Nscale (AI Infrastructure & Foundational Models): $1.1B

Filevine (AI for Legal, Finance, & Pro Services): $400M

AI Infrastructure & Foundational Models: ~$1.42B

Enterprise AI Solutions: ~$621M

AI for Legal, Finance, & Pro Services: ~$480M

Cerebras, an AI hardware company building large-scale systems to challenge Nvidia, is nearing the close of a $1 billion funding round. The new capital follows reports of the company exploring a 2025 IPO. Axios Pro

Empower Semiconductor, a developer of power management chips that simplify system design for AI data centers, raised over $140M in a Series D round led by Fidelity. The funding, which brings its total to over $200M, will be used to transform the AI market by enabling energy savings and improved throughput in data centers worldwide. SiliconANGLE

Morse Micro, an Australian developer of ultra-low power chips, raised $59m in Series A funding. MegaChips led, joined by National Reconstruction Fund Corp., Blackbird, Main Sequence, Uniseed, Ray Stata, Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull, and Startmate. morsemicro.com

Cohere, an enterprise AI model maker, raised an additional $100M in an extension to its August round, bumping its valuation to $7B. The company also announced a partnership with AMD to run its models on AMD's latest GPUs, a significant move as its competitor OpenAI deepens its ties with Nvidia. TechCrunch

Nscale, a U.K.-based AI infrastructure startup, raised $1.1B from Nvidia, Dell, and others to roll out data centers across Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The company is also partnering with Nvidia and OpenAI on "Stargate U.K." and plans to build the U.K.'s largest AI supercomputer with Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal

Corintis, a semiconductor cooling startup that came out of stealth, raised $24M in a Series A round led by BlueYard Capital to address the heat bottleneck in high-performance AI chips. The company announced a collaboration with Microsoft that achieved a 3x chip cooling breakthrough. GlobeNewswire

Rocket.new, an Indian startup building an AI-powered app development platform for creating production-ready applications from natural language prompts, has raised $15M in a seed round. Salesforce Ventures led the all-equity round and will be used to deepen its presence in key markets and accelerate research and development. TechCrunch

Testkube, a continuous testing platform for cloud-native applications, raised an $8M Series A round led by existing investors Ratmir Timashev and Insight Partners. The funding will help the company integrate AI into its platform to provide intelligent test orchestration, automated remediation, and adaptive performance testing. PR Newswire

Modular, an AI startup building a software platform to run AI applications across a variety of hardware, raised $250M at a $1.6B valuation. The round, led by the U.S. Innovative Technology fund, aims to challenge Nvidia's software stranglehold and expand its neutral "Switzerland" software layer from AI inference into the AI training market. Reuters

Obot AI, an open-source company building platforms for the emerging Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard for AI agents, raised a $35M seed round co-led by Mayfield Fund and Nexus Venture Partners. The capital will support the development of its open-source Obot MCP Gateway and Nanobot MCP Agent Framework. PR Newswire

Greptile, a startup building an AI-based code review agent to validate human and AI-generated code, raised $25M in a Series A round led by Benchmark. The company launched Greptile v3, which it claims catches 3x more critical bugs than its previous version and outperforms competitors like Copilot and Coderabbit. SiliconANGLE

Emergent, a platform that allows non-technical users to create mobile apps using prompts, raised $23M in a Series A round led by Lightspeed. The company aims to abstract the entire software development lifecycle—from ideation to deployment and maintenance—for a consumer audience. TechCrunch

Synthesized, a startup using AI to automate software testing, raised $20M in a Series A round led by Redalpine Venture Partners. The funding will help the company meet surging demand for quality assurance tools in the era of "vibe coding" and AI-generated software. Fortune

Trismik, a Cambridge startup applying human intelligence testing methods to AI model evaluation, secured £2.2M ($2.7M) in pre-seed funding led by Twinpath Ventures. The platform aims to solve the "benchmark saturation" problem by providing more precise and cost-effective AI capability measurements. TechNews 180

Factory, an agent-native software development startup, raised $50M in new funding and fully released its "Droids" agents. The company, which has backing from NEA, Sequoia, and Nvidia, says its Droids can perform complex tasks like feature development, refactoring, and code review, integrating with existing developer tools like Slack and Jira. SiliconANGLE

