42 stories from 9 sources
The week in Startups and VC
The week's financing activity therefore favored commercial validation and strategic scale over broad AI enthusiasm alone.
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Anthropic expanded a revolving credit facility beyond $10 billion as its annualized revenue pace surged past $65 billion. The company is building both the liquidity and growth profile needed for a potential public offering, while durability remains the central test.
AI venture funding reached a record pace but clustered heavily around OpenAI and Anthropic, while investors began reassessing earlier AI bets that now look strategically or economically weaker. The combination points to a market separating dominant platforms from vulnerable portfolio companies.
AI infrastructure companies attracted major capital as Groq shifted toward an AI cloud, Etched doubled its valuation after a first customer deployment, Mercor pursued a $20 billion valuation, and Micro1 scaled with training-data demand. Together, these moves show investors extending AI infrastructure bets from chips and clusters to cloud capacity and data supply.
Rillet moved from reaching a $1 billion valuation to raising $100 million at that valuation in Series C funding. The progression reflects sustained investor interest in AI-native software that can reshape core finance workflows.
Day’s Recap