Value Add Pulse — Live Tech & Venture Capital News

The Briefing

Trace Cohen · Friday, August 14

Updated 6h ago

Every major move today points the same direction: AI infrastructure spending has outgrown any single company's balance sheet, so labs, chipmakers and even pension funds are all restructuring how that money moves.

Anthropic in Talks to Buy AI Video Startup Decart for $6B

Anthropic is negotiating to buy Israeli startup Decart, which builds real-time video-generation models and GPU-efficiency software, for roughly $6 billion in what would be Anthropic's largest acquisition ever.

~$6B

Reported deal value

$4B

Decart's May valuation

~$450M

Decart total raised

AI· Aug 13, 2026

Microsoft Quietly Pulls Back Its Footprint in China

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Funding & Deals

6 stories

FUNDING· Aug 12, 2026

Thrive Holdings Raises $2B to Buy and Rewire Firms With AI

FUNDING$2B at $12B valuation

Thrive Holdings Raises $2B to Buy and Rewire Firms With AI

Thrive Holdings, the Thrive Capital spinout that acquires services businesses and rebuilds them with AI, raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation from SoftBank, D1 Capital and Altimeter, with OpenAI as an equity holder.

FUNDING· Aug 12, 2026

Lovable Confirms $13.3B Valuation, Raises Another $400M

FUNDING$400M at $13.3B valuation

Lovable Confirms $13.3B Valuation, Raises Another $400M

Vibe-coding startup Lovable closed a $400 million Series C at a $13.3 billion valuation, doubling its worth from December, after crossing $500 million in annualized revenue and projecting $600 million by month's end.

FUNDING· Aug 12, 2026

Form Energy Raises $750M for 100-Hour Grid Batteries

FUNDING$750M Series G

Form Energy Raises $750M for 100-Hour Grid Batteries

Form Energy raised a $750 million Series G led by T. Rowe Price to expand its iron-air batteries, which store power for up to 100 hours and are being bought by Google, Xcel Energy and Crusoe for AI data center power.

FUNDING· Aug 12, 2026

Skan AI Raises $63M Betting Work-Observation Is the Missing Layer

FUNDING$63M Series C

Skan AI Raises $63M Betting Work-Observation Is the Missing Layer

Skan AI raised a $63 million Series C co-led by Cathay Innovation and Dell Technologies Capital to expand a platform mapping how employees actually work, arguing AI agents fail from missing context, not weak models.

FUNDING· Aug 12, 2026

ClearJet Raises $25M to Build the 'Uber of Cargo'

FUNDING$25M Series B

ClearJet Raises $25M to Build the 'Uber of Cargo'

ClearJet, an Austin logistics startup that fills unused cargo space on commercial flights, raised a $25 million Series B led by Edison Partners after tripling revenue and approaching nine figures in annual sales while already profitable.

FUNDING· Aug 13, 2026

Trunk Tools' Founder Went From Teenage Carpenter to AI CEO

FUNDING

Trunk Tools' Founder Went From Teenage Carpenter to AI CEO

Trunk Tools founder Sarah Buchner, a former carpenter and general contractor, has grown the construction-AI startup's revenue fourfold in the past year on top of a $40 million Series B valuing it at $325 million.

AI & Technology

6 stories

AI· Aug 12, 2026

Google DeepMind's Talent Exodus Reveals a Deeper Identity Crisis

Days after Demis Hassabis stepped down as DeepMind CEO, Fortune reports stalled models, missed deadlines and staff burnout drove the exodus, with engineers telling the outlet DeepMind is losing its separation and identity within Alphabet.

BIG TECH· Aug 13, 2026

Oracle Plans New Layoffs as AI Debt Tops $129B

BIG TECH$129.5B total debt

Oracle Plans New Layoffs as AI Debt Tops $129B

Oracle is drawing up another round of layoffs this month as its AI-buildout debt reaches $129.5 billion, even as it expands its AWS partnership and keeps posting double-digit revenue growth.

Why it matters

Oracle is planning a new round of layoffs this month, with some teams facing double-digit percentage cuts, as it borrows tens of billions more to fund its AI data-center buildout -- Pulse previously covered Oracle cutting 21,000 jobs in June for the same underlying reason, and this is a fresh, separate round targeted ahead of the September 1 start of Oracle's second fiscal quarter

AI· Aug 13, 2026

Tech CEOs Are Writing Manifestos Nobody Asked For

Fortune examines a wave of lengthy personal essays from tech CEOs -- some running past 6,500 words -- on AI's future, raising the question of who reads them and whether they function as genuine philosophy or investor signaling.