Scorecard, a San Francisco-based platform for evaluating AI agents, raised $3.75M in seed funding. The company provides a managed evaluation engine that allows developers to test AI agents for performance, compliance, and regressions, integrating directly into CI/CD pipelines for continuous validation. FinSMEs

Distyl AI, a startup helping Fortune 500 companies operationalize AI at scale and "become AI-native," raised $175M in a Series B funding round at a $1.8B valuation. The round was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners and will be used to support its rapid revenue growth as it aims to transform how enterprises work. Crunchbase News

Irregular, a San Francisco-based AI security lab, raised $80M in funding. Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures led the round, with participation from Swish Ventures and angel investors. Fortune

Sunhat, a Cologne-based startup with an AI platform that helps enterprises automatically validate and share ESG and compliance data, closed a €9.2M ($9.9M) Series A funding round. Led by CommerzVentures, the investment will be used to expand its team, advance its "Proof AI" engine, and target 10x growth over the next 15 months. Tech.eu

Veezoo, a Zurich-based ETH spin-out building an agentic analytics platform that lets business users get answers from company data via natural-language questions, raised €5.1M ($6M) in a Series A round. The funding, led by ACE Ventures, will accelerate expansion across Europe and the US. Founders Today

Mycroft, an AI-driven security and compliance platform that acts as a "virtual CISO" for organizations, raised $3.5M in a seed round led by Luge Capital. The funds will be used to accelerate product development and expand the reach of its AI agents, which automate monitoring, policy enforcement, and audit preparation. FinTech Global

Signal AI, a UK-based media monitoring and risk management company, raised $165M in a funding round led by Battery Ventures, which will take a majority stake in the company. The new capital will be used for acquisitions, product development, and global expansion across the US and Europe. Financial Times

Mimica, a process intelligence company that records employee workflows to automatically train AI agents, raised $26.2M in a Series B funding round led by Paladin Capital Group. The investment will help bridge the gap between enterprise operations and the deployment of agentic AI. Mimica

BizzyCar, an AI-powered recall management and mobile service platform for auto dealerships, raised a $20M follow-on to its Series B round led by existing investor Dealer Tire. The new funding, which brings its total to over $50M, will support continued AI-led product development and scaling operations. PR Newswire

InCountry, a data protection and sovereignty provider, raised $10M in a funding round led by Arbor Ventures. The capital will accelerate the global deployment of its new "AgentCloak" solution, which uses AI to secure and generalize sensitive data for AI agents operating across borders. Business Wire

Workfully, a Barcelona-based company building a decentralized hiring platform with an AI-powered CRM for independent recruiters, raised over €4M ($4.3M) in a seed round led by Shilling VC. The new capital will fund expansion into Ireland, Germany, Benelux, and the Nordics. Tech.eu

Valence, the company behind the enterprise AI coach "Nadia," raised a $50M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Deployed in Fortune 500 companies like Delta Air Lines and Kraft Heinz, Nadia provides personalized, context-rich coaching to employees at scale to improve performance and adapt to technological change. PR Newswire

Beroe, a procurement technology startup, raised $34M in a funding round led by Relativity Resilience Fund. The capital will be used to develop its AI-powered procurement intelligence platform, which helps enterprise customers consolidate pricing benchmarks, supplier risk signals, and market trends. Tech Funding News

Juicebox, an AI-powered talent search engine that uses natural language to analyze professional profiles and identify qualified candidates, raised a $30M Series A led by Sequoia. The company, which is already serving over 2,500 customers and has surpassed $10M in ARR, aims to become the default hiring tool for startups. TechCrunch

Revel8, a Berlin-based cybersecurity startup, secured €7M ($7.5M) in funding, including a €5.7M seed round led by Peak. The company is building an AI-driven platform that trains enterprise employees to recognize and defend against AI-powered cyberattacks like deepfake calls and personalized phishing. Tech.eu

Filevine, a pioneer of the Legal Operating Intelligence System, raised $400M in an all-equity financing across two funding rounds over 15 months. The funding, co-led by Insight Partners, Accel, and Halo Fund, will allow Filevine to scale its products, expand its AI capabilities, and fuel its go-to-market strategy. PR Newswire

Aleph, a New York-based AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform, raised $29M in Series B funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and joined by Picus Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Y Combinator. Fortune

