Reusable Rocket innovator Stoke Space Raises $510 Million to Scale Manufacturing of Fully Reusable Nova Launch Vehicle
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- $510 Million Series D Funding and nears $2B valuation: Stoke Space announced a significant Series D funding round of $510 million, led by the US Innovative Technology Fund, along with a $100 million debt facility. This capital is intended to accelerate the development of its reusable Nova rocket.
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Stoke Space’s $510M round shows the future of launch belongs to defense - Techcrunch
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Space Startup Stoke Nears $2 Billion Valuation in New Financing - The Information
Thomas Tull's USIT leads round to support Stoke’s mission to strengthen resilience and competition across the U.S. space industrial base
Stoke Space, the rocket company developing fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicles, announced today it has raised $510 million in Series D funding led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) in conjunction with a $100 million debt facility led by Silicon Valley Bank. Stoke’s new financing, which more than doubles its total capital raised to $990 million, will accelerate product development and expansion.
The round also drew support from Washington Harbour Partners LP and General Innovation Capital Partners, underscoring Stoke’s importance to national security and the U.S. industrial base. Existing backers who also participated include 776, Breakthrough Energy, Glade Brook Capital, Industrious Ventures, NFX, Sparta Group, Toyota Ventures, Woven Capital, among others.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Space Force awarded Stoke a National Security Space Launch contract that will expand the country’s access to space. The award reflects the growing demand for medium-lift capacity across commercial, defense, and emerging architectures, such as the Golden Dome. Stoke’s fully and rapidly reusable Nova launch vehicle is being developed to provide high-frequency access to orbit and support missions to, through, and from space, including satellite constellation deployment, in-space mobility, and downmass.
“Launch capacity is now a defining factor in the U.S.’s ability to compete and lead in the space economy,” said Thomas Tull, Chairman of USIT. “Stoke’s pioneering approach to reusable launch systems directly advances our national security and commercial access to orbit. Their vision for resilient, high-frequency launch operations is the kind of innovation essential to maintaining leadership in the space industry. We’re proud to support their mission in defining the next chapter of U.S. aerospace.”
Since its Series C, Stoke has completed mission duty cycle testing on Stage 1 and Stage 2 flight-like engine configurations and advanced structural qualifications for both stages. The company has also made substantial progress in the refurbishment of Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, which is scheduled for activation in early 2026.
“This funding gives us the runway to complete development and demonstrate Nova through its first flights,” said Andy Lapsa, co-founder and CEO, Stoke. “We’ve designed Nova to address a real gap in launch capacity, and the National Security Space Launch award, along with our substantial manifest of contracted commercial launches, affirms that need. The fresh support from our investors and government partners enables our team to remain laser focused on bringing Nova’s unique capabilities to market.”
The new capital will expand production capacity for the Nova vehicle and complete activation of Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral. Stoke will also invest in supply chain, its Boltline product, and infrastructure to prepare for high-cadence launch operations, strengthening capability across the U.S. space industrial base.
About Stoke Space
Stoke is scaling the space economy by providing lower-cost, on-demand transport to, through and from space. It’s developing the fully and rapidly reusable Nova rocket designed to operate with aircraft-like frequency. Stoke’s technology development has been funded by the United States Space Force, DIU, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other government and private partners.
Contacts
Media Contact
John Taylor for Stoke Space
+ 1 (571) 437-4685
jtaylor@stokespace.com
Toyota partners with Machina Labs to advance custom automotive manufacturing with AI and Robotics
Toyota pilot program and Woven Capital investment support automotive manufacturing breakthrough
Machina Labs, a leader in advanced manufacturing and robotics, today announced next-generation manufacturing methods for automotive body panels and accessories. This will enable automakers to bring customized vehicles to market at mass-production prices, representing a breakthrough in automotive manufacturing customization.
The announcement was made today at UP.Summit, alongside a pilot of the technology with Toyota Motor North America and a strategic investment from Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth-stage venture investment arm. The pilot project will apply Machina’s RoboForming technology to customize production body panels, with the goal of bringing automotive-grade quality and throughput to low-volume manufacturing.
