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Samsung Leads $231 Million Series A Funding Round for Dutch AI Chip Startup Euclyd
According to TechStartups.com, Dutch AI chip startup Euclyd has completed an over €200 million (approximately $231 million) Series A funding round, co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund, and Innovation Industries. Founded in 2024 by Bernardo Kastrup and Atul Sinha, Euclyd is headquartered in Eindhoven and focuses on AI inference, aiming to replace GPU solutions with proprietary chips and memory architectures to reduce energy consumption for AI inference and lower cost per token. Former ASML CEO Peter Wennink will serve as the company's board chairman.
Palo Alto Networks Acquires AI Agent Startup Console for $500 Million
According to TechCrunch, cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of AI Agent startup Console for $500 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2024, Console utilizes AI Agents to automate tasks such as password resets, application access provisioning, and daily IT troubleshooting, serving clients including Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI. Palo Alto Networks plans to integrate Console into its AI-driven security platform, Cortex, enabling security teams to investigate and handle security alerts through natural language to achieve more automated enterprise security operations. This marks Palo Alto Networks' seventh acquisition completed this year. Previously, the company acquired Chronosphere at a $3.35 billion valuation and cybersecurity startup Koi for $400 million.
AI Startup Keenable Raises $26 Million in Seed Funding Led by Accel
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.
Waymo Founder Sebastian Thrun Announces Founding of New Robotics Startup Dulo
According to Business Insider, Waymo founder Sebastian Thrun announced the founding of new robotics startup Dulo at the San Francisco robotics conference Actuate; the company is currently still in stealth mode. According to a webpage hosted by Stanford University, Dulo is dedicated to building a "foundation model for hardware design," with the goal of achieving "hyper-fast manufacturing." The team includes core talent from Waymo, Google Brain, and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Thrun did not disclose funding details, product details, or launch timeline. Notably, in the first quarter of 2026, financing in the physical AI sector reached a record $16.3 billion.
SpaceX Previously Sought to Acquire AI Programming Startup Cognition, Both Parties Still Negotiating Cooperation
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, SpaceX approached AI programming startup Cognition to discuss a potential acquisition, but Cognition CEO Scott Wu explicitly stated that the company "will not sell and is not engaged in related negotiations." Sources familiar with the matter revealed that both parties are still discussing collaboration, including the possibility of Cognition using SpaceX's compute resources. Cognition achieved a valuation of $26 billion in a funding round this May and is currently seeking a new round of funding at a valuation of at least $40 billion.
AI Security Startup Mindgard Completes €26 Million Series A Funding Round, Led by Album VC
According to EU-Startups, AI security startup Mindgard announced the completion of a €26 million (approximately $30 million) Series A funding round, led by Album VC, with participation from Karma Ventures, .406 Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, IQ Capital, and Lakestar. Mindgard was founded by Dr. Peter Garraghan in 2022, incubated by Lancaster University in the UK, and is headquartered in Boston and London. The company's platform provides Shadow AI discovery, AI red teaming, and runtime AI protection capabilities, and has helped disclose over 150 high-impact AI security vulnerabilities, covering issues such as the Cursor IDE zero-day code execution vulnerability, Google Antigravity trusted workspace defects, and ChatGPT image generation protection failures.
Palo Alto Networks Acquires AI Agent Startup Console for $500 Million
According to TechCrunch, cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of AI Agent startup Console for $500 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2024, Console utilizes AI Agents to automate tasks such as password resets, application access provisioning, and daily IT troubleshooting, serving clients including Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI. Palo Alto Networks plans to integrate Console into its AI-driven security platform, Cortex, enabling security teams to investigate and handle security alerts through natural language to achieve more automated enterprise security operations. This marks Palo Alto Networks' seventh acquisition completed this year. Previously, the company acquired Chronosphere at a $3.35 billion valuation and cybersecurity startup Koi for $400 million.
On-chain lending platform Votre closes $3.75M seed round led by a16z CSX
On-chain lending platform Votre has raised $3.75 million in seed funding, led by a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, with participation from MaC Venture Capital, Druid Ventures, and angel investors from Goldman Sachs, Harvard University, and OrangeDAO. Founded in 2025, Votre operates a non-custodial crypto lending platform on Coinbase’s Base Layer 2 network, enabling users to borrow USD—settled the same day—using Bitcoin as collateral, with loan sizes ranging from approximately $25,000 to $5 million. The funds will be used to scale technical infrastructure, increase platform capacity, enhance liquidity management tools, and strengthen risk and compliance systems.
