DeepSeek finalizing $7.5 billion fundraising as…

AI · The Information

1.DeepSeek finalizing $7.5 billion fundraising as annualized revenue hits $1 billion

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek is finalizing a roughly $7.5 billion funding round it aims to close by the end of October, as its annualized revenue has doubled to about $1 billion.

AI · FT

2.SoftBank raises $11 billion in record junk bond offering to fund OpenAI bet

SoftBank raised about $11 billion in a record high-yield bond offering to help fund its large investment in OpenAI, with yields of up to 9.75% seen as a gauge of investor willingness to keep financing the AI boom.

$SFTBY

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AI Infrastructure · Bloomberg

3.BlackRock, IFM close in on $25 billion Asia data center deal

BlackRock and IFM Investors are nearing a roughly $25 billion deal for Stack-linked data centers in Asia, underscoring the scale of capital flowing into AI infrastructure.

Deals · Bloomberg

4.Qualcomm renews global licensing pact with Apple starting in 2027

Qualcomm said it renewed its global patent-licensing agreement with Apple, with new terms starting in 2027, extending a key royalty revenue relationship that investors had feared could lapse.

$QCOM$AAPL

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M&A · FT

5.Uber secures takeover deal as Delivery Hero chief reverses exit plan

Delivery Hero's CEO reversed his planned exit after Uber secured a takeover deal, positioning the German food-delivery group for asset sales under its US rival.

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AI · Bloomberg

6.AI video startup Higgsfield says it tops $1 billion revenue run rate

Generative-AI video startup Higgsfield said it has surpassed a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, a sign of surging demand for AI video-generation tools.

AI Infrastructure · The Information

7.Oracle invokes force majeure in bid to protect itself from data center cost overruns

Oracle invoked a force majeure provision, normally reserved for extraordinary circumstances, as it seeks to shield itself from surging data-center cost overruns tied to its massive AI cloud buildout.

$ORCL

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AI Infrastructure · Bloomberg

8.Anthropic strikes $12 billion AI computing deal with Akamai

Anthropic agreed to a roughly $12 billion deal with Akamai to secure AI computing capacity, adding to a wave of large compute commitments by frontier AI labs.

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M&A · FT

9.GoDaddy receives takeover offer from Norton maker Gen Digital

Gen Digital, the maker of Norton and Avast cybersecurity software, has made an early-stage takeover offer for web-domain provider GoDaddy; GoDaddy shares jumped about 14% while Gen Digital fell roughly 8% on the report.

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AI Chips · The Information

10.DensityAI nears $10 billion valuation in new funding round

DensityAI, an AI chip startup founded a year ago by former leaders of Tesla's Dojo supercomputer program, is in advanced talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in a round valuing it at about $10 billion.

Markets · Bloomberg

11.Meta's best month since 2013 puts it on cusp of $2 trillion valuation

Meta shares have jumped about 36% in September following the launch of its Muse personal AI assistant, putting the stock on pace for its best month since 2013 and roughly 1% away from a $2 trillion market value.

$META

$META Close$777.59+5.94%

1Y +4.5% Rev QoQ +28.0% EPS QoQ -13.4% 52wk $520.26–$779.82 P/E 29.3 Mkt Cap $1.98T

M&A · The Information

12.Databricks acquires Excel competitor Row Zero

Databricks acquired Row Zero, a startup building a Microsoft Excel competitor, as it pushes to attract more non-technical users to its data platform through spreadsheet software.

Startups · The Information

13.Anthropic seeks Palantir-style voting control for co-founders ahead of IPO

Anthropic is seeking to grant its seven co-founders special Palantir-style voting control as it prepares for a potential initial public offering.