This capability directly addresses a massive and growing market: the automotive customization and accessories industry, valued at $2.4 billion in 2024 for trucks alone. Conventional high-volume manufacturing often overlooks opportunities for customized production. By introducing flexible, low-volume production capabilities within existing operations, Machina Labs is unlocking new value streams at scale.
“Traditional production tools are often massive, comparable in size to a small car and weighing over 20 tons,” said Ed Mehr, Co-Founder and CEO of Machina Labs. “With our solution, the need for dedicated tooling per model variation is eliminated. That means lower project capital, less storage both in-plant and for past models, which today can last up to 15 years, and faster production changeovers.”
“We envision a future where customization is available for every Toyota driver," said Zach Choate, General Manager of Production Engineering and Core Engineering Manufacturing at Toyota Motor North America. “The ability to deliver a bespoke product into the hands of our customers is the type of innovation we are excited about.”
“AI-powered manufacturing is transforming how products are designed and produced at scale," said George Kellerman, Founding Managing Director at Woven Capital. “Customers increasingly demand more personalized products while engineers need faster, more cost-effective paths from concept to production without the constraints of traditional supply chains. We're excited to team up with Machina Labs, supercharge their development roadmap in automotive, and support their journey in accelerating innovations that advance the future of manufacturing.”
Machina Labs’ AI driven RoboCraftsman™ platform and RoboForming™ technology is a proprietary form of incremental sheet forming and has a proven ability to deliver highly customized panels from sheet metal for automotive and aerospace vehicles at high volume, high quality, and short lead time, a capability which is not otherwise possible in today's manufacturing processes.
Furthermore, this shift impacts process flow within the factory: current manufacturing models require separate storage, repackaging, and dedicated assembly lanes for custom parts. Machina’s approach enables on-demand part production in low volumes from cells near the assembly line, allowing for dynamic batching or broadcast-driven manufacturing – all without disrupting existing flow.
About Machina Labs
Machina Labs is unlocking manufacturing with AI and robotics, delivering flexible, on-demand production solutions that eliminate traditional tooling constraints. The company’s RoboCraftsman™ platform integrates advanced robotics and AI-driven process controls to rapidly manufacture complex metal structures for aerospace, defense, and automotive applications. Founded in Los Angeles in 2019, Machina Labs is building the next generation of intelligent, adaptive, and software-driven factories. For more information, please visit https://machinalabs.ai and view our press kit here.
Contacts
Press Contact
machinalabs@sbscomms.com
AI infrastructure leader Lambda appoints Heather Planishek to Board of Directors as Audit Chair
In preparing the Company for the public markets and IPO with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and CITI. Lambda added a great new Board member in Heather Planishek to help move them into the next phase of growth in the global AI economy as a public reporting Company.
An Industry veteran, Heather brings deep financial and operational expertise from Tines and Palantir.
Lambda, the Superintelligence Cloud, today announced the appointment of Heather Planishek to its Board of Directors, where she will serve as Audit Chair. Planishek brings extensive experience scaling high-growth technology companies, currently serving as Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Tines, the intelligent workflow platform. She previously served as Chief Accounting Officer at Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR), where she guided the company through a period of significant growth and its transition to the public markets.
As Audit Chair, Planishek will lead the board's oversight of Lambda's financial reporting, risk management, and compliance. Her appointment strengthens Lambda's board governance as the company continues to scale its operations, serving the world’s leading AI labs, hyperscalers, and more than 200,000 AI developers across research, startups, and enterprise.
“Heather brings world-class financial and operational expertise to our board of directors,” said Stephen Balaban, co-founder and CEO of Lambda. “I’m very proud to welcome her appointment as our Audit Chair and look forward to working closely with her.”
Throughout her career, Planishek has established a reputation for combining strategic thinking with mission-critical execution. Her earlier roles at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and EY provided deep expertise in enterprise-scale finance and operations.
