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Federal research funding cuts are hitting American universities hard. MIT enrolled nearly five hundred fewer graduate students this fall — a twenty percent drop — after losing one hundred million dollars in federal research awards. MIT's president says the White House shift toward AI and private tech is coming directly at the expense of academic science.
Speaking of AI's expanding footprint, a startup called Fragment just raised twelve million dollars in a Series A round to build financial infrastructure for AI agents. The idea is to let vertical AI businesses automate their customers' financial operations end to end. Firstmark led the round, with BoxGroup participating — a signal that investors see AI not just as a tool, but as an autonomous financial actor.
Meanwhile, in De Soto, Kansas, data center giant Digital Realty is trying something unusual — offering residents ten thousand dollars in utility and property tax credits to win local support for a new facility. It's a rare moment of a tech company openly acknowledging that communities have a say in where this infrastructure lands.
Those are the stories driving the conversation today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
