News linked to this event type.
According to Sifted, robotics startup Exclaim Robotics, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, has officially announced emerging from stealth mode, completing a $4.95 million seed funding round that will be used to develop robotic products for daily repair and maintenance operations in hyperscale data centers. The company is led by senior robotics expert Helen Oleynikova, with investors including prominent European early-stage investment institutions.
According to Fortune magazine, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio issued his strongest market warning to date on the "CEO Diary" program, explicitly stating that the current market bubble driven by the AI boom has exhibited "classic characteristics" highly similar to those on the eve of the 1929 Great Depression and the 2000 internet bubble. He directly expressed agreement with the assessment made by Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of GMO and a previous guest on the same program, who called it "the largest investment bubble in American history." Dalio pointed out that the core crisis of the bubble lies in the "confusion between wealth and money"—the paper wealth held by investors cannot be directly consumed. Once the market reverses and everyone sells off simultaneously, asset prices could plummet from $100 to $25, while debt remains not a penny less. He also identified two trigger factors for "bursting the bubble": rising interest rates and a surge in stock issuances. Currently, SpaceX has completed the largest IPO in history, and Anthropic and OpenAI are rushing to list with trillion-dollar valuations, which is precisely the real-world manifestation of the latter. In terms of bubble judgments, Wall Street institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Apollo, and BCA Research are also shifting stance, acknowledging that there is an "earnings bubble" in the technology sector rather than a simple valuation bubble. Dalio places this round of risk within his "Big Cycle" framework, warning that the bubble bursting is not only a financial event but could also become a trigger for political polarization and geopolitical conflicts—at that time, the real risk may not be portfolio losses, but rather with
According to Yonhap News Agency, Google, in order to expand the market penetration of its self-developed AI chip TPU, partnered with institutions such as Broadcom, Apollo, and Blackstone to build an infrastructure finance network with a total scale of approximately $200 billion (approximately 286 trillion Korean won), considered one of the largest projects in the history of infrastructure financing. It is reported that Google signed a TPU supply agreement with Anthropic and funded the construction of data centers to lease to the latter; to diversify the risk of direct ownership, the parties jointly established a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) "Compute", which completed the procurement of the first batch of 1 million TPU hardware units for $35 billion last month, with funds jointly provided by Apollo and Blackstone, and Broadcom providing a residual value guarantee. In addition, Google also brought in crypto mining companies such as TerraWolf, Cipher Digital, and Hut 8 to transition to constructing data centers and be responsible for power assurance.
According to Bloomberg, the current venture capital market is undergoing significant structural differentiation. As capital concentrates on top artificial intelligence startups, a large number of small and medium-sized venture capital funds are facing severe challenges including fundraising difficulties, declining performance, and narrowing exit channels. The report pointed out that the excessive hype for artificial intelligence has distorted the venture capital market. Data shows that just five companies—OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Waymo, and Nscale—accounted for 78% of all venture capital transaction volume in the first quarter of this year. Capital has flowed heavily towards a few top investors who bet early on AI, such as Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, while small emerging fund managers find it difficult to compete with these top institutions. This differentiation is directly reflected in fundraising data. Last year, newly established management companies (managing three or fewer funds) raised only about $62 billion, a significant decrease of about 60% compared to $163.4 billion during the 2022 pandemic peak. Even for experienced management teams, last year's fundraising amount was only $84 billion, only one-third of that in 2022. Many LPs face liquidity pressure and are more inclined to demand returns on existing investments rather than commit new capital.
According to Jin10 Data, SpaceX will announce its first earnings report since listing after the US stock market close on Tuesday. Since listing on June 12, the company's stock price has fallen nearly 50% from its high, with market capitalization shrinking by over $500 billion. As of Monday's close, it was reported at $114.53, approximately 15% lower than the IPO issuance price. Market focus centers on three key areas: • Starlink: S&P Global expects Q2 revenue to reach $6.9 billion, primarily driven by Starlink, which is currently SpaceX's only profitable business segment; • AI: SpaceX's AI business revenue was $818 million in the first three months of this year. It has reached compute supply cooperation agreements with Google, Anthropic, etc., and acquired coding startup Cursor (approximately $60 billion); • Starship: The 13th test flight was completed, but the booster experienced a hard landing. Analyst firm Bernstein believes Starship is one of the most critical factors supporting the high valuation. Additionally, after the lock-up period ends on Thursday, over 911 million shares (market value approximately $100 billion) will be unlocked for circulation. Coupled with short selling funds' paper profits reaching $8.3 billion, market selling pressure cannot be ignored.
