Ramp Reportedly Hits $60B Valuation, Anduril Lands $2.9B Navy Deal, Nvidia Weighs $1B Investment in Figure AI

Money kept moving fast in private tech this week. Ramp reportedly raised $1.85B at a $60B pre-money valuation, Anduril landed a Navy submarine contract worth up to $2.9B, and Nvidia is weighing another $1B investment in Figure. Let’s dive in…

THIS WEEK’S BREAKING NEWS

Ramp reportedly raises $1.85B at $60B valuation

Ramp has reportedly raised about $1.85B at a $60B pre-money valuation, led by Dragoneer and Thrive Capital with Founders Fund also contributing, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The valuation is up from $44B in June, when Ramp raised $750M, and Ramp has not announced the round. The company said in June it serves 70,000 businesses. (1)

STABLETON NEWS

Our Q3 market update is here

In Q3 2026, liquidity in private tech arrived before the IPO.

We saw the largest companies keep raising at higher valuations, with Databricks closing a $5 billion round at $190 billion. (2) Behind the big rounds, liquidity came well ahead of any listing, from OpenAI’s $7 billion employee tender to Anthropic shares trading as high as $1.5 trillion on secondary markets. (3, 4) The secondary market also set a new H1 record of $118 billion, showing how much allocators now rely on secondaries for liquidity while the most valuable companies stay private longer. (5)

Our latest Private Blue-Chip Tech Navigator looks at what this shift means and where the market is moving next, from the largest funding rounds and tender offers to the IPO pipeline.

Download the full Q3 2026 report below.

PORTFOLIO NEWS

Anduril wins up to $2.9B Navy submarine contract

Anduril won a U.S. Navy contract worth up to $2.9B to produce Virginia-class submarine components, with payments tied to demonstrated production results, and will invest $3.7B of its own capital in a 2 million-square-foot shipyard at Sparrows Point, Maryland. The facility is slated to open in 2030 and create about 3,100 jobs, after earlier reported talks about drone boats at the site. (6)

Anduril unveils Steelfin, a cheaper PAC-3 alternative

Anduril unveiled Steelfin, a modular interceptor it aims to price at about a third of Patriot’s PAC-3 MSE, designed to fly with different rocket motors and seekers and launch from platforms including Patriot and CAML launchers. Anduril is competing for the Army’s low-cost interceptor program and expects full-rate production by late 2028 or early 2029, targeting multiple thousands per year on the low end. (7)

Anthropic widens startup program ahead of its IPO

Anthropic expanded its Claude Startups program, launched in May and now with thousands of participating companies, to give more founders access to up to $45,000 in discounts and credits through the Claude Startup Stack. Members also get a one-time $1,000 API credit, a free year of Claude Team for up to five premium seats, and virtual office hours with Anthropic’s applied AI team. (8)

Anthropic launches cheaper Haiku 5.5 for high-volume tasks

Anthropic launched Claude Haiku 5.5, cutting prices by up to 90% versus the prior version, with requests under 100,000 tokens costing $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens, matching OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna. Anthropic puts typical savings against Haiku 4.5 at around 75%, and positions the model for high-volume tasks like processing documents and categorizing data. (9)

Canva appoints ex-Bukalapak CEO to lead Southeast Asia

Canva appointed Willix Halim, co-founder and former CEO of Bukalapak, to lead its Southeast Asia operation, after about a year advising the company. Canva says annual recurring revenue for the region has more than tripled since 2022, with monthly active users more than doubling. Indonesia ranks in Canva’s top three markets by users, and the Philippines in the top 10. (10)

Epic Games reportedly delays Disney game, pushes AI-first

Epic Games has reportedly delayed its Disney collaboration, a shooter featuring Marvel and Star Wars characters slated for March, and told developers to adopt an “AI first” production model using tools such as Anthropic’s Claude, according to Bloomberg. Epic confirmed it is embracing AI-accelerated development but did not address the delay, and Disney, which invested $1.5B in Epic in 2024, did not respond. (11)

Nvidia reportedly weighs $1B follow-on investment in Figure

Nvidia has reportedly discussed investing another $1B in Figure AI, according to The Information, as Figure seeks financing at a reported pre-money valuation of about $38B. Figure’s last round, in September 2025, raised over $1B at a $39B post-money valuation with Nvidia participating. The talks remain unconfirmed and no agreement has been announced. (12)

Wells Fargo reportedly eyes Payward for crypto liquidity

Kraken parent Payward is in talks to become a crypto liquidity provider to Wells Fargo, supplying liquidity for the bank’s crypto trading, according to two people with direct knowledge, with no deal guaranteed. The talks follow Payward’s separate discussions with BNY and Nasdaq’s $100M investment, on which Wells Fargo served as Nasdaq’s exclusive capital markets adviser. (13)

