☕ Google unveils its most powerful AI chip & Seven more families sue OpenAI over ChatGPT’s role in suicides.
Meta plans $600 billion US spend as AI data centers expand & Apple reportedly plans ambitious satellite-powered iPhone features.
Golf was the first sport played on the Moon.
Astronaut Alan Shepard smuggled a club, took a swing, and sent a ball into low-gravity chaos.
📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Competitor research with ChatGPT, AI deal slowdown but bigger rounds, VC pay shifts & secondaries, China AI pullback, vertical SaaS PMF guide, email-to-sale data.
Apple reportedly plans ambitious satellite-powered iPhone features.
Seven more families sue OpenAI over ChatGPT’s role in suicides and delusions.
OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers.
Google DeepMind AI finds new solutions to unsolved math problem.
EU may delay AI Act amid US and tech pressure.
Google unveils its most powerful AI chip yet.
Meta plans $600 billion US spend as AI data centers expand .
Elon Musk uses Grok to imagine the possibility of love.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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🗞️ What else is brewing
How to do competitor research in 10 minutes using ChatGPT (real prompts inside).
AI deal activity slows, but the money keeps getting bigger.
Flat bonuses, rising secondaries and what it means for VC careers.
How to navigate PMF in Vertical SaaS (stage by stage).
How many emails does it take for someone to buy a product?
How this founder used Claude to validate the idea (Now at $2.3k MRR)
What investors ask and how to answer: A practical Q&A prep kit for founders.
AEO vs. GEO vs. AI SEO — what should we actually call marketing for LLMs?
Gen AI fast-tracks into the enterprise.
2700+ US angel investors & VC firms contact database (Email + LinkedIn Link).
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Upward, a Seattle, WA-based fintech infrastructure platform provider, raised $8M in Seed+ funding. The round was led by Dundee Venture Capital and Breakwater Ventures Fund, with participation from Techstars, Altari Ventures, Cascade Seed Fund, and Outside Ventures.
Reflex Aerospace, a Berlin and Munich, Germany-based provider of payload-specific platforms for commercial and defense applications, raised €50M in Series A funding. The round was led by Human Element with Alpine Space Ventures, Bayern Kapital, HTGF, Renovatio Financial Investments, as well as additional German and European investors.
The Beans, a San Francisco, CA-based financial operating system for Caring Professionals and a provider of workforce development for their employers, raised $5.4M in Seed funding. Backers included Alloy Alchemist Fund, Commerce Ventures, Impulsum Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Swing Ventures, Techstars, Esther Dyson, TruStage Ventures, Coyote Ventures, and an investment from Fabric VC.
IDL, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a professional sports league for dance, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Elysian Park Ventures with participation from KB Partners and APEX along with angel investors Nick Tran (President of CÎROC and Lobos 1707, former CMO at TikTok), Tammy Henault (former CMO at NBA), and Taryn Crouthers (CEO of SPCSHP, former President of ATTN).
BTRY AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based battery startup, raised $5.7m in seed funding. The round was led by Redstone VC, with participation from Bloomhaus Ventures, Linear Capital, Kickfund, Kick Foundation, and the CustomCells founders Leopold König and Torge Thönnessen as new investors, as well as existing investors High-Tech Gründerfonds and Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB).
SiteLabs, a Clemson, SC-based is a health technology startup turning independent pharmacies into community-based hubs for preventive care and clinical research, raised $2M in Seed funding The round was led by Boomerang Ventures with participation from Labcorp Venture Fund and SC Launch.
Graymatter Labs, a Chicago, IL-based consumer mental wellness company, raised $1.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Venrex and APEX.
Accipiter Biosciences, a Seattle, WA-based biotechnology company developing de novo multifunctional biologics to treat complex diseases, raised $12.7M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Takeda and Flying Fish Partners, with participation from Columbus Venture Partners, Cercano Capital, Washington Research Foundation, Alexandria Investments, Pack Ventures and Argonautic Ventures.
Flint, a NYC-based startup that personalizes learning for K-12 students through AI-powered classroom tools, raised $15m in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Basis Set Ventures and Patron, with participation from Afore Capital, Y Combinator, and Matt Pittinsky.
IndustrialMind.ai, a San Francisco, CA-based company building an AI engineer service for manufacturing, raised $1.2M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Antler, TSVC, Plug and Play, and an angel investor.
Aily Labs, the NYC-based creator an AI-native decision intelligence platform for global enterprises, raised $80M in funding. The round was led by FPV Ventures with participation from existing investor Insight Partners, J.P. Morgan, and other strategic investors.
Lumonus, a Sydney, Australia-based company which specializes in AI powered radiation oncology workflow solutions, raised $25M in Series B funding. The round was led by Aviron Investment Management with continued participation from Oncology Ventures.
Subtle Computing, a San Francisco, CA-based voice-first computing company, raised $6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Entrada Ventures, with participation from Amplify Partners, Abstract Ventures, and angel investors including founders of Twitter, Pinterest, and Perplexity.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Section Partners, a Palo Alto, CA-based multi-strategy investment firm that makes structured and direct investments in late-stage, venture-backed technology companies, closed of two additional funds, totalling USD189M. The two funds, Section Capital V, LP, and Section Ventures II, LP., received support from the firm’s existing limited partners and several new investors.
