It’s #Firgun time!
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In case you’re new right here, the phrase “Firgun” (pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is an off-the-cuff trendy Hebrew time period and idea in Israeli tradition (initially Yiddish), which describes real, unselfish delight or delight within the accomplishment of the opposite particular person. It’s the alternative of “schadenfreude” (which stands for being joyful for another person’s misfortune). Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, delight, or admiration for members of our group’s accomplishments, luck and wins. Extra concerning the idea of Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p. In November #FIRGUN formally celebrated 5 years. See my replace on what I’ve discovered from writing Firgun and what retains me going. I’m joyful to share one other milestone this week: it’s been 21 years (!) since I began my weblog, https://www.vccafe.com.
Israeli tech had a robust begin to 2026. In January alone, Israeli startups raised $1.1 billion, signaling sustained investor confidence following a 12 months of regular development. After two very difficult years of struggle, the ‘Startup Nation’ is proving that it’s not nearly resilience, it’s about main the subsequent wave of execution within the AI period.
Within the wider tech world, SpaceX accomplished a blockbuster merger with xAI folding Elon Musk’s AI startup valued round $1.25T; Google reported that Gemini app MAUs topped 750M, up from 650M in Q3. The corporate’s working revenue was up 18% in This autumn 2025. On the similar time, Alphabet Inc. mentioned it might almost double capital spending on AI infrastructure from $91.45 billion in 2025 to as much as $185 billion in 2026, rattling traders at the same time as Google Cloud development and earnings beat expectations. Final week, Google launched Mission Genie 3, which despatched gaming shares to lose as much as 25% of their worth. Amazon additionally signalled the sheer scale of the AI arms race by upping its fiscal 2026 capital expenditure forecast to a staggering $200 billion, $50 billion greater than anybody noticed coming. As well as, Amazon is in talks to speculate as much as $50 billion in OpenAI. OpenAI is reportedly prepping for a fourth-quarter IPO because it races to beat Anthropic to the general public markets. In the meantime, the crypto markets are going through a brutal “winter” reset as Bitcoin flash-crashed to a 2026 low of $60,000, wiping out billions in liquidations. OpenAI continues to push the frontier with the launch of its Frontier agent administration platform and the brand new GPT-5.3-Codex mannequin, whereas Anthropic responded by rolling out Claude 4.6 Opus that includes a large 1-million-token context window. The specter of new AI instruments continued to strike concern into tech traders and software program and knowledge shares have seen $300 billion in misplaced worth this week. AI infrastructure and chip maker Cerebras raised $1B in late-stage funding at a $23.1B valuation, signalling continued demand for GPU-alternative silicon; Voice AI chief ElevenLabs secured a $500M mega-round at an $11B valuation underscoring investor urge for food for foundational AI fashions; Snowflake landed a $200M partnership with OpenAI.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Generally, not more than a form phrase or a heat smile are wanted. The alternatives to assist others are innumerable, we simply have to open our eyes and seize these possibilities.” — Torah.org
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Huge congrats Gabriel Suissa, Jeremy Fraenkel and group Elementary Analysis Labs on popping out of stealth with $255M in funding at $1.2 billion valuation to develop “NEXUS,” a Massive Tabular Mannequin (LTM) designed to show enterprise knowledge into predictive intelligence! ?
- Huge kudos Shimon Elkabetz and group Tomorrow.io on elevating a $175M sequence F at over $1 billion valuation to develop DeepSky constellation, a satellite tv for pc community aiming to exchange getting old authorities infrastructure and shut international forecasting gaps! ?
- Mazel tov Nitay Milner and group ORION Safety on elevating a $32m Collection A to assist organisations defend themselves from knowledge loss!
- Heard by the vine that we should always congratulate Yogev Bar-On and group Attestable on $20M raised whereas in stealth (and a few very key AI hires!)
- Method to go Man Nizan and group Recapp Sports activities on securing an $11M seed spherical for personalised AI quick type highlights!
- Kol hakavod David Allouche-Levinsky and group SensAi on popping out of stealth with $6.2M in seed funding to show social media video into intelligence!
- Properly achieved Avishay Cohen and group Anima on securing an undisclosed strategic spherical to deliver vibe coding to the enterprise!
- Great things Dean Bracha and group Marquee on securing a pre-seed spherical to deliver AI for sports activities scouts!
EXITS
APPOINTMENTS
- Congratulations Emmanuelle Lipski on being promoted to companion at 10D – an ideal inspiration for brand new immigrants to Israel!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
REMAGINE VENTURES / VC CAFE
ISRAEL
GLOBAL
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Infographic of the 2026 developments in Israeli tech, created by yours really with the assistance of NotebookLM
4 of the largest US expertise firms collectively have forecast capital expenditures that may attain about $650 billion in 2026 — a mind-boggling tide of money earmarked for brand new knowledge facilities and the lengthy listing of apparatus wanted to make them tick, together with synthetic intelligence chips, networking cables and backup mills. (supply: Bloomberg)
$1+ billion robotics startups by Geo and Sector (supply)
The Inference optimisation panorama (supply)
Many declare that ‘World Fashions’ is what comes after LLMs. Properly, now they’re coming into the commercialisation stage. Supply: CB Insights
The rise of GEO (the brand new web optimization, however for LLMs) startups
2026 AI adoption predictions by Perception Companions (supply)
What are the core expertise you’ll need for 2030? by World Financial Discussion board
‘Soiled feeds’ – That is an attention-grabbing assertion from the pinnacle of product at X, Nikita Bier
Can I get a six pack fast? The punchy Anthropic advertisements that can be aired a the Superbowl, taking a stab at ChatGPT displaying advertisements…
An advert by Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft bringing the combat towards Antisemitism to the largest TV viewers of the 12 months within the US by Blue Sq. Alliance In opposition to Hate
Interview with oren zeev, Israel’s high solo GP with $1 billion beneath administration.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for being one of many 7,600+ subscribers. There’s so much to have a good time in our “small” group! Carry on creating!
Eze Vidra
I am a former normal companion at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google’s first bodily hub for startups.
I am additionally the founding father of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing collectively the startup ecosystem on biking challenges in help of Room to Learn. Since inception in 2012 we have constructed 11 colleges and 50 libraries within the creating world.