Polymarket to Investigate “Insider Copy-Trading” Startup Amid Concerns Over Potential Market Manipulation
According to The Information, prediction market Polymarket has announced audits of several early-stage startups integrated into its ecosystem. These startups had previously been accused of identifying and distributing suspected “insider trading accounts” to steer users into copy-trading those accounts. Among the implicated projects are Kreo—which touts itself as a service for “detecting insider accounts ahead of time”—and Polycool—which offers an “insider trading guide.” By pushing suspicious account trading data to users, these platforms have amplified market concerns about insider trading and market manipulation. Polymarket’s move signals its strengthened compliance oversight of its ecosystem, following sustained external scrutiny over potential insider trading risks in prediction markets.
AI Security Startup Mindgard Completes €26 Million Series A Funding Round, Led by Album VC
According to EU-Startups, AI security startup Mindgard announced the completion of a €26 million (approximately $30 million) Series A funding round, led by Album VC, with participation from Karma Ventures, .406 Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, IQ Capital, and Lakestar. Mindgard was founded by Dr. Peter Garraghan in 2022, incubated by Lancaster University in the UK, and is headquartered in Boston and London. The company's platform provides Shadow AI discovery, AI red teaming, and runtime AI protection capabilities, and has helped disclose over 150 high-impact AI security vulnerabilities, covering issues such as the Cursor IDE zero-day code execution vulnerability, Google Antigravity trusted workspace defects, and ChatGPT image generation protection failures.
Citadel Securities Sues Former Employee for Over $7.9 Million Over Crypto Startup
Citadel Securities has filed a lawsuit in London, seeking over £6 million (approximately $7.9 million) from Leonard Lancia, its former European Head of Derivatives Systematic Market Making and co-founder of high-frequency crypto trading firm Portofino Technologies.Citadel Securities alleges that Leonard Lancia and his colleagues began planning their startup while still employed, and has won damages and legal cost support in related labor arbitration. Additionally, Citadel Securities filed a lawsuit against Portofino Technologies in the US in 2023, accusing it of stealing trade secrets. Leonard Lancia and Portofino Technologies have denied all allegations. The High Court in London rejected Leonard Lancia's request to lift the asset freezing order last Friday. (Bloomberg)
Palo Alto Networks Acquires AI Agent Startup Console for $500 Million
According to TechCrunch, cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of AI Agent startup Console for $500 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2024, Console utilizes AI Agents to automate tasks such as password resets, application access provisioning, and daily IT troubleshooting, serving clients including Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI. Palo Alto Networks plans to integrate Console into its AI-driven security platform, Cortex, enabling security teams to investigate and handle security alerts through natural language to achieve more automated enterprise security operations. This marks Palo Alto Networks' seventh acquisition completed this year. Previously, the company acquired Chronosphere at a $3.35 billion valuation and cybersecurity startup Koi for $400 million.
AI Startup Keenable Raises $26 Million in Seed Funding Led by Accel
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.
Waymo Founder Sebastian Thrun Announces Founding of New Robotics Startup Dulo
According to Business Insider, Waymo founder Sebastian Thrun announced the founding of new robotics startup Dulo at the San Francisco robotics conference Actuate; the company is currently still in stealth mode. According to a webpage hosted by Stanford University, Dulo is dedicated to building a "foundation model for hardware design," with the goal of achieving "hyper-fast manufacturing." The team includes core talent from Waymo, Google Brain, and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Thrun did not disclose funding details, product details, or launch timeline. Notably, in the first quarter of 2026, financing in the physical AI sector reached a record $16.3 billion.
Former Alibaba AI Architect Lin Junyang Founds AI Agent Startup, Secures Backing from Tencent and Multiple VCs
According to Bloomberg, former Alibaba flagship model chief architect Lin Junyang recently announced on the X platform the founding of a new company, focusing on developing AI agents for the digital and physical worlds. This comes less than half a year after his unexpected departure from Alibaba. The company has received investment support from Tencent Holdings and several top Chinese venture capital firms.
