☕ Data centers expected to use 4x more electricity by 2035 & Google launches 3 new Gemini models.
Jack Dorsey launches an AI-native alternative to Slack & TSMC to raise chip prices in 2027.
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Breaking News
OpenAI revealed that pre-release AI models escaped a controlled testing environment, exploited a vulnerability, and accessed Hugging Face's production systems while attempting to complete a cybersecurity benchmark. The incident highlights the growing challenges of safely evaluating increasingly autonomous AI systems.
AI is expected to drive U.S. data center electricity consumption to nearly 20% of total power demand by 2035, according to BloombergNEF. The forecast underscores how AI infrastructure is becoming one of the biggest long-term challenges for energy grids, utilities, and global power markets.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Sightera Biosciences, an Antwerp, Belgium-based AI-driven drug discovery company, raised €3M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Entourage, Anacura, and QBIC.
SEED
Estrigenix Therapeutics, a Milwaukee, WI-based biotechnology company developing selective estrogen receptor-beta therapeutics, raised $2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Talents Fund I.
Photon Queue, a Champaign, IL-based quantum technology company developing quantum storage and computing systems, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Playground Global.
Vikk AI, a Long Beach, CA-based AI-powered legal discovery platform, raised $4.2M across a $700K Pre-Seed round and a $3.5M Seed round. Investors included MagnaSci Ventures, Ronson Shamoun, Joe Samo, Brad Jowell, and Cooper Collins.
Cordant, a New York City-based payments infrastructure platform for fintech companies and banks, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Motive Partners and Oak HC/FT, with participation from Bankless VC, FJ Labs, SignalFire, Quona, Next Stage, Selah Ventures, Flatironx, Nascent Ventures, Silvercircle Ventures, and Generative Ventures.
Sofab Inks, a Louisville, KY-based specialty materials company serving the perovskite solar industry, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Cloudberry Ventures.
Woddle Baby, an Orlando, FL-based AI-powered infant health monitoring company, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Capital Q Ventures.
Infinity, a San Francisco, CA-based AI infrastructure research company, raised $15M in Seed funding. Backers included Touring Capital, Principal VC, and angel investors.
GROWTH
Mach42, an Oxford, UK-based AI-driven semiconductor design company, raised £7M in Pre-Series A funding. The round was led by IP Group plc, with participation from BGF and Foresight Group.
Cascade, a New York City-based AI pursuit platform for architecture, engineering, and construction firms, raised $3.5M in funding. Backers included Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Indico Capital, shuckerVC, G2C Ventures, and Snowball VC.
Sila, an Alameda, CA-based battery technology company, raised $300M in private equity funding. The round was led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures, with participation from 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, T. Rowe Price Associates, and other investors.
Organic Traditions, a Toronto, Canada-based food brand, raised $10M in Series A funding. Investors were not disclosed.
MyDecisive, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of AI-powered DevOps services, raised $12M in funding. Investors were not disclosed.
Gritt, a San Francisco, CA-based robotics and AI company, raised $26M in Series A funding. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Active Impact Investments, First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures.
Assort Health, a San Francisco, CA-based AI agents platform for managing patient journeys, raised $120M in Series C funding. The round was led by Menlo Ventures.
Augustus, a New York City-based financial technology company, raised $180M in Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Hummingbird, QED, David Velez, Karim Atiyeh, Sean Neville, Alex Bouaziz, Victor Cardenas, Alan Chang, Balaji Srinivasan, Farooq Malik, Gavin Uberti, Victor Riparbelli, Alexander Rinke, Jamie Cox, Jan Oberhauser, Soma Capital, Road Capital Management, CMT Digital, Brevan Howard Digital, and Variant.
Alocity, a Pembroke Pines, FL-based provider of an AI operating system for physical spaces, raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding. Backers included a private investor group and founder Marco Quintero.
Tempress, a Vaassen, the Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment company, received a $20M investment from Jolt Capital.
Brenus Pharma, a Lyon, France-based immuno-oncology company, raised €11M in Series A extension funding. Backers included Angelor, UI Investissement, Crédit Agricole, Noshaq, Orsa, BIO JAG, Bpifrance, Sambrinvest, and Korea Omega Investment.
American Growth Insurance (AGI), an Atlanta, GA-based AI-enabled insurance brokerage growth platform, raised $70M in funding. Backers included Rockbridge Growth Equity and Atomic.
Rege Nephro, a Kyoto, Japan-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing kidney regenerative medicines, raised approximately $10.6M in funding. Backers included Arcus South East Asia, BA7 Venture Capital CORP, Chushin Venture Capital, DCI Partners, JAFCO Group, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Kyoshin Social Capital, Kyoto University Innovation Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, RAP-HI, SPARX Asset Management, TaiAn Technologies, and Toho Holdings.
Twenty, an Arlington, VA-based cyber warfare startup, received a $30M investment from Khosla Ventures following its recently announced $100M Series B round led by Accel. Other investors included Friends and Family Capital, Point72 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and In-Q-Tel.
Natural, a San Francisco, CA-based payments infrastructure company for AI agents, raised $30M in Series A funding. The round was led by Kirsten Green, with participation from Aarmaan Ali, Baris Akis, Ramtin Naimi, Nichole Wischoff, Darragh Buckley, Pablo Palafox, Paul Klein IV, Akshay Kothari, Henri Stern, Max Segall, Art Levy, Jake Paul, and Logan Paul.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read posts
How to get investors interested months before you raise (with the exact emails that get replies): Most founders wait until they need money before reaching out to investors. This piece shows how to build relationships earlier with monthly updates that show momentum, build trust, and make the eventual fundraise feel like the next step.
