This Month's AI Agents News

Sapiom raises $35M to cut AI agent running costs

 Sapiom is a San Francisco startup that sits between AI agents and the models they run on. ## The bill that made the case The AI startup [employs nobody](https://www.semafor.com/article/08/05/2026/startup-sapiom-routes-clients-ai-to-lowest-cost-tokens), running swarms of agents to help operate other businesses. ## A crowded toll booth It is one of a wave of startups selling [agent infrastructure](https://thenextweb.com/news/runta-a16z-seed-ai-agent-infrastructure) to investors this year.

Thenextweb 2 weeks, 6 days ago

AI Agents Move to the Center of Gartner's 2026 Cloud-Native Magic Quadrant

# [Virtualization Review Home Page](https://virtualizationreview.com/) ### AI Agents Move to the Center of Gartner's 2026 Cloud-Native Magic Quadrant - By [David Ramel](https://virtualizationreview.com/forms/emailtoauthor.aspx?AuthorItem={53762E17-6187-46B4-8C04-9DFA282EBB67}&ArticleItem={09967F74-C32E-4998-BC1D-63E5A275D54D}) - 08/05/2026 2025 Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Native Application Platforms _(source: Gartner)._ The principal roster changes are the addition of Oracle as a Challenger and Tencent Cloud as a Niche Player, and the removal of Huawei and Salesforce Heroku. Cloudflare expanded Workers with Containers and an Agents SDK for stateful AI agents. It also introduced CPU-time billing, under which customers pay for active CPU cycles rather than idle time spent waiting for large language model responses. Render introduced durable Workflows for tasks such as agent runtimes, an MCP server for AI-agent infrastructure management, persistent compute and sandboxed execution. Netlify has added Agent Runners, a managed AI Gateway and a serverless database, while Tencent Cloud now offers an AI gateway, an MCP server and AI Builder. Upsun has also introduced an MCP server and generative configuration tools. [David Ramel](mailto:dramel@Converge360.com) is an editor and writer at Converge 360. #### Featured - [](https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2026/08/04/ditch-the-cloud-7-powerful-free-local-ai-tools.aspx) ## Upcoming Training Events ### [Free White Papers](https://virtualizationreview.com/whitepapers/list/vrt-tech-library-list.aspx) - [PerceptiveAI Support Agent](https://virtualizationreview.com/whitepapers/2026/06/nimbus-perceptiveai-support-agent.aspx)

Virtualizationreview 2 weeks, 6 days ago

Air Force expands autonomous flight tests with live, AI-enabled intercepts

The Air Force and Lockheed Martin recently demonstrated an artificial intelligent agent autonomously flying a fighter jet using live infrared sensor data — a critical step in ongoing developments of AI-enabled combat. According to the Air Force, the experiment integrated a third-party autonomous agent to evaluate updated safety constraints designed to prevent autonomous systems from exceeding operator-defined limits and add new processing hardware for advanced sensor exploitation.

Defensescoop 2 weeks, 6 days ago

ServiceNow Moves to Lock Down Enterprise AI Agents With Autonomous Security Portfolio

ServiceNow has expanded its cybersecurity portfolio to address the security risks posed by AI agents as enterprises increase deployment.

Cxtoday 3 weeks ago

AI startup Hark unveils first product: an affordable, fast computer use agent Hark Handoff

[Hark](https://hark.com/), the secretive [AI startup founded earlier this year](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260324789327/en/Hark-Launches-AI-Lab-Building-Futuristic-Interface-to-Artificial-Intelligence) by serial entrepreneur and roboticist Brett Adcock, [today announced Handoff](https://hark.com/articles/introducing-hark-handoff), a "computer use agent" (CUA) that it says is among the top-performing in the world at navigating the open web on a user's behalf — ordering dinner on DoorDash, booking flights on United and Delta, or messaging job candidates on LinkedIn — all autonomously, end-to-end.

