☕ TikTok’s $14B U.S. sale, Meta to roll out ad-free Facebook and Instagram & EA will reportedly be acquired for $50B.
Apple made an internal ChatGPT-clone to test Siri & ByteDance will keep 50% of US TikTok profits.
The human brain runs on 12 watts - that’s less than a lightbulb. AI would need 2.7 billion watts to process the same amount of information.
That means your brain is 225,000x more efficient. We’ve got a long way to go.
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📬 What’s in store:
Today’s Picks: Trillion-dollar moats, headcount planning, MBA value in VC, Cluely on virality, GEO vs SEO, B2C validation, pricing beyond costs, freemium test, why investors don’t care.
EA will reportedly be acquired for $50B.
Apple made an internal ChatGPT-clone to test Siri.
Meta wants to create the Android for robots.
ByteDance will keep 50% of US TikTok profits.
Anthropic to triple global headcount as Claude demand surges outside U.S.
Meta to roll out ad-free Facebook and Instagram in UK.
Trump signs order approving TikTok U.S. sale at $14B valuation.
YouTube Music tests AI hosts that share trivia and commentary.
Trump administration targets semiconductor imports with ratio-based tariffs.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
FROM OUR PARTNER - ROCKET
🤝 Rocket Raises $15M to Pioneer “Vibe Solutioning”
Rocket, based in India, has secured $15 million in seed funding co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Accel, along with Together Fund.
In just 15 weeks from launch the platform has gained over 400,000 users across 180+ countries who have produced more than 500,000 apps.
Unlike first-generation vibe coding tools focused on mockups and prototypes, Rocket calls itself the first true “vibe solutioning” platform, solving not only Day 1 startup problems but also Day 0 (problem framing and context) and Day 2 (iterating, integrating, deploying).
By generating production-grade apps with backend logic, enterprise-scale architecture, and real integrations, Rocket tackles tech debt and makes AI-native development practical.
Check out Rocket.new →
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DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
How trillion-dollar giants are widening their moat. (Link)
How to plan headcount as an investor will judge it. (Link)
Pitchbook Data: Is an MBA still worth it if you want to make it in VC? (Link)
Cluely’s thesis: how virality really works (and when it doesn’t). (Link)
GEO is the new SEO: What founders need to know. (Link)
B2C startup idea validation framework. (Link)
Don’t price your product based on costs. Why? (Link)
Is freemium right for your SaaS product? Ask these 3 questions. (Link)
Why investors don’t care about your business. (Link)
The Mac App Flea Market. (Link)
The quality of AI-assisted software depends on the unit of work management. (Link)
Why does our website look like an operating system? (Link)
The AI agent revenue race — September’s top earners. (Link)
0-$5M: How to Identify Your ICP — Lessons from Vanta, Clay, Retool. (Link)
STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Curated For You, an Austin, TX-based e-commerce startup providing contextualized shopping experiences, raised $8.3M in seed funding. The round was led by Florida Funders with participation from Mudita Venture Partners, Stage 2 Capital, Acronym VC, Dynamism Capital, and Dundee Ventures.
Delta.g, a Birmingham, UK-based quantum technology company, raised £4.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Serendipity Capital with participation from NSSIF, and existing investor SCVC.
Valence, the NYC-based company behind Nadia, an enterprise AI coach, raised $50M in Series B funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
FREDsense, a Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based provider of water quality testing solutions, raised $7M in Series A funding. The round was led by HG Ventures, with participation from Emerald Technology Ventures.
Vylit, a NYC-based provider of an 18+ social-meets-creator platform helping people to share, discover, and monetize content, raised $2.7M in Seed funding. The round was led by Windmill Chain.
BotCity, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a governance and observability platform for Python automations, raised $12M in Series A funding. The round was led by Four Rivers, with participation from Y Combinator, Lew Cirne (founder of New Relic), Firestreak Ventures, Sagol Holdings, Astella, Upload Ventures, and other investors.
Moby, a NYC-based provider of a platform democratizing Wall Street-level investing insights, raised $5M in Seed funding. The round was led by IA Capital Group, with participation from Alumni Ventures and prominent angel investors including former c-suite executives from Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, Cash App, Tifin, and Wunderkind.
Axon Therapeutics, a NYC-based clinical-stage medical device company, raised $32M in funding. The round was led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Santé Ventures, with participation by existing investor Deerfield Management and new investors CD Capital and KOFA Healthcare.
Burnt, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform that automates workflows stuck in legacy ERP systems, raised $3.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by Penny Jar Capital, with participation from Scribble Ventures, Formation VC, and angel investors, including Dan Scheinman.
MaxHome.ai, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-native operating system designed for residential real estate, raised $5M in Seed funding. The company intends to use the funds to Fika Ventures with participation from BBG Ventures, 1Sharpe Ventures, and Four Acres Capital.
Juicebox, a San Francisco, CA-based AI powered recruiting platform, raised $36M in funding. A $30M Series A was led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Coatue, NFDG, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, and BOND. The round followed a previously unannounced $6M Seed led by NFDG.
Factory, a San Francisco, CA-based agent-native development company, raised $50M in Series B funding. Backers included NEA, Sequoia Capital, Nvidia, J.P. Morgan, as well as angel investors, including Frank Slootman, Nikesh Arora, and Aaron Levie.
Ardent AI, a San Francisco, CA-based company providing autonomous agents for data engineering, raised $2.15M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by Crane Venture Partners, with participation from Active Capital, Zach Wilson, and a group of operator-angels.
