☕ Intel joins Elon Musk's $25B Terafab & Anthropic unveils Mythos model for cybersecurity use.
Meta employees compete on internal AI usage leaderboard & More.
Breaking News
Intel is joining Elon Musk’s Terafab project with Tesla and SpaceX to build a massive AI chip factory in the U.S. The project aims to produce 1 terawatt of compute annually, signaling a bold move toward vertically integrated AI infrastructure at unprecedented scale.
Meta plans to open-source versions of its next-generation AI models, derived from its upcoming frontier systems (Avocado and Mango). However, these releases will be stripped-down versions — with smaller parameter sizes, fewer features, and limited post-training — partly due to safety concerns. The move shows Meta doubling down on its open strategy, even as it admits these models may not outperform rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Ridge AI, a Seattle, WA-based AI dashboard and data agents platform, raised $2.6M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Madrona, with participation from TheFounderVC and angels.
Felix, a Prague, Czech Republic-based AI workflow platform, raised $1.7M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by XYZ Venture Capital, with participation from angel investors.
SEED
HexemBio, a NYC-based biotechnology company, raised $10.4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Draper Associates, with participation from SOSV, Seraphim, and others.
Golden Analytics, a Seattle, WA-based AI-native BI platform, raised $7M in Seed funding. The round was led by NEA and Madrona, with participation from Breakers.
Trent AI, a London, UK-based agentic security company, raised $13M in Seed funding. The round was led by LocalGlobe and Cambridge Innovation Capital, with participation from industry leaders.
GROWTH
Prism Layer, a Washington, DC-based enterprise risk AI platform, raised an undisclosed amount in funding. The round was led by Fenway Summer, with participation from Plural Ventures.
Cyberhill Partners, an Austin, TX-based enterprise AI services firm, received a strategic investment of up to $11M from Baleon Capital.
Route 92 Medical, a West Jordan, Utah-based medtech company, raised $50M in growth financing. The round included Sectoral Asset Management, Novo Holdings, U.S. Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, InnovaHealth Partners, and others.
SimpliFed, a NYC-based maternal healthcare company, raised $10M+ in Series A funding. The round was led by Morningside and Hesperia Capital, with participation from Foreground Capital, AHA Social Impact Fund, Elizabeth Street Ventures, and others.
Two Boxes, a Denver, CO-based returns processing platform, raised $3.2M in funding. The round was led by Assembly Ventures, with participation from Peterson Ventures and Matchstick Ventures.
Endovascular Engineering, a Menlo Park, CA-based medtech company, raised $80M in Series C funding. The round was led by Gilde Healthcare and Norwest, with participation from Santé Ventures, S3 Ventures, Panakès Partners, and others.
Kytopen, a Cambridge, MA-based cellular engineering company, raised an undisclosed amount in Series B funding. The round was led by Telegraph Hill Partners, with participation from existing investors.
Hermeus, a Los Angeles, CA-based defense aviation company, raised $350M in Series C funding at a $1B valuation. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Canaan Partners, Founders Fund, RTX Ventures, Bling Capital, In-Q-Tel, and others.
Modus, a NYC-based audit technology platform, raised $85M in Seed and Series A funding. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Comma Capital and Garry Tan.
Mappedin, a Waterloo, Canada-based indoor mapping company, raised $24.5M in Growth Equity funding. The round was led by Edison Partners, with participation from Betatron Venture Group.
Dexory, a London, UK-based warehouse intelligence company, raised £8.5M in Series C funding. The investment was made by British Business Bank.
Yuzu Health, a NYC-based health infrastructure platform, raised $35M in Series A funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and Chemistry, with participation from Anthropic’s Anthology Fund, Bain Future Back Ventures, Neo, and others.
NewBird AI, a Redwood City, CA-based AI operations company, raised $19.3M in funding. The round was led by Xora Innovation, with participation from Mayfield, StepStone Group, Prosperity7 Ventures, and M12.
GoSats, a Bengaluru, India-based rewards company, raised $5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Konvoy, with participation from Y Combinator and Taisu Ventures.
Costal Measures, a Kittery, ME-based ocean data platform, raised $1.2M in funding. The round included support from Amazon Web Services.
Xoople, a Madrid, Spain-based data infrastructure company, raised $130M in Series B funding. The round included Nazca Capital, MCH, CDTI, Buenavista Equity Partners, and Endeavor Catalyst.
SpectronRx, an Indianapolis, IN-based radiopharmaceutical company, raised $85M in funding. The investment was made by OrbiMed.
QUICK HITS
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Useful Data: We’ve curated 40+ investor lists/databases to help you connect with the right investors for your startup. (Link)
Trends with Benefits: Is software about to shrink or expand 10x? Redpoint’s data reveals the truth. (Link)
Founder Resource: Investor Data Room Superpack: Everything you need to build a VC-ready data room (Guide/Templates) (Link)
From Social: Paul Graham's framework to get startup ideas.. (Link)
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Eclipse, a Palo Alto, CA-based venture capital firm, raised $1.311 billion for two funds. In details, according two regulatory forms filed with the SEC, Eclipse Fund VI, L.P., raised $720m from 127 investors, and Eclipse Early Growth Fund III, L.P., raised $591m from 120 investors.
futurepresent, a NYC, Berlin, and Munich, Germany-based venture capital firm backing AI startups in the US and Europe, launched with its first $300M vehicle. The firm partners at inception and take a concentrated approach at early growth.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Apple still targeting September launch for foldable iPhone
Apple is reportedly on track to launch its first foldable iPhone around September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup.
Despite earlier concerns about engineering challenges, the company appears confident in meeting its timeline, though initial supply may be limited.
Apple is expected to compete directly with Samsung and Chinese brands, with improvements in durability and reduced screen crease as key differentiators.
Anthropic unveils Mythos model for cybersecurity use
Anthropic introduced Mythos, a powerful new AI model, as part of Project Glasswing to help detect vulnerabilities in software systems.
Early tests show the model identified thousands of critical zero-day vulnerabilities, including long-standing issues in legacy codebases.
The preview is limited to select partners like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, signaling a controlled rollout of high-risk, high-capability AI.
Anthropic doubles down on Google Cloud TPUs
Anthropic announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud, securing access to multiple gigawatts of TPU capacity to train and run its AI models starting in 2027.
The deal delivers Google’s Tensor Processing Units through Google Cloud infrastructure with hardware from Broadcom, giving Anthropic enormous compute for its Claude family of AI systems.
Anthropic is also adopting Google Cloud tools like BigQuery, Cloud Run, and AlloyDB, while thousands of companies already access Claude models through Google Cloud today.
Nvidia’s SchedMD acquisition raises concerns over open AI software access
Nvidia’s acquisition of SchedMD gives it control over Slurm, a widely used open-source system that manages workloads for AI training and supercomputing.
Industry experts worry Nvidia could prioritize its own chips over rivals like AMD and Intel in future updates, potentially skewing competition.
While Nvidia says it will keep Slurm open and vendor-neutral, the move is seen as a key test of its influence over critical AI infrastructure.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Meta employees compete on internal AI usage leaderboard
Meta has an internal leaderboard called “Claudeonomics” where employees compete to consume the most AI tokens, tracking usage across more than 85,000 workers on the company intranet.
Employees burned through 60 trillion tokens in just 30 days, with the top user averaging 281 billion, though some simply leave AI agents running for hours to pad their numbers.
Despite Silicon Valley treating “tokenmaxxing” as a productivity metric, nobody has put up hard numbers proving that high token consumption actually translates into real business results or revenue gains.
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