Odaily News: Prediction market operator Kalshi is in negotiations for a $1 billion funding round at a target valuation of $40 billion. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management are in discussions to lead the round, with Tiger Global and Dragoneer Investment Group also participating in talks.The funding round has not yet been finalized, and the final list of investors and closing date have not been disclosed. Kalshi raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation in October 2025, and completed a $1 billion funding round at a $22 billion valuation in May 2026.The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Kalshi on September 25 in lawsuits involving Ohio and Tennessee, allowing the two states to regulate its sports contracts under gambling laws. Kalshi argues that its products are regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. (Bitcoin.com News)

Odaily reports: AI startup Island announced the completion of a $400 million Series F funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from existing investors Prysm Capital, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, Cyberstarts, Insight Partners, and JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners. The company's valuation reached $6.4 billion.The Dallas-based company primarily develops enterprise security tools. Island stated that the new funding will drive the company into its next phase of growth and innovation, helping enterprises scale the adoption of AI agents and modernize the way they work. (Reuters)

Odaily reports: AI startup Temporal announced the completion of $550 million in late-stage funding, with its valuation more than doubling to $12.55 billion within seven months. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs Alternatives' Growth Equity, and Tiger Global participating as co-leads, while SV Angel and advisory accounts of T. Rowe Price Associates also joined. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sequoia Capital, and GIC continued to participate as existing investors. The funds will be used to expand global operations and deepen platform research and development. (Reuters)

Odaily News: AI-native accounting platform Rillet has completed a $100 million Series C funding round, reaching a valuation of $1 billion. The round was led by ICONIQ, with participation from Sequoia Capital, a16z, Oak HC/FT, and others. Rillet has completed three funding rounds over the past year, bringing its total funding to over $200 million.Rillet primarily uses AI agents to automate enterprise accounting and financial operations, and currently serves more than 600 clients, including Neuralink, Skild AI, and Mercor. (Fortune)

Odaily Planet Daily News: AI infrastructure startup Trajectory announced the completion of a $40 million funding round, with a post-investment valuation of $300 million, featuring participation from Sequoia Capital. The specific funding round and other investors have not yet been disclosed. Trajectory was founded by researchers from former tech companies such as Google and Apple, and primarily helps enterprises customize open-source AI models for specific business needs, while optimizing the software toolchain that supports AI Agent operations (i.e., the "Agent Harness").As the cost of using closed-source large language models continues to rise, more enterprises are seeking alternatives: on one hand, they reduce costs by fine-tuning and customizing open-source models; on the other hand, they improve Agent execution frameworks to enable AI models to call tools and execute tasks more effectively. This trend is driving a new wave of entrepreneurship centered around model adaptation and Agent infrastructure.Trajectory aims to address key challenges enterprises face when deploying AI Agents, including model performance optimization, task execution reliability, and adaptation to enterprise scenarios. The company hopes to help enterprises build more efficient and cost-effective AI applications by providing model customization and Agent operation infrastructure.Investors believe that as AI evolves from simple chatbots to Agents capable of autonomously executing complex tasks, a new infrastructure layer centered around model optimization and Agent engineering will become a significant market. Sequoia has also been continuously increasing its investment in the AI infrastructure field in recent years, including investments in AI Agents and enterprise AI applications. (The Information)

Odaily News: AI hedge fund Situational Awareness, while facing margin pressure from lenders, had sought to sell some of its private company holdings to raise cash and reached out to institutions including Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks. However, after Situational Awareness reached a deal with Citadel to sell most of its public stock portfolio, the fund ultimately decided not to sell its private assets.Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks, and Situational Awareness all declined to comment. (Bloomberg)

Odaily News: AI hedge fund Situational Awareness has dropped approximately 67% since July, hit by a major pullback in AI stocks. In a letter to investors, fund founder Leopold Aschenbrenner said, "This month we let everyone down." Despite the severe drawdown in July, Situational Awareness is still up about 80% year-to-date. As of end of May, the fund's returns this year had reached approximately 270%.Previously reported, massive losses led Situational to sell a large portion of its public stock holdings to Ken Griffin's Citadel to raise cash and meet lender margin requirements. Additionally, the fund had previously planned to sell approximately $3.5 billion worth of Anthropic equity to a consortium of investors led by Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital, but later withdrew from the deal. (WSJ)

Odaily reports that on July 21, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, announced the appointment of David Velez, founder and CEO of Brazilian digital bank Nubank, and Robin Vince, CEO of BNY Mellon, as independent directors of the foundation and the company. With the addition of two new independent directors, OpenAI's board will expand from eight to ten members. David Velez founded Nubank in 2013 and previously led Latin American investments at Sequoia Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Robin Vince spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs, serving as Chief Risk Officer and Chief Operating Officer. OpenAI is currently controlled by a non-profit foundation that pursues a for-profit public benefit corporation. Most board members serve on both the foundation and the company's board, with CEO Sam Altman being the sole internal director.

Odaily reports that prediction market platform Kalshi is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a valuation of approximately $40 billion, with a potential deal closing as early as the third quarter. Last month, Kalshi completed a $1 billion funding round from investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, and Morgan Stanley, at a valuation of $22 billion.Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour stated that the company is considering an IPO, but it will not go public in 2026, with a potential listing likely no earlier than late 2027 or 2028. Kalshi reported that as of April 2026, its annualized trading volume reached $178 billion, a 32-fold increase year-over-year.Kalshi is currently embroiled in a legal dispute between U.S. state and federal regulators over the oversight of prediction markets. The controversy includes whether sports event contracts constitute derivatives regulated by the CFTC or illegal gambling. CME has sued the CFTC over its approval of Kalshi's "perpetual" futures, Kentucky sued Kalshi and Polymarket this month, and the CFTC subsequently sued Kentucky to block its enforcement action. (Decrypt)

Odaily reports that fintech company Mercury has announced the completion of a new $200 million funding round, led by TCV with participation from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coatue Management, and other institutions.Mercury primarily provides banking services to startups. It currently serves over 300,000 clients and has achieved approximately $650 million in annualized revenue. The company stated that the recent surge in AI entrepreneurship has significantly driven demand for new company registrations and account openings, serving as a key growth driver.Meanwhile, Mercury also announced that it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to apply for a federal banking charter. This would enable it to expand lending capabilities, gain access to payment networks like Zelle, and reduce its reliance on partner banks. The company's founder stated that the long-term goal remains an independent IPO rather than an acquisition. (CNBC)