.41 billion. 

Similarweb data on the 50 biggest English-language news websites: the BBC reached 1B site visits for the first time in 18 months in July, up 11% YoY and 1% MoM (Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-…

Top 50 English-language news sites in the world: BBC hits one billion visits
Press Gazette lists the top 50 most popular news websites in the world. Monthly updated top 50 listing based on data provided by SimilarWeb.

ASML reports Q3 net sales of €11.66B, vs. €11.72B est., a €4.96B net profit, vs. €4.1B est., and raises its 2026 net sales forecast from €43B-€44B to €44B-€45B (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/14/asml-3q-earnings-ai-demand-orders-capacity.html…

ASML says it's getting order interest through 2030 as profit smashes expectations
ASML said some customers are "expressing an interest" in placing orders with the company in 2029 and 2030, giving investors a view into longer-term demand.

Sources: AI coding startup Cognition is in early talks with investors to raise $1B at a $40B valuation, after raising $1B at a $26B valuation in May (Rebecca Torrence/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08…

Check out today's packed Metacurity for an intense string of consequential infosec developments you should know, including
--FBI uproots over 40 of North Korea’s US laptop farms,
--OpenAI engineer charged with bugging executive conference room,
--Microsoft and partners disrupt phishing network behind 1B malicious messages,
--28 arrested in West African scam crackdown,
--Meta GitHub breach exposes personal data of 1.5k people,
--Microsoft patches record 1.4k flaws and one exploited zero-day,
--Researchers catch Tencent AI agents bypassing web defenses,
--More Ledger wallet implants surface after $102m crypto theft,
--France arrests three teens over stolen-data marketplaces,
--GitLab urges emergency patch for maximum-severity flaw,
--Ivanti warns of exploited VPN zero-day,
--Cyber incident disrupts UK housing watchdog’s complaint system,
--FTC says sextortion help firm fleeced victims of $60m,
--North Korean hackers target Ukrainian policy experts,
--OpenAI reportedly eyes Trail of Bits acquisition,
--XBow uses GPT-5.6 to uncover Chrome flaws and earn $250k bounty,
--One in five UK cyber leaders takes time off to dodge Patch Tuesday stress,
--Ukraine reports Starlink restrictions disrupting military missions,
--Meta defends AI companion’s smut as “legal adult behavior"
https://www.metacurity.com/fbi-uproots-over-40-of-north-koreas-us-laptop-farms/

US-Israeli startup Buildots, which uses AI to speed up construction of mega-projects like data centers and chip factories, raised $130M at a near-$1B valuation (Marissa Newman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

RTL reports H1 revenue up 4% YoY to €2.9B and raises its FY revenue forecast to between €7.1B and €7.2B, accounting for the June acquisition of Sky Deutschland (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/broadcaster-rtl-group-raises-2026-revenue…

Found some of my old (and first) teenage years cameras and other photo equipment on the DDR Museum website. Artifacts from a truly different life... Some of these were already 15-25 years old when I first used them in the '80s...
More items/objects here:
https://www.ddr-museum.de/de/objects/filte

Indian Govt: Vance Calling Immigrants On H-1B Visas "Foreign Indentured Servants" Is "Deeply Offensive" - Joe.My.God.
https://www.joemygod.com/2026/10/indian-govt-vance-calling-immigrants-on-h-1b-visas-foreign-indentured-servants-is-deeply-offensive/

Nvidia commits $1B over five years to build out the US' "capacity for super intelligence research" in fields including quantum computing, healthcare, and energy (Tobias Mann/The Register)
https://www.theregister.com/hpc…

Nvidia found $1B under the couch to help secure American scientific computing dominance
Commitment comes as GPUzilla prepares to fortify Uncle Sam's arsenal with at least seven AI-optimized supers

A history of MapQuest.
The middle of the article mentions HERE Technologies, which was formed from what was formerly Navteq (mapping) and Nokia Maps. Navteq had a successful map production center in Fargo, where a number of my former students, and other folks I know, worked before HERE closed it down.
https://

Who Owns MapQuest? System1, AOL History Ownership (2026)
Who owns MapQuest in 2026? MapQuest is owned by System1 Inc. (NYSE: SST) since 2019. Learn about the $1.1B AOL deal, Verizon's ownership, and how the internet's first map became what it is today.

