Startup news, 5 November 2026

2 briefs

• Venture capital desert: Red states now get less than 2% of U.S. funding as blue/purple dom

  The U.S. venture capital landscape is fracturing along political lines, with red states now receiving less than 2% of all startup funding in 2026—a collapse from previous years driven by five states…

  Reported by news.crunchbase.com

• Hugging Face’s Policy Chief on the Costs and Risks of Building with Open-Source AI

  Hugging Face’s Chief Policy Officer Irene Solaiman is sounding the alarm on the hidden complexities of open-source AI. The conversation highlights a growing tension: as open-source AI becomes more…

  Reported by techcrunch.com