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It's that time of year, readers, when we unplug this sucker for a couple of weeks to decompress, because even your favorite purveyors of news-you-can-actually-use need to occasionally experience unfiltered daylight. Longtime subscribers know the drill (we do this every summer), but for you newer folks, don't panic; we'll be back the first week of August, rested, fully caffeinated, and full of fresh insights (is the plan). See you back here then. :) - CL |
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Top NewsMeta is refusing to sign the EU’s new voluntary AI code, blasting it as regulatory overreach just weeks before binding rules take effect and setting up a showdown over how far Europe can push Big Tech to play by its rules. TechCrunch has more here. Only weeks after securing a $9 billion valuation, Neuralink quietly filed as a "small disadvantaged business" with the federal government, even as Neuralink co-founder and CEO Elon Musk was leading DOGE's efforts to slash government spending. CNBC has more here. |
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Sponsored By ...On average, funds spend ~4 hrs analyzing every single PortCo update. That's 800 man hrs per year for a fund with 50 startups in their portfolio (50 PortCos x 4 updates/year x 4 hrs)! There is a better way – scalable, 100% accurate with zero added work for you or your PortCos. |
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SpaceX Worker Injury Rates at Starbase Outpace Industry Rivals
By Aria Alamalhodaei SpaceX employees are more likely to be injured while working at Starbase than any of its other manufacturing facilities, according to company worker safety records reviewed by TechCrunch. Starbase, a sprawling launch-and-manufacturing site that recently incorporated as its own Texas city, logged injury rates that were almost 6x higher than the average for comparable space vehicle-manufacturing outfits and nearly 3x higher than aerospace manufacturing as a whole in 2024, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data released in May. That outsized injury rate has persisted since 2019, when SpaceX began sharing Starbase injury data with the federal regulator. Starbase is home to SpaceX’s most ambitious program: a fully reusable, ultra-heavy-lift rocket called Starship. The company has been moving at a breakneck pace to bring Starship online to launch Starlink internet satellites and other payloads. Since Starship’s first orbital test in April 2023, SpaceX has attempted eight additional integrated flights. During three of those tests, the company made history by catching the massive Super Heavy booster with “chopstick” arms attached to the launch tower. The data suggests that SpaceX’s rapid progress comes at a cost. And while injury rates alone don’t provide a complete picture of the safety culture at Starbase, they do offer a rare glimpse into the working conditions of the world’s leading space company. |
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Massive FundingsQ.ANT, a seven-year-old Stuttgart startup that develops photonic chips and sensors that use light instead of electricity to process and transmit data, raised a $72.1 million Series A round co-led by Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners, and imec.xpand and including L-Bank, Verve Ventures, Grazia Equity, EXF Alpha of Venionaire Capital, LEA Partners, Onsight Ventures, and Trumpf. SiliconANGLE has more here. QuNorth, a one-year-old Danish company that is developing a scalable quantum computing architecture by connecting multiple smaller quantum processors into one unified system, raised a $93 million round co-led by EIFO and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Tech.eu has more here. |
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Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big FundingsBlockskye, a nine-year-old Boston startup that helps large companies manage corporate travel by using blockchain-based infrastructure to automate booking, payment, and reporting, raised a $15.8 million round. Blockchange was the deal lead, with United Airlines Ventures, Lightspeed Faction, Lasagna, Litquidity Ventures, Longbrook Ventures, KSV Global, and TFJ Capital also taking part. The company has raised a total of $33 million. Business Travel News has more here. BrightAI, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to help industrial companies manage power systems and identify maintenance problems, raised a $51 million Series A round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Inspired Capital, with BoxGroup, Marlinspike, VSC Ventures, Rsquared VC, and Cooley LLP also investing. The company has raised a total of $78 million. Bloomberg has more here. GigaIO, a nine-year-old startup based in Carlsbad, CA, that builds hardware and software that lets data centers connect GPUs, CPUs, and other components over a single network to speed up AI workloads and reduce costs, raised a $21 million Series B round. The lead investor was Impact Venture Capital, with CerraCap Ventures, G Vision Capital, Mark IV Capital, and SourceCode Cerberus also participating. More here. Greptile, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to automate code review, is raising a $30 million Series A led by Benchmark at a $180 million valuation, says TechCrunch. It has more here. |