Hollywood is having its best year since 2019, with global ticket sales up 15% YoY in the first seven months and five movies crossing $1B in revenue (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2026-hollywood-movies-are-back/

Super Micro reports Q4 revenue up 93% YoY to $11.1B, vs. $11.3B est., and forecasts Q1 and FY 2027 revenue above estimates; SMCI jumps 9% after hours (Dina Bass/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-11/su…

Sources: David Sacks' Craft Ventures is targeting around $1B for a new fund, its first since Sacks stepped down as the White House AI and crypto czar (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/sacks-craft-targets-1-b…

Sacks’ Craft Targets $1 Billion in First Fund Since White House Stint
Craft Ventures, the VC firm helmed by former White House AI czar David Sacks, is raising its first fund since Sacks stepped away from the Trump Administration role earlier this year, according to a securities filing and two people with knowledge of the effort. The firm is targeting around $1 ...

Sources: Jeff Dean is raising funds again for Discovery Loop, seeking a valuation of ~$50B; Discovery Loop was raising $1B at a ~$10B valuation a few weeks ago (Ben Bergman/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-deans-startup-dis…

Jeff Dean's startup Discovery Loop is eyeing a $50 billion valuation
Jeff Dean, former Google chief scientist, is raising another round of funding at a valuation of around $50 billion.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey grosses $1.1B worldwide, making it his highest-grossing film, and becomes Imax's highest-grossing release of all time with $289M (Rebecca Rubin/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/box-offi…

'The Odyssey' Is Christopher Nolan's Biggest Movie Ever
"The Odyssey" has become Christopher Nolan's biggest movie ever as well as Imax's highest-grossing release of all time.

Amazon partners with OpenAI to let users of Amazon's DSP run ads in ChatGPT in a pilot program limited to the US; ChatGPT Ads hit $1B in ARR last month (Peter Adams/Marketing Dive)
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/amazon-pilot…

Amazon pilots ad services in ChatGPT: What marketers need to know
The managed service offering, which is in a U.S. pilot and available via Amazon DSP, comes as ChatGPT Ads recently hit a revenue milestone.

AI sales and marketing startup Clay raised $115M led by Wellington Management at a $7.1B valuation, up from $3.1B when it raised $100M in August 2025 (Michael J. de la Merced/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/business/dealbook/clay-ai-fundraisin…

Clay, an A.I. Sales Tool Provider, Raises $115 Million
The round was led by Wellington Management, a firm known for investing in start-ups on the path toward potential initial public offerings.

Sources: Anthropic agreed to a 20-year, $9.1B compute deal with Riot Platforms for 191 MW of capacity at a Rockdale, TX campus; RIOT jumps ~25% after hours (Shirin Ghaffary/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin's River AI raised $1B led by General Catalyst to build home or small business computer servers capable of running AI locally (Cade Metz/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/technol

His Start-Up’s Goal: A.I. That Is Trainable and Not Controlled by a Big Company
A co-founder of xAI is going all in on building open-source artificial intelligence so that “anyone can control and shape A.I. for their own needs.”

With the addition of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, four movies in 2026 have earned $1B at the box office globally, the most in one year since the Covid pandemic (Sarah Whitten/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/05/hollywood-2026-billion-dollar-movies.html

Amazon plans to spend $1B over five years for infrastructure upgrades and other projects in US communities that host its data centers, amid a growing backlash (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-pledg

Amazon pledges $1B to data center communities, warns that local opposition threatens U.S. AI lead
Amazon says it will spend more than $1 billion over five years on community college, job training and other programs in the U.S. communities that host its data centers. The move responds to a growing backlash that AWS CEO Matt Garman says threatens the country's lead in AI.

a16z creates a $1.1B Machine Age fund focusing on hardware to "open the throttle and accelerate the physical buildout of AI" (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/28/a16z-creates-a-1-1b-machine-…

a16z creates a $1.1B 'Machine Age' fund to 'accelerate the physical buildout of AI' | TechCrunch
The firm, known for its focus on software, is going to start throwing more money at the hardware behind AI.

