OpenAI Secures $110B Funding, Stripe Jumps to $159B Valuation, Cursor Hits $2B ARR

AI capital and enterprise momentum are accelerating. OpenAI’s $110B raise at $730B highlights frontier compute scale, Stripe’s $1.9T volume supports its $159B valuation, and Cursor’s $2B ARR reflects rapid enterprise adoption in AI coding. Let’s dive in…

THIS WEEK’S BREAKING NEWS

OpenAI secures $110B in record funding at $730B valuation

OpenAI secured up to $110B in new funding, valuing the company at $730B. Nvidia and SoftBank each committed $30B, while Amazon pledged $15B upfront plus $35B tied to IPO or AGI milestones, alongside a $100B compute partnership. OpenAI generated $13B revenue last year, forecasts $30B this year, and expects enterprise revenue to reach 50%. (1)

MARKET UPDATE

Middle East conflict rattles global IPO pipeline

Escalating tensions involving the US, Israel, and Iran are pressuring IPO candidates to reassess timing as volatility rises. PayPay and FS.com are pushing ahead in Asia, while US tech-facing listings like Clear Street and Liftoff have already stepped back amid AI-linked selloffs. Clean Max’s 18% debut drop adds to the caution, with bankers stressing sector exposure and the ability to launch quickly. (2)

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PORTFOLIO NEWS

Anduril and Shield AI validate Air Force's dual autonomy model

Anduril’s YFQ-44A executed a single flight integrating two separate mission autonomy stacks, Shield AI’s Hivemind and Anduril’s Lattice, switching between them mid-sortie under the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program. Selected in April 2024, Anduril achieved semi-autonomous flight 556 days later. The test validates the Air Force’s A-GRA standard, modular open architecture, and competitive software ecosystem. (3)

Anthropic’s Claude tops Apple charts after Pentagon pushback

Anthropic’s Claude rose to No. 1 among top U.S. free apps on Apple’s App Store, one day after the Trump administration sought to block government agencies from adopting its models. Free users increased by over 60% since January, daily sign-ups tripled since November, and paying subscribers more than doubled this year. OpenAI’s ChatGPT ranked No. 2 with over 900 million weekly users. (4)

Anthropic rejects Pentagon demand over AI safeguards

Dario Amodei said the firm would rather exit U.S. Defense Department contracts than allow Claude to be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon sought “any lawful use” language and threatened supply-chain risk designation or invoking the Defense Production Act. Anthropic argues current safeguards remain insufficient and incompatible with democratic oversight. (5)

Anthropic strengthens Claude with Vercept acquisition

Anthropic acquired Seattle-based AI agent startup Vercept, which had raised $50M and previously secured a $16M seed round. Vercept’s cloud computer-use product Vy will shut down on March 25. Several co-founders will join Anthropic, while others, including Matt Deitke, who negotiated a reported $250M Meta package, will not. Terms were undisclosed. (6)

Cursor deploys revamped AI agents as coding race intensifies

Cursor unveiled upgraded AI coding agents capable of self-testing changes, running in parallel on dedicated virtual machines, and operating across web, desktop, Slack, GitHub, and mobile. The company, valued at $29.3B, surpassed $1B in annualized revenue. About 35% of pull requests are now agent-generated, amid competition from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft. (7)

Cursor crosses $2B ARR on enterprise surge amid AI coding race

Cursor surpassed $2B in annualized revenue, doubling its run rate over three months. Corporate customers now generate about 60% of revenue as the company pivots from individual developers to enterprise accounts. It’s valued at $29.3B after a $2.3B round co-led by Accel and Coatue. (8)

Kraken unveils flexible crypto-backed liquidity via Flexline

Kraken launched Flexline, a crypto-secured loan product for Kraken Pro traders, enabling borrowing against supported digital assets without selling positions. Loan terms range from two days to two years with fixed borrowing costs. Collateral is held in segregated wallets and backed 1:1 under Kraken’s Proof of Reserves, allowing funds to be deployed on- or off-platform. (9)

Kraken brings 24/7 perps to tokenized U.S. equities

Kraken launched regulated perpetual futures on tokenized U.S. equities for eligible non-U.S. users across 110+ countries, offering 24/7 trading and up to 20x leverage. Listings include tokenized S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and GLD. Built on its xStocks platform, the tokens are fully collateralized 1:1. Crypto perps exceeded $600B in January volume. (10)

OpenAI wins defense contract with safeguard compromise

OpenAI reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide AI for classified systems, accepting use for “any lawful purpose” while embedding technical guardrails to uphold safety principles. The deal followed the Pentagon labeling Anthropic a supply-chain risk after contract negotiations collapsed over surveillance and autonomous weapons safeguards. (11)

Perplexity launches multi-model AI computer for enterprises

Perplexity AI launched Perplexity Computer, a cloud-based agent system that orchestrates 19 AI models to complete complex, multi-step tasks autonomously. The tool is available to $200-per-month Max subscribers and reflects Perplexity’s strategy that multi-model coordination, rather than reliance on a single frontier model, will drive higher-value enterprise workflows. (12)

Revolut enters FCA stablecoin sandbox amid license delays

Revolut was selected by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as one of four firms, out of 20 applicants, to test stablecoins in its regulatory sandbox. The $75B-valued fintech is exploring a pound-denominated stablecoin backed 1:1 by UK reserve assets, despite remaining in prolonged banking license “mobilization” and awaiting consumer credit approval. (13)

Revolut tests pre-IPO demand after $75B mark

Revolut is weighing a secondary share sale in the second half of the year after being valued at $75B in prior transactions, up from $45B in 2024. Investors are pushing for a valuation of at least $100B, with IPO ambitions reportedly targeting $150B. The company is projected to reach £4.1B in 2025 revenue. (14)