Wexler.ai, an AI platform for complex litigation that ingests case documents to build chronologies and provide real-time fact-checking during depositions, raised $5.3M in a Seed round. The round was led by Pear VC and will be used to accelerate product development and support its US launch. Tech.eu

Superpanel, a platform that uses AI to automate legal intake for law firms, raised $5.3M in a seed round. The company's "digital teammate" engages clients across phone, text, and email to guide them through intake and documentation, escalating to human staff when needed. The funding will be used to accelerate hiring and expand the platform's capabilities. TechCrunch

Founders Fund made its first and only investment in legal AI, co-leading a $35M Series A round in Enter, a São Paulo-based startup. The investment, made alongside Sequoia Capital, values the Brazilian AI company at $350M. The Wall Street Journal

MaxHome.AI, an AI-native operating system for residential real estate, secured $5M in seed funding led by Fika Ventures. The platform automates manual paperwork, compliance checks, and back-office processes for real estate brokerages, aiming to free up agents to focus on client-facing activities. The new capital brings the company's total funding to $7M. FinTech Global

Sevaro Health, a company specializing in virtual neurological care, secured $39M in a Series B funding round for its AI-powered workflow platform, Synapse AI. The round was led by Valtruis and Intermountain Ventures and will be used to accelerate innovation and expand its specialist coverage model into new verticals. HIT Consultant

Salt AI, a life sciences AI development workflow platform, raised $10M in a pre-Series A round at a $29M valuation. The round was led by Morpheus Ventures and will be used to expand its customer footprint with leading biopharma companies and scale its global engineering teams. Axios Pro

Prosper AI, a voice AI platform that automates administrative tasks in healthcare, raised $5M in a seed round led by Emergence Capital. The capital will be used to expand its sales team, deepen EHR integrations, and train its AI agents to take on new tasks like reading faxes and acting on API data. Forbes

Manas AI, a full-stack AI drug discovery and development company co-founded by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee and Reid Hoffman, closed a $26M seed extension. The funding will accelerate the development of its neuro-symbolic foundational models and also bring on former Google and Meta executive Ujjwal Singh as a new Co-Founder and CTO. citybiz

Caregility, an enterprise telehealth and virtual care platform, raised $25.1M in Series A-2 and Series C funding rounds led by Star Mountain Capital. The capital will accelerate its initiatives in AI, computer vision, and ambient listening solutions for hospital-based virtual care. PR Newswire

DaltonTx, a UK-based technology company building an adaptive AI platform to serve as the "intelligence backbone" of drug discovery, raised £4M ($5M) in a seed financing round. Backed by Redalpine, IQ Capital Partners, and Seedcamp, the company will use the funds to redefine how its adaptive reasoning engine can transform R&D workflows. PR Newswire

Bonsai Health, an agentic AI platform that automates front-office tasks for healthcare practices, raised a $7M seed round led by Bonfire Ventures and Wonder Ventures. The platform integrates with existing practice systems to handle tasks like personalized patient outreach and scheduling to reduce staff workload and prevent missed appointments. StartupHub.ai

Inspiren, a developer of an AI-powered operating system for the senior living industry, raised $100M in a Series B round led by Insight Partners. The funding will accelerate the deployment of its platform, which unifies resident safety, care planning, staffing, and emergency response to improve clinical outcomes and staff efficiency. This brings Inspiren's total funding to $155M. Inspiren

AppZen, a company that has built an agentic AI platform to transform back-office finance teams, raised $180M in a Series D round. The funding was led solely by Riverwood Capital and will be used to accelerate the adoption of its AI agents for travel, expense, and accounts payable workflows. Crunchbase News

Circuit & Chisel, a startup founded by Stripe alumni building ATXP, a new web protocol for agentic AI payments, raised $19.2M in funding. The round included Primary Venture Partners, ParaFi, and Coinbase Ventures, and will be used to develop the protocol to enable AI-driven microtransactions. Fortune

Predicti, a Danish fintech using AI to predict customer life events for financial institutions, secured $4.2M in funding. The round, led by TX Ventures and Dreamcraft Ventures, will fuel the company's growth and accelerate the development of its AI platform for proactive customer engagement. Tech.eu

Rekord, a Dublin-based startup building an AI-native orchestration platform for credit decisioning, raised $2.1M in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Point Nine Capital and will be used to onboard new design partners, expand across the EU and UK, and grow its team. Silicon Republic