Odaily News: SoftBank will release its Q1 results for fiscal 2026 on Thursday, with the market focusing on how it will continue to fund OpenAI and AI infrastructure projects. In the fiscal year ending March 2026, SoftBank posted its highest net profit in history, but since early June this year, the company's share price has fallen by nearly half, and the cost of credit default swaps (CDS) has also climbed significantly. Additionally, SoftBank has pledged over $60 billion in investments to OpenAI and related projects, with approximately $30 billion in funding commitments due in the second half of 2026.Some analysts believe that if AI company valuations pull back, SoftBank will still face considerable pressure. Until enterprise customers truly demonstrate that AI can deliver productivity gains, SoftBank, Arm, and the memory chip sector may continue to face headwinds.
Bloomberg columnist Shuli Ren wrote on Tuesday that the South Korean stock market recently plummeted nearly 40% within 27 trading days at one point, triggering a market reassessment of its investment value. Although Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix still benefit from artificial intelligence chip demand and the KOSPI valuation remains at a low level, market focus has shifted from corporate fundamentals to trading mechanisms, regulatory capabilities, and policy credibility.
Odaily News The market expects SK Hynix to announce a more detailed shareholder return plan as early as the evening of August 4, Korea Standard Time, including measures such as dividends, share buybacks, and cancellations. Analysts believe the company's previous failure to disclose related plans may be linked to U.S. SEC information disclosure restrictions following its ADR listing on July 10, and the plan is expected to be officially announced after the approximately 25-day quiet period ends. Market participants stated that a clear shareholder return policy would help boost investor confidence and drive further valuation re-rating of the company. (The Korea Economic Daily)
According to Konsulteer, blockchain rewards platform Bundle announced the completion of a $5.5 million Pre-Seed funding round, co-led by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin's Ethereal Ventures and Further Ventures, with participation from institutions including Nascent, GSR, Scenius Capital, Anchorage Digital, and Nuwa Capital.
According to Reuters, sources familiar with the matter revealed that CXMT is considering building a second 12-inch DRAM fab in Beijing Yizhuang and is discussing financing support with the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area and several state-owned technology enterprises. Negotiations are currently still in the early stages, and the financing scale and structure have not yet been finalized. The proposed project may be located at the company's existing Beijing facility, but production capacity plans and total investment amount have not yet been disclosed.
POAP co-founder isabel (@izonline) posted on the X platform, announcing the official closure of the on-chain souvenir protocol POAP. POAP has operated since 2021, cumulatively minting millions of on-chain collectibles for hundreds of communities. It partnered with world-class institutions such as Coinbase, American Express (Amex), Warner Music Group (WMG), and Bayer, and completed the minting of over 8,000 collectibles during Devcon. The founder stated that the funding cycles and traffic distribution mechanisms in the crypto industry made it difficult for POAP to achieve commercial sustainability without compromising the project's original vision. Coupled with the dual pressure of rapid tech stack iteration and market hype cycles, this ultimately led to the project's shutdown. The founder also summarized three core lessons: customer communities are a company's most underestimated asset; "sense of connection" is the essential value of a product; and long-term brand trust is the only moat in the current market.
According to TechCrunch, AI startup June has officially announced its emergence from stealth mode, completing a $20 million pre-seed financing round led by Marc Benioff's Time Ventures, with participation from tech industry notables including Michael Dell, Aaron Levie, and George Kurtz. June was co-founded by former Salesforce executive Efrat Rapoport and three co-founders; the team previously founded speech-to-text company Bonobo AI, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2019. June's core product automatically scans existing enterprise systems, identifies business process bottlenecks, and generates a complete roadmap for the step-by-step deployment of AI Agents, helping enterprises achieve AI implementation in complex legacy system environments such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday, without relying on high-cost Frontline Deployment Engineers (FDE).