"Lambda's singular focus on AI infrastructure over the past decade has positioned the company at the forefront of one of technology's most important transformations," said Planishek. “I’m excited to partner with Lambda’s leadership and board to uphold strong governance as the company continues transforming AI infrastructure.”
About Lambda
Lambda, The Superintelligence Cloud, builds gigawatt-scale AI factories for training and inference.
Lambda is where AI teams find infinite scale to build and deploy intelligence: from prototyping to serving billions of users in production. We build the underlying infrastructure that powers AI.
Lambda’s customers include top AI labs, enterprises, and hyperscalers. We have over a decade of experience co-engineering, deploying, and operating mission-critical GPU capacity for the largest companies in the world.
Lambda was founded in 2012 by published AI engineers. Lambda’s mission is to make compute as ubiquitous as electricity and give every person access to artificial intelligence. One person, one GPU.
Contacts
Media Contact
pr@lambdal.com
Robotics leader Machina Labs partners with U.S. Air Force to advance AI Driven manufacturing for defense
In partnership with the ARM Institute, this multiyear program will enhance the deployable RoboCraftsman with advanced AI/ML capabilities to support DoD sustainment modernization
Machina Labs, a leader in advanced robotics manufacturing that combines AI and robotics for the rapid production of metal structures, today announced it has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in partnership with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, a Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Innovation Institute based in Pittsburgh, PA.
The multiyear award will expand Machina Labs’ flagship RoboCraftsman™ platform with advanced AI and machine learning capabilities tailored to DoD sustainment modernization needs. The program will initially focus on automating tool path generation for airframe skins and panels, which are critical to maintaining fleet readiness, while laying the foundation to extend these capabilities across additional sustainment applications.
“This award underscores RoboCraftsman’s role in the DoD’s sustainment modernization strategy,” said Edward Mehr, CEO and Co-Founder of Machina Labs. “Our mission is to deliver a portable manufacturing solution that can operate closer to the point of need, even in contested logistics environments. This enables mission-critical components to be produced faster, more efficiently, and without dependency on traditional tooling.”
The program will apply AI and machine learning, combined with data generated on RoboCraftsman platforms, to automate tool path generation for airframe production. Airframes are a critical sustainment challenge, where long delays in sourcing qualified parts have grounded aircraft and limited readiness. The broader vision is clear: RoboCraftsman is being developed as a flexible, deployable manufacturing solution capable of producing structural components for a wide range of defense platforms — from aircraft and missiles to vehicles and weapon systems.
For DoD stakeholders, these new capabilities are expected to help reduce Mission Impaired Capability Awaiting Parts (MICAP) ratios, shorten production timelines, and improve availability of critical aircraft. More broadly, the enhancements reinforce Machina Labs’ strategy to scale RoboCraftsman’s AI-driven, software-defined manufacturing platform across defense, aerospace, automotive and industrial markets.
About Machina Labs
Machina Labs is unlocking manufacturing with AI and robotics, delivering flexible, on-demand production solutions that eliminate traditional tooling constraints. The company’s RoboCraftsman™ platform integrates advanced robotics and AI-driven process controls to rapidly manufacture complex metal parts and structures for aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial applications. Founded in Los Angeles in 2019, Machina Labs is building the next generation of intelligent, adaptive, and software-driven factories. For more information, please visit https://machinalabs.ai.
About the ARM Institute
The Advanced Robotics Manufacturing (ARM) Institute is a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense under Agreement Number W911NF-17-3-0004 and is part of the Manufacturing USA® network. The ARM Institute leverages a unique, robust, and diverse consortium of 450+ members and partners across industry, academia, and government to make robotics, autonomy, and artificial intelligence more accessible to U.S. manufacturers large and small, train and empower the manufacturing workforce, strengthen our economy and global competitiveness, and elevate national security and resilience. Based in Pittsburgh, PA since 2017, the ARM Institute is leading the way to a future where people & robots work together to respond to our nation’s greatest challenges and to produce the world’s most desired products. For more information, visit www.arminstitute.org.
About the Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space, and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit: www.afresearchlab.com.
