News linked to this event type.
Odaily Planet Daily Report: AI Agent testing infrastructure startup Arga Labs has announced the completion of a $10 million seed funding round, led by General Catalyst, with participation from BoxGroup, Emergence Capital, Gradient Ventures, and SV Angel. The company aims to address the challenges of testing, training, and adapting AI Agents to complex business systems during enterprise-level deployment. By creating complete digital twin environments of enterprise software, replicating permission systems, Webhooks, and system interaction logic, it enables AI Agents to train in environments that closely resemble real-world operations. (TechCrunch)
According to TechCrunch, Accel-backed startup Keenable has recently closed a $26 million seed funding round and officially emerged from stealth mode. The round was led by Accel, with participation from Conviction Partners and several angel investors. Co-founded by Andrey Styskin, former head of search, AI, and cloud at Yandex, and German AI scientist Matthias Petri, Keenable is building web search indexing and retrieval infrastructure for AI agents.
Odaily News Trader Bonk Guy stated that the market is gradually recognizing the potential of PONS. He noted that PONS currently generates approximately $56 million in annualized revenue, with 80% used for buybacks and burns of PONS; in comparison, Pump.fun generates about $460 million in annualized revenue, with 50% used for buybacks and burns of PUMP, while PUMP is currently valued at approximately $2 billion.Bonk Guy believes that even if PONS were given only 10% of PUMP's valuation, its market cap should reach around $200 million. Additionally, Pons has contributed to roughly half of the on-chain activity on Robinhood Chain, with at least 5 tokens issued through Pons having a market cap exceeding $10 million and at least 20 exceeding $1 million.Regarding the market's recent expectations around Robinhood listings, Bonk Guy stated that as one of the main Meme coin issuance platforms on Robinhood Chain, a future PONS listing on Robinhood is, in his view, "inevitable," and the current rally is not solely driven by listing expectations.
According to Odaily, the Iranian rial hit a record low this week, with the open market exchange rate falling to approximately 2.02 million rials per US dollar on August 24, compared to around 1.53 million rials in the first quarter. During the same period, the US government launched "Operation Economic Exodus," adding more than 60 entities to the Treasury Department's blacklist and, for the first time, designating digital assets as a sanctionable category.State-controlled farms linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) control approximately 65% of Iran's Bitcoin mining capacity. Iranian miners have accounted for roughly 3% to 7% of global Bitcoin hashrate since 2019, with the mined Bitcoin valued at an estimated $1.35 billion to $3.15 billion at various stages.Iran legalized Bitcoin mining in 2019, allowing licensed operators to use industrial electricity at approximately $0.004 per kilowatt-hour and sell the mined tokens to the Central Bank of Iran. Chainalysis estimates that IRGC-affiliated wallets received over $3 billion in Q4 2025; Elliptic states that the Central Bank of Iran holds at least $507 million in USDT.The US Treasury sanctioned Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex in June. Nobitex had processed more than half of Iran's digital asset inflows; in April, the US Treasury seized nearly $500 million in Iran-linked crypto assets. (Bitcoin.com News)
According to Chaoxiang Research, a Morgan Stanley report dated August 24 indicates that the total disclosed off-balance-sheet commitments from hyperscalers, NVIDIA, and Broadcom have surpassed $3.1 trillion. Lease commitments total $1.1 trillion and procurement commitments $1.7 trillion, while the combined on-balance-sheet debt and lease liabilities of hyperscalers reach $770 billion. Amazon and Google's free cash flow turned negative in Q2 2026, with Meta expected to follow suit next quarter. Financing instruments are restructuring the AI compute capital structure across six dimensions: off-balance-sheet lease and procurement commitments form the first financing layer; the share of debt issuance rises from 2% in 2025 to 19% in 2026; Google frees up $110 billion by reducing share buybacks and issuing equity; Oracle records $4.6 billion in customer advance payments in Q2; and Broadcom and NVIDIA launch chip-leasing SPVs to support unrated AI labs. Morgan Stanley notes that when the financing structure itself becomes a core variable in the AI supply chain, tracking changes in off-balance-sheet commitments and accounting judgments is nearing the importance of tracking chip shipments themselves.