Odaily News According to global experience, the rise of many leading tech companies has been supported by venture capital. In the first half of this year, investment in high-tech industries grew by 4.6% year-on-year. Behind this figure, the activity of venture capital has been steadily recovering. Industry insiders generally believe that the development of AI technology is the core driver of this recovery in the venture capital market, with funds rapidly flowing into areas such as AI, quantum technology, and computing power. Data shows that in the first half of 2026, total financing for Chinese AI startups exceeded 300 billion yuan, already surpassing the full-year figure for 2025. The influx of capital has led to a rapid rise in valuations, making "grabbing allocation" a key theme in the primary market. (CCTV Finance)
据 Fortune 报道，以色列网络安全初创公司 Zenity 宣布完成 1.25 亿美元 C 轮融资，由 Norwest 领投，软银愿景基金 2、日立创投（Hitachi Ventures）及 LG Technology Ventures 跟投，融资金额将用于拓展亚太及欧洲市场。 Zenity 专注于企业 AI 代理安全防护，与传统 AI 安全方案不同，其平台可对 AI 代理的行为进行实时监控，一旦代理偏离预设目标或对组织数据构成风险，即可即时拦截或干预。CEO Ben Kliger 表示，AI 代理已深度嵌入企业运营的各个环节，亚太市场的采用速度甚至快于以往任何一波 AI 浪潮，日本、韩国、新加坡及澳大利亚均呈现强劲需求。
According to Forbes, San Francisco-based cybersecurity company Horizon3 completed a $250 million Series E funding round co-led by NightDragon and NEA, valued at over $2 billion, representing more than a threefold increase from its valuation of approximately $650 million a year ago. The funding round was oversubscribed, with the company's annual recurring revenue growth reaching 120% and customer count exceeding 6,500, including the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and four Fortune 10 companies.
According to Fortune, software-driven mining startup Mariana Minerals has completed a $310 million Series B funding round, led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Greenoaks, BHP Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, and other institutions. This brings the company's total funding to $400 million, with a valuation of $1.5 billion. Mariana was co-founded in 2024 by Turner Caldwell, a former member of Tesla's factory design and construction team. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company is dedicated to reshaping the traditional mining industry with software technology. The company currently operates two mines: Copper One in Utah (a copper mine targeting an annual production of 50,000 tons of refined copper) and Lithium One in Texas (a lithium mine expected to enter commercial production in 2027).
Odaily News - South Korean AI chip design firm DeepX Co. has recently completed a new round of financing, with its valuation surging approximately fourfold from the previous round, reflecting sustained high investor enthusiasm for companies in the AI supply chain. According to sources familiar with the matter, the startup, headquartered in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, is valued at approximately 3.14 trillion Korean won (equivalent to $2.2 billion) in its latest round of deals. DeepX has signed the first agreements of its Series D funding round, securing 42 billion Korean won from existing investors BNW Investment Co. and DS Asset Management Co. (Theedgemarkets)
According to PR Newswire, AI data center company Hyperscale Data (NYSE: GPUS) announced the successful implementation of a Bitcoin-backed DeFi financing strategy via the Morpho protocol. As of August 2, 2026, the company has completed approximately $30 million in Bitcoin-collateralized borrowing through the protocol, with a current variable interest rate of approximately 4.9%. The raised funds will be used to support the continued construction of its Michigan AI data center campus, as well as general corporate purposes such as daily working capital. The company stated that this move aims to transform its Bitcoin treasury from a passive reserve asset into a source of low-cost growth capital, while retaining exposure to Bitcoin's long-term appreciation and reducing reliance on dilutive equity financing.
According to Bloomberg, South Korean AI chip design company DeepX has completed the first tranche of its Series D funding round, raising 4.2 billion won from existing investors BNW Investment Co. and DS Asset Management Co. The latest valuation is approximately 3.14 trillion won (about $2.2 billion), representing an approximately 4-fold increase from the previous valuation.
According to QCP Group, the US Treasury, via the New York Fed, jointly purchased yen with the Japanese Ministry of Finance last Friday, marking the first US-Japan joint foreign exchange intervention action specifically to support the yen since 1998. Meanwhile, the US 30-year Treasury yield briefly rose to about 5.27%, hitting a new high since 2007, before falling back to 5.24%. QCP pointed out that the transmission path of this intervention to the crypto market mainly unfolds through yen carry trades—rapid yen appreciation may force investors holding yen funding positions to deleverage and buy back yen, subsequently affecting risk assets including BTC and ETH, reenacting the market volatility triggered by carry trade unwinding in August 2024. QCP reminded that current macro monitoring indicators should take the USD/JPY exchange rate, Japan funding costs, and US long-end Treasury yields into consideration; fiscal policy operations are increasingly becoming an important variable affecting the direction of global liquidity.