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According to TechCrunch, AI Agent development company Runable has completed a $21 million Series A funding round, led jointly by usquehanna Venture Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from Together Fund and Array VC.The AI Agent currently being developed by the company is capable of generating websites, applications, and presentations through natural language, and can also handle foundational tasks such as deployment and data analysis. The new funding will be used to optimize AI inference costs and integrate infrastructure, marketing, and distribution capabilities.

In the latest podcast, SemiAnalysis founder Dylan Patel predicts that by 2028, OpenAI and Anthropic may account for 70% to 80% of the world's new AI computing power, with the total computing power scale potentially exceeding 100GW. Patel stated that the two companies currently account for about 30% of the world's annual new computing power, and this proportion is still rising rapidly.Patel pointed out that the business model of leading AI laboratories is changing, with a significant increase in the efficiency of AI computing power output. Currently, Anthropic's revenue per megawatt of computing power has reached about $50 million and may further rise to $100 million. This allows OpenAI and Anthropic to procure or lease computing power at high prices ranging from $25 million to $50 million per megawatt.Patel expects that global AI-related capital expenditures will reach about $11 trillion from 2024 to 2029, with over $5 trillion needing to be financed through debt. Due to the potential return on investment of AI infrastructure being far higher than that of traditional industries, tech giants may accept higher financing costs, thereby pushing up overall credit rates and squeezing the valuations of traditional assets and highly leveraged economies. Additionally, Patel believes that the new computing power may not primarily be used for providing model inference services externally, but may instead flow more towards internal research and development and self-improvement of models within AI laboratories.

According to The Information, DeepSeek is seeking a second round of financing with a valuation of 500 billion yuan, planning to raise 50 billion yuan. The company's revenue from January to July 2026 reached 475 million yuan, approximately 10 times the total revenue for 2025; during the same period, the net loss narrowed to 715 million yuan, compared to a net loss of 935 million yuan for the entire year of 2025. The gross margin is 44.6%, with the API business gross margin reaching 82.9%, mainly due to reduced inference costs from optimized computing infrastructure.Recently, DeepSeek raised its API pricing, with the V4-Pro peak output price increasing from $0.87 to $3.96, but still far below Kimi K3's $15 and Claude Opus 5's $25. The company's investment in computing infrastructure surged from 1.2 billion yuan in 2025 to 11 billion yuan from January to July 2026, primarily for server leasing and AI chip procurement. DeepSeek completed its first round of external financing of 50 billion yuan in June, and the company has hired investment banks to prepare for an IPO in Shanghai next year.

Citigroup expects that by 2026, the issuance scale of South Korean companies in the global bond and stock markets will reach a record high. Companies are raising growth funds through international investors, with SK Hynix's $26.5 billion U.S. listing being the most prominent. Jangho Park, CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Korea, stated that South Korea has an increasing number of world-class companies and emerging industry leaders, who are increasingly utilizing capital markets with competitive financing conditions to raise funds for their growth objectives.As Citigroup makes this forecast, the two major chip manufacturers in South Korea are becoming the main beneficiaries of global artificial intelligence infrastructure construction. South Korea is seeking to encourage companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, to invest at least 135 trillion won ($975 billion) in chip and data center construction, although many projects are still in the early planning stages.

Cryptocurrency investment firm RockawayX announced the acquisition of the crypto hedge fund Relayer Capital to incorporate long-short strategies into its existing platform and expand its business footprint in the United States. RockawayX manages approximately $2 billion in assets, and Relayer will be renamed RockawayX Liquid Opportunities Fund, focusing on uncovering "undervalued liquidity tokens and crypto-related stocks." After the acquisition is completed, Relayer founder Austin Barack will serve as the chief investment officer of the fund, with Forbes citing informed sources that the company plans to raise $150 million for the fund.According to the announcement, Relayer's liquidity strategy has achieved approximately 70% net returns this year, outperforming a weighted basket of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana by 86% as of August 21. The strategy expresses fundamental views on crypto tokens through long and short positions and pairs trading, while reducing overall market exposure at appropriate times. RockawayX CEO Viktor Fischer stated that now is the "right time" to implement this strategy, as there are crypto companies with real revenue and strong fundamentals emerging in the market, but inefficiencies and mispricing still exist, providing good opportunities for active investors.This transaction occurs amid a recent rebound in the crypto market, with Bitcoin recording its largest weekly dollar gain in history last week, dropping 1.68% to $79,064 in the past 24 hours after briefly reaching a high of around $81,000.