Light, a Danish AI-native finance platform for hypergrowth companies, raised $30M in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital. The company, which reports 30x growth over the past year, built its platform from the ground up to automate accounting, bookkeeping, and financial reporting, replacing legacy ERP systems. CNBC

Alguna, a YC-backed startup, emerged from stealth with a $4M seed round led by Mango Capital and Atlantic Labs. The company is building an end-to-end platform to automate pricing, quoting, and billing for B2B SaaS, AI, and fintech companies, aiming to mitigate revenue leakage caused by disconnected monetization workflows. FinTech Futures

Genstore, an AI-native e-commerce platform that allows merchants to build and manage online stores through conversational prompts, raised $10M in a seed round led by Weimob. The funding will be used to accelerate product development and market expansion for its platform, which aims to simplify e-commerce with the tagline, "Start selling online with just one prompt." GlobeNewswire

Huxe, an audio-first app from former Google NotebookLM developers that generates personalized "podcasts" for news and research, raised $4.6M in funding. The round included participation from Conviction, Genius Ventures, Figma CEO Dylan Field, and Google Research's chief scientist, Jeff Dean. TechCrunch

Nilo, an AI-native platform for creating 3D games and interactive worlds from text, image, or voice prompts, raised $4M in seed funding led by Supercell, with participation from a16z. The company, founded by veterans from Fortnite, Twitch, and Microsoft, aims to democratize 3D content creation for "Gen Alpha." Mobidictum

Auterion, a Swiss-American company providing an open-source operating system for drones and autonomous systems, secured $130M in a Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The investment will accelerate its delivery of AI-enabled software for defense, transforming how drone swarms are used. DRONELIFE

ANYbotics, a Zurich-based developer of AI-driven four-legged inspection robots, has raised a total of over €127M ($136M) in funding. A recent investment from Climate Investment (CI) will support its global expansion and help bring its new ANYmal X model, designed for hazardous environments, to market. EU-Startups

Holy Technologies, a German startup building an autonomous factory for lightweight composite components, raised €4.3M ($4.6M) to launch its first facility in Hamburg. The company uses an AI-led robotic system to automate manufacturing for industries like aerospace and automotive, aiming to restore European competitiveness. Tech.eu

DEXA, a drone delivery company, closed an oversubscribed $15M seed round to expand its at-home drone delivery service in major U.S. metropolitan markets. The funding follows the company securing key FAA milestones, including a Part 135 Carrier Certificate and a nationwide BVLOS waiver. DRONELIFE

Helios AI, an AI company focused on supply chain resilience for the agri-food industry, raised $4.7M in seed funding led by Collide Capital. The funding supports the launch of its AI co-pilot, Helios Horizon, which provides procurement leaders with price forecasting and climate risk analysis for agricultural commodities. citybiz

Forgent AI, a German startup using AI agents to help businesses win public sector contracts, raised €4.3M ($4.6M) in pre-seed funding. The capital will be used to grow its team, expand into new verticals, and advance its AI agent technology that automates discovering opportunities and drafting bids. Tech.eu

Le Walk, a New York City-based AI-powered tour guide and travel partner, raised $4.1M in seed funding. The round was led by Adverb Ventures and Lerer Hippeau, joined by Origins Fund and Point72 Ventures. Fortune

Track3D, a "Reality Intelligence" platform for the construction industry, raised a $10M Series A round led by Ironspring Ventures and Zacua Ventures. The company's platform uses AI to transform data from drones, cameras, and laser scanners into verifiable progress tracking and performance analytics, helping keep projects on schedule and budget. PR Newswire

Scindo, a UK startup using a data-rich AI platform to discover and design next-generation enzymes for sustainable, bio-based ingredients, raised €4.5M ($4.8M) in funding. The round was co-led by Kadmos Capital and Clay Capital and will enable the company to expand its enzyme discovery engine and scale wet-lab capabilities. EU-Startups

Fetcherr, a specialist in AI-powered pricing and inventory control for airlines, raised $42M in a Series C round led by Salesforce Ventures. The new funding will be used to expand into new international markets and adapt its demand-forecasting technology for other legacy sectors. PhocusWire

