Top News | Anthropic told prospective IPO investors Wednesday that third-quarter revenue jumped 45% from the prior quarter to $16.8 billion as it prepares for a listing as soon as next month that could raise more than $100 billion at a $2 trillion valuation. The New York Times has more here. | CoreWeave shares plunged 16% Wednesday as yields on its bonds approached 15%, a sharp warning that investors are demanding much higher compensation for financing the AI infrastructure boom. Oracle, Nebius, and Dell also fell as concerns over tech-sector debt intensified. CNBC has more here. | Eight U.S. states have sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT reinforced delusions, encouraged dangerous behavior, and helped users — including teenagers — plan self-harm or violence in the most significant coordinated state legal action yet against an AI company. Reuters has more here. | OpenAI alleges that an employee who left for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased OpenAI product to a personal account and later presented the product to senior Apple leadership, escalating a trade-secrets fight that now cuts both ways. Reuters has more here. | Shares of Bending Spoons, the Italian company that has been buying up fallen internet companies like Evernote, surged 35% after Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a fresh $330 million investment following the $600 million it put into the company at its July IPO. CNBC has more here. | | |
Harmonic | Not a database of what’s happened. Intelligence that guides you to what’s coming. | Albion and 8VC use Scout to monitor markets. | Join them | | Flock CEO: We Haven’t ‘Fired’ Any Police Departments as Customers |  | Image Credits: Kimberly White / Getty Images for TechCrunch |
| By Zack Whittaker, Amanda Silberling, & Rebecca Bellan | Flock CEO Garrett Langley said that his company has not ended any contracts with its customers over abuse of its products. | Speaking to TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos at the Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco, Langley responded to criticisms facing the company about the misuse of its license plate reader cameras by police departments. It comes after streams of reporting identifying dozens of police officers who have been arrested, fired, or told to resign after being caught abusing access to Flock’s nationwide database of license plate detections, oftentimes to stalk people without permission. | Langley told Loizos that the company would end a relationship with a customer where there was clear widespread abuse of its systems. But, the CEO said, it has not to date “fired” a customer, as he put it, such as a police department or law enforcement agency. Langley said Flock had the debate internally, but argued that the company should not take away its product from a community that might need it in its efforts to fight crime. | “If a customer knowingly broke the law, we would fire them immediately. That’s very easy,” Langley said. | “Most of the debate is nuanced into ‘what if two officers out of fifty were caught?’ Today, we haven’t fired any customers, but it’s not off the table in the case of some pretty drastic law-abiding issue,” added Langley. | The abuse of Flock’s systems and the data it collects is the latest in an array of controversies embroiling the Atlanta, Georgia-based maker of license plate reader cameras. Flock has more than 100,000 cameras around the United States, which allow local police departments and federal agencies to track the whereabouts of vehicle license plates and people as they pass by. | | | Massive Fundings | Albert, a four-year-old Oakland startup that develops AI tools that organize lab data, suggest chemical formulations, design experiments, and analyze results for enterprise researchers, raised a $55 million Series B round led by TCV, with Delta-v Capital, Socium Ventures, HighSage Ventures, Coral Capital, and Legion VC as well as previous investors Coatue, J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Index Ventures, and Applied Ventures also piling on. Dealroom has more here. | Anduril Industries, a nine-year-old startup based in Costa Mesa, CA, that builds autonomous defense systems, is reportedly allowing employees to sell up to $1.3 billion of shares through a tender offer that would value the company at roughly $90 billion. Bloomberg has more here. | Bedrock Robotics, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds autonomous systems for construction vehicles, is reportedly raising a $600 million Series C round at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation. Axios has more here. | Harmonic Security, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that monitors employee use of AI tools and agents to prevent sensitive-data leaks and risky actions, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Crosspoint Capital Partners. The company has raised a total of $76 million. SiliconANGLE has more here. | Icon, a nine-year-old Austin startup that develops robotic systems, software, and materials for constructing homes, commercial buildings, and defense infrastructure, raised a $200 million Series D round co-led by Baillie Gifford and BlackRock, with Capital Factory, CAZ Investments, Moderne Ventures, Moonshots Capital, Norwest, Overmatch, The Syndicate, and Tiger Global also chipping in. More here. | Modal, a five-year-old New York startup that provides serverless cloud infrastructure for running and scaling AI workloads, raised a $750 million Series D round at a $15.75 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Accel, with Kleiner Perkins as well as previous investors Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Redpoint, Lux Capital, Amplify Partners, and Bain Capital Ventures also buying in. More here. | Reach Security, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to analyze and adjust enterprises’ existing security controls to identify and block potential attack paths, raised a $50+ million Series B round led by Top Tier Capital Partners, with Ballistic Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and M12 also pitching in. The SaaS News has more here. | Salience Labs, a five-year-old Oxford startup that develops all-optical switches that connect thousands of GPUs across racks in AI data centers, raised a $125 million Series B round led by Bullhound Capital, with AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, SBI Group, Hudson River Trading, and British Business Bank as well as previous investors Applied Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Silicon Catalyst Ventures also taking part. SiliconANGLE has more here. | Scanntech, a 34-year-old São Paulo company that turns point-of-sale transaction data into retail intelligence for retailers, consumer goods companies, and distributors, raised a $180 million Series F round co-led by L Catterton and Partners Group, with Bradesco and SPX as well as previous investors Warburg Pincus, Hindiana, IFC, and Endeavor also taking stakes. More here. | Soufflé Therapeutics, a five-year-old Boston startup that develops RNA therapies that target specific cells outside the liver to treat muscle diseases, heart failure, and metabolic disorders, raised a $135 million Series B round led by Juvia Group, with additional support from TCG Crossover Management, BB Biotech, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Balyasny Asset Management as well as previous investors Amgen Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Breyer Capital, The Invus Group, Janus Henderson, Leaps by Bayer, Polaris Partners, Safar Partners, TAS Partners, Temasek, and Vida Ventures. More here. | | Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings | Allara, a six-year-old New York startup that provides virtual multidisciplinary care for women with hormonal, metabolic, and reproductive conditions, raised a $30 million round co-led by Index Ventures and GV, with Camino Partners, Foreground, and Family Fund also investing. The company has raised a total of $75 million. Fierce Healthcare has more here. | Brellium, a five-year-old New York startup that uses AI to audit patient records and coding for documentation gaps before healthcare providers submit claims, raised a $23 million Series B round co-led by Left Lane Capital and First Round Capital, with Digital Health Venture Partners also stepping up. More here. | Causa Prima, a Madrid startup founded this year that uses AI agents to settle invoice disputes, negotiate payment terms, and arrange early-payment discounts between businesses, raised a $20 million seed round led by Base10 Partners, with QED Investors and FJ Labs as well as previous investors Creandum, Kfund, and Borusan Ventures also taking part. The company has raised a total of $30 million. Tech Funding News has more here. | Duvo, a one-year-old Prague startup that uses AI agents to map and automate ope |
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