Claims that Chinese technology for artificial intelligence lags the US are a “fairy tale,” Arthur Mensch, the chief executive officer of Mistral, said.

AI startups are starting 2026 with IPOs and looking to consolidation deals, as capital needs intensify.

One of OpenAI’s top executives defended the company’s addition of ads to its popular chatbot ChatGPT as a way to democratize access to artificial intelligence.

Google DeepMind Chief Executive Officer Demis Hassabis said Chinese artificial intelligence companies haven’t been able to innovate beyond the cutting edge of technology and remain about six months behind the frontier AI of the leading western labs.

Yann LeCun’s artificial intelligence startup, AMI Labs, has attracted potential backers including Cathay Innovation in a round that could value the former Meta Platforms Inc. researcher’s business at €3 billion ($3.5 billion), people familiar with the matter said.

Nico Rosberg, a former Formula 1 racing champion, has raised $100 million for his venture capital firm, making it one of the largest technology investors from a former athlete.

Fresh off a banner year of investments, the Geneva-born venture capital firm is now priming a new generation of leaders. 

Payhawk, a Bulgarian startup that helps companies manage spending, is in early discussions to raise new financing that could double its valuation to around $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Private equity firm EQT AB plans to deploy 10,000 humanoid robots to its portfolio companies that are made by a startup it has invested in.

Delivery Hero SE said it’s evaluating options to improve its finances and operations, including changes to its capital structure, after coming under pressure from major shareholders to conduct a strategic review.

Parloa, a German startup developing artificial intelligence for customer service, is looking to raise new funding that would significantly increase its valuation from May, according to people familiar with the matter.

The cloud-computing startup Fluidstack is in talks to raise roughly $700 million in a funding round that would value the company at $7 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Pennylane, a French startup that sells accounting software, is in talks for a potential investment at a $4.25 billion valuation, nearly double what it was valued at in a round just seven months ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

Incode Technologies Inc., an identity verification platform, is in preliminary talks to raise between $150 million and $300 million from investors at a valuation of as much as $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.