☕ Tim Cook to step down early next year & Leaked docs reveal OpenAI paid Microsoft $1.3B in revenue-share deal.
Amazon and Microsoft back restricting Nvidia exports to China & OpenAI finally fixes ChatGPT’s em-dash overuse.
The International Space Station orbits Earth every 90 minutes.
Sixteen sunsets a day, and yet astronauts still manage to accomplish more than we do.
📬 What’s in store:
Leaked docs reveal OpenAI’s Microsoft revenue split.
Blue Origin lands its rocket’s booster for the first time.
ChatGPT tests group chat feature in four Asia-Pacific regions.
Tesla AI boss tells staff 2026 will be the ‘hardest year’ of their lives.
Samsung hikes chip prices 60% as shortage worsens.
Amazon and Microsoft back restricting Nvidia exports to China.
Apple accelerates plans for Tim Cook’s succession.
OpenAI finally fixes ChatGPT’s em-dash overuse.
Databricks co-founder warns the U.S. is falling behind China in AI.
VC & Startup Jobs: VC & investors backed startup hiring for remote roles.
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STARTUPS RAISING MILLIONS
💰 Startup funding updates
Parallel Web Systems, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of a web search infrastructure for AI agents, raised $100m in Series A funding. The round, which post-money valued the company at $740m valuation, was co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures, with participation from Spark Capital as well as previous investors Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and Terrain.
Duality Healthcare, a Newry, Northern Ireland-based healthcare company, completed a £4.5m funding round. Led by John McEvoy, Chief Executive Officer, Sarah Marks, Chief Operating Officer, and Fergus McIlduff, Chief Financial Officer, Duality Healthcare operates private health clinics, which provide GP services and diagnostic care.
Confidein, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI and Faith technology company, closed its $6m seed funding round. The round was led by Christian leaders and venture capital firms.
Sensetics, a Princeton, NJ-based haptics and touch data company, raised $1.75M in Pre-Seed funding. The round was led by MetaVC Partners and Fitz Gate Ventures, with participation from Blue Sky Capital and AIC Ventures.
Self, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of zero-knowledge (ZK) identity solutions, raised $9M in Seed funding. Backers included Greenfield Capital, Startup Capital Ventures x SBI Fund (Softbank), Spearhead VC, Verda Ventures, Fireweed Ventures, Casey Neistat, and Web3 industry investors, including Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), Julien Bouteloup (Curve), Jill Carlson (Espresso), and Hart Lambur (Across Protocol).
TandemAI, a NYC-based drug discovery company, raised $22M in Series A extension funding. Backers included KHK Fund, and V-Capital, among others. Since its founding in October 2021, the company has raised over $80M.
Scripta Therapeutics, an Oxford, UK-based techbio startup, raised $12m in seed funding. The round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Apollo Health Ventures, with participation from AlbionVC, YZR Capital, and Parkwalk Advisors, and support from Oxford University Innovation.
Obello, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI graphic design platform, raised $8.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Baukunst, AVV and Preview Ventures.
Gopuff, a Philadelphia, PA-based instant commerce company, raised $250m in funding. The round was led by Eldridge Industries and Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Robinhood, Equalis Capital, George Ruan, Yakir Gabay, and its co-founders, among others.
Chaos, a Helsinki, Finland-based provider of a location intelligence platform, raised €2M in funding. Backers included Nidoco and Finnvera.
CHAOS Industries, a Los Angeles, CA-based defense technology company, raised $510m in funding. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners, with participation from previous investors 8VC and Accel, at a $4.5 billion valuation. Antonio Gracias, Founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer at Valor Equity Partners, will join CHAOS’s Board of Directors.
Lative, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of an AI sales planning platform, raised $7.5M in funding. The round was led by Act Venture Capital and Senovo VC, with participation from Elkstone, Enterprise Ireland, WestWave Capital, Handshake Ventures and Shuttle.
NEW VCs IN THE MARKET
🏦 Venture Capital updates
J2 Ventures, a Boston, MA-based venture capital firm investing in technologies that advance both commercial markets and U.S. national security, closed its Brookhaven Fund, at $250m. LPs include JP Morgan, MetLife, Upsher Management, Alpha Leonis Partners and the State Investment Council of New Mexico, among other institutions and family offices.
KEY STORIES IN TECH
📜 Latest in tech
Leaked docs reveal OpenAI’s Microsoft revenue split
Newly leaked documents suggest OpenAI paid Microsoft $493.8M in 2024 and $865.8M in the first three quarters of 2025 under a roughly 20% revenue-share deal, while Microsoft also kicks back a similar cut from Bing and Azure OpenAI.
Those figures imply OpenAI generated at least ~$2.5B in 2024 and ~$4.3B in the first three quarters of 2025, with Sam Altman saying revenue is now “well more” than $13B annually and on track for a $20B+ run rate.
But estimates that OpenAI spent ~$3.8B on inference in 2024 and ~$8.65B in the first nine months of 2025 — mostly in cash, unlike training credits — suggest its compute bill may still exceed revenue, intensifying worries about an AI bubble.
