Anthropic raised a $30 billion Series G round at a $380 billion valuation. The deal was co-led by GIC and Coatue, with D. E. Shaw Ventures, Founders Fund, MGX, Accel, General Catalyst, Jane Street, and the Qatar Investment Authority also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

WP Engine alleges in a new court filing that Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg planned to seek 8% royalty payments from 10 WordPress hosting rivals and pressured Stripe to cut off WP Engine, escalating a dispute over trademark use and open source contributions. TechCrunch has more here.

Observations from ingesting 20,000+ private company quarterly updates: 

Metrics aren’t called the same. Net Dollar Retention had 23 different names. 

Last quarter’s ARR is routinely restated this quarter. Explanation is always in the footnotes. 

Quarterly numbers seldom add up to annual figures. No wonder analyzing your portfolio is so painful!  See how we’ve solved it with PortfolioIQ. 

By Tim Fernholz

“Join xAI if the idea of mass drivers on the Moon appeals to you,” CEO Elon Musk proclaimed yesterday following a restructuring that saw a stream of former executives exit the AI lab.

This is an interesting recruitment strategy after the company’s merger with Musk’s rocket maker, SpaceX, and the combined company’s anticipated IPO. You might think that xAI employees ought to be fascinated with achieving AGI, using deep learning models to disrupt traditional software companies, or simply bad wordplay like “Macrohard.” But instead, Elon is going to the moon.

After outlining plans to build AI data centers in orbit, the primary synergy between the two companies, Musk took the idea further. “What if you want to go beyond a mere terawatt per year?” Musk asked. “To do that, you have to go to the moon…I really want to see a mass driver on the moon that is shooting AI satellites into deep space.”

In Musk’s telling, the step beyond data centers orbiting Earth is even larger computers in deep space. And furthermore, Musk says the best way to achieve that is to build a city on the moon to manufacture space computers and hurl them into the solar system using a big maglev train.

If that all feels a bit much, veteran Musk watchers know there’s a clue about where the discussion appears in a video of an all-hands meeting xAI shared with the public. The slide describing the moon base comes at the end of the presentation deck, where, during SpaceX pep talks, Musk typically shares renderings of SpaceX rockets landing on Mars and waxes rhapsodic about the future of multi-planetary humanity.

Notably, the moon base comes just after SpaceX has publicly backed away from its long-held goal of colonizing Mars. Now, with xAI in the corporate fold, Musk needs a new science fiction metaphor for the future: In this case, the Kardashev Scale, a theoretical measure of galactic civilizations coined by the eponymous Soviet astronomer in the 1960s. The idea is climbing the scale of energy usage — early civilizations figure out how to leverage all the power sources on their planets, and then (hypothetically) go to space and build infrastructure to capture the energy of the sun.

Lassie, a six-year-old Stockholm startup that operates a pet insurance platform that uses automation and AI to manage claims and preventive care tracking, raised a $75 million Series C round. Investors included Balderton Capital, Felix Capital, Inventure, and Passion Capital. The Next Web has more here.

Loyal, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that develops drugs aimed at extending the lifespan of dogs, raised a $100 million Series C round led by age1, with Baillie Gifford also digging in. The company has raised a total of $250+ million. More here.

Neurent Medical, a 12-year-old Irish company that provides a minimally invasive radio frequency system to treat chronic rhinitis, raised a $74.2 million Series C round led by MVM Partners, with Sofinnova Partners as well as previous investors EQT Life Sciences, Atlantic Bridge, Fountain Healthcare Partners, and Enterprise Ireland also engaging. More here.

Simile, a Palo Alto startup founded last year that predicts human behavior using AI models trained on interviews and historical behavioral data, raised a $100 million round led by Index Ventures, with Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Hanabi Capital, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrej Karpathy also participating. Bloomberg has more here.

Talkiatry, a seven-year-old New York startup that provides in-network psychiatric care through an AI-powered clinical operations platform, raised a $210 million Series D round led by Perceptive Advisors, with Sofina as well as previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, blisce, and Left Lane Capital also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $400+ million. More here.

