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This week brought more than just Nvidia’s earnings reports; startups and VCs also had some news — quieter perhaps, but still worth paying attention to, especially where AI is involved.

AI once again drove a large share of overall startup activity, including one acquisition, but this week also brought us a reminder that full M&A execution takes time — and that VC funding is not the only route.

Good optics: AMD acquired Enosemi, a startup designing custom materials to support silicon photonics product development, under undisclosed terms. The goal of the acquisition is to “accelerate [AMD’s] co-packaged optics innovation for AI systems.”

Onboarded: AI startup Anthropic added Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to its board of directors. Hastings was appointed by Anthropic’s independent Long-Term Benefit Trust and already has experience sitting on the boards of Netflix, Bloomberg, Meta, and Microsoft.

It takes time: Family safety app Life360 finally incorporates the AirTag-like lost item tracking functionalities of Tile, three and a half years after Life360 acquired Tile for $205 million.

One month and 25 days: High-profile entrepreneur and angel investor Sahil Lavingia revealed details of his stint on Elon Musk’s DOGE workforce, saying he was booted after only 55 days. But it’s not just him: Musk’s stint is also coming to an end.

Bootstrapped: Ten-year-old cybersecurity company Thinkst Canary reached $20 million in annual recurring revenue without VC investment — an interesting story that seemed worth mentioning before diving into funding news.

Funding news this week comes from a mix of announcements and rumors — unconfirmed but well-sourced. Let’s start with these before moving on to the more concrete updates.

Musk again: Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, reportedly raised $600 million at a $9 billion pre-money valuation.

Long arm: Samsung is said to be looking to invest in a $100 million round for medical device startup Exo through its venture investment arm. 

New horizon: Filings revealed that cybersecurity startup Horizon3.ai is seeking to raise $100 million, out of which it has already secured at least $73 million.

New bricks: Buildots, a Chicago-based startup leveraging AI and computer vision to improve construction progress tracking, raised a $45 million Series D, bringing its total raised to $166 million.

Adding up: Rillet, a startup using machine learning and generative AI to automate accounting reports, raised a $25 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital, only 10 months after a $13.5 million seed and pre-seed round.

Convenience: Snabbit, a 15-month-old Indian startup operating in the increasingly hot home services space, secured $19 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed at a post-money valuation of $80 million. 

World models: SpAItial, the new company of Synthesia co-founder Matthias Niessner, raised a $13 million seed round led by Earlybird to develop a foundation model capable of generating interactive 3D online environments. It would share similarities with the AI model released by competitor Odyssey this week.

Advanced grid: Gridcare, an AI-powered energy optimization startup, emerged out of stealth with an oversubscribed $13.5 million seed round and said it’s ready to play matchmaker between data centers and utilities.

Diversifying: State-owned Saudi AI company Humain is making progress to launch Humain Ventures, a $10 billion venture fund that will invest in startups in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Kiwi startups: Auckland-based venture firm and incubator Outset Ventures closed a second fund of approximately $25 million to invest in deep tech startups emerging out of New Zealand.

Nuclear fusion startups have been attracting investors, but their endeavors are still experimental. Fission, on the other hand, already has the potential to power data centers, which explains why Big Tech companies have been investing in nuclear fission startups.