In the wave of integration between mining and technology, KoBold Metals, a startup, has recently attracted significant attention within the industry. The company successfully raised $491 million, aiming to complete a total financing round of $527 million. This funding will greatly enhance the development of their giant high-grade copper mine discovered in Zambia, while also accelerating the progress of the company's other exploration projects. Image source note: Image generated by AI, image licensed from service provider Midjourney as per KoBold Meta.

Recently, OpenAI is undergoing a critical transformation, planning to shift from a non-profit lab to a for-profit company and preparing for a new round of massive funding. However, the company has been facing internal turmoil, with several executives including the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Research Officer resigning, raising concerns about OpenAI's future direction. Reportedly, Apple unexpectedly decided not to participate in OpenAI's latest $6.5 billion funding round, leading to a cooling of the financing plan. Despite this, OpenAI expects revenue to reach $300 million this year, a 17% year-on-year increase.

The battle for funding in the field of artificial intelligence is unfolding dramatically in Silicon Valley. As a new player in the industry, Anthropic is actively negotiating with investors, aiming to increase its valuation to between $30 billion and $40 billion in the upcoming financing round. Meanwhile, its main competitor, OpenAI, is also planning a massive fundraising effort. According to existing investors of Anthropic, the company has begun preliminary discussions with potential supporters, targeting a valuation nearly double that of the beginning of this year. Anthropic primarily

Recently, AI startup 11x, which is dedicated to transforming the modern workforce, announced it has secured $24 million in financing, with the goal of changing how businesses operate through autonomous digital employees. CEO and founder Hassan Sukar stated, "We believe that within the next two years, digital employees will become an essential part of daily operations for businesses worldwide." Note: Image generated by AI, image licensed by service provider Midjourney. This funding will primarily be used to accelerate product development and expand the team.

Small businesses play an indispensable role in the U.S. economy, employing nearly half of the workforce and contributing 44% of GDP. However, when owners of these economic pillars consider exiting, they often face a dilemma of limited choices. OffDeal, a startup nurtured by the Y Combinator Winter 2024 accelerator, is dedicated to solving this issue through innovative AI technology. OffDeal is co-founded by former investment banker Ori Eldarov and former Meta engineer Alston Lin.

The technology company 'Accelerated Evolution', dedicated to humanoid robot research and development, has completed hundreds of millions in pre-A funding, with investors including Bianshi Times, Minyin International, Zhongguancun Science City, and iCANX Fund, along with follow-up investment from Inno Angel. The funds will primarily be used for the development of a general ontology and enhancement of software development capabilities. CEO Cheng Hao pointed out that the AI-driven humanoid robot boom, especially the demand for vehicles of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), is driving the transition of humanoid robots from specialization to generalization. The company's phase one commercial positioning is to provide developers with general biped robots.

Glean, an AI-driven enterprise work platform, raised $260 million in Series E financing, doubling its valuation to $4.6 billion, co-led by Altimeter and DST Global. Glean's mission is to provide work AI for everyone, connecting and deeply understanding enterprise data, personnel, processes, and environments, while maintaining intuitiveness and security, becoming a reliable tool in daily work. Since its launch in 2019, Glean has evolved from an AI-powered enterprise search engine to a comprehensive enterprise AI assistant.

Zhipu AI, a unicorn in the large model field, announces the completion of financing worth several billion yuan to support technological innovation and ecosystem development. After this round of financing, Zhipu's valuation reaches 20 billion yuan, with Zhongguancun Science City Company as the lead investor, marking its third financing round in 2024. Zhipu's shareholder lineup includes well-known investment institutions such as Zhongguancun Science City, Hillhouse Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Junlian Capital, as well as internet giants Meituan, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi.

Wuwen Chip Quasar, an AI startup established just over a year ago, recently secured nearly 500 million in Series A financing, bringing its total financing to over 1 billion, making it the king of financing in the AI infrastructure sector. Its shareholders include state-owned assets, local funds, and notable venture capital institutions such as Shunwei Capital and Dacheng Financial Intelligence. One of the founders, Wang Yu, is the head of the Department of Electronics at Tsinghua University, and many team members have Tsinghua backgrounds with rich research experience. In 2016, DeepInsight Technology, incubated by Tsinghua NICS-EFC Laboratory, was acquired by Xilinx for 300 million.

Tokyo-based AI development company Sakana AI has announced the completion of a $100 million Series A financing round, with investors including NEA, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, and NVIDIA. Sakana AI focuses on nature-inspired intelligence and model optimization, particularly in evolutionary optimization and sparsity. The partnership with NVIDIA will provide advanced GPU technology support and access to Japanese data centers, aimed at promoting AI research and innovation. Collaboration goals include advancing research and leveraging NVIDIA's infrastructure.

Dongyi Technology, a humanoid robot company established in June 2024, has completed an angel round financing of tens of millions, led by Fengrui Capital and Z Fund, with several well-known investment institutions participating. The company's founder, Ren Xiaoyu, has extensive experience in bipedal humanoid robots and reinforcement learning development. Currently, humanoid robots excel in performing single tasks but face challenges in achieving diverse and generalized actions, limiting their potential for integration with multimodal large models. Dongyi Technology is committed to developing innovative behavioral AI agents and a new generation of humanoid robots.

AI infrastructure startup 'Wu Wen Xin Qiong' announced the completion of nearly 500 million Yuan in Series A financing, setting the record for the largest single financing amount for domestic AI Infra startups. This round was co-led by the Social Security Fund Zhongguancun Independent Innovation Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, and Hongtai Fund, with participation from strategic investors including Lenovo Capital, Xiaomi, and Softcom. The funds will primarily be used to enhance talent acquisition, deepen technology research and development, drive product commercialization, and strengthen ecosystem collaboration. 'Wu Wen Xin Qiong' was established just 16 months ago.