A blockbuster week for AI dealmaking: SpaceX completes its $60bn acquisition of Cursor, Etched doubles to a $21bn valuation, Stripe agrees a multi-billion-dollar deal for OpenRouter, and Castelion raises $1bn to scale hypersonic missile production.

Cursor Acquired by SpaceX in $60bn All-Stock Deal

Cursor is an AI coding assistant built by four MIT alumni. SpaceX has completed an all-stock acquisition of Cursor valued at $60bn, exercising an option agreed as part of an April deal between the two companies to develop technology together. Cursor's teams have already contributed to xAI's newly released Grok 4.6 model, and the start-up will now gain access to xAI's Colossus data centre, home to around 200,000 Nvidia GPUs with plans to expand to half a million. The deal follows SpaceX's earlier acquisition of xAI and gives Cursor significantly greater computing capacity to develop future models.

Cursor is an underlying asset of VenCap 6, VenCap 16, VenCap 17, VenCap 18 and VenCap 19.

Etched Raises $700m at $21bn Valuation, Doubling in Weeks

Etched is a US semiconductor start-up developing specialised hardware. The company has raised $700m in new funding at a $21bn valuation, doubling its implied value just weeks after a $300m Series C valued it at $10.3bn. The round attracted backing from Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Blackstone and Peter Thiel. The financing will help Etched scale manufacturing, including a new factory in Taiwan and a prototyping hub in San Jose, as it works to fulfil an estimated $1bn in customer contracts.

Etched is an underlying asset of VenCap 16, VenCap 17, VenCap 18 and VenCap 19.

Castelion Raises $1bn at $13bn Valuation to Scale Hypersonic Missile Production

Castelion is a manufacturer of hypersonic missile systems designed to be produced faster and more cheaply than those of traditional defence primes. The company has raised a $1bn Series C, comprising $800m in equity and a $250m revolving credit facility, at a $13bn valuation. Castelion has already secured more than $500m in US military contracts and will use the new capital to produce its Blackbeard missiles and other hypersonic weapons at its New Mexico production facility.

Castelion is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.

Poolside Secures $7bn Nvidia Commitment at $12bn Valuation

Poolside is an AI start-up building foundation models tailored to software development. Nvidia has agreed to license Poolside's model-development platform for $6bn on a non-exclusive basis and to invest a further $1bn in the company, together valuing Poolside at a $12bn pre-money valuation (four times the $3bn mark it reached last year). The licensing agreement gives Nvidia access to Poolside's technology while leaving the start-up free to sell its models to other customers, and follows an earlier $500m Series B in 2024 that also included Nvidia as an investor.

Poolside is an underlying asset of VenCap 6 and VenCap 16.

OpenRouter Acquired by Stripe in $7.5bn Deal

OpenRouter is an AI model routing platform that helps companies switch between more than 400 AI models. Stripe has agreed to acquire OpenRouter in a cash-and-stock deal reported at around $7.5bn, with $1.5bn earmarked for OpenRouter's founders. The acquisition follows OpenRouter's $113m Series B in May, which valued the company at $1.3bn, and will fold its model-routing technology into Stripe's payments infrastructure for AI companies. OpenRouter says it processes more than 10 trillion tokens a day, serving around 8 million users globally.

OpenRouter is an underlying asset of VenCap 16, VenCap 17 and VenCap 18.

Fractile in Advanced Talks to Raise $600m at $6.5bn Valuation

Fractile is a British start-up, founded in 2022 by Oxford roboticist Walter Goodwin, that designs semiconductors built specifically for AI inference. The company is in advanced talks to raise around $600m in a new round at a $6.5bn pre-money valuation, more than six times the roughly $1bn valuation it reached in a $220m round just three months ago. Fractile has also reached an initial deal to sell around $250m of its chips to Anthropic, with the intention to expand the contract, though the chips are not expected to be ready for use until 2027.

Fractile is an underlying asset of VenCap 16, VenCap 17, VenCap 18 and VenCap 19.

Higgsfield Raises $400m at $5.4bn Valuation, Quadrupling in Months

Higgsfield is an AI-powered platform for generating marketing and entertainment video and images. The company has raised $400m in Series B funding at a $5.4bn valuation, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Tribe Capital, Intel Capital, and existing investors Accel, Menlo Ventures and GFT Ventures. Higgsfield said its annualised revenue reached $700m this month, up from $20m a year earlier, as its global user base has more than doubled since January to over 30 million.

Higgsfield is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.

Wispr Raises $280m at $2bn Valuation, Expanding Beyond Dictation

Wispr is the maker of an AI-powered dictation app that is expanding into note-taking and voice interfaces for computing. The company has raised $280m in Series B funding at a $2bn valuation from existing investors including Notable Capital, NEA, Neo Ventures, 8VC and MVP Ventures doubled down, alongside new backers such as Acrew, Forerunner, Goodwater, Peak XV, Together Fund and PLUS Capital. Wispr unveiled a new model, Canto, aimed at cutting dictation error rates from 30% to under 10%, and launched Wispr Interface Labs to explore new interfaces for human-computer interaction.

Wispr is an underlying asset of VenCap 16 and VenCap 17.