Markets
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Exclusive: Startup Humble debuts cabless autonomous truck targeting $900 billion U.S. freight industry
The autonomous vehicle wave has its newest entrant. Humble, a San Francisco-based startup, emerged from stealth today with a $24 million seed round and a fully electric autonomous freight vehicle called the Humble Hauler, Fortune learned exclusively. Eclipse led the round, with Energy Impact Partners also participating. The Hauler has no cab (essentially a self-driving…
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Private markets have soared to $10 trillion in AUM. But why have they underperformed public markets?
I have a riddle for you. Or a contradiction, perhaps: The U.S. private markets are bigger than ever, and the source of trillions in company value creation. And, at the same time, for the last several years, the private markets as a whole have underperformed the public markets. I was thinking about this late last…
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The startup Blackstone just backed to turn any exec’s data question into instant answers
Ethan Ding sees the last decade of SaaS as a historical glitch. “In 30 years, we’re going to look back and say ‘oh, remember that period of time where those crazy software companies were selling seats for 90 to 95% margins?’” he said. “We’ll look back on that the same way we look back on…
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Exclusive: Hyfix raises $15 million to build a U.S. alternative to DJI’s drone dominance
U.S. tech VCs are backing a new play to rebuild the drone stack from the silicon up. Hyfix Spatial Intelligence just raised a $15 million seed round to create an American-made “brain” for drones and robots, Fortune learned exclusively. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup is developing a single autonomous-systems chip that folds flight control, high-precision…
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Exclusive: Chad Rigetti’s Sygaldry raises $139 million to bring quantum hardware to AI data centers
Chad Rigetti has devoted his career to quantum computing—a phrase you’ve perhaps most recently encountered in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Superhero movies aside, quantum computing is somewhere between reality and moonshot. In the most rudimentary terms (all I feel remotely qualified to give you), a quantum computer uses counterintuitive rules of physics to…
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China went from uninvestable to unavoidable—and Hong Kong is cashing in with a slew of AI-centric IPOs
Nicholas Gordon, Fortune’s Asia editor, filling in for Allie Garfinkle. Hong Kong is back. IPOs in the Chinese city raised almost $14 billion in the first quarter of the year, a jump of almost 490% year-on-year. That number keeps Hong Kong at the top of the world’s IPO league tables, building on last year’s stellar…
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What Anthropic’s too-dangerous-to-release AI model means for its upcoming IPO
Anthropic has a new product with a major catch—it’s too powerful to be released. For a company valued at around $380 billion and reportedly preparing for an IPO this year, it’s an unusual stance—but one that could pay off in the long run. The new AI model is called Claude Mythos, and it’s the first…
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ARK Invest is betting on underdog drone delivery company Manna to beat out Alphabet and Zipline
Bobby Healy is at peace with his drone delivery enterprise being unsexy. “Think of us like a low-cost airline,” the Manna CEO told Fortune. That pitch just landed him $50 million. Manna, the Irish drone delivery startup, closed a Series B this month backed by ARK Invest—Cathie Wood’s firm, known for early investments in OpenAI,…
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A16z-backed Infinite Machine is building e-bikes that feel like mopeds. Cyclists may have some qualms
This was not the e-bike ride I was expecting. Last week, in Queens, I met up with Infinite Machine CEO Joseph Cohen at his startup’s new vibey office space in Long Island City. After a brief tour, Cohen and I donned motorcycle helmets and went for a ride, spinning through the cobble and paved roads…
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SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic could reopen the IPO market—or drain it
SpaceX’s confidential IPO filing has Wall Street abuzz about a reopening for high-growth tech debuts, with OpenAI and Anthropic also looming in the wings. Despite the hype, the IPO market that awaits them looks nothing like 2021’s stampede. In Q1 2026, private markets went into overdrive while the exit window stayed selective. New Crunchbase data…