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Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to advanced computational systems that simulate human intelligence to analyze data, automate decisions, and optimize processes. It serves as a high-leverage technology layer across industries, driving efficiency, cost reduction, and new revenue models through machine learning, automation, and scalable data-driven insights.

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors including BlackRock, Jamie Foxx

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors after closing a $500 million Series D funding round. The voice AI startup welcomes BlackRock, Wellington,

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ElevenLabs has announced its new investors
  • AI, AI Tools, Artificial Intelligence, Business, ElevenLabs, Investments

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors including BlackRock, Jamie Foxx

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors after closing a $500 million Series D funding round. The voice AI startup welcomes BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, and Schroders as institutional backers. Enterprise giants like NVIDIA and Santander joined the round through their corporate strategic venture arms. Hollywood stars Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk also added their names. For readers tracking AI investments, this round signals strong confidence in conversational AI platform growth.

Institutional backing reaches a new high

BlackRock and Wellington bring deep capital expertise to a fast-growing voice AI startup ecosystem. The company ended 2025 with $350 million in annual recurring revenue from enterprise clients. By April 2026, ElevenLabs had surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue across its product lines. Rob Mazzoni from Wellington Management said voice AI will become foundational for global business communication. His firm sees ElevenLabs leading the category as enterprises adopt human-like AI agents at scale.

Many enterprise clients now back the company financially through their corporate strategic investment arms. NVIDIA, Salesforce, KPN, and Deutsche Telekom rely on the platform for customer interactions daily. ElevenLabs has announced its new investors right after expanding deals with these enterprise customers. Deutsche Telekom uses the platform to power support agents and produce marketing videos for customers. The German telecom giant invested through T.Capital, its strategic investment arm, during the latest round. Karine Peters from T. Capital said voice carries the highest stakes in any customer interaction channel.

Why has ElevenLabs announced its new investors at this moment

You see strong momentum because enterprises now deploy enterprise AI agents across multiple business functions. Customer support, sales, hiring, and marketing operations all benefit from AI voice technology platforms. From my standpoint, this third Series D close shows institutional belief in conversational AI economics. The voice AI startup grew from $350 million ARR to over $500 million in four months. Such rapid growth attracts capital because enterprise contracts produce stable recurring income for the platform.

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors alongside a fresh push into retail and creative communities. Eva Longoria, an actor and producer, joined the round as part of a creative talent group. More than 30 actors, musicians, athletes, and entertainment executives invested for the first time. Longoria said her investment reflects support for a company building tools with creatives in mind. Matthew McConaughey, an existing investor, keeps backing the AI voice technology platform with new capital.

ANOTHER MUST-READ ON ICN.LIVE: China Blocks Meta Manus Acquisition in Major US-China Tech War Move

What comes next for the voice AI startup

Robinhood Ventures opens retail access for everyday users to own a stake in the company. ElevenLabs has announced its new investors at a time when enterprise AI agents shape business communication. Your business benefits when AI sounds natural across phone calls, video content, and chat windows. The platform now serves 530 employees across more than 50 countries around the world. Mati Staniszewski, the co-founder, said systems sounding robotic will not gain widespread customer trust. Funding will support new tools combining image, video, and audio generation for marketing teams. Plans include voice agents handling email, chat, and live calls across many client industries. Your decision to back conversational AI platforms now will pay off as adoption grows. The company builds toward natural human-like communication for every business audience worldwide each day.

  • By Khaled Darwish
  • 3 min read
Microsoft - OpenAI Amended Agreement Now
  • AI, Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft, OpenAI, Partnership

Microsoft – OpenAI Amended Agreement Reshapes Cloud and AI Power Balance

Microsoft – OpenAI amended agreement signals a sharp turn in one of tech’s most-watched corporate partnerships. Microsoft confirmed the new terms on Monday, days before its quarterly earnings report. Under the prior deal, Microsoft held exclusive rights to OpenAI’s models until the company reached artificial general intelligence. The new contract removes that trigger and replaces it with a fixed 2032 license expiration date.

Sam Altman and Satya Nadella reportedly negotiated the changes themselves over recent weeks. Their goal was to bring clarity to a relationship that grew tangled as OpenAI courted Microsoft’s rivals. Microsoft OpenAI exclusivity ends with this restructuring, opening the door for AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle. From my standpoint, this shift reflects OpenAI’s growing leverage and its push for multi-cloud freedom.

