Issue #151 • October 23, 2026

Hi Seedradar Squad! The capital flowing into foundational AI has just detached from reality. OpenAI is actively closing a $30 billion funding round to secure UAE compute capacity, pushing its valuation to an absurd $1.25 trillion. Meanwhile, DeepSeek pulled a staggering $15 billion round days after facing heavy US restrictions, signaling that state-backed compute pipelines simply don't care about Western sanctions.

While the old guard bleeds cash, the infrastructure layer is quietly reorganizing. Google and OpenAI just struck a massive alliance to run core models natively on Google Cloud, while Anthropic unleashes its autonomous agents on consumers. It's a rough week for legacy balance sheets—Tesla's operating income plunged 56%—but an absolute gold rush for the hardware and defense founders building what comes next.

OpenAI is reportedly closing in on a massive funding round of up to $30 billion, which would value the AI giant at a staggering $1.25 trillion pre-money.

The deal, led by UAE-based investors and Coatue, is being negotiated alongside a potential commercial agreement to secure additional UAE computing capacity. This capital injection is designed to help meet OpenAI's massive infrastructure demands as it bridges toward a potential public listing.

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DeepSeek reportedly raised a massive $15 billion funding round just days after facing severe US federal restrictions.

The Beijing-based AI lab continues to attract immense capital from state-backed and global investors, ensuring its compute pipelines remain fully operational despite heavy Western sanctions.

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• OpenAI and Google announced a landmark partnership bringing core models like GPT-6 and Codex natively into the Google Cloud ecosystem. Read more

• Tenstorrent locked in $1.5 billion in Series E funding at a $6.2 billion valuation to scale production of its RISC-V processors and AI acceleration chiplets. Read more

• Tesla reported a 43% drop in net income for Q3, while operating income plunged 56% as the automaker aggressively ramped up capital spending to $4.73 billion. Read more

• Flapping Airplanes closed a $1 billion financing round that values the year-old AI research lab at $6 billion. Read more

• Anthropic officially opened its Claude Duet agent to US Pro and Max subscribers, rolling out powerful new autonomous capabilities. Read more

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