- Bay Area Times
- Posts
- OpenAI said close to 1st phase of $100B+ round, post-money valuation could top $850B
OpenAI said close to 1st phase of $100B+ round, post-money valuation could top $850B
Bay Area Times
February 19, 2026
Brought to you by:
Top stories today:
- OpenAI closing 1st phase of $100B+ round, valuation could top $850B
- World Labs, Fei-Fei Li’s AI startup, raises $1B to build world models
- Google rolls out Lyria 3 music model in Gemini beta across 8 languages
- Humain invests $3B in xAI, becomes “significant minority shareholder”
- Moderna flu shot review revived after FDA reversal
- Meta said to revive Malibu 2 smartwatch for 2026 launch
0. Data and calendar
All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).
All times are ET.
Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):
1. OpenAI said close to 1st phase of $100B+ round, post-money valuation could top $850B
Amazon ($50B), SoftBank ($30B), NVIDIA($20B), and Microsoft ($B’s) are reportedly participating in the 1st portion.
Feb.-end: the companies are expected to finalize their allocations.
VC firms, sovereign wealth funds, and others are expected to participate in the next phase.
+4% in SoftBank shares on the news Thu. morning.
2. World Labs, Fei-Fei Li’s AI startup, raises $1B to build world models for robotics, science
Autodesk invested $200M in the round.a16z, Nvidia and AMD also participated.
a16z, NVIDIA, and AMD also participated.
We provide human cryopreservation, using extremely low temperatures to stop biological processes in the body. Patients are cryopreserved in the expectation that future technology may be able to revive them and treat their underlying cause of death.
We’ve improved all aspects of human cryopreservation, including patient storage, by building a secure long-term facility in Switzerland where patients are stored indefinitely until revival may one day be possible.
Membership includes cost savings on cryopreservation costs and access to our community and resources. Use code BAY10 for 10% off when you’re ready. Start by learning how cryopreservation actually works on our site.
*Bay Area Times partner.