According to the Nikkei, Japan's Financial Services Agency, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan, and financial institutions plan to establish a research group in the summer of 2026 to promote the construction of next-generation payment and settlement infrastructure based on blockchain (distributed ledger), with a specific preparation plan expected to be formed in early 2027.The plan initially focuses on government bonds and stock trading, aiming to achieve 24-hour instant settlement of funds and securities. The report notes that although there have been several blockchain financial application trials in the past, this is the first time the Japanese government and central bank have set a clear timeline for the actual implementation of related infrastructure.

A Reuters survey shows that most economists believe the Bank of Japan will take action faster than previously expected, and will raise interest rates again in September, with the terminal rate potentially being higher. 57% of economists expect an interest rate hike next month, a significant increase from 5% in July. Ayako Fujita, Chief Economist for Japan at JPMorgan, stated that delaying the rate hike could lead to market turmoil. In addition, more than two-thirds of respondents believe that the recent US-Japan joint foreign exchange intervention has had limited effects.

The Barclays strategy team stated that the rapidly expanding AI infrastructure is triggering a backlash among bipartisan voters in the United States, which could pose political risks to the currently popular AI trades.The construction of data centers has made AI a cost of living issue, and voters are dissatisfied with rising electricity costs. Barclays warns investors that AI trades lack new upward catalysts, and related stocks may face policy pressure.

Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Zerohash has resubmitted its national trust bank charter application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), marking its second attempt following the rejection of its application in July. Previously, on July 17, the OCC returned Zerohash's application, citing "insufficient materials."Zerohash stated that the return was part of an administrative process, allowing it to reapply this month, a practice coordinated with the OCC and not a judgment on the substantive content of the application, nor does it affect the company's existing operations. The company noted that the initial application covered "a wide range of digital assets and fiduciary services," and thus decided to adopt a "phased" approach, focusing on "national trust business that aligns more closely with the established launch timeline."Zerohash is a Chicago-based cryptocurrency infrastructure platform that provides backend operational support for cryptocurrency businesses to institutions such as E*Trade under Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Stripe, Interactive Brokers, and DraftKings, and it already holds a state trust bank charter.

Chris Marlon, a key executive responsible for data center construction at OpenAI, left the company last week. The "Stargate" project that Marlon was in charge of has faced initial setbacks, leading OpenAI to shift towards collaborating with cloud service providers. Currently, the company is advancing its infrastructure development by leasing complete data center facilities.OpenAI is undergoing executive adjustments in preparation for its IPO in 2027, with several executives having left recently. It is expected that by 2030, spending on computing infrastructure will reach $750 billion.

According to official news, Mantle Vault has officially expanded from CeFi to DeFi, collaborating with Grove, CIAN, and Fluxion to launch a non-custodial yield vault aimed at stablecoin holders. Users can deposit USDC/USDT into Mantle to obtain institutional-level floating yields through the underlying strategy of sUSDS, along with incentives of Fluxion Points and 5.14 million GROVE tokens (with a target APY of up to 6.5%).The vault adopts a conservative non-leveraged structure, with strategies built by CIAN, capital base provided by Grove's Sky Savings Rate, and liquidity entry managed by Fluxion. Previously, Mantle Vault's AUM on Bybit had exceeded $200 million, and Mantle RWA TVL increased from $22 million to $257 million within the year, with DeFi TVL surpassing $755 million.Mantle stated that by expanding into the DeFi space through Mantle Vault, Mantle and its collaborators are committed to enabling all stablecoin holders to access institutional-level yields without borders, free from geographical restrictions and without the need for intermediary access, and all these components can be combined within Mantle's open financial network.

NVIDIA announced that Cognex, Cat, and the American Silicon Valley home cleaning robot startup Matic will adopt Jetson Orin Nano 2.

