☕ Anthropic just poached Nobel Prize-winning scientist from Google & The creator of VLC Media Player raised $5M to control robots.
US suspects ASML's banned chip tool reached China & Google copies Nvidia’s playbook to sell AI chips.
Breaking News
Anthropic has poached Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Jumper from Google DeepMind, adding one of the key minds behind AlphaFold and one of the most respected researchers in AI. The move follows other high-profile departures from Google and highlights how the AI race is increasingly becoming a battle for elite talent, not just models and compute.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf, best known as the creator of VLC Media Player, has raised $5M for Kyber, a platform designed to control robots, drones, and remote devices with ultra-low latency. The startup is already working with customers in robotics, telecom, defense, and AI, betting that real-time infrastructure will become a critical layer for the next generation of autonomous systems.
FROM OUR PARTNER - SUPERPOWER
🔥 A new way to take control of your health — with Superpower
You’ve never had a health check like this. Venture Daily Digest has partnered with Superpower to give you access to advanced health testing that goes 5x deeper than a routine check-up.
Every Superpower membership begins with a simple blood draw that tests 100+ biomarkers to detect early signs of 1,000+ conditions.
This is just the beginning of your health journey.
PARTNERSHIP WITH US
🤝 Get your startup in front of 125,000+ audience.
Our newsletter is read by 125,000+ of tech professionals, founders, investors (VCs / Angel Investors) and managers around the world. Get in touch today.
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Turbo Law, a San Mateo-based litigation intelligence and file structure platform, raised $3.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Revo Capital, with participation from Treeo VC, BridgeX Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, and angel investor Gokul Rajaram.
Warren, a Ghent-based workplace pension and financial coaching platform, raised €10M in Seed funding. The round was led by Motive Partners, with participation from F Capital, Entourage, Syndicate One, and 100IN.
Aether AI, a San Diego-based company building causal world models, raised $20M in Seed funding. The round was led by MPCi, with participation from Inno Angel Fund, SWC Global, Unity Ventures, and other institutions.
GitHits, a Wilmington-based company enabling coding agents to access open-source code, raised $1.75M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Vendep Capital, Trind, and angel investors Peter Sarlin, Zach Shelby, and Jerry Liu.
SEED
Architect Labs, a Palo Alto-based company building AI systems for custom chip and silicon design, raised $24M in Seed funding. The round was led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from TQ Ventures, Race Capital, Together Fund, Srinivas Narayanan, Lukasz Kaiser, Aravind Srinivas, Kunle Olukotun, Trevor Blackwell, Alex Wissner-Gross, Shaad Khan, and executives from NVIDIA, Google, and OpenAI.
Ralo, a NYC-based AI-powered mortgage brokerage platform, raised $2.9M in Seed funding. Backers included Y Combinator, Manresa Ventures, Pack Ventures, and angels Charles Ferguson and Ryan Frazier.
GROWTH
Andera, a San Francisco-based AI-native internal audit and compliance testing platform, raised $37M in Series A funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
XDOF, a Berkeley-based developer of data engineering pipelines and annotation systems for physical AI, raised $70M in funding. Backers included Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, and WndrCo.
Katalyst Space, a Flagstaff-based space technology company, raised $12M in funding. The round was led by Geodesic Capital, with participation from Fortitude Ventures and other investors.
Kvasir Technologies, a Soborg-based climate-neutral marine biofuels company, raised €10M in Series A funding. Backers included European Energy, EIFO, Mærsk Growth, and Footprint Fund.
Frontier Health, a London-based patient pathway tracking and clinical administration platform, raised $12.8M in funding. The round was led by Atomico, with participation from firstminute capital and XYZ Venture Capital.
Memento Medicines, a Boston-based biotech company developing retinal disease therapies, raised $93M in Series A funding. The round was led by Forbion, RA Capital Management, and Avego BioScience Capital, with participation from Sanofi Ventures and Samsara BioCapital.
Baseten, a San Francisco-based AI model deployment and serverless compute infrastructure company, is reportedly closing a $1.5B funding round. Backers include Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, and Wellington Management.
HyperLight, a Cambridge-based photonics company, raised $80M in Series C funding. The round was led by MediaTek, with participation from UMC Capital, Jabil, Foxconn, EDBI, CDIB-TEN Capital, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Summit Partners, The Engine, Foothill Ventures, and Xora Innovation.
