Tech Daily

Olix AI chip startup triples to $3.3B valuation with $312M round; Neura Robotics raises €1.2B driving European robotics funding record; Index Ventures closes $2B AI fund. Plus Horizon3, June, Snap Specs, Superblocks and Ore Energy moves.

Alibaba launches Qwen3.8 Max AI model at lower prices than Kimi K3; U.S. states repeal data center tax breaks raising AI infrastructure costs; PC makers adopt China’s CXMT memory chips amid global shortage affecting MacBook Air; Reflection AI lags after Nvidia’s $800M backing; Palantir U.S. sales surge.

Airtable’s $1.3B sale amid SaaS consolidation, Anthropic’s $10B Volta cloud pact, OpenAI’s unreleased Astra model for multi-agent tasks, plus states repealing data center incentives and new model benchmarks from Qwen and GLM.

Micron reports surging revenue and raises guidance on memory demand while Qualcomm lifts its full-year revenue forecast to $40 billion. Additional moves include multiple startup funding rounds and market rebounds in tech shares.

Meta invests $900M in CRED at $4.5B valuation with Shah heading WhatsApp; launches new Meta Glasses starting at $299; Oracle cuts 21,000 jobs and Lazada trims 5% SEA staff amid restructurings.

Valve unveils Steam Machine hardware pricing starting at $1,049 with reservations; Oracle discloses 21,000 job cuts in annual filing; SK Hynix overtakes Samsung as Korea's top company by market cap. Also covers Bending Spoons IPO plans, Broadcom financing, and space/hardware funding rounds.

Covers Andera's $37M Series A, Katalyst Space's $12M round, Tower-Marvell's 5M IC shipments, Apple-Intel US manufacturing pact, Conduct's $60M raise, GATE Space's €6.3M, France's €13B tech push, Fundstreet's $45.5M note, Architect Labs' $24M seed, and 11 other funding or hardware updates from the period.

Snap launches $2,195 Specs AR glasses with fall shipments; Asensus Surgical cuts 108 jobs in robotics restructuring; EigenQ agrees to $3B SPAC merger while Go completes Tokyo IPO and other SPAC activity unfolds.

Eclipse raises $23M Series A for battery storage expansion. Flutterwave hits $3.25B valuation in funding round. Apple confirms product price increases due to memory chip shortages. Expeditors and BBC announce job cuts.

Coherent lands $50M CHIPS support for Texas chip plant expansion; Robinhood trims 10% staff in restructuring; Phoenix Tailings secures $500M Pentagon loan for rare earth facility. Plus startup rounds, secondary offerings, and hardware updates.