Innovation

Thomson Reuters: First Production-Ready Thomson LLM Delivers Very Strong Evaluation Results As Big 3 Growth Outlook Rises To 9.5%-10%

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Thomson Reuters said the first production-ready version of its proprietary Thomson LLM has produced very strong evaluation results as the company deepens its investment in Fiduciary-Grade AI, while raising its full-year organic revenue growth outlook for its Legal Professionals, Corporates and Tax, Audit & Accounting Professionals businesses to 9.5%-10%.

Vishay: Book-To-Bill Reaches 1.32 As Passive Components Hit 1.40 And $30 Million Of Tariff Refunds Flow To Customers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Vishay Intertechnology reported a second-quarter book-to-bill ratio of 1.32, including 1.40 for passive components and 1.23 for semiconductors, while backlog reached 6.1 months as demand continued to strengthen. The company also passed approximately $30 million of U.S. tariff refunds through to customers, reducing reported revenue without affecting gross profit.

INVO Fertility: Clinic-Level EBITDA More Than Doubles Sequentially

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

INVO Fertility’s clinic operations generated approximately $333,000 of Clinic-Level Adjusted EBITDA during Q2 2026, more than double the $164,000 generated during Q1, even as consolidated Adjusted EBITDA loss widened to approximately $1.03 million from $587,000 a year earlier.

Safe Pro AI Subsidiary Sales Jump More Than 3,084% As Four Government Contracts Drive Q2 Revenue Up 1,336%

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Safe Pro Group’s AI subsidiary increased second-quarter sales by more than 3,084% year-over-year, driven by U.S. Army-contracted sales of its AI-powered NODE edge-computing system and related services, while the subsidiary generated a 75% gross margin. Company-wide Q2 revenue increased 1,336% to $1.33 million as Safe Pro received four government contracts during the period.

FiEE Swings To $3.1 Million Operating Profit As MCN Business Tops 900 Customers

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

FiEE generated approximately $3.1 million of operating income on $6.95 million of first-half 2026 revenue, reversing a $1 million operating loss a year earlier as its software-focused transformation produced a substantially different revenue and margin profile. Its SaaS-MCN digital-services operation has now onboarded more than 900 customers representing $9.2 million of total service fees.

MicroVision Prices $17 Million Public Offering To Fund Working Capital And Capital Expenditures

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

MicroVision has priced a $17 million public offering as the lidar and perception technology company raises additional capital to support working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes while continuing to advance its technology toward broader commercial deployment.

Francisco Partners To Acquire Moneris From BMO And RBC For C$2 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Francisco Partners has agreed to acquire Canadian payments company Moneris from Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada for approximately C$2 billion in cash. BMO and RBC, which jointly own Moneris, will each receive 50% of the transaction consideration.

amber Raises €7 Million Series A To Build Autonomous AI Platform For European Businesses

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

amber has raised €7 million in Series A funding to expand an enterprise AI platform designed to understand organizational context and increasingly execute business workflows autonomously. Ventech and NRW.Venture, the venture capital fund of NRW.BANK, co-led the financing.

Blackstone And La Caisse Are Investing C$2.5 Billion In Aeroplan At A C$10 Billion Valuation

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Blackstone and La Caisse are leading a C$2.5 billion minority investment in Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty business, valuing the platform at C$10 billion while giving Air Canada additional capital to reduce debt and accelerate stock repurchases.

JLL Partners Completes Life Couriers Acquisition And Names Edward DeMartini CEO To Drive Global Expansion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

JLL Partners has completed its acquisition of healthcare logistics company Life Couriers and appointed industry executive Edward DeMartini as CEO as the business prepares to expand its geographic footprint. JLL acquired Life Couriers from an affiliate of AUCTUS Capital Partners.

GD1 Reaches About $60 Million First Close For $150 Million Core Fund II

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Global From Day One (GD1) has reached an approximately $60 million first close for Core Fund II as the New Zealand venture capital firm targets $150 million for the fund and expands its leadership team.

