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Fresh off its Wiz payout, Index Ventures raises $2B across three funds

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Index Ventures has raised $2 billion in fresh capital across three funds, the firm announced on Friday.

The 30-year-old firm raised $400 million for its new seed-focused fund and $900 million for its venture fund. Index also added $700 million to a $1.5 billion growth fund raised in 2024, bringing its total available capital to $3.5 billion.

The fresh capital haul comes two years after Index raised $2.3 billion across two funds, including $800 million toward a predecessor venture fund.

While Index has refrained from ballooning its fund sizes unlike several other VCs, the outfit continues to stand out for its strong recent performance.

Earlier this year, Index portfolio company Wiz completed its $32 billion sale to Alphabet. Index first invested in Wiz at the seed stage and became its largest outside shareholder with a 12% stake, a position likely worth $3.8 billion, according to Reuters’ reporting. Index was also an early investor in Figma, which went public last year.

Index’s AI bets include robotics company Physical Intelligence, inference platform Fireworks AI, and Anthropic, an investment made when the AI model maker raised capital at a $183 billion valuation last September.

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OpenAI’s new AI smart speaker will reportedly sell for between $300 and $400

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More details continue to trickle out about OpenAI’s mysterious new hardware device — described previously as an AI-fueled smart speaker that will be the “physical manifestation” of ChatGPT.

Bloomberg now reports that the device will be “donut-shaped,” designed thusly to allow users to carry it around their home and place it in different locations, like a bedside table or a kitchen counter.

It will be constructed from “high-quality metal,” have a “premium look,” and (in a detail that mystifies) will have distinct “moving parts,” sources told Bloomberg.

It also could be slightly more expensive than your average smart speaker, perhaps $300 to $400 per unit, according to this report. For comparison, most of Amazon’s smart home speakers range in price from $40 on the low end to $240 on the high end.

So, to sum up: an expensive talking AI donut that has … moving parts? OpenAI releasing a smart home device has a certain logic to it, in that it would further integrate ChatGPT into users’ lives. However, historically speaking, smart speakers have not always been profitable and may prove a difficult market to break into. The potentially high price point also might not help.

The device, which is being developed in partnership with LoveFrom, the design studio founded by famous former Apple developer Jony Ive, will likely be released at some point in 2027, Bloomberg writes.

The company’s attempt to enter the hardware market has not gone off without a hitch. OpenAI is being sued by the current king of hardware, Apple, which has accused the AI lab of stealing trade secrets. OpenAI has denied wrongdoing.

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Vietnam’s FPT Says It Joined OpenAI Partner Network to Expand Enterprise AI in APAC

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Vietnam’s FPT is seeking a larger role in Asia-Pacific’s enterprise AI market through a newly announced relationship with OpenAI. The technology services company says it has joined the OpenAI Partner Network as a Select Partner.

FPT plans to bring OpenAI technology into its FleziPT enterprise AI ecosystem and Patch the Enterprise cybersecurity initiative. The proposed services would automate business workflows and help security teams identify, prioritize and remediate software vulnerabilities.

FPT announced the designation on Aug. 6, 2026, but OpenAI had not included the company in its public partner directory when checked that day. Neither company disclosed commercial terms, named customers, pricing or a deployment schedule.

FPT targets security and workflow automation

OpenAI launched its Partner Network on June 14, 2026, for consulting, technology and systems integration companies that build, sell and deploy services using its products. The network has three tiers: Select, Advanced and Elite.

OpenAI said it considers sales performance, technical capabilities, deployment experience and participation in joint sales efforts. It committed $150 million to the program and aims to train 300,000 certified consultants by the end of 2026.

Partner status provides access to training, technical resources and support, but it does not certify the security, performance or regulatory compliance of a partner’s products. Customers still need to evaluate each deployment independently.

FPT intends to incorporate OpenAI technology into Patch the Enterprise, its AI-assisted vulnerability-management initiative. FPT previously described Patch the Enterprise as a program that uses AI to analyze code and recommend fixes.

Other AI models for vulnerability triage can narrow searches for potentially affected code, but analysts must still validate their findings. FPT has not released performance tests or customer case studies for its proposed integrations.

The company also plans to develop AI agents and automated workflows through FleziPT. ChatGPT’s expansion into workplace tasks shows the controls organizations may need when agents can access files, applications and internal systems.

APAC deployments still require scrutiny

The announcement follows an FPT-commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting and published on July 8, 2026. The research surveyed 397 business and technology decision-makers.

Forty-one percent identified integration complexity as a barrier to operationalizing AI, while 38% cited data silos. The findings align with the implementation problems FPT is positioning its services to address, although the company funded the study.

Organizations evaluating the proposed services should establish where their data will be processed, who controls it and how long it will be retained. Source code, vulnerability findings, prompts, outputs and agent logs may be subject to privacy, security and cross-border transfer requirements that vary across APAC markets.

Customers should also restrict agent permissions and require human approval for consequential actions. Recent research has identified security gaps caused by excessive agent access across enterprise systems.

Procurement teams should request detection accuracy, false-positive rates, remediation results and compatibility details. Contracts should clearly assign responsibility among FPT, OpenAI and the customer.

FPT’s announcement offers APAC organizations another possible route to OpenAI deployment, but the first named customers, production results and OpenAI’s public confirmation will determine the partnership’s significance.

Read more: Organizations weighing regional hosting options can also examine how air-gapped Gemini deployments in India address data residency while leaving access controls, updates and auditability subject to customer review.

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OpenAI’s new AI smart speaker will reportedly sell for between $300-$400

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on

More details continue to trickle out about OpenAI’s mysterious new hardware device — described previously as an AI-fueled smart speaker that will be the “physical manifestation” of ChatGPT.

Bloomberg now reports that the device will be “donut-shaped,” designed thusly to allow users to carry it around their home and place it in different locations, like a bedside table or a kitchen counter.

It will be constructed from “high-quality metal,” have a “premium look,” and (in a detail that mystifies) will have distinct “moving parts,” sources told Bloomberg.

It also could be slightly more expensive than your average smart speaker, perhaps $300 to $400 per unit, according to this report. For comparison, most of Amazon’s smart home speakers range in price from $40 on the low end to $240 on the high end.

So, to sum up: an expensive talking AI donut that has … moving parts? OpenAI releasing a smart home device has a certain logic to it, in that it would further integrate ChatGPT into users’ lives. However, historically speaking, smart speakers have not always been profitable and may prove a difficult market to break into. The potentially high price point also might not help.

The device, which is being developed in partnership with LoveFrom, the design studio founded by famous former Apple developer Jony Ive, will likely be released at some point in 2027, Bloomberg writes.

The company’s attempt to enter the hardware market has not gone off without a hitch. OpenAI is being sued by the current king of hardware, Apple, which has accused the AI lab of stealing trade secrets. OpenAI has denied wrongdoing.

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