Prakhar Srivastava / Reuters:
Mexico-based fintech Plata raised up to $500M in a financing deal arranged by Nomura Securities International, as it moves toward becoming a full-fledged bank  —  Mexican financial technology company Plata said on Monday it has raised up to $500 million in a financing deal arranged …

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google is shutting down its dark web monitoring tool, launched in 2024 to alert users when their personal info is detected on the dark web, on February 16, 2026  —  One of the lesser-known features that Google offers is a “Dark Web Report” monitoring tool, but it's about to shut down in early 2026.

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
NY-based Octane, which offers “instant” financing for large recreational and lifestyle purchases, raised a $100M Series F at a post-money valuation of $1.3B  —  Octane, a startup that offers “instant” financing for large recreational and lifestyle purchases …

Arsheeya Bajwa / Reuters:
Nvidia acquires SchedMD, the developer of Slurm, an open-source AI workload management system, and says it will keep distributing Slurm on an open-source basis  —  Nvidia (NVDA.O) said on Monday it acquired AI software firm SchedMD, as the chip designer doubles down on open-source technology …

Natalie Alms / Nextgov/FCW:
The Trump administration launches US Tech Force to recruit ~1,000 staffers from Apple, Meta, xAI, and others for two-year stints to modernize the government  —  After pushing hundreds of thousands of government employees to leave their posts and dismantling many government technology units …