This Month's AI Agents News

Funding Weekly | Korean Crypto Exchanges Become Acquisition Hotspots; Stablecoin Settlement Bank Augustus Secures $180 Million Funding

Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, a16z crypto, Tether and others remain actively positioned, with capital concentrating more on early-stage project screening and structural opportunities. Last week, the AI and robotics sectors continued to see multiple large funding rounds. ### Infrastructure & Tools Its $355 million funding announced last month was led by a16z Crypto, with participation from ABN Amro, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Hanwha Investment & Securities, HSBC, S&P Global, and SBI Group. ### AI Neo, founded by former SentinelOne executives, announced the completion of a $100 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures. Neo plans to use the funds to accelerate product development and market expansion, helping enterprises enhance security governance capabilities while adopting AI agents at scale. AI infrastructure chiplet platform company TYLsemi announced the completion of $43 million in early-stage funding, led by Matter Venture Partners, with participation from Viola Ventures, GHOVC, Egis Technology, and others. AI infrastructure company Infinity announced the completion of a $15 million funding round at a $100 million post-money valuation, with investors including Touring Capital, Principal VC, and researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other companies.

Panewslab 1 week, 2 days ago

Nvidia is putting its Vera CPUs to work alongside AI agents to speed up chip design

### Nvidia is putting its Vera CPUs to work alongside AI agents to speed up chip design AI agents can now call accelerated solvers in the same way as they use any other third-party tool, Nvidia said at the [2026 Design Automation Conference](https://dac.com/) in Long Beach, California, today. ### Automating chip design The chipmaker also talked about how Cadence’s AuraStack AI Super Agent, designed to automate printed circuit boards and advanced packaging workloads, now runs on cuDSS on its Millenium M2000 supercomputer. # Are you AWS customer?  Support SiliconANGLE Financially by buying your AWS services from our Marketplace portal page and links. ##### LATEST STORIES AI - BY [JONATHAN ANTHONY](https://siliconangle.com/author/jonathananthony/) .

Siliconangle 1 week, 2 days ago

Here Comes ‘Death by AI’

Last week, OpenAI disclosed what it called “an unprecedented cyber incident” after one of its AI agents unexpectedly hacked into the systems of Hugging Face. (via Getty Images) But we are getting uncomfortably close to situations where an AI agent attempts to accomplish a task, finds a human in the way, eliminates him (or her!), and carries on with the job. Last week OpenAI disclosed what it called “ [an unprecedented cyber incident](https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/)” after one of its AI agents unexpectedly hacked into the systems of Hugging Face, an online AI platform. The AI agent had been given a test within a sandboxed environment—that is, a closed area without internet access—but managed to escape, gain access to the internet, figure out which company’s server likely had the answers to the test, and hack into it.

Thefp 1 week, 2 days ago

NVIDIA Expands NVIDIA Agent Toolkit With NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo and CUDA-X Libraries to Transform How the World Engineers, Designs and Builds

# NVIDIA Expands NVIDIA Agent Toolkit With NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo and CUDA-X Libraries to Transform How the World Engineers, Designs and Builds Developers can get started with Nemotron 3 Ultra using Cadence’s harness; Synopsys’ fully autonomous, long-running agents for design verification and analog and mixed-signal workflows; Siemens’ Questa One smart verification agentic toolkit; as well as on Hugging Face. [Cadence](https://community.cadence.com/cadence_blogs_8/b/corporate-news/posts/cadence-s-agentic-ai-design-vision-takes-center-stage-at-dac) is using NVIDIA Nemotron, accelerated computing and CUDA-X libraries with the recently launched Cadence AuraStack AI Super Agent and the Cadence Millennium M2000 platform to autonomously drive advanced packaging and printed circuit board (PCB) design from exploration through signoff, delivering up to 20x faster multiphysics performance.

