☕ OpenAI staff to sell $6 billion in stock at $500 billion valuation, China introduces SIM card–sized SSDs & 300% tariff on chips.
OpenAI expects to spend trillions on future AI & Meta plans its fourth AI restructuring.
Everything you’re experiencing right now actually happened 80 milliseconds ago.
A study conducted by Dr. David Eagleman at the Baylor College of Medicine found that our consciousness lags 80 milliseconds behind actual events.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: AI unicorn study, legal docs pack, AI & purchases, financial model template, Fund II fails, fundraising by round, pre-revenue valuation, pitch deck guide, B2B fails, IKEA effect.
OpenAI staff looking to sell $6 billion in stock to SoftBank at $500 billion valuation.
Anthropic adds conversation-ending feature to Claude models.
OpenAI updates GPT-5 to feel warmer and friendlier.
Meta plans its fourth AI restructuring in six months.
Trump mulls a 300% tariff on chips.
China introduces SIM card–sized SSDs for gaming devices.
SpaceX expands Starlink with 24 more satellites.
OpenAI expects to spend trillions on future AI.
Sen. Hawley to investigate Meta over AI chatbots and child safety.
Duolingo CEO clarifies stance on AI-first strategy.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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🗞️ What else is brewing
What Bessemer found when they studied 20 AI unicorns.
Startup legal document pack – essential legal docs for founders.
How AI will change different types of consumer purchases.
Financial modelling template to build your startup financial model that every investor wants to see.
Why so many first-time VCs are failing at Fund II.
How much money will your software startup raise in each venture round?
How investors value pre-revenue startups with Excel sheet.
All-In-One guide to pitch deck storytelling - free template & curated resources.
The hidden reason many B2B startups fail.
The "IKEA effect" (and what it means for founders and startups, and good products).
Write your monthly investor update (email template download).
Don’t confuse product-market fit with subsidy-market fit: Cursor’s problem.
6000+ European VC Firms Contact Database (LinkedIn Links).
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Waterly, a Crystal Lake, Ill.-based watertech startup, closed a $4m Series A funding round. The round was led by Burnt Island Ventures with participation from Emerald.
Sports Impact Technologies, a Dublin, Ireland-based sportstech startup, raised €650k in pre-seed funding. The investment round was led by private investors with the support of Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) funding.
Citizen Health, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a patient-powered platform for rare disease care, raised $30M in Series A Funding. The round was led by 8VC, with participation from Transformation Capital and Headline, bringing the company’s total funding to $44M since its December 2023 launch.
Topline Pro, a NYC-based AI-powered engine improving how home service businesses grow and run online, raised $27M in Series B funding. The round was led by Northzone (Molly Alter), with new participation from Tactile Ventures, Industry Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, TMV, Flybridge, and BBG Ventures.
OneCrew, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a purpose-built platform for paving contractors, raised $7.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Stage 2 Capital, with participation from existing investors Entourage and Bienville Capital.
Conduit, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based workforce management platform reimagining frontline scheduling and training for the modern workforce, secured $375,000 in funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Create, a San Francisco, CA-based AI agentic startup, raised $8.5m in funding. The funding included a $5.5m raise led by Bessemer Venture Partners and participation from Shopify founder Tobi Lütke and other angels. It follows a previous $3m pre-seed round.
Studio Atelico, a San Francisco, CA-based game studio building new AI-first gaming experiences, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Air Street Capital and angel investors including Chris Ré (Factory), Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face) and Alex Ratner (Snorkel).
Infinity Loop, a NYC-based AI-native contract intelligence platform built to help enterprises save money on vendor contracts, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Glasswing Ventures and TIAA Ventures, with participation from Plug and Play, Restive Ventures, and angel investors.
Cache, a San Francisco, CA-based fintech company that offers products for stock positions, raised $12.5M in Series A funding. The round was led by Bill Trenchard at First Round Capital, with participation from solo investors from across technology and finance.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
GoalVest Venture Capital, a division of GoalVest Advisory LLC, a NYC-based female-founded boutique RIA and venture capital firm, announced the first close of GoalVest Venture Growth Fund II, targeting a $50m raise. Approximately 60 Limited Partners backed the fund.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
OpenAI staff looking to sell $6 billion in stock to SoftBank at $500 billion valuation:
Current and former OpenAI employees are in talks to sell nearly $6 billion in shares to SoftBank, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer, potentially valuing the company at $500 billion.
The sale follows OpenAI’s $40 billion primary round led by SoftBank and comes as the company’s revenue run rate hit $12 billion, with projections of $20 billion by year-end.
