☕ Musk’s xAI quarterly net loss widens to $1.46 billion & Nvidia requiring Chinese customers to pay 100% upfront for its H200 AI chips.
Nvidia CEO proposes robots as 'AI immigrants' & China reviews Meta's $2 billion Manus acquisition.
Breaking News
Nvidia is reportedly requiring Chinese customers to pay 100% upfront for its H200 AI chips, with no refunds or order changes, according to Reuters. The move reflects growing geopolitical uncertainty around export approvals, even as demand remains intense, with Chinese firms said to have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 GPUs for 2026, underscoring Nvidia’s pricing power despite earlier U.S. export restrictions that forced a $5.5 billion inventory write-down. More Here
xAI reported a $1.46 billion net loss in the September 2025 quarter, widening from a $1 billion loss in the prior quarter, according to Bloomberg. Revenue nearly doubled to $107 million, but the company burned $7.8 billion in cash over the first nine months of the year as spending on data centers and talent accelerated, underscoring how aggressively Elon Musk’s AI startup is scaling just days after announcing a $20 billion Series E raise. More Here
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
i10X, a Singapore-based unified AI platform, closed a USD$1m pre-seed funding round. Backers included Iterative, Antler AI Disrupt, and PPR Ventures.
SEED
Enodia Therapeutics, a Paris, France-based biotechnology company developing novel small-molecule therapies for targeted protein degradation at the point of synthesis, raised €20.7m (US$25m) in Seed financing. The round was co-led by Elaia, Pfizer Ventures and Bpifrance.
TECregen, a Basel, Switzerland-based biotechnology company developing thymus regeneration, raised CHF 10M in Seed funding. The round was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), with participation from LifeSpan Vision Ventures, Carma Fund, EOS BioInnovation.
GROWTH
Protege, a NYC-based AI data platform generating access to real-world data, raised $30M in Series A funding. Backers includes Footwork, CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, Shaper Capital, and more.
Spangle AI, a Seattle, WA-based provider of an agentic infrastructure layer service for commerce, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by NewRoad Capital Partners, with participation from Madrona, DNX Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, and strategic angel investors, bringing total funding to $21M.
BrightHeart, a Paris, France-based company which specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for prenatal ultrasound, raised €11M in Series A funding. The round was led by Odyssée Venture and GO Capital, with participation from the Mussallem CHD Alliance, Lift Value, IDAHO HealthTech Club via Side Angels, and founding investor Sofinnova Partners, as well as clinicians and angel investor.
Vitrealab, a Vienna, Austria-based developer of light engines for AR glasses, raised €9.4m in Series A funding. The round was led by LIFTT Italian Venture Capital and LIFTT EuroInvest with participation from Constructor Capital, aws Gründungsfonds, Gateway Ventures, PhotonVentures, xista Science Ventures, Moveon Technologies, and Hermann Hauser Investment.
Poplar Therapeutics, Inc. (previously known as Phylaxis Bioscience), a Boston, MA-based clinical-stage immunology company, raised $50m in Series A financing. The round was led by SR One, Vida Ventures and Platanus.
Alveus Therapeutics, a Philadelphia, PA-based clinical-stage biotechnology company, raised $160M in Series A funding. The round was led by New Rhein Healthcare Investors, Andera Partners, and Omega Funds, with participation from Sanofi Capital, Kurma Partners, Avego BioScience Capital and other healthcare investors.
EpiBiologics, a San Mateo, CA-based company which specializes in tissue-selective extracellular protein degradation, raised $107M in Series B funding. The round was co-led by GV (Google Ventures) and Johnson & Johnson, through its corporate venture capital organization, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc (JJDC).
Vizgen, a Waltham, MA-based spatial multi-omics company, raised $48M in funding. The round was led by ARCH Venture Partners and M Ventures and Northpond Ventures with participation from existing investors.
Abbelight, a Paris, France-based provider of high resolution microscopy end-to-end solutions, closed a Series B financing round of undisclosed amount. The round was led by AVANT BIO.
Luxury Presence, an Austin, TX-based provider of a growth platform for real estate agents, teams, and brokerages, raised $22M in equity financing. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from NextEquity, GSBackers, TPC, and Adam and Jade Mills.
Presto Phoenix, a San Mateo, CA-based company which specializes in enterprise-grade Voice AI for quick-service restaurants (QSRs), raised $10M in funding. The round was led by Metropolitan Partners Group, with participation from Remus Capital, Link Ventures, and strategic angel investors including the CEO of ElevenLabs.
Global Technical Reality, a London, UK-based data center platform provider, received $1.9 Billion from KKR and Oak Hill Capital.
Cyera, a NYC-based AI and data security company, raised $400m in Series F funding, bringing its total funding to over $1.7 billion. The round was led by funds managed by Blackstone with participation from Accel, Coatue, Cyberstarts, Georgian, Greenoaks, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint, Sapphire, Sequoia Capital, and Spark.
Pomelo Care, a NYC-based developer of evidence-based healthcare solutions for women and children, raised $92m in Series C funding. The round, which valued at $1.7 billion, was led by Stripes with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, PLUS Capital, Atomico, BoxGroup, and SV Angel.
Parabilis Medicines, a Cambridge, MA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to creating medicines for people living with cancer, closed a $305m Series F financing. The round was co-led by RA Capital Management, Fidelity Management & Research Company and Janus Henderson Investors, with participation from new investors including Frazier Life Sciences, Soleus Capital, and a life science-dedicated investment fund.
