Nvidia in Talks to Back OpenAI to the Tune of $500+ Billion

Top News

Nvidia is reportedly in talks to guarantee roughly $250 billion of financing for OpenAI to lease a 10-gigawatt Ohio data-center project being developed by SoftBank while separately discussing up to $350 billion to finance the chips inside. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Nvidia, Microsoft, SpaceX, Palantir, and dozens of other tech companies launched the Open Secure AI Alliance to build and share open cybersecurity tools, citing the Chinese model that helped Hugging Face repel rogue OpenAI agents. CNBC has more here.

China warned today that it would take “all necessary measures” if Washington sanctions its AI companies over alleged model distillation, dismissing U.S. accusations of intellectual-property theft as a baseless “smear campaign” and “AI hegemony.” Bloomberg has more here.

An unknown number of publicly shared Claude chats and Artifacts appeared in Google search results, exposing medical records, internal company documents, employee information, and children’s contact details before the pages were removed from search. TechCrunch has more here.

Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence Partners with Nvidia to Scale Its AI Research

Image Credits: Jack Guez / AFP / Getty Images

By Rebecca Bellan

After two years in stealth, Safe Superintelligence, the AI lab founded by former OpenAI co-founder and alignment lead Ilya Sutskever, has announced a long-term partnership with Nvidia as it prepares to scale to its next phase.

The deal, which includes an undisclosed investment, will give Safe Superintelligence (SSI) access to Nvidia’s Vera Rubin GPU platform, which is expected to increase the startup’s compute resources “by an order of magnitude.” The partnership comes as SSI has achieved significant research milestones, per Nvidia.

Nvidia’s investment stretches into multiple billions, a source familiar with the deal told TechCrunch. Bloomberg reported that the deal size was $5 billion.

Already an investor in SSI, the chipmaking giant said it signed this compute partnership to “accelerate SSI’s next stage of growth after obtaining rare access into the company’s closely guarded research.”

“We have research that is worthy of scaling up, and having access to a big NVIDIA computer will let us do so,” Sutskever said in a statement. “We are confident that our big bet on the Vera Rubin platform will take us to the next level.”

The partnership news, while sparse in details, brings SSI back into the spotlight after a quiet two years since it was founded. The company is pursuing a “straight shot” research approach to building what it says is a safe, aligned artificial superintelligence, without getting distracted by commercial product releases or short-term revenue cycles.

Massive Fundings

Antares, a three-year-old startup based in Torrance, CA, that develops compact nuclear microreactors that provide years of uninterrupted power for military installations and space applications, raised a $470 million Series C round co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, with Point72 Ventures and Industrious Ventures as well as previous investor Shine Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $600+ million. TechCrunch has more here.

Enigma, a one-year-old Israeli startup that trains robotics foundation models and develops interfaces that make robots easier for humans to control, raised a $71 million seed round co-led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with Conviction Partners also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Multiverse Computing, a seven-year-old startup based in San Sebastián, Spain, that compresses large AI models so they can run on phones, factory equipment, vehicles, and telecom infrastructure without cloud connections, raised a $570 million Series C at a $1.7 billion pre-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Forgepoint Capital International, BNPP SIVF, and Bullhound Capital, with Santander Alternative Investments, Tikehau Capital, HP Inc, Orange Ventures, Scania Invest, NAventures, Qatar Development Bank, Zouk Capital, SETT, EIC Fund, the Basque government’s Hazten Scale-Up Fund, and Kutxa Fundazioa also chipping in. The round is expected to bring the company's total funding to $800 million. Silicon Republic has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Flourish Health, a six-year-old startup based in Richmond, VA, that delivers in-home, psychiatrist-led mental health care for children and young adults with serious, complex needs, raised a $26 million Series A round co-led by B Capital, F-Prime, and Cherryrock Capital. The company has raised a total of $46 million. More here.

Kausable, a one-year-old startup based in Heidelberg, Germany, that develops AI models that learn from minimal data and adapt to unfamiliar problems without repeated retraining, raised a $13.6 million seed round co-led by UVC Partners and Entourage, with previous investors HTGF and Mätch VC also chiming in. EU-Startups has more here.

Nuclear Turbines, a one-year-old startup based in Manchester, UK, that develops compact modular nuclear reactors designed to generate lower-cost electricity for industrial sites, data centers, and manufacturing facilities, raised a $15 million round led by IQ Capital, with Rhapsody Venture Partners, Zero Carbon Capital, and Empirical Ventures also digging in. Tech.eu has more here.

Telli, a two-year-old Berlin startup that deploys AI agents that automate sales and customer service conversations across phone, chat, email, and messaging for consumer-facing businesses, raised a $15 million seed round led by Redalpine, with Mutschler, Cherry Ventures, and Y Combinator also investing. The company has raised a total of $18.5 million. PYMNTS has more here.

Way Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that automates integration and policy enforcement for enterprise identity systems across legacy applications, internal tools, and third-party services, raised a $20 million seed round co-led by Insight Partners and Glilot Capital. CTech has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Beelzebub, a one-year-old Milan startup that combines adversary emulation, deception traps, and threat intelligence to detect and contain cyber intrusions, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by United Ventures. SecurityWeek has more here.

Dopl Technologies, a four-year-old startup based in Bothell, WA, that develops hardware-agnostic robotic ultrasound systems that let sonographers remotely perform diagnostic exams across multiple healthcare facilities, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by SpringTide Ventures, with WRF Capital, Tacoma Venture Fund, HeartX, Transform Health Ventures, and Precursor Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $8+ million. More here.

Fincart, a three-year-old Cairo startup that helps e-commerce merchants manage shipping, cash-on-delivery settlement, short-term financing, and customer retention, raised a $2.8 million seed round co-led by Launch Africa and Antler MENAP, with Yango Ventures, Five35 Ventures, Bluestream Capital, Hi2 Global, and Kalahari Venture Labs as well as previous investor Orbit Ventures also engaging. Inc. Arabia has more here.

Freight Hero, a one-year-old startup based in Durham, NC, that uses AI agents and human operators to run freight brokers’ back-office load operations from rate confirmation through proof of delivery, raised a $5 million round led by Field Ventures, with Flybridge Capital, Tip Top VC, and Front Porch Venture Partners also buying in. The company has raised a total of $6+ million. More here.

Pilot Protocol, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that connects AI agents so they can discover one another, exchange messages, install tools, and make payments without human setup, raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Version One Ventures, with Precursor Ventures, Night Capital, and Todd & Rahul Capital also engaging. More here.

Prefer-Not-to-Say Fundings

Ominimo, a two-year-old Serbian-Hungarian startup that develops and distributes motor insurance using highly segmented pricing and proprietary insurance technology, raised an undisclosed amount in Series B financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development at a $1.6 billion valuation, a 7x step-up in valuation since it closed its Series A last year. EU-Startups has more here.

Going Public

CXMT, a 10-year-old Hefei, China-based chipmaker that produces DRAM memory for smartphones, computers, and servers, surged 466% in its Shanghai debut after an $8.6 billion IPO, becoming the country’s most valuable listed company with a roughly $490 billion market capitalization. CNBC has more here.