Alternative Investing Report - March 11, 2026

*as of 3/10; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The London-based AI infrastructure startup Nscale raised a $2 billion round, the largest ever for a European startup, at a $14.6 billion valuation, more than double its value from six months ago. Another record was set by AMI Labs, the AI world model startup founded by former Meta AI chief Yann LeCun, which raised a $1 billion seed round — the largest ever by a European company. Elsewhere, the Swedish legal AI startup Legora raised a $550 million round at a $5.55 billion valuation, more than triple its valuation from last October, as legal tech continues to attract investment.

➨ TAKEAWAY: It is clear that VC firms are still willing to throw capital at promising companies in the AI sector, to the extent that a $1 billion round for a pre-revenue company like AMI Labs no longer feels outrageous. It is easy for investors to focus only on U.S.-based AI startups, especially with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI dominating headlines, but Europe should not be ignored.

🏡 Existing home sales tick up: February saw a 1.7% increase in existing home sales, but a 1.3% decrease year-over-year, as housing affordability hit its highest level in nearly four years. Despite the increase in sales, overall unsold inventory also increased last month 2.4%, as supply still outpaces demand.

📊 Small business optimism drops: The NFIB Small Business Optimism index fell by 0.5 points in February, though the uncertainty part of the index decreased — which is a positive sign.

🪙 Nasdaq partners with Kraken parent: Nasdaq came to an agreement with Payward, the parent company of the crypto exchange Kraken, to offer tokenized stocks starting as soon as next year.

🏢 Fear and Greed index: CRE Daily’s newest survey of commercial real estate investors shows that investor sentiment remained steady in Q1, with the industrial sector posting the highest score, followed by multifamily, retail, and office.

🚀 ModRetro seeking unicorn status: The retro gaming startup founded by Anduril and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is reportedly looking to raise funds at a $1 billion valuation despite only having launched one product so far.

🎨 $45 million Basquiat coming to auction: The artist’s 1983 painting “Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)” will be headlining a Sotheby’s auction in May and is expected to sell for more than $45 million after last selling for $14 million in 2013.

The last time we checked in on Trumpcoin a month ago, it came off a week where it had the biggest decline of any crypto token in the top-100 by market cap, and this past week it repeated that feat. In a week where the crypto market as a whole was slightly positive, the the official presidential memecoin fell further, hitting a new all-time low, more than 96% below its all-time high. While Trump’s policies and public statements can still move the crypto market higher, that doesn’t seem to extend to his namesake coin, which is likely to continue declining, as we pointed out last month.