DeepSeek Nears $45B as China's Big Fund Leads Round
China's state semiconductor fund is leading DeepSeek's first-ever VC raise at a $45B valuation, signaling a strategic shift from chip investment to backing AI model labs directly.
Daniel Okafor
AI Industry & Policy Reporter
Daniel is a tech reporter who covers the business side of artificial intelligence - funding rounds, corporate strategy, regulatory battles, and the power dynamics between the labs racing to build frontier models. Before joining Awesome Agents, he spent four years at Reuters covering the intersection of technology and finance, with a particular focus on how venture capital shapes the AI industry.
He holds a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a postgraduate diploma in Journalism from City, University of London. His economics training shows in his reporting: he follows the money, reads the filings, and is skeptical of growth narratives that do not come with numbers attached.
At Awesome Agents, Daniel covers AI industry news with an emphasis on deals, policy, competition, and market dynamics. He is especially interested in the geopolitics of AI - export controls, chip restrictions, and the US-China-EU regulatory landscape. His reporting tends to focus on who benefits, who pays, and what the incentives actually are.
Based in London, UK.
Articles by Daniel Okafor
SAP Acquires Prior Labs in $1.16B European AI Push
SAP buys German tabular AI startup Prior Labs and commits €1B to build Europe's first frontier AI lab, while also acquiring data lakehouse Dremio in a two-front push on structured enterprise data.
SubQ Launches: 12M-Token Context on Sub-Quadratic AI
Subquadratic exits stealth with SubQ, the first frontier model built on a sparse-attention architecture, a $29M seed round, and a 12M-token context window that costs a fraction of Opus.
Chrome Installs 4 GB Gemini Nano Without Asking
Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB Gemini Nano model file on user devices with no consent prompt and re-downloads it if you delete it.
OpenAI, Anthropic Race to Build Their Own Palantir
On the same day, OpenAI and Anthropic each announced PE-backed enterprise ventures valued at a combined $11.5B, both built on the forward-deployed engineer model Palantir made famous.
Nebius Buys Eigen AI for $643M to Own Inference
Nebius agrees to acquire 20-person MIT inference startup Eigen AI for $643M, betting that optimizing every token per Nvidia chip is the real moat in the AI infrastructure race.
Academy's New Rules Bar AI Performances and Scripts
The Academy banned AI-generated actors and human-authored scripts from the 99th Oscars, codifying union positions just weeks after the WGA secured its new four-year studio deal.
Huawei Eyes $12B as Nvidia Cedes China AI Market
Bernstein projects Nvidia's China AI chip share falls from 66% to 8% in 2026 while Huawei targets $12B in revenue, with ByteDance alone committing $5.6B in Ascend 950PR orders.
Pentagon Clears 8 AI Firms for Classified Networks
The Pentagon signed AI agreements with eight tech companies for its most classified military networks, pointedly excluding Anthropic even as courts battle over its blacklist status.
OpenAI Faces $1B Lawsuit After Ignoring Shooting Flags
Seven families filed federal lawsuits against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman personally, seeking over $1B after the company ignored its safety team's warnings before the Tumbler Ridge shooting.
Gemini in 4M Cars - GM Bets the Dashboard on Google
Gemini arrives in 4 million GM vehicles and 16 Volvo models via OTA update as GM phases out Apple CarPlay by 2028. The in-car AI platform war is now a real fight.
Microsoft AI Revenue Hits $37B as Copilot Tops 20M Seats
Microsoft's Q3 FY2026 earnings show its AI business running at $37 billion annually - up 123 percent - while Copilot enterprise seats hit 20 million, demolishing the low-adoption narrative.
