How Did AI Deals Stack Up To **$695M** Today? 📈🤖🚀

TL;DR

• Frontier lab humans& closed a $480M seed round today
• Synthesia’s Series E added $200M, hitting $4B valuation
• SpaceX–xAI merger set a $1.25T combined valuation
• AI funding concentration rising; top deals dominate totals

HEADLINES

SpaceX and xAI merge into $1.25T AI-space giant 🛰️🔗

Samsung, SK Hynix overtake Alibaba, Tencent on AI boom 💾🔗

Australian startups hit $5.1B as AI soaks capital 🇦🇺🔗

Grok Imagine 1.0 challenges Google Veo, OpenAI Sora 🎬🔗

Vanderbilt University scales campus-wide generative AI stack 🎓🔗

RAISES

humans& raised $480M in a seed round led by 500 Global 🧑‍🤝‍🧑🔗

Synthesia raised $200M in a Series E led by GV 📹🔗

Momentic raised $15M in a Series A from Standard Capital 🧪🔗

NEW LAUNCHES

Mozilla Firefox unveiled AI-off master toggle in Firefox 148 🧩🔗

Qualcomm launched AI Program for Innovators 2026 – APAC 🌏🔗

Luma AI announced The Luma Dream Brief global competition 🎨🔗

Vanderbilt Amplify 2.0 rolled out upgraded internal generative AI platform ⚙️🔗

METRICS

Australian startups raised $5.1B across 390 deals in 2025 📊🔗

AI-linked rounds captured 61% of Australian startup capital 🤖🔗

Samsung and SK Hynix reached $1.11T combined market cap 💹🔗

SpaceX–xAI merger values xAI at $250B standalone 🚀🔗

Mozilla earmarked $1.4B for AI transparency efforts 🛡️🔗

BENCHMARKS

State of Australian Startup Funding shows top 20 deals took 58% of capital 📘🔗

AI sector accounted for about $3.1B in Australia 📈🔗

BFSI analysis flags 2026 as pivot to “governed intelligence” in banking 🏦🔗

GenAI workplace study highlights Southeast Asia’s rapidly maturing adoption 🧭🔗

INFRA & COSTS

SpaceX–xAI tie-up targets chips, data centers, massive energy demand ⚡🔗

Samsung, SK Hynix ride AI memory demand to record valuations 💽🔗

Qualcomm QAIPI 2026 provides Dragonwing, Snapdragon edge-AI hardware platforms 📡🔗

Vanderbilt Amplify 2.0 centralizes multi-model access and secure AI workflows ☁️🔗

VALUATIONS

SpaceX–xAI merger sets combined valuation at $1.25T 🏷️🔗

Synthesia doubled to $4B valuation after Series E 🎥🔗

xAI valued at $250B within merger terms 🧠🔗

Australian report shows AI startups commanding valuation premiums 📌🔗

POLICY

Philippines lawmaker proposed AI Governance Framework and National AI Computing Center ⚖️🔗

US House subcommittee scheduled hearing on adopting AI at work 🏛️🔗

Ethics weekly brief highlights new US state AI safety laws 📜🔗

New York courts mandate AI training, restrict generic tools in filings ⚖️🔗

SOVEREIGN

Philippines roadmap targets $92B GDP boost from AI by 2030 🇵🇭🔗

Australia funded AI Safety Institute with $29.9M budget 🇦🇺🔗

Pakistan Indus AI Week positions nation for scaled AI adoption 🇵🇰🔗

US federal programs keep AI Government Leadership training running during shutdown 🇺🇸🔗

SECTORS

Banking, financial services shift from pilots to governed AI intelligence 🏦🔗

Retail adopted predictive, intelligent shopping experiences with AI 🛒🔗

Higher education deployed institution-managed generative AI across campus 🎓🔗

Creative advertising embraced AI video via Luma Dream Brief 🎥🔗

Workplace governance explored AI risk, privacy, cybersecurity in enterprises 💼🔗

COMMUNITY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Andi Peng co-founded humans& to build human-centric frontier AI 🤝🔗