John Koetsier / Forbes: Dream Labs, which offers an API for its Dream-1 robot foundation model trained on human videos, raised a $90M seed led by B Capital and Kindred Ventures — This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. … Want to make your dumb robot smart? $3 an hour is all it costs.
Iain Martin / Forbes: Sources: neocloud Fluidstack closed a $1.5B round led by Jane Street at an $18B+ valuation; in July, the startup announced a $750M round at a $7.5B valuation — A little-known company called Fluidstack has become a test bed for Google's plans to sell its own AI chip.
David Phelan / Forbes: Apple plans to open an Apple Developer Center in Berlin in 2026, its first center in Europe and fifth globally, offering in-person developer access and sessions — In an announcement that is characteristically well-timed before the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference which kicks off on Monday …
Phoebe Liu / Forbes: A profile of SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, the 83-year-old who co-founded the 50-year-old analytics firm and holds a ~67% stake worth $13.3B, as AI tests SAS' strategy — Unlike most of today's biggest AI companies, SAS—once America's largest privately held software company—has always operated slowly, steadily and profitably.
Zinnia Lee / Forbes: Shenzhen-listed RoboTechnik, which claims to be the largest silicon photonics tool maker and whose stock is up 340% over the past year, files for a HK listing — RoboTechnik Intelligent Technology's Shenzhen-listed shares soared 340% over the past year, propelling founder Dai Jun's net worth to $2.4 billion.
Boaz Sobrado / Forbes: A profile of Anthony Fujiwara, who industrialized “clipping” for social media video marketing and has contributed to the rise of crypto casinos like Stake — Anthony Fujiwara is the co-founder of Clipping Exe, also known as the creator of clipping, the video marketing phenomenon …
Iain Martin / Forbes: Mistral, which once aimed for top open models, now leans on being an alternative to Chinese and US labs, says it's on track for $80M in monthly revenue by Dec. — Paris-based Mistral wanted to develop a top-tier AI model to rival OpenAI and Anthropic. That didn't work out.
Siladitya Ray / Forbes: What some leaders think of using universal income to mitigate AI-fueled layoffs: Musk calls it the “best way”, OpenAI's policy doc mentions a Public Wealth Fund — Topline — Elon Musk on Friday touted what he described as “Universal HIGH INCOME” as a solution to deal …
Anna Tong / Forbes: AfterQuery, which sells coding and finance training data to AI labs, says it raised a $30M Series A at a $300M valuation, and has hit a $100M+ annual run rate — AfterQuery, which raised $30 million several months ago, competes with data labeling companies like Mercor to sell training data …
Seth Joseph / Forbes: Luminai, an AI-native platform for automating administrative healthcare workflows, raised a $38M Series B led by Peak XV, bringing its total funding to $60M — Cleveland, Ohio, USA - June 17, 2017: Daytime view of Cleveland Clinic main campus entrance reflecting pool near University Circle
Anna Tong / Forbes: Generalist, which raised $140M at a $440M valuation in 2025, releases GEN-1, an AI model to help robots handle high-dexterity tasks typically done by humans — The company says the next big leap in robotics won't come from fancier humanoid hardware. It will come from applying AI scaling principles …
Richard Nieva / Forbes: Vercel, which helps developers host web apps and AI agents, says its run-rate GAAP revenue hit $340M at the end of February, up 86% YoY, amid the AI coding boom — One of the most popular ways to view the Epstein Files, an interface called Jmail that mimics a Gmail inbox, is hosted on Guillermo Rauch's $9.3 billion unicorn Vercel.
Phoebe Liu / Forbes: Nvidia Chief Software Architect Jonathan Ross discusses the $20B Nvidia-Groq deal; sources say Groq's annual revenue was near $100M at the time of the deal — The Christmas Eve agreement—billed as Nvidia's biggest deal in its three-decade history—landed at a precarious moment for Groq.
Sofia Chierchio / Forbes: Sources: after Google's $32B deal, each of Wiz's four co-founders is set to get $2B in post-tax cash; Index is set to net $4B, Insight $2.7B, and Sequoia $3B — Two years after rejecting a $23 billion offer, Israel-based Wiz secured the largest acquisition in Google's history …
Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes: A look at Higgsfield, an AI video startup that grew to $300M ARR within 11 months, as it faces a creator backlash over aggressive and shocking marketing tactics — CEO Alex Mashrabov, originally from Uzbekistan, cofounded Higgsfield in 2023 as a ChatGPT for video-style mobile app.
Iain Martin / Forbes: A profile of Applied Intuition, which makes self-driving simulation software and reported $800M in 2025 revenue and 80% gross margins, as it expands beyond cars — Applied Intuition CEO Qasar Younis (left) and CTO Peter Ludwig believe human-driven cars will soon seem dated.
