MENLO TIMES

Ouster , an automation company moving the world forward safely and efficiently, led by Angus Pacala, has announced  that on February 4, 2026, it closed the acquisition of StereoLabs SAS  (“StereoLabs”), a pioneer in AI vision and perception solutions, led by Cecile Schmollgruber, Olivier Braun, and Edwin Azzam. With this acquisition, Ouster now provides a unified sensing and perception platform for Physical AI, integrating high-performance digital lidar, cameras, AI compute,

Chiral , building next-generation chips with nanomaterials, led by Seoho Jung, Natanael Lanz, André Butzerin, and others, has raised  a $12 million seed financing round led by  Crane Venture Partners , with participation from  Quantonation ,  HCVC , and  Founderful , as well as public funding from  Innosuisse. The funding supports Chiral’s mission to enable wafer-scale manufacturing of post-silicon computing chips built on nanomaterials, advancing the next generation of proce

Ricursive Intelligence , a frontier AI Lab focused on building self-improving systems, starting with chip design, led by Anna Goldie, Azalia Mirhoseini, and others, has secured $300 million in funding led by Lightspeed  with participation from DST Global , Nvidia’s venture capital arm NVentures , Felicis Ventures , 49 Palms Ventures, and Radical AI. Ricursive aims to accelerate AI chip innovation by using AI systems to design silicon substrates and iteratively improve hardwar

Neurophos , a leader in photonic AI chip technology, led by Patrick Bowen , Hod Finkelstein , Preston Woo , Andrew Traverso , and others, has secured  $110 million in an oversubscribed Series A round, bringing total funding to $118 million led by Gates Frontier, with participation from M12  (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), Carbon Direct Capital , Aramco Ventures , Bosch Ventures , Tectonic Ventures , Space Capital , and others. Modern AI inference requires massive power and comput

Quadric , the inference engine that powers on-device AI chips, led by Veer Kheterpal , Daniel Firu , Nigel Drego , Steve Roddy , and others, announced an oversubscribed $30 million Series C funding round, bringing total capital raised to $72 million, led by ACCELERATE Fund, managed by BEENEXT  Capital Management.  Uncork Capital  returned with one of the largest insider commitments through its opportunity fund, joined by insider Pear VC . New investors include Volta, Gentree,

Optalysys , enabling a world of secure computing, led by Nick New, Robert Todd, Stuart Mellis, Marcella Arthur, Laura Stanley, and others, has secured  £23 million in a Series A extension round led by Northern Gritstone  with participation from imec.xpand , Lingotto Horizon , and the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund ( NSSIF ). The funding will accelerate the commercialisation of Optalysys’ photonic chips and support expansion into the US market. As

Ethernovia , revolutionizing the nervous system of intelligent machines, led by Ramin Shirani, Roy Myers, Hossein Sedarat, Darren Engelkemier, Christopher Mash, and Klaas Bult, has  secured  a Series B funding round of over $90 million led by  Maverick Silicon  with participation from  Socratic Partners , Conduit Capital, and CDIB-TEN Capital. The round also included additional funding from Ethernovia’s existing investors, including  Porsche SE ,  Qualcomm Ventures , and  Fal

AlphaLum , building the world's most efficient AR displays & optical sensors, led by Markus Rossi, Eric Tremblay, Tim De Reyck, Tanja Koch, Carlos Macias, and Volker Zagolla, has announced  the successful close of its CHF 3.4 million seed financing round led by Vsquared Ventures . The funding accelerates AlphaLum’s shift from advanced engineering to a core supplier for next-generation smart glasses and spatial-computing products, establishing it as a leading European provider

Cerebras , the world’s fastest AI inference and training platform, led by Andrew Feldman and others, has signed  a multi-year agreement with OpenAI  to deploy 750 megawatts of Cerebras wafer-scale systems to serve OpenAI customers. This deployment will roll out in multiple stages beginning in 2026, making it the largest high-speed AI inference deployment in the world. A decade of parallel ambition brought OpenAI and Cerebras together, two companies founded at the same time wi

Aegis Aerospace Inc. , a leader in space and defense technology led by Stephanie Murphy , and others, has announced  a groundbreaking partnership with United Semiconductors LLC to pioneer semiconductor manufacturing in space. This collaboration follows Aegis Aerospace’s recent grant from the Texas Space Commission to develop an in-space manufacturing platform for advanced materials in low Earth orbit (LEO). “We’re excited to partner with United Semiconductors,” said Stephanie