Scripps reports Q2 revenue of $490M and a net loss of $1.2B, mostly due to a $1.1B impairment charge tied to ad weakness and ratings challenges; SSP rose 12.5% (TVNewsCheck)
https://tvnewscheck.com/business/artic

Rentrak: US summer 2026 box office revenue hit a record $4.76B, beating 2013's record, with each of the four months topping $1B for the first time (Anthony D'Alessandro/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/09/box-office-summer-2026-record-1237068355/

Summer U.S. Box Office Hits All-Time $4.76B Record: How Audiences Surrendered To Moviegoing
Summer 2026 hit an all-time record at the domestic box office with $4.76 billion. How did it happen?

Meta says Muse Glimmer has 30B parameters and is "small enough" to need only one GPU; Meta plans a $1B fund to invest in US communities near its data centers (Vlad Savov/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

TAR, which builds off-grid power systems for data centers, raised a $120M Series A led by Spark Capital at a ~$1B valuation (Mark Chediak/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-10/anthropic-investor-leads-f…

Amazon partners with OpenAI to let users of Amazon's DSP run ads in ChatGPT in a pilot program limited to the US; ChatGPT Ads hit $1B in ARR last month (Peter Adams/Marketing Dive)
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/amazon-pilot…

Tubi CEO Anjali Sud says the streaming service has 110M MAUs, reached $1B in annual revenue, and its time watched is "growing even faster" than its audience (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Tubi Hits 110 Million Monthly Users as Fox Streamer Delivers Highest Revenue Quarter Yet (Exclusive)
Tubi's CEO Anjali Sud tells THR that the Fox-owned streamer has no plan to slow down.

Source: Paramount and the NFL have paused negotiations over a potential increase of 50% on CBS's $2.1B/year deal amid legal challenges to its WBD acquisition (Hannah Miller/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20…

Sources: Ramp is in early talks to raise about $1B at a ~$60B valuation, up from $44B in June; Ramp has raised $3B to date (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-08/ramp-in-talks-for-new-funding-at-60-billion-valua…

Over 10 US states have rolled back tech giants' tax breaks, which top $1B/year in some states, as many others propose similar bills amid a data center backlash (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.

Microsoft denies JD Vance's claim it replaced thousands of US workers with foreign workers last year, saying most H-1B applications were for existing employees (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/h1b-visa-program-vance-microsoft-e7b3…

Sources: Index Ventures dropped plans to invest in AI assistant Town after Instinct, which Index is backing, complained about a potential conflict of interest (Alex Konrad/Upstarts Media)
https://www.upstartsmedia.com/p/scoop-town-fundraise-vc-reshuffle

Scoop: Conflict With Instinct Knocks Index Out Of Town’s Raise At $1B
Exclusive details on Town’s new $90M fundraise at a $1B valuation, and the eleventh-hour cap table reshuffling behind it, per Upstarts sources.

Satya Nadella and Michael Dell were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by the White House during an appearance alongside other tech leaders (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/20

Trump honors Microsoft’s CEO after Vance drops an H-1B visa hammer on the company
President Donald Trump celebrated tech billionaires such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at an event with arguably awkward timing

Samsung reports preliminary Q3 operating profit up 782% YoY to ~$80.1B, vs. ~$81.2B est., and revenue up 127% to ~$145.7B, lower than expected (Yoolim Lee/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-07/samsung-reac…

Arena, which develops the popular AI model leaderboard, raised $200M at a $3.1B valuation, up from $1.7B in January, and launches an Alignment Index (Rachel Metz/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-08/ai-mod…

Sources: Nvidia agrees to invest $2B in Lancium, the power infrastructure developer of the Stargate campus in Texas, plus $1B more if it hits certain thresholds (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-inves…

Nvidia to Invest Up to $3 Billion in Blackstone-Backed Power Firm Behind Stargate
Nvidia has agreed to invest $2 billion into Lancium, the power infrastructure developer behind the OpenAI and Oracle AI campus in Texas, and has agreed to commit another $1 billion as the developer secures additional planned power, three people familiar with the transaction said. The deal values ...

Amelia Dimoldenberg says she plans to end her YouTube series Chicken Shop Date after its upcoming season; launched in 2014, the series hit 1B views in 2024 (Lily Ford/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Amelia Dimoldenberg Is Bringing ‘Chicken Shop Date’ to an End
The beloved YouTube series, in which the British presenter awkwardly interviews A-listers across film, TV, music and sport, will wrap up with its upcoming season.

