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  • VoltaGrid Lands $1B From Blackstone · Cerebras Eyes $48.8B IPO Valuation · OpenAI Forms $10B Deployment JV · Enter Hits $1.2B Unicorn · Nscale Bags $790M

VoltaGrid Lands $1B From Blackstone · Cerebras Eyes $48.8B IPO Valuation · OpenAI Forms $10B Deployment JV · Enter Hits $1.2B Unicorn · Nscale Bags $790M

AI infrastructure capital is moving in chunks, with over $2 billion landing in power, compute, and chip deals to start the week. OpenAI is rewiring how its software reaches the Fortune 500, and Latin America just minted its first legal AI unicorn.

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🧑‍🍳 Let’s Get Right Into It…

  • VoltaGrid picks up $1 billion from Blackstone and Halliburton at a $10 billion valuation to scale gas-powered microgrids for AI data centers.

  • Cerebras lifts its IPO price range to $150 to $160 per share, putting the chip company on track for up to $4.8 billion in proceeds at a $48.8 billion valuation when it prices May 14.

  • OpenAI launches the $10 billion OpenAI Deployment Company with TPG, Brookfield, Bain Capital and Advent, and is acquiring Tomoro to staff it with roughly 150 forward deployed engineers.

  • Enter triples its valuation to $1.2 billion in a $100 million Series B led by Founders Fund, becoming Latin America's first legal AI unicorn.

  • Nscale locks in $790 million in financing from a syndicate of European banks to expand its Stargate Norway AI data center campus.

  • Circle raises $222 million in an Arc token presale at a $3 billion fully diluted valuation, with Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock and Apollo on the cap table.

🧑‍🚀 Top Deals You Can’t Miss

1. OpenAI Deployment Company — $4 billion+ committed by TPG, Brookfield, Bain Capital and Advent at a $10 billion valuation, with Tomoro acquired to staff the new enterprise AI venture.

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2. VoltaGrid — $1 billion strategic investment from Blackstone and Halliburton at over a $10 billion valuation, fueling gas-powered microgrids for data centers.

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3. Nscale — $790 million financing from ABN AMRO, DNB, Eksfin, Nordea and SEB to expand its Narvik, Norway AI data center for Microsoft and Nvidia.

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Dopamine Dealflow

Series B+ & Growth

  • Enter | $100M | Series B | São Paulo, Brazil

    AI litigator that automates legal workflows for enterprise clients including Airbnb, Nubank, Mercado Libre and Latam Airlines. Founders Fund led the round and were joined by Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Kaszek, Atlantico and ONEVC, valuing the company at $1.2 billion.

Series A

  • Basata | $21M | Series A | Tempe, AZ

    AI agents that automate referrals, intake, scheduling and follow-up for specialty healthcare practices in cardiology, urology, gastroenterology and ophthalmology. Basis Set Ventures led the round and were joined by Cowboy Ventures, PHX Ventures, Zenda Capital and Victoria Treyger.Strategic, M&A & Undisclosed

Seed & Early Rounds

  • Ciridae | $20M | Seed | San Francisco, CA

    AI transformation operating system for real economy businesses in home services, construction and industrial distribution. Accel led the round and were joined by Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sunflower Capital and Backcountry Ventures.

Strategic, M&A & Undisclosed

  • OpenAI Deployment Company | $4B+ | JV Launch | San Francisco, CA

    The deal positions OpenAI as the first frontier lab to vertically integrate enterprise AI delivery, with TPG, Brookfield, Bain Capital, Advent and 15 other partners taking minority equity in a structure majority-owned by OpenAI.

  • VoltaGrid | $1B | Strategic Investment | Houston, TX

    The deal strengthens VoltaGrid's ability to deploy behind-the-meter gas-powered microgrids for AI data centers, and funds the acquisition of supplier Propell Energy Technology.

  • Nscale | $790M | Debt Financing | London, UK

    The financing supports a 115-megawatt expansion at the Narvik campus expected to house more than 30,000 Nvidia Rubin GPUs, with capital committed by ABN AMRO, DNB, Eksfin, Nordea and SEB.

  • OnlyFans | $535M | Minority Stake Sale | London, UK

    The deal gives Architect Capital roughly 16% of parent company Fenix International and marks the first major transaction since founder Leonid Radvinsky's death, with control now held by his widow Katie Chudnovsky.

  • Scale AI | $500M | Government Contract | San Francisco, CA

    The Pentagon raised its contract ceiling from $100 million to $500 million, a five-fold expansion of the Production Other Transaction Authority agreement covering computer vision, generative AI decision support and data operations.

  • Spotify x Peloton | Undisclosed | Strategic Partnership | Stockholm, Sweden

    The deal makes more than 1,400 Peloton workout classes available to Spotify Premium subscribers and accelerates Peloton's pivot from hardware to high-margin content distribution.

IPOs / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Cerebras | $4.8B | IPO Pricing Update | Sunnyvale, CA

    The chip company raised its price range to $150 to $160 per share and increased the share count to 30 million, putting the fully diluted valuation at up to $48.8 billion, more than double its February pre-IPO mark, with pricing set for May 14.

  • Circle Arc Token | $222M | Token Presale | New York, NY

    The USDC issuer became the first publicly listed company to conduct a token presale, with Andreessen Horowitz leading at $75 million alongside BlackRock, Apollo, Intercontinental Exchange, Ark Invest and others, valuing the Arc blockchain at $3 billion fully diluted.

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Read of the Day

OpenAI Builds A Consulting Arm To Get Enterprises Off The Fence

A $10 billion joint venture with TPG, Brookfield, Bain Capital and Advent, plus the acquisition of Scotland's Tomoro, signals AI delivery is now the chokepoint.

OpenAI on Monday formally launched the OpenAI Deployment Company, a majority-controlled joint venture backed by more than $4 billion in fresh capital from 19 global firms including TPG, Brookfield, Bain Capital and Advent. The new entity is valued at $10 billion before the new money and is designed to help large enterprises actually ship AI rather than just license models. Alongside the launch, OpenAI agreed to acquire Tomoro, a Scotland-based AI consulting firm with roughly 150 forward deployed engineers serving clients including Fidelity International, Virgin Atlantic, Tesco, the NBA and Red Bull.

The Strategy

OpenAI is acknowledging what its enterprise customers have been saying for two years: selling tokens to CIOs is not the same as turning those tokens into ROI. By taking equity ownership of the delivery layer and bringing in private equity distribution, OpenAI locks in long-cycle enterprise revenue, protects margin as Anthropic, Google and Microsoft chase the same logos, and creates a structural channel that competitors cannot easily replicate. Bain Capital's involvement is the tell: the firm will focus on private equity portfolio companies, where pre-built AI transformation playbooks compound across hundreds of mid-market businesses.

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TPG leads the founding partner consortium, with Bain Capital, Brookfield and Advent serving as co-lead founding partners. SoftBank, Goldman Sachs and BBVA are among the other 15 firms that contributed to the more than $4 billion commitment. Tomoro, founded in 2023 in alliance with OpenAI, will fold its engineering and deployment teams into the new entity on day one.

Why It Matters

The economics of frontier AI have shifted from training to deployment, and OpenAI is the first lab to vertically integrate the consulting layer. For private equity, this is an operating system play, with Bain Capital and Advent now able to hand portfolio companies a productized AI transformation rather than a vendor list. Watch for Anthropic and Google to respond with similar structures, and for the Big Four consultancies, which had been positioning themselves as the default integrator, to come under serious pressure. The signal to founders selling AI infrastructure is clear: distribution is being repriced, and the labs are walking down the stack toward the customer.

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