Venturebeat 3 weeks ago

New funding round puts AI agent providers back in spotlight

# New funding round puts AI agent providers back in spotlight  HappyRobot is the first company in freight transportation or global trade to nab a so-called unicorn valuation since Altana in 2024, and only the second since 2021. Photo credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock.com. Supply chainLogistics Technology News [Eric Johnson, Senior Technology Editor](https://www.joc.com/editorial-team/eric-johnson) | Aug 5, 2026, 11:19 AM EDT print [mail](mailto:?subject=New%20funding%20round%20puts%20AI%20agent%20providers%20back%20in%20spotlight&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joc.com%2Farticle%2Fnew-funding-round-puts-ai-agent-providers-back-in-spotlight-6265094) [](https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=New%20funding%20round%20puts%20AI%20agent%20providers%20back%20in%20spotlight&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joc.com%2Farticle%2Fnew-funding-round-puts-ai-agent-providers-back-in-spotlight-6265094) [](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joc.com%2Farticle%2Fnew-funding-round-puts-ai-agent-providers-back-in-spotlight-6265094) [](https://linkedin.com//sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joc.com%2Farticle%2Fnew-funding-round-puts-ai-agent-providers-back-in-spotlight-6265094) HappyRobot, a provider of artificial intelligence agents for the freight and logistics industry, announced on Tuesday it had landed a $150 million funding round that catapulted the company into an elite group. Only seven companies that touch logistics, freight transportation... ### The page is only available to subscribers and 30-day free trial users. [Sign In](https://sam.ihsmarkit.com/sso/oauth2/realms/root/realms/Customers/authorize?client_id=SPGlobalMarketIntelligence-MaritimeandTrade-JOC-PROD-fybMrTMBCr&response_type=code&scope=o

Joc 3 weeks ago

Advids Launches Dedicated Video Production Solution for AI Agents, Machine Learning and Computer Vision Companies

# Advids Launches Dedicated Video Production Solution for AI Agents, Machine Learning and Computer Vision Companies _New team and video production process are built specifically to make autonomous agents, and ML systems understandable to enterprise buyers by Advids._ PALO ALTO, CA, UNITED STATES, August 5, 2026 / [EINPresswire.com](https://www.einpresswire.com/?promo=4700)/ -- More than 1,200 AI agent startups are now competing for enterprise attention, according to startup intelligence platform StartUs Insights, and Gartner projects spending on AI agent software will reach $206.5 billion this year. The launch formalizes work already underway, not a new experiment.

Tech 3 weeks ago

Optro Report: As AI Agents Enter Enterprise Workflows, Accountability Becomes the New Competitive Advantage

New research finds enterprises are handing autonomous AI the keys to core workflows faster than they can answer a basic question: who's accountable when it...

Prnewswire 3 weeks ago

Missionforce National Security — IL5-Authorized AI Agents and Apps

_The Department of War (DOW) can now deploy autonomous AI agents to streamline defense logistics, fast-track recruit onboarding and training, alleviate administrative burdens for military families, and transform complex data into real-time command insights._ While traditional AI merely alerts personnel to these bottlenecks after they happen, agentic AI can actively reason, orchestrate workflows, and trigger corrective action autonomously — within established guardrails and existing operational logic — before readiness is ever compromised. - **Modernizing logistics and supply chain:** When a deployed asset flags a component failure, an Agentforce AI agent can autonomously cross-reference asset readiness logs with real-time global supply inventories, powered by Data 360; identify a parts shortage at a local depot; and instantly trigger a secure procurement order for human review to minimize downtime. ## Get the latest Salesforce News & Insights, straight to your inbox ### Build and customize autonomous AI agents to support your employees and customers 24/7. [Discover Agentforce](https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/?d=cta-body-promo) [Discover Agentforce](https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/?d=cta-body-promo)

