You've probably seen this one before — Anthropic is in talks to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $30–50 billion at a valuation approaching $950 billion. Still. The number ticks up slightly with each retelling, which we read as a sign the round is inching toward actually closing. The New York Times has more here.

EBay rejected GameStop’s unsolicited $56 billion takeover proposal, dismissing CEO Ryan Cohen’s bid as “neither credible nor attractive” after his vague CNBC explanation that the financing was “half cash, half stock” became instant meme fodder online. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Instructure said it reached a deal with hacking group ShinyHunters for the return and destruction of data stolen from its Canvas learning platform, which the hackers claimed included information tied to more than 275 million users across nearly 9,000 schools worldwide. The New York Times has more here.

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By Tim Fernholz

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finally took the stand this morning to defend himself against his former co-founder Elon Musk’s lawsuit challenging OpenAI’s corporate structure.

Altman was immediately asked what he thought of Musk’s allegation that OpenAI’s other founders “stole a charity” when they launched a for-profit subsidiary to market products based on the company’s AI models.

“It feels difficult to even wrap my head around that framing,” Altman said after several seconds of silence. “We created one of the largest charities in the world. This foundation is doing incredible work and will do much more.”

Musk’s attorneys have been at pains to point out that OpenAI’s foundation, which now has assets on the order of $200 billion, didn’t have full-time employees until earlier this year. OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor testified today that was simply because of the challenge of converting OpenAI equity to cash, which was accomplished with the organization’s most recent restructuring in 2025.

The central question posed by Musk’s lawyers is whether the company’s commitment to safety had been left behind as its commercial power grew. But Altman said that in 2017, during a pivotal period when the founders wrestled with how to obtain the funding to power their AI models, Musk’s “specific plans on safety made me worry.”

He described a “particularly hair-raising moment” in the debate when Musk was asked what would happen if he died while controlling a hypothetical OpenAI for-profit. In Altman’s telling, Musk said, “Maybe OpenAI should pass to my children.”

Amp, a newly launched Menlo Park startup founded by Andreessen Horowitz partner Anjney Midha that pools AI computing power for startups, universities, and other organizations, raised a $1.3+ billion round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator as well as unnamed cloud computing providers. The New York Times has more here.

Digital Asset Holdings, a 12-year-old New York company that develops the Canton Network, a blockchain platform that allows financial institutions to transfer and manage tokenized assets across interoperable, permissioned networks, has reportedly raised a $300 million round at a $2 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. The purported lead was Andreessen Horowitz. CoinDesk has more here.

Exaforce, a three-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, that develops AI tools for detecting and stopping cyberattacks in real-time, raised a $125 million Series B round at a $725 million valuation. Investors included HarbourVest, Peak XV, Mayfield, Khosla Ventures, and Seligman Ventures. The company has raised a total of $200 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Forus, a three-year-old New York startup that automates prescription administration workflows such as prior authorizations, pharmacy routing, and insurance checks for healthcare providers and patients, raised a $160 million round at a $1 billion valuation. Investors included Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Redpoint, BoxGroup, and Pear VC. Dealroom has more here.

Havoc, a two-year-old startup based in Providence, RI, that develops autonomous drone boats and military robotics software, raised a $100 million Series A round led by Cobalt and Boardman Bay. The company has raised nearly $200 million to date. Forbes has more here.

Isomorphic Labs, a five-year-old London startup spun out of Google DeepMind that uses AI for drug discovery, raised a $2.1 billion round led by Thrive Capital, with MGX, Temasek, and CapitalG as well as previous investors Google Ventures and Alphabet also joining in. Reuters has more here.

Monaco, a startup based in San Francisco that is building an AI-powered sales platform to automate prospecting, pipeline management, and revenue conversion, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Jack Altman at Benchmark, with previous investors Founders Fund and Human Capital also participating. The company has raised a total of $85+ million. Business Insider has more here.

Paymentology, a five-year-old London startup that provides payment processing infrastructure for fintechs and banks to issue and manage card and digital payment products, raised a $175 million round co-led by Apis Partners and Asperity Partners. UKTN has more here.