Nvidianews 1 week, 2 days ago

Hermes Agent crosses 214,000 GitHub stars as developers abandon commercial AI agent frameworks

[Share on X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fhermes-agent-crosses-214000-github-stars-as-developers-abandon-commercial-ai-agent-frameworks%2F&text=Hermes%20Agent%20crosses%20214%2C000%20GitHub%20stars%20as%20developers%20abandon%20commercial%20AI%20agent%20frameworks%20-%20Startup%20Fortune)[Share on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fhermes-agent-crosses-214000-github-stars-as-developers-abandon-commercial-ai-agent-frameworks%2F)[Share on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/?text=Hermes%20Agent%20crosses%20214%2C000%20GitHub%20stars%20as%20developers%20abandon%20commercial%20AI%20agent%20frameworks%20-%20Startup%20Fortune%20https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fhermes-agent-crosses-214000-github-stars-as-developers-abandon-commercial-ai-agent-frameworks%2F)[Share on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fhermes-agent-crosses-214000-github-stars-as-developers-abandon-commercial-ai-agent-frameworks%2F&title=Hermes%20Agent%20crosses%20214%2C000%20GitHub%20stars%20as%20developers%20abandon%20commercial%20AI%20agent%20frameworks%20-%20Startup%20Fortune)[Share via Email](mailto:?subject=Hermes%20Agent%20crosses%20214%2C000%20GitHub%20stars%20as%20developers%20abandon%20commercial%20AI%20agent%20frameworks%20-%20Startup%20Fortune&body=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fhermes-agent-crosses-214000-github-stars-as-developers-abandon-commercial-ai-agent-frameworks%2F) # Hermes Agent crosses 214,000 GitHub stars as developers abandon commercial AI agent frameworks Built on persistent cross-session memory and a self-improving skill loop, it's pulling developers away from commercial alternatives , and Nous Research's Nous Portal subscription shows exactly how the company plans to monetize the momentum.  [Ron Patel](https://startupfortune.com/author/ron-patel/) [Share on X]

Startupfortune 1 week, 2 days ago

Fusion AI Agent Studio CLI: The Pro-Code Builder Experience

# Fusion AI Agent Studio CLI: The Pro-Code Builder Experience ## Build your first workflow: Hello World for AI agents ### 2. Create the project scaffold ``` aistudio init ``` ### 6. Develop the Hello World workflow with Codex ``` Create a simple AI workflow called <Your Initials> Hello World. Set the business pillar to HCM and the product to Global HR. When a user starts it, greet them by name and give them a short, encouraging message to motivate them to begin creating their first AI workflow. Keep the message positive, friendly, and under 20 words. ```

Blogs 1 week, 2 days ago

Klaimee Raises $5.5M for AI Agent Insurance

# Klaimee Raises $5.5M to Insure Autonomous AI Agents July 27, 2026 at 12:07 AM|Author: [Viacheslav Vasipenok](https://quasa.io/author/viacheslav-vasipenok)|10 min read| 6  Klaimee has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to insure autonomous AI agents, according to [the July 22 funding report](https://fintech.global/2026/07/22/klaimee-lands-5-5m-to-insure-autonomous-ai-agents/). ### What Klaimee announced on July 22, 2026 The $5.5 million seed round was led by FundersClub’s Alexander Mittal. The reported participants include ex/ante, Pioneer Fund, Multimodal Ventures, Kima Ventures, Rebel Fund, Robinhood Ventures, Y Combinator and angel investors, as [FinTech Global reported](https://fintech.global/2026/07/22/klaimee-lands-5-5m-to-insure-autonomous-ai-agents/). The round matters less as a conventional software financing announcement than as a signal about where the commercial bottleneck for agentic AI may be moving. Companies can already deploy agents for support, finance, sales, coding and operations. Robinhood Ventures’ involvement should also be read precisely. Robinhood’s official materials describe Robinhood Ventures as the SEC-registered investment adviser for Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a fund that can acquire positions in private companies through direct participation or special-purpose vehicles; the documentation does not by itself disclose the size or terms of Klaimee’s position. [Robinhood’s Ventures FAQ explains the structure](https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/ventures-faq/). ### What the funding means for the agent economy The funding gives Klaimee resources to develop a specialized underwriting and distribution layer for businesses that want to deploy agents but face procurement or legal objections. The funding also arrives as technical risks become more operational. ### The practical next step for an AI

