🤖 💥TARS Raises $455M in Embodied AI Breakout

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With the third week of April, physical AI pushes forward as TARS raises over $455 million in a record Pre-A co-led by Hillhouse and Sequoia China — just one year after a $242 million angel round — while Skild AI acquires Zebra's robotics automation unit to give its robot brain full end-to-end warehouse orchestration. Data centers deepen their financialization as Jane Street buys $1 billion of CoreWeave equity and backs a $6 billion cloud commitment, and Fluidstack negotiates a $1 billion round that more than doubles its valuation to $18 billion in under four months.

Mobility expands its bets as Lucid locks in $750 million from Saudi PIF and Uber while scaling its robotaxi supply commitment to at least 35,000 vehicles, and Vertical Aerospace closes an $850 million financing package to carry its Valo eVTOL through CAA certification. The energy transition advances as Suniva breaks ground on a $350 million, 4.5 GW solar cell factory in South Carolina, and Sygaldry raises $139 million to embed quantum co-processors inside AI data center racks.

Stay sharp,

TARS Secures $455M Pre-A for Embodied AI Dominance
China's embodied-AI darling TARS just stacked another record — over $455 million co-led by Hillhouse and Sequoia China, with Meituan anchoring, barely a year after its record-shattering $242 million angel round. (Read more)

EagleNXT Invests $10M in ThirdEye, Launches Counter-Drone Joint Venture
EagleNXT is doubling down on defense — taking a $10 million stake in Israel's ThirdEye Systems and spinning up a majority-owned U.S. JV to ship counter-drone hardware across North America by May 2026. (Read more)


Skild AI Acquires Zebra Robotics Unit in Undisclosed Deal
Skild AI snapped up Zebra's robotics automation arm, bolting fleet-orchestration software onto its general-purpose robot "brain" so one AI can run an entire warehouse end-to-end. (Read more)

Antioch Raises $8.5M Seed for Physical AI Robot Simulation
NYC stealth-breaker Antioch grabbed $8.5 million led by Primary Venture Partners to build the "Cursor for physical AI" — a simulator that trains autonomous robots before they ever touch the real world. (Read more)

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Jane Street Takes $1B CoreWeave Stake Plus $6B Commitment
Quant giant Jane Street went all-in on AI compute — buying $1 billion of CoreWeave stock at $109 a share and inking a $6 billion multi-year cloud deal that vaults it into the top shareholder ranks. (Read more)

Switch Raises $768M in Green Data-Center ABS Issuance
Switch tapped debt markets for $768 million via its Series 2026-1 ABS, backed by a 1.4M-sq-ft Reno campus and pushing its master trust into a fifth U.S. market. (Read more)

Sygaldry Raises $139M for Quantum-Accelerated AI Data Centers
Chad Rigetti is back — Sygaldry pulled $139 million (Breakthrough Energy led the $105M Series A; Initialized led a $34M seed) to drop quantum co-processors straight into AI data-center racks. (Read more)

Fluidstack in Talks for $1B Round at $18B Valuation
Fluidstack's valuation is on a tear — negotiating roughly $1 billion co-led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness at $18 billion, more than doubling its $7.5 billion mark from December. (Read more)

Lucid Raises $750M, Scales Uber Robotaxi Supply Deal
Lucid locked in $550 million from Saudi PIF's Ayar and $200 million from Uber while bumping its robotaxi supply commitment from 20,000 to at least 35,000 vehicles — cementing itself as Uber's hardware partner of choice. (Read more)

Glydways Targets $250M Raise at Unicorn Valuation
Altman-backed Glydways is out raising $250 million at a $1 billion+ valuation, riding an oversubscribed $170 million Series C as it scales autonomous pod networks pitched as a light-rail replacement. (Read more)

Loop Closes $95M Series C for Supply Chain AI
Logistics AI startup Loop raised $95 million led by Valor Equity Partners — with Founders Fund, 8VC, Index, and JPM Growth joining — to wrap agentic AI around legacy TMS systems and predict freight chaos before it hits. (Read more)

Vertical Aerospace Closes $850M Package, Funds Valo Certification
UK eVTOL maker Vertical Aerospace closed a sweeping $850 million package with Mudrick and Yorkville — stacking a $500M equity line, $250M convertible preferred, and $50M in notes to fund Valo all the way to 2028 CAA certification. (Read more)

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Renewable Metals Secures $8.6M Series A, New Investors
Perth-based Renewable Metals closed an oversubscribed $8.6 million Series A led by Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation via Virescent Ventures, with European Metal Recycling joining — fueling an alkali-based lithium recycling process that ditches acid and pyrometallurgy. (Read more)

Ayr Energy Raises $25M for Iron-Core Transformers Amid AI Boom
EIP-backed Ayr Energy quietly pulled in $25 million across two rounds to scale India-manufactured iron-core transformers — with a $500 million+ order book fueled by AI data-center demand and solid-state tech on the roadmap. (Read more)

Critical Loop Raises $26M Series A for Battery Microgrids
Critical Loop bagged $26 million led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners to roll out its Cygnus-controlled 1 MW modular microgrids for grid-starved industrial sites and airports across California. (Read more)

Suniva Launches $350M South Carolina 4.5GW Solar Cell Factory
America's only fully U.S.-owned merchant c-Si solar cell maker is dropping over $350 million on a 620,000-sq-ft, 4.5 GW Laurens, SC plant — opening Q2 2027, creating 564 jobs, and pushing U.S. cell capacity past 5.5 GW. (Read more)