Iain Martin / Forbes: Sources: AI legal software startup Harvey seeks to raise $200M led by Sequoia and GIC at an $11B valuation, up from $8B after raising $160M in December 2025 — The startup, which develops AI software for lawyers and big law firms, is raising additional capital, increasing its valuation from $8 billion just two months ago.
Anna Tong / Forbes: Sources: Mercor rival micro1 has told investors it is now generating $200M in recurring revenue; Mercor is offering micro1 employees signing bonuses up to $2M — Employees at micro1, a human data company, have been offered cash bonuses between $500,000 and $2 million, to join rival Mercor.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes: Microsoft confirms it does provide BitLocker recovery keys for encrypted data if it receives a valid legal order and the user has stored the keys on its servers — The tech giant said it receives around 20 requests for BitLocker keys a year and will provide them to governments in response to valid court orders.
Iain Martin / Forbes: Lightning AI merges with data center operator Voltage Park to create an “AI cloud” with a $2.5B valuation, managing 35,000+ Nvidia GPUs across six data centers — The startup behind open source tool PyTorch Lightning has merged with compute provider Voltage Park to create a …
Iain Martin / Forbes: Listen Labs, whose AI tools help Microsoft and others run customer research and interviews, raised a $69M Series B led by Ribbit Capital at a $500M+ valuation — The San Francisco-based company, which has run more than 1 million customer interviews with its automated AI tools …
Marco Chiappetta / Forbes: SiFive will integrate Nvidia's NVLink Fusion infrastructure with its RISC-V processor IP platforms, allowing SiFive silicon to communicate with Nvidia GPUs — SiFive To Integrate Nvidia NVLink Fusion — In a move that could have major implications for future AI datacenters, SiFive …
Alicia Park / Forbes: AI sector minted 50+ new billionaires in 2025; Crunchbase: investors poured $200B+ into AI startups in 2025, or about 50% of global funding, up from 34% in 2024 — Record activity in the AI sector this year has boosted dozens of founders and business executives into the billionaire ranks.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes: Some US schools are deploying AI surveillance tech like facial recognition and listening devices; critics say there is little evidence they make school safer — Schools across the U.S. are rolling out AI-powered surveillance technology, including drones, facial recognition and even bathroom listening devices.
Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes: PermitFlow, which develops AI-powered workflow software for construction permitting, raised a $54M Series B led by Accel, a source says at a ~$500M valuation — This week's edition of The Prompt newsletter covers Warner Music Group's settlement with Suno, why Decagon has a competitive streak …
Joan Verdon / Forbes: Salesforce: online Black Friday sales grew 6% YoY to $79B globally, including $3B in US sales driven by AI agents; Adobe: US online sales rose 9.1% to $11.8B — Joan Verdon is a veteran retail reporter based in Northern New Jersey. — Consumers spent record amounts online on Black Friday …
Jonathan Burgos / Forbes: Several of Asia's top tycoons and conglomerates are joining the data center race as tech giants plan $240B in APAC hyperscale expansion over the next five years — The buildout of AI infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific is in high gear. Masayoshi Son and Mukesh Ambani are among the region's wealthiest taking the lead.
Christopher Marquis / Forbes: Seneca, which is developing autonomous firefighting drones, raised $60M in seed and Series A rounds led by Caffeinated Capital and Convective Capital — Climate change is no longer a remote future threat. Rising temperatures, more extreme weather, and worsening fire seasons …
Forbes: A look at AI startups aiming to address loneliness among the elderly; a study predicts the AI market for aging and elderly care will grow to over $43B in 2025 — The AI boom has brought with it a new crop of startups looking to build a business on an urgent but vaguely dystopian idea: solving loneliness among the elderly.
Martina Di Licosa / Forbes: A profile of Anton Pavlovsky, CEO of Kyiv-based Headway Inc, which develops gamified educational apps and has 160M users across its five-product portfolio — Shelf-ish: “Books and reading are really important to me, but we realize not everyone is so into books,” says Headway founder Anton Pavlovsky …
John Kang / Forbes: Shares of ISU Petasys, a South Korea-based multi-layer PCB supplier for AI servers used by Alphabet, Nvidia, Microsoft, and others, are up 215% so far this year — Based in Daegu, a city in southeastern South Korea, ISU Petasys makes multi-layer printed circuit boards that hold chips and other components for AI servers.
Robert Olsen / Forbes: New York- and London-based ClaimSorted, which uses AI to help speed up insurance claims and works with 20+ insurers, raised a $13.3M seed led by Atomico — Robert Olsen is a journalist covering transatlantic business news. … The tedious, time-consuming process of settling insurance claims is practically begging for disruption.
