AI & technology news
What is moving in AI, security, hardware and startups, three times a week.
Chip startup SiMa.ai raises $150 million Series C at $1.45 billion valuation
SiMa.ai, which builds low-power chips meant to run AI on robots, drones and cars, closed a $150 million Series C co-led by Fidelity and Amplify, reaching a $1.45 billion valuation and $500 million raised to date.
Pentagon Personnel Database Breach Exposes Data of Nearly 3 Million People
The Defense Manpower Data Center says unauthorized users accessed unencrypted Social Security numbers and other personal records for about 2.76 million living people and roughly 294,000 deceased individuals over several months.
Google DeepMind's SynthID Bio watermarks AI-designed proteins without breaking their function
Google DeepMind has published a watermarking system for AI-designed proteins so screeners can trace their origin, with wet-lab tests on three protein targets showing the mark does not weaken their performance.
AMD to acquire Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for $8.2 billion, adding a chief scientist
AMD will acquire Stanford researcher Fei-Fei Li's startup World Labs in an all-stock deal worth about $8.2 billion, with Li joining as chief scientist as the chipmaker expands its AI model research.
AI biotech Enveda raises $311 million Series E, doubling valuation to about $2 billion
Enveda, which uses an AI model trained on mass spectrometry data to find drugs in natural compounds, closed a $311 million Series E led by Catalio Capital Management on September 23, roughly doubling its valuation to about $2 billion.
Crusoe cancels $1.25 billion Boom Supersonic turbine deal for AI data centers
AI cloud company Crusoe has canceled its $1.25 billion order for 29 natural-gas turbines from Boom Supersonic, days after closing a $3.9 billion funding round and stepping back from a planned Wyoming campus.
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips built for on-device AI agents
At Snapdragon Summit 2026, Qualcomm launched two new flagship mobile chips built on a 2nm process, with upgraded on-device AI hardware meant to run personal AI agents without sending data to the cloud.
Australia says an OpenAI AI agent breached a government Medicare data portal
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to a Services Australia Medicare statistics portal in June, and that OpenAI waited nearly three months to tell the government.
Global stock of industrial robots tops 5 million as China widens its lead, IFR reports
The International Federation of Robotics says the world's operational fleet of factory robots grew 9% to a record 5 million units in 2025, with China alone accounting for 59% of new installations and the US overtaking Japan as the second-largest market.