What Drove Today’s **$1.1B+** AI Capital Surge? 💸🤖🚀

TL;DR

• Mega-seed at $4.48B spotlights AI lab frenzy
• Inference infra attracts Nvidia and IVP capital
• Voice AI funding spikes across India, Australia
• Public markets lean into agentic commerce AI

HEADLINES

Humans& AI Lab raises $480M at $4.48B 🧠🔗

Baseten hits $5B valuation on $300M round ⚙️🔗

Rezolve Ai prices $250M registered direct offering 🛒🔗

AM Group & Uttar Pradesh sign 1 GW AI compute MoU ⚡🔗

BCCI ropes in Gemini as ₹270‑crore IPL sponsor 🏏🔗

FROM THE BIG PLAYERS

SV Angel led $480M seed into Humans& 💸🔗

Nvidia invested $150M into inference startup Baseten 🖥️🔗

General Catalyst led $6.3M seed in Bolna 📞🔗

Paladin Capital Group led $6.1M seed in Dam Secure 🛡️🔗

Business Finland approved co‑innovation funding for €20M AI agents project 🏗️🔗

RAISES

Humans& raised $480M seed from marquee investors 🧬🔗

Baseten raised $300M growth round at $5B ⚙️🔗

Ivo raised $81M in Series B led by Blackbird 📑🔗

Dam Secure raised $6.1M seed to secure AI‑generated code 🛡️🔗

Ringg AI raised $5.5M in Series A round 📞🔗

NEW LAUNCHES

IBM launched GRAMMY IQ built with IBM watsonx 🎵🔗

TechFusion Labs launched CreateMusicAI.ai browser‑based generative music studio 🎧🔗

iCatch Technology & Jet Opto unveiled 4K automotive AI imaging solution 🚗🔗

Steyr AI launched xRift autonomous all‑terrain vehicle platform 🏜️🔗

Progress Software launched Agentic RAG RAG‑as‑a‑Service platform 📂🔗

TRY THESE TOOLS

Zadarma AI Voice Agent multilingual AI caller for global VoIP users 📞🔗

AiPPT Nano Banana Mode speeds up slide generation and revisions 📊🔗

AI/works™ by Thoughtworks blends AI with agile development workflows 🧩🔗

TOEFL AI Prep Platform offers adaptive, AI‑driven test preparation 📚🔗

METRICS

Humans& valued at $4.48B just three months post‑founding 📈🔗

Baseten more than doubled valuation to $5B 📊🔗

Bolna scaled from 1.5k to 200k daily calls 📞🔗

Ringg AI automates 77% of 1.5M monthly voice conversations 📉🔗

Rezolve Ai targets $350M 2026 revenue, $500M ARR exit rate 💹🔗

BENCHMARKS

TechCrunch Analyst Rollup counted 55 US AI startups raising $100M+ in 2025 📘🔗

DeepSeek coverage highlights Chinese labs matching frontier LLM performance at lower cost 🧪🔗

Ringg AI reports 57% lower cost per resolution 📞🔗

Bolna cuts call costs to ₹2.5 per minute 📞🔗

SynBioHub report shows $492M AI‑driven biology funding in December 🧬🔗

INFRA & COSTS

AM Group & Uttar Pradesh plan 1 GW high‑performance AI compute hub ⚡🔗

Baseten scales inference platform powering hundreds of millions of model calls 🖥️🔗

iCatch CR3 SoC enters European OEM supply chain with AI imaging 🚗🔗

Business Finland funds “GPT laboratory” building 100 construction AI agents 🏗️🔗

Nvidia–Groq deal underscores non‑exclusive licensing to accelerate inference performance 📦🔗

VALUATIONS

Humans& hits $4.48B valuation in seed round 🏷️🔗

Baseten doubles to $5B post‑money on latest round 💰🔗

Ivo valued at $530M after Series B close 📑🔗

Rezolve Ai raises $250M with institutional demand for agentic commerce 🏦🔗

Humans& megadeal joins streak of multi‑hundred‑million AI seed rounds 📊🔗

POLICY

Trump Executive Order moves to preempt state‑level AI regulations ⚖️🔗

Florida AI Bill of Rights faces pushback from tech industry lobby 📜🔗

AI for Main Street Act passes House to support small‑business AI adoption 🏛️🔗

AI‑WISE Act wins bipartisan House approval for SMB AI education 📚🔗

WISeKey Human‑AI‑T Manifesto urges global framework for AGI governance 🌐🔗

SOVEREIGN

Uttar Pradesh Government partners on 1 GW AI compute hub in India 🏛️🔗

Business Finland backs €20M AI Champion construction‑productivity initiative 🇫🇮🔗

India–Japan AI Dialogue launched at foreign‑minister level to align AI strategy 🤝🔗

Gujarat Deputy CM pitches state‑level AI investment ambitions at Davos 🏗️🔗

SMU Resilient Workforces Institute launches to study AI’s impact on national skills 🎓🔗

SECTORS

Construction deployed AI agents to streamline building‑services workflows 🏗️🔗

Automotive adopted 4K AI imaging in European OEM dashcams 🚗🔗

Music & Entertainment deployed agentic fan‑engagement AI for Grammys 🎵🔗

Cricket & Sports integrated Gemini AI branding across IPL inventory 🏏🔗

Public Safety deployed analytics dashboard for AI‑driven road safety 🚦🔗

COMMUNITY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Maitreya Wagh scaled Bolna to 200k daily AI calls 📞🔗

Min‑Kyu Jung built Ivo into $530M legal AI leader 📑🔗

Patrick Collins launched Dam Secure to guardrail AI‑generated code 🛡️🔗

Piia Sormunen leads Finland’s AI Champion construction‑agents program 🏗️🔗