We're so excited to welcome Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga to our StrictlyVC Insider evening, one week from today (April 30) in SoMa. Praveen oversees 4,000(!) engineers building the infrastructure behind one of the most complex platforms on earth (36 million trips a day in 70 countries). We'll get into what it really looks like to rewire engineering around AI at Uber's scale, the infrastructure keeping it all from breaking, and the sustainability of its strategy as the platform that every self-driving car rides on. It's going to be a great night; you can still nab a spot here. — CL

Federal authorities arrested a U.S. special forces soldier accused of using inside information to place about $33,000 in prediction market bets on Nicolas Maduro’s removal, generating more than $400,000 in profits in what may be the first U.S. prosecution of insider trading tied to prediction markets. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Lucas Ropek

OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-5.5, its newest AI model, which the company calls its “smartest and most intuitive to use model” yet. The algorithm comes with increased capabilities in a multitude of areas, with OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman claiming that it also brings the company one step closer to the creation of OpenAI’s “super app.”

On a call with journalists, Brockman said that the new model was a big advancement “towards more agentic and intuitive computing.”

“This model is a real step forward towards the kind of computing that we expect in the future — but it is one step, and we expect to see many in the future,” Brockman said. “It’s a faster, sharper thinker for fewer tokens compared to something like 5.4. So this means that there’s just more frontier AI available for businesses and for consumers, which is part of our goal.”

Brockman also said that the model was an additional step toward creating a “super app” — a multi-purpose, Swiss Army knife of a program — which Brockman and co-founder Sam Altman have previously discussed launching. The co-founders envision combining ChatGPT, Codex, and AI browser into one unified service that can aid enterprise customers. Notably, the “super app” concept is also a hot topic with Altman rival (and former OpenAI colleague) Elon Musk, who has said he wants to turn X into its own so-called super app.

OpenAI released its last model only last month, with a previous release in December and, before that, November. The company has continued to churn out new models at a crisp pace, a trend that company staff said should be expected to continue for the foreseeable future. “We see pretty significant improvements in the short term, extremely significant improvements in the medium term,” said Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s chief scientist. “In fact, I would say, like, I think the last two years have been surprisingly slow.”

Cloudsmith, a 10-year-old Belfast company that provides a secure repository for managing and controlling software supply chains across packages, containers, and ML models, raised a $72 million Series C round led by previous investor TCV, with prior backer Insight Partners also joining in. The company has raised a total of $124 million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Courier Health, a five-year-old New York startup that manages the end-to-end patient journey for biopharma from enrollment and benefits verification through therapy initiation and adherence, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Oak HC/FT, with Norwest and Work-Bench also pitching in. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

Omni, an 11-year-old San Francisco company that turns company data into a governed source of truth for analytics and AI queries across enterprise tools, raised a $90 million Series C round at a $1.5 billion valuation. Iconiq led the transaction, with previous investors Theory Ventures, First Round Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and GV also stepping up. More here.

Orkes, a four-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, CA, that operates an orchestration platform that automates and scales complex workflows across AI agents, human tasks, and microservices, raised a $60 million Series B round led by AVP, with Prosperity7 Ventures as well as previous investors Nexus Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, and Vertex Ventures US also engaging. More here.

Pudu Robotics, a 10-year-old company based in Shenzhen, China, that offers service robots for delivery, cleaning, and industrial logistics, raised a $150 million round at a $1.5+ billion post-money valuation from an undisclosed group of investors. The company has raised a total of $300+ million. The Robot Report has more here.

Salmon, a four-year-old Manila startup that offers digital lending and banking products to underbanked consumers, raised a $60 million round. Investors included Spice Expeditions, Washington University Investment Management Company, Moore Strategic Ventures, and FJ Labs. The company has raised a total of $310 million, including $150 million in debt financing. TechCrunch has more here.

Tortugas Neuroscience, a three-year-old startup based in Framingham, MA, that develops small molecule therapies for neurological disorders based on previously validated biological targets, raised a total of $106 million in seed and Series A financing. The seed round was led by Cure Ventures, which also co-led the Series A with The Column Group and AN Venture Partners. More here.

Afresh, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to bring real-time intelligence to ordering, stocking, and buying decisions for grocery stores, raised a $34 million round. Just Climate and High Sage Ventures were the co-leads. More here.

Atmos Space Cargo, a five-year-old startup based in Baden-baden, Germany, that develops orbital reentry vehicles for returning cargo from space to Earth, raised a $30.1 million Series A round at an approximate valuation of $117 million. The deal was co-led by Balnord and Expansion Venture Capital, with Keen Defence and Security also participating. Resilience Media has more here.

C-Infinity, a three-year-old startup based in Mountain View, CA, that automates process planning from product design to production-ready manufacturing instructions, raised a $16 million round led by Canaan Partners, with Inventus Capital, Bee Partners, and Radius Capital also taking part. More here.

