☕ Berkshire buys $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet, Meta will now grade employees on their AI skills & Tesla shifts US car parts supply away from China.
From OpenAI to Google, firms channel billions into AI infrastructure as demand booms.
Neil Armstrong’s hair sold for $3,000 in 2004.
First man on the Moon… and apparently first man whose barber clippings became luxury collectables.
📬 What’s in store:
Berkshire buys $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet.
How much of the AI data center boom will be powered by renewable energy?.
Meta will now grade employees on their AI skills.
Tesla shifts US car parts supply away from China.
US trade tribunal to consider new Apple Watch import ban.
From OpenAI to Google, firms channel billions into AI infrastructure as demand booms.
Are we nearing the end of Apple’s Tim Cook era?.
JPMorgan doesn’t want to pay Frank founder Charlie Javice’s legal bills.
J2 Ventures, a Boston, MA-based venture capital firm closed $250M fund.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY WORTH EXPLORING
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Why investors are backing Noble:
$10.3M raised from Corazon Capital, Scott Galloway, Andrew Yang & more
Premium 5G network, licensed through T-Mobile
5.5% annual growth on unused data cashback
Advisors include Calm CEO, Tim Urban, Charlamagne Tha God
Built by the team behind Andrew Yang’s 2020 campaign, Noble is tackling the $300B U.S. wireless market with values-first pricing and real-world rewards.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Confidein, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI and Faith technology company, closed its $6m seed funding round. The round was led by Christian leaders and venture capital firms.
Sensetics, a Princeton, NJ-based haptics and touch data company, raised $1.75M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by MetaVC Partners and Fitz Gate Ventures, with participation from Blue Sky Capital and AIC Ventures.
Self, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of zero-knowledge (ZK) identity solutions, raised $9M in Seed funding. Backers included Greenfield Capital, Startup Capital Ventures x SBI Fund (Softbank), Spearhead VC, Verda Ventures, Fireweed Ventures, Casey Neistat, and Web3 industry investors, including Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), Julien Bouteloup (Curve), Jill Carlson (Espresso), and Hart Lambur (Across Protocol).
TandemAI, a NYC-based drug discovery company, raised $22M in Series A extension funding. Backers included KHK Fund, and V-Capital, among others. Since its founding in October 2021, the company has raised over $80M.
Scripta Therapeutics, an Oxford, UK-based techbio startup, raised $12m in seed funding. The round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Apollo Health Ventures, with participation from AlbionVC, YZR Capital, and Parkwalk Advisors, and support from Oxford University Innovation.
Obello, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI graphic design platform, raised $8.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Baukunst, AVV and Preview Ventures.
Gopuff, a Philadelphia, PA-based instant commerce company, raised $250m in funding. The round was led by Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Robinhood, Equalis Capital, George Ruan, Yakir Gabay, and its co-founders, among others.
Chaos, a Helsinki, Finland-based provider of a location intelligence platform, raised €2M in funding. Backers included Nidoco and Finnvera.
CHAOS Industries, a Los Angeles, CA-based defense technology company, raised $510m in funding. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners, with participation from previous investors 8VC and Accel, at a $4.5 billion valuation. Antonio Gracias, Founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer at Valor Equity Partners, will join CHAOS’s Board of Directors.
Lative, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of an AI sales planning platform, raised $7.5M in funding. The round was led by Act Venture Capital and Senovo VC, with participation from Elkstone, Enterprise Ireland, WestWave Capital, Handshake Ventures and Shuttle.
Parallel Web Systems, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of a web search infrastructure for AI agents, raised $100m in Series A funding. The round, which post-money valued the company at $740m valuation, was co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures, with participation from Spark Capital as well as previous investors Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Terrain.
Duality Healthcare, a Newry, Northern Ireland-based healthcare company, completed a £4.5m funding round. Led by John McEvoy, Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Marks, Chief Operating Officer, and Fergus McIlduff, Chief Financial Officer, Duality Healthcare operates private health clinics, which provide GP services and diagnostic care.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
J2 Ventures, a Boston, MA-based venture capital firm investing in technologies that advance both commercial markets and U.S. national security, closed its Brookhaven Fund, at $250m. LPs include JP Morgan, MetLife, Upsher Management, Alpha Leonis Partners and the State Investment Council of New Mexico, among other institutions and family offices.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Berkshire buys $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet
Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new $4.3 billion stake in Google’s parent company Alphabet, now holding 17.85 million shares and making it a top ten U.S. stock investment for the firm.