Contacts
AI inference chip maker Groq raises $750 Million at $6.9 Billion as demand surges
ALSO READ:
Groq more than doubles valuation to $6.9 billion as investors bet on AI chips - Reuters
Nvidia AI chip challenger Groq raises even more than expected, hits $6.9B valuation - Techcrunch
"Compute is the new oil," said Goq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross on Bloomberg when referencing AI and its scale in the 4th industrial age.
The investment strengthens Groq's role in the American AI Stack, delivering fast, affordable compute worldwide.
Groq, the pioneer in AI inference, today announced $750 million in new financing at a post-money valuation of $6.9 billion. The round was led by Disruptive with significant investment from Blackrock, Neuberger Berman, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and a large US-based West Coast mutual fund manager. The raise also included continued support from Samsung, Cisco, D1, Altimeter, 1789 Capital and Infinitum.
Groq powers more than two million developers and Fortune 500 companies with fast, affordable compute and is growing its presence globally, building on existing data centers in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
Groq raises $750M, strengthening Groq's role in the American AI Stack and delivering fast, affordable compute globally.
"Inference is defining this era of AI, and we're building the American infrastructure that delivers it with high speed and low cost." — Jonathan Ross, Groq Founder and CEO
The White House recently issued an executive order promoting the export of the American AI Technology Stack, emphasizing the global deployment of US-origin AI technology. Groq is playing a central role, with their American-built inference infrastructure already powering developers and enterprises worldwide.
Disruptive, a Dallas-based growth investment firm, has backed some of the most transformative and successful companies in the last decade, including large investments in Palantir, Airbnb, Spotify, Shield AI, Hims, Databricks, Stripe, Slack and many other AI leaders and AI adjacent businesses. Disruptive has invested nearly $350 million in Groq.
"As AI expands, the infrastructure behind it will be as essential as the models themselves," said Alex Davis, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Disruptive. "Groq is building that foundation, and we couldn't be more excited to partner with Jonathan and his team in this next chapter of explosive growth."
About Groq
Groq is the inference infrastructure that powers AI with the speed and cost it requires. Founded in 2016, the company created the LPU and GroqCloud to ensure compute is faster and more affordable. Today, Groq is a key part of the American AI Stack and trusted by more than two million developers and many of the world's leading Fortune 500 companies.
Groq Media Contact: pr-media@groq.com
Dyna Robotics closes $120 million Series A to advance robotic foundation models on the path to physical artificial general intelligence
We are thrilled to participate in another piece of our disruptive robotics innovation portfolio puzzle. The Dyna Robotics team has demonstrated an incredible ability to deliver and move fast to market based on their first principles. They and Groq are two companies that have built incredible latfroms, and the culture and organization that enable them to execute faster and on a trajectory far greater than other companies.
ALSO READ:
Dyna Robotics first principles and closing thier $120M Series A: How We Think About Scaling Robotic Foundation Models - Dyna Robotics
Dyna Robotics Raises $120 Million in Funding From Nvidia, Amazon - Bloomberg
In its first year, Dyna released its breakthrough DYNA-1 foundation model, achieved a 99+% success rate in 24-hour non-stop operation, and proved commercial viability through customer deployments.
Dyna will use the latest funding round to expand its team, accelerate delivery of production-ready general purpose robots powered by proprietary embodied AI foundation models, and scale deployments across industries.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Dyna Robotics today announced it has closed a $120 million Series A funding round, led by Robostrategy, CRV, and First Round Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture capital arm), the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Samsung Next, and LG Technology Ventures. The new capital will be used to expand its world-class research and engineering team and accelerate the development of its next-generation foundation model as the company works to deliver high performance general-purpose robots in commercial environments.
Dyna has made rapid progress since raising a $23.5 million seed round in March, including launching its DYNA-1 model, a breakthrough robotics foundation model that pushed the performance of robots to a 99+% success rate in 24 hours of non-stop operation. After just six months, Dyna's robots were running sixteen hours a day at hotels, restaurants, laundromats, and gyms.
