Firecrawl Raises $14.5M Series A Led by Nexus to Boost Its Open-Source AI Crawler ↗
AI crawler startup Firecrawl secured a $14.5M Series A led by Nexus, with Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke and Y Combinator backing the profitable open-source crawler. Used by 350,000 developers and enterprises like Shopify, Replit and hedge funds, Firecrawl offers a commercial API for web crawling and search. The team is now building tools to help content creators monetize AI scraping and famously sought to hire AI agents as early employees.
Eight Sleep Raises $100M, Launches AI-Driven “Sleep Agent” for Its Smart Pod Mattress ↗
Eight Sleep closed a $100 million funding round led by HSG, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Y Combinator and F1 stars, boosting its total to $260 million. Its Pod smart mattress uses AI to monitor sleep stages, heart rate and movement—automatically adjusting temperature, elevation and firmness. After $500 million in sales and over a billion sleep hours tracked, the startup is launching Sleep Agent: an LLM-driven system for personalized recovery. New features like Health Check and Hot Flash Mode target medical use cases, with FDA pursuits and plans to enter China.
BitMind Launches “AI or Not” Deepfake Detection App ↗
Decentralized AI firm BitMind has unveiled “AI or Not,” a mobile app for iOS and Android that flags deepfake images and videos in seconds with over 88% accuracy. Users can tap to scan media from Instagram, TikTok, X or galleries, protecting against scams that cost nearly $900 million in H1 2025. Built on the blockchain-powered Bittensor network, the app adapts to new generative-AI tricks and offers APIs and developer tools—plus a new Generative Adversarial Subnet—to stay ahead of evolving fakes.
Injective and Squaretower Launch On-Chain NVIDIA H100 GPU Rental Derivatives Market ↗
Injective and Squaretower have launched the first onchain derivatives market for tokenized rental rates of NVIDIA H100 GPUs. Using Injective’s high-speed blockchain and Squaretower’s decentralized oracle, the platform lets users trade hourly GPU rental prices in real time. By converting AI compute infrastructure into liquid financial instruments, this market opens new avenues for speculation, hedging, and DeFi innovation at the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain.
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Go in India at ₹399/Month with Enhanced Features ↗
OpenAI has rolled out ChatGPT Go in India at ₹399/month ($4.60), offering 10× more messages, image generations and file uploads plus double the memory of the free tier. With local-currency pricing and UPI support, the plan aims to boost subscriptions in a market that leads ChatGPT downloads (29 M in 90 days) but generated just $3.6 M in revenue. India is the testbed before a wider rollout as rivals like Perplexity and Google launch India-focused AI offers.
Nvidia’s RTX Hair Tech Brings Fuller, Realistic Hair to Indiana Jones ↗
Next month, Nvidia’s new RTX Hair tech—using spheres instead of triangles—will debut in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to give Harrison Ford’s virtual hair fuller volume, better lighting, and realistic shadows without a big performance hit. The update taps hardware-accelerated ray tracing and linear swept sphere (LSS) primitives in RTX 50-series GPUs, and arrives as a free tweak to the game’s real-time path tracing mode.
Nvidia GeForce Now Adds Blackwell GPUs, 5K/120 fps & Install-to-Play for $20/Month ↗
Nvidia’s GeForce Now is getting a major upgrade this September: Blackwell GPUs (think RTX 5080 with 48GB memory) for $20/month. A new “Install-to-Play” feature taps Steam Cloud Play to instantly add 2,300+ titles, while optional persistent storage lets you skip re-downloads. Stream at up to 5K/120fps or 1080p/360fps with a new cinematic mode, HDR10, AV1+AI filtering, plus boosted support for Steam Deck OLED, LG 4K/5K TVs, Logitech haptics—and even Discord demos.
Nvidia GeForce App Update Adds Control Panel Tools, Global DLSS Overrides and Smooth Motion AI for RTX 40-Series ↗
Nvidia’s latest app update brings key Control Panel features—anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, and Nvidia Surround setup—directly into the new interface. DLSS overrides are now global, with overlay indicators. RTX 40-series owners get the Smooth Motion AI frame-smoother once exclusive to RTX 50-series, doubling perceived frame rates. G-Assist AI drops memory usage by 40% for snappier replies. Beta rolls out August 19th, with a full release next week.
Beyond Athletes: Garmin’s Six Watch Families for Every Budget and Lifestyle ↗
Garmin isn’t just for elite athletes anymore. Its six watch families—from the runner-focused Forerunner series to the adventure-ready Epix Pro and Fenix, plus stylish hybrids like Vivomove and Lily—cover every budget and lifestyle. The battery-packed watches boast dual-frequency GPS, offline maps, advanced training metrics and rugged durability. Newer models add OLED screens, ECG, fall detection and on-wrist calls. If you’re ditching a Fitbit, the Venu Sq 2 shines; for a full smartwatch experience, the Venu 3S hits the sweet spot between fitness features and everyday smarts.
Microsoft Teases Lower-Priced Xbox Cloud Tier, Unveils Custom Cloud Silicon ↗
Microsoft’s Xbox team is hinting at a cheaper, more accessible tier for its Xbox Cloud Gaming service beyond the current $19.99/month Game Pass Ultimate. VP Jason Ronald teased wider regional launches and new access options, just ahead of Nvidia’s big GeForce Now announcement. Meanwhile, Microsoft and AMD are building custom silicon for next-gen cloud streaming, neural rendering, and AI features—some debuting on the upcoming Xbox Ally X handheld with its own NPU chip.