☕ Nvidia to invest $5 billion in Ilya Sutskever’s AI startup & Microsoft launches its first cybersecurity model.
Incoming Apple CEO plans to expand the company’s entertainment business & AI chatbots leaked bioweapon recipes.
Breaking News
Nvidia is investing $5 billion in Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI) while providing access to its next-generation Vera Rubin AI chips. The partnership significantly strengthens SSI’s push to build safe artificial superintelligence and further cements Nvidia’s role at the center of the AI ecosystem.
Microsoft unveiled MAI-Cyber-1-Flash, its first AI model built specifically for cybersecurity, alongside a new agentic security platform that automates threat detection and vulnerability remediation. The launch marks Microsoft's latest move to compete in the rapidly growing market for AI-powered cyber defense.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Beelzebub, a Milan, Italy-based AI-native cybersecurity platform, raised €3M in funding. The round was led by United Ventures.
sortmyprep, a Mumbai, India-based AI-driven exam preparation platform, raised approximately $350K in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Boman Irani, Sameer Mehta, Subrat Pani, Rohini Kasturi, and Ranjit Pawar, following earlier institutional backing from PIEDS, BITS Pilani.
SEED
Pilot Protocol, a San Francisco, CA-based internet network platform for AI agents, raised $4.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Version One Ventures, with participation from Precursor Ventures, Night Capital, Todd & Rahul Capital, Lenny Rachitsky, and Ben Tossell.
Dopl Technologies, a Bothell, WA-based medical technology company developing a robotic ultrasound platform, raised $6.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by SpringTide Ventures, with participation from WRF Capital, Tacoma Venture Fund, HeartX, Transform Health Ventures, Precursor Ventures, and other investors.
Enigma, a San Francisco, CA-based physical AI company, raised $71M in Seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Conviction Partners and leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, xAI, Cognition, Wiz, and others.
Freight Hero, a Durham, NC-based AI company for freight broker operations, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Field Ventures, with participation from Flybridge Capital, Tip Top VC, and Front Porch Venture Partners.
Scape, a Stockholm, Sweden-based AI-native intelligent email platform, raised $3.2M in Seed funding. Backers included Y Combinator, General Catalyst, FundersClub, Max Junestrand, Sebastian Knutsson, Sophia Bendz, Jacob Wallenberg Jr., and executives from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Ramp.
PageMind, a Barcelona, Spain-based AI-powered e-commerce optimization platform, raised €1.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by 4Founders Capital, with participation from David Martín and Javier Pérez-Tenessa.
kausable, a Heidelberg, Germany-based reasoning-first frontier AI company, raised €12M in Seed funding. The round was led by UVC Partners and Entourage, with participation from HTGF, Mätch VC, and private angel investors.
GROWTH
Plantopia, a Sdot Yam, Israel-based developer of molecular farming and alternative dairy proteins, raised $9M in funding. The round was led by Schreiber Foods and Siddhi Capital.
PolyBox Solutions, a Newcastle upon Tyne, UK-based AI-driven marketing analytics platform, raised £700K in funding. The financing included support from Northstar Ventures, private angel investors, and Innovate UK.
Antares, a Torrance, CA-based nuclear fission energy company, raised $470M in Series C funding. The round was co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, with participation from Point72 Ventures, Shine Capital, Industrious Ventures, and others.
Multiverse Computing, a San Sebastian, Spain-based model compression technology company, raised $570M (€500M) in Series C funding. The round was led by Forgepoint Capital International, BNPP Solar Impulse Venture Fund, and Bullhound Capital, with participation from Santander Alternative Investments.
Nuclear Turbines, a Manchester, UK-based nuclear power systems startup, raised £15M in funding. The round was led by IQ Capital, with participation from Rhapsody Venture Partners, Zero Carbon Capital, and Empirical Ventures.
Abstract Security, a Palo Alto, CA-based AI-powered streaming threat detection and composable SIEM platform, raised $25M in Series A extension funding. The round was co-led by Cheyenne Ventures Management and Atlantic Vantage Point, with participation from Crosslink Capital and Rally Ventures.
Andrenam, a Hawthorne, CA-based developer of AI-powered underwater acoustic sensors and autonomous maritime surveillance networks, raised $18M in Series A funding. The round was led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Also Capital, and First Round Capital.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read posts
What happens when a VC reference-checks a founder (And who they actually call): Most founders think diligence is about metrics, customers, and market size. But once a VC is serious, they often start calling former colleagues, cofounders, customers, past investors, and people you never listed as references. This piece shows founders how to understand the hidden reference-check process and prepare for it before it quietly decides the round.
