WSJ : Amazon in Talks to Buy AI Startup Decart for Around $7 Billion San Francis

Amazon in Talks to Buy AI Startup Decart for Around $7 Billion
San Francisco company’s software makes it easier for developers to switch between different AI chips

Amazon.com AMZN 3.29%increase; up pointing triangle is in talks to acquire artificial-intelligence startup Decart in a deal that could be valued at around $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

San Francisco-based Decart’s software makes it easier for developers to switch between different AI chips, a capability that is becoming increasingly important as companies race to secure more computing power.

A deal could come together soon, the people said, assuming talks don’t fall apart or another suitor doesn’t emerge.

Decart has raised more than $400 million in venture capital funding from investors including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Radical Ventures, according to PitchBook. It was valued at nearly $4 billion in May.

The company was founded in 2023 by three Israeli engineers, brothers Dean and Orian Leitersdorf and Moshe Shalev. Decart is also developing world models called Lucy and Oasis. World models can generate and simulate real-world 3-D environments.

Amazon has developed its own custom AI chip, Trainium3, in competition with Nvidia, which continues to dominate the market for graphics processing units, the specialized chips powering the AI boom. Amazon Web Services gave Decart early access to the chip in 2025 after meeting with the company and being impressed by its founders, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Amazon’s other sizable acquisitions in recent years include a $6.5 billion deal for the MGM movie and television studio in 2022 and a roughly $11 billion deal for Starlink rival Globalstar announced earlier this year.

Israeli news outlet Calcalist reported earlier this month that Decart was in advanced talks to be sold to a major technology company.

FT : EU ‘safeguards’ hybrid car sector from Chinese imports under new deal

EU ‘safeguards’ hybrid car sector from Chinese imports under new deal
Auto sector welcomes ‘understanding’ reached with Beijing but other industries warn China’s huge trade surplus will persist without further action

The EU will impose a quota on imports of hybrid cars from China with Beijing’s tacit agreement as part of an “understanding” achieved by the two sides that averted a full-scale trade conflict.

Three people briefed on the deal sealed on Friday said that, if member states approve it, the EU would deploy a trade “safeguard”, a measure that can be applied without evidence of market abuse and would mean China could only export a limited number of vehicles before steep new supplementary tariffs kick in.

China would accept an agreed quota under the measure and would not retaliate against EU imports because of it, the people said.

Announcing the deal in Beijing, EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said China had agreed to restrict its hybrid exports under what the two sides called the “understanding” reached during two days of high-stakes negotiations.

The FT reported before last week’s talks that Šefčovič was seeking a deal based on safeguard measures after China rejected a proposal that it voluntarily limit hybrid vehicle exports to about 15 per cent of the EU market — down from about a third now.

Šefčovič said on Friday the agreement would more than halve projected exports over the next four years, reducing the number of hybrids shipped by China by “several millions”. On the current trajectory, Chinese exports to the EU would hit 800,000 this year.

In 2027 alone, the deal would reduce imports by between 500,000 and 700,000 vehicles, cutting the EU’s expected trade deficit by between €10bn and €14bn, according to an EU official.

The 2027 annual quota was expected to be initially around 350,000 vehicles, increasing by 6 per cent a year for the following three years, the official said.


The EU’s trade deficit in goods with China hit €360bn in 2025 and has grown since. In the second quarter of 2026, it was €103bn, up from €93bn in the same period last year. Vehicles and machinery were the biggest contributors.

Šefčovič said Friday’s deal would be a “blueprint for the next phase” of talks and had proved negotiations with China could bring results.

Hybrid car imports have been on course to hit around 800,000 units this year, up from 300,000 in 2025.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (Acea) has welcomed the deal. Sigrid de Vries, Acea director-general, said it could “help facilitate the transition to a new era of Chinese presence in the European market in an orderly way and this is in the long-term interests of all parties”.

“The sudden and rapid rise in imports of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles from China is having a destabilising effect on the European car market,” the lobby group said.  

The share of the EU market for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles controlled by Chinese imports rose to 25 per cent in the first half of this year and for other hybrid electric vehicles to 14 per cent, both up from 2 per cent in 2024.