Starship timetable sets stage for $1.5T listing

SpaceX expects Starship to begin launching upgraded Starlink satellites by mid-2027, with a test flight slated in the next four to six weeks. The fully reusable rocket, capable of carrying up to 250 metric tons, underpins plans to deploy 1,200 satellites within six months. The timeline precedes a potential IPO that could value SpaceX at $1.5T. (15)

Microsoft partners with SpaceX on satellite connectivity

Microsoft partnered with SpaceX’s Starlink to expand global connectivity by combining low-Earth orbit satellite internet with community deployment models. In Kenya, the initiative aims to connect 450 community hubs. Microsoft has extended internet access to over 299 million people since 2022, exceeding its 250 million target ahead of 2025. (16)

Stripe valuation jumps 70%+ on $1.9T volume

Stripe reached a $159B valuation in its latest employee share sale, up from $92B a year earlier. The company processed $1.9T in payments in 2025, a 34% increase, and remained profitable for a second consecutive year. Stripe highlighted AI-driven startups and stablecoins, including its $1.1B Bridge acquisition, as key growth drivers. (17)

xAI cleans balance sheet pre-IPO

xAI plans to redeem $3B of high-yield bonds at roughly 117 cents on the dollar, months after issuing the debt with a 12.5% coupon. The early repayment, despite expectations that the notes would remain outstanding for two years, precedes a potential IPO of its combined business with SpaceX. The group carries about $18B in total debt. (18)

OTHER NEWS

ByteDance hits $550B in new secondary sale with General Atlantic

ByteDance reached a $550B valuation as General Atlantic seeks to sell part of its stake, marking a 66% increase from last year’s $330B buyback and a 15% rise from a $480B secondary trade in November. The sale follows U.S. clearance of TikTok’s American interests and tests private market appetite. (19)

Cerebras eyes U.S. IPO listing on OpenAI compute deal

Cerebras Systems has confidentially filed for an IPO that could occur as soon as April, after resolving a U.S. federal review tied to G42. The company recently signed a multi-year, multi-billion dollar agreement with OpenAI for 750 megawatts of compute and is reportedly raising $1B at a $22B valuation. (20)

Mistral AI and Accenture scale sovereign enterprise AI

Accenture and Mistral AI announced a multi-year strategic collaboration to scale enterprise AI deployments aligned with regional requirements. The partnership will co-develop sovereign, enterprise-grade AI solutions, supported by training and certification programs. Accenture will also adopt Mistral AI’s models internally, embedding them into its own operations and client engagements. (21)

Plaid reaches $8B valuation in employee share sale

Plaid confirmed an $8B valuation through a recent employee share sale that enabled workers to sell portions of their equity, marking roughly a 31 % increase from its $6.1B valuation in April 2025. The event provides liquidity for employees and reduces near-term pressure for an IPO, though the company remains below its $13.4B peak valuation. (22)

Vast moves upstack with governance and tuning engines

Vast Data expanded its AI Operating System with CNode-X, a 2U dual-GPU node built with Nvidia to accelerate inference and vector search, alongside new PolicyEngine and TuningEngine services for agent governance and model optimization. Polaris, a multi-cloud control plane, extends orchestration across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and OCI, positioning Vast closer to Snowflake and Databricks. (23)

CHART OF THE WEEK

Venture growth investing has pushed past its prior peak, driven not by broad risk appetite but by a narrow set of exceptionally large financings. Capital is clustering around a small group of AI and data infrastructure leaders that are viewed as foundational to the next economic cycle. Mega rounds from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic account for a disproportionate share of this activity. At the same time, a second tier of fast-scaling AI platforms continues to rise repeatedly. When conviction is high, investors are willing to deploy size, but they are doing so with far greater discipline than in earlier cycles.

This pattern reinforces how late-stage private markets are evolving. Growth capital is flowing to companies with strategic relevance, durable demand, and long-run optionality rather than to volume-driven expansion. The Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy maintains focused exposure to the private blue-chip tech leaders, absorbing the majority of growth capital and shaping the next phase of market leadership.

THE UNTOLD UNICORN STORY

Perplexity AI: Turning search into reasoning

Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, Aravind Srinivas. (24)

Founded in 2022, Perplexity set out to rethink one of the internet’s most established elements: search. Instead of just providing pages of links, Perplexity introduced an AI-powered answer engine that generates responses with cited sources in real time. The founding team brings experience from OpenAI, Meta AI, Quora, and Databricks, combining research depth with product execution. (25)

In just a few years, Perplexity has become one of the biggest challengers in AI-driven search, expanding into browser integrations and enterprise features while attracting backing from leading technology investors. By combining large language models with transparent attribution, Perplexity introduced a more direct and synthesis-driven way to interact with information. (26)

Fun Fact: The name Perplexity comes from a core metric in natural language processing. In AI research, “perplexity” measures how well a language model predicts the next word in a sequence. The lower the perplexity, the better the model understands language. (27)

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SOURCES

1 - Financial Times, 2 - Bloomberg, 3 - Anduril, 4 - CNBC, 5 - BBC, 6 - TechCrunch, 7 - CNBC, 8 - Bloomberg, 9 - Businesswire, 10 - Coindesk, 11 - New York Times, 12 - TechCrunch, 13 - Financial Times, 14 - Bloomberg, 15 - Financial Times, 16 - CNBC, 17 - Financial Times, 18 - Bloomberg, 19 - Reuters, 20 - The Information, 21 - Accenture, 22 - TechCrunch, 23 - Tech Target, 24 - TechCrunch, 25 - Business Standard, 26 - Forbes, 27 - Observer