☕ Anthropic looking to raise $50 billion & Meta lost another $4 billion on its Reality Labs division
Elon Musk says OpenAI betrayed its mission and SoftBank plans robotics-led data center startup.
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Breaking News
Anthropic is reportedly raising up to $50B at a ~$900B valuation, driven by explosive growth in its coding tools and enterprise demand. The scale of the round shows how the AI race is consolidating into a two-player battle at the top alongside OpenAI.
SoftBank is planning a robotics-led data center startup with ambitions for a $100B IPO, aiming to automate how AI infrastructure itself is built. The move highlights a deeper shift — the biggest opportunity in AI may not be models, but the systems and infrastructure powering them.
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
TrialClinIQ, a Houston, TX-based AI-powered clinical trial recruitment platform, raised $150K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Caduceus Capital Partners.
SEED
General Analysis, a San Francisco, CA-based security infrastructure platform for agentic AI, raised $10M in Seed funding. The round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from 645 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Y Combinator, and others.
SkyfireAI, a Huntsville, AL-based autonomous drone operations company, raised $11M in Seed funding. The round was led by Mucker Capital, with participation from AI Fund, SaaS Ventures, Halogen, and others.
Crazy Mountain, a Los Angeles, CA-based non-alcoholic beer brand, raised $15M in Seed funding. The round was led by CAVU Consumer Partners, with participation from Coatue and Discovery Land Company.
Certifyde, a NYC-based AI adoption platform, raised $2M in Seed funding. Backers included K5 Global, Flamingo Capital, and angel investors.
All3, a Zug, Switzerland-based robotics platform for construction, raised $25M in Seed funding. The round was led by RTP Global, with participation from SuperSeed, Begin Capital, s16vc, and VNV Global.
TIES, an Austin, TX-based men’s wellness brand, raised $1.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by HumanCo.
GROWTH
Hightouch, a San Francisco, CA-based data and AI platform for marketing, raised $150M in Series D funding at a $2.75B valuation. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Iconiq Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Amplify Partners, Y Combinator, and others.
viteSicure, a Milan-based insurtech startup, raised €2.5M in Series A funding. Backers included Ad4Ventures, Gruppo MFE, and Net Insurance.
OpenObserve, a Menlo Park, CA-based observability platform, raised $10M in Series A funding. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners and Dell Technologies Capital.
Fence, a NYC-based asset-backed finance infrastructure platform, raised $20M in funding. The round was led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from ParaFi Capital and Crane Ventures Partners.
Rogo, a NYC-based AI platform for finance, raised $160M in Series D funding. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Sequoia, Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, and others.
Chord, a NYC-based commerce AI platform, raised $7M in funding. The round was led by Equal Ventures, with participation from M13, Chingona Ventures, and CEAS Investments.
definity, a Chicago-based agentic data engineering platform, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by GreatPoint Ventures, with participation from Dynatrace and existing investors.
Aidoc, a NYC-based clinical AI company, raised $150M in Series E funding. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with participation from General Catalyst, SoftBank, and others.
Tacalyx, a Berlin-based biotech company, raised €11M in Seed extension funding. Backers included Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Kurma Partners, HTGF, Eurazeo, and others.
Vivacta Biotechnology, a Shanghai-based biotech company, raised $50M+ across Series A and A+ funding. The rounds were led by Loyal Valley Capital and Decheng Capital, with participation from OrbiMed, Qiming Venture Partners, and others.
Parallel Web Systems, a Palo Alto-based AI infrastructure company, raised $100M in Series B funding at a $2B valuation. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and others.
Scout AI, a Sunnyvale-based defense tech company, raised $100M in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Align Ventures and Draper Associates, with participation from multiple investors.
Hypervision Surgical, a London-based surgical imaging company, raised £17M in Series A funding. Backers included Angelini Ventures, Redalpine, ZEISS Ventures, and others.
Zamp, a NYC-based sales tax OS platform, raised funding led by Acrew Capital, with participation from Thomson Reuters Ventures.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
BMW i Ventures, the venture arm of BMW AG, has raised a $300M fund to invest in early to Series B startups across North America and Europe. Led by managing partners Marcus Behrendt and Kasper Sage, the fund will focus on AI-driven technologies including agentic AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and industrial software, bringing total AUM to $1.1B.
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KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Meta continues to burn billions on AR/VR as AI spending surges
Meta lost another $4B on its Reality Labs division this quarter, bringing total losses to over $83B since 2021 — roughly $4B per quarter on average.
Despite strong profits, Meta is ramping up AI spending even more aggressively, projecting $125B–$145B in capex for 2026 to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic.
The bigger takeaway: Meta is shifting from its costly metaverse bet to an even more expensive AI race, where compute demand and infrastructure costs continue to exceed expectations.
Satya Nadella says Microsoft is ready to capitalize on new OpenAI deal
Satya Nadella says Microsoft retains full access to OpenAI models and IP through 2032 — now without paying royalties, calling it a clear win.
Despite losing exclusivity, Microsoft still benefits heavily: OpenAI remains a massive Azure customer (committed ~$250B spend), and Microsoft holds ~27% equity in the company.
Nadella emphasized a bigger shift: enterprises don’t want one model — they want multiple. Microsoft is positioning itself as the “model marketplace” across OpenAI, Anthropic, and open-source AI.
Elon Musk says OpenAI betrayed its mission
Elon Musk told jurors in an Oakland federal court that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission when it shifted from a charity to a for-profit company, arguing the pivot amounts to “stealing a charity” and sets a dangerous precedent.
OpenAI’s lawyer William Savitt countered that Musk himself pushed to restructure OpenAI as a for-profit in 2017 and wanted majority control, saying the lawsuit is really an attempt to hobble a rival to Musk’s own AI company, xAI.
The three-week trial could reshape OpenAI as it approaches a trillion-dollar valuation and a planned public offering, with Musk seeking a court order to unwind the October for-profit conversion that gave Microsoft a 27% stake and the nonprofit 26%.
China halts new self-driving permits after Baidu outage
China has stopped issuing new licenses for autonomous vehicles after more than 100 Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis suddenly stalled on the streets of Wuhan on March 31, stranding passengers and snarling city traffic.
Three agencies including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology met with officials from robotaxi pilot cities, calling for a full self-review and better safety monitoring, with no clear end date for the suspension.
The freeze blocks companies from adding robotaxis, starting test projects, or expanding to new cities, and it covers level four vehicles, sending Baidu, Pony AI, and WeRide shares lower in Wednesday trading.
Parallel Web Systems hits $2B valuation just months after last round
Parallel Web Systems, founded by Parag Agrawal, raised $100M at a $2B valuation (led by Sequoia), just five months after its $740M valuation Series A — showing massive investor confidence.
The startup builds web search and research APIs for AI agents, with customers like Clay, Harvey, Notion, and Opendoor, and claims 100,000+ developers using its tools.
The rapid valuation jump reflects a broader trend: infrastructure for AI agents (not just models) is becoming one of the hottest and most investable layers in the AI stack.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Google Cloud crosses $20B but growth limited by compute constraints
Google Cloud surpassed $20B in quarterly revenue (up 63% YoY), driven largely by strong demand for AI products like Gemini Enterprise and TPU-based infrastructure.
CEO Sundar Pichai admitted growth could have been even higher, but the business is currently “compute constrained,” with demand outpacing available capacity.
The backlog has surged to $462B, highlighting a key trend: in the AI era, growth is no longer limited by demand — it’s limited by infrastructure.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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