Frontier AI capital race accelerates across funding and product launches

Frontier AI financing became the week's defining thread, combining mega-round ambitions, rising valuations, credit expansion, and new model launches across US and Chinese companies. The activity tied fundraising more closely to monetization, public-market readiness, and competition over model cost and capability.

Crypto funding also shifted toward institutional infrastructure, spanning vaults, corporate settlement, payments, and exchange markets. Outside those large financing waves, startup markets split between contraction and selective conviction, with Middle East funding falling and Zepto pursuing a discounted IPO while Flex and European defense funds attracted stronger pricing or new capital.