☕ OpenAI launches AI browser Atlas in latest challenge to Google & Samsung unveils Galaxy XR headset to rival Apple’s Vision Pro.
Amazon plans to replace 600,000 workers with robots & More.
In 1945, an engineer noticed the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted just from standing near a radar machine.
His name was Percy Spencer. That accidental moment led to the invention of the microwave oven.
Sometimes, paying attention leads to billion-dollar ideas.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Forecast model template, investor data room superpack, handling multiple ICPs, DeepSeek market manipulation, ChatGPT for competitive analysis, Figma’s $1B ARR lessons.
OpenAI launches Atlas browser, taking aim at Google’s dominance.
Cloudflare CEO urges UK regulators to force Google to unbundle its AI and search crawlers.
Anthropic CEO responds to Trump officials’ claims of AI fear-mongering.
NASA might drop SpaceX from upcoming Moon landing mission.
Amazon plans to replace 600,000 workers with robots.
Samsung unveils Galaxy XR headset to rival Apple’s Vision Pro.
Anthropic, Google in talks for multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal.
Netflix goes ‘all in’ on generative AI as Hollywood remains divided.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
The forecast model every startup needs (with free template). (Link)
Investor Data Room Superpack: Everything you need to build a VC-ready data room (Guide/Templates) (Link)
How to handle multiple ICPs as a solo founder? (Link)
The DeepSeek hype was fake, and it just exposed a new kind of market manipulation. (Link)
How to use ChatGPT for competitive analysis? (Link)
What founders can learn from Figma hitting $1B ARR (Link)
40 real startup pitch decks that raised $350M+ (Including leading startups decks) (Link)
How AI will change different types of consumer purchases. (Link)
Startup legal document pack – essential legal docs for founders. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Anrok, a San Francisco, CA-based global sales tax compliance platform powering digital businesses, raised $55m in Series C funding. The round, which brings Anrok’s total funding to over $100M, was led by Spark Capital, with participation from Sapphire Ventures and existing investors Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures.
AdsGency, the agentic advertising platform that handles the entire process of running and optimizing paid marketing, raised a $12 million led by XYZ Venture Capital, with participation from Streamlined Ventures, HF0, and Hat Trick Capital.
Arbor Energy, an El Segundo, CA-based clean power company, raised a $55m Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Voyager Ventures, with participation from Gigascale Capital and Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
ChipAgents, a Santa Barbara, CA-based agentic AI platform for chip design and verification, closed a $21m Series A funding round. The round, which brought the total fundraise to $24m to date, was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Micron Ventures, MediaTek, Ericsson, and additional top semiconductor companies, and angels including new advisors, Wally Rhines, Raúl Camposano,and Jack Harding, and existing backers by ScOp Venture Capital (Ivan Bercovich) and Amino Capital.
Acelab, a NYC-based developer of an AI-powered platform for researching, selecting, and documenting building materials, raised $13.5M in Series A funding. The round, which brings Acelab’s total funding to over $25m, was led by Navitas Capital with participation from strategic investors including JLL Spark, DivcoWest, Kai-Uwe Bergmann (Partner at BIG), Christopher Sharples (Founding Principal of SHoP), and Sharon Prince (Founder & CEO of Grace Farms Foundation), alongside returning investors Pillar VC, Draper Associates, PJC, Ken Lang, Klingenstein Fields, and Transcend Partners.
Bronto, a Dublin, Ireland based provider of a log data platform, raised $14m in seed funding. The round was led by Cercano Management – with participation from Heavybit Venture Capital and Conviction Capital.
Gravwell, a Minneapolis, MN-based full-stack data analytics and security platform provider, closed a $15.4m Series A funding round. The round was led by Two Bear Capital with participation from Gula Tech Adventures, Next Frontier Capital, and others.
Estuary, a NYC-based provider of a right-time data platform to move and transform data across 200+ systems for enterprises, raised $17m in Series A funding. The round was led by M13, with participation from Firstmark and Operator Partners.
Moonshot AI, a NYC-based AI-powered platform that turns websites into fully automated, self-optimizing living organisms, raised $10M in in seed funding. The round was led by Mighty Capital with participation from Oceans Ventures, Uncorrelated, Garuda Ventures, and Almaz Capital.
Hyro, a NYC-based Responsible AI Agent Platform for healthcare, raised $45m in growth funding. The round was led by Healthier Capital, with participation from Norwest and Define Ventures, as well as other existing investors, as well as new strategic investors Bon Secours Mercy Health, and ServiceNow Ventures, the investment arm of ServiceNow.
Findem, a San Francisco, CA-based AI talent acquisition and management solution powered by 3D data, raised $51m in funding. The raise included a Series C led by SLW, with participation from Wing Ventures, Harmony Capital and Four Rivers Group, and growth financing from J.P. Morgan.
knownwell, a Boston, MA-based obesity medicine and weight-inclusive primary care company, raised $25m in funding. The round was led by CVS Health Ventures, with participation from MassMutual Catalyst Fund, Intermountain Ventures, and others, along with continued support from existing investors a16z Bio + Health and Flare Capital Partners, bringing knownwell’s total funding to over $50m.
Casium, a Seattle, WA-based AI-powered immigration and mobility solution for enterprises that combines licensed legal expertise with technology, raised $5m in seed funding. The round was led by Maverick Ventures with participation from the AI2 Incubator, GTMfund, Success Venture Partners, and angel investor Jake Heller, co-founder of Casetext.
