A widespread AWS outage disrupted major apps and services, knocking parts of the internet offline and underscoring the fragility of core cloud infrastructure. TechCrunch has more here.

NASA acting chief Sean Duffy signaled the agency may reopen its $2.9 billion lunar lander contract and let other companies, including Blue Origin, challenge SpaceX for the Artemis III moon mission amid delays to Starship. (It is so on.) CNN has more here.

The Trump administration’s Department of Energy just canceled $720 million in manufacturing grants for startups developing battery materials, recycling tech, and advanced windows, dealing a setback to U.S. clean-tech manufacturers and their investors. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Julie Bort

Periodic Labs, a new startup by one of OpenAI’s most respected researchers, Liam Fedus, and his former Google Brain colleague, Ekin Dogus Cubuk, came out of stealth last month with an enormous $300 million seed round. It was led by Felicis and included a who’s who of angels and other top VCs. 

The startup began when Fedus had a conversation with Cubuk (whose friends call him “Doge”) about seven months ago. Cubuk was one of Google Brain’s foremost machine learning and material science researchers. After endless Silicon Valley takes on how generative AI would radically change scientific discovery, they decided that the pieces were finally in place to make this a reality. Or at least to found a startup that attempted it.

“There are a few things that happened in the LLM field, in experimental science and in simulations that kind of made this the right time,” Cubuk told TechCrunch.

For one, he said, robotic arms that could handle powder synthesis — the process of mixing and creating new materials — had recently proved themselves reliable. For another, machine learning simulations had become efficient and accurate enough to model complex physical systems such as those needed to develop new materials. 

And, third, LLMs now had powerful reasoning capabilities — in part through the work of Fedus and his team at OpenAI. Fedus was one of the small team that created ChatGPT to begin with and was running OpenAI’s uber-important post-training team, which refines models after their initial development.

Stitched together, the picture was clear: A simulation could theoretically discover new compounds, a robot could mix the materials, and an LLM could analyze the results and suggest course corrections. AI-automated material science was ready to be built.

CoMind, a seven-year-old London company that develops non-invasive brain monitoring devices using infrared lasers, raised a $60 million round led by Plural. The company has raised a total of $102.5 million. The Financial Times has more here.

LangChain, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops tools for building and deploying AI agents, raised a $125 million Series B round at a $1.25 billion valuation. IVP was the deal lead, with CapitalG, Sapphire Ventures, ServiceNow Ventures, Workday Ventures, Cisco Ventures, Datadog, Databricks, and Frontline as well as previous investors Sequoia and Benchmark also anteing up. Fortune has more here.

OpenEvidence, a five-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that provides an AI medical reference tool for clinicians, raised a $200 million round at a $6 billion valuation. The round was led by previous investor GV, with Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Blackstone, Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, Bond, and Craft also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Adaptyx Biosciences, a three-year-old Menlo Park startup that develops a wearable patch for continuous multi-analyte molecular monitoring, raised a $14 million seed round led by Interlagos, with Overwater Ventures, Starbloom Capital, Stanford University, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Hyperlink Ventures, Cantos Ventures, Humba Ventures, and Seaside Ventures also stepping up. The startup has raised a total of $23 million. MassDevice has more here.

Finster AI, a two-year-old London startup that provides AI software to automate research and document workflows for banks and asset managers, raised a $15 million Series A led by FinTech Collective and a seed round led by Peak XV, with Hoxton Ventures also participating. More here.

HiveWatch, a six-year-old startup based in El Segundo, CA, that builds software to unify corporate security systems and automate incident response, raised a $33 million Series B round led by Anthos Capital, with additional participation from Harmonic Growth Partners and Across Capital. The company has raised a total of $65 million. More here.

1001 AI, a Dubai startup founded this year that aims to build AI infrastructure to optimize operations in sectors like aviation, logistics, and construction, raised a $9 million seed round. CIV, General Catalyst, and Lux Capital co-led the deal. TechCrunch has more here.

Allye Energy, a three-year-old London startup that repurposes electric vehicle batteries into modular energy storage systems, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Elbow Beach, with Alpha Future Funds also contributing. Tech Funding News has more here.