EdSights, an AI-powered student voice platform for higher education, secured an $80M strategic growth investment from JMI Equity. The company uses personalized SMS-based communications to proactively engage students, identify at-risk individuals, and help universities improve retention rates. Business Wire

Burnt, a Y Combinator startup that uses AI agents to automate back-office food supply chain tasks, raised $3.8M in seed funding. The round was led by Penny Jar Capital, the VC firm backed by NBA star Steph Curry, and will be used to help the company modernize workflows for food distributors. TechCrunch

Prelude Security, an endpoint security firm focused on protecting against in-memory cyberattacks, raised $16M in a funding round led by Brightmind Partners, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Insight Partners. The company uses hardware-level telemetry to detect and block malicious code as it executes, bringing its total funding to $45M. FinTech Global

BeeSpeaker, a Polish language-learning app, raised €2M (~$2.1M) in seed funding led by Movens Capital. The startup uses AI-driven, video-based virtual tutors to help users practice and improve their conversational speaking skills, moving beyond traditional grammar drills. The funds will support expansion into new markets and the introduction of new languages. Tech.eu

Hitachi has agreed to acquire Synvert, a German data and AI consulting firm, through its subsidiary GlobalLogic. The acquisition will strengthen GlobalLogic's data and consulting capabilities in Europe and accelerate the deployment of Hitachi's HMAX solution for Agentic and Physical AI across industries. Hitachi Global

Alchemer, a customer experience and feedback technology leader, acquired Chatmeter, an AI-powered customer intelligence platform for multi-location businesses. The acquisition expands Alchemer's platform by combining direct feedback from surveys with indirect feedback from reviews and social media. Business Wire

Essence VC, the solo venture firm of Tim Chen, closed a new $41M fund after limited partners preemptively offered the capital. The oversubscribed fourth fund is an upsize from his previous $27M fund and will continue to focus on backing early-stage developer tool and infrastructure startups. TechCrunch

Russell AI Labs, a new platform founded by Luminar founder Austin Russell, launched to build and back transformative AI and frontier technology companies. The firm announced an inaugural partnership and a $300M stake in agentic AI company Emergence AI to help it scale its enterprise solutions. Business Wire

Touring Capital, a new venture firm founded by former investors from Microsoft's M12, SoftBank, and Qualcomm Ventures, closed its inaugural fund with $330M. The firm will focus on investing in AI-enabled enterprise software companies that address deep, vertical-specific pain points, while avoiding the "hype layer" of foundational models. Fortune

Nvidia announced it will invest up to $100B in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips, creating a powerful alliance between the world's leading AI chipmaker and AI model developer. The deal involves an initial $10B investment for non-voting shares and aims to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems for OpenAI's use. Reuters

OpenAI announced plans to build five new AI data centers across the U.S. in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank. The project, part of its massive "Stargate" infrastructure buildout, will add 7 gigawatts of planned capacity—enough to power over 5 million homes—to support the training of more powerful AI models. TechCrunch

Microsoft adds Anthropic's AI to Copilot, signaling a major strategy shift. The software giant announced it will incorporate Anthropic's Claude models into its AI assistant, giving business users a choice beyond the OpenAI models that previously powered the tool. The move marks a further "disentangling" from its once-exclusive partnership with OpenAI. TechCrunch

Google Cloud is 'flooding the zone' with offers for AI startups, a new analysis suggests. The company is pursuing a strategy of capturing the next generation of AI companies by offering significant cloud credits, technical support, and go-to-market partnerships, betting that winning over future unicorns is more valuable than competing for today's giants like OpenAI and Anthropic. TechCrunch

Microsoft cut cloud services to an Israeli military unit after an internal investigation found it was using the tech to store surveillance data on phone calls made by Palestinians. The company disabled certain Azure cloud storage and AI service subscriptions for the Israel Ministry of Defense, citing its policy against facilitating mass surveillance. TechCrunch

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is partnering with Blue Owl Capital to launch a new $3B+ digital infrastructure platform focused on data centers. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is committing about $1B in new equity to the venture to expand data center capacity amid the AI boom. Bloomberg

Anthropic announced plans to triple its international workforce and expand its applied AI team fivefold in 2025. The major hiring push is driven by strong international demand, with nearly 80% of Claude usage now coming from outside the U.S. The company is opening its first Asia office in Tokyo and scaling operations across Europe as it competes globally with OpenAI and other major players. CNBC