Salesforce 3 weeks ago

HappyRobot Raises $150 Million At $1.2B To Fix Enterprise AI Agents

# HappyRobot Raises $150 Million At $1.2B To Fix Enterprise AI Agents  HappyRobot [raises $150 million](https://x.com/HappyRobot/status/2084620670219268440) in Series C at a $1.2 billion valuation to prove there’s a better way. a16z, Base10, and YC also doubled down. That takes total funding to $200M in 20 months. But the number investors care about more is net dollar retention: over 150%. ## What Comes Next [](https://ventureburn.com/june-ai-raises-20-million-in-pre-seed-funding-to-automate-enterprise-ai-deployment/) [June AI Raises $20 Million in Pre-Seed Funding To Automate Enterprise AI Deployment](https://ventureburn.com/june-ai-raises-20-million-in-pre-seed-funding-to-automate-enterprise-ai-deployment/) [Olix Raises $312M at $3.3B Valuation To Scale Specialized AI Inference Silicon](https://ventureburn.com/olix-raises-312m-3-3b-valuation-nvidia-rival/) [](https://ventureburn.com/faye-raises-50m-series-c-funding/) [Faye Raises $50M In Series C To Expand AI Travel Protection Platform](https://ventureburn.com/faye-raises-50m-series-c-funding/) [](https://ventureburn.com/ordway-secures-20m-funding/) [Convex Raises $57M To Build Reliable AI-Native Backend Platform](https://ventureburn.com/convex-raises-57m-series-b/) [![Delightree AI operati

Ventureburn 3 weeks ago

X-62 VISTA AI Flies 27 Autonomous Intercepts | Afterburner

# AI Flew 27 Live Intercepts by Itself An artificial-intelligence agent just strapped into a fighter, stared at an enemy jet through an infrared eye, and ran it down twenty-seven times — and no human touched the stick. - **What happened:** An AI agent flew 27 autonomous intercepts across 8 sorties ## A passive eye instead of a radar The AI agent took the raw infrared feed straight from the pod, worked out where the T-38 was, and steered the fighter into a firing position on its own. ## What Skunk Works is claiming _“Our autonomous agents consumed classified infrared search and track feeds and executed combat-critical maneuvers in real time._

Migflug 3 weeks ago

Cloudflare announces Wallets for AI agent payments

They will allow you to store stablecoins, purchase services, and receive funds across the web.

Testingcatalog 3 weeks ago

Google is in talks for a $1.5 billion-plus deal with AI coding agent startup Mechanize

# Google is in talks for a $1.5 billion-plus deal with AI coding agent startup Mechanize  Listen to this story In 2024, the search giant rehired [Character AI cofounder Noam Shazeer](https://www.businessinsider.com/google-veteran-founded-characterai-is-jumping-to-openai-talent-war-2026-6) and paid for non-exclusive rights to use the startup's AI technology (Shazeer recently left the company to join OpenAI). Mechanize declined to comment. Mechanize launched last year with a mission of [automating every job](https://www.businessinsider.com/mechanize-use-ai-automate-every-job-2025-7) and a star-studded group of investors, including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, and podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. The startup said earlier this year that it raised $9.1 million in a funding round at a $500 million valuation. Mechanize's CEO, Tamay Besiroglu, previously cofounded Epoch AI, which also focused on testing AI models. Mechanize has wider ambitions than coding. ## Read next ### Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know - [Mira Murati doubled the fundraising target for her new AI startup to $2 billion. It could be the largest seed round in history.](https://www.businessinsider.com/mira-murati-new-ai-startup-thinking-machines-funding-2025-4) - [Startups](https://www.businessinsider.com/category/startups)

Businessinsider 3 weeks ago

Obsidian Security lands $85m to police rogue AI agents

**[Obsidian Security](https://www.obsidiansecurity.com/), a platform securing non-human identities and AI agents across third-party applications, has closed an $85m Series D funding round.** The raise comes as businesses roll out AI agents built on leading models, including Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot Studio, and look for ways to govern how those agents behave once embedded in the third-party applications that underpin daily operations. Obsidian Security CEO Hasan Imam said, “AI agents gravitate toward third-party applications. ### [Zenity lands $125m as AI agent security race heats up](https://fintech.global/2026/08/04/zenity-lands-125m-as-ai-agent-security-race-heats-up/) #### Latest Analysis [](https://fintech.global/2026/08/03/latam-fintech-funding-surged-2-6x-yoy-in-q2-2026-as-investor-confidence-grew/)

Fintech 3 weeks ago

HappyRobot raises $150M Series C at $1.2B valuation to scale enterprise AI agents

What's the deal? HappyRobot, a startup building AI agents that run the phone calls, emails, and scheduling behind supply chains, has raised a $150 million...