ViCentra, a Utrecht, the Netherlands-based medical device company, raised $13M in Series D extension funding. Backers included ROM Utrecht Region and a consortium of Dutch investors, including Venturing Tech, alongside support from existing investor Innovation Industries.
CURATED RESOURCES
🎅 Fundraising curated resources for you -
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Investor lists that work.
Financial models that make sense.
Legal docs that don’t cost a fortune.
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Investor Databases (Email + LinkedIn)
Fundraising Tools
Strategic Templates
The Founder’s Guide to Building in Public (With 20+ Real Examples)
Communication Tools
Investor Outreach Email Sequence Pack: 20+ Proven Templates Used & Approved by VCs
Legal & Operational
You can explore them all here..
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates
Lux Capital, based in the U.S., focuses on frontier science, AI, and defense tech, and has raised a $1.5 billion ninth fund — its largest to date. The firm, known for early bets on Anduril, Hugging Face, and MosaicML, now manages $7 billion in assets. Despite a tough VC fundraising environment in 2025, LPs backed Lux for its track record of exits and early thematic investing.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
OpenAI to acquire the team behind executive coaching AI tool Convogo
OpenAI is acqui-hiring the team behind Convogo, a platform used by executive coaches and HR teams to automate leadership assessments and feedback reporting.
OpenAI is not acquiring Convogo’s product or IP; the three co-founders will join OpenAI to work on its AI cloud efforts, and Convogo’s product will be shut down as part of the deal.
The move marks OpenAI’s ninth acquisition in about a year and reinforces its strategy of using M&A primarily to absorb talent, rather than continue standalone enterprise products.
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI will face a jury in March
A U.S. judge ruled there is enough evidence for Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI to proceed to a jury trial, tentatively scheduled for March.
Musk alleges OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman abandoned the nonprofit’s original mission by prioritizing profit, after restructuring into a for-profit public benefit corporation.
OpenAI denies the claims, calling the lawsuit baseless, while Musk is seeking monetary damages tied to what he describes as ill-gotten gains from the company’s transition.
Google is adding an "AI Inbox" to Gmail
Google is testing a new “AI Inbox” feature for Gmail that uses Gemini to surface important information and tasks from your emails, rather than showing you the emails themselves.
The AI Inbox will appear in a sidebar above your regular inbox, pulling out things you need to know or do, while the traditional email view remains available for users who want it.
Google says this could be the first step toward changing how people interact with email entirely, turning it into more of a task list managed by AI rather than a pile of messages.
Artificial intelligence begins prescribing medications in Utah
Utah has launched a first-of-its-kind pilot with health-tech startup Doctronic that allows an AI system to autonomously renew routine prescriptions for chronic conditions, with no doctor involved.
The program covers 190 common medications (excluding pain, ADHD, and injectables) and aims to reduce costs, ease clinician shortages, and test how much patients and regulators trust AI in clinical decision-making.
Doctors’ groups and regulators have raised safety and oversight concerns, while Doctronic says its AI matched physician decisions 99.2% of the time and is insured under a malpractice policy equivalent to a human doctor, with the FDA still undecided on its role.
Lenovo’s new cross-device AI assistant
Lenovo unveiled Qira at CES 2026, a system-level AI assistant designed to follow users across Lenovo PCs and Motorola phones, maintaining context between devices under what it calls “personal ambient intelligence.”
Qira runs quietly in the background, using a mix of Microsoft and OpenAI cloud models, plus Stability AI, Notion, and Perplexity, to surface relevant files, draft messages in a user’s style, generate meeting notes with translation, and provide task recaps when switching devices.
Select Lenovo PCs will ship with Qira this quarter, with Motorola phone support and a dedicated keyboard key coming later in 2026, giving Lenovo massive built-in distribution but raising questions about whether users want yet another proprietary AI assistant.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Chase is taking over Apple’s credit card
JPMorgan Chase will become the new issuer of the Apple Card, taking over from Goldman Sachs in a transition that Apple says will likely take up to 24 months to complete.
The deal brings over $20 billion in card balances to Chase, with Goldman Sachs selling at a $1 billion discount and expecting a $2.2 billion provision for credit losses.
Nothing changes for current Apple Card users right now, and the card will continue to use the Mastercard network for payments while keeping its existing cashback rewards structure.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What Else Is Brewing
How to do user research without users: the synthetic user guide. (Link)
How to actually name your startup: A simple framework. (Link)
What 1,000 ChatGPT enterprise customers tell us about enterprise AI adoption in 2025. (Link)
How to write a fundraising email: First email, follow-ups approved by leading VCs? (Link)
How to get warm intros to VCs without a network. (Link)
US VC female founders dashboard. (Link)
Investor data room superpack: everything you need to build a VC-ready data room (guide/templates) (Link)
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
💼 Today’s VC & Startup Job Opportunities
All-In-One VC Interview Preparation Guide: With a leading investors group, we have created an all-in-one VC interview preparation guide for aspiring VCs. Don’t miss this. (Access Here)
Program Manager - gener8tor | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Health Velocity Capital | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Mana Venture | USA - Apply Here
Summer Fellowship 2026 - Coastanova Venture | USA - Apply Here
Portfolio Management Intern - LVL1 Accelerator | India - Apply Here
Associate, Growth Equity - Adam Street Partner | USA - Apply Here
Venture Relations Associate - Angellist | USA - Apply Here
VC Fellowship - 1752 VC | USA - Apply Here
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