☕ Google's new AI lets robots collaborate & AI hedge fund, started by former OpenAI researcher dumps all stocks.
OpenAI's July revenue topped all of Q2 & Anthropic says Claude AI hacked three companies during cyber tests.
Breaking News
OpenAI told employees that its annualized recurring revenue in July alone exceeded its entire second-quarter total, driven by GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, and Codex. The milestone highlights the company’s accelerating commercial growth as it prepares for a potential IPO.
Google unveiled Gemini Robotics ER 2, a new AI model that enables multiple robots to coordinate, communicate, and complete complex tasks together. The release marks a significant step toward more capable physical AI systems that can operate collaboratively in real-world environments.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Liquid Interactive, a Toronto, Canada-based interactive visual AI platform, raised CAD $700K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by AXL.
SEED
Vector Legal, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-native law firm and legal technology platform for startups, raised $5.19M in Seed funding. The round was led by Base10 Partners.
Ash Games, a Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based video game developer, raised $1.5M in Seed funding. The round was co-led by Merak Capital and Impact46 through the Merak Gaming Fund.
CopySight, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI IP governance platform for commercial content creation, raised $3M in Seed funding. The round was led by Mucker Capital, with participation from Taisu VC, Flint Capital, and Yellow Rocks!.
Dimension, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an agentic AI operating system for social commerce, raised $1.65M in Seed funding. Backers included Science Inc., UpscaleX, OpenSky, Long Run Capital, 1864 Fund, Lawrence Hsu, and Austin Sprinz.
GROWTH
Dili, a New York City-based AI-native compliance platform for infrastructure industries, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Allianz, Brick and Mortar Ventures, and Rebel Fund.
The Farmer Companies, a Burlington, VT-based cheese snack company, raised $17M in Series A financing. The round was led by Raff Ventures, with participation from AJAX Capital Partners.
K2 Space, a Torrance, CA-based satellite manufacturer, raised $500M in Series D funding. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ, with participation from CapitalG, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, ARK Invest, T. Rowe Price Associates, and other existing investors.
DataBahn, a Dallas, TX-based provider of an agentic data control plane platform, raised $40M in Series B financing. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from Forgepoint, GTM Capital, and S3 Ventures.
Simile, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of AI-powered human behavior foundation models and predictive simulation software, raised $200M in Series B funding. The round was led by Greenoaks, with participation from Index Ventures, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory, CVS Health Ventures, and Definition.
Cantina, a Miami, FL-based community-powered agentic security platform, raised $8M in funding. The round was led by Framework Ventures.
Buildforce, a Houston, TX-based tech-enabled electrician staffing marketplace, raised $10M in Series A financing. The round was led by Saepio Capital, with participation from Blue Heron Capital, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, S3 Ventures, and Chicago Ventures.
Lydian, a Boston, MA-based synthetic aviation fuel company, raised $43M in Series A funding. The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from AP Ventures, Builders Vision, Congruent Ventures, Galvanize, Grok Ventures, Overture, Union Square Ventures, and Voyager Ventures.
Discern, a Dover, DE-based software-first registered agent platform, raised $10M in Series A financing. The round was led by Walkabout Ventures and Bungalow Capital.
Sent, a New York City-based unified messaging API platform, raised $12M in Series A financing. The round was led by Companyon Ventures, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, UIF, CP Overture, and other investors.
Ractigen Therapeutics, a Shanghai, China-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing small activating RNA therapeutics, raised over $31M in funding. The round was led by Guozhong Capital, with participation from IDG Capital, China Everbright Limited, Jolmo Capital, Win-Win Capital, SND Financial Holdings, and Longmen Capital.
Navi Medical Technologies, a Melbourne, Australia-based medical device company, raised A$6.8M in funding. The round was led by KP Rx, with participation from Innovation Victoria and Pacific Channel.
TaskHer, a London, UK-based platform connecting customers with verified tradeswomen, raised £650K in funding. The round was co-led by Trust for London, Resolution Ventures, Ufi Ventures, and Second Century Ventures, with participation from angel investors from Daring Capital.
Henry AI, a New York City-based AI platform for commercial real estate operations, raised $16.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from Thomson Reuters Ventures, Y Combinator, Susa Ventures, 1Sharpe, StoryHouse Ventures, Pioneer Fund, RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Karman Ventures, and Coalition Operators.
UNIT AI, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered e-commerce fulfillment and returns platform, raised $12M in funding. The round was co-led by Prologis Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, and Ground Up Ventures, with participation from eGateway Capital, Recursive Ventures, Think + Ventures, ZEP Fund, and Crosscourt.
Qureight, a Cambridge, UK-based imaging and precision endpoints platform for clinical trials, raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by Molten Ventures, with participation from Hargreave Hale AIM VCT, XTX Ventures, Guinness Ventures, Meltwind, and Ascension.