The company also continued selling its Apple shares, reducing its stake from 280 million to 238.2 million during the third quarter, although the stock remains Berkshire’s largest single holding.
This Alphabet investment is surprising given Warren Buffett’s aversion to tech companies, though he and Charlie Munger previously lamented not buying into Google’s advertising business much sooner.
How much of the AI data center boom will be powered by renewable energy?
The IEA says the world will spend $580B on data centers this year, exceeding global spending on new oil exploration, with the U.S. expected to consume half of all new data-center electricity demand.
Many new AI data centers are shifting to solar and other renewables because they’re easier to permit and cheaper to deploy, creating opportunities for startups working on microgrids, battery reuse, and cleaner data-center design.
The rapid buildout—OpenAI’s $1.4T plan, Meta’s $600B, Anthropic’s $50B—will stress existing grids and force governments to consider tax credits, faster permitting, and support for renewable-powered infrastructure.
Meta will now grade employees on their AI skills
Beginning in 2026, Meta will officially assess employees based on their “AI-driven impact,” making it a core expectation for delivering results and improving the company’s overall productivity.
For the upcoming 2025 cycle, the company plans to reward staff who show “exceptional AI-driven impact” and encourages them to highlight these wins in their self-reviews.
Meta is also rolling out an “AI Performance Assistant,” a new tool that lets workers use Metamate or Google’s Gemini to help write their own performance content.
Tesla shifts US car parts supply away from China
Tesla now requires its suppliers to exclude all China-made components from parts used in the manufacturing of cars assembled inside the United States, according to a new report.
The company and its partners have already swapped some China-made items and aim to transition all remaining components to production outside that country over the next two years.
This change follows struggles with fluctuating tariffs from the U.S.-China trade dispute, as General Motors also recently told its suppliers to remove China-made components from their supply chains.
US trade tribunal to consider new Apple Watch import ban
The US International Trade Commission will review whether Apple’s redesigned Watch models still infringe Masimo’s blood-oxygen patents, potentially triggering a new import ban.
Apple argues the case is meritless and says Masimo copied its design, while the companies continue fighting across multiple courts over patents and trade secrets.
The dispute escalates as Masimo also wins a separate $634M jury verdict against Apple for patent infringement.
From OpenAI to Google, firms channel billions into AI infrastructure as demand booms
Google will invest $40B to build three new data centers in Texas, joining a wave of massive AI-driven infrastructure spending across the tech industry.
Major companies — including Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, OpenAI, Broadcom, AMD, Intel, Tesla, and others — have announced multi-billion-dollar deals for chips, cloud capacity, and data center expansion.
The explosion in AI demand has triggered unprecedented capital commitments, with individual deals ranging from $5B to $300B and even a $500B data center project backed by SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle.
Are we nearing the end of Apple’s Tim Cook era?
Apple is preparing for the possibility that Tim Cook could step down as CEO as early as next year, with discussions reportedly happening after January’s earnings to allow a smooth transition before WWDC.
Cook, now 65, has led Apple since 2011, growing its market cap from $350 billion to $4 trillion, though the company has recently struggled to find a clear AI strategy.
No final successor has been chosen, but hardware engineering chief John Ternus is reportedly the leading internal candidate.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
JPMorgan doesn’t want to pay Frank founder Charlie Javice’s legal bills
JPMorgan Chase is fighting a court order requiring it to pay $142 million in legal fees for Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, the founder and CMO of Frank, who were convicted of defrauding the bank by inflating user numbers.
The bank’s lawyer, Michael Pittinger, said the billed expenses included luxury hotel upgrades, “24 hours of work in a single day,” and even cellulite butter, calling the charges “extreme abuses.”
Javice’s spokesperson countered that she followed JPMorgan’s policies, bought small personal items like ice cream, and “never sought reimbursement for anything not permitted.”
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
All-In-One VC Interview Preparation Guide: With a leading investors group, we have created an all-in-one VC interview preparation guide for aspiring VCs. Don’t miss this. (Access Here)
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AI Tech Lead - Core Innovation Capital | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Caanan | USA - Apply Here
Venture capital Fellowship for PhDs - Contrarian Venture | USA - Apply Here
VC Associate UK - Breega | UK - Apply Here
Analyst - Investments - Blackhill Fund | India - Apply Here
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