Techmeme
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Vesta, which uses AI agents to automate much of the loan origination process, raised $30M led by Conversion, bringing its total funding to $85M (Dominic-Madori Davis/TechCrunch)
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Blockchain.com seeks CFTC approval to offer event contracts and cryptocurrency derivatives in the US; it already offers some prediction markets internationally (Davis Giangiulio/CNBC)
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Tesla renames Full Self-Driving to Tesla Assisted Driving in Europe after pushback from Germany, whose transport minister will now back its EU-wide approval (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch)
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Warehouse robotics startup Ultra raised a $12M seed and a $50M Series A, and expands its deal with Physical Intelligence to supply AI software for its robots (Jeff John Roberts/Fortune)
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NY AG announces an up-to-$35M settlement with ex-Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky that permanently bars him from the securities, commodities, and crypto industries (Olivier Acuna/CoinDesk)
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Sabi, which is building a baseball cap that uses 100K non-contact neuro-sensors to convert neural signals into text prompts for AI systems, raised a $50M seed (Rashi Shrivastava/Forbes)
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Analysis of 857 releases from nine Chinese AI labs from 2021 to September 2026: just 3.6% included safety results from the developer and only 1.1% did at launch (SemiAnalysis)
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Jev developer TypeSafe AI raised a $870M Series A led by a16z at a $7.5B valuation with Sequoia and others participating, says ~33% of the Fortune 500 use Jev (Bloomberg)
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The UK plans to curb non-compete rules that force employees to wait before moving jobs or starting companies, an issue that has drawn complaints from startups (Shona Ghosh/Bloomberg)
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The Chinese developer of ARTEX says they have converted the AI agent into a closed-source project after CrowdStrike said it was used to hack South Korean banks (Brenda Goh/Reuters)
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Meanwhile, a Sam Altman-backed bitcoin life insurance provider, raised $37.5M led by Bain Capital, sources say at a $350M valuation, up from $190M in April 2025 (Lucinda Shen/Axios)
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Sources detail Mark Zuckerberg's decision to launch Muse despite safety concerns, after seeing that AI startup Instinct's similar agent product gained traction (Eli Tan/New York Times)
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Nvidia commits $1B over five years to build out the US' "capacity for super intelligence R&D" in fields like quantum computing, healthcare, and energy security (Tobias Mann/The Register)
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A slew of cyberattacks hit Japanese companies in September, exposing the data of millions and prompting calls for security checks, as AI lowers hacking barriers (Sarah Hilton/Bloomberg)
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Sources: Netflix is preparing to cut ~5% of employees, or ~850 jobs, as early as next week, amid pressure over weakened engagement and a depressed stock price (Matthew Belloni/Puck)