Record funding powers AI tools, agents, and industry upheaval

This cluster tracks a breakneck AI capital cycle, led by OpenAI’s historic ~$110B raise at a roughly $730–840B valuation, billion‑dollar rounds for autonomy players like Wayve and Einride, and large new AI-focused funds from VCs such as Peak XV. Big tech and startups are racing to build the stack—new training chips and hardware (e.g., MatX, Nvidia’s Vera Rubin), cloud and data-center alliances (OpenAI–Amazon, AWS), “physical AI” and data infrastructure (RLWRLD, Encord), plus aggressive M&A like Anthropic’s Vercept deal and Salesforce’s Momentum acquisition. At the same time, a wave of AI-native tools and agents—coding copilots and IDEs (Claude Code, Mastra, Superset), agent OSes and automation platforms (Perplexity Computer, Zavi, Mobile-Agent, Rover), and vertical apps for marketing, revenue, and SMB operations—promises one-person, software-defined companies while also triggering layoffs, privacy worries, scams, and new regulatory and legal scrutiny.