October 10th Newsletter

Author

Da Yu
October 10, 2025

As of close on October 9, 2025

Investors seeking safety pushed gold past $4,000 an ounce for the first time, up 50% this year, with Goldman forecasting $4,900 by 2026. Over in telecom, Verizon named former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as its next chief. Shares dipped 5%, but the company reaffirmed its 2025 outlook and moved forward with its $20 billion fiber expansion. Verizon also partnered with AST SpaceMobile on satellite-powered cellular coverage, lifting AST shares 8%. On Monday, OpenAI DevDay launches in-chat apps, agent tools, and Codex upgrades to reinvent AI Interaction with plans to become your future operating system. Lastly, OpenAI’s Sora hit 1 million downloads in less than five days, even faster than ChatGPT did when it was first launched.

Monthly AI Financing Report: See the September update here.

Top 5 AI Highlights

[1]  🤖 OpenAI and AMD struck a five-year multibillion-dollar deal for 6 GW of MI450 chips, granting OpenAI warrants for up to 10% of AMD. AMD shares jumped 23.7% to $203.71, challenging Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips. Read more from WSJ.

[2] 💸 Elon Musk’s xAI is raising $20B, doubling earlier plans, with a mix of $7.5B equity and $12.5B debt to fund its Colossus 2 data center. Nvidia will invest $2B, with Apollo Global and Diameter Capital joining. xAI is burning ≈$1B/month as it scales GPU capacity. Separately, Elon Musk’s xAI will launch “Grokipedia” beta in two weeks, an AI-powered alternative to Wikipedia aimed at combating “falsehoods.” Read more from Bloomberg and CoinTelegraph

[3] ⚖️ OpenAI and Anthropic face multibillion-dollar legal risks as insurers hesitate to cover AI-related liabilities. OpenAI secured up to $300M in coverage via Aon, far below potential claims, and may use self-insurance or a captive structure. Anthropic agreed to a $1.5B author-lawsuit settlement, funded partly from its $30B+ capital. Read more from FinancialTimes.

[4] 💻 Naveen Rao, ex-Databricks AI head, is raising $1B at a $5B valuation for his new startup Unconventional, Inc., backed by a16z, Lightspeed, and Lux Capital. The firm aims to build AI hardware rivaling Nvidia with custom chips and servers. Read more from TechCrunch.

[5] 💡 A Harvard economist found that 92% of U.S. GDP growth in the first half of 2025 came from AI data-center and tech investment, highlighting how reliant the broader economy has become on high-tech infrastructure spending. (Fortune)

Founder’s Corner

The multiple step-up for AI Companies is reaching peak times

Source: X

What We Read This Week

  • Elon Musk's xAI appoints former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong as CFO of xAI and X. Armstrong will replace Mahmoud Reza Banki, who is leaving X after less than a year as CFO. (X)

  • SoftBank agreed to buy ABB’s robotics unit for $5.4B, its largest robotics deal yet. CEO Masayoshi Son aims to merge AI and robotics, adding to a $30B OpenAI, $2B Intel, and $6.5B Ampere investment spree. (WSJ)

  • OpenAI launched apps inside ChatGPT, letting users access tools like Spotify, Figma, and Zillow directly in chats. Built on the Model Context Protocol, it enables interactive UIs, logins, and future payments, though privacy rules remain unclear. (TechCrunch)

  • BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners nears $40B Aligned Data Centers buyout; backed by Macquarie, with MGX and Mubadala involved, amid AI frenzy pushing BlackRock to $189B valuation. (Bloomberg)

  • A California jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million in a talc cancer case — $16M compensatory and $950M punitive — the largest single-user verdict in the 15-year litigation. J&J will appeal the ruling. (Bloomberg).

  • China's booming AI toy market, projected to reach $14 billion by 2030, is led by BubblePal and FoloToy. Despite global expansion, consumer feedback reveals technical flaws and short-lived child engagement. (MIT).

AI Fundraising news (Oct 3 — Oct 9)

  • Akua: AI-powered payments platform for emerging markets, raised an $8.5M Seed

  • Alvys: AI-powered logistics software platform for shippers, raised a $40M Series B

  • Appy AI: Platform helping non-coders build AI businesses, raised a $5M Seed

  • Attuned Intelligence: Supervised AI for hospital call centers, raised a $13M Seed

  • ConCntric: AI platform for preconstruction planning and coordination, raised a $10M Series A

  • Crosby: AI-driven law firm for faster contracts, raised a $20M Series A

  • Cyberwave: AI integration platform connecting agents with robots, raised an $8.1M Round

  • Dragonfly: AI platform helping firms select optimal software, raised a $3.5M Preseed

  • Energy Robotics: AI software for autonomous industrial inspections, raised a $13.5M Series A

  • EvenUp: AI tools for personal injury law firms, raised a $150M Series E

  • Ewake: AI agents monitoring software reliability and failures, raised a $2.3M Preseed

  • Feedzai: AI platform detecting and preventing financial crimes, raised ~$75M

  • FurtherAI: AI automation for insurance underwriting and claims, raised a $25M Series A

  • Harvey: AI tools for legal contract analysis and compliance, raised a $58.5M Round

  • Heidi Health: AI automating medical documentation for clinicians, raised a $65M Series B

  • Hipp Health: AI for behavioral health documentation and compliance, raised a $6.2M Seed

  • HyperSpectral: AI and spectroscopy for pathogen detection, raised a $7M Series A-2

  • Kernel: AI tool enabling agents to access web via Chrome, raised a $22M Seed and Series A

  • Longeye: AI tools for law enforcement digital evidence analysis, raised a $5M Seed

  • Midi Health: Virtual care and AI health search platform for women, raised a $50M Series C

  • MokN: AI platform to detect and deceive hackers, raised a $3M Round

  • Moonlake AI: AI tools for building interactive virtual worlds, raised a $28M Seed

  • n8n: AI automation platform for repetitive computing tasks, raised a $180M Series C

  • Nexcade: Automation AI for freight forwarding and logistics, raised a $2.5M Preseed

  • Nozomio: AI coding agents to improve software development, raised a $6.2M Round

  • Oath Surgical: AI-powered, surgeon-owned outpatient surgery centers, raised a $24M Series A

  • PEAK:AIO: High-performance storage for GPU-based AI workloads, raised a $6.8M Seed

  • Peer AI: Agentic AI for life sciences regulatory documentation, raised a $12.1M Preseed and Seed

  • Price.com: AI shopping assistant for saving money online, raised a $12M Round

  • Realm.Security: AI for managing and filtering enterprise security data, raised a $15M Series A

  • Reflection AI: Open-source large models to rival closed-source leaders, raised $2B

  • Relace: Tools and language models accelerating AI coding agents, raised a $23M Series A

  • Resourcly: AI screening optimizing manufacturers' parts data, raised a $3.1M Seed

  • Snappr: AI-enhanced platform connecting users with photographers, raised a $28M Series B

  • Supermemory: AI-driven memory optimization technology for software systems, raised $2.6M

  • Tigris: Network of localized data centers for distributed compute, raised a $25M Series A

  • TransCrypts: Blockchain credential sharing and fraud prevention platform, raised a $15M Seed

  • Tycho AI: AI navigation systems for unmanned vehicles, raised a $10M Series A

  • Zingage: AI-powered scheduling and operations for home healthcare, raised a $12.5M Seed