Leverage on Computing Power, Lock Agents, and Deleveraging to Repay Debts

Weekly Highlights

AI capital has carved out a clear fissure this week: the primary and secondary markets are moving in opposite directions. On the input side, NVIDIA made three moves in a week (a $5 billion strategic investment in SSI, a $1 billion investment in Naver, and participation in a batch of seed rounds), betting the largest amount of money on compute and frontier models. This week confirmed nearly 100 funding rounds, with over $14 billion disclosed, where AI security became the most concentrated theme, with 11 out of 15 deals focusing on "non-human identities." On the output side, the "situational awareness" hedge fund collapsed, MiniMax's IPO was cut in half, while Yuedao Dark Side and Muxi continued to aggressively pursue Hong Kong listings. Leverage compute, lock agents, and deleverage old debts—these were the three main themes of the week.

SVTR Private Signal · Not Investment Advice

This week's spotlight: Cyera (★ evaluated, $1 billion acquisition of Oasis Security) · SSI (NVIDIA's $5 billion strategic investment) · Yuedao Dark Side (post-money valuation of $35 billion, pursuing Hong Kong listing). Full list available at AI Venture Daily.

I. Market Observations

① IPO / Listing Updates

Comment: Domestic AI assets are densely knocking on the public market, but the secondary market has already cooled down first. According to Bloomberg, Yuedao Dark Side's latest round raised $3.5 billion, with a post-money valuation of $35 billion, and is preparing for a Hong Kong listing; this week Radar《Yuedao Dark Side Pursues $50B Pre-IPO: When the Hong Kong Market Just Halved MiniMax》 pointed out another side of this test: while the primary market is still chasing a $50 billion valuation target, the secondary market has already cut the first listed MiniMax in half. Domestic compute power is shifting from "buying NVIDIA" to "making chips and listing on its own," and the public market is the testing ground for this path change, but the temperature of the testing ground is dropping.

② Key Funding Rounds (Confirmed This Week, by Disclosed Amount)

Comment: Large sums are concentrated in the most certain assets of compute and frontier models. According to Bloomberg, NVIDIA made a $5 billion strategic investment in Ilya Sutskever's SSI to secure long-term compute collaboration, while also investing $1 billion in South Korea's Naver, acquiring 4.5% equity to build a national AI factory. NVIDIA is evolving from a shovel seller to the most active single investor in the primary market. On the other side, Commonwealth Fusion raised another $1 billion, bringing its total to $4 billion, pushing the fusion narrative of "powering AI data centers" to the largest single round in fusion history. Money is flowing into the three most solid foundations: energy, compute, and models.

③ Fundraising Underway (Rumors / Not Closed)

* All are rumors / under discussion, not closed; OpenAI's is a compute/debt arrangement, not a equity round.

Comment: Top players are stockpiling ammunition for the next phase, but are still stuck in rumors. According to CNBC, NVIDIA and OpenAI are in talks for a $250 billion "AI backstop", using compute and debt arrangements to underwrite OpenAI's expansion, a scale far exceeding any equity round. Chipmakers underwriting model companies is the most extreme form of AI leverage.

④ Strategic Acquisitions

Comment: The acquisition mainline is security leaders buying the foundation of "managing AI agents" into their bodies. According to TechCrunch, Cyera agreed to acquire Oasis Security for $1 billion to safeguard proliferating AI agents, which is exactly the governance of AI agent identities and permissions; Okta's acquisition of Permiso follows the same logic. On the other side, Nscale acquired Anyscale, the creator of Ray, for about $1.65 billion, a UK GPU cloud company that has acquired the AI compute scheduling layer. If the capability cannot be bought, it is directly acquired, aligning with the logic of this week's confirmed rounds of "betting on the hardest foundation."

⑤ VC Fund Raising

Comment: Dollar funds continue to add to AI themes. According to TechCrunch, after Index Ventures cashed out its Wiz acquisition for $32 billion, it announced three new funds totaling $2 billion, covering seed (400M), venture (900M), and growth (700M); Jump Capital's eighth flagship fund of $350 million was raised, focusing on the "shovel and hoe" strategy for AI applications and infrastructure. Money is still flowing into AI on the fundraising side, forming a sharp contrast with the de-leveraging in the secondary market.

II. Venture Capital Analysis

One-sentence judgment: The primary market is still charging forward with leverage for AI, while the secondary market has started to de-leverage and repay debts. The divergence between the primary and secondary markets has made the top assets the last ballast.

According to this week's Signal《The Main Character of AI Security Shifts from "Preventing Humans" to "Managing Agents"》: of the 15 AI security funding rounds this week, 11 were focused on "non-human identities" (AI agents, service accounts, machine identities), with Cyera's $1 billion acquisition of Oasis, Okta's $200 million acquisition of Permiso, ThreatLocker's $190 million, Onyx Security's $113 million, and a cluster of seed to Series A rounds from Hush, Act, Bloom, Frenos, etc. At the same time, Radar《"Situational Awareness" Fund Collapse: AI Secondary Market De-leveraging》 recorded the other side of the coin: AI-themed hedge funds "Situational Awareness" collapsed and de-leveraged in the secondary market, with MiniMax's IPO immediately halved, and AI valuations in the public market leading the retreat.