Dyna is the first to build a single-weight, general-purpose foundation model that can perform diverse daily tasks at commercial scale across varied environments. Its model has been deployed at multiple customer sites, supporting the model's generalization, commercial viability, and continuing to learn and improve rapidly from on-the-job experience.
"A strong foundation model is key to scalable distribution," said Lindon Gao, co-founder and CEO of Dyna Robotics. "Our models continuously improve with each customer deployment, generating high-quality data. We are observing true generalization as our robot enters new environments; it simply works out of the box, with no additional data."
"Our first principle is to design robot foundation models that attain both generalization and performance," said co-founder Jason Ma, a former DeepMind research scientist who has focused his career on developing foundation models for robotics. "Scalable real-world robot learning systems need to master and generalize many manipulation skills. To achieve the best performance on complex tasks, Dyna's foundation models are developed to enable general world understanding while learning from the models' own experience for rapid online learning."
Dyna co-founders Lindon Gao and York Yang teamed up with Ma after seeing the potential to advance AI through real-world applications first-hand while building Caper AI, which combined software and hardware to bring AI-powered smart carts to retailers worldwide. Their product made rapid advancements as soon as it went into production, and the company exited in 2021 for $350 million.
By combining their experience creating practical, production-ready AI with deep research expertise and building a world-class team of researchers and operators, they are building embodied AI robots that are useful for businesses now, using that "on-the-job" experience to build toward physical AGI.
"Right now, three forces are colliding at once: AI breakthroughs are maturing, hardware is accelerating, and the demand for labor has never been higher. That convergence has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity," said co-founder York Yang. "Dyna has made rapid progress over 12 months and we believe our ultimate goal, achieving physical AGI, is not far off."
What Dyna Robots Series A Lead Investors are Saying:
RoboStrategy
"Dyna's team and mission bridges research excellence and real world commercial applications. The demand for robotic automation spans almost every industry, and we believe Dyna will be at the forefront in meeting it with their state of the art general-purpose robot foundation model. We're thrilled to co-lead this Series A and support the team's ambitious roadmap of driving mass adoption of general-purpose robots." — Andrew Kang, CEO, RoboStrategy
First Round Capital
"At First Round, we back exceptional founders tackling massive problems, and Dyna Robotics checks every box. Their early results are remarkable. In just one year, Dyna has pushed the boundaries of embodied AI with unprecedented generalization and commercial-grade performance. We're thrilled to lead their Seed and Series A to fuel Lindon, York, and Jason's vision to power the future of the physical economy." – Bill Trenchard, Partner, First Round Capital
CRV
"Dyna Robotics is at the forefront of embodied AI, delivering foundation models that combine generalization and commercial-level performance. We invested in the company from day one and are excited to double down on leading Dyna's Series A. Lindon, York, and Jason bring together the rare combination of proven entrepreneurial success, deep technical expertise, and the operational know-how to scale AI in the real world. We couldn't be more excited to back the best team positioned to lead the physical AGI revolution." – Max Gazor, General Partner, CRV
About Dyna Robotics
Dyna Robotics makes general-purpose robots powered by a proprietary embodied AI foundation model that generalizes and self-improves across varied environments with commercial-grade performance. Dyna's robots have been deployed at customers across multiple industries. Dyna Robotics was founded by repeat founders Lindon Gao and York Yang, who sold Caper AI for $350 million, and former DeepMind research scientist Jason Ma. The company is backed by top investors, including CRV and First Round. Learn more at dyna.co.
AI fintech innovator Kapital becomes LATAM's first $1.3 billion AI unicorn
What an incredible, disruptive AI fintech innovation journey since we invested in Kapital's Series Seed right out of YCombinator. Rene Saul and the team's trajectory never stopped for a single quarter as they executed flawlessly in building LATAM's biggest finance platform for SMB's. It is now expanding to become a leading next-generation global financial institution, integrating digital and physical channels through the use of AI and data. A HUGE congratulations to the founders and team. Next stop is DecaCorn.
