Factory Raises $150M at $1.5B Valuation to Scale AI Coding Agents for Enterprises
Factory, an AI‑driven coding platform founded in 2023, raised $150 million in a Series B round at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and Blackstone, and veteran investor Keith Rabois joined the board. The capital will be used to scale AI agents that operate across multiple foundation models, including Anthropic and DeepSeek. Existing enterprise customers such as Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young and Palo Alto Networks signal strong demand for AI‑assisted development.
Upscale AI Targets $2B Valuation in Latest Funding Talks Despite No Product Launch
Upscale AI is in talks to raise $180‑$200 million, aiming for a $2 billion valuation in its third funding round within seven months. The company has already secured a $100 million seed and a $200 million Series A, backed by Tiger Global, Xora Innovation and...
AI Coding and Design Competition Intensifies as Anthropic and OpenAI Expand Agent Capabilities
Anthropic is set to launch Opus 4.7, a model that adds generative design tools that could directly compete with Figma, prompting co‑founder Mike Krieger to leave the board. OpenAI counters with a revamped Codex platform that embeds autonomous agents capable of...
Roblox Expands AI Assistant with Agentic Tools for End-to-End Game Development
Roblox has upgraded its Roblox Assistant within Roblox Studio by adding agentic AI tools that guide creators from concept to launch. The new Planning Mode can analyze code, ask clarifying questions, and produce structured development roadmaps. Integrated mesh generation and procedural...
Runway CEO Advocates AI-Driven Film Production Model to Scale Output and Reduce Costs
Runway CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela told the Semafor World Economy Summit that artificial intelligence can reshape film production by lowering costs in scripting, planning and visual effects. He argued studios should spread budgets across several projects rather than betting on a...
Google Deepens AI Integration Across Ads and Search with Gemini Enforcement and AI Mode Expansion
Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report shows Gemini‑powered AI blocked 8.3 billion ads, a jump from 5.1 billion the year before, and halted over 99% of policy‑violating ads before they reached users. The enforcement model now focuses on individual ads rather than whole...
Reid Hoffman Backs AI “Token Usage” Tracking as Companies Experiment with Adoption Metrics
Reid Hoffman, co‑founder of LinkedIn, is championing the use of AI token consumption as a proxy for adoption across enterprises. He acknowledges that token counts don’t capture productivity perfectly but do reveal how widely employees are experimenting with generative models....
Parasail Closes $32M Series A to Build the Supercloud that Puts Developers in Control of Their AI
Parasail announced a $32 million Series A round, bringing its total capital to $42 million, led by Touring Capital and Kindred Ventures. The funding will expand its AI Supercloud—a global GPU‑aggregated platform that automates inference optimization and lets developers launch custom AI models...
Smartwage Raises €2M to Scale AI-Driven Corporate Welfare Platform
Smartwage, an AI‑driven corporate welfare startup, closed a €2 million pre‑seed round led by Step Fund. The funding, roughly $2.2 million, will be used to expand platform architecture, security, and AI models. The platform lets employees spend welfare credits across any provider,...
Anthropic Flags Risks of Powerful “Mythos” AI Model in U.S. Government Briefing
Anthropic disclosed to the Trump administration that its unreleased Mythos model poses significant cybersecurity risks, prompting the company to withhold public deployment. The briefing comes amid a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense, after the Pentagon branded Anthropic a...
Coupang Announces Investing $84M in Global AI Tech Startups, Deploying Texas Startup’s Robotics
Coupang announced a $84 million commitment to AI‑focused startups, including a $50 million match to South Korea’s SBVA Korea Sovereign AI Fund. The e‑commerce giant is partnering with Texas‑based Contoro to pilot AI‑powered robotic arms that unload containers and trailers in its...
Microsoft Explores Always-On AI Agents in Copilot as Enterprise Demand for Autonomous Workflows Grows
Microsoft is piloting always‑on AI agents inside its Microsoft 365 Copilot suite, aiming to let autonomous agents handle multi‑step tasks over extended periods. The effort builds on recent Copilot extensions such as Copilot Cowork and Copilot Tasks and leverages cloud‑based models, including Anthropic’s Claude....
Primepoint Closes $10M Seed Round to Advance Intelligence Platform that Reads and Understands Construction Drawings
Primepoint announced a $10 million seed round to scale its AI‑driven construction intelligence platform. The funding came in two tranches—$4 million co‑led by Penny Jar Capital and NextView Ventures, and $6 million led by Navitas Capital with participation from several other investors, including...
Stanford Report Highlights Growing Divide Between AI Experts and Public Sentiment
Stanford's 2026 AI Index report shows a growing gap between AI experts' optimism and public anxiety in the United States. While a majority of specialists predict positive economic and societal outcomes, only 10% of Americans feel more excited than concerned...
Singapore’s Own AI Company Agnes AI Expands AI Infrastructure Platform and Confirms Series A Funding
Singapore‑based Agnes AI announced a $10 million Series A round led by Look Forward VCC and said its AI infrastructure platform is nearing $20 million in annual recurring revenue. The company markets a model‑first, agentic AI system that it claims delivers about 90%...