According to CoinDesk, citing informed sources, the cryptocurrency custody company Copper, which was once valued at up to $2.5 billion, has attracted the interest of potential buyers, but the offers are only $200 million, far below the $500 million offer made by Cantor Fitzgerald a few months ago.Informed sources revealed that the company is facing challenges related to preferred stock after completing over $300 million in financing at a high valuation.

Cisco and NVIDIA collaborate to expand secure artificial intelligence factories to embrace the era of rack-scale.

Indian AI infrastructure company AM Intelligence has ordered 9,000 sets of NVIDIA Vera Rubin systems, planning to deploy them in southern India next year. The company's clients include large cloud service providers, AI laboratories, and institutions developing local AI models.

Strive Chairman and CEO Matt Cole stated that February 19 was the bear market bottom for the company's stock $ASST, when the company's CFO, CLO, and several executives and directors bought shares in the open market, and three independent directors transitioned to full-time within six months. There is high confidence internally regarding the Bitcoin exposure held, the amplification structure, and team chemistry.Cole mentioned that despite the external sentiment being low at that time, the internal morale was high, and the execution capability was validated in the following six months. Now, $ASST has surged, and market sentiment has improved, but the team's focus remains unchanged: the Bitcoin bull market has just begun, and Strive has built the corresponding amplification structure and will push forward with full force.Market data shows that $ASST has risen over 50% in the last four trading days, with a current market capitalization of approximately $1.686 billion.

The U.S. Treasury Department has expanded its sanctions framework against Iran to include the digital asset sector, stating that the relevant cryptocurrency payments exceed $100 million, which were used to assist in the sale of Iranian oil. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a division of the U.S. Treasury, has also imposed sanctions on nearly 60 entities, individuals, and vessels involved in nuclear energy, missiles, cyber activities, and the oil network.The sanctions in the digital asset sector allow OFAC to sanction foreign individuals and companies operating in Iran's digital asset sector or providing support services to the relevant field. The U.S. Treasury stated that Iran is increasingly using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, including transactions related to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and insiders within the government. The U.S. Treasury noted that Ukrainian broker Ivan Obukhov, a UAE national, has processed over $100 million in cryptocurrency payments since 2023 to assist the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force in oil sales. OFAC has added Ivan Obukhov and his UAE company Foscom FZE to the sanctions list.

AI market prediction project Fortune Protocol officially announces the integration of liquidity from Polymarket and, together with the previously integrated Predict.fun, provides more prediction markets and liquidity for Fortune Markets.After this update, users can directly explore markets from different liquidity sources within Fortune Markets and discover and compare the liquidity, trading volume, and probabilities of different markets more quickly through a brand new market interface. Fortune Protocol has optimized the trading and asset management experience, adding a streamlined trading process that supports result selection and position browsing; the Portfolio feature is unified, allowing users to view their current positions, settled markets, and complete trading history in one place.Fortune Protocol states that by continuously integrating liquidity from various mainstream prediction markets, Fortune Markets will further build a unified market layer, providing users with a more open, efficient, and integrated prediction market trading experience.

According to Nikkei Asia, the Japanese government is promoting the creation of a data-sharing platform that leverages artificial intelligence to analyze data shared by manufacturers, aiming to increase the speed of new material development by about 10 times. This plan is led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and aims to accelerate the discovery of new chemical compositions and formulations by aggregating materials-related data from companies using AI.The report states that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry aims to launch this platform as early as the fiscal year 2027. Currently, the practice of using AI to explore new material combinations is gradually becoming common in the materials industry, and Japan hopes to shorten the traditional trial-and-error cycle and improve industrial R&D efficiency by unifying data and computing infrastructure.

According to Bloomberg, the Taiwanese research institution TeamT5 stated that the scale of cyberattacks linked to China has significantly increased after incorporating DeepSeek and other open-source AI models into their operations. Since they began delegating daily tasks to AI and using it to develop more advanced malware, the number of attacks carried out by the relevant organizations has more than doubled.Researchers noted that it is not always possible to accurately identify the specific AI models used by attackers, but products related to DeepSeek are popular among hacker groups in the country due to their high performance and ease of customization. The report indicates that experienced attackers are leveraging relatively limited AI tools to scale up their operations and achieve breakthroughs, highlighting the attackers' ability to use basic AI tools to target overseas objectives.