☕ Meta’s $2B Manus acquisition is falling apart & Amazon CEO’s warning may have triggered Anthropic’s model shutdown.
OpenAI faces multi-state investigation ahead of IPO & Nvidia’s new AI CPU gains traction as China looks beyond GPUs.
Breaking News
OpenAI is being investigated by a coalition of U.S. state attorneys general over issues including user retention, advertising practices, data handling, AI behavior, and protections for minors. The probe arrives just after OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO, creating a potentially significant regulatory challenge as the company prepares for public markets.
Meta is reportedly unwinding its $2 billion acquisition of Manus after Chinese authorities ordered a divestiture on national security grounds. Manus’ founders are now exploring a new fundraising round to regain control of the company and potentially pursue a future Hong Kong listing.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Sunbay, a Warsaw-based AI-powered invoice collection and accounts receivable automation platform, raised €550K in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Kogito Ventures and s20, with participation from strategic angel investors including Jostein Håvaldsrud (CTO of Kahoot).
Concentrate AI, a NYC-based developer of multi-model routing and token cost management software, raised $5M in Pre-Seed funding. The investment round was backed by True Ventures and RRE Ventures.
Courtroom, a NYC-based company leveraging AI simulation technology for litigation and trial teams, raised an undisclosed Pre-Seed round. The round was led by Neo and Precursor Ventures, with participation from Rel Labs, Craig Glidden, Scott Mozarsky, Doak Bishop, Baretz+Brunelle, LexFusion, and others.
Relai, a Bethesda-based continual learning infrastructure company for AI agents, raised $5.4M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by .406 Ventures, with participation from AITFund and other strategic investors.
SEED
Definic, a Prague-based enterprise B2B vendor intelligence and IT procurement software platform, raised $2.9M in Seed funding. The round was led by J&T Ventures, with participation from Seed Starter ČS and Slovak Investment Holding.
Artis, an Austin-based AI-powered technology and brand services company for residential design and construction professionals, raised $7.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by LiveOak Ventures, with participation from mark vc and Capital Factory.
GROWTH
Endurance Energy, a Seattle-based developer of deep-ocean geothermal energy harvesting infrastructure, raised $54M in Series A funding. The round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from Ascend, Construct Capital, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Point72 Ventures, Riot Ventures, and Voyager Ventures.
OurMind, an Amsterdam-based generative AI healthcare clinical documentation and administrative platform, raised €2.1M in funding. The round was led by 4impact Capital, with participation from a strategic group of general practitioners and medical specialists.
Mendo, a Paris-based generative and agentic AI adoption platform, raised €12M in Series A funding. The round was led by Ventech and Educapital, with participation from Tomcat and OVNI.
Theker, a Barcelona-based developer of industrial robots for microelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing, raised $85M in Series A funding. The round was led by CRV, with participation from Samsung, LVMH, Cathay Innovation, 20VC, Henkel Ventures, Korelya Capital, Bright Pixel Capital, Kfund, Kibo Ventures, Mission, and existing investor Inditex.
Remedy Science, a Los Angeles-based dermatologist-developed skincare brand, raised $19M in Series A funding. The round was led by L Catterton, with participation from existing investor Norwest and new investor Sonoma Brands Capital.
Chptr, a NYC-based company building a new distribution layer for community stories, raised $5.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by CityRock, with participation from Tribute Technology, alongside strategic partnerships with iHeartMedia, Sinclair, and Hearst.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Animal Capital, a NYC-based early-stage venture capital firm, closed Animal Capital Fund III, at $33m. The closing represents an increase from the firm’s $13m Fund I and $16m Fund II. LPs include Paris Hilton, Kevin Mayer, Justin Kan, Gary Cohn, Rich Miner, Jason Karp, Pete Davidson, Mark Wahlberg, Christina Aguilera, James Corden, Taylor Fritz and Mr. Beast.
Base10 Partners, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm, closed $850m in new capital throughout 2025, with funds now actively deploying. The above fundraise included commitments from Base10’s limited partner base, including endowments, pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional investors.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Zuckerberg admits Meta made mistakes during its AI workforce overhaul
Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Meta has made mistakes during its AI-driven restructuring, acknowledging the challenges of rapidly transforming the company around artificial intelligence.
Meta laid off 10% of its workforce and reassigned around 7,000 employees to AI-focused initiatives, but Zuckerberg said the company does not expect additional company-wide layoffs this year.
Despite organizational disruptions, Meta continues to double down on AI, with annual capital spending projected between $125 billion and $145 billion and new investments planned for internal collaboration and AI development.
Amazon CEO’s warning may have triggered Anthropic’s model shutdown
Reports suggest Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raised concerns to U.S. officials after researchers reportedly used Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 to obtain information that could assist cyberattacks.
Shortly afterward, the U.S. government imposed export-control restrictions on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, forcing the company to suspend access for foreign nationals worldwide.
Anthropic disputes the justification, arguing the capabilities cited by regulators already exist in other publicly available AI models, while Amazon has declined to discuss its conversations with government officials.
Europe’s AI champion Mistral is reportedly raising at nearly double its valuation
French AI startup Mistral is reportedly in talks to raise €3 billion ($3.5 billion) at a €20 billion valuation, almost doubling its €11.7 billion valuation from September 2025.
Mistral has positioned itself as Europe’s sovereign AI alternative, offering both open-weight and commercial AI models while expanding partnerships with governments, military organizations, and major enterprises across Europe.
Despite its rapid growth, Mistral has raised only about $4 billion so far, far behind OpenAI and Anthropic, highlighting the funding gap between Europe’s leading AI lab and its U.S. competitors.
ByteDance may buy 50,000+ Chinese AI chips as Nvidia alternatives gain ground
ByteDance is reportedly in talks to purchase at least 50,000 AI chips from Chinese GPU maker Iluvatar CoreX and is also evaluating Baidu’s Kunlunxin chips for future AI workloads.
If completed, Iluvatar CoreX would become ByteDance’s third major domestic AI chip supplier alongside Huawei and Cambricon, reflecting China’s push to reduce reliance on foreign hardware.
The potential deal highlights the rapid rise of China’s AI chip ecosystem, with domestic vendors now capturing over 40% of the country’s AI accelerator market as U.S. export restrictions continue to reshape the industry.
Nvidia’s new AI CPU gains traction as China looks beyond GPUs
Nvidia has started pitching its new Vera CPU to Chinese customers, with availability expected as early as August, marking the company’s push into AI infrastructure beyond GPUs.
Some Chinese cloud providers are already evaluating Vera-powered servers, as demand grows for inference computing and autonomous AI agents that require large-scale processing power.
The move intensifies competition with Intel and AMD while helping Nvidia maintain a presence in China, where U.S. export controls have severely restricted sales of its advanced AI GPUs.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Andrew Yang says the next startup boom is lowering living costs
Former U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang believes founders should focus on reducing the cost of essentials like housing, food, transportation, education, and wireless services rather than creating new forms of consumption.
Inspired by Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, Yang launched Noble Mobile, a wireless provider that shares profits with customers and rewards lower data usage, attracting thousands of users and generating millions in revenue.
Yang argues that as AI concentrates wealth and threatens jobs, startups that help people save money and meet basic needs more affordably could become one of the biggest business opportunities of the next decade.
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