what is ai startup funding

Palmer Luckey, the billionaire CEO of defense startup Anduril, is on a mission to equip the United States for the future of warfare—or at least his own, deeply sci-fi-inflected vision of that future. That includes the raising of genetically modified dogs outfitted with Anduril’s own technology. Warhound, a Texas-based company that emerged from stealth late Thursday with $200 million in seed funding, wants to create four-legged super soldiers for the U.S. m

Published on September 30, 2026 at 07:33 Comment 0 𝕏 Print © Manus Meta wanted to acquire Manus, but Beijing decided otherwise. Three months after the breakup, the start-up is launching Cue, a personal-agents app that targets its former acquirer’s brand-new Muse. At the end of December 2025, Meta announced the acquisition of Manus, a fledgling agentic AI startup, for a reported amount of around $2 billion. The Chinese regulator blocked the deal in the spri

Character.AI / Futurism Character.AI, the once-buzzy chatbot startup that faced high-profile lawsuits over the deaths of minors, has declared bankruptcy. Character.AI announced last night that it had entered a “voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process” and is looking to sell the company in a court-supervised sale. “Over the past year, we’ve taken meaningful steps to sustain and improve our business amid significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwin

AI job postings may be increasing, but that doesn't necessarily mean more jobs are being created, Northeastern research finds. Credit: Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University Artificial intelligence is reshaping how companies operate, but it may not translate into more job creation, according to new research. That's a major takeaway from a recently published study co-authored by Northeastern University economics and public policy professor Shantanu Khanna.

As cybercriminals eagerly embrace AI tools, OpenAI needs all the help it can get securing its own systems from external hacks. That includes teaming up with a shadowy cybersecurity startup founded by a cadre of former DOGE employees. The startup, called Cathedral, is best known for reportedly hacking into Anthropic’s private systems as part of the AI lab’s bug bounty program. Cathedral told the Washington Post that the hack was performed in under twelve ho

Published on October 21, 2026 at 07:59 Comment 2 𝕏 Print © DPA/AP Two weeks after the split between Ecosia and Mistral, Berlin rolls out the red carpet for Nvidia. Billions on display, funded start-ups, and an order from the chancellor: open your data. In early October, the German search engine Ecosia slammed the door on Mistral after five months of partnership, trading the French AI champion for open models, some of them Chinese. On October 19, Chancellor

A tech startup is offering New York City residents free home cleaning with a twist—it will send “professional cleaners” wearing cameras to record everything they do. All that data will supposedly be used to train AI-driven robots. The unusual pitch comes from the German startup MicroAGI, whose website describes the company as a “team of engineers, researchers, and operators on a mission to accelerate embodied AI.” It began publicizing the free home-cleanin

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but this looks like an acqui-hire. Davidson’s announcement focused largely on how he built his AI travel agent Odessia by directing teams of AI agents. The year-old Odessia raised a $6 million pre-seed round led by Sequoia, and launched its AI travel agent around 5 months ago. Davidson says that it had helped early adopters plan millions of dollars worth of travel, but the tool has already been shut down. OpenAI did no

Counsel Health is an AI-powered healthcare platform that combines a chat-based medical experience with access to licensed physicians. Its service was integrated into the Oura app in June. Users can connect with Counsel’s medical AI to get personalized medical advice, and chat with a physician when needed, all within the Oura app. Now, the companies plan to expand on their existing partnership to build across preventative care, acute care, and specialty and

Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the funding round, and existing shareholders Tencent, HSG (formerly known as Sequoia China), ZhenFund, and others also participated. The AI company said it will continue hiring both at home and abroad. Manus did not disclose its valuation, but last month was said to be in talks with investors to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation. Manus, which went viral following a demo of its AI agent last year, relocated its st

In March, MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI for an undisclosed sum after it zoomed ahead of the older calorie app in the app store rankings. The deal was big enough to convince Yadegari and his co-founders to sell the company after it had pulled in over $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, MyFitnessPal told TechCrunch at the time. Yadegari and his co-founders originally went to work for their new owner, continuing development on Cal AI, but he left

Nvidia snaps up Israeli AI infrastructure company Run:ai Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian Dec 31, 2024 Runai AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section. Subscribe now { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Nvid

The three-day countdown is on, and so are your pass savings of up to $100. Grab your pass before TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 doors open on October 13 at 8 a.m. PT. Bring a co-founder, colleague, or peer and get a second ticket of the same type at 50% off. Coming with a group? Enjoy even more savings when you register four or more attendees. Discover the next breakout company at Disrupt For more than a decade, discovering ambitious early-stage companies has bee

There was just one problem: The technology his idea required didn’t exist yet. “Then ChatGPT came along,” said Dram, recalling when OpenAI released the generative AI chatbot that uses large language models (LLMs) in November 2022. His old idea suddenly seemed a lot more possible. Within six months, he launched the concept of Blueprints AI, a startup that uses AI to produce code-compliant and permit-ready architectural construction blueprints in minutes fro

“Over the past year, Character.ai has taken meaningful steps to sustain and improve its business in the face of significant legal, regulatory, and operational headwinds. After a comprehensive review of the available alternatives, the board determined that this court-supervised sale process provides the Company with the best opportunity to maximize value for all stakeholders,” Character.AI CEO Colin Adams said in a statement. The startup has also agreed to

Whether you’re looking for your next investment, discovering solutions for your business, or gathering ideas to take back to your team, there’s plenty to explore today. Today’s focus spans AI, with speakers from Nvidia, Waabi, Flock Safety, and Ricursive Intelligence, alongside Benchmark’s full partnership. Conversations will cover robotics, AI hardware, public safety, and venture investment. Still deciding whether to come? Get your pass and join us at 50%

It is writing checks via various strategies, ranging from offering massive loans to data centers to investing in frontier AI models and applications. Earlier this year, the firm launched Blackstone N1 (BXN1), a San Francisco-based central hub for its AI initiatives. The group is led by Khaira, who relocated from New York to be at the epicenter of AI. Unlike earlier tech cycles such as mobile or SaaS, which allowed companies to reach significant scale with

Nvidia participated in the all-primary Series B round alongside Accel, Shastra VC, and Micromax, with Dallas Venture Capital leading the investment. The deal values the four-year-old startup at about $100 million, including the new funding. Companies are nowadays spending heavily on GPUs to power AI applications, but running those models reliably and economically at scale remains a challenge. Different workloads demand distinct trade-offs between speed, co

The idea isn’t entirely new. Companies like Crusoe and Schneider Electric also sell prefabricated pods, but Runware says it can ship its pods faster. Flaviu Radulescu, co-founder and CEO of Runware, told TechCrunch that the company plans to scale production at its Romania-based factory to 30 megawatts of data center capacity per day by 2028, or nearly 1 gigawatt per month. That’s a whole lot of capacity: At that pace, Runware would produce roughly as much