Key topics of the day: venture investments delve into “atoms,” neo-clouds are being revalued on Jane Street contracts, and the IPO of Anthropic shifts towards the November elections
Highlights of the day: briefing for investors
- Space. Stoke Space closed the first part of its Series E round at $1 billion; The Exploration Company raised $450 million in Series C with participation from Scaleup Europe Fund.
- AI infrastructure. Crusoe received over $3 billion at a valuation of around $30 billion, Fluidstack — $1.5 billion at $18 billion; Nscale is raising $3.5 billion ahead of its IPO.
- Applied AI. Forus tripled its valuation to $3 billion in four months; Split Pay disclosed $125 million across two rounds; Blee raised $20 million.
- IPO calendar. Anthropic: public prospectus — end of September, roadshow — no earlier than mid-October, listing — just days before the US midterm elections.
- Macro. Debt financing for AI projects has approached $500 billion; creditors are tightening requirements for lease agreements and energy supply permits.
Space startups: $1.5 billion in a day and a new logic of sovereign capital
Stoke Space from Washington state closed the first part of its Series E round at $1 billion, co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital, bringing total funding to $2.3 billion. The company is developing the Nova rocket with fully reusable first and second stages — the first orbital flight of Nova Pathfinder is scheduled for early 2027, and the Block 2 version is designed to carry about 15 tons to low orbit. The billion-dollar round for a company yet to reach orbit can be explained simply: access to launches has become infrastructure, and the market relies on a single dominant provider.
Munich-based The Exploration Company raised $450 million in Series C from Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and Scaleup Europe Fund with participation from Balderton, Plural, Cherry, and Red River West. Total funding reached approximately $680 million, with a portfolio of contracts and commitments exceeding $2 billion. The funds will be used for the reusable Nyx spacecraft and the Storm propulsion program. The involvement of a European scaling fund makes the deal partly a tool of industrial policy: Europe views orbital logistics as a strategic competence rather than an ordinary technology category.
Completing the space block is Poseidon Aerospace, which has re-subscribed to a Series A funding of $60 million led by TQ Ventures for the Egret unmanned cargo plane, with its first flight set for the end of 2026. The company deliberately uses a classic design and conventional engines, concentrating technological risk solely on autonomy and certification.
Neo-clouds: Jane Street sets the price for AI infrastructure
The most notable revaluation of the week occurs in the segment of specialized AI data centers. Crusoe closed its Series F round for over $3 billion at a post-money valuation of approximately $30 billion, co-led by Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Mubadala Capital — nearly three times the $10 billion mark recorded in October 2025. The catalyst was a five-year $13 billion contract with Jane Street for the supply of GPU capacities. Fluidstack, Anthropic’s anchor infrastructure partner on a $50 billion program, raised $1.5 billion led by the same Jane Street at a valuation of $18 billion — in July, the company confirmed a valuation of $7.5 billion. Nscale is concurrently raising $3.5 billion with a target valuation of $30 billion ahead of its listing.
What the convergence of valuations means for funds
- Valuations of neo-clouds are formed not by public analog companies but by the volume of contracted revenue — essentially credit books.
- Quantum trading firms have become the largest buyers of computing: Jane Street has committed about $19 billion to CoreWeave and Crusoe and is now also an investor.
- Risk is concentrated in the assumption that multiyear demand for AI computing will remain at current levels; the largest clients of neo-clouds are simultaneously their potential competitors.
Applied AI: the premium for owning the workflow
The software deals of the day share one characteristic: artificial intelligence is integrated into a regulated or expensive operational process rather than being sold as a standalone model. Forus, previously known as Tandem, raised $150 million in Series C at a valuation of $3 billion, led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, and Accel — the valuation tripled in about four months. The company automates the path from prescription issuance to treatment acquisition and works with nine of the fifteen largest biopharmaceutical corporations.