Blue Origin lands its rocket’s booster for the first time
Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin successfully landed the 189-foot-tall booster from its New Glenn mega-rocket on a drone ship, a feat only previously accomplished by competitor SpaceX.
This successful recovery happened on just the second launch of the New Glenn system, after the first attempt in January ended with the rocket’s booster exploding before touchdown.
While the landing was a key test, the rocket’s upper stage continued its main mission to deploy twin spacecraft for a NASA science expedition to the planet Mars.
ChatGPT tests group chat feature in four Asia-Pacific regions
OpenAI has launched a pilot for ChatGPT group chats in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan, letting up to 20 people collaborate with ChatGPT in shared conversations on mobile and web.
The feature supports Free, Plus, and Team users and includes safeguards like invitation-only access, private personal chats, parental controls for minors, and usage limits that apply only when ChatGPT responds.
Positioned as a “small first step” toward more social experiences, group chats continue OpenAI’s shift toward platform-style products following launches like the Sora 2 social video app.
Tesla AI boss tells staff 2026 will be the ‘hardest year’ of their lives
Tesla’s AI chief Ashok Elluswamy told AI teams during a recent all-hands meeting that 2026 will be the “hardest year” of their lives, a warning meant as a rallying cry.
The AI division faces extremely aggressive timelines for the humanoid robot, Optimus, which is reportedly already lagging far behind its lofty production goals set for this year and has a new lead.
Pressure is also building to deliver the company’s robotaxi, a project whose rollout has been mired in chaos due to glaring issues with its autonomous driving software causing several accidents.
Samsung hikes chip prices 60% as shortage worsens
Since September, Samsung has reportedly increased the prices of its individual memory chips by up to 60 percent, with a contract for 32 GB of DDR5 rising from $149 to $239.
The price surge is driven by high demand for building new AI-focused data centers, but memory makers are not planning to increase production in case the current demand dries up.
This memory shortage is expected to worsen in 2026 and could last for a decade, impacting the cost of electronics from smartphones and laptops to various smart appliances.
Amazon and Microsoft back restricting Nvidia exports to China
Amazon is now joining Microsoft and the AI startup Anthropic in supporting the GAIN AI Act, a bill aimed at restricting the export of advanced processors from companies like Nvidia.
The proposed GAIN AI Act would force AI chipmakers to fulfill all domestic orders for advanced processors before they are permitted to supply the same chips to any foreign customers.
In response, Nvidia argues the GAIN AI Act will restrict global competition for advanced chips and limit the amount of computing power that is available to other countries.
Apple accelerates plans for Tim Cook’s succession
Apple is intensifying internal discussions about CEO Tim Cook stepping down as early as next year, with hardware chief John Ternus emerging as the leading successor, according to the Financial Times.
The board and senior executives have reportedly increased preparations in recent months, though a new CEO is unlikely to be named before Apple’s January earnings call.
Cook, who took over in 2011 after Steve Jobs, has led the company for more than 14 years and overseen major expansions in hardware, services, and global supply chain operations.
OpenAI finally fixes ChatGPT’s em-dash overuse
After months of complaints, OpenAI says ChatGPT will now avoid em dashes when users explicitly request it in custom instructions — solving a long-running issue that made the punctuation a giveaway of AI-generated text.
The em dash had become so common in AI outputs that people mocked it as the “ChatGPT hyphen,” showing up in school essays, emails, ads, and LinkedIn posts even when users begged the model to stop.
Sam Altman called the update a “small-but-happy win,” with OpenAI noting that the fix isn’t a default change but gives users more control through personalization settings.
LAST COFFEE SIP
☕ Other news
Databricks co-founder warns the U.S. is falling behind China in AI
Databricks co-founder Andy Konwinski says U.S. AI research momentum is slipping as top academic talent gets absorbed by closed, proprietary labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta — while China pushes open-source breakthroughs at rapid speed.
He argues that freely shared ideas, like the original Transformer paper, drive the biggest leaps, and claims Chinese labs such as DeepSeek and Qwen now publish more interesting work than their U.S. counterparts.
Konwinski calls the shift an “existential” threat to U.S. innovation and democracy, urging the country to embrace open-source AI or risk losing both academic vitality and long-term dominance.
DAILY PICKS
🗞️ What else is brewing
40+ Investor Databases for Easier VC Outreach (Free Access) (Link)
Vibe coding for beginners - all in one guide. (Link)
The rise of “Offline Outbound”: How to execute your own Offline Outbound. (Link)
SaaS Startup Financial Model: All-in-One Excel Template. (Link)
Andrew Chen on showing traction before you have traction (Link)
Peter Walker shares lead investor trends in Seed + Series A rounds (Link)
The AI dilemma: To compete with China, the U.S. needs Chinese talent. (Link)
Hiring in the Age of AI. (Link)
Investor CRM Template – The Ultimate Fundraising Tracker. (Link)
Designers should look to Demis Hassabis. Not Jony Ive.(Link)
More articles are now created by AI than by humans. (Link)
HIRING ALERT: STARTUPS & VC ROLES
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