ChatGPT usage has surged to 700 million weekly active users, up from 400 million in February, highlighting its rapid growth and market dominance.
Anthropic adds conversation-ending feature to Claude models:
Anthropic’s newest Claude models (Opus 4 and 4.1) can now end conversations in rare cases of persistent harmful or abusive interactions.
The move is framed as part of a “model welfare” study, with the company noting signs of “apparent distress” when models respond to extreme requests.
Claude will only use this ability as a last resort, not in cases of self-harm risk, and users can still restart or branch conversations afterward.
OpenAI updates GPT-5 to feel warmer and friendlier:
OpenAI has rolled out an update to GPT-5 aimed at making it “warmer and friendlier,” after some users said they preferred GPT-4o.
The tweaks include subtle conversational touches like “Good question” or “Great start,” which OpenAI says won’t increase sycophancy.
Executives admitted the GPT-5 launch was bumpier than expected, and this update is part of efforts to address user feedback.
Meta plans its fourth AI restructuring in six months:
Meta is reportedly planning its fourth overhaul of artificial intelligence efforts in six months, following recent senior staff departures and a poor reception for its open-source Llama 4 model.
The company plans to divide its new Superintelligence Labs unit into four teams, including a "TBD Lab," a products team, an infrastructure team, and the Fundamental AI Research lab.
This restructuring comes as Meta spends billions on massive AI data centers and has raised its annual capital expenditures forecast to a range of $66 billion to $72 billion.
Trump mulls a 300% tariff on chips:
Donald Trump is considering new tariffs of 200 to 300 percent on semiconductors, a proposal that could triple the price of PC components like Nvidia's top-end GeForce RTX 5090.
The threat of extreme duties creates prolonged uncertainty for the supply chain, forcing chipmakers and electronics brands to make contingency plans that can slow down real investment in their businesses.
This action could be allowed under a Section 232 investigation, which lets the President adjust tariffs for national security, and the Department of Commerce already has one underway.
China introduces SIM card–sized SSDs for gaming devices:
Chinese storage maker Biwin unveiled the “Mini SSD,” measuring just 15x17mm, offering up to 3,700MB/s read speeds and capacities of 512GB to 2TB.
The SSD works like a SIM card tray, with IP68 water/dust resistance and drop protection, and is being positioned for laptops, phones, cameras, and tablets.
Two Strix Halo–powered gaming devices — GPD Win 5 and OneXPlayer Super X — will be the first to feature the new slot, though pricing details remain unknown.
SpaceX expands Starlink with 24 more satellites:
A Falcon 9 rocket launched 24 Starlink satellites on Aug. 14 from Vandenberg, raising the active constellation to over 8,100.
Booster B1093 completed its fifth flight and landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, marking SpaceX’s 487th booster landing.
Starlink now serves 130+ countries and is moving toward a 12,000-satellite network to provide global low-cost internet coverage.
OpenAI expects to spend trillions on future AI:
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman said the company plans to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure for advanced artificial intelligence, a figure he expects economists and analysts will probably call reckless.
To finance its computing and infrastructure costs, the company is creating a "very interesting new kind of financial instrument" that doesn't currently exist, avoiding traditional fundraising routes for its AI buildout.
Altman also admitted a public offering is likely at some point to help fund the plan, clarifying that the previously announced $500 billion Stargate project is now viewed as just the beginning.
Sen. Hawley to investigate Meta over AI chatbots and child safety:
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced a probe into Meta after leaked documents showed its AI chatbots were allowed to have “romantic” and “sensual” chats with children.
Meta admitted the examples were real but said they violated policy and have since been removed, with Hawley demanding all drafts, safety reports, and responsible individuals by Sept 19.
The investigation has gained support from lawmakers like Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who reiterated calls to pass the Kids Online Safety Act.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕Other news
Duolingo CEO clarifies stance on AI-first strategy:
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn said his “AI-first company” memo was misunderstood, stressing it wasn’t about profit or laying off humans.
He emphasized that Duolingo has “never laid off any full-time employees,” though contractor numbers fluctuate with business needs.
Despite backlash, von Ahn remains bullish on AI, with the team dedicating Friday mornings to AI experiments.
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)
Investor Relations Associate - Alumni Venture | USA - Apply Here
Analyst - Adams Street Partners | USA - Apply Here
Associate - Iconique Capital | USA - Apply Here
Investor Relations Manager - BECO Capital | UAE - Apply Here
Analyst / Senior Analyst - Updaya Social Venture | India - Apply Here
Program Manager - generator | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Zeta Capital | India - Apply Here
Capital Formation Analyst - March Capital | USA - Apply Here
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