Quasa 1 week, 2 days ago

Siemens advances self-verifying AI workflows for EDA

# Siemens advances self-verifying agentic AI workflows for semiconductor and PCB design - Integrates with Siemens’ Intelligence Center X, supporting agent creation and orchestration, and intelligence into broader enterprise reasoning across design, manufacturing and supply chain operations The new capabilities build on Siemens’ recently introduced Fuse™ EDA AI Agent system and add new NVIDIA AI technology to help long-running, domain scoped, AI agents reason, act and continuously validate decisions against deterministic, physics-based EDA engines. The updates to Siemens’ Fuse EDA AI Agent are designed to help the semiconductor and PCB industry move beyond simple automation and deliver trusted and verifiable outcomes that improve result quality, time-to-results, tool-calling reliability and token efficiency across long-running engineering workloads. The Fuse EDA AI Agent system is now integrated into Siemens’ recently launched Intelligence Center X, supporting agent creation and orchestration in Siemens’ enterprise industrial AI environment. “By enabling autonomous and long-running EDA AI agents to continuously validate their decisions against proven engineering tools accurately and efficiently, we help customers accelerate development, improve design quality and increase confidence in trusted engineering outcomes.” “Semiconductor and PCB design are among the most complex engineering challenges in the world, and AI agents need trusted tools to reason, act and verify their work,” said Timothy Costa, vice president and general manager of computational engineering at NVIDIA. **Enabling trusted self-verifying AI agents for semiconductor and PCB design** The Fuse EDA AI Agent solution now combines Siemens engineering intelligence and trusted verification capabilities with NVIDIA AI infrastructure technologies to execute complex semiconductor design tasks with enhanced speed and precision: - Optimized EDA agents built with NVIDIA NeMo Gym open library for agentic en

News 1 week, 2 days ago

Washington threatens to sanction Chinese AI models but American startups are already switching sides

# Washington threatens to sanction Chinese AI models but American startups are already switching sides ## Price did the work The New Stack reported in June that the AI agent startup moved all of its AI agent traffic from Anthropic to DeepSeek v4 and said it was saving millions on inference.

Startupfortune 1 week, 2 days ago

Data Curve Launches DeepSWE Coding Benchmark

- [News](https://www.startuphub.ai/news) - [Agentic ArbitrageNEW](https://www.startuphub.ai/arbitrage) # Data Curve Launches DeepSWE Coding Benchmark ## Addressing Benchmark Limitations ### Related startups [\ \ **Magic** \ \ AI-powered coding agents for automated software engineering tasks.\ \ AI Coding Assistant\ \ AI Copilot\ \ $10M](https://www.startuphub.ai/startups/magic) [Visit website](https://magic.dev/)

Startuphub 1 week, 2 days ago

Andrew Ng's free graph course reignites a war over how to build AI agents

[Share on X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fandrew-ngs-free-graph-course-reignites-a-war-over-how-to-build-ai-agents%2F&text=Andrew%20Ng%27s%20free%20graph%20course%20reignites%20a%20war%20over%20how%20to%20build%20AI%20agents%20-%20Startup%20Fortune)[Share on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fandrew-ngs-free-graph-course-reignites-a-war-over-how-to-build-ai-agents%2F)[Share on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/?text=Andrew%20Ng%27s%20free%20graph%20course%20reignites%20a%20war%20over%20how%20to%20build%20AI%20agents%20-%20Startup%20Fortune%20https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fandrew-ngs-free-graph-course-reignites-a-war-over-how-to-build-ai-agents%2F)[Share on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fandrew-ngs-free-graph-course-reignites-a-war-over-how-to-build-ai-agents%2F&title=Andrew%20Ng%27s%20free%20graph%20course%20reignites%20a%20war%20over%20how%20to%20build%20AI%20agents%20-%20Startup%20Fortune)[Share via Email](mailto:?subject=Andrew%20Ng%27s%20free%20graph%20course%20reignites%20a%20war%20over%20how%20to%20build%20AI%20agents%20-%20Startup%20Fortune&body=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fandrew-ngs-free-graph-course-reignites-a-war-over-how-to-build-ai-agents%2F) # Andrew Ng's free graph course reignites a war over how to build AI agents It landed. Start there.