Chinese official media praised the deal, with the Communist Party’s Global Times tabloid hailing it in an editorial as “a pragmatic step to properly handle bilateral differences” achieved “against the backdrop of a sluggish global economic recovery and undercurrents of anti-globalisation”.

The talks in Beijing showed the EU and China had the “wisdom” to manage differences and prevent escalation, state news agency Xinhua said.

However, Europe’s chemical industry, which has filed a record number of trade complaints against China this year, said the deal “should be the first step towards broader and lasting relief for the sectors facing the greatest pressure”. 

“Europe’s China challenge is far from solved. The chemical sector needs urgent breathing space. In 10 years, our chemical trade balance alone with China has swung from a small surplus to a deficit of more than €15bn in 2025,” industry lobby group Cefic said.

Many analysts say that when EU leaders gather in Brussels for a summit this week, they would be unwise to reduce pressure on China based on just one sectoral deal.

Several member states have been calling for tariffs on more Chinese products. And before Šefčovič’s visit to Beijing, France and Germany produced a joint paper urging a new “last resort” defence tool that would cut market access entirely for some Chinese trade to deter retaliation.

They claim China has subsidised industries and is over-exporting to compensate for sluggish domestic demand — accusations Beijing vigorously contests.

Michael Pettis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the EU’s difficulty with Chinese imports was a “systemic one and not sectoral”. The agreement did not address China’s demand imbalances arising from its weak domestic economy that was leading it to tap export markets for its factories, Pettis wrote on X.

The European Policy Centre think-tank has urged EU leaders not to relax.

“Unless the European Council uses this reprieve to set a timetable for rebalancing and corrective action, this will be a tactical win for Beijing,” wrote the centre’s Georg Riekeles and Ian Hernandez in a blog post.

“Nothing announced so far changes the fundamental imbalance,” they wrote. “Beijing has turned down the heat just enough to keep Europe in the pot. But the frog is still boiling.”

FT : VW chief calls for France and Germany to co-operate on China car fightback

VW chief calls for France and Germany to co-operate on China car fightback
‘When it matters, we have found solutions together’, Oliver Blume says ahead of Paris Motor Show

Volkswagen’s chief executive has called for greater co-operation between France and Germany to strengthen European competitiveness, saying it was not too late to respond to the threat posed by Chinese competitors. 

The Élysée Palace and the Chancellery have been negotiating for months on EU proposals for phasing out combustion engines and incentivising carmakers to build vehicles within the bloc amid an influx of Chinese cars.

But progress has been slow and the two countries remain at odds over what “Made in Europe” should really mean. 

“When it matters, we have found solutions together,” VW boss Oliver Blume said ahead of the Paris Motor Show, where some 40 per cent of the car brands in attendance are from China. “We need that again . . . between France and Germany.”

“Our future is not fixed,” Blume said, adding that Europe can still fight back with the Made in Europe proposals, more flexible climate policy and lower energy costs. 

BYD and other Chinese manufacturers have made rapid inroads into European markets, seeking higher profits through exports during a severe downturn in their domestic market. 

After the EU imposed higher tariffs on EVs made in China, Chinese carmakers rapidly expanded sales of plug-in hybrids. In the first half of 2026, Chinese carmakers seized a 25 per cent share of the EU’s market for the powertrain compared with just 2 per cent in 2024, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. 

Brussels and Beijing have since agreed that China will restrain its hybrid car exports to the EU to half or less than that currently projected by the EU over the next four years.

Blume said he welcomed the progress in the EU-Beijing trade talks, but added: “Europe must still ensure a level playing field in its own markets. Those who sell here should compete under comparable conditions and create jobs and value here in Europe too.”  

Europe’s largest carmaker has embarked on a historic restructuring aimed at increasing its competitiveness. It is seeking to share more components and technology across the brands in the VW group, and will shed up to 100,000 jobs.

Speaking at the same event, French industry minister Sébastien Martin hailed joint European efforts to set up “ramparts” to help the bloc’s car industry grapple with “the Asian competition that is hitting the European market”.