Odaily News: City Protocol has disclosed that its seed and Pre-A funding rounds total $11 million, with participation from Dragonfly, Jump Crypto, CMT Digital, Stratified Capital, Adaverse, Mirana, and others. The project's core business is bringing structured products on-chain, providing integrated infrastructure for the issuance, operation, and distribution of structured products through tokenization layers, vault layers, and issuance and operations layers.
According to Chaoxiang Research, Morgan Stanley's August 24 report raised its revenue assumption per gigawatt (GW) of externally sold Google TPUs from $20 billion to $27 billion, increasing the gross margin assumption from 20% to 30%. Following these adjustments, TPU-related cloud revenue is projected to reach $84 billion and $108 billion in 2027 and 2028, respectively, marking increases of 35% and 37% over prior forecasts. Morgan Stanley maintains an Overweight rating on Alphabet with a price target of $400, implying 16% upside from the current share price. The upward revision draws support from recent media reports stating that Google has pledged to supply approximately one million TPUs (equivalent to roughly 1.3 GW), generating about $35 billion in revenue. Furthermore, Google's custom silicon agreement with Marvell validates TPU pricing above previous estimates. The firm anticipates Google Cloud will contribute approximately 50% of Alphabet's consolidated EBIT by 2028. Three primary catalysts underpin the potential for valuation re-rating: the rollout of Gemini 4, inference cost reductions through optimized models, and the market deployment of GenAI offerings. The target price reflects a forward P/E multiple of approximately 22x based on 2028 consensus earnings, commanding a premium of roughly 22% relative to the peer median.
According to TechCrunch, Indian enterprise voice AI startup Ringg announced it has secured a $10 million investment from Peak XV Partners as an extension of its Series A funding round; the company previously closed a $5.5 million Series A earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $15.5 million. Initially founded on text-to-speech technology, Ringg is now pivoting to provide AI agent services for businesses, with clients including Cred, Flipkart, Practo, Groww, and PolicyBazaar. Its voice AI platform has been integrated into approximately 1,200 clinics across Practo, facilitating patient appointments and post-consultation follow-ups.
According to Reuters, AI data center power infrastructure company Emerald AI announced the closing of its $150 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $1.05 billion. Co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC, this round brings Emerald AI’s total funding raised past $220 million. Emerald AI is focused on transforming AI data centers into flexible grid resources, addressing one of the major bottlenecks hindering AI development: power supply. The newly raised capital will be used to expand global commercial deployments in partnership with AI companies, data center operators, and utilities.
According to The Block, crypto investment firm RockawayX announced the acquisition of crypto hedge fund Relayer Capital to integrate long/short and pairs trading strategies into its existing business and expand its presence in the U.S. market. Relayer will be renamed the RockawayX Liquid Opportunities Fund, focusing on investments in undervalued liquid tokens and crypto-related stocks; its founder, Austin Barack, will serve as the fund's CIO. RockawayX currently manages approximately $2 billion in assets, and the new fund plans to raise $150 million.
According to TechCrunch, Stability AI, the developer of the AI image generation model Stable Diffusion, has completed a $76 million Series B funding round, bringing its cumulative funding to $232 million. Participating investors include Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts (EA), as well as AMD Ventures and Pacific Alliance Ventures.
According to Fortune, Nikita Bier, former head of product at Elon Musk’s X and a serial entrepreneur, recently launched one-on-one video consulting services on the expert advice platform Intro, available exclusively to founders of venture-backed startups. His fee is $7,500 per 15-minute interval, with a minimum booking time of 30 minutes, bringing the starting price to $15,000 per session. Consultations cover topics such as startup growth, fundraising, investing, and product “virality.” Bier previously founded the anonymous social apps tbh and Gas, which both topped the US App Store charts before being acquired by Meta (formerly Facebook) and Discord in 2017 and 2023, respectively. He was named head of product at X in 2025, claiming to have driven the launch of around 30 products during his tenure. He has since stepped down from the position but remains on board as an advisor.
