A total funding of 240 billion sums will be formed in Uzbekistan to support local communities with the aim of ensuring employment, developing entrepreneurship, and improving infrastructure.
This was announced at a video selection meeting chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. It is planned to implement at least one profitable project in each community. A grant of 10 million sums will be allocated for such initiatives under the 'community self-governance' framework.
Residents were shown the procedure for preparing specific projects for each citizen; for example, in the village of Yangi Kuva, the needs of the unemployed regarding networks, loans, equipment, and land were studied. Community heads will receive the authority to auction off vacant lands for the construction of private kindergartens, schools, clinics, and sports facilities.
Furthermore, the head of the community approves weekly and monthly work plans and demands results from district assistant heads, women's activists, youth leaders, social workers, prevention inspectors, tax inspectors, and local bankers.
The National Institute of Community Development will be established to train 'community self-governance' and develop scientific solutions for regional problems.
The procedure for working of local bankers will change: an additional 2 trillion sums has been allocated for family entrepreneurship. The interest rate on loans in 'difficult' communities has been reduced from 17.5% to 12%. Banks are instructed to jointly create a 'growing—processing—storage—packaging—selling' chain with 'Agrostar' companies and begin work in thousands of communities within a month.
The budget of the communities will also be increased through additional sources. It is expected that by 2026, revenues to the community budgets will reach 1.6 trillion sums, and from the following year, 2 trillion sums. Additionally, 200 communities that have registered the largest number of entrepreneurs, created new jobs, and defined an additional tax base will be awarded a bonus of 2 billion sums.
Whale has successfully closed a Series C funding round, securing an additional $40 million. This brings the total funding in Series C to $100 million. The fundraising comes amid growing corporate interest in artificial intelligence platforms capable of integrating digital tools with real business processes.
The leaders of this round were CMB International and SMBC Asia Rising Fund. They were joined by Krungsri Finnovate, Singtel Innov8, Hyundai Motor Group, and Charisma Partners. Previously involved in the round were funds such as Bosch Ventures, MTR Lab, MDI Ventures, Gentree Fund, and Linear Capital.
The company plans to use the raised funds to strengthen international growth, enhance relationships with corporate clients, and deepen integration into local infrastructure. In the near term, Whale aims to increase its presence in North America and the Asia-Pacific regions.
Founded by Jerry Ye, Whale developed an AI Operating System designed to assist organizations in understanding and automating physical production environments. The company's proprietary Business World Model interprets data collected via cameras, sensors, and audio devices.
Investors are demonstrating confidence in AI tools that genuinely impact business operations, rather than being merely impressive autonomous software. Whale intends to direct capital toward recruiting new specialists, expanding its presence across various regions, and improving the reliability of its platform, especially given the demand for such solutions.
Whale currently collaborates with enterprises in sectors such as retail, automotive, manufacturing, finance, food processing, healthcare, and telecommunications. The company's primary objective is to help a greater number of organizations automate workflows, ensure regulatory compliance, and gain deep insights into their business operations.
CMB International emphasized Whale's capability to execute complex corporate AI projects across different industries and markets, believing that the company's technological foundation ensures long-term global growth. SMBC Asia Rising Fund noted Whale's ability to structure data from the physical environment into actionable business analytics. This partnership is expected to combine Whale's technologies with the international client network of SMBC Group to accelerate solution adoption across various sectors.
Krungsri Finnovate gained capabilities for comprehensive operational support in the ASEAN market from Whale's AI platform, while Hyundai Motor Group believes the technology can be applied in sales, marketing, customer interaction, and service within the Group's business.
Fireworks AI successfully raised $1.5 billion in a Series D funding round, boosting its valuation to $17.5 billion. This growth is driven by high demand for platforms that allow companies to build and run their own artificial intelligence models independently.
With the new capital, Fireworks plans to strengthen its computing power, hire more engineers, and solidify partnerships with leading cloud service providers. Furthermore, the company announced annual revenue exceeding $1 billion, representing a fivefold increase compared to the previous year.