Photonic, a 10-year-old Vancouver company that develops networked quantum computers using photonic technology, raised an additional $70 million extension to its financing round, bringing the total round size to more than $200 million at a $2 billion post-money valuation. New investors included BDC’s StrongNorth Fund, Export Development Canada, Bell Ventures, Firgun Ventures, and InBC Investment Corp., alongside follow-on support from Mubadala Capital. The company has raised more than $350 million to date. BetaKit has more here.

Vapi, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that handles inbound and outbound customer phone calls with AI voice agents for tasks such as customer support, appointment scheduling, and sales outreach, raised a $50 million round at a $500+ million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Peak XV, with M12 and Bessemer Venture Partners as well as previous investor Kleiner Perkins also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $72 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Wispr, a startup that develops AI-powered voice dictation tools, is reportedly in talks to raise approximately $260 million at a roughly $2 billion valuation in a round expected to be led by Menlo Ventures. The company has raised $81 million to date. Bloomberg has the scoop here.

Adfin, a two-year-old London startup that automates invoice collection and cash flow management for businesses through AI, raised an $18 million Series A round led by previous investor Index Ventures, with prior backer Visionaries Club also taking part. The company has raised a total of $29+ million. EU-Startups has more here.

Casimir, a three-year-old Houston startup that is creating semiconductor chips designed to harvest energy from quantum vacuum fields to power low-energy electronics without batteries, raised a $12 million seed round led by Scout Ventures, with Lavrock Ventures, Cottonwood Technology, Capital Factory, American Deep Tech, and Tim Draper also investing. More here.

Ciridae, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to automate operational workflows for mid-sized businesses in industries such as construction, logistics, healthcare, and industrial services, raised a $20 million seed round led by Accel, with Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sunflower Capital, and Backcountry Ventures also engaging. More here.

Develo, a four-year-old Los Angeles startup that streamlines clinical workflows, billing, scheduling, and family engagement for pediatric practices, raised a $14 million round led by Blueprint Equity, with Villain Capital, Z21 Ventures, and Bienville Capital also pitching in. Unite.ai has more here.

Judgment Labs, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops infrastructure for evaluating and improving AI agents using production data, raised $32 million across seed and Series A rounds led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Nova Global, SV Angel, Valor Equity Partners, and Dynamic also participating. More here.

Knit Health, a one-year-old San Francisco startup spun out of UC Berkeley that develops AI models trained on clinical decision-making data to improve healthcare operations and patient care, raised an $11.6 million seed round co-led by Uncork Capital and Frist Cressey Ventures. More here.

Pillar, a one-year-old Milan startup that automates construction operations and back-office workflows such as quote generation, workforce management, margin tracking, and project reporting for contractors, raised a $14.1 million seed round co-led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Base10 Partners, with Italian Founders Fund and previous investor Emblem also joining in. The SaaS News has more here.

ProcurePro, a six-year-old startup based in Brisbane, Australia, that provides procurement software for construction companies to manage tendering, bid analysis, subcontracting, and supply chain workflows, raised an $11 million round at an $80+ million valuation. The deal was led by QIC Ventures, with Bouygues as well as previous investors Airtree and Glitch Capital also digging in. BeBeez International has more here.

Roadrunner, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that aims to streamline product configuration, pricing, and sales quote generation for companies handling complex enterprise deals, raised $27 million in seed and Series A financing. The seed was led by Kleiner Perkins, and Founders Fund led the Series A. Fortune has more here.

Webidoo, an eight-year-old Milan startup that automates marketing, sales, and operational workflows for small and midsize businesses by connecting and coordinating data across disconnected business tools, raised a $25 million round led by IXC3. EU-Startups has more here.

Boundary Labs, a six-month-old New York startup that develops stablecoin infrastructure for financial institutions that want verifiable on-chain reserves and auditability, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Galaxy Ventures, with BlackWood and FirstBlock Capital also contributing. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Ditto, a two-year-old Rotterdam startup that is developing an app that translates medical consultations and documents into plain language for patients and their families, raised an $8.9 million round led by Heal Capital and including Optiverder and Rubio Impact Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.