Atlassian expands OpenAI partnership with spend commitment

Atlassian expanded its partnership with OpenAI, bringing GPT-6 Astra and the GPT-5.6 series into its Rovo AI platform and connecting Atlassian data to ChatGPT and Codex through a rebuilt MCP server. An OpenAI representative described the deal, on background, as effectively a spend commitment by Atlassian, with no amount disclosed, while Atlassian keeps Rovo multi-model, with Astra not its default. (14)

Perplexity Computer adds Rings AI relationship intelligence connector

Rings AI and Perplexity partnered to make the Rings connector available in Perplexity Computer, letting teams draw on relationship data from email and calendars, including who knows whom, how strong the ties are, and recommended introduction paths. The connector is available now to Perplexity Pro, Max, Enterprise Pro, and Enterprise Max subscribers and is included in every Rings plan at no additional charge. (15)

Revolut to cover ID costs for breached customers

Revolut will cover the costs for customers who need to replace identity documents after hackers who took control of an Italian government agency email address obtained their data, the company’s Western Europe CEO said. The breach affected 680 customers, 55 of them in France. Revolut said it would not pay ransoms, and Italy’s interior minister said it should have verified the request. (16)

Storonsky eyes Big Tech global scale for Revolut

Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky said the company plans to move beyond financial services into a broader suite of technology products, saying it has built proprietary AI models trained on customer transaction data, with 30 to 40 million transactions daily. His long-term goal is a scale comparable to the biggest U.S. technology companies, as Revolut was valued at $115B in a secondary sale this year. (17)

Ripple Prime expands to Wall Street swap financing

Ripple is emerging as a swap financing provider to leveraged ETFs through Ripple Prime, the prime brokerage built from its $1.25B Hidden Road acquisition. U.S. leveraged ETFs number 593 with more than $256B in assets, per Morningstar Direct, and Ripple Prime said on Oct. 6 it will serve hedge fund Brevan Howard. Ripple Prime’s president called it a growing, meaningful part of the business. (18)

Rippling opens expanded New York office for 1,000 employees

Rippling opened a new New York City office at 330 West 34th Street, a 132,693-square-foot space for more than 1,000 employees that nearly doubles its previous 67,000-square-foot footprint. It follows San Francisco headquarters growth to 166,298 square feet and last month’s Bengaluru AI Lab. Rippling plans a Chicago office in 2027 and a permanent Toronto office later this year. (19)

SpaceX’s Starlink wins Venezuelan operating authorization

Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez authorized SpaceX’s Starlink to operate in the country as part of an agreement announced by the government on Friday. The permits went to SpaceX VZ, S.C.A. and follow Starlink’s emergency communications support after June earthquakes and a March retail distribution deal for Starlink equipment. The approval comes as SpaceX pursues clearances in other markets, including India. (20)

SpaceX reportedly eyes $40B Apollo-led debt for chips

SpaceX is reportedly seeking about $40B to buy Nvidia chips, comprising roughly $10B in bank loans and $30B in investment-grade debt, with Apollo expected to lead and Pimco among lenders in talks, per the Financial Times. Bloomberg described the talks as early stage and possibly ending without a deal, while the FT expects a 2027 close. SpaceX’s 2056 bonds trade near junk-level yields. (21)

FedEx Dataworks and Stripe team up on SMB financing

FedEx Dataworks and Stripe announced a long-term strategic collaboration to use FedEx shipment and supply chain signals to inform Stripe Capital financing for small and medium-sized businesses, with the first joint solution planned for early 2027. FedEx will also adopt Stripe as a payment processing option, adding more than 50 new payment methods to its checkouts. The companies did not disclose financial terms. (22)

OTHER NEWS

Bezos eyes Blue Origin IPO several years out

Jeff Bezos said Blue Origin will likely pursue an IPO, though “several years from now,” after the company raised $10B from outside investors for the first time. He said he has personally invested $28B since founding the company in 2000, and that New Glenn will fly again in December after a May static-fire explosion. Blue Origin’s round reportedly valued it at $140B. (23)

ByteDance merges TraeWork and TraeCode into TRAE

ByteDance merged its office AI agent TraeWork and its coding tool TraeCode into a single TRAE platform, announced October 9, combining task planning, content creation, and software development in one application. Users can switch between Agent mode and IDE mode across desktop, web, and mobile. Existing TraeWork users can migrate their data in-app, and the standalone TraeWork service shuts down on October 23. (24)

Crusoe backs White House AI science effort with $50M in compute credits

Crusoe pledged $50M in AI compute and inference credits over three years to the White House’s Genesis Mission Consortium, announced by CEO Chase Lochmiller at the White House science summit. The credits, delivered through Crusoe Cloud with technical support, will serve researchers across more than 15 federal agencies, including DOE, NASA, NIH, and NSF. Crusoe is also a launch partner for the new National Compute Grid. (25)