North American startup funding hit $92B in Q3, down 35% QoQ but up 50% YoY, with $61B to AI startups; there were 11 $1B acquisitions and IPOs remained quiet (Joanna Glasner/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/q3-2026-north-amer…

North America’s Startup Funding Falls In Q3 As AI Giants Eye The Public Markets
In total, investors poured $92 billion into seed- through growth-stage rounds for U.S. and Canadian startups in the third quarter, per Crunchbase data. That’s a 35% decline from the prior quarter but up 50% from year-ago levels.

A profile of DDN, a managed data storage company whose annual revenue is expected to grow from $300M pre-AI boom to $1B by year's end, fueled by AI partnerships (Iain Martin/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/20

AI's Latest Rocket Ship Is An Old School, 28-Year-Old Data Company
For nearly three decades, Alex Bouzari ran a data storage stalwart for research labs at the likes of NASA. Now the AI boom has transformed his workhorse into a juggernaut, with sales on track to reach ten figures—and made him a billionaire.

Thatch, a healthcare plan marketplace where employers set a fixed budget that employees can use for individual plans, raised a $108M Series C at a $1B valuation (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/15/heal…

Health benefits platform Thatch reaches $1B valuation as healthcare costs surge | TechCrunch
The five-year-old startup raised $108 million from The General Partnership, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz.

OpenAI says its advertising business has hit $1B in annualized revenue run rate, touting its "diversified business model" ahead of an expected IPO (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/31/open-ai-chatgpt-ads-revenue.html

Filing: Microsoft recorded $24.1B in revenue from OpenAI during the year ended in June, suggesting OpenAI accounted for more than half of Microsoft's AI sales (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-05/m…

PitchBook: AI voice startups raised $7B in Q1 '26, vs. $1B in Q1 '25, as OpenAI and Google bet on voice as the main interface for a new generation of AI agents (Cristina Criddle/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/b7d917d4-9304-4dfe-99bd-db19fafd5238

Sources: Kuaishou's Kling selects banks to lead a Hong Kong IPO aiming to raise $1B as early as 2027; Kling hit a $15B valuation after raising $2.8B in July (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-06/…

SignSplit, which offers infrastructure to let people digitally sign datasets, likenesses, and creative works, raised $400M from W Group at a $1B valuation (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)
https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/05/si

Signed data pioneer SignSplit launches with $400M to help everyone get paid for their AI contributions - SiliconANGLE
Signed data pioneer SignSplit launches with $400M to help everyone get paid for their AI contributions - SiliconANGLE

Adobe says it hit 1B MAUs, with freemium MAUs surpassing 100M in Q3, up 70% YoY, as it increasingly focuses on expanding its freemium AI offerings (Elias Schisgall/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/earnings/adob

Munich-based RobCo, which makes robotic arms and automation software, sells $40M of shares at a $1B valuation, up from ~$500M after raising $100M in January (Ben Dummett/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/robotics-startup-

Dubai-based vehicle fleet management startup Moove raised $250M led by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala at a $2.1B valuation to build autonomous vehicle "nests" for docking (Loni Prinsloo/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Sources: Moonshot AI told investors it topped $1B ARR in August, up from $300M in June, driven by its Kimi K3 release; it aims to hit $2B ARR by the end of 2026 (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-11/ch…

Source: AI assistant Instinct is looking to raise $1B in new funding after recently raising $250M, as it seeks more computing power amid capacity constraints (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/personal-ai-app-insti…

A profile of livestream shopping app Whatnot, which added 20M accounts in 2025, facilitated the sale of ~$8B in goods, and is set for $1B in revenue in 2026 (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/whatno

OpenAI commits $1B in subsidized model access, training, support, and partnerships to a new initiative aimed at protecting essential services around the world (Sam Sabin/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/03/openai-critical-infrastructure-cyber-ai-models

OpenAI launches plan to protect critical infrastructure from AI cyberattacks
The move comes as the AI lab releases its most powerful model to date.

Sources: PayPal has paused plans to sell its VC portfolio for $900M-$1B after bids came in lower than hoped, months after deciding to wind down PayPal Ventures (Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/all-deals/2026/09/03/paypal-pause-venture-portfolio-sale…

Scoop: PayPal pauses venture portfolio sale process
Bids came in lower than expected.

