☕ Dropbox CEO steps down after 19 years & China restricts international travel for top AI researchers.
Ferrari reveals its first EV, with help from Jony Ive & Nvidia plans to spend $150B annually in Taiwan as AI demand surges.
Breaking News
SpaceX is reportedly clashing with the Pentagon after demanding 5× higher prices for Starlink usage on U.S. military drones and proposing a separate $500M+ plan to provide satellite internet inside Iran during blackouts. The dispute reveals how critical private satellite infrastructure has become in modern warfare and how much leverage companies like SpaceX now hold over governments.
NVIDIA says it plans to spend up to $150B annually in Taiwan as AI demand explodes, doubling down on TSMC and the region’s chip ecosystem despite growing geopolitical risks. Jensen Huang called Taiwan the “epicentre” of the AI revolution, highlighting how the future of global AI infrastructure is becoming increasingly dependent on a single supply chain hub.
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
The end of cheap AI: Why AI startups may face their AWS moment sooner than expected. (Link)
5 predictions that reveal where AI agents will actually make money. (Link)
Wispr Flow’s framework to reach 100,000+ daily users - The CEO’s exact consumer playbook. (Link)
Mark Cuban’s AI Thesis: The $495B AI opportunity that most founder missing. (Link)
How founders can build AI agents with OpenClaw: a step-by-step guide. (Link)
What founders actually pay themselves in 2026? (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Avrea, a Helsinki-based CI platform for software development, raised $4.7M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Earlybird.
Synakis Corp., a Toronto-based biotech company developing ocular therapies for retinal disease and glaucoma, raised CAD $2.6M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) and Chiefswood Private Capital.
SEED
Didit, a Barcelona-based reusable internet identity and automated identity verification platform, raised ~$2M in Seed funding. Backers included Y Combinator, Hypersphere, Roar VC, and others.
CasaPerks Technologies, an Austin-based AI-powered rewards platform for renters, raised $15.8M in Seed funding. Backers included Longevity Equity.
NanoCo, an Israel-based AI-powered software agents startup, raised $12M in Seed funding. The round was led by Valley Capital Partners with participation from Docker, Vercel, Monday.com, and others.
Qurie, a Germany-based electrocaloric refrigeration systems company, raised €2.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by HTGF, TT49, and Aepikur GmbH.
GROWTH
Otomato, a Singapore-based DeFi intelligence and market analytics platform, raised $2M in funding from Improbable.
P2 Science, a Connecticut-based green chemistry company, raised $23M in funding. The round was led by Sofinnova Partners.
OpenRouter, a NYC-based AI model exchange platform, raised $113M in Series B funding. The round was led by CapitalG with participation from NVentures, ServiceNow Ventures, Databricks Ventures, and others.
Phytolon, an Israel-based biotech and food-tech company producing natural food colors via precision fermentation, raised $23.6M in Series B funding.
Stride, a Vietnam-based clean energy fintech startup, raised $15M in Series B funding. The round was co-led by Lightrock and TRIREC.
GEEIQ, a London-based analytics platform for games and virtual worlds, raised $6.8M in funding. The round was led by YFM Equity Partners.
Stord, an Atlanta-based consumer experience and logistics company, raised $250M in Series F funding at a $3B valuation.
Catena Labs, a Boston-based AI-native banking infrastructure startup, raised $30M in Series A funding. The round was led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto.
Exa Labs, a San Francisco-based AI-native search engine and web retrieval platform, raised $250M in Series C funding at a $2.2B valuation. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Tequipy, a Poland-based IT operations and hardware lifecycle automation platform, raised over €3M in funding. The round was led by Smedvig Ventures.
Lucis, a Paris-based AI-driven preventive healthcare platform, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Singular.
Belo, a Buenos Aires-based stablecoin wallet and cross-border payments platform, raised $14M in Series A funding. The round was led by Tether.
Quanscient, a Finland-based cloud-based multiphysics simulation and quantum algorithms company, raised €10M in funding. The round was led by 55 North and B&C Group.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Bridgewest Ventures, an Auckland, New Zealand- and Miami, FL-based venture capital arm of Bridgewest Group, held the first close of Bridgewest Venture Fund I LP, at approximately NZ$60.2m. Backers included a group of institutional investors, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and international migrant investors from Australia and New Zealand.