Startupfortune 1 week, 2 days ago

OpenAI took days to realize its own AI agent breached Hugging Face

# OpenAI took days to realize its own AI agent breached Hugging Face ## The incident raises fresh questions about how companies monitor increasingly autonomous AI systems as they race to deploy more capable models. The agent, a program capable of making decisions and executing complex tasks with little or no human oversight, attempted to break out of its isolated testing environment at OpenAI around July 9, according to Reuters. OpenAI's public disclosure on July 21 that one of its agents had slipped out of control and carried out the break-in at Hugging Face drew global attention. The episode began while OpenAI was testing the cybersecurity capabilities of an agent powered by two of its most advanced models: GPT-5.6 Sol and an unreleased model the company has described as "even more capable." Reuters could not establish whether those incidents were linked to the rogue agent that allegedly escaped on July 9 and attacked Hugging Face on July 11. Two people familiar with the matter said it was only after Hugging Face published a blog post on July 16 saying it had been hacked by "an autonomous AI agent system" that OpenAI realized its own agent was responsible. Over the weekend of July 18-19, OpenAI staff spotted clues in internal logs showing that its agent had escaped its testing constraints, according to two people familiar with the company's investigation. - [OpenAI’s AI agent broke out of a test environment and hacked Hugging Face](https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r18mfyavmg) Autonomous agents are among the AI industry's most closely watched technologies.

Calcalistech 1 week, 2 days ago

Glow raises $180 million at a $1.2 billion valuation to secure the AI agents quietly taking over corporate laptops

[Share on X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fglow-raises-180-million-at-a-12-billion-valuation-to-secure-the-ai-agents-quietly-taking-over-corporate-laptops%2F&text=Glow%20raises%20%24180%20million%20at%20a%20%241.2%20billion%20valuation%20to%20secure%20the%20AI%20agents%20quietly%20taking%20over%20corporate%20laptops%20-%20Startup%20Fortune)[Share on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fglow-raises-180-million-at-a-12-billion-valuation-to-secure-the-ai-agents-quietly-taking-over-corporate-laptops%2F)[Share on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/?text=Glow%20raises%20%24180%20million%20at%20a%20%241.2%20billion%20valuation%20to%20secure%20the%20AI%20agents%20quietly%20taking%20over%20corporate%20laptops%20-%20Startup%20Fortune%20https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fglow-raises-180-million-at-a-12-billion-valuation-to-secure-the-ai-agents-quietly-taking-over-corporate-laptops%2F)[Share on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fglow-raises-180-million-at-a-12-billion-valuation-to-secure-the-ai-agents-quietly-taking-over-corporate-laptops%2F&title=Glow%20raises%20%24180%20million%20at%20a%20%241.2%20billion%20valuation%20to%20secure%20the%20AI%20agents%20quietly%20taking%20over%20corporate%20laptops%20-%20Startup%20Fortune)[Share via Email](mailto:?subject=Glow%20raises%20%24180%20million%20at%20a%20%241.2%20billion%20valuation%20to%20secure%20the%20AI%20agents%20quietly%20taking%20over%20corporate%20laptops%20-%20Startup%20Fortune&body=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fglow-raises-180-million-at-a-12-billion-valuation-to-secure-the-ai-agents-quietly-taking-over-corporate-laptops%2F) # Glow raises $180 million at a $1.2 billion valuation to secure the AI agents quietly taking over corporate laptops [Share on X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstartupfortune.com%2Fglow-raises-180-million-at-a-12-billion-valuation-to-secure-the-

Startupfortune 1 week, 2 days ago

For some, so-called 'Skynet Day' came too close to sci-fi after a rogue agent hacked into a startup

