Value Add Pulse — Live Tech & Venture Capital News

The Briefing

Trace Cohen · Thursday, August 6

Updated 5h ago

Capital keeps flowing toward AI infrastructure and defense manufacturing even as the same AI trade wobbles across chip stocks from Seoul to Nasdaq, and this week's closest mega-IPO precedent is trading down more than half from its debut high.

SoftBank Borrows $10B Against Its OpenAI Bet

SoftBank secured a $10 billion margin loan against its OpenAI shares the same quarter an $8.2 billion Intel stake gain carried its earnings beat, while OpenAI itself contributed no investment gain at all.

$10B, 2-year term

Margin loan

~$64.6B by Oct

Total OpenAI commitment

~13%

Stake after tranche 3

AI· Aug 6, 2026

Tesla, SpaceX to Build $16.8B Chip Factory

THE WIRE in your inbox— Tech, startup & VC news with Trace's take. Free, no spam.

Funding & Deals

6 stories

FUNDING· Aug 6, 2026

Omilia Raises $67M for Customer Support AI

FUNDING$67M Series B

Omilia Raises $67M for Customer Support AI

Omilia, a Cyprus-based conversational AI company, raised a $67M Series B led by Expedition Growth Capital after growing annual recurring revenue tenfold to $60M, its first raise since a $20M round in 2020.

FUNDING· Aug 5, 2026

Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets

FUNDING$250M Series C

Moove Raises $250M to Fuel Robotaxi Fleets

Moove raised a $250M Series C led by Mubadala at a $2.1B valuation, repositioning its 42,000-vehicle ride-hailing fleet business as financing and operations infrastructure for the robotaxi industry, including future Waymo purchases.

FUNDING· Aug 6, 2026

DeepSeek Resumes Funding Talks, Preps Price Hikes

FUNDING~50B yuan target

DeepSeek Resumes Funding Talks, Preps Price Hikes

DeepSeek resumed a funding round targeting 50 billion yuan at a roughly 500 billion yuan pre-money valuation, expected to close in late August, while separately warning developers of significant API price increases ahead.

FUNDING· Aug 5, 2026

Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency

FUNDING

Klaviyo Acquires Elias Torres' AI Startup Agency

Klaviyo agreed to acquire Agency, the three-year-old AI customer-success startup founded by Elias Torres, who backed Klaviyo's 2015 seed round as an angel and will now join as chief product officer.

FUNDING· Aug 5, 2026

Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals

FUNDING

Apollo Names AI Sector Head to Chase Megadeals

Apollo Global Management named a dedicated AI sector head to coordinate financing teams and pursue repeat megadeals with chipmakers, building on its $35 billion Broadcom AI infrastructure financing struck in June.

FUNDING· Aug 6, 2026

OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI

FUNDING

OpenAI Buys Patents From Altman-Backed Rain AI

OpenAI acquired patents from Rain AI, the Sam Altman-backed chip startup, after a full acquisition fell through when Rain AI's own $150M funding round failed to attract investors.

AI & Technology

6 stories

AI· Aug 6, 2026

Mirendil Signs $100M+ Google Cloud AI Deal

AI$100M+ deal

Mirendil Signs $100M+ Google Cloud AI Deal

AI research lab Mirendil signed a multi-year Google Cloud partnership worth more than $100M for TPU and GPU compute to train self-improving AI systems aimed at eventually automating an entire frontier lab's research work.

REGULATION· Aug 5, 2026

White House Finalizes Secret Voluntary AI Framework

REGULATION

White House Finalizes Secret Voluntary AI Framework

The White House briefed OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other AI companies on a completed voluntary framework allowing up to 30 days of early government access to frontier models, while keeping its benchmarks classified.

AI· Aug 5, 2026

Sequoia Goes All-In on AI Under New Leaders

AI$7B fund

Sequoia Goes All-In on AI Under New Leaders

Sequoia Capital closed a roughly $7B expansion fund and has directed about 70% of recent investments into AI, doubling down on the sector under new co-stewards Alfred Lin and Pat Grady after Roelof Botha's exit.

AI· Aug 6, 2026

AI Leaders Say the Singularity Has Arrived

OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei and DeepMind's Demis Hassabis have each recently described AI as entering a self-accelerating phase, language once confined to futurism now used by the executives building it.

REGULATION· Aug 6, 2026

Khanna to Push 'Data Center Bill of Rights'

REGULATION

Khanna to Push 'Data Center Bill of Rights'

Rep. Ro Khanna will introduce a 'Data Center Bill of Rights' letting communities block data centers within 2,500 feet of homes and schools, after Q1 2026 saw roughly $130B in data center projects blocked or delayed nationwide.

BIG TECH· Aug 5, 2026

Google's AI Shake-Up Raises Pichai Succession Questions

BIG TECH

Google's AI Shake-Up Raises Pichai Succession Questions

Google moved Demis Hassabis from DeepMind CEO to chair and chief scientist while Jeff Dean departed, a reshuffle analysts read as an early signal in the succession conversation around CEO Sundar Pichai.

IPO Watch

6 stories

BIG TECH· Aug 6, 2026

SpaceX Faces Test as 911M Shares Unlock

BIG TECHup to $116B unlocked

SpaceX Faces Test as 911M Shares Unlock

SpaceX's first major post-IPO lockup expiration freed 911.5M shares worth as much as $116B for sale on August 6, more than doubling the public float as the stock trades near $108, down from a post-IPO high above $225.

IPO· Aug 5, 2026

Figma Stock Drops 16% Despite Revenue Beat

IPO-16.5% stock move

Figma Stock Drops 16% Despite Revenue Beat

Figma shares fell as much as 16.5% after Q2 revenue beat estimates at $370M but rising AI infrastructure costs and the departure of two senior executives overshadowed a raised full-year outlook.

IPO· Aug 5, 2026

SK Hynix Plunges 10% in Asian Tech Selloff

IPO

SK Hynix Plunges 10% in Asian Tech Selloff

SK Hynix fell nearly 10% and Samsung dropped over 6% as Asian tech stocks tracked a Wall Street AI-name selloff, the second sharp chip-sector drop in the Korean chipmaker's shares in two weeks.

IPO· Aug 5, 2026

SPAC Pipeline Grows With Two More Filings

IPO

SPAC Pipeline Grows With Two More Filings

Gravity Acquisition Corp continued toward its own listing and Alternus Clean Energy issued $14.28M of preferred stock ahead of a planned uplisting, extending the blank-check filing wave Pulse flagged earlier this week.

IPO· Aug 5, 2026

Robinhood Lists a Fund That Buys Y Combinator Stakes

IPO$200M target raise

Robinhood Lists a Fund That Buys Y Combinator Stakes

Robinhood Ventures Fund II is set to list publicly on August 13 at $25 a share, aiming to raise $200M so retail investors can indirectly back roughly 80 Y Combinator-linked private companies -- while paying Robinhood 2% and 20% carry.

IPO· Aug 6, 2026

SpaceX's Rocky Unlock Is a Warning for OpenAI

IPO

SpaceX's Rocky Unlock Is a Warning for OpenAI

SpaceX shares are trading near $108, down more than half from their post-IPO high, just as the first of four straight monthly unlock events begins -- a live case study for OpenAI and Anthropic on what happens once lockups start expiring.

Hacker News