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Silicon Valley's renowned venture capital firm a16z has announced that it has raised $1.1 billion for its latest fund, the Machine Age Fund, which will focus on investing in the full suite of computing infrastructure that supports AI operations, including chips, memory, networking, storage, as well as complete systems such as data centers, robots, and home AI devices.a16z stated that over the past year, there has been a significant turning point in the growth of AI in terms of application capabilities and types of work. As AI expands from chat and reasoning further into programming and other knowledge work, the demand for computing power and tokens is experiencing exponential growth, and machine intelligence is accelerating its deep development.a16z indicated that its team possesses extensive experience in hardware, data centers, chips, networking, and large-scale computing systems. They have also established a resource network covering market expansion, talent recruitment, marketing, customers, suppliers, and American manufacturing, which will further support the next generation of AI hardware entrepreneurs. a16z mentioned that we are currently at an important juncture in the transformation of computing paradigms and look forward to collaborating with entrepreneurs dedicated to reconstructing AI hardware and advancing the arrival of the "Machine Age."

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the suspected a16z, currently the largest institution holding HYPE, bought $24 million worth of HYPE at an average price of $68.7 in June, and recently made another purchase and staked HYPE.In the past day, this institution deposited 36 million USDC into Hyperliquid through 12 addresses, of which approximately 24 million USDC has been used to buy 282,090 HYPE, with an average purchase price of about $81.5. Currently, this institution has cumulatively bought and staked 4.679 million HYPE, valued at about $381 million, with an overall holding average price of about $65.6, resulting in an unrealized profit of about $74.4 million.

On August 24, a16z's latest chart shows that the weekly active growth of OpenAI Codex in enterprises is extremely polarized. The growth rate for lawyers is as high as 108 times, followed by sales and recruitment at 41 times each, marketing at 26 times, and healthcare at 24 times, while engineers are at the bottom with only 5 times.Codex has evolved from code completion to a digital colleague capable of independently breaking down tasks and running for hours, with lawyers using it to handle vast amounts of long texts and contract comparisons. This marks the "programming" of knowledge work, with the AI explosion shifting from the tech circle to high-value white-collar positions.

According to reports from Liberty Times and other media, TSMC has completed the development and verification of the angstrom-level A16 (1.6nm) process, which is expected to enter mass production in the fourth quarter of 2026. This process uses TSMC's back-end power delivery network technology Super Power Rail (SPR), separating signal routing from power routing, with the power located on the back of the wafer to reduce bottlenecks.Compared to the 2nm process, the A16 is said to improve computing speed by 8% to 10%, reduce energy consumption by 15% to 20%, and increase chip density by 8% to 10%. TSMC views the 1.6nm process as a transitional step towards 1.4nm, with the goal of starting 1.4nm mass production in 2028.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, the wallet related to a16z (0xb5E...c24e) has unstaked and transferred 89,470 HYPE to Wintermute a few minutes ago, worth approximately 6.6 million dollars, possibly for sale.

a16z crypto posted on platform X that monthly spending on crypto payment cards reached approximately $759 million in July this year, an increase of about 2.5 times compared to approximately $306 million a year ago, and a significant rise from less than $1 million in October 2023, with an average transaction amount of about $86.The report states that users can hold stablecoins through custodial or self-custodial methods and spend globally using traditional card networks like Visa, with merchants settling in local fiat currencies. Currently, about 58% of spending is settled in USDC, approximately 26% in USDT, and the share of the euro stablecoin EURe has dropped from about 88% to around 2%.In terms of chain distribution, Optimism, Solana, and Base each account for over 20%, while Gnosis's share has significantly declined.

According to Business Insider, Stripe is in talks to acquire the AI model marketplace startup OpenRouter for over $8 billion.If the deal goes through, the more than 17% stake held by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) will be worth nearly $1.5 billion, while it initially invested about $20 million; Menlo Ventures holds over 6% of the stake, having invested less than $50 million, and its current value has exceeded $500 million. The total return for the two institutions is close to $2 billion.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting an antitrust investigation into Silicon Valley's top venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), focusing on its partners serving on the boards of multiple AI companies that are in competition with each other—co-founder Ben Horowitz serves on the board of Databricks, and partner Martin Casado serves on the board of Fivetran, with both companies competing in the data processing field.Casado previously also served on the board of dbt labs (acquired by Fivetran in June). This investigation has been ongoing for nearly a year, starting with the antitrust review of Fivetran's acquisition of dbt labs. Although the acquisition has been unconditionally approved, the investigation into the board positions continues. Such investigations typically end with board members resigning. a16z has close ties to the Trump administration, with both founders donating millions to the Trump campaign in 2024 and successfully pushing for the weakening of safety barriers in AI policy. a16z manages assets totaling $90 billion and recently raised a $15 billion fund, with a portfolio that includes SpaceX, OpenAI, and Cursor, among others.