How to get investors interested months before you raise (with the exact emails that get replies): Most founders wait until they need money before reaching out to investors. This piece shows how to build relationships earlier with monthly updates that show momentum, build trust, and make the eventual fundraise feel like the natural next step.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Framework Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm focused on the Web3 space, closed its fourth fund (FVIV), at $400m. Founded in 2019 by Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer, Framework is pioneer in decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain gaming investments.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Satya Nadella warns against relying on a single AI provider
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said businesses that depend entirely on one AI model provider risk “outsourcing their thinking” and could lose control over their data, workflows, and long-term competitiveness.
He urged enterprises to retain ownership of their prompts, metadata, and AI infrastructure so they can switch between models or build their own AI systems instead of becoming locked into a single vendor.
Nadella also warned against relying solely on proprietary AI coding tools, arguing that using multiple models and independent AI infrastructure gives companies greater flexibility and reduces the risk of future competition from AI providers themselves.
Apple sued over alleged App Store crypto scam
Apple is facing a lawsuit after three users allegedly lost more than $1.8 million by downloading a fake crypto wallet app from the App Store that impersonated the popular Sparrow Wallet.
The plaintiffs argue that Apple’s App Store review process and security claims gave them confidence that the app was legitimate, making the company responsible for failing to block the fraudulent listing.
Apple says impersonation apps violate its policies, the fake apps have since been removed, and it rejected more than 371,000 misleading or copycat app submissions in 2025.
Anthropic CEO clarifies stance on open AI models
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company does not support banning open-weight AI models, arguing they provide significant value to developers and researchers when they lack dangerous capabilities.
Instead, Amodei expressed concern about advanced AI developed by authoritarian governments, particularly China, citing risks related to military applications, biological threats, and intellectual property theft.
He also backed stronger international AI safety testing and continued restrictions on access to advanced AI chips, while calling for global cooperation on evaluating the most capable AI models.
Google’s AI search is becoming the default experience
Google’s AI Overviews now appear in 43% of searches, up from 15% a year ago, as AI-powered answers and conversational search become a core part of the search experience.
The shift is changing user behavior, with people asking longer, more natural language queries and spending more time within Google’s ecosystem instead of clicking through to external websites.
While AI search continues to reduce referral traffic for publishers, recent updates have increased click-throughs from ChatGPT search results, offering some relief even as AI increasingly becomes the primary destination for information.
Nvidia launches AI security alliance
Nvidia has started the Open Secure AI Alliance, a group aimed at building and sharing open AI models, tools, and techniques that cybersecurity defenders can inspect, adapt, and run on their own systems to protect software and AI agents.
The alliance launched with around 35 partners including Microsoft, IBM, CrowdStrike, Cloudflare, Hugging Face, Palantir, and the Linux Foundation, and points to a recent Hugging Face breach where the open GLM 5.2 model analyzed over 17,000 actions to contain the attack.
Contributors are donating open defense tools, such as Nvidia’s new NOOA agent framework on GitHub, Hugging Face’s Safetensors format, HPE’s SPIFFE/SPIRE identity standards, and Microsoft’s MDASH bug-scanning harness, while urging regulators to treat open AI as a defensive asset.
Incoming Apple CEO plans to expand the company’s entertainment business
Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus said he plans to build on the momentum of Apple TV, following the success of original productions like CODA, F1, Ted Lasso, and The Studio.
Current CEO Tim Cook said Apple’s strategy is to prioritize high-quality content over volume, while remaining open to partnerships where the company can bring unique technology and innovation.
Ternus will officially take over as CEO in September, with Apple aiming to further strengthen its position in streaming and entertainment through premium content and exclusive experiences.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
AI chatbots leaked bioweapon recipes
The Wall Street Journal reported that last summer, hundreds of ChatGPT users worldwide asked the chatbot how to make poisons and bioweapons, with OpenAI saying most of those questions were about poisons.
Biology and terrorism experts later reviewed the exchanges and judged some of ChatGPT’s answers “deadly accurate,” describing instructions delivered patiently and roughly at the skill level of a high school student.
OpenAI banned the users but did not alert authorities, though the company says it forwards queries to law enforcement when they seem to pose credible, real-world dangers, and evaluates its models for safety before release.
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