But he also doubled down on France’s position that any Made in Europe proposals benefiting production in the bloc had to be strictly defined as the 27 member states rather than including trading allies or countries like the UK, Turkey, Japan and South Korea, where manufacturers also have plants. 

“If it’s Europe of the 27 and several countries on the other side of the world, Europeans are not going to understand that,” Martin said. 

France and Germany have been haggling over this point. One quid pro quo to agree on a deal could be if Paris agrees to soften emissions rules for cars in 2030 and 2035 to in favour of alternative fuels or plug-in hybrid cars, people familiar with the talks have said.

FT : Oil chiefs pull out of Riyadh energy congress after airport missile strike

Oil chiefs pull out of Riyadh energy congress after airport missile strike
BP and others skip World Petroleum Council meeting after 12 killed in Houthi attack

Several senior international oil executives called off plans to attend an energy conference in Riyadh this week after a Houthi missile attack on the capital’s airport on Saturday that killed 12 people and injured more than 300.

Saudi Arabia said the strike — the third on King Khalid International Airport in a week — was a “cowardly terrorist attack” that would be met with a decisive response.

On Sunday, in a fourth attack, a fire was started in a different terminal to the one hit on Saturday after a cruise missile was intercepted, according to the Saudis.

As energy officials gathered at the ornate Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Sunday, a spokesman for the Houthis issued renewed warnings to airlines, workers and passengers not to use Saudi airports or airspace. The airport in Riyadh remained closed on Sunday and the embassies of the US, Germany and other countries have advised their citizens to avoid it.

The Houthis said they had attacked Riyadh’s airport using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, as well as targeting Dammam airport and two Aramco oil sites in the Eastern Province. The group would “continue their operations deep inside Saudi,” Houthi military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said. 

The chief executives of ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Shell and BP were all expected to attend the World Petroleum Council’s energy congress, which began on Sunday in Riyadh, but withdrew, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

“We made every effort to participate in WPC,” BP said. “Unfortunately, due to travel disruption, we are unable to be there in person. We greatly value our longstanding partnerships across the region.” Shell declined to comment while Exxon and TotalEnergies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The kingdom’s flagship conference, the Future Investment Initiative, is also scheduled for this month. It typically attracts top executives from around the world. Saudi officials said both events would still take place.

Saturday’s attack is another reminder of how the war against Iran launched by the US and Israel in February has triggered retaliation by Tehran and its allies, spread violence across the Middle East and pushed up global energy prices.

“The repeated Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport and the heavy civilian toll carry, in my view, a deliberate message: raise the cost of Saudi decisions by threatening civilian lives, economic activity and confidence in the country’s security,” Maged al-Madhaji, co-founder of Sana’a Center, an independent Yemeni think-tank, wrote on social media platform X.

“The Houthis act with the audacity of a gambler who knows their opponent has much to protect,” he added.

The latest escalation comes after Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, last week launched a counteroffensive against the Houthis.

The group in September took control of areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — which gives shipping access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal — in a lightning offensive, giving the rebels the ability to monitor and attack Saudi ships and roiling global energy markets.

In the face of the Houthi threat, Saudi Arabia has been asking allies to provide defensive support. French President Emmanuel Macron said last month his country would send soldiers, radars and defence systems to protect Yanbu oil terminal on the Red Sea, which became a vital outlet for crude exports after the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Nato member Turkey last week said they had triggered a mutual defence pact for the first time, which would aim to ensure the “rapid deployment” of Pakistani and Turkish “military forces and capabilities” to Saudi Arabia.

US President Donald Trump has so far been reluctant to join the Saudi campaign against the Houthis as American interceptor stockpiles remain depleted after months of war with Iran.

Asked whether the US would consider striking the Iran-backed rebels, he said on Saturday: “We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

He called the attack on Riyadh’s airport “a terrible thing” and said he was planning to speak with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump also said that “we have communication with the Houthis”. The group previously said they would not attack the US.

Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator familiar with Riyadh’s thinking, said the kingdom’s large area size and multiple facilities that need protection posed a challenge.