Remedio, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity company developing a platform that delivers real-time device posture management, raised $65M in its first funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from TLV Partners and Picture Capital.
PostSig, a San Francisco, CA-based company providing an AI-native system of intelligence for critical business documents, raised $4.1M in Seed funding. The round was led by Differential Ventures, with participation from Tandem Ventures, Denver Ventures, Frontier Venture Capital, Unbound Ventures, and SaaS Ventures.
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NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
Leonis Capital, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm focused on AI, closed its Fund II, at $25M. The fund is backed by institutional LPs and a diverse mix of operators and founders in the AI industry that includes FoFs, foundations, as well as researchers and executives from Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Led by Jenny Xiao and Jay Zhao, Leonis Capital is a research-driven venture capital firm focused on AI-native companies.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
EA will reportedly be acquired for $50B:
Video game maker Electronic Arts is reportedly planning to go private through a transaction that could be valued as high as $50 billion, according to information from several news outlets.
Potential investors for the acquisition include Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, along with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which already holds a nine percent stake in EA.
The Wall Street Journal suggests this move might become the largest leveraged buyout ever, a report that immediately caused the corporation’s stock price to jump by roughly 15 percent.
Apple made an internal ChatGPT-clone to test Siri:
Apple created an internal ChatGPT-inspired app called “Veritas” for employees, which allows the company to test new Siri skills before the assistant’s public release next year.
The internal application lets Siri practice searching through personal data like emails and messages, or perform tasks within other apps, such as editing your photos for you.
Apple reportedly expects its full vision for the voice assistant to arrive in 2026, and is now considering a partnership with Google to help power these AI features.
Meta wants to create the Android for robots:
Meta plans to create a robot software platform that other hardware companies can license, similar to Google’s Android model, rather than focusing on building its own competing consumer robot hardware.
The project begins by building a “world model,” which is software simulation required to help a robot animate complex and precise movements, such as the motions of a “dexterous hand.”
Led by former Cruise CEO Marc Whitten, the robotics team is working with Meta’s Superintelligence Labs and has a hardware prototype in the works called the “Metabot” for research purposes.
ByteDance will keep 50% of US TikTok profits:
ByteDance is poised to keep nearly half the profits from TikTok’s US business through a licensing fee for its algorithm and a separate profit share from its equity stake.
The draft plan requires the American venture to pay a fee equal to about 20 percent of revenue generated through the platform’s valuable recommendation algorithm.
In addition to that payment, an ownership stake would allow the Chinese parent company to collect approximately 20 percent of profits earned on the remaining income.
Anthropic to triple global headcount as Claude demand surges outside U.S.
Plans to triple international staff and expand its applied AI team fivefold, adding 100+ roles in Dublin, London, Zurich, and a first Asian office in Tokyo.
Nearly 80% of Claude usage now comes from outside the U.S., with per-user adoption higher in South Korea, Australia, and Singapore.
Backed by Google and Amazon, Anthropic has scaled from <1,000 to 300K+ global business customers in two years, with run-rate revenue jumping from $1B in January to $5B by August.
Meta to roll out ad-free Facebook and Instagram in UK:
Users can soon pay £2.99/month on web or £3.99 on iOS/Android to remove ads; free ad-supported option remains.
Move follows EU rollout and comes after UK regulators raised concerns over personal data use in advertising.
Meta’s ad business makes up ~98% of its $164.5B revenue, so the subscription is a key test of balancing privacy rules with its ad-driven model.
Trump signs order approving TikTok U.S. sale at $14B valuation
President Trump signed an order certifying TikTok’s U.S. sale to American and global investors, valuing the new entity at $14B — far below analyst estimates of $30B–$40B without its algorithm.
Oracle, Silver Lake, and others will own ~50% of TikTok U.S.; ByteDance’s stake will be cut to under 20%, with Americans holding 6 of 7 board seats.
The algorithm will be retrained and monitored under U.S. control, though Chinese reports suggest ByteDance may still retain operational ties, leaving key questions unresolved.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
YouTube Music tests AI hosts that share trivia and commentary:
YouTube Music is piloting AI-powered hosts that provide fan trivia, stories, and commentary about tracks — similar to Spotify’s AI DJ.
The feature is part of YouTube Labs, a new hub for AI experiments open to all users, though access is currently limited to select U.S. participants.
It builds on YouTube’s broader AI push, including conversational radio, GenAI tools for Shorts, and AI-powered search — alongside new policies cracking down on “inauthentic” AI slop.
Trump administration targets semiconductor imports with ratio-based tariffs:
Weighing a 1:1 policy requiring U.S. chipmakers to produce domestically as many chips as their customers import; noncompliance could trigger tariffs, with timing still unclear.
Could accelerate onshoring but risks short-term pain—higher costs and supply strain—given slow fab timelines (e.g., Intel Ohio now targeting 2030) and limited detail on TSMC’s $100B U.S. buildout.
Follows Trump’s August tariff talk and broader bid to boost U.S. semiconductor capacity, with big implications for AI chip supply chains and hardware pricing.
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)
Senior Analyst - Iconiq Capital | USA - Apply Here
VP - Marketing & Communications - Transition VC | India - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Miras Investment | Dubai - Apply Here
Associate - Iconiq Capital | USA - Apply Here
Program Manager - Tenity | UK - Apply Here
Investor Relations Analyst - Griffin Gaming Partner | USA - Apply Here
Associate - OMERSE Venture | USA - Apply Here
Investment Analyst - Caanan | USA - Apply Here
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