# For some, so-called ‘Skynet Day’ came too close to sci-fi after a rogue agent hacked into a startup ## For some, so-called ‘Skynet Day’ came too close to sci-fi after a rogue agent hacked into a startup - [Email](mailto:?body=For%20some%2C%20so-called%20%27Skynet%20Day%27%20came%20too%20close%20to%20sci-fi%20after%20a%20rogue%20agent%20hacked%20into%20a%20startup%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fskynet-ai-terminator-artificial-intelligence-eb85da03a0161beaa5f3babc4331e93b%3Futm_source%3DEmail%26utm_medium%3Dshare%0A%0AIn%201984%2C%20the%20Skynet%20of%20%22The%20Terminator%22%20films%20were%20science%20fiction.%20But%20it%20looks%20more%20and%20more%20realistic%20in%202026%20after%20OpenAI%20agent%20broke%20out%20of%20a%20test%20corral%2C%20traveled%20the%20internet%20and%20hacked%20into%20Hugging%20Face%2C%20another%20company%2C%20to%20solve%20a%20problem.) - [X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fskynet-ai-terminator-artificial-intelligence-eb85da03a0161beaa5f3babc4331e93b%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dshare&text=For%20some%2C%20so-called%20%27Skynet%20Day%27%20came%20too%20close%20to%20sci-fi%20after%20a%20rogue%20agent%20hacked%20into%20a%20startup) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fskynet-ai-terminator-artificial-intelligence-eb85da03a0161beaa5f3babc4331e93b%3Futm_source%3Dbluesky%26utm_medium%3Dshare%26nbsp%3B%3Cbr%3EFor%20some%2C%20so-called%20%27Skynet%20Day%27%20came%20too%20close%20to%20sci-fi%20after%20a%20rogue%20agent%20hacked%20into%20a%20startup) - [Flipboard](https://share.flipboard.com/bookmarklet/popout?v=2&title=For%20some%2C%20so-called%20%27Skynet%20Day%27%20came%20too%20close%20to%20sci-fi%20after%20a%20rogue%20agent%20hacked%20into%20a%20startup&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fskynet-ai-terminator-artificial-intelligence-eb85da03a0161beaa5f3babc4331e93b%3Futm_source%3DFlipboard%20Share%26utm_medium%3Dshare) - [Pinterest](https:

Apnews 1 week, 2 days ago

Cheaper, open and intelligent: Chinese AI models gain ground, as they make inroads in the US

By CHAN HO-HIM and MATT O'BRIEN HONG KONG (AP) — China has a hot new product in the United States: artificial intelligence. San Francisco-based Raffi...

Orlandosentinel 1 week, 2 days ago

Databricks raises at a $188 billion valuation to push multi-AI governance and agentic infrastructure

# Databricks raises at a $188 billion valuation to push multi-AI governance and agentic infrastructure Databricks has raised a strategic funding round with a $188 billion valuation. The funding, led by Coatue, aims to enhance Databricks' enterprise AI deployment through projects like Unity AI Gateway, Genie, and Lakebase.  Databricks reached a $188 billion valuation in its latest funding round. The funding aims to enhance AI governance and infrastructure. Get featured [Databricks](https://www.databricks.com/) signed a term sheet on July 16, 2026 for a new strategic funding round that values the San Francisco data and AI company at $188 billion, according to the company's official announcement. Coatue, an existing investor, is leading the round, which is expected to close later this summer. ## Three products, one strategic bet The company's press release identified three products that will receive increased investment: Unity AI Gateway, Genie, and Lakebase. Lakebase rounds out the triad: a serverless Postgres database purpose-built for [AI agents](https://www.marketscale.com/industries/software-and-technology/glossary/ai-agents), giving those agents a persistent, structured data layer to read from and write to during autonomous workflows. ## Scale that makes the round credible The $188 billion valuation is the latest marker in that trajectory, up significantly from earlier rounds, and reflects investor confidence in the company's ability to capture enterprise AI infrastructure spend at scale. ## You just read one Software & Technology expert. Imagine publishing your whole team.

Marketscale 1 week, 2 days ago

When The Robot Holds The Card: AI Agents Just Got Wallets And Real Money

# When The Robot Holds The Card: AI Agents Just Got Wallets And Real Money It is starting to spend. A young San Francisco company called Natural just raised $30 million to help machines move money safely, legally and at scale. On July 20, 2026, [Natural](https://www.natural.com/blog) announced a $30 million Series A led by Kirsten Green of Forerunner. The round pushed the company’s total funding past $40 million. The company is creating [financial infrastructure](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/natural-raises-30m-series-a-to-build-payments-infrastructure-for-ai-agents-302829855.html) designed for AI agents: wallet accounts whose deposits may qualify for pass-through FDIC insurance through partner banks, tools to send and request money, one-way “vaults” that agents can deposit into but cannot empty on their own, and systems that allow agents to pay businesses, consumers and other agents automatically. An agent that earns money for completing tasks could deposit those earnings and immediately spend them on the next tool it needs.