“There is critical infrastructure in the east, there’s the pipeline, there’s facilities in the west. Air defences are coming in from the Turks, from the French and others are considering it,” he said. “Of course it’s a worry, but this is war and it won’t get normalised but a thicker skin will be developed to accept this comes with war.”

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 in an attempt to restore the internationally recognised government after the Houthis took over the capital, Sana’a.

A 2022 truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis had largely held even during the early months of the US-Israeli war with Iran. But the truce collapsed in July after the Houthis, under mounting economic pressure, declared a blockade on the kingdom’s Red Sea ports, attacking Saudi tankers and targeting its oil infrastructure.

JDD : Marine Le Pen’s budget programme under scrutiny



English translation

Presidential campaign

Marine Le Pen’s budget programme under scrutiny

DOUBTS

By presenting her five-year fiscal path, the RN candidate aims to reassure markets and investors in the event of victory in 2027

How do you distinguish an opposition party from a party ready to govern? The former merely attacks the government. The latter envisages exercising power. By presenting its fiscal path for 2027 to 2032, the National Rally places itself in the second category. On Tuesday, Marine Le Pen outlined the measures and results expected if she wins in May. The objective: to bring the public deficit down to 3% within eighteen months. Then, through €140 billion in savings and around a hundred proposals, to reduce debt to 112% of GDP within five years. “We are the only ones to come out with such a comprehensive plan,” says Jean-Philippe Tanguy, the RN’s economics spokesman, with satisfaction.

The free-market economists who have assessed it acknowledge the party’s transformation. “Their determination to reduce the public deficit is positive. They have understood the extreme seriousness of the situation,” says Olivier Babeau, president of the Institut Sapiens. “Marine Le Pen is trying to play the responsibility card,” agrees Anthony Morlet-Lavidalie, an economist at Rexecode. He notes that the four-time presidential candidate “takes the opposite approach to the radical left by paying attention to what the market is saying.” Marine Le Pen knows she will face close scrutiny. With only a few months to go before her possible arrival at the Élysée Palace, France is borrowing at record interest rates. And with an unworkable fiscal path, a financial crisis would be inevitable, leading to intervention by the ECB that would necessarily be painful for the French people.

Nevertheless, specialists are not entirely reassured. “One gets the impression that the RN, like all the other parties, underestimates the cost of its spending and overestimates its savings,” explains Olivier Babeau. The economist struggles, for example, to believe in the €11 billion in savings promised from 2027 through a reduction in France’s contribution to the European Union: such a reduction would first require negotiations with the other member states. The same applies to the abolition of agencies. Such measures have often been announced in the past but rarely implemented. The RN hopes to save €10 billion annually in this area once the measures are fully in place. “That overlooks the fact that most employees in these bodies are civil servants, whose costs will still have to be borne, whether they are reassigned or, in the case of contract staff, dismissed,” points out Alain Trannoy, a professor at EHESS.

Other measures are raising eyebrows, starting with pension reform. The National Rally proposes returning the retirement age to 62, or even 60 for some people. The cost: €9 billion. In the longer term, following some adjustments to the system, the party estimates savings of between €15 billion and €20 billion. That is impossible, according to Nicolas Bouzou, founder of the consultancy Asterès, who criticises “insufficiently documented work.” The party points to a press conference in November, when Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella will outline their reform. This does little to reassure public finance specialist François Ecalle, who does not understand the RN’s insistence on a retirement age of 62: “We can discuss the arrangements—a points-based pension system, a system based on years of contributions, funded pensions—but we cannot avoid raising the actual retirement age.”

The founder of the Fipeco website also considers the projected €32 billion in savings from tackling fraud to be “greatly exaggerated.” Jean-Philippe Tanguy regards these criticisms as unfair and denounces a “form of hysteria” among economists whenever the RN is involved. Citing several reports, particularly those from INSEE, the MP claims, for example, that VAT fraud amounts to at least €40 billion. He also disputes the views of experts who predict a recessionary effect from the planned cuts in public spending: “This is a distortion of Keynesianism. Our recessionary measures are more than offset by those that promote growth.”

