☕ OpenAI delays GPT-5.6 rollout after White House safety review & Anthropic accuses Alibaba of biggest-ever Claude theft.
Bumble explores a sale as user growth continues to decline & IBM claims world's first sub-1 nanometer chip.
Breaking News
OpenAI will initially release GPT-5.6 only to a small group of approved partners after the White House reportedly requested a limited rollout over cybersecurity and national security concerns. The move reflects growing government oversight of frontier AI models before they reach the public.
Apple has raised prices across Macs, iPads, Vision Pro, and other products, blaming soaring memory and storage costs caused by the AI infrastructure boom. The company warned that iPhones could also see future price increases if chip shortages and component costs continue rising.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Wakeline, a Düsseldorf, Germany-based deep-tech startup developing continuously adaptive AI systems, raised €2.1M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by TechVision Fonds (TVF), with participation from neoteq ventures.
SEED
Kalipso, a Barcelona, Spain-based regulatory technology platform, raised $3.2M in Seed funding. The round was led by Varsity, Lanai, Plug and Play, Kima Ventures, and Vento.
Sail Research, a San Francisco, CA-based infrastructure company for long-horizon AI agents, raised $80M in Seed and Series A funding. The Seed round was led by Sequoia, with participation from Redpoint Ventures, Theory Ventures, Vine Ventures, CRV, A*, Abstract Ventures, and angel investors.
Sazabi, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-native observability platform, raised $8M in Seed funding. The round was led by J2 Ventures, Village Global, and Y Combinator, with participation from Orange Collective and over 60 angel investors.
TensorX, a Dublin, Ireland-based sovereign AI inference platform, raised €8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Darius Cubed Ventures.
GROWTH
Scaled Cognition, a Mountain View, CA-based AI model lab, raised $100M in Series A funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Genesys.
Oblenio Bio, a Cambridge, MA-based autoimmune disease therapeutics company, raised $62M in Series B funding. The round was led by Pfizer Ventures, with participation from Deep Track Capital, GV, and Aditum Bio.
Upside, a Fort Lauderdale, FL-based housing stability platform for healthcare, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Aquiline, with participation from Flare Capital Partners, 645 Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Triple Impact Capital, and Techstars.
Arca, a NYC-based AI-native wealth management company, raised $48.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Index Ventures and Venrock.
Neurometric AI, a NYC-based AI infrastructure company, raised $4M in funding. Backers included Betaworks, ex-Ante, Everywhere.vc, Encoded, Vermillion, Abstraction, Mu Ventures, and angel investors including Jason Calacanis and Dharmesh Shah.
Netris, a Santa Clara, CA-based AI infrastructure networking platform, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Samepage, a Singapore-based AI-powered product intelligence platform, raised $4.85M in funding. The round was led by Craft Ventures, Freestyle VC, Glasswing Ventures, and angel investors including Justin Kan and Matt Mullenweg.
Leyden Laboratories, a Leiden, Netherlands-based respiratory virus therapeutics company, raised $40M in funding. The round was led by European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Invest-NL, Gates Foundation, ClavystBio, and others.
Onyx Odds, a NYC-based social sports prediction platform, raised $20M in Series A funding at a $220M valuation. The round was led by Payward.
Float Financial, a Toronto, Canada-based financial operating system provider, raised CAD $85M in Series C funding. The round was led by Inovia Capital, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Garage Capital, BDC Capital, and Northleaf.
Runpod, a Newark, NJ-based AI developer cloud company, raised $100M in funding. The round was led by Summit Partners.
xCures, an Oakland, CA-based healthcare data company, raised $46M in Series B funding. The round was led by Innovius Capital, with participation from iGrow, GKCC, Spring Mountain Capital, and existing investors.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ Must read writeups
The $250/month line AI founders should watch - Most AI products don’t churn because the model is bad. They churn because cheap pricing attracts curious users who test the product once, never embed it into a workflow, and disappear by month three. This piece breaks down why AI companies priced above $250/month often show stronger retention and what founders can do this week to fix the leak. (Read more here)
How founders should answer valuation questions - When investors ask about valuation, most founders rush to give a number. This piece explains why it’s usually smarter to signal your expectations, ask how the market is pricing similar rounds, and let investors reveal their range first. (Read more here)
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Valor Equity Partners, the Chicago-based growth investment firm founded by Antonio Gracias, is looking to raise at least $2.5 billion for its new Fund VII, according to Bloomberg. The fund will continue backing growth-stage companies, with a portion already earmarked for additional investments in SpaceX, alongside sectors such as aerospace, defense, and technology.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Claude is gaining paying users faster than ChatGPT
New payment data suggests Anthropic’s Claude has grown its paying consumer base and revenue by roughly 75% since January 2026, signaling strong momentum beyond its enterprise developer audience.
