Apple released macOS Sequoia 15.8.1 on September 28, 2026, addressing a critical out-of-bounds write vulnerability in CoreGraphics that could lead to arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability was reported by Meta Product Security and has been exploited in sophisticated attacks against targeted individuals.
AI assistant startup Instinct raised $1 billion in Series C funding at a $10 billion valuation, just a month after a $2.5 billion round, backed by investors including Sequoia Capital and Benchmark. The company's AI agent can perform tasks like booking travel, making purchases, and paying bills, but faces growing competition from Meta's Muse assistant and privacy concerns over user data disclosure.
AI assistant startup Instinct raised $1 billion in Series C funding at a $10 billion valuation from investors including Sequoia Capital and Benchmark Capital, just a month after a previous fundraise. The company's AI agent can perform tasks like booking travel, making purchases, and managing appointments, but faces growing competition from Meta's Muse assistant and privacy concerns over user data disclosure.
Sequoia partner Pat Grady shared insights on AI market dynamics, noting hyperscalers are now financing capex through borrowing rather than free cash flow, AI companies are growing at unprecedented rates, and a significant valuation gap exists between lead investors and follow-on rounds. Discussion also covered enterprise demand for custom AI models, the diffusion gap between model capabilities and real-world deployment, and hardware constraints including memory becoming a major capex line item.
Sequoia partner Pat Grady shared insights on AI industry dynamics in a 15-minute presentation, covering rapid revenue growth in AI companies, valuations inflating from $110M to $3.4B between funding rounds, enterprises building custom AI systems, and hyperscalers borrowing for capital expenditure rather than relying on cash flow. Key themes include the widening gap between model capabilities and real-world deployment, organizational shifts toward AI-driven agent networks, and intense competition among labs for API token pricing and talent.