Several National Rally proposals nevertheless move in the right direction, according to the essayist Nicolas Bouzou, including cuts to taxes on production, reform of public procurement and a fiscal golden rule. These are all measures that could reassure investors. Olivier Babeau does not expect markets to panic if Marine Le Pen comes to power: “They would wait to see the savings materialise. The 2028 budget will be the decisive test.”


France through the eyes of its neighbours

Is it too much to ask France to bring its spending into line with European standards? “Yes, apparently,” says Alberto Toscano with a smile. Based in Paris since 1986, this most French of Italian journalists remains astonished by successive governments’ casual attitude towards debt. “France indulges in the luxury of turning a blind eye to the sickness of its public finances, but sooner or later it will catch up with the country,” he warns. While stopping short of envisaging a Greek-style scenario, since “this country is too big to fail,” he nevertheless anticipates painful measures to restore the public finances. His French-Swiss colleague Richard Werly agrees. In his view, it is entirely conceivable that France, faced with an unsustainable interest burden, could be forced to seek a credit line from the European Central Bank in exchange for tough structural reforms. Belgium, too, is watching the deterioration of France’s public finances with concern. Faced with the wall of debt and the demographic shock ahead, the delays and hesitation surrounding pension reform appear “incomprehensible” to Dorian de Meeûs, editor-in-chief of La Libre. All the more so because, in neighbouring Belgium, the statutory retirement age is already 66 and will rise to 67 in 2030. “It gives the impression of a country incapable of reform,” he laments. A perception, unfortunately, widely shared across Europe.

JDD : Le programme budgétaire de Marine Le Pen en question

Source : Le Journal du Dimanche, 11 octobre 2026, page 10. Article de Quentin Gérard et Victor-Isaac Anne. Transcription et traduction de la capture fournie ; les affirmations de l’article ne sont pas vérifiées ici.

Le programme budgétaire de Marine Le Pen en question

DOUTE

En présentant sa trajectoire budgétaire sur cinq ans, la candidate RN entend rassurer les marchés et les investisseurs en cas de victoire en 2027

Comment différencier un parti d’opposition d’un parti prêt à gouverner ? Le premier se contente de taper sur le gouvernement. Le second se projette dans l’exercice du pouvoir. En présentant sa trajectoire budgétaire de 2027 à 2032, le Rassemblement national se range dans la deuxième catégorie. Mardi, Marine Le Pen a détaillé les mesures et résultats escomptés en cas de victoire en mai. Objectif : ramener le déficit public à 3 % en dix-huit mois. Puis, au prix de 140 milliards d’euros d’économies, faire refluer la dette à 112 % du PIB en cinq ans, moyennant une centaine de propositions. « Nous sommes les seuls à dégainer un plan aussi complet », se félicite le monsieur économie du RN, Jean-Philippe Tanguy.

Les économistes libéraux, qui l’ont expertisé, constatent la mue du parti. « Leur volontarisme concernant la baisse du déficit public est positif. Ils ont compris la très grande gravité de la situation », salue Olivier Babeau, président de l’Institut Sapiens. « Marine Le Pen tente de jouer la carte de la responsabilité », abonde Anthony Morlet-Lavidalie, économiste chez Rexecode, qui note que la quadruple candidate à la présidentielle « prend le contre-pied de la gauche radicale en étant sensible à ce que dit le marché ». Marine Le Pen se sait attendue au tournant. À quelques mois de sa possible entrée à l’Élysée, la France emprunte à des taux record. Et avec une trajectoire budgétaire qui ne tient pas la route, la crise financière serait inévitable, avec à la clef une intervention de la BCE forcément douloureuse pour les Français.

Pour autant, les spécialistes ne sont pas totalement rassurés. « On a l’impression que le RN, comme tous les autres partis, sous-estime le coût de ses dépenses et surestime ses économies », décrypte Olivier Babeau. L’économiste peine par exemple à croire aux 11 milliards d’euros de gains promis dès 2027 grâce à la baisse de la contribution française à l’Union européenne : une telle réduction suppose d’abord de négocier avec les autres États membres. Même chose pour les suppressions d’agences. Elles ont souvent été annoncées par le passé, mais rarement réalisées. Sur ce poste, le RN souhaite économiser 10 milliards d’euros en rythme de croisière. « C’est oublier que ces structures emploient une majorité de fonctionnaires, dont il faudra bien continuer à assumer le coût, qu’ils soient reclassés ou, dans le cas des contractuels, licenciés », précise Alain Trannoy, directeur d’études à l’EHESS.

