☕ Apple builds its own AI model for China & OpenAI launches Ultrafast mode to make GPT-5.6 Sol 14x faster.
Trump lets private firms hack back & Grok takes on OpenAI in coding.
Breaking News
Anthropic put multiple Claude agents to work on the same software project with conflicting goals, and some responded by creating increasingly aggressive, self-replicating malware to fight other agents. Researchers also observed agents colluding and agreeing on price floors, suggesting multi-agent AI systems could create entirely new safety risks that don’t appear when models are tested individually.
OpenAI launched Ultrafast, a new mode capable of running GPT-5.6 Sol at up to 750 output tokens per second - around 14x its standard speed. Powered by Cerebras infrastructure, the upgrade could make frontier AI practical for real-time workloads like customer support, financial analysis, incident response, and commerce.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Zerolook, a Zug, Switzerland-based travel technology startup, raised €1.6M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Playfair, with participation from Vento Ventures, TrueSight Ventures, Alpha Venture, and angel investors.
Lane, a Bengaluru, India-based tech-enabled driving education and vehicle mobility platform, raised approximately $1.01M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Kae Capital, with participation from DeVC, Antler India, Panthera Peak, and mobility angel investors.
Metal Morph, a London, UK-based infrastructure-as-a-service clean technology startup, raised £700K in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included climate tech VC funds and angels, alongside a £100K grant from Ofwat.
Vecton AI, a Bengaluru, India-based AI deployment and transformation platform for financial services, raised $715K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Zeropearl VC, with participation from cross-border enterprise software angel investors.
SEED
River Markets, a New York City-based financial infrastructure provider for prediction markets, raised $8.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, UFO Holdings, Qube Research & Technologies, TENET, Humbition, Kima Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Stack Asset Management, Perpetual Strategies, and angel investors.
BioScout, a Sydney, Australia-based agritech and predictive biosecurity startup, raised A$6.75M ($4.8M) in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Astanor Ventures, with participation from GrainInnovate, GrainCorp Ventures, Hort Innovation Venture Fund, Artesian, and Division Q.
Reservoir, a Charlestown, MA-based smart home electrification and predictive appliance company, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Asymmetric Capital Partners, with participation from MCJ Collective and existing investor Founder Collective.
Dimension, a Los Angeles, CA-based social commerce technology company, raised $1.65M in Seed funding. Backers included Science Inc., UpscaleX, OpenSky, Long Run Capital, 1864 Fund, Lawrence Hsu, and Austin Sprinz.
Wippi, a Bengaluru, India-based children’s consumer hardware and interactive media startup, raised $1.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by 12 Flags, with participation from Warmup Ventures, Ventana Ventures, and Ruvento Ventures.
GROWTH
Databricks, a San Francisco, CA-based data and AI company, closed a $5B strategic funding round at a $190B valuation. The round was led by Coatue, with participation from Blackstone, MGX, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates and T. Rowe Price Investment Management, and new investor Sixth Street Growth.
Princeton Critical Minerals, a Newark, NJ-based clean technology startup accelerating lithium production from brine sources, raised $16M in equity and grant funding, including an $11M Series A led by SOSV HAX.
Khartis Therapeutics, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology company developing therapies for immunological and chronic diseases, raised $50M in Series B funding. The round was led by Forge Life Science Partners, with participation from Longwood Fund, Alexandria Venture Investments, Foresite Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, and Nextech Invest.
Orange EV, a Kansas City, KS-based provider of zero-emissions terminal trucks and fleet infrastructure solutions, raised a $100M credit facility. The financing was led by Wells Fargo Bank.
Yulu, a Bengaluru, India-based shared electric mobility and micro-transportation company, raised $93M in Series C and debt financing. The financing consisted of $63M in equity led by GEF Capital Partners and $30M in structured debt.
Yuno, a Bogotá, Colombia-based global payment orchestration platform, raised $45M in Series B funding. The round was led by Global PayTech Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global Management, QuantumLight Capital, Monashees, Kaszek, Endeavor Catalyst, Rasmal Ventures, GrowthX Capital, and Further Ventures.
Naran, a Dubai, UAE-based mobility financing and fleet infrastructure platform, raised $10M in equity and debt financing. The round was led by Landel.
InduPro, a Seattle, WA-based biotechnology company developing therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases, raised $77M in Series B financing. The round was led by The Column Group, with participation from Vida Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, Emerson Collective, Euclidean Capital, Solasta Ventures, Sanofi, and Eli Lilly and Company.
Alloy Robotics, a Sydney, Australia-based robotics intelligence and data platform, raised $8M in additional funding. The round was led by Square Peg Capital, with continued participation from Blackbird Ventures, AirTree Ventures, and Skip Capital, alongside technology industry leaders, engineers, and customers.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read post
What should your AI spend actually be measured against?: Most startups ask how much they’re spending on AI, but the better question is what each dollar is replacing. This piece gives founders a 30-minute audit to sort AI tools by payroll impact, productivity lift, and product COGS - helping them cut wasted subscriptions and reallocate spend toward automation that actually compounds.