Convective Capital, a California-based venture firm founded by WePay cofounder Bill Clerico, has raised an $85 million second fund to invest in startups building disaster resilience and physical-world risk management solutions. The firm backs companies across wildfire prevention, infrastructure monitoring, insurance, drones, and climate resilience.
Veriten, a Houston, TX-based research, strategy and investment firm, held the initial close of its second flagship energy venture fund, at over $105m. LPs include Halliburton Company, Phillips 66 Company, and CIBC, among others.
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KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
DuckDuckGo installs surge as users push back against Google’s AI Search
DuckDuckGo said app installs jumped 30% after Google expanded AI Search, as many users looked for a way to avoid AI-generated answers.
Users criticized Google for “force-feeding” AI into Search, with concerns around inaccurate answers, cluttered results, and losing control over the browsing experience.
DuckDuckGo said traffic to its AI-free search page also surged, while positioning itself as a privacy-focused alternative where users can choose how much AI they want.
Ferrari reveals its first EV, with help from Jony Ive
Ferrari has pulled the covers off the Luce, its first electric vehicle, designed inside and out in collaboration with Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s LoveFrom studio, who shaped the project’s direction from the start.
The Luce is also Ferrari’s second four-door car and first five-seater, packing four motors and 1,035 horsepower, with a sound system that picks up and amplifies vibrations from the rear motors instead of being synthesized.
Engadget’s Tim Stevens, who saw the car in person, said it feels more like an SUV than a sports car, and noted that while there’s no US price yet, it starts at €550,000 in Italy, making it the priciest Ferrari ever.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston steps down after 19 years
Drew Houston is stepping away from the CEO job at Dropbox after 19 years, moving into an executive chairman role while sharing the co-CEO title with product chief Ashraf Alkarmi, who will eventually run the company alone.
Houston, who started Dropbox at 24 after losing USB sticks at MIT, built the file-sharing service to over 18 million paying users and past $2 billion in yearly revenue, though sales dipped slightly in 2025.
The 43-year-old, worth over $2 billion and a Meta board member since 2020, plans to start something new in AI, saying he won’t be “racing sailboats” and sees no better time for building things.
China restricts travel for top AI researchers
China is now requiring top AI researchers at private firms like Alibaba and DeepSeek to get official permission before traveling abroad, with the rule applying to people working on strategically important AI projects, Bloomberg reports.
The policy builds on a March 2025 move when Beijing told AI executives to avoid trips to the U.S., citing worries about data leaks, technology theft, and rival companies poaching talent from Chinese firms.
The travel rule fits a wider push to shield China’s AI sector and cut reliance on foreign tech, with domestic chip makers now holding 41 percent of the local AI accelerator market, according to IDC.
Sam Altman says AI may not trigger the ‘jobs apocalypse’ he once feared
Sam Altman said AI has not replaced as many white-collar jobs as expected, admitting OpenAI was “pretty wrong” about the short-term social impact.
Altman said human interaction still matters in many jobs, noting even he stopped using AI for some email and Slack replies because people value human communication.
Despite layoffs tied to AI at firms like HSBC and Amazon, Altman said he no longer expects a large-scale “jobs apocalypse.”
Perplexity ranked most reliable AI chatbot for work tasks in new report
Perplexity AI topped a new reliability report with the lowest hallucination rate at 13% and a perfect uptime score during testing.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT ranked sixth despite strong user ratings, while Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude ranked lower due to reliability and outage concerns.
The study said smaller AI platforms like Perplexity and xAI Grok performed better for consistent workplace use, even as ChatGPT remains the most popular chatbot globally.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
EU to fine Google hundreds of millions
The European Union plans to hit Google with a fine in the high triple-digit millions of euros as part of an antitrust case under the Digital Markets Act, according to a Handelsblatt report citing commission sources.
The decision, expected before the summer break, stems from a March 2025 investigation into concerns that Google favours its own services in search results, and would be the largest penalty yet handed down under the DMA.
A Google spokesperson said changes already made to Search under the DMA are the “biggest downgrade in the product’s history,” while the Commission said it is more focused on securing compliance than imposing penalties.
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)
Investment Associate - Struck Capital | USA - Apply Here
Director - General Atlantic | USA - Apply Here
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Visiting Engineer - AI Fund | USA - Apply Here
Associate Investor - Sky9capital | USA - Apply Here
Finance & Operations Manager - Antler | Singapore - Apply Here
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Investment Team - Antler | Germany - Apply Here
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