REGULATION· Aug 12, 2026

Anthropic's Text Watermark Is Invisible -- For Now

REGULATION

Anthropic's Text Watermark Is Invisible -- For Now

New reporting on Anthropic's Claude text watermark finds it stays undetectable to end users by design today, but that same imperceptibility means researchers can't yet verify how robust it is against deliberate stripping.

REGULATION· Aug 12, 2026

Twitch Trained Amazon's AI on Streams Since 2024, Undisclosed

REGULATION

Twitch Trained Amazon's AI on Streams Since 2024, Undisclosed

Twitch confirmed Amazon has used livestreams to train generative AI models since a 2024 internal prototyping phase that was never publicly disclosed, and the new opt-out setting streamers can use is enabled by default rather than off.

Why it matters

Twitch confirmed on August 12 that Amazon has been using Twitch livestreams to train generative AI models, and introduced a setting letting streamers opt out, according to TechCrunch and The Verge

AI· Aug 12, 2026

Google's Pixel 11 Puts Gemini at the Center of Its Apple Fight

Google unveiled the Pixel 11 lineup built around Gemini Intelligence, an AI system that acts across apps rather than just answering questions, launching weeks before Apple is expected to ship a Gemini-powered Siri rebuild.

IPO Watch

6 stories

AI· Aug 12, 2026

Cerebras Plunges 14% Despite Raised Guidance in 2nd Earnings

AI-14% after 2nd earnings

Cerebras Plunges 14% Despite Raised Guidance in 2nd Earnings

Cerebras stock fell about 14% after its second earnings report as a public company even as it raised full-year guidance, with GAAP revenue missing estimates while core revenue grew 103% year over year.

BIG TECH· Aug 12, 2026

CoreWeave, Nebius Stocks Rally Hard on Blowout AI Demand

BIG TECHCRWV +19%, NBIS +34%

CoreWeave, Nebius Stocks Rally Hard on Blowout AI Demand

CoreWeave shares rose 19% and Nebius jumped 34% after both neocloud companies reported results showing surging AI compute demand, with CoreWeave's backlog reaching $104 billion and Nebius's run rate up 598%.

BIG TECH· Aug 12, 2026

Cisco Stock Falls Despite Record Earnings on AI Order Surge

BIG TECH-4.66% despite record Q4

Cisco Stock Falls Despite Record Earnings on AI Order Surge

Cisco reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $17.25 billion and $4 billion in AI orders from hyperscalers, but shares fell nearly 5% after hours as hardware-heavy orders dragged margin guidance down.

BIG TECH· Aug 12, 2026

Tencent Says It Could Profit Instantly by Renting Its AI Chips

BIG TECH~$53B quarterly AI capex

Tencent Says It Could Profit Instantly by Renting Its AI Chips

On the same earnings call where Tencent reported an 11% revenue beat, president Martin Lau said Tencent could earn a 'decent return in an immediate timeframe' by renting its $53 billion AI hardware spend instead.

BIG TECH· Aug 12, 2026

Kospi Roars Back Into Bull Market on Chip Rebound

BIG TECHKospi +20%+ from July low

Kospi Roars Back Into Bull Market on Chip Rebound

South Korea's Kospi index climbed more than 20% from its July low to re-enter bull-market territory, driven by Samsung and SK Hynix shares recovering sharply after the same two chipmakers had driven 71% of the index's July losses.

BIG TECH· Aug 12, 2026

Goldman Sachs Buys Into Bitcoin Income ETFs for $2.25B

BIG TECHUp to $2.25B

Goldman Sachs Buys Into Bitcoin Income ETFs for $2.25B

Goldman Sachs is paying up to $2.25 billion for NEOS Investments, handing it a ready-made $1.1 billion bitcoin covered-call ETF and vaulting it past BlackRock in the race for bitcoin-income products.

Why it matters

Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments, manager of the $1.1 billion BTCI bitcoin covered-call ETF, in a deal valued at up to $2.25 billion that's expected to close in the first quarter of 2027 pending regulatory approval, per CoinDesk

Hacker News