Insurance tech company Guidewire announced the acquisition of AI underwriting firm Hyperexponential for $1.7 billion in cash, with a total deal value of about $2 billion including up to $400 million in additional payments tied to revenue targets. Hyperexponential, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, was founded in 2017 and has raised nearly $90 million; its software is used by nearly 600 insurers across 40 countries.
Dallas-based investment firm Disruptive announced a $10 billion fund to invest in at least 10 late-stage companies, with checks of up to $1 billion, focusing on AI and defense. The fund is the firm's first blind-pool fund and the largest venture fund in Texas history.
Meta AI leader Rohit Patel has left the company to found Ndoc, a startup developing an AI-native office software suite designed to replace Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, integrating Stage, Narrative and Model modules, with an open-source .ndoc.html document format planned.
General Compute has closed a $100 million Series A led by Blackbird Ventures and Abstract Ventures at an $800 million post-money valuation. The company builds cloud services using inference chips from Nvidia rivals such as SambaNova, Positron and Cerebras, and has a $400 million chip purchase agreement with SambaNova.
Nvidia has invested in Indian startup Simplismart's $14 million Series B round, led by Dallas Venture Capital with Accel, Shastra VC, and Micromax participating. Simplismart provides software that helps companies run AI models more efficiently with fewer GPUs, and the round values the four-year-old startup at about $100 million.
Databricks co-founder and SVP of Field Engineering Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji shared tips for startups to win large enterprise customers at TechCrunch Disrupt, emphasizing that people and processes matter more than technology alone, and suggesting startups leverage partnerships with big tech firms like Microsoft for credibility and sales support.
Bank of America, Blackstone, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley announced $63 billion in financing through a new SPV to purchase Broadcom AI accelerators and networking equipment to be leased to Anthropic, with chip deliveries expected to begin from 2027.
SpaceX has disclosed in a regulatory filing a binding commitment for about $40 billion in financing with Apollo Global Management for AI chips and related data center equipment. Apollo will buy the hardware and lease it to SpaceX for about five to 5.25 years, with the deal expected to close by year-end and leases starting in the first half of 2027.
Meta announced a financing plan of up to $95 billion, including $22.5 billion in forward sales of Class A common stock, $12.5 billion in mandatory convertible preferred stock, and up to $60 billion in future C Class common stock issuance, to fund businesses including artificial intelligence. Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom are interested in buying up to $5 billion of Class A common stock each. Meta expects 2026 capital expenditures to reach $135 to $145 billion.
AI drug discovery company Pathos announced a $237 million Series E financing led by BMS, with existing shareholders and Alphamab Oncology participating, at a post-investment valuation of about $3 billion. The same day, Pathos also entered two long-term strategic collaborations with BMS and Tempus AI to expand its AI drug development capabilities into neuroscience.