Centricity Raises $29 Million Series A Led By SMBC As Wealth Platform Reaches $1.7 Billion In AUM

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Centricity has raised INR 280 crore, approximately $29 million, in Series A funding led by SMBC Asia Rising Fund as the Indian wealth management technology company scales a platform already managing roughly $1.7 billion in assets.

Floating Point Raises $125 Million Fund III As Technology Investor Tops $300 Million Under Management

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Floating Point has raised $125 million for its third venture fund, bringing the technology investment firm’s assets under management to more than $300 million. And Floating Point launched five years ago around a thesis that many of the next generation’s most significant technology businesses would look different from traditional software companies.

FTAI Aviation Secures $2 Billion Facility From 13 Lenders With Capacity To Expand To $3 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

FTAI Aviation has closed a $2 billion warehouse financing facility for the second investment vehicle of its Strategic Capital business, with an accordion that could increase total capacity to $3 billion.

System1 Pushes Adjusted Gross Margin To 85% As MapQuest And Dogpile Become Infrastructure For AI Agents

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

System1 deliberately reduced marketing activity tied to search monetization during Q2 2026, contributing to a steep revenue decline but pushing adjusted gross margin to 85% as the higher-quality Products business became the majority of revenue and gross profit. At the same time, System1 is repositioning MapQuest and Dogpile as infrastructure for AI agents through new Model Context Protocol servers.

Xpander Raises $7.5 Million Seed Funding As Enterprise AI Agent Omni Scores 90.9% On GAIA Benchmark

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Xpander has raised $7.5 million in seed funding to accelerate adoption of its vendor-neutral enterprise AI platform, while introducing Omni, an AI agent that achieved a 90.9% score on the GAIA benchmark. Pico Venture Partners led the financing, with participation from Emerge Ventures, Samsung Next and SeedIL.

Wispr Raises $280 Million At $2 Billion Valuation As Revenue Grows 150%+ Quarterly And Voice AI Push Accelerates

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Wispr has raised $280 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation as the company expands its voice-based interface technology and launches its first proprietary speech model. The financing brings Wispr's total capital raised to $361 million and comes only six months after the company's oversubscribed Series A2. Menlo Ventures led the round, representing one of the firm's largest investments in an artificial intelligence company. Existing investors Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC and MVP Ventures also participated. New investors include Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, Peak XV, Together Fund and PLUS Capital.

Stripe Nears Deal To Acquire OpenRouter For More Than $7 Billion In Major AI Infrastructure Push

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Stripe is nearing an agreement to acquire artificial intelligence infrastructure startup OpenRouter for more than $7 billion, potentially giving the payments giant control of one of the fastest-growing gateways connecting developers with hundreds of AI models, according to Bloomberg.

Berkshire Hathaway Boosts Alphabet Stake By $17 Billion As Greg Abel Puts Cash To Work

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Berkshire Hathaway significantly increased its investment in Alphabet during the second quarter of 2026, adding approximately $17 billion of shares as the conglomerate deployed more of its enormous cash position under CEO Greg Abel. Berkshire added approximately 48.1 million Alphabet shares during the quarter, making the Google parent by far the company's largest equity portfolio addition, according to CNBC.

Innodisk: Interview With Director Of Product Management Tom Lee About DRAM For AI And Edge Computing

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Innodisk develops DRAM solutions for AI, edge computing, industrial systems, and other applications requiring high performance, power efficiency, reliability, and long-term support. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Innodisk USA Director of DRAM Product Management Tom Lee to learn more.

Aria Networks: Interview With Founder And CEO Mansour Karam About Deep Networking For AI Factories

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Aria Networks is developing Deep Networking, an integrated hardware-and-software platform designed to turn the network into an active optimization layer for AI factories. The company combines purpose-built Ethernet switching, high-resolution telemetry, specialized AI agents, and embedded engineering support to improve accelerator utilization, performance, reliability, and AI infrastructure economics. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Aria Networks Founder and CEO Mansour Karam to learn more.