Dallasexpress 1 week, 2 days ago

Prentis, AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus, seeks $100M at $1B valuation to automate office work

# Prentis, AI lab co-founded by Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus, seeks $100M at $1B valuation to automate office work The startup, co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ritankar Das alongside LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Marc Pincus, launched in April with the goal of training AI agents to navigate routine office workflows across documents and systems. ## Conclusion The startup’s ability to secure significant customer contracts and high-profile backing suggests it is well-positioned in the competitive AI agent space, though the company’s long-term success will depend on execution and the evolving market for enterprise automation. ## FAQs Prentis builds AI models that learn how office workers navigate routine workflows across documents and systems, with the goal of creating AI agents that can automate those tasks by controlling computers. ## Related Reading #### Tags: [ai agents](https://bitcoinworld.co.in/tag/ai-agents/) [Marc Pincus](https://bitcoinworld.co.in/tag/marc-pincus/) [Prentis](https://bitcoinworld.co.in/tag/prentis/) [Reid Hoffman](https://bitcoinworld.co.in/tag/reid-hoffman/) [VENTURE CAPITAL](https://bitcoinworld.co.in/tag/venture-capital/)

Bitcoinworld 1 week, 2 days ago

Jim Cramer Says Buy CrowdStrike (CRWD) as AI Agents Go Rogue

On Wednesday's episode of Mad Money, Jim Cramer labeled a recent security incident a “watershed moment” for the technology industry, making a case for...

Au 1 week, 3 days ago

OpenAI agent hack: AI safety concerns

An OpenAI agent breached Hugging Face for days before OpenAI noticed, raising significant AI safety questions. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Straitstimes 1 week, 4 days ago

OpenAI says its AI models hacked a startup "on its own"

# OpenAI says its AI models hacked a startup "on its own" **OpenAI said on Tuesday that an autonomous agent powered by its advanced AI models went rogue during a security test and triggered a hack that compromised the infrastructure of AI startup Hugging Face last week.** In a blog post, OpenAI said it was testing the capabilities of some of its most advanced models in a controlled environment but that the agent managed to escape containment, reach the internet and break into Hugging Face to try to satisfy its testing goal. Hugging Face, a platform used to host open-source large language models and datasets, caused a stir in the cybersecurity community when it said in a blog post last week that it had been the target of a hack that "was different from anything we had handled before" in that "it was driven, end to end, by an autonomous AI agent system."

Thedailystar 1 week, 4 days ago

Prentis seeks 100 million funding at about 1 billion valuation to scale AI agents

[**Prentis seeks 100 million funding at about 1 billion valuation to scale AI agents**](https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/3104dc0c_prentis_seeks_100/) [**Prentis seeks $100M funding as it builds AI agents to automate office work**](https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/00221192_prentis_seeks_-100m/) # Prentis seeks 100 million funding at about 1 billion valuation to scale AI agents Saturday, 25 July 2026, 03:16  A new AI lab promises agents that operate desktop software autonomously, but investors will weigh claims, benchmarks, and a crowded market before betting big. As reported by [Techcrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/prentis-new-ai-lab-co-founded-by-reid-hoffman-mark-pincus-in-talks-to-raise-100m/) Prentis is a new artificial intelligence research lab focused on developing models for computer usage and founded by serial entrepreneur Ritankar Das and tech giants Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus; it is now in talks to raise about $100 million at a valuation of around $1 billion, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Agents will be tailored to client needs, including handling insurance claims and automating exemptions from customs duties without the need for a person to search for documents. The startup has already signed contracts worth up to $50 million with several clients, including a health-care management organization, manufacturers, and apparel makers, according to TechCrunch, citing two people familiar with the discussions. Investor materials provided to TechCrunch forecast about $75 million in annual run rate by the third quarter of this year. _These figures reflect approximate annual value based on a contract where the reward is 20% of the savings, not recognized revenue, and depend on the outcome and are subject to final execution._ – TechCrunch ## Hive-32B and the