Andel, a Las Vegas startup founded this year that helps employers pool demand in order to negotiate direct pricing for GLP-1 medications, raised a $4.5 million seed round. The deal was led by Lightbank, with Seedcamp, Bertelsmann Investments, Houghton Street Ventures, and Springboard also taking part. Tech Funding News has more here.

Magic, a New York startup founded this year that builds AI software that pulls reservation and purchase data into one system so restaurants can personalize service for returning guests, raised a $10 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau, with Bling Capital, Floodgate, Major Food Group, and VCR Group also investing. More here.

Milvus Advanced, a four-year-old startup based in Oxford, England, that develops earth-abundant nanoalloy materials to replace rare metals in electrochemical and optoelectronic applications, raised a $6.9 million seed round led by Hoxton Ventures, with LQD Ventures, Übermorgen, Tuesday Capital, Mark Leslie Enterprises, van Den Bosch Dynasty Fund, Bluebirds, Md One, and EQT Foundation as well as previous investor Lowercarbon Capital also piling on. More here.

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NFX, the ten-year-old American-Israeli venture firm that backs early-stage startups across Israel and the U.S., raised its fourth fund totaling $325 million to invest in roughly 50 new companies focused on AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, and crypto-fintech convergence. Globes has more here.

Evernorth, a new digital asset firm backed by Ripple, Ripple founder Chris Larsen, Pantera Capital, and Kraken that is focused on building a large XRP reserve, is raising more than $1 billion through a SPAC to buy the token and position itself as a long-term catalyst for the XRP ecosystem. Decrypt has more here.

The New York Times profiles Katherine Boyle, the Andreessen Horowitz partner driving the American Dynamism movement, as she emerges as a key bridge between right-wing venture capitalists and the Trump-aligned conservative agenda reshaping Silicon Valley. More here.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg called Tumblr his biggest failure yet as the company struggles to migrate the loss-making site onto WordPress’s backend, underscoring how even deep-pocketed tech firms can stumble on costly integrations. TechCrunch has more here.

UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts is aiming to steer the university toward an AI-driven future by merging schools, but he’s dealing with some detractors, including because of a separate bet on former NFL coach Bill Belichick. Connie wrote up more here.

Thirteen-year-old Toronto native Michael Goldstein, who met with Sam Altman and pitched VCs in San Francisco after teaching himself to “vibe code,” is part of a new crop of teenagers building AI startups, reports The San Francisco Standard. In fact, Investor-entrepreneur Kevin Hartz says he has already committed nearly 20% of his newest fund to teenage founders. TechCrunch has more here.

Reid Hoffman publicly backed Anthropic as “one of the good guys” in AI after Trump administration AI czar David Sacks accused the startup of regulatory fear-mongering. CNBC has more here.

Eric Schmidt’s former girlfriend and onetime business partner Michelle Ritter has accused the ex-Google CEO of abuse, stalking, and digital surveillance amid a legal fight over a $100 million AI startup and a Bel Air mansion. The New York Post has more here.

Luxury brands are feeling pressure as resale players like The RealReal and Fashionphile gain momentum, with consumers increasingly shifting spend to the secondary market rather than buying new. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Communities from Mexico to Ireland are pushing back as the AI data center boom strains local power and water systems, exposing how the race to build infrastructure is colliding with fragile public resources. The New York Times has more here.

OpenAI faced sharp criticism from AI peers after overstating claims that GPT-5 had solved several unsolved Erdős math problems. “This is embarrassing,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis opined. TechCrunch has more here.

And speaking of OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal digs into Sam Altman’s complex dealmaking and why the company is now too big to fail. More here.

Wealthy families are increasingly drafting mission statements and even constitutions to codify values, reduce heirs’ conflicts, and prolong fortunes, fueling a cottage industry of advisers and family-office services around governance and next-gen education.

Why buying a decommissioned Staten Island ferry might not be the best use of capital, even if you are Pete Davidson and Colin Jost. (“This is why idiots should not be allowed to do things,” as Jost puts it.)

Lionsgate is marking American Psycho’s 25th anniversary with a collector’s edition release featuring tongue-in-cheek 1980s nostalgia, complete with replica business cards, a fake credit card, and even a VHS “Be Kind, Rewind” version.

A newly built $84.95 million estate on Palm Beach’s Billionaires’ Row is hitting the market with a rare private tunnel to the beach, a guest house, and resort-style amenities in one of Florida’s priciest enclaves.

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