How Did AI Deals Hit $116B Before March? 📈🤖🚀

TL;DR

• OpenAI nears record $100B+ round, reshaping infra economics
• World Labs lands $1B to chase frontier AI
• Chip upstarts and infra plays attract nine-figure checks
• States move with $200M Edge AI and new rules

HEADLINES

Nvidia eyes $30B OpenAI stake talks 🤝🔗

World Labs raises $1B for frontier research 🧠🔗

Taalas raises $169M for custom AI chips 💾🔗

Breaker secures $9M for defense robots 🛡️🔗

Advideolab launches AI UGC video engine 🎬🔗

FROM THE BIG PLAYERS

Elevation Capital invested $15M in Portkey 🌉🔗

Bessemer Venture Partners invested $9M in Breaker 🤖🔗

Leading Australian Institution invested $5M in FortifAI 🏦🔗

US State Department committed $200M Edge AI package 🌐🔗

RAISES

World Labs raised $1B in growth funding 📊🔗

Taalas raised $169M to build AI chips ⚙️🔗

Breaker raised $9M in Seed from Bessemer 🛰️🔗

FortifAI raised $5M via strategic placement 🧱🔗

RAISING

OpenAI is looking to raise $100B+ mega-round 🚀🔗

US Edge AI Package is allocating $200M for Indo-Pacific devices 📱🔗

Pax Silica Coalition is mobilising capital for AI supply chains 🏗️🔗

NEW LAUNCHES

Advideolab launched AI UGC Video Platform 🎥🔗

Figma unveiled Code To Canvas AI feature 🧩🔗

SchoolQualityReview.ai expanded charter review AI platform 🏫🔗

Fractal debuted Vaidya 2.0 healthcare reasoning model 🩺🔗

TRY THESE TOOLS

Portkey AI Gateway unifies routing across 1600+ LLMs 🛣️🔗

Canary Guest Experience powers hotel messaging in 100+ languages 🏨🔗

Code To Canvas turns Claude code into Figma layouts 🎨🔗

SchoolQualityReview.ai automates charter renewal evidence scoring 📚🔗

METRICS

OpenAI targeting $100B+ raise, eyeing $850B valuation 📈🔗

AI issuers drove $13.6B in convertibles YTD 💵🔗

Portkey processes 500B tokens and 125M daily requests 📊🔗

India AI Summit convenes 500+ leaders and 100+ governments 🌏🔗

BENCHMARKS

India AI Impact Summit hosts 300+ exhibitors across thematic pavilions 🏛️🔗

South Korea AI Desk logged 172 compliance inquiries in 10 days 📘🔗

Quettai analytics saw 233% jump in “AI Basic Act” mentions 📈🔗

India AI user base projected to become world’s largest 👥🔗

INFRA & COSTS

Nvidia–OpenAI talks shift from $100B to $30B stake 🖥️🔗

Nvidia India push targets 1,400+ AI startups ecosystem 🌏🔗

Arm workshop trains builders on generative AI CPU optimization 🧮🔗

US Edge AI Package subsidises secure smartphones for next billion users 📲🔗

VALUATIONS

OpenAI could exceed $850B valuation post-raise 🏷️🔗

World Labs joins $1B+ backed frontier AI cohort 💠🔗

AI convertibles surge 556% year-on-year in US 💹🔗

Taalas positions as major pure-play AI silicon bet 💳🔗

POLICY

South Korea activates AI Basic Act with penalties ⚖️🔗

UK DSIT explores AI voice tech for citizen services 📞🔗

Telangana government frames AI safety as innovation enabler 🛡️🔗

Consumer AI guidance warns tools may weaken legal privilege 📜🔗

SOVEREIGN

Pax Silica adds India to AI supply coalition 🏛️🔗

US State Department launches $200M Indo-Pacific Edge AI Package 🇺🇸🔗

Saudi Arabia embeds AI across education for 6M students 📚🔗

Saudi Humain–xAI deal channels $3B sovereign capital into AI 💰🔗

SECTORS

Hospitality deployed AI guest messaging across Omni hotels 🛎️🔗

Defense deployed voice-coordinated autonomous drone swarms 🛩️🔗

Education embedded AI curriculum into national school system 🎓🔗

Telecom scaled network operations AI across India 📶🔗

Healthcare adopted Vaidya 2.0 for clinical reasoning 🧬🔗

COMMUNITY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Jason Lemkin decoded Anthropic’s $30B round and AI gravity 📡🔗