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After two crazy weeks where we saw 18 raises of $100 million or more, this week saw a slight slowdown but was still relatively strong when it came to big-dollar deals. Five companies raised nine-figure rounds, but none hit $250 million. The quintet that did raise big were from three of the usual sectors — biotech, energy and AI — however one was from a sector we don’t normally see — a vertical farming agtech startup.

We’ll see if things speed back up as the Ides of March approaches.

1. Fervo Energy, $244M, energy: A big energy funding round from Houston leads the way this week. Fervo Energy, a geothermal developer, locked up a big $244 million round led by shale oil and gas firm Devon Energy Corp. The new cash will support Fervo’s new drilling operations in Utah — which will begin delivering clean electricity to the grid in 2026. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $431 million, per Crunchbase.

2. Glean, $200M, artificial intelligence: Despite some predictions about a slowdown in AI investing, investors are showing the same insatiable appetite for the sector they showed last year. AI-enhanced work assistant and enterprise search startup Glean became the latest to hit it big, locking up a more than $200 million Series D at a $2.2 billion valuation in a round led by Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The Palo Alto, California-based startup hit unicorn status in May 2022 after raising a $100 million Series C led by Sequoia Capital. Glean’s generative AI search tool connects with enterprise companies’ applications and databases, while also offering conversational AI assistants to help employees work. The startup has nearly quadrupled its annual recurring revenue in the past year. Founded in 2019, Glean says it has raised $360 million.

3. FogPharma, $145M, biotech: It sure feels like this will be a big year for biotech startups, as a few make this list every week. This week it was FogPharma which closed a $145 million Series E led by Nextech Invest. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical startup developing a new class of therapies for intracellular targets, understood to be significant drivers of disease. Founded in 2015, the company has raised $530 million, per Crunchbase.

4. Oishii Farm, $134M, agtech: U.S.-based vertical farming seemed to explode a year or two ago and then got relatively quiet. However, it’s back this month as New Jersey-based Oishii raised a $134 million Series B led by Japanese telecom giant NTT. The firm, known for selling high-priced strawberries to high-profile New York restaurants, will use the cash for a massive indoor farm under construction in New Jersey. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $184 million, per Crunchbase.

5. Alamar Biosciences, $128M, biotech: Alamar Biosciences is next in a big week for biotech. The firm nabbed a $100 million Series C led by Sands Capital. The Fremont, California-based startup says it also plans to close on an additional $28 million within the next 30 days. The company studies proteins to enable early detection of disease. Founded in 2018, Alamar has raised $250 million, per the company.

6. Kenai Therapeutics, $82M, biotech: San Diego-based Kenai Therapeutics locked up yet another big biotech round — this one an $82 million Series A co-led by Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Cure Ventures and The Column Group. The biotechnology startup is focused on induced pluripotent stem cell technology to cell therapies for neurological disorders. Founded in 2022, the company has raised a total of $89 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Intenseye, $64M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Intenseye, which uses a computer vision AI platform to help with workplace safety, secured a $64 million Series B funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $93 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) B.well Connected Health, $40M, healthcare: Baltimore-based B.well Connected Health, which offers unified healthcare platforms to providers, locked up a $40 million Series C led by Leavitt Equity Partners. Founded in 2015, the company has raised nearly $99 million, per Crunchbase.

8. (tied) Passes, $40M, apps: Miami-based Passes, a fan engagement platform, raised a $40 million Series A led by Bond Capital. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $57 million, per Crunchbase.

10. Inkitt, $37M, publishing: San Francisco-based self-publishing startup Inkitt raised a $37 million round led by Khosla Ventures. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $117 million, per Crunchbase.

Despite all the big rounds in the U.S., the biggest came from China.

In leaked recording, German generals discuss how Kyiv could use sophisticated Taurus missiles to destroy Russia’s bridge to Crimea

BERLIN—Germany’s air force commander gathered his top officers for a secret meeting last month to discuss the possible delivery of his country’s most powerful guided missiles to Ukraine.

The long-range weapons could be used to destroy the Kerch Bridge, which links Russia to the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, the German officers said.

What they didn’t know: Russian spies recorded their conversation, which revealed classified details about Western involvement in Ukraine. A 38-minute audio tape of the discussion was posted online late Friday by the head of Russian state-run broadcaster RT.

Senior German officials confirmed the authenticity of the recording to The Wall Street Journal and said the meeting took place on the commercial platform WebEx, an online conferencing tool, which isn’t encrypted to the armed forces’ standard for confidential communication. One officer dialed in with his cellphone from a Singapore hotel room.

The meeting focused on how Germany might organize delivery and operation of Taurus long-range cruise missiles should they be sent to Ukraine. German leader Olaf Scholz has declined to send the Taurus despite pleas from Kyiv and pressure within his own government.

Also in the recording were officials saying that Britain, France and the U.S. keep troops in Ukraine to help operate sophisticated Western weapons systems, something those countries have denied.

