This Week's Tech Stories That Actually Matter

Oura Health Just Became the $11 Billion Ring Lord

Finland's Oura Health secured $875 million at an $11 billion valuation to expand its smart ring empire. The company has sold over 5 million rings since 2013 and projects $1 billion in revenue for 2025.

The fresh capital will double R&D spending and fuel global expansion into personalized wellness and sleep analytics. Oura's betting that your finger will replace your doctor for basic health monitoring.

I've got a love-hate relationship with this ring. My wife got me an Oura ring for Christmas, and when we were traveling through Europe dealing with brutal timezone adjustments, I wasn't sleeping well at all. The ring data showed I was aging like I was 4 years older than my actual age. Once we got back to normal sleep patterns, it evened out to my real biological age. I wear it constantly now and honestly wish I'd invested early like all the other times I saw something great coming.

The competition isn't even close. Other tech companies' attempts at health tracking feel clunky compared to this thing. Someone big will probably acquire them soon - maybe Apple trying to catch up, or Meta looking for the next wearable frontier.

When a ring company hits unicorn status times eleven, wearable tech just got serious.

China Just Declared War on Nvidia's AI Chip Empire

Huawei unveiled its Atlas 950 SuperCluster with plans to launch next year, claiming 6.7 times more computing power than Nvidia's NVL144 system. The full supercluster would contain more than 1 million Ascend chips.

Multiple Chinese giants are pushing domestic alternatives: Baidu won a $139 million order from China Mobile for its Kunlun chips, while Alibaba's T-Head launched new XuanTie processors. Nvidia's China market share dropped from 85% to 70% in 2024.

Even Nvidia admitted "the competition has undeniably arrived and is gaining momentum." When your biggest rival starts sweating, you know the game just changed.

OpenAI Made ChatGPT Your Personal Morning Show

ChatGPT Pulse launched Thursday for Pro subscribers, delivering personalized morning briefings while you sleep. Five to 10 visual cards cover everything from sports updates to travel itineraries, all based on your chat history and connected apps like Gmail and Google Calendar.

Sam Altman called it his "favorite feature of ChatGPT so far" and a shift "from being all reactive to being significantly proactive." The kicker? It stops after a few updates instead of creating an endless scroll.

Revolutionary restraint in the attention economy era.

British AI Startup Raised Europe's Biggest Series B Ever

Nscale secured $1.1 billion in Series B funding led by Norwegian firm Aker ASA, with backing from Nvidia, Nokia, and Dell. The London-based AI infrastructure company spun out of an Australian crypto mining firm just 18 months ago.

The funding values Nscale at around $3 billion and marks the largest Series B in European history. They're building AI data centers across Europe, including partnerships with OpenAI for Stargate UK and Norway projects.

When crypto miners pivot to AI infrastructure and raise a billion dollars, you know the gold rush is real.

Apple's AI Brain Drain Hit New Highs

Meta hired Apple's Lead AI Researcher for Robotics, Jian Zhang, while OpenAI and Anthropic scooped up three more Foundation Models engineers. Apple's core AI team has lost roughly 10 members, including its chief, in recent weeks.

The departures coincide with Apple's struggles to bring its AI-powered Siri revamp to market and reports of potential acquisitions of companies like Mistral and Perplexity.

When your best AI talent keeps jumping ship to your competitors, your "Apple Intelligence" strategy needs some intelligence.

Funding Frenzy Continued Across Multiple Sectors

AppZen grabbed $180 million for AI-powered finance automation. London's Tide became a unicorn with $120 million for SME banking. Until Labs raised $58 million for organ cryopreservation tech that could revolutionize transplant medicine.

India's Chakr Innovation closed $23 million for clean energy storage solutions. VCs kept writing checks for anything touching AI, health tech, or climate solutions.

The late September funding surge shows no signs of slowing down.

TL;DR: That's your week. Rings conquered wearables, China challenged chips, and AI got proactive. The future keeps accelerating…

Cheers,
Oleg👊

LET'S JUST ROCKET NETWORK!

HERE ARE OUR PICKS FOR HTX THIS WEEK

🚴‍♂️ 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 — 𝗕𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸! 🍂
📅 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝗻𝗱 | 𝟱 𝗣𝗠 | 𝗜𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞.

We’ll roll out for a 5-mile ride through Midtown and the Museum District, starting and ending at the Ion Houston’s taproom, Second Draught. After the ride, stick around for happy hour on the plaza with some of the Bayou City’s most inspiring innovators.

Why join?

Connect with Houston’s growing innovation community
Support local non-profits — redM Join The Movement
, BikeHouston, and HTX4Ukraine

Enjoy the season with friends, bikes, and brews Second Draught 

We’re also looking for sponsors/donors!

All sponsor funds raised go directly to these three nonprofits. A great way to give back while getting your brand in front of Houston’s innovation community.

👉 This event is FREE to attend, but registration is required - LINK

with an optional donation that also supports the nonprofits.

Let’s ride. Let’s connect. Let’s make an impact together. 🚀

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