DataCamp says Claude has become its most searched AI term, with demand for Claude courses from self-directed learners now growing three times faster than ChatGPT and increasing 18x over the past month.
ChatGPT remains the clear leader in overall consumer adoption and paying users, but Claude is steadily closing the gap as Anthropic expands its consumer presence ahead of its expected IPO.
Ex-Databricks AI chief is building chips that use 1,000x less power
Former Databricks AI head Naveen Rao unveiled Un-0, the first AI model built on Unconventional AI’s new oscillator-based computing architecture, aiming to dramatically improve inference efficiency.
The company claims its technology could reduce AI inference power consumption by up to 1,000x compared with conventional chips, though it currently runs on a software simulation ahead of dedicated hardware.
Unconventional AI plans to build its own chips and inference infrastructure, betting that energy constraints—not compute—will become the biggest bottleneck for scaling AI.
China’s Z.ai says its latest AI model is closing the gap with OpenAI and Anthropic
Chinese AI startup Z.ai says its new open-source GLM-5.2 model now performs close to leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic, while operating at roughly one-sixth the cost.
The company plans a dual listing in Shanghai to help fund its AGI ambitions, with shares already surging more than 20x since its Hong Kong debut earlier this year.
Z.ai says demand for its AI models continues to outpace supply, and its next frontier model, GLM-5.5, is expected to launch in August with a focus on coding and autonomous AI agents.
Bumble explores a sale as user growth continues to decline
Bumble is working with Morgan Stanley to explore a potential sale after slowing growth, with sources saying no deal is guaranteed and the company could remain independent.
The dating app has struggled with declining paying users and revenue, while its market value has fallen to around $388 million from more than $7 billion at its 2021 IPO.
Bumble faces increasing competition, changing user preferences, and growing dating app fatigue, despite expanding into friendship and professional networking products.
Anthropic accuses Alibaba of biggest-ever Claude theft
Anthropic accused Alibaba of carrying out its largest known AI “distillation” attack, alleging the company used around 25,000 fraudulent accounts to generate 28.8 million interactions with its AI models.
The AI startup says the campaign was an attempt to illegally extract its technology and has urged the U.S. government and the AI industry to work together to better protect American AI capabilities.
The allegations come as AI security and export controls become a bigger focus, with Anthropic also facing recent U.S. government restrictions on access to some of its latest AI models.
IBM claims world's first sub-1 nanometer chip
IBM unveiled the world’s first sub-1 nanometer chip technology, featuring a new 0.7 nm “nanostack” architecture that nearly doubles transistor density compared to its previous 2 nm chip.
The new design is expected to deliver up to 50% better performance or 70% greater energy efficiency, making it well suited for AI, cloud computing, and next-generation electronic devices.
IBM believes the breakthrough can extend chip scaling for at least another decade, with commercial production of the technology potentially beginning within the next five years.
Tesla teams up to build largest US power plant
Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla announced a partnership to combine millions of home batteries, smart thermostats, and EV systems into a virtual power plant capable of delivering more than 16 gigawatts of flexible electricity.
The companies say the system can help power AI data centers and other large electricity users within months, reducing strain on the grid without requiring major new infrastructure.
By using existing home energy devices more efficiently, the partnership aims to lower electricity costs for households, improve grid reliability, and accelerate the rollout of new AI and data center capacity.
OpenAI may delay its $1 trillion IPO until 2027
OpenAI is reportedly leaning toward delaying its IPO until next year or even 2027, as CEO Sam Altman is unwilling to lower the company’s targeted $1 trillion valuation for an earlier listing.
Advisers presented two options: wait longer to justify the valuation or go public sooner at a lower price, but Altman reportedly rejected the latter.
The report also says the Trump administration has asked OpenAI to limit the initial rollout of GPT-5.6, with early access restricted to approved partners over security concerns.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Notion is shutting down its email app to go all-in on AI agents
Notion will discontinue Notion Mail on September 22, saying over half of users now manage their emails entirely through AI agents without opening their inboxes.
Since Notion Mail is built on Gmail, users will keep their emails, but they’ll need to export drafts, scheduled emails, snippets, and auto-label rules before the shutdown.
The move reflects a broader shift toward AI-first email workflows, with Notion betting that autonomous agents—not traditional inboxes—will become the future of email management.
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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