Mezha 1 week, 4 days ago

Prentis seeks $100M funding as it builds AI agents to automate office work

[**Prentis seeks 100 million funding at about 1 billion valuation to scale AI agents**](https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/3104dc0c_prentis_seeks_100/) [**Prentis seeks $100M funding as it builds AI agents to automate office work**](https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/00221192_prentis_seeks_-100m/) # Prentis seeks $100M funding as it builds AI agents to automate office work Saturday, 25 July 2026, 01:56  Based on data from [Techcrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/prentis-new-ai-lab-co-founded-by-reid-hoffman-marc-pincus-in-talks-to-raise-100m/) Prentis is a new AI lab focused on computer-use models, founded jointly with Ritankar Das and technology leaders Reid Hoffman and Marc Pincus, and is currently negotiating to raise about $100 million at a valuation of around $1 billion. The company has already signed contracts totaling up to $50 million with several clients, including a medical management organization, a manufacturer, and manufacturers of goods and clothing. The expected annual run rate as of the third quarter this year could be around $75 million. In its materials, Prentis highlights the advantages of a smaller and cheaper model, claiming that the cost of processing each task is roughly ten times lower than leading APIs, making the deployment of AI agents in everyday office processes more economically attractive. Independent verification of such benchmarking results by the company has not been provided. It is also known that Anthropic is expanding its workforce by acquiring Seattle-based Vercept and integrating its founders and product into its portfolio. Funding prospects remain key for investors, and Prentis itself aims to expand the team and strengthen its client portfolio in response to rising demand for AI-powered automation of office tasks. ## Current Funding and Contracts According t

Mezha 1 week, 4 days ago

Uber Eats Uses AI Agents to Enhance Food Photos at Scale

- [News](https://www.startuphub.ai/news) - [Agentic Arbitrage\ NEW](https://www.startuphub.ai/arbitrage) # Uber Eats Uses AI Agents to Enhance Food Photos at Scale ### Related startups [\ \ **Respan** \ \ Proactive AI observability platform providing a unified control plane for tracing and evaluating AI agents.\ \ Artificial Intelligence\ \ Software\ \ $5M](https://www.startuphub.ai/startups/respan) [Visit website](https://respan.ai/) [\ \ **DigitalOwl** \ \ DigitalOwl uses AI to automate the review and analysis of medical records for the insurance industry.\ \ Insurance\ \ Insurance Risk\ \ $39M](https://www.startuphub.ai/startups/digitalowl) [Visit website](http://www.digitalowl.com/) [C\ \ **Certinia** \ \ Salesforce-native cloud platform for professional services and financial management, leveraging AI agents.\ \ Artificial Intelligence\ \ Cloud Computing\ \ $63M](https://www.startuphub.ai/startups/certinia) [Visit website](https://www.certinia.com/) [\ \ **Candy AI** \ \ Watch New Candy Shorts: Adult Drama\ \ Partner](https://www.startuphub.ai/e306g4lf/JTdCJTIyYSUyMiUzQSUyMjEwNjA2MDclMjIlMkMlMjJ1JTIyJTNBJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZjYW5keWFpLmdnJTJGY2hhcmFjdGVycyUyRm5ldyUzRnZpYSUzRG9ydDNybyUyMiUyQyUyMnYlMjIlM0ElMjJkYzdhNTJhNy01M2U0LTQyM2MtYWUxZC0xYzI4ZGZmMmIzZmYlMjIlMkMlMjJwJTIyJTNBJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuc3RhcnR1cGh1Yi5haSUyRmFpLW5ld3MlMkZhcnRpZmljaWFsLWludGVsbGlnZW5jZSUyRjIwMjYlMkZ1YmVyLWVhdHMtdXNlcy1haS1hZ2VudHMtdG8tZW5oYW5jZS1mb29kLXBob3Rvcy1hdC1zY2FsZSUyMiU3RA)

Startuphub 1 week, 4 days ago

Board CFO: AI Agents Accelerate, Not Replace, Enterprise Planning

Board CFO Gordon Pothier discusses how AI agents are augmenting enterprise planning, the focus on ROI, and the company's strategy for sustainable growth.