Lette AI, a Dublin, Ireland-based agentic AI operating system built for modern property teams, raised $1.4m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Pitchdrive with participation from Baseline Venture, Lugus Capital, and angels including Mark Ransford and Conor Sheridan of Nory AI.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Asymmetric Capital Partners, a Boston, MA-based early-stage technology investment firm, closed Asymmetric Fund II, at $137m. Asymmetric’s investor base in Fund II consists of value-added LPs, many with direct experience in venture-backed operations, investing, or scaling technology businesses.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
OpenAI launches Atlas browser, taking aim at Google’s dominance
OpenAI unveiled its new AI-powered browser, Atlas, positioning it as a reinvention of how people use the internet — replacing the search box with a conversational chat interface.
CEO Sam Altman and former Chrome engineer Ben Goodger described Atlas as enabling “multi-turn” search, letting users talk with results instead of visiting web pages.
With 800M ChatGPT users potentially shifting from Chrome, and OpenAI eyeing adtech hires, Atlas poses a real threat to Google’s search and ad ecosystem.
Cloudflare CEO urges UK regulators to force Google to unbundle its AI and search crawlers
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince met with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to argue that Google’s use of a single crawler for both Search and AI products gives it an unfair competitive edge.
Prince said Google’s setup forces websites to either allow both Search and AI scraping or block both — a nonstarter for media firms that rely on Google Search for revenue.
He urged regulators to foster a fairer market where AI companies pay for content access, citing Cloudflare’s own tools that let sites charge AI models for scraping.
Anthropic CEO responds to Trump officials’ claims of AI fear-mongering
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a statement pushing back against Trump administration officials, including David Sacks and Sriram Krishnan, who accused the company of “regulatory capture” and fear-mongering about AI risks.
Amodei defended Anthropic’s cooperation with the Trump administration, citing its $200M defense contract and support for Trump’s AI Action Plan, while rejecting claims that it seeks to harm startups.
He reaffirmed Anthropic’s support for light-touch AI safety regulation like California’s SB 53 and emphasized that “policy should prevail over politics” as AI reshapes the U.S. tech landscape.
NASA might drop SpaceX from upcoming Moon landing mission
NASA may open its Human Landing System contract to competition due to concerns that SpaceX’s Starship vehicle is behind schedule, creating a new race to return Americans to the moon.
The agency’s acting administrator cited a “space race against China” as the motivation, saying that SpaceX’s pushed timelines are a problem for getting to the lunar surface before other nations.
Major technical hurdles for Starship include the need for in-orbit refueling and increasing its current lift performance from a lackluster 35 tons to the expected 100 to 150 tons.
Amazon plans to replace 600,000 workers with robots
Amazon plans to significantly scale up its robotics to meet future demand, a move that could prevent the company from needing an estimated 600,000 new hires by the year 2033.
Internal documents reportedly reveal a long-term goal to automate 75 percent of all company operations, which would save Amazon 30 cents for each item it packs and delivers.
The report claims executives are being advised to avoid using terms like “automation” or “AI,” suggesting they instead use phrases such as “advanced technology” or even the word “cobot.”
Samsung unveils Galaxy XR headset to rival Apple’s Vision Pro
Samsung launched its $1,799 Galaxy XR headset, built in partnership with Google and Qualcomm, marking the debut of the first Android XR device powered by Google’s Gemini AI.
The headset blends virtual and mixed reality, allowing users to interact with real-world objects while using apps like YouTube and Google Maps; it’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chip.
With Google’s AI integration adding major software value, Samsung aims to challenge Apple and Meta in a shrinking but competitive XR market projected at $7.27B next year.
Anthropic, Google in talks for multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal
Anthropic is negotiating a cloud services agreement with Google valued in the “high tens of billions,” according to Bloomberg, as the AI startup seeks additional computing power.
The deal would deepen Anthropic’s reliance on Google Cloud, one of its major investors alongside Amazon, and strengthen Google’s AI infrastructure footprint.
Anthropic, creator of the Claude chatbot, is on pace to hit a $9B annual revenue run rate by the end of 2025 as enterprise adoption accelerates.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Netflix goes ‘all in’ on generative AI as Hollywood remains divided
Netflix told investors it’s “very well positioned” to leverage AI, using it to boost creative efficiency rather than replace storytellers. CEO Ted Sarandos said, “AI can give creatives better tools… but it doesn’t make you a great storyteller.”
The company has already used generative AI in shows like The Eternaut and Happy Gilmore 2 for visual effects and production design.
While Netflix embraces AI, industry concerns persist — with SAG-AFTRA and actors like Bryan Cranston urging stronger guardrails after OpenAI’s Sora 2 model enabled deepfake generation.
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)
Analyst - Tower Research Venture | USA - Apply Here
Research Analyst - Positive Sum | USA - Apply Here
Fund Operations Associate - TNB Aura | Singapore - Apply Here
VP, Ventures - Synchroni Venture | USA - Apply Here
Research Intern, Crypto - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Senior VC Analyst - Working Capital Fund | USA - Apply Here
2026 Venture Capital Summer Analyst - Stepstone Group | USA - Apply Here
AI Venture Analyst Intern - Untaped Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investor Relations Manager - Beco Capital | UK - Apply Here
Associate - Venture Capital - Artha Venture Fund | India - Apply Here
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