Econergy Secures €229 Million From EBRD, BSTDB, Exim Banca Românească, NLB, OTP And Intesa For 342 MWp Romania Solar-Storage Project

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 17, 2026

Econergy has secured approximately €229 million in financing for its Părău 2 solar and battery energy storage project in Romania from a six-lender consortium comprising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, Exim Banca Românească, NLB, OTP Bank and Banca Comercială Intesa Sanpaolo România.

Kennametal: Inventory More Than Doubles To $1.11 Billion As Company Targets Up To $3.45 Billion Of Fiscal 2027 Revenue

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

Kennametal ended fiscal 2026 with inventory of approximately $1.11 billion, more than double the $538.2 million held a year earlier, as unprecedented tungsten price increases and efforts to secure raw-material supply absorbed substantial working capital. At the same time, the industrial technology company is targeting fiscal 2027 sales of as much as $3.45 billion following 42% organic growth in its fiscal fourth quarter.

Extreme Platform ONE Reaches More Than 30% Of Subscription Bookings As Company Targets Up To 17.1% Fiscal 2027 Operating Margin

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

Extreme Networks said its Platform ONE offering accounted for more than 30% of subscription bookings during its first year of availability and doubled sequentially in fiscal Q4, giving the networking company a rapidly expanding software platform as it targets a fiscal 2027 non-GAAP operating margin of as much as 17.1%.

NiSource Reaffirms 9%-10% Long-Term EPS Growth Despite Q2 Adjusted Earnings Decline

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

NiSource reaffirmed its target for consolidated adjusted EPS to grow at a 9% to 10% compound annual rate from 2026 through 2033 despite reporting a year-over-year decline in second-quarter adjusted earnings, with the utility continuing to lean on a $28.6 billion capital investment plan and a growing data-center infrastructure opportunity.

Eos Backlog Hits Record $807 Million As Revenue Jumps 351% And Commercial Pipeline Reaches $24.6 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

Eos Energy Enterprises increased Q2 2026 revenue 351% year-over-year to $68.8 million and ended the quarter with a record $807 million backlog and $24.6 billion commercial opportunity pipeline, although gross margin remained deeply negative at 71% as the long-duration energy storage manufacturer continued scaling production.

EVgo: Charging Revenue Posts 18th Consecutive Quarter Of Double-Digit Growth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

EVgo recently announced it generated $61 million in charging network revenue in Q2 2026, up 19% year over year and marking the company’s 18th consecutive quarter of double-digit charging network revenue growth, as its fast-charging footprint expanded to 5,380 operating stalls.

Uber Adds More First-Time Users Than Any Period In Five Years As Trailing Free Cash Flow Tops $10 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

Uber said it added more first-time users during the past 12 months than in any comparable period over the previous five years, while trailing-12-month free cash flow exceeded $10 billion for the first time in company history, pairing record platform engagement with a substantially larger cash-generation base.

Cirrus Logic: Multiple 2027 Design Opportunities For AI-PC Smart Codec

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

Cirrus Logic is seeing considerable customer interest in its latest smart codec for AI-enabled PCs and is working with multiple customers on designs planned for calendar 2027, creating a potential new growth vector as the semiconductor company expands beyond its traditional smartphone exposure.

Cencora: OneOncology Drives 61-Basis-Point Margin Expansion Despite Lower-Margin GLP-1 Growth

By Amit Chowdhry ● Aug 16, 2026

Cencora's adjusted gross margin expanded 61 basis points during fiscal Q3 2026 as the February acquisition of OneOncology strengthened the economics of its U.S. Healthcare Solutions business, more than offsetting some of the margin pressure created by rapidly growing sales of lower-margin GLP-1 pharmaceuticals.