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Smaller FundingsBonsai, a five-year-old Chicago startup that helps brands improve marketing decisions by using first-party customer data to replace biased or incomplete third-party sources, raised a $1.8 million round. Investors include Mairs & Power Venture Capital, TAWANI Ventures, Bridge Venture Fund, Chicago Early, and Service Provider Capital. Martech Edge has more here. Receive, a three-year-old New York startup that helps small businesses receive payment faster by turning invoices into digital payment requests that can be tracked, paid online, and automatically reconciled, raised a $4 million seed round. NGVP was the deal lead, with Blank Ventures, Verissimo Ventures, Insight Partners, Corner Ventures, and Clocktower Technology Venture also contributing. More here. StrongestLayer, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that blocks email-based cyberattacks by using AI to scan messages for threats before they reach employee inboxes, raised a $5.2 million seed round led by Sorenson Capital, with Recall Capital also stepping up. SecurityWeek has more here. |
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New FundsNorthpoint Capital, a one-year-old venture firm based in Singapore, has raised $150 million to back early-stage AI startups across sectors, with ex-Nexus managing director Sameer Verma writing $1 million to $8 million checks as the firm's sole GP. Entrepreneur has more here. |
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ExitsCursor, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that makes an AI-powered coding environment, is acquiring top engineers from Koala, a nearly four-year-old San Francisco startup that built AI-powered CRM tools, as Koala prepares to shut down just five months after raising a $15 million Series A led by CRV. TechCrunch has more here. |
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Going PublicBullish, a four-year-old Cayman Islands startup backed by Peter Thiel that runs a digital asset exchange for spot, margin, and derivatives trading, has filed to go public. Bloomberg has more here. |
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PeopleOnly months after being iced out of President Donald Trump’s inner circle, Sam Altman flipped the script by cozying up to the president, ditching the Democrats, and edging out Elon Musk to secure billion-dollar AI deals, Pentagon contracts, and a starring role in shaping the administration’s infrastructure and tech policy. The Wall Street Journal has more here. Meta has hired Mark Lee and Tom Gunter from Apple’s AI team after poaching their former boss Ruoming Pang with a $200 million package. Bloomberg has more here. Christine Hunsicker, founder of CaaStle, an eight-year-old New York fashion startup that has since gone bankrupt, turned herself in today after she was charged with defrauding investors out of more than $300 million. TechCrunch has more here. Axios is reporting that Astronomer has put CEO Andy Byron and chief people officer Kristin Cabot on leave after they were caught on a "kiss cam" at a Coldplay concert, and Byron is apparently negotiating his resignation and exit package. More here. |
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Essential ReadsNetflix used generative AI to render a building collapse in its new Argentine sci-fi series The Eternaut, marking its first on-screen use of the technology and potentially inflaming industry tensions over automation and creative labor. The BBC has more here. The Wall Street Journal digs into Silicon Valley's escalating AI talent war, as Meta dangles $300 million pay packages, guts startups like Scale and Windsurf, and leaves a trail of broken deals and shaken founders. More here. In a new report, OpenAI’s advisory board called for the company to remain under nonprofit control, arguing its AI work is too consequential to be left solely to corporate governance. The AP has more here. |
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DetoursAccording to an ADP study, new grad job hunters should ditch pricey Atlanta and Chicago for hidden gems like Raleigh, Birmingham, and Milwaukee, where rent is affordable and you can land an entry-level gig. Tote Taxi, a delivery service for the ultra-rich, specializes in delivering the essentials to the Hamptons' 1%, whether it's croissants from Brooklyn Heights, a piece of art, or even a misplaced tennis racket. |
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Retail Therapy
A 1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 convertible, priced to sell at €299,900. |
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