☕ OpenAI shuts down it’s AI powered browser - Atlas & Meta enters the AI coding race.
OpenAI launches GPT-5.6 family with three new models & Meta’s next-generation AI chips enter production in September.
Breaking News
OpenAI unveiled GPT-5.6 with three new models - Sol, Terra, and Luna - targeting enterprise AI, coding, research, and autonomous agents. The company says its flagship model outperforms Anthropic’s latest AI while running faster, using fewer tokens, and costing about one-third less.
Meta will begin mass-producing its latest MTIA AI chips in September, reducing its reliance on Nvidia while powering AI training, inference, and recommendation systems. The rollout is a key part of Meta’s $125–145 billion AI infrastructure strategy.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Sherpa, a Munich, Germany-based provider of an AI operating system for external workforce management, raised $2.2M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was co-led by Seedcamp, DN Capital, Activant Capital, and Brighteye.
SEED
Marker, a London, UK-based developer of an AI-native word processor and collaborative authoring platform, raised $13M in Seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from LocalGlobe and strategic angel investors including Steve Newman, Cal Henderson, and Thomas Wolf.
Pixel-Flo, a University of Sheffield spin-out advancing MicroLED manufacturing technology, raised £5.25M in Seed funding. The round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from SCVC, Parkwalk Northern Universities Venture Fund, and HTGF.
QIZ Security, a NYC-based cryptographic posture and post-quantum cryptography management platform, raised $17M in Seed funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Merlin Ventures, with participation from Evolution Equity Partners, Qbeat Ventures, Singtel Innov8, and Qino Cyber Capital.
Cableteque, a Huntington Beach, CA-based digital operating system provider, raised $6M in Seed funding. Backers included 11 Tribes Ventures, PHX Ventures, and Mudita Ventures.
Polysense, a Ghent, Belgium-based AI-native quality control platform for food manufacturers, raised $10.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Felix Capital, with participation from Fortino Ventures and angel investors including Syndicate One and 100IN.
GROWTH
Dropla Tech, an Odense, Denmark-based developer of edge-AI explosive detection software and unmanned ground vehicles, raised an undisclosed funding round. Backers included MITS Capital.
Aria, a Paris, France-based embedded invoice financing platform, raised €7M in Series A extension funding. The round was led by 115K, with participation from 13books Capital.
Kapture CX, a Bengaluru, India-based provider of an agentic AI platform, raised $10M in Pre-Series B funding. The round was led by Bajaj Finserv Ventures, with participation from Cactus Venture Partners and India Alternatives.
Ollama, a Palo Alto, CA-based developer platform for open models, raised $65M in Series B funding. The round was led by Theory Ventures, with participation from Benchmark, 8VC, Y Combinator, Pace Capital, 49 Palms, and GTMFund.
Nscale, a London, UK-based AI infrastructure company, secured a $900M debt facility. The syndicate included J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, MUFG, RBC Capital Markets, Bank of America, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho, SMBC, TD Securities, and KeyBank N.A.
Oxipital AI, a Bedford, MA-based synthetic AI vision platform, raised an undisclosed Series A funding round. The round was led by SAS Private Equities and Scale Venture Partners, with participation from Material Impact.
Databento, a Salt Lake City-based market data platform, raised $97M in Series B funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from DRW Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Tribe Capital, and other investors.
TJM Labs, a Wilmington, DE-based pharmacy AI platform, raised $75M in Series B funding. The round was led by Elephant, with participation from Arthur Ventures and Updata Partners.
QuantumDiamonds, a Munich, Germany-based semiconductor equipment company, raised $91M in funding. The financing included an equity round led by World Fund and non-dilutive funding under the European Chips Act.
Hostie, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-powered virtual concierge platform for restaurants, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Gradient, Scribble Ventures, Burst Capital, Behind Genius Ventures, and angel investors.
Grace Investment Machine (GIM), a Beijing and Shanghai-based AI-native investment technology company, raised $20M in Series A funding. The round was led by Hony Capital, with participation from IDG Capital and Monolith Capital.