How seed, growth and micro-VC funds hire differently (And which one you should apply to): Most people apply to venture capital like it is one industry, but seed funds, growth funds, and solo GPs hire for completely different skills. This piece helps aspiring investors understand which VC lane fits their background and what proof-of-work they need to build before applying.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Dimension Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm founded by Zavian Dar, Adam Goulburn, and Nan Li, raised $800 million for its third fund. The firm invests in startups operating at the intersection of science and computing, with a focus on AI, biotech, drug discovery, and deep tech.
ReefHaven Ventures, a San Diego, CA-based early stage venture capital firm, launched. Led by Garrett Smith, PhD, Managing Partner, and Nicholas Mourlas, PhD, Investment Partner, ReefHaven Ventures invests in early-stage startups at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Medical Technology.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Anthropic reportedly explored acquiring robotics startup Physical Intelligence
Reports suggest Anthropic held acquisition talks with robotics startup Physical Intelligence earlier this year, although the company’s CEO denied rumors that a deal had been reached.
The discussions highlight growing interest among leading AI labs in robotics, as companies race to combine advanced AI models with real-world physical systems.
OpenAI is also an investor in Physical Intelligence, raising questions about how strategic investments could influence any future acquisition discussions.
Jack Dorsey launches Buzz, an AI-native alternative to Slack
Jack Dorsey has introduced Buzz, an open-source workplace chat platform that lets employees and AI agents collaborate in the same conversations while integrating GitHub workflows.
Built by Block, Buzz is designed to be model-agnostic, decentralized, and customizable, allowing teams to self-host and modify the platform to fit their needs.
The app is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, though the company says it is still in its early stages of development.
Google launches three new Gemini Flash models
Google has released Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, focusing on lower costs, faster performance, and AI agent workloads, including a cybersecurity model for government partners.
Gemini 3.6 Flash improves coding, multimodal capabilities, and efficiency while reducing token usage, and 3.5 Flash-Lite is positioned as Google’s most cost-effective model.
Google has yet to launch the expected Gemini 3.5 Pro model, which remains in partner testing as the company continues working to improve its performance.
U.S. warns Chinese AI firms over alleged IP theft
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the government could impose sanctions on Chinese AI companies if investigations find their models rely on stolen intellectual property.
The warning comes as Chinese open-source AI models, including Moonshot’s Kimi K3, rapidly gain capabilities and intensify competition with leading U.S. AI companies.
The move signals a potential expansion of U.S. AI policy beyond chip export controls to include direct action against foreign AI models over intellectual property concerns.
Anthropic faces patent lawsuit over AI technology
The University of Tennessee Research Foundation has sued Anthropic, alleging its AI systems infringe patents covering neuroscience-inspired neural network and machine learning technologies.
The lawsuit seeks financial damages and a court order to stop the alleged patent infringement, marking the first known patent case filed against Anthropic.
Anthropic denied the allegations and said it plans to defend the case, adding to the growing legal scrutiny AI companies face over intellectual property.
TSMC to raise chip prices in 2027
TSMC plans to raise base prices for its chip-making services by up to 10% starting in early 2027, driven by AI demand, higher tool and material costs, and spending on new factories.
The increase covers both advanced nodes (7nm and below) and older ones like 12nm, 16nm, and 28nm, but customers wanting extra HPC capacity face another 10-15% premium, pushing some bills up around 25%.
Since TSMC makes most of the world’s advanced chips for clients like Apple, AMD, Nvidia, and MediaTek, the higher costs will spread through the industry and make nearly all electronics more expensive.
Judge pauses Paramount-Warner merger
A federal judge has temporarily halted Paramount Skydance’s planned takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery after 12 state attorneys general sued to block the deal, saying the combination would reduce competition in film and television.
Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín ordered a 14-day pause on Monday, and the coalition led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta could request another delay afterward, arguing the merger harms movie theaters, cable distributors, and audiences.
The deal would merge two film studios plus streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, and combine networks like CBS, MTV, CNN, and HBO; Paramount CEO David Ellison had aimed to close it by September.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Apple partners with Klarna for device lease program
Apple is reportedly launching Apple Upgrade with Klarna on July 28, allowing customers to lease iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches through multi-year payment plans with upgrade and return options.
The program will replace new enrollments for Apple’s existing iPhone Upgrade Program and expand financing across more Apple devices.
The move aims to make higher-priced Apple products more affordable as the company faces rising hardware costs driven by AI-related memory chip shortages.
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)
VC Analyst Fellow - 1752VC | USA - Apply Here
Associate, AI & Data Infrastructure - BVP | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Sowefund | France - Apply Here
Ventures Associate - Redesign health | USA - Apply Here
Visiting Engineer - AI fund | USA - Apply Here
Investment Associate / Analyst - Flashpoint VC | USA - Apply Here
VC Investment Intern - First Momentum Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Associate - Antler | UK - Apply Here
Executive Assistant - Playgroud Capital | USA - Apply Here
Analyst - ICONIQUE Capital | USA - Apply Here
Finance Director - AI Fund | USA - Apply Here
Senior Investment Manager - Sagana | India - Apply Here
Head of fund accounting - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here
Associate or Senior Associate - Bessemer Partner | USA - Apply Here
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