Exponent, a two-year-old New York startup that provides financing, cards, and expense management tools for franchise operators, raised $10 million across seed and Series A funding. The $7.7 million Series A was co-led by Era and Chailease, with K8 Fund, Kyle Kuzma, Haza Foods, and Chunara Group also participating. More here.

Regulate, a two-year-old Munich startup that develops a breathwork platform for workplace stress management and resilience training, raised a $1.6 million seed round led by 4impact.vc. Tech Funding News has more here.

Tolemy Bio, a startup founded this year based in Cambridge, UK, that is working on tools to help biopharma researchers analyze, interpret, and optimize cell biology experiments and therapeutic development workflows, raised a $1.6 million pre-seed round led by Norrsken Evolve, with Big Sur Ventures, JME Ventures, and Masia also stepping up. Tech.eu has more here.

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A*, a six-year-old San Francisco VC firm that invests across sectors including AI, fintech, healthcare, and security, raised a $450 million third fund. The firm, run by Eventbrite co-founder Kevin Hartz and former Coatue partner Bennet Siegel, has backed companies including Ramp and Mercor and has said that roughly 20% of its portfolio companies are led by teenage founders. TechCrunch has more here.

Anthropic is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Stainless, a New York startup that helps developers automatically generate SDKs from APIs, in a deal valued in excess of $300 million. The Information has more here.

At today’s trial pitting Elon Musk against OpenAI, Sam Altman faced a combative cross-examination in which Musk’s lawyer accused him of fostering a “toxic culture of lying” and repeatedly pressed him on whether he had deceived colleagues, investors, and Musk himself about the company’s nonprofit mission. Business Insider has more here.

Speaking of Sam Altman, the House Oversight Committee is launching a probe into potential conflicts of interest tied to Altman’s personal investments. Also, a group of Republican attorneys general are urging the SEC to review OpenAI’s governance and alleged self-dealing. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

President Trump is on his way to China alongside a group of tech executives including Tim Cook and Elon Musk. Curiously, Jensen Huang was originally omitted from the list, but after Trump extended Huang a last-minute invitation, Huang was able to board Air Force One at a fueling stop in Alaska. The New York Times has more here.

Moritz Baier-Lentz is leaving Lightspeed Venture Partners to join OpenAI, McKinsey & Company, and TPG Capital as a part-time senior adviser focused on gaming and AI, while also launching a family office that he says will occupy most of his time. More here.

Anthropic reportedly refused a request from a Chinese think tank tied to Beijing for access to its unreleased Mythos AI model, a powerful system capable of identifying software vulnerabilities that U.S. officials increasingly view as a strategic national-security asset in the escalating AI rivalry with China. The New York Times has more here.

Speaking of Anthropic, the company publicly warned investors against buying its shares through a list of unauthorized secondary-market platforms and SPVs — including Open Doors Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Lionheart Ventures, Hiive, Forge Global, and Sydecar — saying any unapproved transfers of Anthropic stock would be considered void. TechCrunch has more here.

Google is reportedly in talks with SpaceX for launches tied to its Project Suncatcher initiative, which aims to place prototype computing satellites in orbit by 2027, even as the two companies prepare to compete in the emerging market for orbital AI infrastructure ahead of SpaceX’s planned IPO. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

A Wired essay by a Hollywood showrunner turned AI contractor depicts the hidden labor force training today’s AI models, describing a chaotic gig economy where thousands of “taskers” annotate videos, evaluate chatbot responses, and stress-test models for as little as $16 an hour. More here.

Pets are increasingly reshaping home design, with homeowners adding everything from dog-washing spas to custom litter rooms and even pet elevators.

Members of a growing subculture of teenage birders are racing across entire states in marathon 24-hour competitions to spot hundreds of species, with one New Jersey high school team logging 206 birds in a single day during the World Series of Birding after months of spreadsheet-driven preparation.

Luxury-watch collectors have been lining up for days outside stores to buy the new Swatch x Audemars Piguet Royal Pop pocket watch, a bioceramic collaboration that reimagines the Royal Oak as a manually wound pocket watch clipped to a calfskin lanyard.

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