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financial and business service

Venture capital tightens for second-wave AI startups

Illustration accompanying article: Venture capital tightens for second-wave AI startups
  • Venture capital investors are tightening funding for second-wave AI startups, with higher selectivity and greater acknowledgment of potential "expensive mistakes" in the AI application layer, PitchBook senior analyst Kaidi Gao said.
  • Ethan Kurzweil, managing partner at Chemistry, said the middle tier of venture funding has vanished, leaving second-wave AI startups facing a "precipitous cutoff" between early traction and failure.
  • Kurzweil wrote on X that the consensus AI boom cycle has venture investors narrowly focused on the next trillion-dollar startup — what he called the "Trilicorn."
  • A Silicon Valley Bank report said the SpaceX listing and expected Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs could generate an unprecedented wave of new startups.
  • HOF Capital co-led a roughly $1.16 billion acquisition of Porsche's stake in Rimac Group and Bugatti Rimac as the firm broadened its reach into private equity.
  • U.S. venture-capital first financings for AI startups rose from approximately 2,150 in 2022 to nearly 3,400 last year, according to PitchBook data cited by the newsletter.
 2026-09-14 · 5 MIN READ

UAE suspends Iran financial transactions under US pressure

Illustration accompanying article: UAE suspends Iran financial transactions under US pressure
  • The United Arab Emirates has suspended all financial and economic transactions with Iran following weeks of Trump administration pressure, the U.A.E. said late Tuesday.
  • Emirati officials cited Iranian attacks on seven of the country's ships this month and two ballistic-missile launches toward the U.A.E. on Tuesday as the trigger for the move.
  • The U.A.E. supplied more than 30 percent of Iran's total imports in 2024 — about $21 billion — according to the World Trade Organization.
  • People familiar with the matter said the U.S. told the U.A.E. that curbing Iranian financial networks in Dubai could have a greater impact on Tehran than the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.
  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would impose new restrictions on Iran's economy in what he called a "one-two punch" alongside the naval blockade.
 2026-08-19 · 5 MIN READ
Illustration accompanying article: Analysts assess banks, trading platforms and wealth managers