29 May 2026
Is Phoebe Gates’s Phia the Most Celeb-Backed Shopping Startup of All Time?
Phia, the AI shopping app launched in April 2025 by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, wants to win the AI shopping race. Phia’s browser extension tool scans the internet while you shop, offering alternatives to whatever product you’re looking at, like a similar item at a better price or the same pair of pants available secondhand on Ebay; it’s designed to be a smarter shopping companion.
29 May 2026
Anthropic soars to $965bn valuation, leapfrogging OpenAI
Claude maker raises $65bn from investors ahead of expected initial public offering. Anthropic has usurped OpenAI as the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup, soaring to a $965bn valuation ahead of expected public listings by the rival firms.
28 May 2026
Meta’s mass layoffs hit nearly 3,200 Bay Area workers, among region’s worst job losses in years
As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes the company deeper into artificial intelligence, employee layoffs continue to mount.
28 May 2026
A SF startup is secretly testing robots in Airbnbs, and trashing them, lawsuit claims
The reservation request didn’t seem out of the ordinary: Eight colleagues visiting the Bay Area for work were looking for an Airbnb with reliable Wi-Fi. But at check-in time April 12, a Ring camera captured footage of people moving large, black cases into Sean Donovan’s home in San Francisco. Later that night, the security system was shut off. Two days later, Donovan stopped by the house to take…
28 May 2026
Anthropic: San Francisco AI company vaults to a $965 billion valuation with new funding as Claude demand surges
SAN FRANCISCO -- Artificial intelligence company Anthropic said Thursday it raised $65 billion in private funding that will push its valuation to $965 billion, a whopping number that makes the five-year-old maker of the Claude chatbot one of the world's most valuable startups as it careens toward a likely Wall Street debut.
28 May 2026
What’s rarer than a unicorn? Anthropic is almost the first $1 trillion private company in history
Two weeks ago, defense startup Anduril raised a Series H round—$5 billion at a $61 billion valuation, shocking the defense world as the largest defense-tech round in history. On Thursday, Anthropic had its own Series H, but one from a different planet.
28 May 2026
AgriFood Signals: Elbit acquires Bluewhite, more funding for virtual fencing, Anheuser-Busch awards $80k grant
AgFunderNews rounds up the most important fundings, mergers, acquisitions, closures, and industry buzz in agtech and foodtech.
28 May 2026
Hypersonic Startup Nabs Contract For High-Speed Drone Testing
Venture capital-backed aircraft startup Hermeus announced May 28 its Quarterhorse unmanned aircraft will conduct a series of flight tests with the Defense Innovation Unit over the next few years.
28 May 2026
The $6 Billion Chinese Startup Trying to Build Hands for Every Robot
If you could buy a humanoid robot for less than a smartphone, would you? Would you buy several robots to handle cooking, cleaning, babysitting, and even your job? This is the pitch being made by Zhou Yong, the 40-year-old founder and chief technology officer of LinkerBot, one of China’s leading manufacturers of dexterous humanoid hands.
