☕ Spotify's entire music library leaked online & OpenAI doubles compute margins to nearly 70%.
Nvidia to ship H200 chips to China by mid-February & New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI.
👋 Welcome to the last edition of 2025.
As the year comes to a close, we’re slowing down and our team will be taking a short break for the next week. So today’s newsletter will be our final edition of the year. 🎄
Before we sign off, I just want to say thank you.
This year, our community grew to over 60,000 readers, and that’s only possible because you choose to open, read, and support this newsletter. Your time and attention genuinely mean a lot to us. ☃️
We’ll be back in the first week of January, refreshed and ready.
In 2026, we’re planning: new formats, sharper curation, more informative, founder-first content and a few new ideas we’ve been quietly working on.
If you have any suggestions or feedback on what you’d like to see next year, feel free to reply to this email — we read every response.
📬 What’s in store:
OpenAI says AI browsers may never fully solve prompt injection attacks.
Spotify’s entire music library leaked online.
Waymo robotaxis blocked traffic during San Francisco blackout.
OpenAI doubles compute margins to nearly 70%.
Nvidia to ship H200 chips to China by mid-February.
Uber and Lyft to test Baidu robotaxis in 2026.
New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI over chatbot training.
Alphabet to buy Intersect Power to bypass energy grid bottlenecks.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
ZeroPhase, a Munich, Germany-based defense tech startup, raised $6.8m in seed funding. The round was led by BlueYard Capital.
Speed1, Inc., a Dubai, UAE-based builder of Bitcoin and stablecoin payment infrastructure, raised $8m in funding. The round was co-led by Tether and Ego Death Capital.
Peripheral Labs, a Toronto, Canada-based developer of an AI-driven neural rendering platform for immersive sports replays, raised $3.6m in seed funding. The round was led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Daybreak Capital, Entrepreneurs First, Transpose Platform, and various angel investors.
Ciphero, a NYC-based based developer of an AI verification and security platform for enterprise environments, raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding. The round was co-led by Sovereign’s Capital and Chingona Ventures, with participation from Lotus Venture Partners, BlueWing Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Everywhere Ventures, Hustle Fund, Propeller, Viaka, and Fc Centripetal.
Givefront, a San Francisco, CA-based fintech startup focused on advancing spend management tools for nonprofits, raised $2m in seed funding. The round was led by Script Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, C3 Ventures, and Phoenix Fund.
EtherealX, a Bangalore, India-based developer of a reusable medium-lift launch vehicle, raised $21m in Series A funding. The round was co-led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, with participation from Accel.
Atavistik Bio, a Cambridge, MA-based developer of selective allosteric small molecule therapeutics, raised $120m in Series B financing. The round was led by Nextech Invest and The Column Group with participation from Lux Capital and new investor Regeneron Ventures.
StretchSense, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based developer of high-tech data capture gloves for extended reality (XR) training, raised $2.3m in funding. The round was led by PXN Ventures, which was supported by Scottish Enterprise.
NovoLINC, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based developer of advanced thermal interface material (TIM) solutions for high-performance computing, raised an undisclosed amount in a new funding round. The round was co-led by Fathom Fund and TDK Ventures, with participation from current investors Foothill Ventures, M Ventures, Carnegie Mellon University, and new investor Hitachi Ventures.
Galbot, a Beijing, China-based developer of embodied AI and general-purpose humanoid robots, raised over $300m in funding. The round attracted investors from China, Singapore, and the Middle East, bringing Galbot’s valuation to $3 billion.
Neurable, a Boston, Massachusetts-based developer of noninvasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology designed for everyday life, raised $35m in Series A funding. The round was led by Spectrum Moonshot Fund, with participation from existing investors including Pace Ventures.
FINNY, a New York City-based developer of an AI-powered prospecting and marketing platform for financial advisors, raised $17m in Series A funding. Venrock led the round with participation from former Vanguard chairman and CEO William McNabb, Activant, Altruist’s Jason Wenk, and existing investors Y Combinator, Maple VC, and Crossbeam Ventures.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
FemHealth Ventures, a Short Hills, NJ-based women’s health-focused venture capital firm, closed FemHealth Ventures Fund II, at $65m. The fund received support from existing limited partners alongside new investors. The raise brought the firm’s assets under management to $100m across two funds. FemHealth Ventures Fund I, launched in 2021, is recognized as a top-decile performer across DPI and IRR according to Carta and Pitchbook databases.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
OpenAI says AI browsers may never fully solve prompt injection attacks
OpenAI says prompt injection attacks are a long-term security risk for AI browsers like its ChatGPT Atlas, admitting the issue is unlikely to ever be fully eliminated as agents operate across the open web.
