The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Enterprise AI, Space Tech And Biotech Top The Ranks
Another week, another infusion of big AI rounds.
TechCrunch AI·
When Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc got COVID despite being vaccinated and boosted, he tried to fund research for a better solution. What he quickly found out? You can’t just write a check in biotech. Regulators require a commercialization plan, and philanthropy doesn’t move science through clinical trials or get you a license on university IP. Now, he’s bootstrapping a cancer drug platform targeting pancreatic cancer, a disease that […]
Read full articleAnother week, another infusion of big AI rounds.
A new AI tool finds early hints of pancreatic cancer in CT scans that doctors would otherwise miss, an early test found.
Once again, digital tools are running ahead of regulators. Civil liberties must not be sacrificed to policing It is a familiar story. Extravagant claims are made on behalf of novel computerised tools. The public are told that this or that digital application or system is going to change the world for the better. Efficiencies will be unlocked and problems solved as human limitations are overcome by networked devices plugged into vast stores of data. Anyone who questions the narrative is a pessimist or, perhaps, a criminal. This appears to be the logic behind arguments put forward on behalf of one such tool – live facial recognition technology. Law-abiding citizens have “nothing to fear” from the police’s increased reliance on mounted cameras, said the Home Office minister, Sarah Jones, last month, after a high court challenge brought on human rights and privacy grounds failed. The use of AI-powered identification software, made by the Japanese company NEC, “only locates specifically wa
Australia’s financial regulator has warned financial firms that AI agent governance and assurance practices are poorly governed. The warning comes as banks and superannuation trustees expand AI in internal and customer-facing operations. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said it conducted a targeted review of selected large regulated entities in late 2025 to assess AI adoption […] The post AI agent governance takes focus as regulators flag control gaps appeared first on AI News.
Regulators had reviewed whether deal violated Beijing’s investment rules
This week, just half of the top 10 rounds crossed the $100 million mark, which is somewhat unusual in this high-flying era for venture megarounds. Nonetheless some large checks did get written, led by Amazon’s $5 billion investment and partnership deal with Anthropic.
S-1 filings have been plentiful the past few weeks for venture-backed startups providing semiconductors, nuclear and geothermal power, biotech, and space and defense tech queuing up for a possible trip to the public markets.
The week’s largest round was a $650 million financing for electric pickup truck maker Slate Auto. Other sizable investments went to spaces including drug development, autonomous public transit and software engineering.