ALSO READ:
LatAm Fintech Kapital Raises Funds at $1.3 Billion Value - Bloomberg
EXCLUSIVE | Kapital Bank is now a unicorn - Forbes Mexico
Kapital: $100 Million Series C Funding Raised At $1.3 Billion Valuation For AI Finance-Based SMB Platform
Global financial institution Kapital, the leading AI-driven platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Latin America, today announced the successful close of its up to $100 million Series C funding round, doubling its valuation to $1.3 billion in under two years and achieving profitability. The round was led by Tribe Capital and co-led by Pelion Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Marbruck Ventures, and True Arrow. The new capital will accelerate the build-out of Kapital's unified, AI-powered financial ecosystem designed to maximize SMB performance across the region.
Kapital was built as a technology-first bank, designed from the ground up as financial infrastructure rather than a legacy institution patched with software. Every system was architected to be efficient, scalable, and automated. That foundation allows Kapital to develop new products natively while also acquiring traditional institutions, stripping out outdated infrastructure, and rebuilding them on its stack. The result has been higher margins, longer customer lifetimes, and lower loss ratios compared with fintechs that don't own banking licenses or infrastructure.
"We are proud to join an elite group of unicorns emerging from Latin America. Kapital is already profitable, and our growth continues to accelerate through the unique combination of a banking license and proprietary software," said CEO Rene Saul. "By taking a regulatory-first approach and ensuring each step in our expansion is aligned with policymakers, Kapital is setting a new standard for tech-enabled banking in the region."
This strategy has already scaled Kapital's balance sheet to $3 billion and extended its reach to 300,000 customers across the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia.
"What makes our model possible is not just capital, but our ability to modernize infrastructure through advanced AML/KYC compliance, machine learning, and AI-driven risk systems. Kapital is emerging as the most forward-learning technology bank in the region – built on a foundation that is both financial and computational, designed to compound advantage with every product, acquisition, and customer we bring onto the platform," added Chief Financial Officer Fernando Sandoval.
Kapital has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer in both 2024 and 2025 and was named to CNBC's Disruptor 50 list in 2024.
About Kapital
Kapital Bank is a global financial institution transforming business access to capital through its advanced technology platform. With operations in Mexico and Colombia, it offers innovative and accessible business solutions driven by artificial intelligence. Kapital enables companies to manage operations, loans, and cash flow efficiently, giving them the competitive edge of large corporations—at a fraction of the cost.
Neurophos AI and Terakraft data center partner to pioneer the Future of Sustainable AI Computing
Neurophos is excited to announce its collaboration with Terakraft AS, a first-of-its-kind Green AI Factory located in Norway. Together, Terakraft and Neurophos will provide sustainable, high performance, and energy efficient AI infrastructure.
Silicon photonics start-up Neurophos is entering into a collaborative partnership with AI data centre operator Terakraft AS. This will see the Neurophos’ proprietary optical processing units (OPUs) getting deployed in Terakraft’s 10MW capacity AI data centre facility in Sauda, Norway. In order to minimise its environmental impact, this site is fully powered using renewable energy (relying on a nearby hydro-electric source) and cooled via lake water - thereby enabling an industry-leading <1.1 power usage effectiveness (PUE) figure to be attained. Delivering 300TOPS/W operational performance, the OPUs prove to be 2 orders of magnitude more energy efficient than advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) for the same workload.
Terakraft, a next-generation AI data center operator, and Neurophos, a cutting-edge AI chip company revolutionizing speed and efficiency, today announced they entered into a collaboration agreement to provide sustainable, high performance, and energy efficient AI infrastructure.
As artificial intelligence transforms industries and daily life, the demand for high performance computing infrastructure has never been greater. One of the biggest challenges facing the computing infrastructure industry is the immense energy consumption required to power and cool these systems. Today, two innovators – Terakraft and Neurophos – are joining forces to demonstrate how green data centers and breakthrough hardware can work together to chart a more sustainable path forward.
