☕ Apple commits $30B for US-made chips & Mistral launches its first robotics AI model.
OpenAI launches GPT-Live-1 for more natural voice conversations & SpaceXAI launches Grok 4.5 with focus on lower AI costs.
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2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Breaking News
Apple signed a $30+ billion deal with Broadcom to build over 15 billion custom wireless chips in the U.S., while investing $1.5 billion to expand domestic manufacturing. The move is part of Apple's broader strategy to strengthen its U.S. chip supply chain and reduce long-term reliance on overseas production.
OpenAI unveiled GPT-Live-1, a new voice model that can listen and speak simultaneously, enabling interruptions, real-time translation, and more natural conversations. The launch signals OpenAI's push to make voice a primary interface for future AI assistants and agentic workflows.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Wonderdog, a Hermosa Beach, CA-based developer of an AI-powered canine preventive health platform, raised $5M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by WndrCo and Maveron, with strategic backing from Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Floqer, a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based autonomous customer knowledge base for go-to-market teams, raised $2M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included F7 Fund, N49P, Tidal Venture Partners, and Denis Yarats.
SEED
M1X Global, a New York City-based developer of sovereign financial infrastructure and on-chain capital market technologies, raised $5.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Paradigm, with participation from Breed VC and early angel investors.
AIsa, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a transaction network for the AI agent economy, raised an undisclosed Seed funding round. The round was led by Alibaba and Tribe Capital, with participation from Draper Associates, Sumitomo Corporation, Saison Capital, and other investors.
Handspring Health, a NYC-based virtual mental health company, raised $19M in Seed funding. The round was led by RPS Ventures, with participation from Angelini Ventures, Cobalt Ventures, NextView Ventures, nvp capital, Hyde Park Angels, Cornucopian Capital, and others.
Savi Security, a Los Angeles, CA-based consumer tech company protecting families from AI-powered scams, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Acrew Capital, with participation from Magnify Ventures, TTCER, and Resolute Ventures.
Arkenstone Defense, a Menlo Park, CA-based government contracting and compliance platform, raised $35M in Seed funding. The round was led by J2 Ventures, with participation from Susa Ventures, Granite Hill Capital Partners, and Artis Ventures.
GROWTH
Forge Industries, a Las Vegas, NV-based waste-to-fuel climate technology company, raised $3.85M in funding. The round was co-led by Next Phase Capital and 8090 Industries, with participation from Golden Seeds.
Hakimo, a Menlo Park, CA-based AI-powered physical security platform, raised $12M in funding. The round was led by Zigg Capital, with participation from Neotribe Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Defy.vc, and Rocketship.vc.
Pearl Health, a NYC-based healthcare technology company, raised $110M in funding. The round included $50M in equity led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Viking Global Investors, AlleyCorp, and Ulysses Capital, alongside a $60M debt facility led by Trinity Capital.
Emesent, a Wacol, Australia-based autonomous mapping and robotics company, raised $17M in funding. The raise included a venture debt facility from National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and an equity round backed by Main Sequence, QIC Ventures, Orion Resource Partners, Hostplus, and NGS Super.
Kaon AI, a San Francisco, CA-based generative AI platform, raised an undisclosed Series B funding round. Backers included B Capital, Redpoint Ace, Goodwater Capital, and DCM.
Venus Aerospace, a Houston, TX-based aerospace company, raised $91M in Series B funding. The round was led by Mercury Fund, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, MESH, PEAK6, Draper Associates, Starboard Star Venture Capital, Green Sands Equity, and others.
Alta, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based AI platform for go-to-market teams, raised $25M in Series A funding. The round was led by N Venture, with participation from Mindset Ventures, Skywell Capital, LeumiTech77, Entrée Capital, Target Global, and Verissimo Ventures.
Leo Cancer Care, a Middletown, WI- and London, UK-based medical technology company, raised $65M in Series D funding. The round was led by Yu Galaxy, with participation from Eventide Asset Management and existing investors.
Klinic, a Frisco, TX-based healthcare platform, raised $24M in Series A funding. Backers included Proofpoint Capital, I2BF Global Ventures, Tau Ventures, Upstream Ventures, Draper Associates, and Wicklow Capital.
Bidbus, a Los Angeles, CA-based automotive auction marketplace, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Ibex Investors, with participation from Mucker Capital, FJ Labs, Motley Fool Ventures, Data Point Capital, Walter Ventures, and Yossi Levi.
Adaptive Insurance, an Austin, TX-based climate resilience insurance company, raised $5M in financing. Backers were undisclosed.
KOR Protocol, a London, UK-based creative asset platform, raised $7.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by 1kx and Blockchain Capital, with participation from Republic Crypto, Sfermion, Animoca Brands, Solana, Avalanche, Alumni Ventures, SevenX, and others.
Kord, a London, UK-based fintech platform, raised £6.4M in Series A funding. The round was led by Guinness Ventures, with participation from Beringea, SFC Capital, and angel investors.
Fleek, a London, UK-based secondhand fashion infrastructure company, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round was led by Burda Principal Investments, with participation from eBay, FJ Labs, H14, Andreessen Horowitz, HV Capital, Y Combinator, and others.
Young Group, a Turin, Italy-based digital banking and tokenization platform, completed a €22.5M funding round. The round was led by Azimut Group.