Before VCs invest, they’ll call your customers. But what do they really ask?: Before writing a check, serious investors often call your customers to understand usage, renewal intent, defensibility, buying process, and whether your revenue is truly repeatable. This piece shows founders how to manage that process without burning customer trust - from gating intros to choosing the right references and framing the raise as a decision they are making.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
WovenEarth Ventures, a Palo Alto, CA-based investment firm backing early-stage cleantech companies, held the final close of its second fund, WovenEarth Fund II, at $155M. The investor syndicate includes The Pennsylvania State University, Glenmede, Mortenson Family Foundation, and M.A. Mortenson Companies. WovenEarth Fund II also welcomed additional partners, including foundations, family offices, and the J.M. Huber Corporation.
Team8, a Tel Aviv, Israel- and NYC-based global venture firm, raised $365m in new capital for two vehicles. The raise includes: $265m for its third fund, which will back Seed and Series A founders building AI-native companies across cybersecurity, software infrastructure, fintech and digital health, and more than $100m for follow-on investments in its highest-conviction portfolio companies.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
US to let private companies conduct offensive cyber operations
The U.S. government will allow vetted private companies to conduct government-supervised cyber operations against international criminal groups involved in ransomware, scams and other cyber threats.
Approved firms could conduct surveillance and disrupt or destroy criminal systems, but each operation will require Justice Department and Homeland Security approval and cannot target Americans or U.S.-based systems.
The policy marks a major shift from longstanding restrictions on private-sector hacking. Critics warn it could create legal, diplomatic and security risks for participating U.S. companies and employees.
OpenAI hires new revenue chief amid executive shake-up
OpenAI has appointed former Wiz president and COO Dali Rajic as chief revenue officer, replacing Denise Dresser after nine months as the company sharpens its enterprise sales strategy.
The move follows the departures of senior executives Brad Lightcap and Fidji Simo, while co-founder Greg Brockman has taken on a larger management role.
OpenAI now reaches over 1 billion weekly active users and 2 million businesses, but has reportedly missed some revenue goals as it prioritizes measurable enterprise growth ahead of a potential IPO.
Nvidia’s $500B AI infrastructure bet could create a massive market for aging GPUs
Nvidia is working with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize up to $500 billion for AI data centers, while backstopping up to 25% of potential losses in GPU collateral value.
The bigger strategy is creating a strong secondary market for older Nvidia GPUs. If aging chips retain value and can move between customers, clouds, and operators, financing AI infrastructure becomes less risky for investors.
The risk is “wrong-way” exposure: if AI demand weakens and GPU values fall, Nvidia could face larger obligations precisely when its own revenue is under pressure. But if it works, Nvidia could turn AI compute into a long-lived infrastructure asset rather than rapidly depreciating hardware.
Grok takes on OpenAI in coding
xAI has released Grok 4.6, its latest AI model, which the company says matches OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol on several coding and knowledge-work benchmarks, marking Grok’s return to the front of the AI race.
xAI credits its partnership with and possible purchase of coding company Cursor, whose real-world usage data trained Grok 4.5 and, after a longer training run, Grok 4.6, which launches first inside Cursor alongside the Grok Build coding agent.
Grok still faces reputation problems, from its role in making non-consensual nude images to weak business uptake, with just 4% of companies using AI tools paying for xAI, according to Ramp’s AI Index.
Google reshuffles AI leadership as it races to regain the lead
Hackers believed to be linked to China ran what researchers call the first fully autonomous cyberattack on a government, using free AI tools to break into Taiwanese systems, steal over 2,500 personnel records, and compromise 85 accounts.
The four-day campaign in early July deployed up to eight AI agents at once, built on two open-source frameworks called Hermes and OpenClaw, which mapped 21 government systems before targeting Taiwan’s nuclear safety agency and energy firms.
According to Israeli firm Dream, the tool devised its own attacks, ranking and switching paths when techniques failed, and bypassed the model’s safeguards by posing the intrusion as an authorized penetration test rather than a real attack.
Apple builds its own AI model for China with Alibaba’s support
Apple has trained a China-specific large language model with support from Alibaba, shifting from its earlier strategy of relying primarily on Chinese partners’ models for AI features.
Apple Intelligence is expected to launch in China in the coming months after clearing regulatory hurdles. Alibaba’s Qwen will also be integrated, while Baidu technology is expected to play a role.
The strategy gives Apple more control over AI on Chinese devices and could help it compete with Huawei and other local smartphone makers that already offer built-in AI features.
Apple may pay publishers to bring current news to AI-powered Siri
Apple is reportedly negotiating with publishers to use their content to give its upcoming AI-powered Siri access to current news and information.
Instead of fixed licensing deals, Apple is considering paying publishers whenever their content is actually used, with a potential nine-figure budget allocated for the program.
The talks are part of Apple’s broader effort to make Siri a more capable AI assistant, with the upgraded Siri expected to roll out later this year.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Selena Gomez sued by investors over mental health startup Wondermind
Investors who put nearly $1.2 million into Wondermind are suing Selena Gomez, her mother and the startup, alleging securities fraud and breach of contract.
The lawsuit claims Wondermind failed to deliver promised initiatives, partnerships and an app, while investors were allegedly kept unaware of the company’s problems for years.
Investors also allege Wondermind misrepresented its finances and overstated Gomez’s involvement in the business. They are seeking to recover their investments and legal fees.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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