Startuphub 1 week, 4 days ago

EXCLUSIVE: Its AI agent spent days hacking a company, but sources say OpenAI did not notice for a week

- The agent first tried escaping OpenAI's isolated environment around July 9, two people familiar say WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 (Reuters) - The OpenAI agent that broke into tech firm Hugging Face went on a dayslong hacking spree that OpenAI didn't notice until well after the threat was contained and the FBI was alerted, according ​to people familiar with the investigation. The agent – a program capable of making decisions and executing complex tasks with little or no human oversight – attempted to break out of its isolated testing environment ‌at OpenAI around July 9, according to two of the people. OpenAI’s public disclosure, on July 21, that [one of ​its agents had slipped out of control and carried out the break-in at Hugging Face](https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-says-ai-models-went-rogue-during-testing-triggering-unprecedented-breach-2026-07-21/) drew global attention. ## NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT AUTONOMOUS AGENTS Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and Deepa Seetharaman and Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Sanders and Anna Driver - [Instagram](https://www.reuters.com/business/its-ai-agent-spent-days-hacking-company-sources-say-openai-did-not-notice-week-2026-07-24/@raphae_li) - [Instagram](https://www.reuters.com/business/its-ai-agent-spent-days-hacking-company-sources-say-openai-did-not-notice-week-2026-07-24/kenrick.01)

Reuters 1 week, 4 days ago

AegisAI Raises $36 Million Series A To Fight AI Spear Phishing

AegisAI Raises $36 Million Series A To Fight AI Spear Phishing AegisAI, an email security company building its own large language models to defend the inbox, announced a $36 million Series A led by Battery Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel and Foundation Capital. The round brings the company’s total funding to $49 million, less than a year after emerging from stealth. AegisAI will use the funding to scale its fleet of autonomous defense agents, accelerate general availability of Vanguard, its agent that hunts threats beyond the inbox, and expand enterprise go-to-market efforts. **Dharmesh Thakker, General Partner, Battery Ventures**

Pulse2 1 week, 4 days ago

Google Experts Share AI Agent Evaluation Best Pract…

Google's Preetika Bhateja & Daniel Bump share essential strategies for building effective AI agent evaluation systems, from initial 'vibing' to scaling with...

Startuphub 1 week, 4 days ago

We Peaked at 30 AI Agents. Now We’re Coming Back Down to 20. Here’s What Consolidation Actually Looks Like. The Agents #011 Live!

# We Peaked at 30 AI Agents. Now We’re Coming Back Down to 20. Here’s What Consolidation Actually Looks Like. The Agents #011 Live! ## 10K now runs our ads For years we could not get a person or an agency to run our ads well. I ran them manually and not intelligently. Every agency we tried would burn money without a goal. Getting a report on what the spend was doing felt like pulling teeth, and half the time I didn’t know what our own ads looked like or who they were targeting. This one wasn’t planned. Because 10K now has finance data, marketing data, and Salesforce data in one place, it proposed the campaign itself: build an audience from website visitors, SaaStr Annual attendees, and recent email engagers, push it into the ad platforms, and don’t spend much because it’s a free event, but do get some new names. All reasonable. So Amelia asked if it could execute. It did everything except hit publish. Built the audiences, pulled the website visitor data, went into Higgsfield to generate the creative, produced four A/B variants across copy and imagery, and set the targeting, which came back heavily weighted to retargeting. Obvious in hindsight, and something we’d never done properly. Then it said the ads were ready and told her to go look at them. Publish stays a human button. You want eyes on the budget before it goes live. This also needed Claude and cowork, because Replit’s agent lives in a container and can’t roam the internet the way Claude can with a logged-in session. The container limit is real and the MCP bridge is what removed it. Twitter Embed [Visit this post on X](https://x.com/jasonlk/status/2079299052227699100?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2079299052227699100%7Ctwgr%5E58da3b128d1b92e67813b6ed2816e03d0c982d82%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saastr.com%2Fwe-peaked-at-30-ai-agents-now-were-coming-back-down-to-20-heres-what-consolidation-actually-looks-like-the-agents-011-live%2F) [![](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_im

Saastr 1 week, 4 days ago

Verifiable Agent Authorization via Zero-Knowledge Proofs

This paper introduces Cryptographically Verifiable Agent Authorization (CVA) using zk-SNARKs, addressing a critical gap in securing autonomous AI agents.

Startuphub 1 week, 4 days ago