Didero, a two-year-old New York startup that provides an agentic AI layer to automate manufacturing procurement workflows across emails, purchase orders, and ERP systems, raised a $30 million Series A co-led by Chemistry and Headline, with M12 also participating. TechCrunch has more here.

Ever, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that operates an AI-driven marketplace for buying and selling used electric vehicles, raised a $31 million Series A round led by Eclipse, with Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures, and JIMCO also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.

️Hades, a one-year-old Munich startup that is developing ultra-deep drilling technology to extract critical minerals and geothermal energy from deep rock formations, raised a $17.8 million round ️co-led by HV Capital and Headline and including previous investors Project A and Visionaries Tomorrow. More here.

ManageMy, a London startup that provides insurers with a platform to manage digital customer engagement, underwriting, and claims decisioning, raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by Ventura Capital and OCVC, with BNF also contributing. The company has raised a total of $45 million. More here.

Nucleus Security, an eight-year-old startup based in Sarasota, FL, whose cybersecurity exposure management platform correlates vulnerabilities with threat intelligence and automates remediation workflows, raised a $20 million Series C round led by Delta-v Capital. The company has raised a total of $86+ million. SecurityWeek has more here.

Opaque Systems, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a confidential AI platform that secures sensitive data and models during processing, raised a $24 million Series B round at a $300 million valuation. The deal was led by Walden Catalyst Ventures, with Intel Capital, Race Capital, Storm Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, and the Advanced Technology Research Council also participating. The company has raised a total of $55.5 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Uptiq, a four-year-old Dallas startup that provides an AI platform for financial institutions to automate lending, wealth, compliance, and operations workflows, raised a $25 million Series B round led by Curql, with Silverton Partners, 645 Ventures, Broadridge, Green Visor Capital, Live Oak Ventures, First Capital, Epic Ventures, Tau Ventures, and Evolution VC also piling on. More here.

Winn.AI, a four-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides a real-time AI platform that guides sales representatives during live calls, raised an $18 million Series A round co-led by Insight Partners, Mangusta Capital, and S Capital, with Moneta, HighSage, Alumni Ventures, Sarona Ventures, and OurCrowd also taking stakes. CTech has more here.

Ando, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that provides AI forecasting and scheduling tools for hourly workers, raised a $4 million seed round led by Slow Ventures, with additional participation from Blitzscaling Ventures, Zero Capital, Monochrome, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, and Fireroad. More here.

Bracket, a two-year-old London startup that provides an AI platform to automate treasury operations and foreign exchange workflows for mid-market businesses, raised a $7 million seed round led by Macquarie Group and Blackfinch Ventures, with Failup Ventures also investing. Tech Funding News has more here.

The Compression Company, a one-year-old London startup that provides AI-driven software to compress satellite data onboard, raised a $3.4 million pre-seed round led by Long Journey. EU-Startups has more here.

Cydelphi, a recently founded Dallas startup that provides an AI-driven digital forensics and incident response platform for ransomware recovery, raised a $3 million seed round led by Glasswing Ventures, with Blu Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, and Merlin Group also anteing up. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Demoboost, a five-year-old Warsaw startup that provides a platform for B2B software companies to create and track interactive product demos, raised a $3.3 million round co-led by Digital Ocean Ventures and RIO, with B-Value also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

Heywa Labs, a one-year-old London startup that builds an AI interface platform that generates interactive, adaptive visual experiences for users, raised a $5 million seed round led by Cherry Ventures, with Openseed, Pareto, Plug & Play, and Ventures Together also opting in. Tech Funding News has more here.

Manufact, a one-year-old Paris and San Francisco startup that builds infrastructure to help developers connect AI agents and services using the Model Context Protocol, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by Peak XV, with Liquid 2 Ventures, Ritual Capital, Pioneer Fund, and Y Combinator also investing. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Pelgo, a recently founded New York startup that provides an AI-powered career transition platform paired with human counselors, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Flybridge Capital Partners, with additional support from ENIAC Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, and 645 Ventures. Tech Funding News has more here.