D’autres mesures font grincer des dents. À commencer par la réforme des retraites. Le Rassemblement national propose de revenir à 62 ans, voire à 60 ans pour certains. Coût de l’opération : 9 milliards d’euros. À terme, après quelques corrections du système, le parti évalue les économies entre 15 et 20 milliards d’euros. Impossible pour le fondateur du cabinet Asterès, Nicolas Bouzou, qui déplore « un travail sous-documenté ». Le mouvement renvoie à la conférence de presse, courant novembre, lors de laquelle Marine Le Pen et Jordan Bardella présenteront les contours de leur réforme. Pas de quoi rassurer le spécialiste des finances publiques François Ecalle, qui ne comprend pas l’entêtement du RN sur les 62 ans : « On peut discuter des modalités – retraite par points, système par annuités, capitalisation –, mais on ne pourra pas faire l’économie d’un recul de l’âge effectif de départ. »

Le créateur du site Fipeco estime aussi que le chiffre de 32 milliards d’euros d’économies espérées sur la fraude est « fortement exagéré ». Des critiques injustes pour Jean-Philippe Tanguy, qui dénonce une « forme d’hystérie » des économistes dès lors qu’il s’agit du RN. En s’appuyant sur plusieurs rapports, notamment ceux de l’Insee, le député assure par exemple que la fraude à la TVA atteint au moins 40 milliards d’euros. Il s’oppose aussi aux experts prévoyant un effet récessif au vu des baisses de dépenses publiques prévues : « C’est du keynésianisme dévoyé. Nos mesures récessives sont largement compensées par celles qui sont pro-croissance. »

Plusieurs propositions du Rassemblement national vont toutefois dans le bon sens pour l’essayiste Nicolas Bouzou, comme les baisses d’impôts de production, la réforme des marchés publics ou la règle d’or budgétaire. Autant de mesures qui pourraient rassurer les investisseurs. Olivier Babeau ne croit d’ailleurs pas à un affolement des marchés en cas d’arrivée au pouvoir de Marine Le Pen : « Ils attendraient de voir la concrétisation des économies. Le budget 2028 fera office de juge de paix. »

Quentin Gérard
et Victor-Isaac Anne

Est-il trop demander que la France aligne son niveau de dépenses sur les standards européens ? « Oui, manifestement », sourit Alberto Toscano. Installé à Paris depuis 1986, le plus français des journalistes italiens ne cesse de s’étonner de la légèreté des gouvernants successifs à l’égard de la dette. « La France se paie le luxe de fermer les yeux sur la maladie de ses finances, mais celle-ci finira tôt ou tard par la rattraper », prévient-il. Sans aller jusqu’à imaginer un scénario à la grecque, tant « ce pays est too big to fail » (« trop gros pour faire faillite »), il entrevoit néanmoins des mesures de redressement douloureuses. Son confrère franco-helvète Richard Werly abonde. Selon lui, il est parfaitement envisageable que la France, confrontée à une charge d’intérêts devenue insoutenable, soit contrainte de solliciter une ligne de crédit auprès de la Banque centrale européenne, en contrepartie de réformes structurelles salées. En Belgique aussi, on suit avec inquiétude la dérive des finances françaises. Face au mur de la dette et au choc démographique à venir, les atermoiements autour de la réforme des retraites apparaissent « incompréhensibles » à Dorian de Meeûs, rédacteur en chef de La Libre. D’autant que, chez nos voisins belges, l’âge légal de départ est déjà fixé à 66 ans, avant de passer à 67 ans en 2030. « Cela donne l’image d’un pays irréformable », déplore-t-il. Une perception, hélas, largement partagée en Europe.

