The European Innovation Council has made its first equity investments under the STEP scale-up scheme, backing quantum computing firm IQM and semiconductor company Zadient. Both companies are working on technologies critical to Europe’s strategic independence. The moves signal a major push into deep-
The founder behind Apstra is back with a new networking startup targeting AI infrastructure challenges. Aria Networks promises microsecond-level telemetry to handle the unique demands of GPU clusters. This comes as AI networking requirements diverge from traditional cloud architectures.
Ant Group’s new AI coding assistant LingGuang reached 2 million downloads in just one week, growing faster than OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The app’s viral flash program feature temporarily crashed under heavy traffic as users rushed to create apps with natural language prompts.
Sam Altman’s blockchain startup Tools for Humanity is demanding fanatical devotion from employees, including weekend work and being always on-call. The company’s eyeball-scanning Orb has only achieved 17.5 million sign-ups out of a 2 billion goal by November 2025. CEO Alex Blania told staff “nothing
The startup founded by FreeWheel veteran Diane Yu aims to process over 200,000 loans yearly using AI that integrates directly with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the housing crisis involves deeper issues that technology alone can’t solve.
As AI startups race to compete, many are adopting China’s notorious 996 work culture of 72-hour weeks. But one founder who worked at Coinbase and Airbnb is taking a different approach to building his company.
Sam Altman’s eye-scanning startup Tools for Humanity is pushing an extreme work culture where employees are expected to work weekends and be always on call. The company’s CEO has explicitly rejected diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, telling staff “nothing else should matter” but the mission.
Europe’s senior tech talent pool has expanded more rapidly than America’s over the past decade. Yet founders still face market fragmentation and stubborn gender funding disparities that show no signs of improvement.
Blackstone is doubling down on legal AI with a $50 million investment in Norm Ai. The funding comes as the company launches Norm Law, an AI-native legal service platform targeting financial institutions. This represents one of the largest bets yet on AI transforming the legal industry.
Wispr’s voice dictation app is taking off, prompting the startup to raise $25 million from Notable Capital just months after a $30 million round. The company says users now write over 50% of their characters through the app and retention remains strong at 70% over 12 months.