According to Techtimes, AI model evaluation company Vals AI completed a $40 million Series A funding round with a valuation of $400 million, led by a16z, with participation from 8VC, Pear VC, Bloomberg Beta, as well as new investors HRT Ventures and Next Ladder Ventures.Vals AI uses an independent system to evaluate cutting-edge models launched by companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and xAI, rather than using traditional public benchmark tests. The new funding will be used to expand evaluation infrastructure and launch testing tools for creating programming benchmarks based on enterprise GitHub code repositories.

According to DIGITIMES, NVIDIA's next-generation AI platform Feynman aims for mass production in the second half of 2028, utilizing TSMC's A16 process and incorporating SoIC 3D stacking and CPO technology. The Rubin generation focuses on integrating multiple small chips with HBM, while Feynman further develops towards 3D small chips, SoIC, and CPO. The report indicates that TSMC is accelerating the construction of related production capacity, with the original plan for SoIC monthly capacity to reach 20,000 pieces by the end of 2026, now updated to a target of 50,000 pieces by the end of 2027.The construction progress of TSMC's Chiayi AP7 and Tainan AP8 is also accelerating, with AP7 planned in 8 phases. P1 and P2 have entered installation, P3 and P4 have obtained construction permits, and P5 to P8 are still in planning. In addition to mass-producing Apple-specific WMCM, the factory will configure SoIC, CoPoS, and CPO production lines according to customer demand. NVIDIA has rapidly shifted its R&D and supply chain resources to the Feynman platform, and the spillover effect of TSMC's advanced packaging orders continues to expand, with Siliconware becoming the main testing and packaging factory for NVIDIA's CoWoS and CPO orders. The NVLink interconnect bandwidth of NVIDIA's Feynman platform is expected to exceed 1 PB/s, further improving from Rubin Ultra's 520 TB/s. TSMC's COUPE technology integrates EIC and PIC in 3D through SoIC to form a light engine, advancing optoelectronic conversion from traditional circuit boards to the internal packaging structure. Since 2026, NVIDIA has invested over $40 billion in building the AI ecosystem, covering areas such as models, wafer manufacturing, data centers, and optical communications.

According to the Financial Times, Erebor Bank, a crypto-friendly bank co-founded by Oculus founder and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking $1.5 billion in funding, with a pre-money valuation target of $8 billion. This valuation is nearly double the company's valuation of $435 million when it completed a $350 million funding round in December 2025.Currently, Erebor has received support from investment firms such as 8VC and Haun Ventures, and the new funding round is expected to attract participation from institutions like Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Human Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and SV Angel.As investment in AI infrastructure enters a phase of rapid expansion, Erebor is targeting the financing needs of AI companies. AI firms require substantial funds to procure GPUs, build data centers, and secure energy supplies, while traditional financial institutions are gradually exploring financing models for AI infrastructure assets. However, whether Erebor can maintain rapid growth after the cooling of cycles in the AI and crypto industries remains a key focus for the market. This funding round has not yet been finalized and is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

HappyRobot, an enterprise-level AI intelligence company, announced the completion of a $150 million Series C financing round, led jointly by Prysm Capital and Eurazeo, with continued participation from a16z, Base10, and Y Combinator. Other strategic investors include Koch Disruptive Technologies, Orange, and T.Capital, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.HappyRobot focuses on using AI intelligence to automatically handle complex, multi-step business coordination tasks, reducing the costs of manual coordination. After this round of financing, its total funding amount is approximately $200 million, and the company's valuation has reached $1.2 billion, officially entering the "unicorn" ranks.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, two addresses suspected to belong to a16z (0x5a2...208, 0xf55...1C2) transferred 979,000 HYPE to Hyperliquid and staked them 8 hours ago, worth $53.53 million.

According to on-chain analysts, a wallet suspected to be associated with a16z (0xb5E...c24e) has withdrawn a total of 132,056.65 HYPE from various exchanges in the past 8 hours, worth 7.335 million dollars, with an average withdrawal price of 55.54 dollars.Since July 15, the same address has transferred a total of 398,000 HYPE to exchanges, approximately 24.89 million dollars.

According to South Korean media Asiae, six leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, a16z, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and NEA, announced the signing of a strategic investment cooperation memorandum (MOU) with the National Pension Service (NPS) of Korea, planning to jointly explore investment opportunities, share investment information, and strengthen global venture capital布局.Furthermore, the South Korean government is accelerating the promotion of policies to attract overseas venture capital, coupled with the launch of the "National Growth Fund," which has a scale of 200 trillion won. The market expects that the Korean venture capital sector will see a simultaneous inflow of policy funds, private capital, and overseas capital, with strategic industries such as AI and semiconductors likely to receive more investment. However, industry insiders warn that if a large amount of capital concentrates on a few popular companies, it may inflate company valuations and create bubbles, potentially facing valuation adjustment pressure during future IPOs and mergers and acquisitions, affecting fund returns.

According to Mlm monitoring, a certain HYPE whale staked 2.785 million HYPE through 20 wallets in the past 11 hours, worth approximately 164 million USD.This whale accumulated a total of 2.94 million HYPE from September to October last year, currently valued at about 172 million USD, making it one of the largest holders of HYPE. This whale may be related to a16z, but this has not yet been confirmed.