Thrive Capital's Thrive Holdings, which acquires traditional service businesses and adds AI, raised $2B from SoftBank, D1, and others at a $12B valuation (Michael J. de la Merced/New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/business/dealbook/thrive-holdings-ai-funding.html
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p20#a260812p20

Amsterdam-based neocloud Nebius reports Q2 cloud revenue up 514% YoY to $575M and total revenue of $582M, above $557M est.; NBIS rises 15%+, and is up 131% YTD (Paula Doenecke/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-12/nebius-reports-514-jump-in-ai-cloud-sales-as-demand-booms
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p19#a260812p19

Skan AI, which is building a "context graph of work" by observing staff using enterprise software, raised a $63M Series C co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell (Michael Nuñez/VentureBeat)

https://venturebeat.com/data/skan-ai-raises-63-million-betting-that-watching-how-employees-actually-work-is-the-missing-layer-of-enterprise-ai
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p18#a260812p18

A look at AI news website RuntimeWire, which costs $100/day to run and "beat" human reporters to OpenAI's Black Hat disclosure, favoring quantity over quality (Kate Knibbs/Wired)

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-newsrooms-are-breaking-news-now-haha-im-in-danger/
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p17#a260812p17

African e-commerce company Jumia raised $50M, including $25M from the World Bank's IFC; Jumia's US-listed shares have fallen from $60+ in 2021 to $6 now (Loni Prinsloo/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-12/jumia-wins-ifc-axian-backing-in-50-million-equity-fundraising
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p16#a260812p16

The NYC Council sent letters to Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan to investigate alleged deceptive marketing practices and targeting minors (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/business/new-york-city-launches-sweeping-investigation-into-polymarket-and-kalshi-fa1d80a4?st=mXCwcr&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p15#a260812p15

AI code-testing startup Blacksmith raised a $45M Series B led by Peak XV Partners at a $550M valuation, up from $60M after it raised a $10M Series A in 2025 (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/12/blacksmiths-valuation-jumps-10x-to-550m-as-ai-coding-fuels-software-validation/
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p14#a260812p14

Q&A with Redwood Research Chief Scientist Ryan Greenblatt on AI R&D, RSI, whether human expert data is bottlenecking progress, token prices, alignment, and more (Dwarkesh Patel/Dwarkesh Podcast)

https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/ryan-greenblatt
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p13#a260812p13

A look at the challenges facing incoming Google DeepMind head Koray Kavukcuoglu, who joined DeepMind in 2012 and will oversee Gemini and frontier AI research (Kai Nicol-Schwarz/CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/12/google-deepmind-koray-kavukcuoglu.html
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p12#a260812p12

Former Alibaba star researcher Junyang Lin launches Shanghai-based Pragmatik Labs to build digital and physical AI agents; Pragmatik hit a $2B valuation in June (Juro Osawa/The Information)

https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/former-alibaba-researcher-announces-new-startup-digital-physical-ai-agents
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p11#a260812p11

Foxconn reports Q2 revenue up 41% YoY to ~$78.4B, with cloud and networking products contributing 50%+ for the first time, and net profit up 35% to ~$1.86B (Sherry Qin/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/foxconns-ai-hardware-sales-drive-profit-beat-58d9bac3?st=1xP7Gc&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p10#a260812p10

Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$30.4B, above ~$30B est., and net income of ~$8.3B, driven by surging WeChat advertising and resilient game spending (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-12/tencent-sales-top-estimates-on-wechat-ad-surge-resilient-games
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p9#a260812p9

Stockholm-based AI coding startup Lovable raised $400M at a $13.3B valuation, up from $6.6B in December 2025, becoming one of Europe's most valuable startups (Ben Dummett/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/vibe-coding-startup-lovable-hits-13-billion-valuation-0c87ff8a?st=zd6W2k&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p8#a260812p8

Sources: AI coding startup Cognition is in early talks with investors to raise $1B+ at a $40B+ valuation, after raising $1B at a $26B valuation in May (Rebecca Torrence/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-12/ai-startup-cognition-in-new-funding-talks-at-40-billion-value
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p7#a260812p7

Some health and fitness obsessives are using AI for hyperpersonalized training, building custom dashboards and tools to analyze their sleep, workouts, and diet (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-datamaxxers-feeding-their-every-health-move-to-ai-df0af9b5?st=hqiG7z&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p6#a260812p6

Briter: Africa-focused startups raised $3.3B in H1 2026, up 73% YoY, driven by Zipline's $950M raise; US- and UAE-incorporated entities raised half the capital (Nduka Orjinmo/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-11/healthcare-ev-startups-steer-africa-toward-record-funding-year
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p5#a260812p5

Bengaluru-based Yulu, which gets ~95% of its revenue from renting e-bikes to gig workers, raised a $93M Series C, sources say at a ~$170M post-money valuation (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/indias-yulu-raises-93m-as-quick-commerce-boom-fuels-e-bike-demand/
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p4#a260812p4

Sources: Singapore-based data center operator DayOne confidentially files for a US IPO, aims to list as soon as next quarter, and is considering raising ~$5B (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-11/dayone-data-centers-said-to-confidentially-file-for-5-billion-ipo-us
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p3#a260812p3

Researchers say suspected Chinese hackers used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool that compromised Taiwanese government websites in July (Tom Wilson/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/7d2ab3e0-9085-48f6-b38a-d90260d58795
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p2#a260812p2

OpenAI VP of Global Policy Ann O'Leary says AI policy in the US is anchored in the states and informed by California's AI transparency law passed last year (Chase DiFeliciantonio/Politico)

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/11/openai-ai-policy-will-still-be-made-in-states-01034394
http://www.techmeme.com/260812/p1#a260812p1