We judge: the primary and secondary markets are moving in opposite directions. The primary market continues to leverage with NVIDIA's strategic capital, massive equity in fusion energy, and concentrated investment in the security sector, betting on the infrastructure demand that will arise from the scaling of AI agents. The secondary market is repaying the valuation overhang from the past two years, with the first listed assets taking the hit first. When the tide recedes in the public market, funds are instead concentrated in the top-tier and hardest foundations, making the leading assets the only safe haven in the de-leveraging cycle.

III. Community Updates

The new members of the community this week are highly aligned with the market's main themes, with a clear bias toward the "hard" and "foundation" side on the supply side. On the founder side: Vigiles Robotics, which builds the autonomous brain for robots; Squilla (Mantis Chip), which focuses on optical interconnects and optical computing to solve the next bottleneck in AI compute; Hongxiong AI, which focuses on the AI memory foundation; Model OS, which focuses on the model's automated operation layer; and Lingque AI, which focuses on AI glasses, and lumimate, which focuses on the mobile agent. On the investment side, institutions such as Changshi Capital and Xianghe Capital have entered, focusing on AI and early-stage growth. What is coming in is robotics, optical interconnects, compute, and memory foundations, pointing to the same place as this week's primary market's "betting on the hardest foundation."

This week also had a community founder who had a deep content encounter with us: Lila Sciences, which focuses on "scientific superintelligence," submitted a community application this week, and at the same time, we published the Profile《Lila Sciences: Scientific Superintelligence, or an Expensive Laboratory?》, which directly deconstructs the valuation and verification challenges of the narrative of "using AI reasoning models and automated robot laboratories to do science." Founders who want to bring robot and hard tech projects to Silicon Valley for roadshows can directly look at the event announcement below.

IV. Event Announcements

SVTR 2026 Autumn AI Venture Camp · Robotics Special Session (Hosted by this community)

Date: August 8 to 9, 2026 (Pitch Day on August 9) Location: San Mateo County Event Center, California Target: AI robotics, embodied intelligence, and Physical AI teams, with 10 slots Support: On-site pitch at the top robotics conference in Silicon Valley, investor matching, and closed-door session (guests include engineers from Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, and Anthropic)

The first session of SVTR's Autumn Venture Camp is the Robotics Special Session, which is held this week, aligning with the current capital's heavy investment in embodied intelligence and hard tech chains.

AI Data Center Optics Industry Matching Session (Hosted by this community)

Date: August 6, 2026 Location: Shanghai, Pudong International Talent Harbor, 9th Building, 2nd Floor, Xuelian House Guests: Startups founded by overseas university PhDs Theme: Bringing the entire optical communication industry chain (upstream chip materials and equipment - optical modules / CPO / system integration - cloud vendors and data center customers) together for supply-demand matching

The next round of competition in AI compute is in optical interconnects, aligning with the financing signals of Eliyan (145 million Series C chiplet interconnect) and Xsight Labs (300 million AI network chip).

Step SF 2026: AI & Tech Startup Festival

Date: August 27, 2026 (PT) Location: The Midway, San Francisco Tickets: Paid (Master Pass $349, with Investor Pass and Startup Package, application-based) SVTR Rating: 7.0/10

It has a dedicated investor channel and startup pitch package, making it one of the few AI venture events in the Bay Area with a clear investor matching structure, focusing on frontier models and autonomous systems.

V. Capital Map

_ Note: OpenAI's $250 billion is a debt / convertible bond rumor, not included in the above statistics; Changxin Technology's $2.17 billion is an old round from 2020 that was scanned into this issue, and has been excluded; SSI's $5 billion and Naver's $1 billion are NVIDIA's strategic investments, included in the overview card but not standard venture capital rounds; amounts not converted (several hundred million) are not included in the total, but the actual activity is higher._

Three judgments from this issue's data:

1. Security and identity are the most concentrated themes this week. There were 15 AI security funding rounds in the primary market, with 11 of them focusing on locking non-human identities, combined with two security acquisitions of $1 billion (Cyera) and $200 million (Okta), making "managing AI agents" the most mentioned direction by capital this week.
2. NVIDIA has become the most active single player in the primary market. Within a week, it made a strategic investment in SSI (5 billion), invested in Naver (1 billion), and participated in multiple seed rounds of Constellation Space, evolving from a compute supplier to the largest investor, in contrast to the secondary market's de-leveraging.
3. Chinese capital continues to focus on the foundation. Hard tech rounds such as Xinqing, Aixin Semiconductor, Huachen Xinguang, and Zhongke Yuandong are concentrated, with Yuedao Dark Side and Muxi aggressively pursuing Hong Kong listings. The primary market is chasing valuations, while the public market is testing the goods, and the path change is still halfway through.

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