Doodhvale Farms, a Delhi, India-based direct-to-consumer dairy company, received $1M in funding from Atomic Capital.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read writeups
What founders should never automate: Not every startup task should be automated with AI. Some tasks are busywork, while others quietly carry the customer signal founders need to find product-market fit. This piece explains how to separate repeatable work from signal-rich work, so founders can automate the right things without losing the insights that shape the product. (Read Here)
The skill every VC job seeker needs: Breaking into VC is not just about credentials. It is about proving you can think clearly, form strong opinions, and develop a unique view of where the world is going. This piece explains why aspiring investors should build their own thesis and use it to show how they can help a fund discover better opportunities. (Read Here)
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Paradigm, a U.S.-based venture capital firm founded by Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, raised $1.2 billion for its latest fund. The firm will invest in startups across crypto, AI, robotics, and other technical frontier technologies, expanding beyond its traditional cryptocurrency focus.
Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, a U.S.-based venture firm founded by solo GP Ashley Smith, raised $25 million for its second fund. The firm invests in technical founders building AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and developer tools, with plans to back at least 25 early-stage startu
Chemistry Ventures, a U.S.-based early-stage venture firm founded by Mark Goldberg, Ethan Kurzweil, and Kristina Shen, is raising $500 million for its second fund. The firm invests in AI startups across infrastructure and applications, and its debut $350 million fund backed companies including Granola, Decagon, Persona, Serval, and Nova Intelligence.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
SpaceXAI launches Grok 4.5 with focus on lower AI costs
SpaceXAI has released Grok 4.5, positioning it as a general-purpose AI model for coding, research, writing, and knowledge work with roughly double the token efficiency of competing models.
Elon Musk described Grok 4.5 as an “Opus-class” model, claiming performance comparable to Anthropic’s Opus 4.7 while delivering faster responses at a lower cost.
Grok 4.5 is priced at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens, as SpaceXAI looks to compete on both performance and affordability ahead of OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 launch.
Lovable reportedly in talks to double valuation to $13.2B
Swedish AI startup Lovable is reportedly raising $300 million at a $13.2 billion valuation, doubling its valuation from six months ago, with Menlo Ventures expected to lead the round.
The company reached a $500 million annualized revenue run rate in June, fueled by strong demand for its AI-powered vibe-coding platform.
Lovable serves both individual creators and enterprises including Workday, Asana, and Nvidia, highlighting the rapid growth of AI-powered software development tools.
Meta tries to ease AI glasses privacy fears, but concerns remain
Meta has introduced a safeguard that disables AI glasses’ camera if the recording indicator LED is tampered with, aiming to prevent covert recording and address growing privacy concerns.
At the same time, Meta continues expanding AI features that rely on user data, including training AI on shared images and enabling AI-powered features that use public Instagram content unless users opt out.
The contrast between stronger hardware privacy protections and broader AI data collection has renewed criticism of Meta’s overall privacy strategy, especially as the company faces ongoing scrutiny over its use of personal data.
Anthropic's Claude Cowork now runs on your phone
Anthropic has extended Claude Cowork, its agent for general knowledge work, from the desktop app to web and mobile, launching in beta to Max subscribers first so tasks can continue even with the laptop closed.
A feature called Dispatch keeps one persistent thread that routes each request to the right engine, sending development work to Claude Code and knowledge work to Cowork, then messaging back the result instead of every step.
Anthropic sampled 1.2 million sessions from over 600,000 organisations and found business process work led at 33.4%, content creation followed at 16.4%, while software development made up just 8.7%.
China may allow limited Nvidia H200 chip purchases for leading AI firms
China is reportedly preparing to let leading AI companies, including Alibaba, ByteDance, and DeepSeek, purchase a limited number of Nvidia H200 AI chips. Officials are reportedly considering approving fewer than 200,000 chips, well below what companies requested.
The move comes as Chinese AI firms face growing compute shortages despite Beijing’s push for domestic AI chips. The U.S. has already approved Nvidia’s H200 exports to China, but Chinese authorities have so far delayed their own approvals.
If approved, the decision would give China’s top AI developers temporary access to advanced Nvidia hardware while the country continues investing in homegrown semiconductor capabilities.
Mistral launches its first robotics AI model
Mistral has unveiled Robostral Navigate, its first robotics-focused AI model, marking the French AI company’s entry into physical AI for factories, warehouses, and industrial automation.
The model enables robots to navigate using a single camera without requiring lidar, multiple cameras, or other expensive sensors, making it easier to deploy across different robot manufacturers.
The launch follows Mistral’s acquisition of Austria’s Emmi AI in May and reflects growing competition in robotics AI, with companies increasingly developing foundation models for real-world autonomous systems.
ispace partners with SpaceX to launch lunar rideshare service
Japan’s ispace will launch a lower-cost lunar cargo service by purchasing 500 kg of capacity on a SpaceX Starship mission for $50 million, with the first moon landing targeted as early as 2030.
Instead of flying dedicated landers for every mission, ispace will build a shared lunar surface vehicle that allows multiple customers to transport payloads to the Moon on the same Starship flight, creating a “rideshare” model for lunar logistics.
The partnership expands ispace’s relationship with SpaceX beyond Falcon 9 launches and complements its own Ultra lunar lander program, as the company aims to build long-term infrastructure for commercial activity on the Moon.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
China warns of ‘backdoor’ risk in Anthropic’s Claude Code
China’s industry ministry-backed National Vulnerability Database warned that Claude Code versions 2.1.91–2.1.196 contain an alleged “backdoor” that could transmit user location and identity-related information to remote servers without consent. It advised users to uninstall affected versions or upgrade immediately.
The warning follows Alibaba’s decision to ban employees from using Claude Code after scrutiny over features that could identify China-linked users. Chinese authorities also recommended tighter network monitoring and stricter controls on development tools.
Anthropic rejected the “backdoor” characterization, saying the feature was an experimental anti-abuse mechanism designed to prevent unauthorized access, adding that Claude is not officially available in China.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & Startup Job Opportunities
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