EdVisorly, a Los Angeles, CA-based EdTech platform for colleges and universities, raised $13.3M in Series A funding. The round was led by Breachway Capital, with participation from U.S. News & World Report, Lumina Foundation, Strada Education Foundation, Motley Fool Ventures, Juvo Ventures, Zeal Capital Partners, and others.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Vermilion Cliffs Ventures, a U.S.-based venture firm founded by solo GP Ashley Smith, raised $25 million for its second fund. The firm invests in technical founders building AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and developer tools, with plans to back at least 25 early-stage startu
Paradigm, a U.S.-based venture capital firm founded by Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, raised $1.2 billion for its latest fund. The firm will invest in startups across crypto, AI, robotics, and other technical frontier technologies, expanding beyond its traditional cryptocurrency focus.
Chemistry Ventures, a U.S.-based early-stage venture firm founded by Mark Goldberg, Ethan Kurzweil, and Kristina Shen, is raising $500 million for its second fund. The firm invests in AI startups across infrastructure and applications, and its debut $350 million fund backed companies including Granola, Decagon, Persona, Serval, and Nova Intelligence.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
OpenAI shuts down it’s AI powered browser, Atlas
OpenAI is discontinuing its AI-powered browser Atlas and instead bringing its browsing and agentic capabilities into ChatGPT through a new Chrome extension and enhanced desktop app.
The new Chrome extension lets ChatGPT understand the current webpage, answer questions, summarize content, and assist with longer tasks. Meanwhile, the desktop app gains a built-in browser and a cloud-based browsing agent that can navigate websites, log into accounts, download files, and complete tasks on a user’s behalf.
Rather than competing directly with Chrome as a standalone browser, OpenAI is shifting toward making ChatGPT an AI workspace that integrates with existing browsers and applications.
Mercor is reportedly raising at a $20B valuation
AI hiring and training startup Mercor is reportedly in early talks to raise a new funding round at a $20 billion valuation, doubling its valuation from $10 billion less than a year after its Series C.
CEO Brendan Foody said the company has reached a $2 billion annualized revenue run rate, up 100% in just four months. Mercor also acquired AI agent training startup Deeptune, with its entire team joining the company.
The rapid growth suggests Mercor has recovered from earlier setbacks, including a data breach and legal disputes with contract workers, as investor interest in AI infrastructure companies continues to accelerate.
Meta launches Muse Spark 1.1 for enterprise AI coding
Meta has released Muse Spark 1.1, a multimodal AI model built for agentic coding, software development, and enterprise automation. The model can perform multi-step reasoning, manage workflows, fix bugs, and assist with large-scale code migrations.
Priced at $1.25 per million input tokens and $4.25 per million output tokens, Muse Spark 1.1 is positioned as a low-cost competitor to OpenAI and Anthropic’s coding models, targeting businesses seeking affordable AI agents.
The launch strengthens Meta’s push into enterprise AI, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg describing Spark as a high-performing, low-cost coding model and hinting that more AI model releases are on the way.
US warns self-driving cars are a danger to the public
America’s top road safety regulator, the NHTSA, has told self-driving car companies to quickly fix what it calls a “clear pattern” of autonomous vehicles interfering with police, firefighters, and other first responders at emergency scenes.
In a letter to the industry, NHTSA chief Jonathan Morrison described autonomous vehicles blocking ambulances and firefighters and failing to respond to flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones, calling this a “functional insufficiency.”
The agency plans to meet with vehicle developers by month’s end, and pointed to a late-May Dallas incident where a Waymo reportedly obstructed a fire truck heading to an apartment blaze.
OpenAI’s Fidji Simo steps down from AGI deployment role after medical leave
OpenAI’s CEO of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, is stepping down from her full-time role and transitioning to a part-time advisory position after taking extended medical leave to focus on recovery from a chronic neuroimmune condition.
Simo, formerly CEO of Instacart and a Meta executive, played a key role in OpenAI’s leadership as the company expanded its applications business and shifted toward deploying AGI capabilities ahead of its planned IPO.
According to reports, Simo’s responsibilities will be divided among President Greg Brockman, CFO Sarah Friar, and Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, while she remains involved with OpenAI in an advisory capacity.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
Brown professor's chart exposes mass AI cheating in exams
A Brown University economics professor, Roberto Serrano, believes most of his class cheated with AI after his take-home midterm averaged 96 out of 100, then dropped to 48 on an in-person final.
Serrano offered take-home exams after a campus shooting left students anxious, but 40 of the 86 students scored a perfect 100 on a midterm whose historical average sits between 65 and 80.
When he announced the in-person final, 18 students dropped the course and nine skipped the exam, and 22 of those 27 had earned perfect midterm scores, leaving Serrano to count at least 50 cheaters.
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