Lyte , an end-to-end integrated perception company for robotics and Physical AI, led by Alexander Shpunt, Dr. Arman Hajati, and Dr. Yuval Gerson, has emerged  from stealth with $107 million in aggregate funding from some of the industry's premier investors, including Avigdor Willenz's group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Atreides Management , Exor Ventures , Key1 Capital , and Venture Tech Alliance . Based in Mountain View, California, Lyte was founded by Alexander

Quantum Diamonds ,  building next-gen testing tools based on quantum sensing to solve one of the semiconductor industry’s hardest problems, led by Dr. Fleming Bruckmaier and Kevin Berghoff, announced  a €152 million investment plan to establish the world’s first production facility for advanced chip testing systems. The Munich facility is a strategic asset for strengthening Europe’s semiconductor position and is expected to receive tens of millions of euros in public funding

Verkada , an American leader in cloud-based physical security, led by Filip Kaliszan, Hans Robertson, James Ren, and Benjamin Bercovitz, has secured  an investment from Alphabet's independent growth fund, CapitalG ,  valuing the company at $5.8 billion, a $1.3 billion increase from Series E earlier this year. More than 2 million devices from Verkada are now deployed across 171 countries, unifying video security, access control, sensors, intercoms, and alarms on a single platf

Ricursive Intelligence , the first frontier AI lab addressing the most fundamental constraint in AI progress: chip development timelines that can’t keep up with algorithmic advancement, led by Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini, announced  its launch and a $35 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital( Stephanie Zhan ), along with other investors, including Modern Capital( Suhail Nimji , Jennifer Campbell ), 49Palms( Madhavan Ramanujam , Joshua Bloom ), and Striker ( M

Synopsys , the leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems, enabling customers to rapidly innovate AI-powered products, led by Sassine Ghazi, Shelagh Glaser, Ravi Subramanian, Shankar Krishnamoorthy, and others, announced  an expanded, strategic partnership to revolutionize design and engineering across industries. R&D teams across sectors, from semiconductors to aerospace, automotive, and industrial, face growing workflow complexity, rising development costs, and

NcodiN , the deep-tech startup pioneering optical interposer technology with integrated nanolasers, led by Francesco Manegatti, Bruno Garbin, Fabrice Raineri, Yacine Halioua, and Carlo Guareschi, has secured  €16 million in an oversubscribed Seed financing round led by MIG Capital , with participation from Maverick Silicon , PhotonVentures , and Verve Ventures , alongside continued support from existing backers Elaia , Earlybird , and OVNI . To strengthen its foundation, Ncod

PowerLattice , the company reimagining power delivery for next-generation AI accelerators, led by Dr. Peng Zou, Gang Ren, and Sujith Dermal, has announced its emergence from stealth with $25 million in Series A funding jointly led by Playground Global  and Celesta Capital . The company’s power-delivery chiplet tightly couples power and compute, cutting total power needs by over 50% and effectively doubling performance. PowerLattice has raised $31 million to date. AI accelerat

YQuantum , a Swiss startup developing innovative hardware components, unleashing the full potential of quantum computing, led by Dr. Christian Jünger, Dr. Johannes Herrmann, and Prof. Christian Schönenberger, has secured  €161,000 (CHF 150,000) from  Venture Kick . YQuantum develops compact, high-performance cryogenic hardware to enhance the scalability of quantum systems. Its technology supports high-fidelity superconducting and spin-qubit operations, enabling larger and mor

Crusoe , the AI infrastructure company led by Chase Lochmiller, Cully Cavness, Matthew DeNezza, Nitin Perumbeti, Chris Dolan, Tara Green, and others, has announced  the initial closing of its anticipated $1.375 billion Series E round, bringing the company's expected valuation to over $10 billion. The oversubscribed round was co-led by technology investors Valor Equity Partners  and Mubadala Capital , with participation from 137 Ventures , 1789 Capital , Activate Capital , Alt

Cerebras Systems , developer of the fastest AI infrastructure in the industry, led by Andrew Feldman, Jean-Philippe Fricker, Michael...