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$2.2B Priced In One Day Across Three AI Bets
FUNDING$2.2B across 3 events
$2.2B Priced In One Day Across Three AI Bets
Value Add Pulse tallied the capital raised across three separate September 15 announcements -- Profound, Thatch and Rocket Lab's Iridium financing -- against the prior week's eleven largest US venture rounds.
BY THE NUMBERS
FUNDING
Euclyd Raises $231M To Challenge Nvidia On Inference
FUNDING$231M Series A
Euclyd Raises $231M To Challenge Nvidia On Inference
Dutch chip startup Euclyd raised more than $231 million in a Series A led by Samsung, with former ASML chief executive Peter Wennink joining as chairman to help commercialize a memory-centric architecture aimed at AI inference.
DEEP DIVE
REGULATION
FTC Chair Warns AI Labs Against Antitrust Exemptions
REGULATION
FTC Chair Warns AI Labs Against Antitrust Exemptions
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said AI companies asking Washington for both new regulation and an antitrust exemption should trigger deep suspicion, responding to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call for permission to coordinate a slower AI pace with rivals.
DEEP DIVE
AI
AEO Startup Profound Hits $1.8B In Just 7 Months
AI$180M Series D
AEO Startup Profound Hits $1.8B In Just 7 Months
Profound, which helps brands track how they appear inside ChatGPT and Gemini answers, raised a $180 million Series D co-led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins at a $1.8 billion valuation, less than seven months after its last round.
DEEP DIVE
REGULATION
Microsoft Commits To Sweeping AI Rules For Students
REGULATION
Microsoft Commits To Sweeping AI Rules For Students
Microsoft agreed to sweeping AI privacy commitments for K-12 students, negotiated directly with the American Federation of Teachers, pledging not to train its AI systems on student data as schools returned for the new year.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Thatch Hits Unicorn Status As Health Costs Surge
FUNDING$108M Series C
Thatch Hits Unicorn Status As Health Costs Surge
Thatch, an ICHRA marketplace that lets employers fund individual health plans instead of one group policy, raised a $108 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation as revenue grew nearly sevenfold over the past year.
DEEP DIVE
AI
AI Safety Startup AIUC Raises $40M Series A
AI$40M Series A
AI Safety Startup AIUC Raises $40M Series A
AIUC, an AI-agent safety and insurance startup founded by an early Anthropic hire and METR's former COO, raised a $40 million Series A led by Ribbit Capital to build an auditable safety standard for enterprise AI deployments.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Flam Raises $40M Series B With Shah Rukh Khan
FUNDING$40M Series B
Flam Raises $40M Series B With Shah Rukh Khan
AI interactive-content startup Flam raised a $40 million Series B led by QED Investors with backing from Shah Rukh Khan and Datadog's Olivier Pomel, pushing past its 2021 mixed-reality roots toward AI-generated brand content.
DEEP DIVE
BIG TECH
SoftBank Pays Off $25.9B Of Its OpenAI Bridge Loan Early
BIG TECH$25.9B repayment
SoftBank Pays Off $25.9B Of Its OpenAI Bridge Loan Early
SoftBank is repaying the remaining $25.9 billion balance on the $40 billion bridge loan that financed its OpenAI stake, six months ahead of the March 2027 maturity, shifting the debt behind its biggest-ever bet to longer-term financing.
DEEP DIVE
BIG TECH
Rocket Lab Fully Funds Its $8B Iridium Buyout
BIG TECH$1.944B equity raise
Rocket Lab Fully Funds Its $8B Iridium Buyout
Rocket Lab completed a $1.944 billion public share sale, fully funding its pending $8 billion acquisition of satellite operator Iridium and canceling the $3.6 billion bridge facility it had lined up as a backstop.
DEEP DIVE
REGULATION
Senate Holds Make-Or-Break Vote On The Clarity Act Today
REGULATION
Senate Holds Make-Or-Break Vote On The Clarity Act Today
The Senate holds a 2:15pm ET cloture vote on the Clarity Act today, needing 60 votes Republicans don't have alone, with Trump's crypto ethics limits and bank pushback on stablecoins still unresolved.
FOLLOW-UP
IPO
Treasury Yields Push Past 5% Again On Fed Decision Eve
IPO
Treasury Yields Push Past 5% Again On Fed Decision Eve
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.041% and oil held near $107.55 as traders priced a 92% chance of a Fed rate hike Wednesday, up from 88% odds a day earlier, with futures pointing to a lower open.
FOLLOW-UP
FUNDING
SoftBank's Payoff Shows Who's Really Financing The AI Boom
FUNDING
SoftBank's Payoff Shows Who's Really Financing The AI Boom
SoftBank refinancing its OpenAI bridge loan with bonds and margin loans, not IPO proceeds, is more evidence that debt -- not venture equity -- has become the financing engine of the AI infrastructure buildout.
TRACE'S TAKE
FUNDING
Oracle, Microsoft And The Pentagon, By The Numbers
FUNDING
Oracle, Microsoft And The Pentagon, By The Numbers
Value Add Pulse tallies three numbers from the past week's AI infrastructure coverage -- Oracle's $664B cloud backlog, Microsoft's 38GW power target, and the Pentagon's proposed $5B loan to Fluidstack -- that together price the buildout's capital intensity.
BY THE NUMBERS
AI
Zuckerberg Lobbied Trump Against The AI Standards Body Plan
AI
Zuckerberg Lobbied Trump Against The AI Standards Body Plan
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly advised President Trump against Demis Hassabis's proposed FINRA-style AI standards body, splitting Big Tech just as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind keep meeting on the idea.
FOLLOW-UP
Monday, September 14
2 storiesIPO
Why 2026 Has Fewer IPOs Than 2025 Despite Bigger Ones
IPO
Why 2026 Has Fewer IPOs Than 2025 Despite Bigger Ones
Value Add Pulse compared the 2026 US listing tally with 2025 and found slightly fewer deals despite record-sized offerings, a mix shift toward large asset-heavy issuers rather than a broad reopening.
DEEP DIVE
FUNDING
Eleven US Rounds, $10.8B, Ten Days: September's Real Pace
FUNDING$10.8B across 11 rounds
Eleven US Rounds, $10.8B, Ten Days: September's Real Pace
Value Add Pulse totaled the eleven largest venture rounds of September 5-11 and found roughly $10.8 billion committed, with four deals at $1 billion or more and ten of eleven going to US companies.
BY THE NUMBERS