AI
AIR Raises $50 Million to Govern the Skills and Add-ons Used by AI Agents
AI security startup AIR is emerging from stealth with $50 million raised across two seed rounds to help companies discover internal AI agents, continuously vet the tools they use, and block interactions that fail security requirements. The funding comes as agent skills, plug-ins, MCP servers, and other add-ons begin to form a new software supply chain.
From What AI Agents Can Do to What They Are Allowed to Do
Discussions at Europe’s TechBBQ conference and an IBM survey point to a widening gap between AI-agent deployment and organizational control. As agents gain the ability to act across enterprise systems, companies are being urged to define authority, improve visibility, and preserve meaningful human oversight.
AI Agents Could Become the Missing Demand Driver for Crypto Infrastructure
Alliance co-founder Imran Khan argues that as AI Agents become more active participants on the internet, crypto may finally gain a large and concrete source of demand. The opportunity would center on open systems for identity, payments, data and asset coordination, but major usability, security and regulatory questions remain unresolved.
AI Agents Are Getting Wallets, Moving the Machine Economy Toward Real Infrastructure
AI agents are beginning to receive programmable wallets and bounded payment authority, allowing them to settle for APIs, data, and content on behalf of users. The development points to an emerging machine economy built around delegated authorization, stablecoin payments, and machine-readable identity.
Google Expands AI Mode Into Travel Planning, Price Tracking and Hotel Booking
Google is adding flight-price tracking, hotel discovery and booking assistance to AI Mode, pushing its conversational search product beyond information retrieval and toward agentic task execution. The flow still relies on integrated airlines, hotel groups and travel platforms for inventory, booking and fulfillment.
Barclays Warns AI Infrastructure Buildout Faces Voter Backlash, Poses Political Risk
Barclays analysts warn that the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure in the United States is triggering bipartisan voter opposition, potentially creating political risk for the popular AI investment theme in upcoming election cycles.
OpenAI Backs California AI Safety Bill It Previously Opposed, as Labs Lack Rogue Model Containment Plans
OpenAI has reversed course to support strengthening California's SB 53 AI safety bill, while new research reveals that major AI labs, including Anthropic and Meta, still lack comprehensive plans for containing rogue models.
Defense Startup Castelion Raises $1 Billion at $13 Billion Valuation to Scale Hypersonic Missile Production
Castelion, a defense tech startup founded in 2022 by former SpaceX executives, has closed a $1 billion Series C funding round at a $13 billion valuation, aiming to mass-produce hypersonic weapon systems at lower cost and faster speeds.
Alibaba's Near-$10B Quarterly AI Spending Pressures Profits, Highlighting Infrastructure Cost Challenge
Alibaba's AI capital expenditure surged to nearly $10 billion in a single quarter, driving 45% growth in AI cloud services and 9% overall revenue growth, but sharply reduced profits and pressured its stock price, reflecting the aggressive investment strategy and high infrastructure costs facing Chinese tech giants in the AI race.