What the new deal changes for cloud rivals

Microsoft – OpenAI partnership restructured terms now allow OpenAI to serve products on competing cloud platforms. Azure remains the primary cloud partner, and OpenAI products still ship there first under most conditions. Yet OpenAI can offer its full catalog through any provider it chooses going forward. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy welcomed the news, confirming OpenAI models will reach AWS Bedrock within weeks.

You should note that Microsoft shares fell roughly 3% after the announcement on Monday. Amazon and Alphabet stock posted small gains as investors priced in a fresh competitive opportunity. The shift comes after OpenAI signed a $38 billion AWS deal last November. OpenAI later expanded that commitment by another $100 billion across eight years.

Microsoft – OpenAI amended agreement rewrites the money flow

The financial structure also changed in important ways for both sides of the table. Microsoft will no longer pay OpenAI a revenue share on AI model sales through Azure. OpenAI continues paying Microsoft a 20% revenue share, capped and ending in 2030. Microsoft loses OpenAI’s exclusive access in trade for cleaner terms and reduced legal risk.

Microsoft keeps its 27% stake in OpenAI, valued at roughly $135 billion last October. The OpenAI – Microsoft revenue-sharing deal now runs on a fixed schedule rather than open-ended triggers. Both companies framed the update around flexibility, certainty, and broader AI adoption across markets. As I see it, the deal trades short-term advantage for long-term predictability and cleaner governance.

Why investors are watching closely

The Microsoft OpenAI amended agreement also removes the controversial AGI clause from the contract. The original provision gave OpenAI’s board power to declare AGI and shift the partnership terms. Investors viewed this as a structural risk hanging over Microsoft’s $13 billion cumulative investment. Removing it brings predictability to a contract once tied to a vague technical milestone.

Enterprise buyers benefit most from this change because they gain real choice across clouds and models. Microsoft now competes for OpenAI workloads rather than owning them by default. The Microsoft – OpenAI amended agreement reshapes the cloud market for the next six years.

  • By Adnan Al-Jaziri
  • 3 min read
Google Invests in Anthropic AI
  • AI, Anthropic, Business, Google, Investments

Google Invests in Anthropic AI With Up to $40 Billion in New Deal

Google invests in Anthropic AI with a fresh commitment of up to $40 billion in cash and cloud support. The agreement begins with $10 billion upfront and adds $30 billion later under performance terms. Anthropic confirmed the deal as both firms expand a partnership built over several years. The pact lifts the Anthropic valuation $350 billion mark, matching its earlier funding round from February.

The transaction comes as tech giants pour money into AI computing infrastructure to gain market position. Anthropic plans to use Google Cloud TPU chips to train and run its newest AI systems. Google built these chips to power large models with speed and lower running costs.

Two days earlier, Amazon revealed a new $5 billion stake plus a possible $20 billion in future funding. The Amazon AWS Anthropic deal also includes a $100 billion spend pledge from Anthropic across ten years.

A bigger race for AI compute power

The funding wave shows how fast spending on AI hardware now grows across the sector. Anthropic reported a tripling of annualized revenue last quarter, reaching above $30 billion. The company outpaced OpenAI on that figure for the first time in its short history. From my standpoint, this revenue jump explains why both Google and Amazon raised their bets so quickly.

Anthropic plans to use the new capital to expand chip access and data center capacity. The firm signed a deal in early April for multiple gigawatts of TPU capacity through 2027. You can see why investors view this scale of spending as central to AI leadership.

Leadership talks and policy questions

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, recently met White House officials to ease earlier policy tensions. The meeting followed a dispute over military access to Anthropic models under unconditional terms. Both sides described the visit as constructive and forward-looking on national security topics.

Google invests in Anthropic AI at a moment when public scrutiny of the sector keeps rising. Lawmakers want clearer rules on chip exports, model safety, and concentration of computing power. As you watch these talks, remember that policy choices now shape product timelines across the industry.

Mythos release and security review

Anthropic recently introduced a new model called Mythos, but held it back from full public release. The company cited cybersecurity risks tied to the strength of the system. Anthropic shared Mythos with 40 large tech firms to help them patch weak points first.

This week, the firm confirmed a probe into unauthorized access tied to that same model. Security teams now review how outsiders reached the system and what data they touched. Google invests in Anthropic AI as these safety reviews unfold across the wider AI market. The outcome will guide how rivals manage early access programs going forward.

Why this deal matters for you

Google invests in Anthropic AI in a way that signals deeper ties between cloud, chips, and models. You should track how compute pricing, model access, and safety rules shift across the next year. The Amazon AWS Anthropic deal and Google move together reshape the balance of power in AI computing infrastructure.

  • By Yousef Haddad
  • 3 min read
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