Te'chCrunch : SpaceX alumni nab $100M to rethink shipping with autonomous freigh

SpaceX alumni nab $100M to rethink shipping with autonomous freight trains

The railroad industry was one of the first to disrupt how the world worked with technology, but lately, innovation in freight railroading has amounted to little more than longer and longer trains.

That has led many railroads to abandon shorter routes, ceding a chunk of the $1 trillion surface freight market to trucking companies. But as diesel prices reach record highs, some of those very trucking companies are going bust, leaving a hole in the market. Recently, at least 16 trucking companies went bankrupt over only a few weeks.

Parallel Systems might have a way to keep freight moving while allowing railroads to recapture market share. The startup has developed a rail vehicle capable of moving over several tons of freight as far as 500 miles without an operator. If the company can scale production of its Panther vehicles, it stands to make railroads profitable over short hauls once again.

“Less than 500 miles is hard for railroads to do competitively,” Matt Soule, co-founder and CEO of Parallel Systems, told TechCrunch. “Our technology allows them to take some of that trucking, and it’s for the public’s benefit.”

Because it runs on railroads, Parallel’s vehicle doesn’t contribute to traffic congestion, and because it’s battery powered, it doesn’t pollute. To scale manufacturing of its third-generation vehicle and speed the commercial rollout, Parallel Systems has raised a $100 million Series C led by AVP, with participation from Hillspire, Agility Global, Cobalt Capital, Anthos Capital, Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures, and Collaborative Fund.

Soule and his co-founders started Parallel Systems in 2020 after years at SpaceX, where they designed rocket avionics systems.

Parallel’s vehicles can travel either independently or in platoons, which tend to be shorter than typical trains. It’s an approach that bucks the prevailing strategy used by railroads, known as precision railroading: As the railroad industry has matured, investor pressure has driven companies to build longer trains and operate them on fixed schedules, which helps spread some costs like labor across more freight.

As railroads have pulled back from smaller routes, trucking companies have stepped in. Today, some 60% of freight trips in the U.S. are under 500 miles, and trucking companies handle a majority of those.

But more trucks on the road means more congestion, and nowhere is that more apparent than at ports. “If you ever go to the Port of Savannah, you see the truck lines coming in and out of the port — it’s insanity,” Soule said.

Unlike traditional train cars, Parallel’s vehicles don’t have couplers, instead forming uncoupled platoons that move down the rails. The coupler-free design means that, once a platoon reaches a train yard, the vehicles can split up without needing human intervention. And after the Panther is cleared to operate on a section of track, its sensors monitor the rails to ensure the track ahead is clear of obstacles.

Trucking companies have been intrigued by Parallel, despite the fact that the startup is claiming part of a business they currently own. Drayage companies, which move freight short distances, make money for each load they deliver, but they don’t get to charge more when a truck gets stuck in a traffic jam, even at a port where such congestion is common. By moving freight closer to a customer’s door, Parallel allows trucking companies to make more deliveries per day. “They want certainty, they want to be able to move,” Soule said.

Parallel obtained approval a year and a half ago from the Federal Railroad Administration to operate near the Port of Savannah in Georgia, where it has been operating on 160 miles of track to prove the safety of its system.

“We’ve been verifying all the safety controls and operating practices that are best evaluated in a real-world setting with a path toward our first commercial payload coming up very soon,” Soule said.

CrunchBase : The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: AI And Energy Top A Busy Line

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: AI And Energy Top A Busy Lineup Of Large Rounds

As the AI startup boom progresses, investors appear to be leaving few niches unfunded. That was apparent in this week’s lineup of large funding rounds, which featured AI infrastructure providers, a foundational model developer, a content protection platform for the AI age, and other AI-focused startups among the top investment recipients.

The biggest investment, $2 billion, went to Axiom Solutions International, a spinout focused on cloud and power infrastructure that is hoping to benefit from the AI buildout. Other large rounds went to TypeSafe AI, developer of a fast-growing new model, and Oratomic, a quantum computing startup.

