February 26, 2026

Pack it in

Hi there,

Here is this week's Hot or Not.

Hot: Big tech M&A

Big tech companies are back on the acquisition hunt. This follows a period of sharp decline amid the antitrust climate. 

Google this week picked up AI music generator startup ProducerAI, marking its third acquisition in 2026 so far. 

As we previously predicted, the AI boom is driving activity. Nearly three-quarters of deals in the last year have been AI acquisitions. 

If current trends hold, the group is on track to reach 2018 levels of activity this year.

Not: SaaS stocks

AI disruption fears continue to drive a sell-off in software stocks. 

Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, and Adobe (to name a few) are all down 20+% in 2026 so far. 

Investors are reacting to a possible future where AI agents replace the workflow software these companies sell.

Up first: coding and customer service. Next: legal, recruiting, and sales. 

Track, rank, and identify promising players across 30+ agent application and infrastructure markets on CB Insights.

Hot: Agentic AI security

Proven founders are moving early to define agentic AI security before incumbents react. 

We analyzed recent early-stage activity to identify where the highest-potential teams are focused.

Ten of the top 100 by CB Insights Management strength scores are automating security with agents and securing agents themselves, with hiring plans indicating an enterprise sales push. 

Get the latest emerging tech trends to watch here.

Lukewarm: “Intelligence”

Another model lab with “intelligence” in its name is raising another chunk of funding.

• Ex-DeepMind scientist David Silver is raising $1B for his London-based AI lab Ineffable Intelligence, per news that dropped last week.

• Yann LeCun’s Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs is in talks to raise $500M+.

• Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence raised $2B in 2025.    

Aside from the model labs, CB Insights data shows limited action around the name “intelligence” for companies forming year-over-year. Funding round not included.

The +1

Look closely. X-axis feeling squeezed.

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal 

Co-Founder & Exec Chair

P.S. We’re unpacking live our digital health predictions for 2026. Sign up to get the data & insights.

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