Groq investor Disruptive eyes $10B megafund

Dallas venture firm Disruptive is raising up to $10B for a new fund and has secured $7.5B in commitments so far, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm, an early backer of Groq, plans to invest in roughly 10 late-stage companies over two years. Its past investments also include Databricks, Shield AI, and Reflection AI. (26)

Harmattan AI and Morocco sign deep-strike drone LOI

Morocco’s National Defense Administration and French firm Harmattan AI signed a letter of intent to jointly develop IRIFI, a sovereign autonomous deep-strike drone with a stated range of up to 2,000 kilometers, at the Marrakech Air Show. Critical components will be developed and produced in Morocco, building on a June 2026 strategic partnership. (27)

Lambda reportedly raising up to $4B before IPO

Lambda is reportedly raising up to $4B at a $14.5B pre-money valuation, led by Coatue Management and Blackstone, possibly its last private round before a planned 2027 IPO, according to the Wall Street Journal. Lambda’s backlog grew from $15B in June to $50B in September, per an investor letter, much of it from Anthropic’s $35B commitment. Lambda has not confirmed the round. (28)

Mistral releases Le Chonk, a trillion-parameter open model

Mistral released a preview of Mistral Large 4, nicknamed Le Chonk, a 1 trillion-parameter open-weight model it says is the most capable outside China and close to some proprietary models. Mistral says it trained the model from scratch, optimized it for coding and cyberdefense, and will release the final version by the end of October. (29)

Plaid launches LendScore 2 and AI-powered LendScore Arc

Plaid launched LendScore 2, an updated cash-flow credit-scoring tool, alongside LendScore Arc, an AI model that learns from the order and timing of a borrower’s transactions. The new version adds specialized auto, home, and short-term lending models. Plaid says it gets about 8M monthly customer requests for credit products, and its CEO plans more product launches this fall. (30)

Shield AI’s X-BAT commitments reach $400M with Navy

The U.S. Navy executed a $150M modification to Shield AI’s agreement to advance X-BAT, its AI-piloted vertical takeoff fighter, funded through the Defense Exportability Features program and matched by $150M of Shield AI capital. With an August $50M action and Shield AI’s own $50M, announced public and private commitments reach $400M. X-BAT flight testing is scheduled to begin later this year. (31)

CHART OF THE WEEK

Evergreen AUM could grow tenfold by 2030

Evergreen funds are still tiny. That's about to change.

Evergreen AUM makes up a small fraction of the private equity market today, but PitchBook's forecast has it growing meaningfully faster than the market as a whole through 2030, closing part of the gap with traditional drawdown funds even as those funds keep growing too.

The forecast doesn’t come with fixed outcome, but the direction lines up with what's already happening today: newer fund structures are gaining share precisely as the broader private equity market matures and investors look for more flexible ways in.

The Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy is itself part of this shift, a systematic, semi-liquid strategy built for investors who want private market exposure without locking into a traditional drawdown fund.

THE UNTOLD UNICORN STORY

Figure AI: Creating the future of human-robot collaboration

Brett Adcock, Founder & CEO of Figure AI. (32)

Figure AI is redefining the future of work through humanoid robotics. Founded in 2022, the company’s mission is to build general-purpose robots that can think, move, and assist in the real world.

At the heart of Figure’s progress is Helix, an AI system that combines vision, language, and action. It allows robots to interpret complex commands, understand their surroundings, and operate safely alongside people. Backed by partners such as OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and BMW, Figure is rapidly advancing from research to large-scale deployment. Their vision is ambitious: create machines that complement human labor, performing useful tasks across industries from manufacturing to logistics. (33)

Fun Fact: Figure 01 learned to make coffee by watching just 10 hours of video footage of humans doing it. In a demonstration at Figure's San Francisco headquarters, when asked to make coffee, the robot responded autonomously operated a Keurig machine, all while self-correcting its own mistakes in real time.

Did you know? Figure AI is one of the 20 companies in our Stableton Morningstar PitchBook Unicorn 20 strategy, a systematic, index approach that aims to outperform public benchmarks with low-cost fees, and without a performance fee. Click below for more information.

SOURCES

1 - CNBC, 2 - CNBC, 3 - TechCrunch, 4 - Business Insider, 5 - Jeffries, 6 - CNBC, 7 - Breaking Defense, 8 - CNBC, 9 - Quartz, 10 - Business Insider, 11 - Bloomberg, 12 - The News International, 13 - CoinDesk, 14 - Venture Beat, 15 - PR Newswire, 16 - Reuters, 17 - Reuters, 18 - The Wall Street Journal, 19 - Business Wire, 20 - Reuters, 21 - Financial Times, 22 - Business Wire, 23 - Reuters, 24 - TechNode, 25 - HPCWire, 26 - The Wall Street Journal, 27 - The North Africa Post, 28 - TechCrunch, 29 - WIRED, 30 - The Wall Street Journal, 31 - Shield AI, 32 - AP News, 33 - CNBC