Green AI Data Centers in Norway
Located in Norway, Terakraft stands at the forefront of sustainable AI infrastructure. Powered entirely by renewable hydropower and cooled with natural lake water, Terakraft achieves a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) below 1.1 – among the best metrics in the industry. By repurposing an existing hydropower plant built with reinforced concrete, Terakraft avoids additional embodied carbon and sets a new benchmark for low-emission operations.
Revolutionizing AI Chips with Photonics
Neurophos is rewriting the rules of AI hardware with proprietary optical processing units which are 100x more energy efficient than leading GPUs for the same workload. By harnessing the efficiency of photonics and scaling properties from metamaterials, Neurophos has successfully fabricated, demonstrated, and characterized its miniaturization of optical modulators by a factor of 10,000x, enabling future optical processing units to deliver the compute power of 100 GPUs while consuming the equivalent of 1% of the energy, validated by end-to-end simulation results. Its compute-in-memory architecture, inspired by the human brain’s efficiency, allows for unprecedented processing speeds and density, making ultra-efficient, large-scale AI inference practical and scalable.
Early Access in 2027
The companies plan to host a pilot as part of a commercial early access program in 2027 for Neurophos’ accelerated AI inference platform. The project will provide a real-world proving ground for sustainable, ultra-efficient compute — complementing today’s GPU-driven systems with experimental next-generation photonic hardware.
“By hosting Neurophos’ ultra-efficient optical chips in our green data center for select enterprise clients, we not only reduce our carbon footprint but also raise the bar for energy-efficient AI infrastructure. Our mission has always been to power the future responsibly, and this collaboration brings that vision to life,” said Giorgio Sbriglia, Chairman of the Board of Terakraft.
“Terakraft’s commitment to renewable energy and innovative technologies aligns perfectly with our mission to democratize high-performance AI. By deploying our 100x more efficient inference chips in Terakraft’s green data center, we’re proving that AI’s exponential growth can be achieved sustainably, together,” said Patrick Bowen, CEO and Founder of Neurophos.
Why This Matters
This collaboration represents an innovative step forward for accelerated computing infrastructure, namely:
- Sustainable Infrastructure: Terakraft’s 100% renewable energy and innovative cooling solutions drastically reduce operational costs and environmental impact.
- Unmatched Energy Efficiency: Neurophos’ prototype results point to orders of magnitude higher AI compute power with a fraction of the energy required by current GPUs, directly addressing one of the biggest challenges in AI-power consumption.
- Future-Proofing AI: This partnership demonstrates a viable path for AI growth that is both economically and environmentally sustainable, paving the way for global adoption of green AI data centers and hardware.
Looking Ahead
The Terakraft and Neurophos pilot in Norway will serve as a real-world proving ground for the next era of AI infrastructure. As the world races to keep up with AI’s potential, this collaboration lights the way toward a future where performance and sustainability go hand-in-hand.
For more information, feel free to contact Terakraft at info@terakraft.no and Neurophos at
info@neurophos.com.
Neurophos acquires cutting edge AI chip company SiliconBee
Congratulations to Neurophos on acquiring SiliconBee, Inc. a cutting-edge AI chip company made up of a stellar team with experience at NVIDIA, and deep expertise in SIMT-based processor IP.
Led by industry luminary Michael Shebanow who led NVIDIA’s Fermi streaming multiprocessor — a breakthrough that redefined GPU parallelism and became the blueprint for today’s AI chips. Michael and his team are bringing NVIDIA-honed expertise in SIMT-based processor IP, the architecture that enables the parallel execution model powering modern GPUs.
The integration of SIMT with Neurophos’ photonic computing platform moves workloads into the optical domain, where latency drops, bandwidth increases, and energy use is drastically reduced. This technology pairing promises hundreds of times the performance and efficiency of next-generation GPUs for large-scale AI and data processing.
Now he’s bringing that expertise to Neurophos, where we’re building processors with speeds and energy efficiencies that silicon can’t reach.
Million-TFLOPS laser chips are coming to the AI infrastructure landscape.