The leak delivered a propaganda win for the Kremlin, sparked a furor in Germany and could strain relationships with Germany’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

It was also the latest in a string of incidents highlighting German vulnerability to Russian spying. A senior officer in Germany’s BND foreign intelligence service was recently arrested on allegations that he was spying for Moscow.

Officials familiar with the German investigation of the audiotape leak said that WebEx is widely used by the military and other sensitive departments in the German government. “This should be a wake-up call,” one senior official said.

Last week, Scholz said Taurus missiles can’t be given to Kyiv because they would require German troops to help operate them. Officers in the leaked call, however, discussed how Ukrainians could be trained to use the system on their own.

Scholz has long been under international and domestic pressure to deliver the weapon. Britain at one point offered to take over and deliver the system in order to help the chancellor maintain his policy that Germany must not directly be drawn into military operations.

The leak now makes it less likely that Germany will deliver the weapon, politicians and analysts said.

Following the leaks, Russian officials attacked Germany for discussing detailed attacks on Russian targets and threatened with retaliation should Berlin become part of the war effort.

The leak was very serious and would be investigated “very meticulously, very intensively and very quickly,” Scholz told reporters during a visit to the Vatican on Saturday.

On Sunday, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he had launched an investigation into what he called a hybrid attack by Russia aimed at spreading disinformation. WebEx was suitable for communications below a certain confidentiality level, he said, and the investigation would establish whether the officers breached that protocol.

Pistorius said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine was using the leak to falsely claim that Germany was getting directly involved in the war.

“This is designed to divide us and undermine our determination… we mustn’t play into Putin’s hands,” he said.

In the recording, Germany’s air force chief, Gen. Ingo Gerhartz, tasked top aides with preparing a presentation for the defense minister on how Germany could deliver the Taurus to Ukraine—and how Kyiv could use it to destroy targets including ammunition depots and the Kerch Bridge.

Ukraine operates similar Western missiles—the British Storm Shadow and France’s SCALP. Kyiv has used them to hit the bridge before but failed to do lasting damage. Experts say the more powerful and further-reaching Taurus, a German-Swedish air-launched missile, could knock down the bridge.

German officers in the recording indicated that they had analyzed in great detail how to attack that key piece of infrastructure, and said it would take 10 to 20 Taurus missiles to evade Russian air defenses and destroy the bridge.

“There is no real reason to say we can’t do this; it only depends on the political red lines,” Gen. Gerhartz is heard saying.

Germany has a stockpile of around 600 Taurus missiles, of which some 500 are believed to be operational. Gen. Gerhartz is heard saying that Germany could afford to supply 100 missiles to Ukraine, delivered in two tranches.

He added that Britain and France were putting pressure on Germany to deliver cruise missiles because they themselves had depleted their stockpiles.

On the leaked call, Gen. Gerhartz said there was no point giving more than 100 missiles to Ukraine because the weapon can’t make any significant impact on the battlefield since Ukraine is running short of troops to gain or even hold territory.

Destroying the bridge linking Russia to Crimea would be strategically and politically important but Ukraine would likely be unable to follow up with a ground offensive, he said.

“This will not change the course of the war, we must be clear about that,” Gen. Gerhartz is heard saying.

Taurus missiles fly low to evade radar and use GPS, satellite imaging as well as artificial intelligence-enabled infrared cameras to observe the terrain and navigate to a target without contact with an operator.

According to the leaked conversation, Ukraine would need six hours to launch a missile after receiving intelligence on a new target if its personnel were properly trained and had access to all needed data.

Germany’s air force has modeled the terrain around the battlefield for the weapon system and could easily help Ukrainian troops evade aerial defenses around key targets including the Kerch Bridge, officers said in the conversation.

That topographical data is described as “for German eyes only” and sharing it could breach the limits imposed by the German government on its involvement in the conflict, one officer is heard saying.

Training Ukrainian operators would take between two weeks and four months depending on the level of precision and the complexity of the task they would be facing, officers taking part in the recorded conversation said.

Gen. Gerhartz, the only NATO air chief who personally pilots jet fighters, can be heard saying that the chancellor insisted that any delivered missile should be operated without any participation of Berlin’s armed forces.

One participating general is heard saying the missiles could relatively easily be fitted onto Ukraine’s Su-24 jets, which are already equipped to deploy Storm Shadow missiles. They could also easily be fitted onto F-16s that Ukraine is expected to receive from NATO this year.

U.S. military personnel in Ukraine could aid local troops in handling the Taurus, Gen. Gerhartz is heard saying. “Many people with American accents run around in civilian clothes” in Ukraine, he is heard saying.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Moscow had demanded immediate answers from Berlin.

“Our historic adversaries, the Germans, have once again turned into our archenemies,” Russia’s former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, now vice-chair of the Russian Security Council, posted on social media.