Santé, a three-year-old New York startup that provides an AI platform to manage inventory, payments, marketing, and delivery workflows for wine and liquor retailers, raised a $7.6 million round led by Bonfire Ventures, with Operator Collective, Y Combinator, and Veridical Ventures also chiming in. The AI Journal has more here.

Stanhope AI, a three-year-old London startup developing brain-inspired adaptive AI systems for robotics and autonomous machines, raised an $8 million seed round led by Frontline Ventures, with Paladin Capital Group, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, UCL Technology Fund, and MMC Ventures also taking part. Silicon Republic has more here.

Tangible, a five-year-old London startup that helps technology companies access and manage debt financing, raised a $4.3 million seed round led by Pale Blue Dot, with MMC, Future Positive Capital, Unruly, SDAC, Prototype Capital, and Aperture also pitching in. Tech.eu has more here.

Upside Robotics, a two-year-old Waterloo startup that builds solar-powered autonomous robots to apply fertilizer to corn crops, raised a $7.5 million seed round led by Plural, with Garage Capital also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Vybe, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that enables enterprises to build internal apps using AI-powered “vibe coding,” raised a $10 million seed round led by First Round Capital, with additional funds provided by Y Combinator and the CEOs of Datadog and Grammarly. Business Insider has more here.

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ServiceNow is acquiring Pyramid Analytics, a 17-year-old Tel Aviv company that provides an AI-powered platform for business analytics, data science, and natural language data queries, in a deal reportedly worth several hundred million dollars. Pyramid Analytics has raised a total of $250 million. CTech has more here.

Grab, a Singapore-based ride-hailing, food delivery, and digital payments platform, is buying Stash Financial, a 10-year-old New York company that provides digital investing and personal finance services. The deal has been initially valued at $425 million. Reuters has more here.

Wall Street’s IPO buzz around SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic is taking a back seat to a surge in tech debt, with UBS projecting global AI and tech issuance could hit $990 billion in 2026 as hyperscalers race to finance nearly $700 billion in annual capex. CNBC has more here.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman tells the Financial Times that Microsoft is pursuing AI “self-sufficiency” by building its own frontier models and reducing its reliance on OpenAI. The Financial Times has more here.

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan has launched Garry’s List, a 501(c)(4) dark-money nonprofit aimed at extending his long-running campaign against San Francisco progressive politics to the statewide level. Mission Local has more here.

Researchers from Oxford and the University of Kentucky forced ChatGPT to rank states and cities on traits like laziness, beauty, and intelligence, revealing patterned biases that favored wealthy and White areas and routinely placed Mississippi and parts of sub-Saharan Africa near the bottom when asked about positive traits. The Washington Post has more here.

OpenAI is under mounting pressure to triple revenue to roughly $39 billion this year as it plans to spend about $100 billion over four years on AI infrastructure, forcing it into ads, enterprise software, and profit-sharing experiments ahead of a potential IPO. The New York Times has more here.

Anthropic has committed $20 million to a new super PAC backing candidates who favor stricter AI regulation, escalating its political fight with OpenAI, whose leaders and investors have backed super PACs that have raised more than $50 million ahead of the 2026 midterms. The New York Times has more here.

Ernst & Young flagged Meta’s decision to keep a $27 billion data-center project off its balance sheet as a critical audit matter, adding fuel to lawmakers’ concerns about opaque AI-related debt. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The Pittsburgh-based autonomous trucking company Aurora says its driverless trucks can now run a nonstop 1,000-mile Fort Worth to Phoenix route in about 15 hours versus 24+ hours for human drivers. TechCrunch has more here.

Quel scandale! A French Olympic judge’s scoring of an American ice dancing couple’s performance is raising eyebrows.

Waymo is paying DoorDash drivers to shut the doors of its self-driving cars.

The unexpected power of elephant whiskers.

Sunglasses styled by actor Jeff Goldblum and the high-end luxury eyewear brand Jacques Marie Mage, inspired by The Fly.

A retro café racer from Ducati.

A $1,100 windbreaker.

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