Split Pay disclosed $125 million in rounds A and B, led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Thrive Capital and Max Levchin: the product allows users to defer up to half of their rent or mortgage payment for 30 days, and investor interest has focused on AI underwriting for consumers under 40. New York-based Blee received $20 million in Series A from Fin Capital and SMBC for its compliance control platform for marketing materials, including those generated by AI. Notably, the Israeli-Dutch Wonderful raised $550 million at a valuation of $5 billion with participation from Salesforce — a doubling of its value in less than six months.
Biotech: capital follows specific clinical assets
- BrainChild Bio — $116 million Series A for CAR-T therapy BCB-276 against diffuse brainstem glioma in children, the program is in the registration stage.
- Moonwalk Biosciences — $70 million Series B for RNA interference specifically targeting adipose tissue; the leading candidate MW101 is expected to enter the clinic by late 2027 as an alternative to GLP-1.
- Bluecore Energy — $50 million seed capital led by Silverton Partners for small nuclear reactors on barges at ports; the priority site is Long Beach port.
- ARC Ride (Nairobi) — $33.3 million in equity and debt from Norrsken22, Novastar, IFC, BII, and Proparco for a battery replacement network for electric motorcycles.
The common denominator is that investors are financing execution rather than platform narratives: trials, licensing, and production lines. The structure of ARC Ride, involving development institutions, demonstrates that for physical infrastructure, the architecture of capital is just as important as the product.
IPO Anthropic: schedule hinges on the November elections
The publication of the prospectus for Anthropic, which was anticipated this week, has been pushed to the end of September; marketing for the placement will not start before mid-October, and the listing could take place just days before the US midterm elections. The organizers include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citi; prior to meetings with analysts, the company is closing a $15 billion revolving credit line. The valuation is being discussed at up to $2 trillion with a targeted raise of at least $130 billion. The experience of SpaceX, whose shares soared from $135 after its June debut to $226 and then fell to $105, drives the issuer towards extended lock-ups and phased sales. The credit line is the key indicator: it determines whether the company can weather a weak market instead of being forced into a placement.
Other signals from the IPO market
- SoftBank's infrastructure division has submitted an updated application for a listing on Nasdaq; Nvidia has committed to buy shares worth $1.5 billion at the offering price.
- Chinese service robot manufacturer Excelland Robotics is starting trading in Hong Kong with a net raise of about $87 million.
- Crusoe has held meetings with leading banks regarding its own listing.
Macro context: high-interest rates and overcrowded growth funds
The Fed's rate remains in the 3.5–3.75% range, and the market is discussing the possibility of a hike at the September meeting. At the same time, growth funds continue to raise capital: Menlo Ventures raised $3 billion in 2026, of which $2.25 billion is targeted towards late stages, and CVC closed its sixth secondary deals fund at $10 billion. Debt financing for AI projects has approached $500 billion, but creditors are increasingly demanding verified lease agreements and connection permits. The combination of high costs, abundant growth capital, and a strong public market creates a classic "barbell" scenario: the premium goes to companies controlling a scarce resource — and almost no one else.
Russia and the CIS: the market is in a phase of sifting resilient businesses
The Russian venture market is undergoing its deepest transformation since 2009–2011: the volume of deals has decreased by approximately 40%, and high deposit rates have made long illiquid investments irrational for most private investors. The largest local deals of the year are measured in tens of millions of dollars — a $15 million round is equivalent to about one-tenth of the total volume of venture investments in the country for 2025. The focus has shifted from "promising ideas" to companies with verified revenues, while regional fairs and the Russian Venture Forum remain the main meeting points for funds and founders.
Conclusions for venture investors and funds
- Scarcity has become the main investment thesis. Orbital launches, reliable generation, clinical solutions, and regulatory expertise — are assets that cannot be reproduced by access to a basic model.
- Capital efficiency requires a new metric. A rocket company cannot be evaluated by the burn rate of a SaaS startup; the question is what technical or regulatory risk each subsequent dollar mitigates.
- Neo-cloud valuations are tied to contracts, not multiples. Funds should analyze the structure of anchor clients and debt burden rather than revenue growth rates.
- October remains a calibration point. The success of Anthropic will unlock distributions for LPs in the fourth quarter; a second delay into the zone of electoral volatility will signal a reevaluation of the entire pool of private AI assets.
