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Butterfly Effect, parent of Chinese AI lab Manus, said it raised more than $500 million in its first funding round since Chinese authorities ordered it to unwind a $2 billion acquisition by Meta. Boyu Capital and IDG Capital led the round, with Tencent, HSG and ZhenFund participating.
Asos says a hacker impersonated a trusted contact to access customer names and contact details; shares fell about 10% after a push alert.
Manus parent Butterfly Effect raised over $500 million and is rebuilding a Beijing team for China AI agents.
Hu Han, formerly of Tencent Hunyuan, has a new multimodal startup that plans to raise tens of millions of dollars at a target valuation of hundreds of millions, Leifeng reports. Yuanshi Capital is the financial adviser.
Simplexity Robotics presented a robot that autonomously tends two CNC lathes with a 0.5 mm clearance at IROS 2026, while BASAL Intelligence, founded by Tsinghua AIR's first PhD, secured funding led by 5Y Capital for action-native embodied AI.
Leiphone.com reports that Tsinghua professor Dai Jifeng's Naive AI raised $400 million in three rounds in seven months at a $1.42 billion valuation, while Benewake expands robot lidar and MSRA veteran Zhang Lei's legacy shapes China's AI talent pool.
US venture deal value reached a record $515.8 billion in the first nine months of 2026, lifted by OpenAI and Anthropic mega-rounds, while exits lagged far behind, PitchBook-NVCA data show.
Samsung Electronics expects record third-quarter operating profit of 107.4 trillion won, about $80.17 billion, on AI-driven memory chip demand.
Firmus may cut its near $44bn valuation or shelve its ASX IPO as investors resist the price, Guardian Australia reports.
CNBC's Jim Cramer said rising borrowing costs are dividing the stock market, with AI data center, chip, power and cybersecurity companies largely insulated while credit-dependent sectors face pressure. He pointed to a strong $39 billion Treasury auction and contrasted SpaceX's planned $40 billion borrowing with Skydance's debt sale.
OpenAI rolled out GPT-6 with an interactive UI; Apple, DeepSeek and Anthropic made major AI and device news.
Nvidia and Samsung joined a $90M Series B for Nous Research, maker of the Hermes AI agent, valuing it at $1.5B.
Samsung estimated record Q3 operating profit of 107.4 tln won, up 782.5% on AI chip demand; Seoul shares opened higher.
Mecka AI, which collects human motion data to train robots, has raised a $60 million Series B led by Sequoia, with Nvidia and Microsoft's M12 among the participants.
Samsung sees record Q3 profit on AI chips; Korea's August current account surplus hits $46.1B.
President Trump will award science and technology medals to Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Satya Nadella and other tech executives Thursday, as SpaceX seeks $40 billion to buy Nvidia chips and Samsung commits $1 billion to a data-center venture with Nvidia and KKR.
Nous Research raised a $90M Series B at a $1.5B valuation and launched Hermes for Businesses, moving its open-source AI agent into the enterprise.
CNBC's Investing Club said Morgan Stanley survey data reinforced its confidence in TJX Companies, pointing to macro pressure rather than structural weakness. Microsoft and Nvidia also introduced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a Windows PC for personal AI agents, starting at nearly $2,600.
DA Davidson set a $3,000 Micron target. CNBC's Investing Club says the multiple is too low but doubts a 200% rally.
Third-quarter earnings season began this week, with S&P 500 profit growth expected near 30% year over year, led by tech and AI chipmakers. Analysts and banks see earnings driving further market gains, though rising Treasury yields and weak market breadth pose risks.
Apollo and banks are in talks to finance SpaceX's $40B Nvidia GPU purchase through investment-grade debt, CNBC reports.
Jim Cramer said the 1 p.m. ET 10-year Treasury auction is the key to Wednesday's stock market as yields hit their highest since 2002. Intel rose after its CEO said it will keep working with Elon Musk on SpaceX's Terafab in Texas, while FedEx drew mixed analyst views.
Parallel Systems, founded by former SpaceX engineers, has raised a $100 million Series C led by AVP to scale production of its battery-powered autonomous rail vehicles and bring short-haul freight back to the railroads.
Tab emerged from stealth at a $300M valuation. Its personal AI assistant handles tasks via iMessage and WhatsApp.