Cloudflare Wants to Build Napster for AI, Except This Time Everyone Gets Paid
Marcus Schuler / implicator - Cloudflare acquired Human Native, a startup that licenses web content to AI developers. A day later, they bought web framework Astro. The deals look unrelated until you see the pipeline: content creation to AI licensing, with Cloudflare taking a cut at ev…
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 7:21 pm / permalink 18103 / 2 stories in 7 wks
Fired Thinking Machines Co-Founder Had Undisclosed Relationship With Colleague
Keach Hagey / wsj - Barret Zoph, who was also chief technology officer, rejoined OpenAI, along with fellow co-founder Luke Metz.
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 7:21 pm / permalink 18100 / 4 stories in 7 wks
ClickHouse Raises $400 Million to Expand AI-Focused Data Infrastructure Platform
PYMNTS / pymnts - ClickHouse, a provider of data infrastructure for artificial intelligence systems, raised $400 million in a Series D funding round. The company will use the new capital to expand its offerings in real-time data analytics, data warehousing, observability, …
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 5:20 pm / permalink 18085 / 4 stories in 7 wks
AST SpaceMobile’s stock soars to a fresh record as the SpaceX rival nears a big win
@MarketWatch / x - AST SpaceMobile’s stock soars to a fresh record as the SpaceX rival nears a big win https://t.co/PYes8cSyx5— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) January 16, 2026
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 11:53 am / permalink 18054 / 2 stories in 7 wks
AI Video Startup Higgsfield Hits the Highs With $1.3B Valuation
eWEEK Staff / eweek - An $80 million Series A extension brings total Series A funding to more than $130 million and valuing the company at more than $1.3 billion.The post AI Video Startup Higgsfield Hits the Highs With $1.3B Valuation appeared first on eWEEK.
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 11:51 am / permalink 18047 / 2 stories in 7 wks
Europe’s Largest Defense Fund for Startups Set for €500 Million
Christina Kyriasoglou / bloomberg - German investor Digital Transformation Capital Partners GmbH is on track to raise Europe’s largest-ever dedicated venture capital fund for defense startups, signing its first big backers for a fund targeting €500 million ($580 million).
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 8:21 am / permalink 18018 / 4 stories in 7 wks
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raises $252 million for brain computer interface venture — but Merge Labs is still in an early research phase
tomshardware - OpenAI has signaled its intentions to become a major player in brain computer interfaces (BCIs) with a $252 million investment in Merge Labs.
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 6:20 am / permalink 18004 / 2 stories in 7 wks
German AI Startup Parloa Raises $350M Series D Valued At $3 Billion
Kailee Rainse / startuprise - German-founded Parloa, which builds AI voice agents for call centers, has raised $350 million in a Series D round, tripling its valuation to $3 billion in just seven months. The Series D round was led by existing investor General Catalyst, with participat…
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 4:21 am / permalink 17996 / 3 stories in 7 wks
Amsterdam’s Optics11 Raises €25M EIB Loan To Boost Europe’s Subsea And Energy Security
Kailee Rainse / startuprise - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €25 million venture debt agreement with Amsterdam-based Optics11, a DeepTech scale-up developing advanced fibre optic sensing solutions. The Dutch company will use the funding to advance research and develop…
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 4:20 am / permalink 17995 / 2 stories in 7 wks
Dutch VC PureTerra launches €150M water tech fund, lands €10M from Invest-NL
Sofia Chesnokova / techfundingnews - As droughts intensify and regulations tighten, companies are discovering that access to clean, reusable water directly affects their…
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 3:20 am / permalink 17994 / 3 stories in 7 wks
Thinking Machines Lab Loses Key Leaders as They Return to OpenAI
eWEEK Staff / eweek - Two co-founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, are heading back to OpenAI, alongside Sam Schoenholz, another former OpenAI staffer who had joined the startup.The post Thinking Machines Lab Loses Key Leaders as They Return to OpenAI appeared first on eWEEK.
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 3:20 am / permalink 17992 / 4 stories in 7 wks
Anthropic taps former Microsoft India MD to lead Bengaluru expansion
Jagmeet Singh / techcrunch - Irina Ghose joins Anthropic as India managing director after 24 years at Microsoft.
Back to Top / Friday, January 16, 2026, 2:20 am / permalink 17991 / 4 stories in 7 wks