LIVE · SAT, JUN 27, 2026 --:--:-- ET

Issue Nº 67 COST TOTAL $14569.45 ARTICLES TODAY 4 TOKENS TOTAL 9.17B

Running the wire

Chips Cerebras and OpenAI sign $20B+ deal for 750MW high-speed AI inference capacity deployment Funding Mirendil raises $200M seed at $1B valuation: ex-Anthropic researchers build AI for AI R&D Market Tech mega-caps lose $2.7T in June as AI capex concerns mount Breaking Vercel launches Eve, open-source framework for building production AI agents Breaking Trump admin grants Anthropic export license for Mythos 5, ending 2-week standoff Funding Groq raises $650M, pivots to neocloud inference after Nvidia's $20B license deal Chips Apple releases container 1.0: native OCI runtime for Linux on Apple silicon, free alternative to Docker Desktop Breaking OpenAI launches GPT-5.6 series (Sol, Terra, Luna) under government preview; Sol at $5/$30 per million tokens Breaking Zhipu GLM 5.2 lands within percentage point of Anthropic Opus 4.8 at fifth the cost Funding Upscale AI hits $2B valuation with $190M Series A extension; Nvidia backs AI networking chip startup Funding Mirendil raises $200M seed at $1B to automate frontier AI research itself Funding General Intuition raises $320M at $2.3B to train agents on gameplay action data Funding Baseten closes $1.5B Series F at $13B valuation; AI inference consolidation Funding AppsFlyer raises $1B from Google, Meta, Unity; independent ad measurement bets on AI Market Oracle crashes 19% in worst week since 2001; $130B debt load triggers revaluation Funding Baseten closes $1.5B Series F at $13B valuation, 20x revenue growth Market Meta stock slides on capex concerns; $125–145B 2026 spend fails to move investors Chips GlobalPlatform launches Pavona: open-source silicon with production-grade post-quantum cryptography Breaking Vercel launches Eve, open-source agent framework with durable execution and sandboxing built-in Chips Onsemi acquires Synaptics for $7B to build Physical AI platform Chips Cerebras and OpenAI sign $20B+ deal for 750MW high-speed AI inference capacity deployment Funding Mirendil raises $200M seed at $1B valuation: ex-Anthropic researchers build AI for AI R&D Market Tech mega-caps lose $2.7T in June as AI capex concerns mount Breaking Vercel launches Eve, open-source framework for building production AI agents Breaking Trump admin grants Anthropic export license for Mythos 5, ending 2-week standoff Funding Groq raises $650M, pivots to neocloud inference after Nvidia's $20B license deal Chips Apple releases container 1.0: native OCI runtime for Linux on Apple silicon, free alternative to Docker Desktop Breaking OpenAI launches GPT-5.6 series (Sol, Terra, Luna) under government preview; Sol at $5/$30 per million tokens Breaking Zhipu GLM 5.2 lands within percentage point of Anthropic Opus 4.8 at fifth the cost Funding Upscale AI hits $2B valuation with $190M Series A extension; Nvidia backs AI networking chip startup Funding Mirendil raises $200M seed at $1B to automate frontier AI research itself Funding General Intuition raises $320M at $2.3B to train agents on gameplay action data Funding Baseten closes $1.5B Series F at $13B valuation; AI inference consolidation Funding AppsFlyer raises $1B from Google, Meta, Unity; independent ad measurement bets on AI Market Oracle crashes 19% in worst week since 2001; $130B debt load triggers revaluation Funding Baseten closes $1.5B Series F at $13B valuation, 20x revenue growth Market Meta stock slides on capex concerns; $125–145B 2026 spend fails to move investors Chips GlobalPlatform launches Pavona: open-source silicon with production-grade post-quantum cryptography Breaking Vercel launches Eve, open-source agent framework with durable execution and sandboxing built-in Chips Onsemi acquires Synaptics for $7B to build Physical AI platform

Funding Friday, June 26, 2026 at 11:34 PM

Groq raises $650M, pivots to neocloud inference after Nvidia's $20B license deal

Groq announced a $650 million funding round on June 22, 2026, led by Disruptive and Infinitum, just six months after Nvidia paid roughly $20 billion in December 2025 for a non-exclusive license to Groq's chip technology and hired away founder-CEO Jonathan Ross and president Sunny Madra. The round validates investor confidence that a hardware startup can survive a major talent exodus by pivoting to services—Groq is now betting on its neocloud inference business rather than selling chips directly.

The AI chipmaker operates 13 data centers across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, serving over 5 million developers and processing trillions of tokens weekly. Groq plans to expand that infrastructure dramatically, targeting 200 megawatts of capacity by end of 2027 and deploying Nvidia's new LPX platform (which incorporates Groq's licensed inference tech) alongside Groq's own LPU silicon. The company has also rebuilt leadership, adding Alan Rice (formerly xAI, Meta) as COO, with CTO Sinclair Schuller and Chief Product Officer Rakesh Malhotra joining in July.

The financing sends a clear message: infrastructure matters more than chip designers. Groq's recovery signals that even after a competitor acquires your talent, a defensible platform—global datacenters, proven developer base, neocloud positioning—can sustain venture funding. For architects: inference commoditization is real, and it's accelerating who survives in the chip business.

Sources