March 27th Newsletter

Author

Da Yu
March 27, 2026

As of close on March 26th, 2026

Markets sold off as Iran tensions and a closed Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent above $110, sending the Dow into correction territory and lifting volatility amid fading hopes for a resolution. The OECD warned on March 26 that U.S. inflation could rise to 4.2% in 2026 even as global growth holds at 2.9%, reinforcing the pressure from surging crude prices, with WTI up about 65%. Separately, Jamie Dimon said the Iran war increases near-term risk but could improve long-term peace prospects as Gulf states push for stability and investment. In tech, Arm launched its first in-house AI data-center CPU, with Meta as its first customer. SpaceX is reportedly preparing to file for an IPO within days and target a $75B-plus raise. In consumer news, WSJ’s March Madness AI bracket challenge found ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini outperformed most human entrants. In AI, Google DeepMind partnered with Agile Robots, and Nebius raised $4.34B in convertible debt to fund AI capex. Apple is also planning to open up Siri to more AI assistants in the iOS 27 update.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1] 📱 Amazon plans a smartphone comeback with AI-focused “Transformer,” pairing Alexa and commerce; execution risk is high after Fire Phone’s flop, but the move could deepen ecosystem engagement. More from Reuters.

[2] 🖥️ OpenAI plans a desktop “super app” combining ChatGPT, its browser, and Codex under Fidji Simo. They also announced shutting down Sora and ending its licensing deal with $1B investment from Disney, to reallocate GPUs towards the“super app”. Separately, OpenAI is raising an additional $10B from a16z, D.E. Shaw, MGX, TPG, and others, bringing the record fundraise to $120B+. Details on CNBC, Wired, and CNBC.

[3] 🛡️ Pentagon is set to adopt Palantir’s AI-powered Maven as a core U.S. military system by September, building on a $480M 2024 contract, a $1.3B ceiling, and Army work worth up to $10B. See more on Reuters.

[4] 🏭 Tesla and SpaceX will launch “Terafab” in Austin to make AI, robotics, and space chips, signaling aggressive vertical integration, huge capex ambitions, and potential pressure on incumbent semiconductor suppliers. More on Bloomberg.

[5] 🤖 Meta is ramping its AI arms race: El Paso data-center investment jumps from $1.5B to $10B, targeting 1GW by 2028. Separately, Zuckerberg is building a personal AI CEO agent at Meta, underscoring the company’s all-in AI strategy, faster executive decision-making ambitions, and broader push to normalize personalized agents companywide. Details on CNBC and WSJ.

✨Open Source AI Development

[1] 💬 Tencent embedded OpenClaw into WeChat via ClawBot, bringing AI agents to 1 billion-plus users and escalating China’s agent race against Alibaba and Baidu, with monetization potential alongside security risks. More on Reuters.

[2] 🔐 Cisco launched DefenseClaw, an open-source governance layer for OpenClaw, adding pre-install scanning, runtime threat detection, and enforceable blocklists to address mounting security breaches across rapidly adopted personal AI agents. Details from Cisco.

[3] 🧠 Cursor admitted Composer 2 was built on Moonshot AI’s Kimi base, then heavily retrained, exposing transparency missteps while underscoring open-model leverage, commercial licensing, and politically sensitive U.S.-China AI dependencies. See more on TechCrunch.

[4] 🎙️ Cohere unveiled open-source Transcribe, a 2B-parameter speech-recognition model supporting 14 languages, claiming 5.42 WER, 61% human-rated wins, 525 audio-minutes-per-minute speed, and free API access ahead of North integration. More from TechCrunch.

[5] 🗣️ Mistral launched open-source Voxtral TTS, a low-cost 3B-based speech model supporting nine languages, five-second voice cloning, 90ms latency, and edge-device deployment to challenge ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and OpenAI. Details on TechCrunch.

