Artificial Intelligence

SoftBank Completes Additional $22.5 Billion Investment In OpenAI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 3, 2026

SoftBank Group announced it has completed an additional $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI, marking the second closing of its previously announced commitment to invest up to $40 billion and bringing the company’s total SoftBank-backed investment in the AI company to $30 billion. The second closing happened on December 26, 2025.

Axoniq: Interview With CEO & Board Member Jessica Reeves About Why Explainability Matters In AI

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 2, 2026

Axoniq, a company trusted by over 65,000 companies globally and with more than 70 million downloads, transforms how organizations develop AI native applications that seamlessly evolve and scale to meet tomorrow's business challenges. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Axoniq CEO and Board Member Jessica Reeves to gain a deeper understanding of the company.

Meta Acquires AI Agent Developer Manus For A Reported $2+ Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 31, 2025

AI agent developer Manus said it is joining Meta, a significant milestone for its work on general-purpose autonomous agents designed to help users with research, automation, and other complex tasks.

Traini: $7.5 Million Raised To Build Pet Emotional Intelligence Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 29, 2025

Traini, a Palo Alto-based startup focused on “pet emotional intelligence,” announced it has raised $7.5 million to develop AI systems that interpret pet emotions and intentions and translate them into human-understandable language through real-time, two-way interaction.

Accordion Acquires Pinnacle Healthcare Advisors To Expand Revenue Cycle Management Capabilities

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 27, 2025

DUX: $9 Million Seed Funding Closed To Bring Agentic Exposure Management To Modern Cyber Defense

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 26, 2025

Dux, an agentic exposure management platform designed to keep pace with AI-driven cyberattacks, has emerged from stealth with a $9 million seed financing round led by Redpoint, TLV Partners, and Maple Capital. The company said the round also included participation from cybersecurity executives from CrowdStrike, Okta, and Armis.

Nvidia Acquiring Groq’s Assets In A Reported $20 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 26, 2025

Groq recently announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for Groq’s inference technology. This agreement reflects a shared focus on expanding access to high-performance, low-cost inference. While the size of the deal was not officially confirmed, CNBC revealed that Disruptive, the investment firm that spearheaded Groq’s most recent funding rounds, confirmed a massive $20 billion price. Alex Davis, the chief executive of Disruptive, noted that his firm invested over half a billion dollars into Groq over nearly a decade of development. Nvidia plans to pay the full sum in cash to acquire the specialized technology developed by the high-speed chip designer.

Manifold: $18 Million Series B Raised To Expand Vertical AI Platform For Life Sciences

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Manifold, an AI platform focused on life sciences workflows from discovery through clinical and precision care, has raised $18 million in a Series B financing led by Reach Capital, with participation from SilverArc Capital, Industry Ventures, and existing investors TQ Ventures and Calibrate Ventures. The round brings Manifold’s total capital raised to $40 million as the company positions itself as a category player in “vertical AI” for the life sciences market.

Marissa Mayer’s Dazzle AI Raises $8 Million Seed Round At $35 Million Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Dazzle AI, a new startup founded by entrepreneur and former Google and Yahoo executive Marissa Mayer, has raised $8 million in seed funding at a $35 million post-money valuation.

Lemon Slice Launched With $10.5 Million Seed Round

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Lemon Slice, a frontier AI research and product lab focused on interactive video, debuted publicly with $10.5 million in seed funding and the launch of Lemon Slice-2. This real-time, “zero-shot” avatar model can turn a single image into a live, conversational video experience.

Thread: $18 Million Raised From Susquehanna To Expand Agentic AI Service Intelligence For MSPs

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Thread, an AI service desk platform built for managed service providers, has raised an $18 million in growth equity investment led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation from Headline, as the company accelerates development of its Service Intelligence platform and agentic AI products to modernize how MSPs deliver support.

Ankar: $20 Million Series A Raised To Expand AI-Powered Patent Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Ankar, a London-based software company building an “AI operating system for innovation,” has raised $20 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-driven patent platform and expand further into the U.S. The round was led by Atomico, with Index Ventures doubling down on its prior investment and additional participation from Norrsken VC and Daphni. With the Series A, the company's total funding now stands at $24 million.

Lovable: $330 Million Series B At $6.6 Billion Valuation Raised To Expand No Code Building Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 23, 2025

Lovable announced it has raised $330 million in Series B funding at a $6.6 billion valuation to expand its platform for creating websites and applications without traditional software development. The round was led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures’ Anthology fund, with participation from a mix of corporate venture investors and growth firms, as Lovable positions itself to serve both large enterprises and early-stage founders looking to move from idea to product faster.

Alphabet To Buy Intersect For $4.75 Billion For Accelerating U.S. Data Center And Energy Infrastructure

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 22, 2025

Alphabet has agreed to acquire Intersect, a provider of data center and energy infrastructure solutions, in a deal valued at $4.75 billion in cash plus the assumption of debt. Google previously took a minority stake in Intersect through an earlier funding round.

Tebra: $250 Million Funding Raised To Accelerate AI Across EHR, Billing Automation And Practice Marketing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 17, 2025

Tebra has closed $250 million in new equity and debt financing to accelerate research and development in AI and automation for independent healthcare practices. The Newport Beach, California-based company said the oversubscribed round will fund expanded AI-powered capabilities across clinical documentation, billing and payments, patient experience, and practice marketing for its EHR+ platform, which it says is used by more than 140,000 private healthcare providers.

Databricks Raising Over $4 Billion Series L At $134 Billion Valuation As Revenue Run Rate Tops $4.8 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 16, 2025

Databricks is raising more than $4 billion in a Series L financing that values the data and AI platform company at $134 billion, as it reported passing a $4.8 billion revenue run rate during its third fiscal quarter and growing more than 55 percent year over year. The company said it achieved the growth while delivering positive free cash flow over the last year and highlighted billion-dollar run rates in both its data warehousing business and its AI products.