The company is responding with layered defenses, faster patch cycles, and an internally trained “LLM-based automated attacker” that simulates real-world hacks to uncover weaknesses before attackers do.
Experts warn that agentic browsers sit in a high-risk zone due to their combination of autonomy and access, meaning user controls like limited permissions and confirmation steps remain critical despite technical safeguards.
Spotify's entire music library leaked online
Pirate activist group Anna’s Archive claims it has scraped Spotify to build a massive preservation archive containing over 250 million pieces of metadata and millions of actual audio files.
The group says the 300TB collection covers 99.6% of all Spotify listens, holding the most popular songs in 160kbps quality while less famous tracks are shrunk down to 75kbps.
Spotify confirmed to Billboard that a third party used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM and access the platform, but it is unclear if the company knew before the public announcement.
Waymo robotaxis blocked traffic during San Francisco blackout
Waymo autonomous vehicles obstructed traffic in San Francisco after a massive power outage disabled city street lights, leaving the driverless cars stranded in the middle of intersections with their hazard lights flashing.
The company suspended its ride-hailing services while PG&E crews worked to restore power to 130,000 customers affected by a fire at a substation that knocked out the electrical grid on Saturday.
Although an official explanation is missing, this failure indicates that the Waymo Driver system likely struggled to navigate the streets when it could not detect active traffic light colors or signals.
OpenAI doubles compute margins to nearly 70%
OpenAI has reportedly doubled its compute margin to nearly 70 percent since early last year by widening the gap between revenue and the heavy costs of running models for subscribers.
The startup saw this rate hit 70 percent in October, meaning it has better compute margins than Anthropic for paid customers even though its rival shows better efficiency on server spending.
Even with better margins, CEO Sam Altman recently declared a code red to fight off Google because the company has not turned a profit amid growing worries about a sector bubble.
Nvidia to ship H200 chips to China by mid-February
Nvidia plans to send its first batch of H200 AI chips to customers in China before the Lunar New Year in mid-February, following a new US policy allowing exports with a 25% fee.
Initial deliveries will come from current inventory, totaling roughly 80,000 individual chips, and the company reportedly told clients it will open new capacity to handle additional orders starting in the second quarter of 2026.
Beijing has not approved these imports yet, and officials are reviewing a proposal that would require buyers to bundle every foreign H200 chip purchase with a specific ratio of domestic AI chips.
Uber and Lyft to test Baidu robotaxis in 2026
Uber and Lyft say they will add Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles to their apps for pilot programs in London starting in 2026 as the UK opens up to driverless cars.
Lyft CEO David Risher confirmed his company will start with a fleet of dozens of robotaxis before scaling up to hundreds, while Uber expects its initial pilot to begin during the first half of 2026.
These new moves arrive as competitor Waymo also prepares to test its fleet in the same market, taking advantage of updated government plans that permit autonomous driving technology on public roads next spring.
New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI over chatbot training
John Carreyrou, a New York Times reporter and author of Bad Blood, has sued Google, OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, Meta Platforms, and Perplexity, alleging they used copyrighted books without permission to train their AI models.
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court with five other writers, accuses the companies of pirating books for LLM training and deliberately avoiding class actions to prevent low settlement payouts.
It marks the first copyright suit to name xAI, and comes after Anthropic’s earlier $1.5B settlement, which plaintiffs argue compensated authors far below the maximum allowed under copyright law.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Alphabet to buy Intersect Power to bypass energy grid bottlenecks
Alphabet is acquiring Intersect Power for $4.75B in cash, plus debt, to secure dedicated power for data centers without relying on strained local utilities.
The deal builds on Alphabet’s earlier minority stake in Intersect and reflects how access to energy has become a core constraint — and competitive advantage — in scaling AI infrastructure.
Intersect’s future data park projects, colocated with wind, solar, and battery storage, will primarily serve Google, but are designed to host other AI workloads as well, with full buildout expected by 2027.
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)
Portfolio Management Lead - Yzi Labs | Remote - Apply Here
Associate or Senior Associate - Headline | USA - Apply Here
Office Manager - Seedcamp | USA - Apply Here
VC Scout Intern - Forward Fund | Remote - Apply Here
Intern, Investor Relations Operations - B Capital Group | Singapore - Apply Here
(Senior) Investment Manager - Finch Capital | USA - Apply Here
Principal - Redesign Health | USA - Apply Here
Partner - a16z | USA - Apply Here
Investment Associate - Energy Impact Partner | London - Apply Here
Venture Capitalist - Sasal | USA - Apply Here
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🎅 Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Enjoy the break, slow down, and we’ll see you in 2026. 🥳🎆
Do you have any news to share about your Startup or VC fund? Please email us.
We’ll be back in your inbox in Jan month.