Mosaic, a six-year-old New York startup that automates deal modeling analyses for investors and advisors using rules-based calculations and AI-driven data ingestion, raised an $18 million Series A round. Radical Ventures was the deal lead. More here.

Petual, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that automates audit and compliance workflows by executing evidence gathering and generating auditor-ready work papers with agentic AI, raised $20 million from Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Cowboy Ventures, and Elad Gil. More here.

Rilian, a two-year-old startup based in McLean, VA, that enables governments and enterprises to deploy and automate cyber and defense capabilities across cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped environments, raised $17.5 million in seed and seed extension financing. 8VC, First In, and Tamarack Global were the co-leads, with additional support from 8090 Industries, Liquid 2 Ventures, Perot Jain, and Protego Ventures. SecurityWeek has more here.

Univity, a four-year-old startup based in Toulouse, France, that provides satellite internet infrastructure to telecom operators, raised a $32 million Series A round. Investors included Bpifrance, Blast, and Expansion. Reuters has more here.

Zocalo Health, a four-year-old startup based in Kenmore, WA, that delivers integrated primary care, mental health services, and social support to underserved populations through community-based teams and virtual care, raised a $15 million Series A round led by EO Ventures, with Talipot as well as previous investors Vamos Ventures, Animo Ventures, Acumen America, Sorenson Ventures, BarronKent, and Kapor Center also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $22.75 million. Behavioral Health Business has more here.

Copperhelm, a Tel Aviv startup founded this year that monitors cloud environments, detects threats, and performs autonomous remediation with AI agents, raised a $7 million seed round led by TLV Partners, with toDay Ventures, ICON, and SaaS Ventures Israel also contributing. CTech has more here.

Era, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a software platform for building and running AI-powered gadgets, raised a $9 million seed round co-led by Abstract Ventures and BoxGroup, with Collaborative Fund and Mozilla Ventures also opting in. The company has raised a total of $11 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Octen, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a real-time, LLM-native search API that enables AI agents to retrieve and act on live web data, raised a $10 million seed round led by SquarePeg, with Argor also investing. More here.

Sierra, a three-year-old San Francisco startup founded by Bret Taylor that builds customer service AI agents, has acquired Fragment, a two-year-old French startup that helps businesses integrate AI into workflows. TechCrunch has more here.

SpaceX said in its S-1 filing that it is exploring manufacturing its own GPUs to address chip supply risks and rising costs, even though doing so requires massive capital, intricate production steps, and capabilities typically handled by specialized manufacturers. It also said its total addressable market is about $28.5 trillion, with most of that tied to AI. Reuters has more here.

A legal battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman is spilling into public view, with court filings revealing unflattering details including Musk calling Jeff Bezos a “tool.” The Washington Post has more here.

Bob Iger is rejoining Thrive Capital as an advisor after stepping down as CEO of Disney. TechCrunch has more here.

Former Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Ben Pasternak has been arrested in New York and charged with strangulation and assault while separately facing a civil lawsuit tied to alleged cryptocurrency schemes. The Express Tribune has more here.

Meta plans to cut 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 jobs, and close 6,000 open roles as it ramps spending on artificial intelligence, part of a broader push to automate work and rein in costs. The New York Times has more here.

While not quite a layoff, Microsoft will offer voluntary buyouts to up to 7% of its U.S. workforce, with eligibility based on an age plus years-of-service formula that adds up to 70. CNBC has more here.

Anthropic shares are trading at around a $1 trillion valuation on secondary markets, surpassing OpenAI, which is trading at about $880 billion on the same platforms, as intense investor demand and limited supply drive aggressive bidding for stock. Business Insider has more here.

Amazon is testing a shift at its Ring and Blink units to replace traditional titles with “builder” and “builder lead” as it pushes to cut bureaucracy, though some employees worry the change could complicate promotions and pay progression. Reuters has more here.

The White House for the first time publicly accused Chinese entities of running “industrial-scale” campaigns to copy U.S. AI models using distillation and large networks of accounts, although the statement stopped short of accusing the Chinese government of direct involvement. CNN has more here.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is seeking to raise its first outside funding at a $20+ billion valuation to retain researchers amid poaching by rivals, but its limited commercialization and opaque financials may complicate fundraising. The Financial Times has more here.

Spotify released its first all-time streaming rankings, with Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and Drake leading artists, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd topping songs, and Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti leading albums with 22 billion streams.

With cocktails averaging $13.61, rising drink prices are pushing Americans to pregame before they go out.

Philadelphia Flyer mascot Gritty was at the center of a bizarre scene during a playoff game last night when he attacked a Pittsburgh Penguins mascot and seemingly jettisoned his foe off the second deck in front of a cheering crowd.

A 21,500-square-foot Palm Beach waterfront estate that cut its asking price by $18 million to $157 million includes 15 bedrooms, multiple guest structures, a tennis pavilion, docks, and a heated infinity pool.

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