☕ SpaceX looks $5 billion Saudi investment ahead of IPO & Cloudflare launches WordPress competitor.
Investors are dumping OpenAI shares and rushing into Anthropic & More.
Breaking News
Investors are dumping OpenAI shares and rushing into Anthropic, with ~$600M worth of OpenAI stock failing to find buyers while $2B+ is ready to deploy into Anthropic. The shift signals changing sentiment in the AI race, as investors bet Anthropic could close the gap despite OpenAI’s much higher valuation.
SpaceX is in talks to secure a $5B investment from Saudi Arabia ahead of its expected record-breaking IPO, potentially raising $75B. The move highlights massive global demand for exposure to SpaceX as it prepares for one of the most anticipated listings in history.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup Funding Updates
PRE-SEED
Proho, a Noida, India-based AI-powered home resale platform, raised $1M in Pre-Seed funding. Backers included Bharath Vivek Chandhok and others.
Gander Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based autonomous rescue systems company, raised $1.1M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Impellent Ventures and Underscore VC.
estaie, a Dubai, UAE-based hospitality tech startup, raised a 7-figure Pre-Seed funding round. The round was led by PlusVC and Orbit Ventures, with participation from Falak Angels, Value Makers Studio, and Vasil Zdravkov.
Omniscient, a Paris, France-based decision intelligence platform, raised $4.1M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Seedcamp, with participation from Drysdale, Plug and Play, MS&AD, Raise, Anamcara, xdeck, and Bpifrance.
SEED
Nexus, a Brussels, Belgium-based agentic AI platform, raised $4.3M in Seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Y Combinator, Transpose Platform, Twenty Two Ventures, Phosphor Capital, and angel investors.
Verse8, an Oakland, CA-based AI gaming platform, raised $5M in Seed funding. Backers included Story Foundation, NEXPACE, Neowiz, MARBLEX, Solarium Labs, and NEXUS.
GROWTH
daydream, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-native search agency, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by WndrCo, with participation from First Round Capital and Basis Set Ventures.
Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a Calgary, Canada-based low-carbon cement platform, raised $10M in funding. The round was led by ATEL Ventures.
Alcatraz, a Cupertino, CA-based AI access control company, raised $50M in Series B funding. The round was led by BlackPeak Capital, Cogito Capital, and Taiwania Capital, with participation from Almaz Capital, EBRD, and others.
Reju, a Paris, France-based textile regeneration company, secured €135M in funding under the NIKI program.
EnerVenue, a Fremont, CA-based energy storage company, raised $300M in Series B extension funding. The round was led by Full Vision Capital.
EPG, a Singapore-based modular data center infrastructure company, raised $100M+ in Series B+ funding. The round was led by Decarbonization Partners.
ThinkLabs AI, a NYC-based grid intelligence company, raised $28M in Series A funding. The round was led by Energy Impact Partners, with participation from GE Vernova, Powerhouse Ventures, Active Impact Investments, Blackhorn Ventures, and others.
Monarch Quantum, a San Diego, CA-based quantum hardware company, raised $55M in funding. The round was led by Serendipity Capital, with participation from 55 North and Global Innovation Labs.
StairMed, a Shanghai, China-based brain-machine interface company, raised RMB 500M (~$70M) in funding. The round was led by Alibaba, with participation from Tencent, Fountainbridge Capital, OrbiMed, Qiming Venture Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures, and others.
Cognichip, a Redwood City, CA-based semiconductor AI company, raised $60M in Series A funding. The round was led by Seligman Ventures, with participation from SBI Investment and others.
OpenAI, a San Francisco, CA-based AI company, raised $122B in funding at an $852B valuation. The round was led by Amazon, with participation from Nvidia, SoftBank, and Microsoft.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital Updates.
Gateway Capital Partners, a Milwaukee-based venture firm founded by Dana Guthrie, has announced the first close of its $25M Fund II. The fund will invest $500K–$600K checks into ~20 early-stage startups, with a focus on Midwest sectors like supply chain, logistics, and manufacturing AI, while remaining industry-agnostic.
Sonder Capital, a San Carlos, CA-based healthcare venture capital firm investing in companies enhancing the standard of care, closed its second fund, Futures II. The fund, backed by Mayo Clinic and Sutter Health, is anchored by an investment thesis focused on AI-enabled medical robotics and minimally invasive therapies, fueling companies creating entirely new care pathways and business models.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest In Tech
Microsoft launches three new AI models to compete with OpenAI and Google
Microsoft introduced three multimodal models: MAI-Transcribe-1 (speech-to-text), MAI-Voice-1 (audio generation), and MAI-Image-2 (image/video generation).
The models are part of Microsoft’s push to build its own full AI stack, offering faster performance and lower costs to compete with OpenAI and Google.
Despite this, Microsoft continues its deep partnership with OpenAI, signaling a dual strategy: build internally while leveraging external leaders.
Cloudflare launches WordPress competitor
Cloudflare has launched EmDash, an open source CMS it calls the “spiritual successor” to WordPress, designed to be more secure and built on what the company describes as an “AI native” architecture.
EmDash runs each plugin in an isolated sandbox called Dynamic Workers, requiring plugins to declare permissions upfront, since Cloudflare says 96% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins with unrestricted access.
The new CMS is built on a scale-to-zero principle that only bills for CPU time during actual requests, and WordPress users can migrate by importing a WXR file or installing the EmDash Exporter plugin.
ElevenLabs launches AI music app to expand beyond voice
ElevenLabs has released ElevenMusic, an iOS app that lets users generate songs with prompts, remix tracks, and explore AI-created music.
The free tier allows up to 7 songs/day, while a $9.99/month plan unlocks 500 tracks/month, positioning it against rivals like Suno and Udio.
The move signals ElevenLabs’ shift from voice AI to a broader creative platform, aiming to stay competitive as audio models become commoditized.
Amazon in talks to acquire Globalstar for $9 billion
Amazon is in talks to buy Globalstar, a satellite communications company valued at around $8.81 billion, as it tries to grow its early-stage Leo satellite internet service, the Financial Times reported.
Apple’s 20% stake in Globalstar, part of a $1.5 billion investment in 2024 to expand satellite and ground infrastructure, has complicated the deal and required separate negotiations between Amazon and Apple.
Amazon’s Leo program has about 200 satellites in orbit and plans for 7,700, but it still trails SpaceX’s Starlink, which operates over 9,600 satellites and serves more than nine million users.
Alibaba launches 3 closed-source AI models in 3 days
Alibaba released three closed-source AI models in three days this week, ending with Qwen3.6-Plus, a coding and multimodal reasoning model sold through paid APIs to enterprise customers.
The shift follows the departure of Qwen’s technical lead Lin Junyang in early March, with one contributor suggesting the exit was not voluntary, and Alibaba replacing him with a Google DeepMind veteran.
Alibaba is targeting $100 billion in cloud revenue within five years, and Qwen3.6-Plus scores 78.8 on SWE-bench Verified, trailing only Claude Opus 4.5 among the models it compared against.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other News
OpenAI acquires TBPN to expand influence in tech media
OpenAI has acquired TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network), a fast-growing tech talk show known for candid conversations with industry leaders.
The show, hosted by founders John Coogan and Jordi Hays, will continue operating independently while scaling with OpenAI’s support and reach.
The move signals OpenAI’s push beyond products into media and narrative control, as it heads toward a potential IPO and broader global influence.
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