Forbes: A profile of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, whose estimated 11% stake is now worth $1B+ following ICE's $2B investment, as its rivalry with Kalshi intensifies — A $2 billion investment from NYSE parent ICE vaults Polymarket's 27 year-old founder Shayne Coplan into the three-comma club …
Richard Nieva / Forbes: AMD's SVP of AI Vamsi Boppana says the company's AI software, designed with input from OpenAI, helped secure the multi-billion dollar deal with OpenAI — Chips aren't the only star of the massive agreement. AMD's software efforts have slowly turned it into a more formidable competitor to Nvidia.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes: US public records: AWS is aggressively promoting AI surveillance tech to law enforcement agencies, partnering with companies such as Flock Safety and ZeroEyes — With a growing roster of partners, Amazon has been peddling AI drone surveillance, gun detection, and real-time crime center technology …
Phoebe Liu / Forbes: A profile of Edwin Chen, the CEO of Surge AI, a Scale AI rival that had $1.2B revenue in 2024, is profitable, and is reportedly raising $1B at a $30B valuation — This story appears in the October/November 2025 issue of Forbes Magazine. Subscribe — An alum of Google, Facebook and Twitter …
Alicia Park / Forbes: A look at prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket; Kalshi has ~$1B in current monthly volume and processed $6.9B in total, including $6.4B since October 2024 — Kalshi co-founders, Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara — The savviest billionaire traders are placing their bets on budding prediction marketplaces.
Javier Bastardo / Forbes: Downloads of Jack Dorsey-backed Bluetooth P2P messaging app Bitchat spiked to 48K+ in Nepal during recent protests, according to Bitchat developer “callebtc” — The Nepali government blocked access to 26 major social media platforms on September 4, including Facebook, X, YouTube, and Instagram.
Forbes: Brain Co., co-founded by Jared Kushner, Elad Gil, and others to help enterprises and governments use AI, comes out of stealth with a $30M Series A — Kushner teamed up with prolific solo investor Elad Gil and Luis Videgaray, the former Mexican foreign minister, to launch Brain Co. …
Richard Nieva / Forbes: A profile of Mercor, a Scale AI rival valued at $2B in February, which hires domain experts to train models; it had a $100M run rate in March and $6M H1 profit — Mercor, debuting on the Forbes Cloud 100 list, built an AI recruiter to interview job candidates.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes: Public records show C3 AI's Project Sherlock, its flagship contract to speed up policing in San Mateo County, has struggled with usability and other issues — San Mateo County pumped $12 million into a grand AI surveillance system made by billionaire Tom Siebel's C3 AI that was supposed to level up its police work.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes: A profile of Flock Safety, which operates 80K AI surveillance cameras across the US and hit a $7.5B valuation in March 2025, as it expands into US-made drones — With more than 80,000 AI-powered cameras across the U.S., Flock Safety has become one of cops' go-to surveillance tools and a $7.5 billion business.
Forbes: UK filings: TikTok's revenue in the UK, Europe, and Latin America grew 38% YoY to $6.3B in 2024, up from $2.6B in 2022 — Revenue from Chinese social media giant ByteDance's short video app leapt up 38% to $6.3 billion last year in Europe even as it faces the threat of being banned in the United States.
Iain Martin / Forbes: Grok's “share” button generates a unique URL that makes users' chats searchable on Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo; Google has indexed 370K+ Grok conversations — xAI made people's conversations with its chatbot public and searchable on Google without warning …
Amy Feldman / Forbes: Medallion, which automates health care back-office operations and compliance, raised $43M led by Acrew at a ~$440M valuation, bringing its total raised to $130M — Medallion is setting up a national clearinghouse to streamline a healthcare credentialing process that costs more than $1 billion annually.
Martina Di Licosa / Forbes: A profile of UCB CS professor Ion Stoica, a billionaire who has helped launch four startups out of his privately-funded research lab, including Databricks — This computer science professor became a billionaire launching four startups out of his privately-funded research lab, including unicorns Databricks and Anyscale.
Forbes: Sources say Meta's chaotic culture and lack of vision have led to AI brain drain; Meta strongly denies it has had issues with talent and retention — At Meta, a chaotic culture and lack of vision have led to brain drain, with rivals saying its AI talent is lackluster.
Justin Birnbaum / Forbes: Jump, a SaaS startup founded by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore for managing sports ticketing and fan experiences, raised a $23M Series A at a $100M+ valuation — Founded by the MLB legend alongside billionaire Marc Lore, his Timberwolves co-owner, the company is now valued at more than $100 million as it builds a one-stop shop for fans.
Richard Nieva / Forbes: How Google's Jigsaw and pollster Scott Rasmussen plan to use AI to survey Americans on political views to find common ground ahead of the US' 250th anniversary — A collaboration between the tech giant and a polling nonprofit will gather five to 10 people each from every congressional district …
Alex Knapp / Forbes: Tahoe Therapeutics, which is building AI models of living cells, raised $30M led by Amplify Partners at a $120M valuation, taking its total funding to $42M — The Palo Alto, California-based company, now valued at $120 million, has developed a scalable way to quickly generate crucial biological data needed …