Sources: Polymarket is in early talks with prospective investors to raise ~$1B at a $20B valuation, up from $15B in April 2026 and $9B in October 2025 (Todd Gillespie/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

Obsidian Security, which helps companies secure AI agents, raised an $85M Series D at a $1.1B valuation, after raising a $90M Series C in April 2022 (Akash Sriram/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/obsidian-secu…

Q&A with Jensen Huang and Clément Delangue on the Nvidia-Hugging Face deal, scaling open-source models, the rumored $1B talent retention plan, and more (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/0…

CNBC Exclusive: Transcript: Nvidia Founder & CEO Jensen Huang and Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue Speak with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box” Today

Industry group TechNet files a comment with the US DHS urging the White House to withdraw its proposal to charge $103,265 for most new H-1B visa applications (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/poli…

Filing: Alphabet holds $94.1B in SpaceX equity post-IPO; $80B are under short-term sale restrictions, while $14.1B remain long-term restricted until Q3 2027 (Sarah Frier/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-2…

The Trump administration proposes a new $103,265 fee on H-1B applicants hired within the US after a court blocked a fee on workers from outside the country (Andrew Kreighbaum/Bloomberg)

Valar, which is making small modular nuclear reactors to power data centers, raised a $1B Series B led by Sequoia at a $6B post-money valuation (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-03/sequoia-leads-1-bi…

London-based AI chip startup Olix raised $312M led by Fundomo, with participation from Arm, at a $3.3B valuation, up from $1B after raising $220M in February (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/7a8c03c7-1c33-4ba7-a768-a75fa1db9f36

Israeli startup Guardio, which offers a subscription consumer security service to protect digital accounts like emails, raised $40M at a $1.1B valuation (Marissa Newman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-0…

Sources: Polymarket will raise $1B led by 1789 Capital at a $21B post-money valuation; Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 and adviser to Polymarket (Amanda L. Gordon/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-0…

OpenAI says its models now have more than 1B active users and are used by more than 2M businesses (Katherine Hamilton/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-surpasses-one-billion-use…

OpenAI says its advertising business has hit $1B in annualized revenue run rate, touting its "diversified business model" ahead of an expected IPO (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/31/open-ai-chatgpt-ads-revenue.html

OpenAI's ad business shows blistering growth, hits $1 billion annualized revenue run rate
OpenAI's move to serve ads in ChatGPT earlier this year drew ridicule from its chief rival, Anthropic, in the form of a Super Bowl commercial.

Apple CFO Kevan Parekh says Services surpassed 1.5B paid subscriptions, up from 1B in January 2025, but a gaming slowdown and App Store changes hurt growth (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/apple-says-gaming-sl…

Apple says gaming slowdown and App Store changes hurt services growth | TechCrunch
Apple said a slowdown in mobile gaming and changes to the App Store’s business model — including court-ordered payment rule changes in the U.S. — weighed on its services business, even as the company topped 1.5 billion paid subscriptions.

Samsung commits $1B to AI infrastructure company Helix, adding to the $10B already secured when a KKR-led consortium including Nvidia established Helix in June (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/samsung-commits-1-bi…

Sources detail how Meta's $17.1B settlement with state AGs came together as Meta wanted to avoid going to trial following losses in cases in LA and New Mexico (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/29/techn…

How Meta’s $17.1 Billion Social Media Settlement Came Together
State attorneys general spent months in negotiations. Then, as its legal losses mounted, the social media giant’s new top lawyer brought a huge settlement to the table.

Samsung reports Q2 revenue up 130% YoY to ~$118.1B, vs. ~$118.9B est., and operating profit up 1,814% to ~$61.46B, vs. ~$60.68B est., on robust AI demand (Jenny Lee/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/samsung-q2-earnings-ai-chip-.html

Samsung Electronics second-quarter operating profit beats estimates on soaring AI chip demand
Samsung Electronics extended its record run with second-quarter operating profit topping analysts' estimates.

Sources: the Trump admin is weighing a $100K fee for foreign students seeking to work in the US after graduation; a judge blocked Trump's $100K H-1B fee in June (Michelle Hackman/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy…

Google-backed nuclear fusion company Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised $1B, after raising a $1.8B Series B in 2021 and $863M in 2025, and plans a 2030s launch (Zachary Skidmore/DatacenterDynamics)
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news

Google-backed fusion firm CFS raises $1bn in equity financing
Has now raised $4bn, the most of any fusion company

Spectro Cloud, an AI infrastucture company helping manage token costs, raised a $100M Series D from AMD, LG, others at a $1B valuation, up from $750M in 2024 (Lucinda Shen/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/all-deals/2026/07/15/spectro-cloud-b…

Exclusive: Spectro Cloud hits $1B valuation amid rising AI model switching
Companies that aim to drive down AI costs have attracted investors in 2026.