App 3 weeks ago

US appeals court allows Perplexity's AI shopping agent back on Amazon

# US appeals court allows Perplexity's AI shopping agent back on Amazon ## Key Points - A US appeals court has overturned an injunction that blocked startup Perplexity from using its AI shopping agents on Amazon. ## From the November lawsuit to a reversal on appeal The startup called the lawsuit baseless and a "bald attempt" to keep Amazon customers away from Comet, because AI agents "don't have eyeballs to see the pervasive advertising Amazon bombards its users with."

The-Decoder 3 weeks ago

Cloudflare Launches Stablecoin Wallets for AI Agents, Opens cloudflare.pay Handles

# Cloudflare Launches Stablecoin Wallets for AI Agents, Opens cloudflare.pay Handles ## Two Wallets, One Owner “Want to give every employee a $100 per week budget for AI inference?” ## Both Sides Of The Trade It [announced the x402 Foundation with Coinbase](https://blog.cloudflare.com/x402/) in September 2025 and added x402 support to its Agents SDK and MCP servers. Amazon Web Services and Coinbase [wired x402 into CloudFront and WAF](https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/aws-cloudfront-coinbase-x402-ai-agents-usdc-base) in June for publishers charging agents in USDC, and MoonPay [open-sourced the Open Wallet Standard](https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/moonpay-unveils-wallet-standard-for-ai-agents) in March with PayPal and the Ethereum Foundation.

Thedefiant 3 weeks ago

Obsidian Security raises funding at $1.1 billion valuation on AI security demand

Obsidian Security has raised $85 million in Series D funding, boosting its valuation to $1.1 billion, amidst rising demand for AI security solutions as...

Entrepreneur 3 weeks ago

OpenAI and Anthropic incidents put Israeli AI security startup Irregular at center of race to safely test AI agents

# OpenAI and Anthropic incidents put Israeli AI security startup Irregular at center of race to safely test AI agents ## The company was involved in evaluations that exposed a growing industry challenge: creating realistic tests for autonomous AI agents without allowing them to affect real-world systems. CTech 11:13, 05.08.26  Askmeanyquestion Click to listen [Powered bywhtvr.ai](https://www.whtvr.ai/?utm_source=watermark&utm_campaign=google.com) The same question has emerged twice in recent days at two of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies: how do you safely test an AI system that is becoming increasingly capable of acting like a human hacker? The answer has brought an Israeli cybersecurity startup into the center of the global AI safety conversation. Irregular, an Israeli company specializing in AI security testing, was involved in cybersecurity evaluations for both Anthropic and OpenAI that revealed weaknesses in the way advanced AI systems are tested. 1 View gallery  Irregular founders. (Photo: Ben Hakim) Rather, they exposed the broader challenge of creating testing environments that are realistic enough to reveal dangerous capabilities while still preventing models from affecting real systems. OpenAI disclosed on Tuesday that one of its models accessed the public internet during cybersecurity evaluations conducted by Irregular. The incident involved so-called Capture-the-Flag cybersecurity exercises, in which AI models are instructed to identify vulnerabilities and retrieve hidden information ins

Calcalistech 3 weeks ago

More AI agents don’t always mean better results: NTT

NTT and Harvard find multi-agent AI performance peaks near 16 agents then degrades — design, diversity, and human oversight matter more than headcount.

News 3 weeks, 1 day ago

23-year-old founder from Paris secures $930K after winning Google as an early partner

Shiplog, a Paris-based startup, has raised $930,000 in pre-seed funding, with Kima Ventures and Project Europe leading the round. Shiplog's AI agent, Ada,...

Techfundingnews 3 weeks, 1 day ago

AI-Driven Ultra-Small Startups Reshape South Korea's Business Landscape

Fueled by AI automation, these startups achieve high revenue with minimal staff, attracting global investments and shifting VC strategies.

Chosun 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Zenity raises $125 million to expand AI agent security platform

# Zenity raises $125 million to expand AI agent security platform ## The company's platform helps enterprises secure and govern AI agents as they gain access to critical systems, data and workflows, with the new funding aimed at global expansion and product development [ynet Global](https://www.ynetnews.com/topics/ynet_Global)|00:17 [AI agents](https://www.ynetnews.com/topics/AI_agents) 00:00 01:56 [Zenity, an AI security and governance company](https://www.ynetnews.com/tech-and-digital/article/sy9xmgfuxe) focused on enterprise AI agents, said Monday it raised $125 million in a Series C funding round led by Norwest.

