People & Labor
Oracle cuts 30,000 jobs as 2026 layoffs stay brutal — and AI-driven
More than 185,000 tech roles are eliminated in the first half of the year, with a majority of cuts explicitly attributed to AI and automation.
AI & Frontier Models
OpenAI launches a $4B 'Deployment Company' to embed engineers in the Fortune 500
Borrowing Palantir's forward-deployed playbook, OpenAI acquires an applied-AI consultancy to close the enterprise integration gap.
AI & Frontier Models
Anthropic hits $965B valuation in $65B Series H, briefly the world's most valuable startup
Run-rate revenue rockets past $47B as the Claude maker eclipses OpenAI on paper, powered in part by a $2.5B Claude Code business.
Deals & Exits
Cerebras IPO surges 68% as public markets bless AI hardware challengers
The wafer-scale chip maker prices above range to raise $5.55B, validating architectures built to challenge Nvidia's dominance.
Capital Markets
Q1 2026 sets an all-time record: $330.9B invested, 80% into AI
A single quarter eclipses entire past years as foundation-model rounds north of $100B redraw the map of private capital.
AI & Frontier Models
OpenAI raises $122B at an $852B valuation — the largest private round ever
Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank, Microsoft, a16z, and sovereign vehicles anchor a financing that dwarfs anything in venture history.
AI & Frontier Models
Perplexity abandons ads, doubles down on subscription 'answer engine'
The search disruptor scraps advertising entirely, betting user trust and usage-based enterprise pricing beat the ad model it once courted.
Deals & Exits
SpaceX acquires xAI in $1.25T all-stock deal, fusing rockets and AI
Elon Musk consolidates his empire, folding the Grok maker into SpaceX as a wholly owned subsidiary and merging orbital infrastructure with frontier AI.
People & Labor
Tech layoffs surge again in 2025 — this time, AI is the stated cause
More than 205,000 roles are eliminated across the year, and for the first time automation, not interest rates, is the dominant reason cited.
Capital Markets
The AI super-cycle arrives: global funding rebounds to $425B
Capital deployment turns sharply concentrated as foundation-model mega-rounds dominate the year, marking a decisive break from the venture winter.
AI & Frontier Models
Jeff Bezos launches Project Prometheus to build 'physical AI'
The Amazon founder backs a new lab aiming for an 'artificial general engineer' for aerospace, semiconductors, and heavy industry, starting with $6.2B.
AI & Frontier Models
Anthropic closes $13B Series F, run-rate revenue nears $9B
The Claude maker's valuation and revenue accelerate as enterprise adoption and its Claude Code agent drive one of the steepest growth curves in software.
Deals & Exits
Google to acquire cloud-security startup Wiz for $32B in landmark deal
The all-cash agreement — later completed in 2025 — ranks among the largest cybersecurity acquisitions ever and validates a new generation of cloud-native security.
Policy & Macro
A faulty CrowdStrike update triggers the largest IT outage in history
A single bad sensor patch crashes an estimated 8.5 million Windows machines worldwide, grounding flights and freezing hospitals and banks.
AI & Frontier Models
AI swallows a third of all venture funding as capital concentrates
The generative-AI trade goes from thesis to dominant allocation, and non-AI startups find themselves competing for a shrinking pool.
AI & Frontier Models
Amazon completes $4B Anthropic bet as hyperscalers pick their labs
The e-commerce giant finalizes its investment and names Anthropic a key AWS partner, mirroring the Microsoft-OpenAI playbook.
Deals & Exits
Reddit finally goes public, first big social IPO in years
Nearly two decades after its founding, the forum giant lists on the NYSE at a ~$6.4B valuation, buoyed by AI data-licensing deals.
AI & Frontier Models
Sam Altman is fired — and reinstated — in a 72-hour OpenAI coup
The board ousts its CEO on a Friday; by Wednesday he is back and most of the directors are gone, after nearly the entire staff threatens to quit.
Deals & Exits
Instacart and Klaviyo test the reopening as the IPO window cracks open
Two profitable software names price within days of Arm, giving the market its first read on down-cycle exits.
Deals & Exits
Arm returns to public markets in the year's biggest IPO
The SoftBank-owned chip designer raises nearly $5B on Nasdaq, a rare bright spot that reopens a frozen IPO window.
Capital Markets
Signature and First Republic fall as SVB contagion sweeps regional banks
Two more lenders collapse within weeks, with First Republic becoming the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history before JPMorgan absorbs it.
Capital Markets
Silicon Valley Bank fails in the largest bank collapse since 2008
A $1.8B bond loss, a social-media bank run, and $42B in attempted withdrawals in a single day end the venture ecosystem's central financial institution.
AI & Frontier Models
Microsoft pours $10B into OpenAI, cementing the defining AI alliance
The multiyear investment values OpenAI near $29B and wires its models into Azure and the entire Microsoft product stack.
AI & Frontier Models
OpenAI releases ChatGPT — and quietly starts the next super-cycle
A 'low-key research preview' becomes the fastest-growing consumer app in history and resets the entire venture agenda around generative AI.
Capital Markets
FTX collapses into bankruptcy, wiping out a $32B crypto empire in days
A liquidity crisis triggered by a leaked balance sheet and a rival's public sell-off ends with the exchange insolvent and its founder facing fraud charges.
Deals & Exits
Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44B, then guts it
The world's richest man closes his on-again, off-again acquisition and immediately begins a radical, chaotic restructuring of the social platform.
Capital Markets
Klarna's valuation is cut 85% to $6.7B, the down round that defined 2022
Europe's buy-now-pay-later giant raises fresh capital at a fraction of its peak — a brutal public marker for the entire late-stage market.
Policy & Macro
The Fed starts hiking, and the era of free capital ends overnight
The first rate increase since 2018 kicks off the fastest tightening cycle in a generation — and the beginning of the venture winter.
Capital Markets
Global venture funding smashes records at $643B as ZIRP mania peaks
A year of frictionless capital minted 586 new unicorns and pushed the private board past $3.8 trillion — the top of the cycle, in hindsight.
Deals & Exits
Rivian raises ~$12B in the year's biggest IPO, EV hype meets public markets
The Amazon- and Ford-backed truck maker prices above range and briefly commands a market value north of $100 billion — before it has meaningfully delivered.
Deals & Exits
Coinbase goes public in landmark direct listing, crypto's Wall Street moment
The largest U.S. crypto exchange debuts on Nasdaq at a fully diluted valuation near $86 billion, a high-water mark for the ZIRP-era bull run.