According to TechCrunch, robotics startup Generalist has secured nearly $200 million in follow-on funding led by 8VC, establishing a post-money valuation of approximately $3 billion. This capital extends its $400 million Series B round led by Radical Ventures in June, bringing the total for that round to $600 million. Founded in 2024, Generalist's founding team comprises former Google DeepMind researchers Pete Florence and Andy Zeng, alongside former Boston Dynamics engineer Andrew Barry. The company is developing AI foundation models compatible with a wide range of robots; its latest Gen 1.5 model claims to enable robots to learn and execute new tasks through video demonstrations as brief as three to twelve seconds.
According to Sina Finance, prediction platform Kalshi stated in filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has raised approximately $1.12 billion through equity financing, with a total offering size of $1.5 billion.
According to Bloomberg, South Korean AI platform provider Wrtn Technologies announced it has completed a Series C funding round of approximately 100 billion won (around $69 million), valuing the company at 1.2 trillion won (approximately $870 million). The round will primarily be used to drive global market expansion. New investors Coreline Ventures and Eugene Asset Management participated in the financing, while existing shareholders including Goodwater Capital, Antler Global, Woori Venture Partners, Korea Development Bank, and Capstone Partners continued their support.
According to CNBC, program host Jim Cramer stated that Nvidia's position in the AI ecosystem has become "crucial," and its earnings performance will, to some extent, serve as a key metric for the market to evaluate the broader AI trade. Despite market concerns regarding risks such as intensifying competition, headwinds in data center projects, tight memory chip supply, and the sustainability of AI funding, Cramer maintains an optimistic outlook on Nvidia.
According to an official announcement from Hivemind, its subsidiary Hivemind Digital Group has completed a $17 million strategic financing round, led by M&G Investments, with participation from CPIC Investment Management (H.K.), ZA Bank, FalconX, and Sonic Boom Ventures, among others. Alex Seddon, Head of Impact and Private Equity at M&G Investments, will join the company's board of directors.
Odaily News: RockawayX, which manages approximately $2 billion in assets, is seeking to raise $150 million for a new liquidity opportunity fund. RockawayX has previously acquired the crypto hedge fund Relayer Capital. Austin Barack, founder of Relayer Capital and former Partner at CoinFund, will continue to work at RockawayX and manage this fund. The fund will focus on investing in undervalued tokens and crypto-related stocks. Recently, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana have all risen more than 20% over the past week. Meanwhile, crypto venture capital firms such as Paradigm and Framework Ventures are incorporating fields like AI and robotics into their investment strategies.
Odaily News: Bitcoin treasury company Strategy's Bitcoin holdings are currently valued at $66.7 billion, with annual obligations such as preferred stock dividends and interest amounting to approximately $1.76 billion. According to Regime Intelligence analysis, the company's 840,447 BTC holdings correspond to roughly $22 billion in debt and priority claims, and continued access to capital market financing serves as the foundation for meeting its obligations.Stress tests show that Bitcoin prices would need to fall by approximately 96% before Strategy's Bitcoin holdings and reserves would be insufficient to cover its convertible bonds; its debt is not a traditional Bitcoin-collateralized margin loan, and there is no BTC margin call mechanism triggered by price declines.Report author Sherif Saad stated that Strategy needs to maintain its financing cycle to cover annual debt and preferred stock expenses, with cash reserves currently covering approximately 2.6 times the related annual expenses. If the financing environment deteriorates, the company may rely more heavily on reserves and Bitcoin sales to meet its obligations.Strategy has sold Bitcoin four times since May, with the most recent sale involving 1,690 BTC, using the proceeds to pay preferred stock dividends, repurchase shares, and increase its dollar reserves. CEO Phong Le said earlier this month that the company has purchased approximately 25 times the amount of Bitcoin it has sold this year, and plans to resume purchases later this year. (Cointelegraph)
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) CEO Michael Saylor denied reports that the company sold Bitcoin due to financing pressures, clarifying instead that it maintains ample cash reserves and continues to steadily increase its holdings.