1. Axiom Solutions International, $2B, cloud and power infrastructure: Axiom Solutions International, a private cloud and power infrastructure company spun out of manufacturing services provider Flex, secured $2 billion in new financing. General Catalyst and Koch Equity provided the strategic investment by purchasing shares of Austin-based Axiom from Flex at an initial enterprise value of $37.5 billion. Flex says it plans to separate Axiom into an independent publicly traded company early next year.

2. TypeSafe AI, $870M, foundational AI: TypeSafe AI, developer of Jev, a recently launched AI model with a large and growing early following, raised $870 million in new funding with Andreessen Horowitz as the largest investor, according to a Bloomberg report. Sequoia Capital also participated in the round, which reportedly set a $7.5 billion valuation for San Francisco-based TypeSafe.

3. Oratomic, $475M, quantum computing: Pasadena, California-based Oratomic, a startup working on fault-tolerant quantum computers, raised $475 million in fresh funding led by Arch Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst and Bezos Expeditions. The company previously raised $300 million in a July financing.

4. SignSplit, $400M, data and content protection: SignSplit, a provider of tools for protecting, licensing and contributing real-world human data and other forms of human contribution, emerged from stealth with $400 million in seed funding. W Group backed the round, setting a $1 billion valuation for the New York-based company, which was founded in 2024.

5. (tied) Vinci, $250M, AI for engineering: Vinci, developer of an AI computational platform for hardware engineers to design products, closed on $250 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. Advent, Temasek and Xora led the round for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

5. (tied) Atomic Machines, $250M, micro-manufacturing: Emeryville, California-based Atomic Machines, a startup working on AI-native digital manufacturing systems to build micro-machines directly from code, emerged from stealth and said it has raised $250 million to date from a long list of investors.

7. Voltus, $225M, energy distribution: Voltus, provider of a distributed energy platform aimed at bolstering grid flexibility, picked up $225 million in Series D funding. Generation Investment Management, Activate Capital and Vitol led the financing for the San Francisco-based startup.

8. (tied) Type One Energy, $200M, fusion: Knoxville, Tennessee-based Type One Energy, a developer of fusion energy technology, secured $200 million in Series B financing led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Clutterbuck Capital.

8. (tied) Ledgebrook, $200M, insurance: Ledgebrook, an AI-powered specialty insurance platform, closed on $200 million in equity financing co-led by Allianz X and Rockefeller Capital Management. The round brings total funding to date for Boston-based Ledgebrook to around $315 million, per Crunchbase data.

8. (tied) Arena, $200M, AI evaluation: Arena, provider of a platform for evaluating AI models, pulled in $200 million in Series B funding and said it has exceeded a $100 million annual revenue run rate. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures led the round, which set a $3.1 billion valuation for the company.

Reuters - WHO unsure what caused pneumonia that killed plague-lab worker in Russ

WHO unsure what caused pneumonia that killed plague-lab worker in Russia

Oct 10 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Saturday that it ​still does not know what caused the pneumonia that ‌killed a Russian lab worker at an anti-plague research center in Siberia this month, and that no case of plague had been registered.

The WHO ​said the Russian state regulator reported that tests of the ​lab worker and those who came in contact with ⁠her were negative for the high-threat pathogens tested, that her contacts ​still showed no symptoms, and that no further linked cases of ​severe pneumonia had been identified.

"Based on the information provided ... (the) WHO has not identified evidence of ongoing transmission associated with this event. A key uncertainty remains ​the absence of a confirmed diagnosis in the deceased laboratory worker," ​it said in a statement.

The lab worker fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances on ‌October ⁠2, prompting authorities to quarantine about 200 people and causing public health fears on social media.

Global health officials have been extra alert to fatal pneumonia cases of undetermined cause since the COVID-19 ​pandemic, which began ​with a ⁠cluster of fast-spreading fatal respiratory illness in China. The cause of individual pneumonia cases can often not ​be determined.

Russian authorities have said the lab ​worker was ⁠appropriately vaccinated and that they found no microorganisms linked to her work in her body.

On Thursday, Russia said it had completed health checks ⁠on ​all the worker's contacts. It says it ​had provided full information to the WHO according to established procedures.