Ynetnews 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Israeli startup Zenity bags $125M in funding to build the security layer for AI agents

Artificial intelligence security startup Zenity Ltd. said today it has closed on a $125 million Series C round of funding to expand its platform,...

Google 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Israeli startup Zenity bags $125M in funding to build the security layer for AI agents

### Israeli startup Zenity bags $125M in funding to build the security layer for AI agents  by [Mike Wheatley](https://siliconangle.com/author/mikewheatley/) Artificial intelligence security startup [Zenity Ltd.](https://www.zenity.io/) said today it has closed on a $125 million [Series C round of funding](https://zenity.io/company-overview/newsroom/company-news/zenity-raises-125-million-to-secure-the-era-of-1-billion-ai-agents?) to expand its platform, which secures autonomous agents in production across large global organizations. Today’s round was led by Norwest and saw participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Qumra Capital and others, including Hitachi Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, Vertex Ventures, DTCP and Intel Capital. It means Zenity has now raised $185 million in total funding to date. The startup now has a massive war chest available to it as it looks to tackle a security problem that’s becoming much more urgent as enterprises shift away from experimental AI agent deployments to scale them in production. They create an entirely new and sprawling attack surface, which cannot easily be covered using existing identity, application and data security tools designed for human users. In an interview with [Calcalist](https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/b1ahbbcbfe), Zenity co-founder and Chief Executive Ben Kliger said the adoption of AI agents is accelerating dramatically. “Every organization is deploying off-the-shelf AI agents or developing its own,” he said. It’s time for us to accelerate our growth.” Zenity has built a platform that analyzes business computing environments to understand where AI agents are embedded and how they interact with different systems. It figures out what business purpose each AI agent is meant to fulfil, and then monitors them closely in real time to ensure they’re not getting up to anything they shouldn

Siliconangle 3 weeks, 1 day ago

NAB Tests AI Agents in Plan to Deploy Tech to Banking Customers

National Australia Bank Ltd.'s technology chief said the firm will soon begin testing the security and operational guardrails of an agentic artificial...

Bloomberg 3 weeks, 1 day ago

AI security startup Zenity raises $125m series C

Israel-founded Zenity, which develops security and governance software for AI agents and has offices in New York and Tel Aviv, has raised US$125 million in...

Techinasia 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Enterprise Software Implementation Platform June AI Raises $20 Million Pre-Seed

# Enterprise Software Implementation Platform June AI Raises $20 Million Pre-Seed ## Competing in the AI Implementation Market ### MORE FROM THE POST - [Aristo Intelligence Raises Pre-Seed Funding from Kakao Ventures to Build Long-Term Memory for AI Agents](https://en.wowtale.net/2026/06/26/234324/) - [agentic AI](https://en.wowtale.net/tag/agentic-ai/)

En 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Asana built AI agents that won't leak secrets

Enterprise teams building AI agents keep hitting the same wall: a chatbot that can answer a prompt but can't remember what the last five people asked it, and can't tell you whether last month's version actually worked. The product treats AI agents as coachable teammates that operate alongside humans rather than as one-to-one assistants. ## More [\ \ Greg Ulrich, Chief AI and Data Officer at Mastercard, speaks during a fireside chat at VB Transform 2026 in Menlo Park. Image credit: Michael O'Donnell Photography.](https://venturebeat.com/security/mastercard-spent-decades-training-its-fraud-system-to-see-bots-as-thieves-now-bots-are-the-ones-doing-the-buying) [\ \ From left to right: Carl Franzen of VentureBeat interviews Rashed Haq, GM VP of Autonomous Vehicles, at VB Transform 2026 conference. Credit: Michael O'Donnell Photography](https://venturebeat.com/orchestration/gm-redesigned-its-engineering-workflows-around-ai-agents-and-tripled-its-merged-pull-requests) When Runway's real-time AI avatars kept drifting off-center, engineers spent weeks chasing a back-end fix.

Venturebeat 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Content Infrastructure, Governance Lag Behind Agentic AI Adoption

AI agents have moved into mainstream enterprise use, but the content infrastructure needed to support them has struggled to keep up, according to a new...

Thejournal 3 weeks, 1 day ago