Portal Biotechnologies, a Watertown-based cell engineering and drug discovery platform company, raised $9M in funding. The round was led by NFX, with participation from IA Ventures, Pear VC, Undeterred Ventures, IKJ Capital, and TechU Ventures.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
Why are even great startups still struggling to raise capital despite record venture funding? (Link)
What does YC’s latest batch reveal about the future of startup building? (Link)
Is AI’s winner-takes-all era quietly ending? What the State of AI 2026 report reveals. (Link)
The AI-Native Startup Playbook: How to Build, Launch and Scale Faster With AI. (Link)
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Anti Fund, a San Francisco, CA-based vc firm, closed its Anti Fund Growth I, at $100M. The fund is backed by a global base of limited partners, including Aquarian Holdings, an anchor investor across both Anti Fund Venture I and Growth I through its investment advisory platform, which manages approximately $27.1 billion in AUM
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Google copies Nvidia’s playbook to sell AI chips
Google is challenging Nvidia by borrowing its own financing tactics, using financial guarantees and “circular financing” to win data-centre customers for its tensor processing units, or TPUs, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
At the Lake Mariner cluster in western New York, Google has provided a $3.2bn guarantee, letting developers TeraWulf and FluidStack raise cheaper debt and rent thousands of TPUs to Anthropic, the same trick Nvidia used to stoke demand.
Google is backstopping more Anthropic projects with this logic, including a $7bn data centre called River Bend near Baton Rouge and $1.4bn in guarantees for a computing lease in Colorado City, Texas.
Trump’s crackdown may be making Anthropic stronger
The Trump administration forced Anthropic to take its newest AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline through an export control order, citing unspecified national security concerns linked to alleged guardrail bypasses.
Many cybersecurity experts argue the action was excessive, saying similar capabilities exist in other AI models and warning that removing advanced cybersecurity tools could weaken network defenders rather than improve security.
Ironically, the controversy may benefit Anthropic. Previous clashes with the Trump administration boosted interest in Claude, and the latest crackdown reinforces the perception that Anthropic’s models are among the most powerful AI systems available today.
Meta wants child safety bill rewritten to dodge lawsuits
Meta has lobbied Congress to add a provision to the Kids Online Safety Act that would grant platforms immunity from state-level child-harm lawsuits involving users under 18, possibly undercutting thousands of cases already filed.
The proposed language would make companies immune from state-law claims tied to the safety or privacy of minors online, and it would also override certain state laws governing children’s online protections.
According to a source, Meta offered to drop its opposition to KOSA if the provision is included, while Senator Marsha Blackburn’s office said it had not seen the language and would not support it.
US suspects ASML's banned chip tool reached China
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has told ASML executives he suspects one of the Dutch company’s banned EUV lithography machines, the only tools capable of printing the most advanced chip patterns, may have reached China.
Administration officials told Bloomberg they have evidence that ASML shipped EUV-related components and transport equipment to China but have repeatedly declined to show it, while the company insists no such machine has ever existed there.
A sale would breach export controls barring ASML from selling EUV to China since the first Trump administration, risking the roughly 20% of its 2026 revenue from already-permitted China sales and its standing as Europe’s most valuable company.
Apple may become Intel’s biggest comeback story yet
Apple has reportedly agreed to work with Intel to design and manufacture some of its chips in the United States, a major validation of Intel’s foundry ambitions as it attempts to compete with TSMC.
The partnership would help Apple diversify its supply chain beyond TSMC, whose advanced manufacturing capacity is increasingly constrained by booming demand from AI chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD.
If finalized, the deal would provide Intel with a high-profile customer and steady demand, while advancing broader US efforts to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing and reduce reliance on overseas production.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Norway bans AI in elementary schools
Norway is set to bar children between the ages of 6 and 13 from using AI in elementary schools, with the near-ban taking effect in late August across the country.
Teenagers between 14 and 16 will only be allowed to use AI under direct teacher supervision, while students aged 17 to 19 will learn to “use AI appropriately” for further education and work.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said using AI raises the risk that young children miss important steps in learning to read, write, and do mathematics, and the government will also propose legislation promoting books in classrooms.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & Startup Job Opportunities
Most aspiring VCs struggle with interviews, unclear expectations, no structured prep, and generic advice that doesn’t actually help. So we partnered with a leading investor group to build an all-in-one VC Interview Preparation Guide that gives you real clarity and frameworks. (Access Here)
Senior Analyst - ICONIQUE Capital | USA - Apply Here
Events Manager - Bain Capital Venture | USA - Apply Here
Venture AI & Operations Specialist - Blum Venture | Austria - Apply Here
VC Investor - Entourage | Belgium - Apply Here
Senior Associate - New York Life Venture | USA - Apply Here
Senior Investment Manager - Resolution Impact Venture | USA - Apply Here
Program Manager - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Visiting Analyst (Investment Team Intern) - DN Capital | UK - Apply Here
Associate - Manhattan Venture | USA - Apply Here
WHEN YOU’RE READY, HERE’S HOW I CAN HELP:
💁 You might need our help!
Reach 125,000+ Founders & Investors: Partner with our newsletter to reach a highly engaged audience.
Build Your Pitch Deck: We write, design and model your pitch deck into a storyteller book within 4-5 days.
Do you have any news to share about your Startup or VC fund? Please email us.
We’ll be back in your inbox on Tomorrow.