Prime Intellect, a startup that provides computing infrastructure and software tools for building AI agents, raised $130 million in a Series A round announced in July 2026, valuing the company at $1…
OpenAI launched GPT-Live-1 and GPT-Live-1 mini on July 8, 2026 with full-duplex voice that can process incoming speech while generating replies, supporting mid-sentence interrupts and live translation. GPT-Live-1 mini becomes ChatGPT’s default, while paid users get GPT-Live-1. Atty Eleti said he’s used it for 30–40 minute conversations; 150M already use voice/dictation.
Vermilion Cliffs Ventures announced Wednesday the close of a $25 million Fund II, continuing its focus on technical founders building in AI infrastructure, security, and developer tools.
The firm…
A group of AI startups reported in mid-2026 that their revenue is not just growing but accelerating — reaching successive milestones in progressively shorter timeframes. The companies span a range of…
Paris AI startup ZML launched ZML/LLMD in July 2026, a free inference server for open-source LLMs that runs on Nvidia, AMD, Google TPU, Apple Metal, and Intel Arc to reduce vendor lock-in. It’s not open source, following a 2024 ML inference framework updated in March, and ZML will only consider paid tiers after analyzing usage.
Meta’s Superintelligence Labs launched Muse Image in July 2026 for Meta AI, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It lets users @ mention Instagram accounts in prompts so Meta AI can use public photos for generated likenesses (with controls), plus transforms and edits—starting with 30 new Instagram Stories AI effects in the US.
Joshua Achiam, OpenAI’s chief futurist, notified colleagues in July 2026 that he will leave the company later this month after nearly nine years. Achiam told staff his departure was not driven by any…
Figma’s July 2026 acquisition of Bud (formerly Orchids) goes beyond expansion into app prototyping: both platforms will shut down July 18, 2026, and users must migrate. It also follows BBC reporting earlier this year on Orchids-made apps’ cyberattack exposure.
Microsoft is moving some Excel and Word prompts from OpenAI/Anthropic to its in-house MAI models, Bloomberg reported July 7, 2026, citing rising AI service costs. At last month’s Build, Microsoft unveiled seven new MAI models, including an agentic coder and text-to-image generator, while Amazon, Uber, Meta, and Accenture cut AI spend too.
Anthropic expanded access to its Claude Cowork platform on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, making it available on mobile and web for the first time. Previously, Cowork was only accessible through the Claude…
On July 7, 2026, Norm raised a $120M Series C led by Khosla Ventures, valuing the nearly three-year-old AI law firm at $1.2B. Norm Law uses human-supervised AI agents for enterprise work and charges by outcomes, not hourly. Other investors include Bain and Fenwick LLP.
After an AI-generated kidnapping call that demanded $1,200, Savi Security launched an iOS/Android real-time scam detector in July 2026, targeting spoofed phone calls, texts and voicemails, alongside a $7M seed led by Acrew Capital. Co-founders Patrick and Ryan Coughlin say voice cloning can be done from as little as ~3 seconds of audio from public social media posts.