SiliconBee joins Neurophos’ mission to develop photonic computing for data centers that deliver hundreds of times the performance and hundreds of times the energy efficiency of next-gen GPUs.
The addition of SiliconBee enhances Neurophos’ rapidly growing team and accelerates their vision and mission to redefine accelerated computing.
Kapital Bank to Acquire Broker-Dealer, Asset Management, and Operational Banking Assets from Grupo Financiero Intercam
- Kapital is stepping in to acquire fully vetted assets from Intercam, following a rigorous process of analyzing and identifying non-toxic assets by K2 Integrity, a premier financial risk and forensic advisory firm.
- Kapital is engaging constructively with U.S. Treasury and Mexican government officials to ensure the transaction is aligned with their priorities.
- Kapital's next-generation compliance systems integrate AI-enabled AML/CFT protocols with rigorous KYC due diligence, customer risk assessments, and continuous monitoring to prevent illicit activity.
- Upon closing, Kapital will invest $100 million to strengthen operations and compliance and expand client offerings through technological innovation and AI-driven insights.
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Kapital Bank ("Kapital"), a global financial institution, today announced it will acquire Grupo Financiero Intercam's brokerage, asset management, and operational banking assets, as announced by the Mexican government on August 19, 2025.
To safeguard the integrity of this transaction, Kapital and Intercam have engaged K2 Integrity, a premier risk advisory and forensic diligence firm, to review and validate the assets. This process ensures that only fully vetted, non-toxic assets are included in the acquisition.
The proposed acquisition is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements as well as customary regulatory approvals. Importantly, Kapital is engaged in constructive discussions with both the U.S. Treasury and Mexican government officials to ensure the transaction is fully aligned with their priorities. Key approvals have already been obtained, including from the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV).
Kapital's next-generation compliance systems are powered by AI-enabled Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) protocols. These systems combine advanced data analytics with a comprehensive compliance framework that includes rigorous KYC due diligence, customer risk assessments, ongoing transaction monitoring, and restricted party screening. Leveraging data from Mexico's SAT electronic invoice system, Kapital proactively screens customers, counterparties, and transactions to identify and prevent illicit finance.
Kapital's compliance program is designed to meet the highest global standards. Its controls are fully aligned with international AML/CFT requirements, including OFAC standards, while providing transparency and accountability to regulators, investors, and clients. None of Intercam's compliance personnel will be joining the bank.
Kapital provides capital to small- and medium-sized businesses while also offering clients visibility into operations, cash flows, loan management, payroll, benefits, and invoicing. The company was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer in both 2024 and 2025. Kapital was named to CNBC's Disruptor 50 list in 2024.
"Kapital Bank was founded to transform how businesses access financial services, using AI and technology to automate and streamline processes. We are proud to step in to acquire these assets at this critical moment and are pleased to be in active discussions with the U.S. Treasury. This acquisition will position us among the top 15 banks in Mexico, firmly establishing Kapital as the leading banking partner for businesses in the country," said René Saúl, co-founder and CEO of Kapital Bank.
Upon closing, Kapital will invest $100 million USD into Kapital's banking operations. The investment will reinforce operations and ensure obligations to clients and investors are fulfilled. Intercam's clients will continue using their regular products and channels, now with improved compliance and efficiency due to Kapital's best-in-class technology and AI, automation, and operational intelligence.
Kapital is incorporated in Delaware, backed by U.S. institutional investors including Tribe Capital, Cervin Ventures, and Tru Arrow. The transaction will yield Kapital approximately 180,000 additional clients, including 800,000 pensioners. Following the transaction, Kapital will serve close to 300,000 customers and manage over $3 billion in assets for customers in the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia.
About Kapital Bank
Kapital Bank is a global financial institution transforming business access to capital through its advanced technology platform. With operations in Mexico and Colombia, it offers innovative and accessible business solutions driven by artificial intelligence. Kapital enables companies to manage operations, loans, and cash flow efficiently, giving them the competitive edge of large corporations—at a fraction of the cost.
www.kapital.mx