#venture-capital

AI-focused hedge fund makes aggressive bet on semiconductor manufacturing startup despite recent $10B AUM decline.

Microsoft's Anthropic stake appreciated sharply in Q4 FY2026, while its OpenAI holdings declined, revealing divergent valuations in competing AI labs.

The Harvard-founded chip maker closes a $300M Series C led by Sequoia, doubling its valuation in seven months on custom prefill and decode silicon.

Anthropic's $47B revenue run rate in May reflects a shift from model-centric to platform-centric competition, according to Menlo Ventures investor Matt Murphy.

The former Intel CEO joins Playground Capital to back semiconductor startups pursuing nanometer-scale light-etching as the path forward for chip scaling.

The veteran VC co-founder predicts concentration of AI gains will trigger a reckoning, but says the tech industry can lead a willing shift rather than face involuntary measures.

Venture capitalists are using creative workarounds to resist the rising tide of AI-powered meeting transcription tools.

Former Google DeepMind researcher Andrew Dai raised $55M at a $300M pre-seed valuation, prioritizing strategic partners like Nvidia over higher offers.

Actor-investor exits 11-year-old VC partnership to pursue early-stage bets on AI hardware, energy, and deep tech alongside NFX and Meta veteran.

TechCrunch announces Builders Stage agenda for October event, centering on startup scaling challenges including fundraising, hiring, and go-to-market strategy amid AI market saturation.

Privacy-focused AI platform Venice AI raises $65M Series A led by Dragonfly at $1B valuation, citing $70M+ ARR and 3M active users.

The autonomous-driving startup distributes $85M in liquidity to staff, signaling investor confidence as AI companies increasingly use tender offers as retention tools.

Three former DeepMind scientists who created a poker-playing AI have applied reinforcement learning to stock trading through EquiLibre Technologies, now valued at $500M after a Creandum-led Series A.

The founder-focused conference in Boston on November 4 offers $190 savings and 30% group discounts before rates increase.

The inference infrastructure startup is raising at a $13B valuation just five months after a $300M Series E, but split pricing reveals how startups are gaming funding rounds.

Venture investor Tiffany Luck discusses the shift from AI hype to measurable returns, multi-model strategies, and why value creation spans the entire AI stack.

The veteran venture capitalist and former Sequoia managing partner is now on SpaceX's board amid the company's record-breaking public debut.

A new startup is positioning itself as the data backbone for physical AI, offering collection tools and annotation systems that frontier labs cannot easily build themselves.

French AI startup Mistral is in early talks to raise €3B, nearly doubling its valuation from last year's Series C and positioning Europe's leading LLM lab against US rivals.

SpaceX's public debut Friday reveals structural risks in nested special purpose vehicles, with some investors unaware of actual holdings until lock-up periods end.

Sabertooth Capital deployed nearly $500M across 10 AI and deep-tech startups in 12 months using SPVs and nominee structures, avoiding the 12-18 month fund-raising timeline.

Sabertooth VC deployed nearly $400M across 10 companies in 12 months using special purpose vehicles, bypassing traditional fund formation timelines.

The legal AI startup lands Series A backing to tackle workflow automation for in-house counsel teams, differentiating from litigation-focused competitors.

An AI talent platform founder calls out a common VC practice where lead investors use two tranches at different valuations to inflate headline numbers.

Venture capital firms are betting on both OpenAI and Anthropic despite fierce competition between the labs, suggesting investors doubt a single dominant player will emerge.

Final deadline to lock in up to $410 savings on tickets to October's flagship startup and innovation conference in San Francisco.

TechCrunch's invitation-only investor conference lands in El Segundo on June 18, featuring founders and VCs debating autonomy, manufacturing, and the reshaping of hard tech.

Early Bird discounts of up to $410 on individual passes and 30% on group tickets expire tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. PT for the October 13–15 conference in San Francisco.

TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200 program closes applications tonight, offering 200 early-stage startups equity-free funding, investor access, and global exposure.

TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200 applications close in one week, offering early-stage founders VC access, global visibility, and non-dilutive capital ahead of Disrupt 2026.

Venture-backed startups including Exa Labs and Parallel Web Systems are raising hundreds of millions to build alternatives to traditional search and ChatGPT's search interface.

TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200 competition closes applications on May 27, offering 200 early-stage startups equity-free funding, VC access, and a platform at Disrupt 2026.

A venture capitalist's analysis reveals roughly 10,000 people at AI leaders have crossed $20M wealth while most engineers face obsolescence fears and layoffs.

DeepSeek is raising its first outside funding at a $45B valuation, led by a Chinese state investment vehicle, to counter researcher poaching.

Preemptive investor bids have pushed Anthropic's potential valuation to $900B, fueled by a fourfold revenue surge that took its annual run rate from $9B to roughly $40B in months.