The round was led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures, and TCV, with support from major players such as NVIDIA, Lightspeed, Evantic Capital, Bessemer, Menlo Ventures, Insight Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Lone Pine Capital. Fireworks was founded in 2022 by Lin Xiao and six former Meta engineers. The company helps organizations fine-tune open AI models, aiming to become a platform for creating custom intelligence that meets specific needs rather than relying entirely on closed models.
Fireworks AI forecasts that the next generation of enterprise artificial intelligence will focus on models developed for specific companies. Since every business has a unique set of data, workflows, and knowledge, these can become specialized AI skills. The company found that about 95% of processed tokens in its system come from user models, not standard base models. Fireworks offers a portfolio of over 200 text, image, and multimodal models.
The company's services are used by major clients such as Uber, Shopify, Doximity, Elastic, GitLab, and MongoDB. Fast-growing AI firms like Harvey and Cursor also rely on Fireworks' infrastructure. In addition to clients, the figures are impressive: earlier this year, Fireworks strengthened its collaboration with Microsoft, giving Microsoft customers access to AI models on the Fireworks platform running on the compute resources of over 20 different infrastructure providers. Gavin Baker from Atreides Management notes a trend where more and more businesses will begin combining advanced AI models with customizable open-source options tailored to their needs. The daily volume of tokens passing through the platform has increased from 15 trillion to over 40 trillion.
The new funds will be directed towards developing global computing infrastructure, increasing the engineering staff, and strengthening ties with cloud providers. The company currently employs 200 people and expects its staff to triple by the end of the year amid sustained demand. Fireworks asserts that its specialized models match or exceed closed models on a range of business-specific tasks at a significantly lower cost. Fireworks is betting on the growing interest of enterprises in gaining more control over AI performance, costs, and data security.
Netflix announced on Thursday, the 16th, a projection for the third quarter of 2026 that fell short of estimates released by The Wall Street Journal. In this scenario, the company is seeking new avenues for expansion beyond conventional subscriber growth. For the period from July to September, the company forecasts revenue of US$ 12.86 billion and diluted earnings per share of US$ 0.82.
This announcement took place in Los Angeles, United States, along with the release of second-quarter results, which were close to analysts' forecasts. After the market closed, Netflix shares dropped by approximately 4%, reaching US$ 71.30. In addition to the change in financial expectations, Netflix communicated that it will modify the frequency of reporting user viewing hours. Starting in January 2027, the audience report will cease to be semi-annual and will become annual, with a greater focus on operating profit and revenue.
In the second quarter, which recently concluded, Netflix generated revenue of US$ 12.56 billion and earnings per share of US$ 0.80, a performance considered aligned with analysts' projections. Among the titles that drove this period were the police drama 'I Will Find You' and the animation 'Swapped'. In a statement directed at shareholders, the company reaffirmed maintaining a stable financial trajectory and being in line with its annual goals.
However, the company faces increasingly fierce competition for public attention, vying for space with large established media companies, various digital platforms, and short video apps. This competition includes groups such as Walt Disney, coupled with the growing domestic use of entertainment by YouTube and the increased presence of mobile platforms like TikTok.
Before the results presentation, Netflix had already lost more than one-fifth of its market value due to investor uncertainty about its ability to increase revenue and acquire new customers. In April, the company had reported having over 325 million paid subscribers and believed there was potential to expand this base. Simultaneously, the company is working on developing new business lines, such as advertising and video games, although these initiatives are still in the initial stages.
The advertising sector represents one of Netflix's main bets. The company maintained its goal of achieving US$ 3 billion in advertising revenue by the end of the year and plans to use live event broadcasts, including extended NFL programming, to attract more advertiser investment. Netflix also reported that user engagement remains positive, with the number of viewing hours growing by 2% in the first half of this year, compared to a 1.5% expansion in the same period the previous year.