Naver D2SF Completes Third-Round Follow-On Investment in Physical AI Data Startup NdotLight
According to Yonhap News, Naver D2SF announced the completion of a follow-on investment in physical AI data startup NdotLight (엔닷라이트). This round of financing was led by the Korea Development Bank, with a total size of 15 billion Korean won. This is also Naver D2SF's third investment in the company following the Pre-A round in 2021 and the Series A round in 2022. NdotLight independently developed the 3D data generation solution TRINIX, which can automatically generate high-precision 3D data containing physical properties (mass, friction), joint structures, and collision range information, and is deeply integrated with NVIDIA's simulation platform Omniverse, achieving mass supply of large-scale high-quality 3D simulation datasets.
OpenAI Acquires Presentation Startup NextSlide, Team Joins ChatGPT Project
Odaily News: Presentation startup NextSlide announced its integration into OpenAI, with team members now involved in ChatGPT-related work. NextSlide founder Ahmed Beshry stated that the company's previously developed product can generate editable presentations from prompts, notes, documents, or research materials. Beshry noted that upon joining OpenAI, the team will continue developing AI products that help users create, communicate, and express their ideas.The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Beshry indicated that the acquisition actually took place earlier this year, with this announcement coming several months after the deal was completed. (TechCrunch)
Related news
Samsung Leads $231 Million Series A Funding Round for Dutch AI Chip Startup Euclyd
According to TechStartups.com, Dutch AI chip startup Euclyd has completed an over €200 million (approximately $231 million) Series A funding round, co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund, and Innovation Industries. Founded in 2024 by Bernardo Kastrup and Atul Sinha, Euclyd is headquartered in Eindhoven and focuses on AI inference, aiming to replace GPU solutions with proprietary chips and memory architectures to reduce energy consumption for AI inference and lower cost per token. Former ASML CEO Peter Wennink will serve as the company's board chairman.
U.S. Department of Defense Plans to Provide $5 Billion Loan to AI Infrastructure Startup Fluidstack
According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Defense is negotiating a $5 billion (approximately 6.7 trillion South Korean won) loan with AI cloud platform startup Fluidstack, funded by the Department's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), primarily to strengthen the domestic U.S. supply chain and manufacturing capabilities for critical data center components. If the agreement is reached, it would become OSC's largest single loan to date. Founded in 2017, Fluidstack relocated its headquarters to New York in December last year, currently employs 700 staff members all working in the United States, and has already signed multi-year data center leases in states including New York, Indiana, Louisiana, and Texas. Loan terms have not yet been finalized.
Palo Alto Networks Acquires AI Agent Startup Console for $500 Million
According to TechCrunch, cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks announced the acquisition of AI Agent startup Console for $500 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2024, Console utilizes AI Agents to automate tasks such as password resets, application access provisioning, and daily IT troubleshooting, serving clients including Ramp, Flock Safety, and Scale AI. Palo Alto Networks plans to integrate Console into its AI-driven security platform, Cortex, enabling security teams to investigate and handle security alerts through natural language to achieve more automated enterprise security operations. This marks Palo Alto Networks' seventh acquisition completed this year. Previously, the company acquired Chronosphere at a $3.35 billion valuation and cybersecurity startup Koi for $400 million.
AI Startup Keenable Raises $26 Million in Seed Funding Led by Accel
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.
Waymo Founder Sebastian Thrun Announces Founding of New Robotics Startup Dulo
According to Business Insider, Waymo founder Sebastian Thrun announced the founding of new robotics startup Dulo at the San Francisco robotics conference Actuate; the company is currently still in stealth mode. According to a webpage hosted by Stanford University, Dulo is dedicated to building a "foundation model for hardware design," with the goal of achieving "hyper-fast manufacturing." The team includes core talent from Waymo, Google Brain, and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Thrun did not disclose funding details, product details, or launch timeline. Notably, in the first quarter of 2026, financing in the physical AI sector reached a record $16.3 billion.
SpaceX Previously Sought to Acquire AI Programming Startup Cognition, Both Parties Still Negotiating Cooperation
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, SpaceX approached AI programming startup Cognition to discuss a potential acquisition, but Cognition CEO Scott Wu explicitly stated that the company "will not sell and is not engaged in related negotiations." Sources familiar with the matter revealed that both parties are still discussing collaboration, including the possibility of Cognition using SpaceX's compute resources. Cognition achieved a valuation of $26 billion in a funding round this May and is currently seeking a new round of funding at a valuation of at least $40 billion.