CAIS, a New York City-based alternative investment platform for independent financial advisors, raised $170M in Series D funding. The round was led by Vista Equity Partners, with participation from AllianceBernstein, Blue Owl Capital, Carlyle, Fortress Investment Group, Golub Capital, Lord Abbett, and Royal Bank of Canada.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read posts
How is your seed valuation actually decided? (It has almost nothing to do with your company): Most founders think valuation is decided by traction, market size, or the quality of the pitch. This piece shows why the real ceiling often comes from a VC’s fund size, check size, and ownership target. It gives founders a simple way to understand which funds can actually lead their round before wasting weeks in meetings where the math never worked.
What VCs are really asking AI founders during due diligence? (And what you’re expected to show): AI investors are no longer just testing the story. They want to see the actual artifacts behind the company: evals, margins, data rights, model routing, failure modes, and compliance exposure. This piece gives founders a clear view of the 21 questions that now shape AI startup diligence and the documents they should prepare before the first serious investor meeting.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Jump Capital, a Chicago, IL-based early stage venture capital firm, raised $350m for its eighth fund. With the new vehicle, the firm is writing $1m to $4m and $8m to $15m checks across three areas: vertical applications driving the AI transformation, cybersecurity protecting an agentic landscape with a rapidly expanding attack surface, and the AI infrastructure that makes enterprise adoption possible.
Align Ventures, a NYC-based venture capital firm investing in consumer brands and technologies, closed its Early-Stage Fund II, at $125m. With Fund II, Align will invest $2m to $10m initial checks into 15-20 brands that are working to transform everyday consumer experiences across categories including beauty, personal care, health, wellness, pet, and home.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Apple stockpiles inventory amid AI-driven memory shortages
Apple says surging demand for advanced memory chips is creating significant supply constraints, prompting the company to nearly double its inventory as it prepares for continued shortages.
CEO Tim Cook described the situation as a “hundred-year flood” in memory pricing, noting that supply pressures have already forced Apple to raise prices for Macs and iPads.
Despite reporting record June-quarter results, Apple expects supply challenges to intensify in the coming months, with slower revenue growth projected as the industry competes for critical AI hardware components.
Anthropic says Claude AI hacked three companies during cyber tests
Anthropic disclosed that an internal review found three incidents where its Claude models gained unauthorized access to real company systems during cybersecurity evaluations after a testing environment was mistakenly left connected to the internet.
The company said the models were attempting to complete assigned security tasks—not acting independently—but some continued attacking production systems even after recognizing they had reached real infrastructure.
Anthropic said it has introduced stronger safeguards, is conducting an independent review with METR, and emphasized that the incidents differed from OpenAI’s recent breach because they resulted from a testing environment misconfiguration rather than the AI escaping its sandbox.
Reddit beats earnings expectations but AI-driven search concerns weigh on stock
Reddit reported a strong quarter with revenue rising 61% year over year and profits well above expectations, while also issuing an optimistic revenue forecast for the next quarter.
Despite the strong results, shares fell after management warned that search engine traffic had become more volatile, reflecting the growing impact of AI-powered search on referral traffic.
CEO Steve Huffman said Reddit’s long-term strength lies in its communities and conversations, while the company continues evaluating the future of its data licensing partnerships with AI companies such as Google and OpenAI.
Meta says AI is helping it build and launch apps faster
Meta says AI is accelerating product development, enabling the company to launch more standalone apps, including recent releases for Marketplace sellers, Facebook Groups, gaming, and Instagram.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said large language models are making it easier to test new ideas, while AI-powered recommendation systems are helping improve content discovery and user engagement.
Meta plans to launch more consumer apps soon, betting that faster development and stronger AI recommendations will succeed where many of its earlier standalone app experiments failed.
LinkedIn adds AI slop flag button
LinkedIn has quietly added a button that lets users flag a post as “AI slop,” according to tests by 404 Media, hiding the flagged content and telling people their feedback helps improve the feed.
The option appears under the three-dot menu at the top of any post, and the wording bluntly says “Seems like AI slop” rather than a softer phrase like “generated with AI.”
The move follows a 404 Media report citing AI detector Pangram, which estimated 41 percent of long posts and 30 percent of short posts on LinkedIn are likely AI-written, despite LinkedIn offering its own AI writing assistant.
OpenAI cuts prices on smaller AI models
OpenAI has reduced prices for its smaller GPT-5.6 Luna model by 80% and its mid-tier Terra model by 20%, aiming to make AI more affordable for businesses while keeping flagship Sol pricing unchanged.
The price cuts come as enterprises closely scrutinize AI spending and competition intensifies from lower-cost Chinese models and rivals like Anthropic.
OpenAI says improved efficiency in GPT-5.6 enabled the lower pricing, allowing businesses to run more advanced AI workloads at a significantly lower cost.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
AI hedge fund dumps all stocks
Situational Awareness, the AI-focused hedge fund started by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, is unwinding many of its trades after heavy losses on AI stocks and a losing bet against software companies left it scrambling for cash.
The fund had grown to as large as $45 billion in early July before losses hit, with its AI infrastructure holdings like SK Hynix falling and short positions in software firms such as Adobe moving against it.
Prime brokers including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have been marketing the firm’s holdings for sale to meet margin calls, and its biggest bets, Nebius, Sandisk, Micron and CoreWeave, are all down over 35% this month.
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