AI agent startup Instinct raised a $1B Series C from Sequoia, Benchmark, and Coatue at a $10B valuation and details recent products, such as a concierge service (Utkarsh Shetti/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/technology/ai-agent-fi…

London-based Nscale agrees to acquire Anyscale, a source says for ~$1.65B; Anyscale, which helps AI workloads run more efficiently, had a $1B valuation in 2022 (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

Sources: AI cloud computing provider Lambda raised ~$1B of private short-dated debt to finance the purchase of Nvidia GPUs, which will be leased by Microsoft (Emily Graffeo/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20…

Sources: Moonshot AI hit a $35B valuation after closing a $3.5B round, exceeding its initial target of $1B to $2B, and plans a Hong Kong IPO as soon as 2026 (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-29/china…

Eliyan, which aims to license tech and make physical "chiplets" to ease AI chip data transfer bottlenecks, raised a $145M Series C at a $1B valuation (Stephen Nellis/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/eliyan-ra

Sources: Town, which develops enterprise personal AI assistants, is in talks to raise at a $1B valuation in a round led by Index Ventures (Newcomer)
https://www.newcomer.co/p/amid-personal-assistant-investor

Amid Personal Assistant Investor Frenzy, Town Nears $1 Billion Valuation in Round Led by Instinct-Backer Index Ventures
Town, the buzzy enterprise personal agent, is raising at $1 billion, sources tell us

PayPal reports Q2 revenue up 5% YoY to $8.68B, above $8.47B est., transaction margin dollars up 1% YoY to $3.9B, and a $1.1B profit, down from $1.26B in Q2 2025 (Elias Schisgall/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.

Data security startup Cyera agrees to acquire Oasis Security, which provides non-human identity security, in a deal valued at about $1B (Kyle Alspach/CRN)
https://www.crn.com/news/security/2026/5-things-to-know-about-cyera-s-deal-to-acquir…

5 Things To Know About Cyera’s Deal To Acquire Oasis Security
Cyera announced Tuesday it has reached an agreement to acquire Oasis Security, a specialist in non-human identity security, in a deal reportedly valued at $1 billion.

European satellite operators Eutelsat and SES stand to receive ~$6.1B in combined payments for clearing satellite spectrum for US wireless services (Leo Marchandon/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/…

Dealroom: defense giants such as Lockheed Martin have participated in a record $4.1B worth of VC rounds YTD, as drones and autonomous systems transform warfare (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/fcb2bd34-b13f-4f4f-950d-92367d43d1f3

Sources: SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in humanoid robot maker 1X at a $6B valuation; 1X sought $1B at a $10B valuation in 2025, but raised <50% (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/softban…

SoftBank in Talks to Buy Majority Stake in Humanoid Maker 1X at $6 Billion Valuation
SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies, an OpenAI-backed humanoid robot developer, in a deal that would value the startup at about $6 billion, according to people with knowledge of the deal. The investment would buttress SoftBank’s robotics ambition. The investment would ...

Nscale secures $3.36B in convertible financing led by Third Point ahead of its US IPO, with $2.36B available immediately and $1B from Nvidia in November (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/25/ahead-of-…

Ahead of US IPO, British AI neocloud Nscale secures $3.36B in convertible financing | TechCrunch
The funding, which comes from Third Point, Nvidia, and others, will fuel the company's massive AI data center buildout.

Sources: Jev developer TypeSafe is in talks to raise $1B at a $10B valuation; last week the startup announced a $40M seed, PitchBook says at a $200M valuation (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/jev-fervor-leads-talk-big-valuation-boo…

Jev Fervor Leads to Talk of Big Valuation Boost
Silicon Valley has a new AI startup to obsess over—and throw money at. We’re hearing that TypeSafe AI, the startup developing a new kind of model called Jev, has started to talk to investors about raising an enormous round—$1 billion or even more—and that some unnamed investors have offered to ...

Kalshi partners with Weather Co. to verify climate and weather prediction market settlements; Kalshi says weather vertical trading volume will hit $1.1B in 2026 (Clara Hudson/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/finance/kalshi…