AI-Generated "Workslop" Is Harming Productivity: A new study from BetterUp Labs and the Stanford Social Media Lab describes the phenomenon of "workslop"—low-effort, AI-generated content that looks polished but lacks substance, shifting the burden of work to the recipient. The report found 40% of U.S. employees have received workslop, costing an estimated $9M annually in lost productivity at a 10,000-person firm and eroding trust among colleagues. Harvard Business Review

The Billion-Dollar AI Infrastructure Boom: A market analysis outlines the massive race to build AI infrastructure, detailing multi-billion-dollar projects from Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The report highlights Meta's plan to spend $600B by 2028, Oracle's $300B compute power deal with OpenAI, and the ambitious $500B "Stargate" data center venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. TechCrunch

Seattle's Economy Grapples with AI and Tech Layoffs: Seattle's tech-centric economy is facing a significant downturn as major employers Amazon and Microsoft shed tens of thousands of jobs. The pullback is attributed to both widespread layoffs and a strategic shift toward using AI to streamline tasks, causing a ripple effect across the city's real estate, retail, and service industries. The Wall Street Journal

Bain & Co. predicts an $800B AI revenue shortfall by 2030. A new report from the consulting firm estimates that AI companies will need $2 trillion in annual revenue to fund the required computing power, but will likely fall $800 billion short as monetization efforts lag behind massive infrastructure spending. Bloomberg

A VC frenzy is fueling an AI bubble, with investors aggressively pursuing a small group of elite AI startups. 41% of the $200B invested in US startups this year went to just 10 companies. The lavish, preemptive deals for companies like Anthropic, Decagon, and Anysphere echo the dot-com era, raising concerns about "totally overheated" valuations and unsustainable growth expectations. Bloomberg

AI Investment vs. Revenue Gap: A market analysis highlights a growing disconnect between capital investment and revenue in the LLM space. The tech industry is on track to invest approximately $717B in LLM AI and its infrastructure over three years, with total 2024 investment projected at $1.48T by Gartner. However, public sales from market leaders OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are estimated at only $4B in 2024, raising questions about the sustainability of current investment levels and suggesting a future market reckoning. The Guardian

Fermi, a data center REIT co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, is targeting a valuation of up to $13.16B in its U.S. IPO. The development-stage company, which plans to raise up to $550M, aims to build the world's largest energy and data complex to serve the surging demands of the AI boom. Reuters

Meta poached high-ranking OpenAI researcher Yang Song to be a "research principal" at its Meta Superintelligence Labs. Song, who previously led the strategic explorations team at OpenAI, is the latest of at least a dozen top researchers to join Meta from rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. WIRED

California Advances New AI Safety Bill: California state senator Scott Wiener's new AI safety bill, SB 53, is awaiting the governor's signature. The bill requires large AI labs with over $500M in revenue to publish safety reports on their most capable models. Unlike its controversial predecessor, the new bill focuses on transparency over liability and has gained cautious support from industry players like Anthropic, marking a potential step forward for state-level AI regulation. TechCrunch

OpenAI's Sam Altman and physicist David Deutsch proposed a new "Turing Test 2.0" for artificial general intelligence. During an on-stage discussion, they agreed on a new benchmark for AGI: if an AI could crack quantum gravity and explain why and how it did so, that would be enough to consider it human-level smart. Business Insider Africa

A new app that pays users to record their calls and sell the data to AI companies has rocketed to No. 2 on the App Store's social networking chart. The app, Neon Mobile, offers users 30¢ per minute to record their conversations, raising significant privacy and ethical questions about the sourcing of AI training data and whether users are being desensitized to privacy concerns. TechCrunch

xAI accused rival OpenAI of stealing trade secrets in a new lawsuit, escalating the legal battle between the two companies. The suit alleges that three former xAI employees passed source code and other business secrets to OpenAI after being hired away, and claims a "strategic campaign" to undermine Elon Musk's AI startup. The Washington Post

Viral call-recording app Neon went dark after a TechCrunch investigation found a security flaw that exposed users' phone numbers, call recordings, and transcripts. The app, which paid users to record their calls and sell the data to AI companies, had rapidly climbed to the top of the App Store charts before its founder took it offline. TechCrunch