Hub: AI Funding - Page 4

Three AI business items from 8–9 October 2026: Nvidia-backed Firmus withdraws its ASX listing and turns to private money; Bloomberg reports Isomorphic Labs is in early funding talks at a valuation of at least $40 billion; and StepFun's Step 5 Preview model is now listed on OpenRouter and Vercel's AI Gateway. What is confirmed, and what is only reported.

Reuters sources say OpenAI is racing to raise about $30bn before Anthropic's mid-November IPO, at a valuation that could top $1.4tn. Nothing is agreed.

TypeSafe AI, the company behind the Jev model, announced a funding round of $870 million at a $7.5 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz, on 9 October 2026. Who TypeSafe is, what Jev does, which figures are the company's own claims, and what is still unknown.

Three robotics items from 8 October 2026: a FAIR at Meta and Mila preprint on how robot "world models" scale, a reported Series A for Beijing's Livsyn Robotics, and CP AI Robotics' C1 store humanoid, which the company plans to roll out in Japanese convenience stores "as early as 2027". What each shows, and what it doesn't.

Three AI-agent start-ups announced funding on 8 October: Hone ($60M seed), Vesta ($30M, reported) and Catalyst ($30M seed, reported). Crossmint launched a toolkit that lets AI agents pay by card. What each company says, who reported what, and which figures are company claims.

Manus raises more than $500m after Beijing blocked Meta's takeover. Tab emerges at a $300m valuation. Nvidia reportedly discusses another $1bn for Figure. ElevenLabs says it has passed a $600m run rate, and Synthesia launches Syren in beta. A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds most Americans think government is not taking AI risks seriously enough.

Nous Research has raised $90 million to build Hermes for Businesses, a company version of its MIT-licensed Hermes agent. The raise is confirmed; the valuation is reported, mostly at $1.5B, with one $1.2B figure in circulation. Nous's "2.5% of global token usage" is its own estimate.

Multiply Labs’ company release says it raised $75 million in Series B funding led by Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks to scale robotic GMP manufacturing clusters for biologics, bringing total capital raised to over $100 million.

Minerva Humanoids’ company release says it raised about $10 million in pre-seed funding led by General Catalyst to build Roger, a semi-autonomous VR-teleoperated humanoid aimed at hazardous energy and public-safety work, with paid pilots launching in the fall.

Tokyo-based O-ID says it raised $1.2 million in seed funding, led by Tawani Ventures, to move a fully modular industrial humanoid from prototype toward production for Japanese automotive and logistics work.