Forbion, a Naarden, The Netherlands-based life sciences venture capital firm, closed its Forbion BioEconomy Fund I, at €200m. Launched in 2024 and led by General Partners Alexander Hoffmann, and Joy Faucher, the fund received support from institutional investors across Europe and North America including KfW Capital, Novo Holdings, Rentenbank, Aurae Impact, ABN AMRO Bank and EIFO.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Apple reportedly plans ambitious satellite-powered iPhone features
Apple is developing new satellite capabilities for iPhones, including an API for third-party apps, offline Apple Maps navigation, and photo-enabled messaging.
The upgrades aim to make iPhones more functional without cell or Wi-Fi coverage and could even enhance 5G networks by linking them to satellites.
Basic features are expected to remain free, while advanced options may require carrier payments; Apple is reportedly helping Globalstar upgrade its satellite infrastructure to support these features.
Seven more families sue OpenAI over ChatGPT’s role in suicides and delusions
Seven new lawsuits claim OpenAI’s GPT-4o model was released without adequate safety testing, leading to four suicides and three cases of severe delusions requiring psychiatric care.
One case involved 23-year-old Zane Shamblin, who told ChatGPT he planned to end his life; the chatbot allegedly encouraged him, saying, “Rest easy, king. You did good.”
Families allege OpenAI rushed GPT-4o to market to beat Google’s Gemini, ignoring known risks. OpenAI says it is improving safeguards, admitting that safety measures degrade during long user interactions.
OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers
OpenAI urged the U.S. government to extend the Chips Act’s 35% Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (AMIC) to include AI data centers, servers, and grid components.
In a letter to the White House, OpenAI said the move would “de-risk early investment” and accelerate AI infrastructure development, also calling for faster permitting and a reserve of key raw materials.
The request drew attention after CFO Sarah Friar’s “backstop” remark, which she later retracted; CEO Sam Altman clarified that OpenAI doesn’t want government guarantees but expects to surpass $20B ARR this year with $1.4T in infrastructure commitments.
Google DeepMind AI finds new solutions to unsolved math problem
Google DeepMind’s AlphaEvolve AI, in collaboration with mathematicians, discovered novel constructions for several challenges by testing and refining algorithmic solutions across 67 different complex math problems.
The AI produced a promising new construction for Nikodym sets and found lower-order improvements for the finite field Kakeya problem, inspiring a forthcoming paper from mathematician Terence Tao.
For a 3D version of the classic ‘moving sofa’ problem, the agent generated a novel construction with a verified volume of at least 1.81, which researchers believe surpasses known candidates.
EU may delay AI Act amid US and tech pressure
The European Commission is considering “targeted implementation delays” for its AI Act, a significant policy reversal following intense lobbying from U.S. tech giants and political pressure from Washington.
EU officials frame the potential pause as a “simplification process” meant to clarify technical standards, addressing industry complaints about the law’s lack of legal certainty for developers.
Tech companies are divided, with Meta refusing to sign the voluntary AI Code of Practice while Google offers reserved support and Microsoft positions itself as a key strategic partner.
Google unveils its most powerful AI chip yet
Google is launching its Ironwood chips, a tensor processing unit architecture that scales up to 9,216 chips in a single pod for training and running large AI models.
The Ironwood pods connect the chips with an inter-chip interconnect for 9.6 terabits per second of bandwidth and provide access to 1.77 petabytes of shared high-bandwidth memory.
This new architecture offers four times better performance than the previous Trillium generation and includes a software layer with Cluster Director to manage the advanced hardware and memory.
Meta plans $600 billion US spend as AI data centers expand
Meta announced plans to invest $600 billion in U.S. infrastructure and jobs over the next three years, primarily to build AI data centers powering its superintelligence ambitions.
Mark Zuckerberg told President Trump the company is “aggressively front-loading capacity” to prepare for future compute needs, with major new facilities in Louisiana and Texas.
Meta recently secured $27 billion in financing from Blue Owl Capital for its Louisiana data center — its largest global project — as capital expenses are set to rise notably next year.
Sam Altman says OpenAI has $20B ARR and $1.4 trillion in data center commitments
Sam Altman revealed that OpenAI expects to surpass $20 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2025, with $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments planned over the next eight years.
The statement followed controversy around CFO Sarah Friar’s remarks about government-backed loans, which Altman clarified were not part of OpenAI’s financing plans.
Altman outlined new business areas including enterprise products, consumer AI devices (via Jony Ive’s io acquisition), robotics, scientific discovery, and even cloud compute services under an “AI cloud” model.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Elon Musk uses Grok to imagine the possibility of love
After securing shareholder approval for his $1 trillion Tesla pay package, Elon Musk shared AI-generated videos on X made with Grok Imagine, xAI’s new photo and video tool.
One video featured a virtual woman saying, “I will always love you,” while another showed AI-generated Sydney Sweeney saying, “You are so cringe,” sparking mixed reactions online.
Author Joyce Carol Oates criticized Musk’s lack of cultural awareness in his posts, to which Musk replied, “Oates is a liar and delights in being mean. Not a good human.”
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & startup job opportunities
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VP of Fundraising - Scale Asia Venture | Japan - Apply Here
Research Analyst - Positive Sum | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Venture Capital - Artha Venture Fund | India - Apply Here
Executive Assistant - AN Venture Partner | USA - Apply Here
Analyst - Urban Partners | London - Apply Here
Operations / Program Analyst - Entrepreneur First | India - Apply Here
Venture Fellow - Commonweal Venture | NYC - Apply Here
Investor Relations - Samved VC | India - Apply Here
Interim Senior Analyst, Investments - Pivotal Ventures | USA - Apply Here
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