Founder’s Corner

Raising from Seed to Series B is Becoming More Difficult

Source: X

What We Read This Week

  • Read a16z’s latest post - The Trust Wall: Why AI’s Next Billion Users Will Come Through Trust Networks. (a16z)

  • The First Lady, Melania Trump, had a White House appearance with Figure 3, a humanoid robot, to promote AI in education, spotlighting her expanding children-and-technology agenda and drawing outsized attention to the event. (NYT)

  • Anduril and Palantir, alongside Scale AI and others, are quietly building President Trump’s Golden Dome command-and-control stack, positioning Silicon Valley for billions if the $185 billion missile shield moves ahead. (WSJ)

  • Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared “we’ve achieved AGI” on Lex Fridman’s podcast, boosting AI hype around agent capabilities, then partially backtracked, underscoring how contested, elastic, and commercially loaded the term remains. (TheVerge)

  • Amazon acquired Rivr for undisclosed terms; the stair-climbing robot startup had raised $25M, including a $22.2M Amazon-backed seed round, was last valued at $100M, and expands Amazon’s doorstep-delivery push. (TechCrunch)

  • Amazon’s Zoox will launch robotaxis in Austin and Miami this year, expanding beyond Las Vegas and San Francisco as it awaits approval to charge fares and scale against Waymo. (CNBC)

  • Tesla is in talks to buy $2.9B of Chinese solar equipment to build 100 GW of U.S. capacity by 2028, underscoring AI-era power demand and supply-chain dependence. (Reuters)

  • Alphabet’s Wing will launch Bay Area drone deliveries this year with Walmart and DoorDash, expanding into its home market and signaling ambitions to build a national, FAA-constrained aerial logistics network. (Bloomberg)

  • Meta’s shares fell 7% after two U.S. verdicts tied platform design to youth harm, raising fears of billions in damages, more lawsuits, and business-model changes across social media. (Reuters)

AI Fundraising News (Mar 20 — Mar 26)

  • Above Security: AI insider threat detection company, raised a $50M seed and Series A round

  • Amity: AI generative enterprise tools company, raised a $100M Series D

  • BackChannel: AI surplus inventory marketplace company, raised a $4.8M seed

  • BrainGrid: AI product planning company, raised a $1M pre-seed

  • Cleavr: AI accounts receivable automation company, raised $1.2M

  • Dash0: AI observability company, raised $110M

  • Deccan AI: AI post-training data company, raised a $25M Series A

  • Deeptune: AI agent training simulation company, raised a $43M Series A

  • Doctronic: AI prescription refill automation company, raised $40M

  • Doss: AI-native inventory management company, raised a $55M Series B

  • Epic Microsystems: AI data center power delivery company, raised a $21M Series A

  • Eternal Ag: AI autonomous greenhouse robotics company, raised $9.2M

  • Ezra: AI voice interviewing company, raised a $3.2M seed

  • Galtea: AI agent evaluation infrastructure company, raised a $3.2M seed

  • Gimlet Labs: AI inference cloud company, raised an $80M Series A

  • Glimpse: AI retail deductions automation company, raised a $35M Series A

  • Granola: AI note-taking company, raised a $125M Series C

  • Hamilton: AI private aviation operations company, raised a $7.5M seed

  • Halter: AI cattle monitoring collars company, raised $220M

  • Harvey: AI legal services company, raised $200M

  • Health Universe: AI clinical workflow company, raised a $6M seed

  • Highlight AI: AI team context operating system company, raised a $40M Series A

  • Hosted.ai: AI shared GPU marketplace company, raised a $19M seed

  • Interloom: AI agent enterprise memory company, raised a $16.5M seed

  • Isara: AI multi-agent coordination company, raised $94M

  • Kandou AI: AI chip infrastructure company, raised $225M

  • Lace: AI chip lithography company, raised a $40M Series A

  • Lucid Bots: AI autonomous cleaning drones company, raised a $20M Series B

  • Mandel AI: AI supply chain coordination company, raised a $3.9M seed

  • Mirage: AI video editing company, raised $75M

  • Newly: AI no-code app-building company, raised $2M

  • NoTraffic: AI traffic signal optimization company, raised a $90M Series C

  • Normal Computing: AI-native chip design company, raised $50M

  • Notch: AI back-office automation company, raised a $30M Series A

  • Novaworks: AI HR workflow orchestration company, raised an $8M seed

  • Oasis Security: AI non-human identity security company, raised a $120M Series B

  • Pado AI: AI data center orchestration company, raised a $6M seed

  • Parallel: AI hospital coding automation company, raised a $20M Series A

  • Qualified Health: AI health system workflows company, raised a $125M Series B

  • Rocketlane: AI project delivery management company, raised a $60M Series C

  • Shield AI: AI defense autonomy software company, raised $2B

  • Sift: AI machine intelligence layer company, raised a $42M Series B

  • SOUS: AI restaurant marketing company, raised a $4M seed

  • Steno: AI court reporting company, raised a $49M Series C

  • Unitree: AI robotics company, aiming to raise ~$610M in IPO

  • Zalos: AI finance workflow agents company, raised a $3.6M seed