Looking forward to Thursday night in L.A.! Chang Xu of Basis Set Ventures is joining an already stacked roster that includes Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov, M13's Carter Reum, Shinkei Systems' Saif Khawaja, and Mach Industries' Ethan Thornton, all under the roof of Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, which feels like the right spot, given SpaceX's IPO. More details here.

According to reporting from The Financial Times, Anthropic was given 90 minutes to comply with Trump administration export controls on its Fable and Mythos models, prompting the company to suspend both systems for all users and fly senior technical staff to Washington as it tries to resolve a clash that has rattled the AI industry. More here.

Fox agreed to buy Roku in a roughly $25 billion deal, combining its Tubi, Fox One, and Fox Nation streaming businesses with the largest connected-TV streaming platform as media companies race for scale in ad-supported streaming. TechCrunch has more here.

SpaceX shares jumped 20% on their first full day of trading after the company’s record IPO, closing at $192.50 and extending gains after Elon Musk said the company “might be able to reach approximately” $1 trillion in revenue in 2030. CNBC has more here.

A federal judge dismissed xAI’s trade-secrets lawsuit against OpenAI with prejudice, finding that Elon Musk’s AI company failed to show OpenAI induced a former xAI engineer to reveal confidential information about Grok, marking Musk’s second legal loss against OpenAI in four weeks. Reuters has more here.

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By Connie Loizos

The trend appears to be accelerating. Tech layoffs hit their highest single month in two years last month, with nearly 40,000 cuts, and AI was the most-cited reason for layoffs across every industry for the third month running, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

There’s growing skepticism that AI is really the culprit, though — that it’s more of a convenient cover story than the actual cause. Few examples illustrate the pushback better than what happened at the payments outfit Block. After getting hammered over laying off nearly half the company earlier this year, Jack Dorsey denied the cuts were a sign of trouble, insisting instead that AI tools “are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company.” But pressed by commenters on X about the bloat he’d created during the pandemic, Dorsey later acknowledged that Block had, in fact, overhired.

Other voices have also begun to weigh in, including famed VC Marc Andreessen, who recently called AI the “silver bullet excuse” for layoffs that are really about mismanagement in some cases. In conversation with podcaster-investor Harry Stebbings, Andreessen said, “Essentially, every large company is overstaffed. It’s at least overstaffed by 25%. I think most large companies are overstaffed by 50%. I think a lot of them are overstaffed by 75%. Now they all have the silver bullet excuse: Ah, it’s AI.”

What makes this combustible is that at the very moment that tens of thousands of workers are being shown the door, a small cohort of AI insiders is becoming wealthy on a scale that’s hard to comprehend.

Early last month, AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems closed its first day on the Nasdaq up 68% from its $185 IPO price, giving the chipmaker a market cap of roughly $67 billion — the largest U.S. tech IPO since Snowflake’s 2020 debut. By the close, co-founders Andrew Feldman and Sean Lie were billionaires. (The company’s shares have since fallen 30%.)

Arcade.dev, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that develops software for controlling which enterprise apps, databases, and tools AI agents are authorized to access or modify, raised a $60 million Series A round led by SYN Ventures, with Morgan Stanley and Wipro also opting in. The company previously raised a $12 million seed round led by Laude Ventures. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

NewCore, a one-year-old Tel Aviv and San Francisco startup that manages identities, permissions, and access lifecycles for human employees and AI agents across enterprise systems, raised a $66 million round at a $300 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Cyberstarts, with Index Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners also contributing. TechCrunch has more here.

Radical Numerics, a one-year-old Menlo Park startup that develops multimodal models that read, write, and analyze DNA, RNA, and proteins to design biological systems and detect pathogens for healthcare and biosecurity, raised a $50 million seed round led by Emergence Capital, with Obvious Ventures, Triatomic Capital, Factory, and First Spark Ventures as well as previous investor Patrick Collison also investing. More here.

Sarvam AI, a three-year-old Bengaluru startup that develops generative AI models and language tools for coding, cybersecurity, and sovereign AI applications, completed a $234 million first close of a targeted $300 million Series B round at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by HCLTech (which invested $150.7 million for a 10.5% stake) and Bessemer Venture Partners, with previous investors Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Maritime Robotics, a 21-year-old company based in Trondheim, Norway, that develops autonomous surface vessels, navigation systems, and modular sea drone platforms for offshore energy, surveying, environmental monitoring, fisheries, and defense operations, raised a $32.5 million round led by MS+Partners, with previous investors EnvisionTech, Nysnø Climate Investments, and Umoe also taking part. Splash Tech has more here.

Orbio, a one-year-old Madrid startup that deploys AI agents to interview candidates, assess fit, onboard employees, and monitor and support frontline workers across their employment lifecycle, raised a $21 million Series A round led by Dawn Capital, with Visionaries and 2100 Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $26 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Podium Automation, a two-year-old Brooklyn startup that makes industrial control panels for manufacturers, using software to design panels, select electrical components, generate assembly instructions, and shorten delivery times, raised an $18 million Series A round led by Construct Capital, with Andreessen Horowitz, Transition Ventures, Sunflower Capital, and Banter Capital as well as previous investor SV Angel also stepping up. The company has raised a total of $23+ million. More here.

ChatSee.ai, a one-year-old startup based in Cupertino, CA, that captures, analyzes, and feeds back AI agent failures and fixes to help enterprises prevent recurring errors across production workflows, raised a $6.5 million seed round led by True Ventures, with First Rays Venture Partners and Seven Hill Ventures also participating. More here.

Dioseve, a five-year-old Tokyo startup that is developing an iPS cell-based platform to help immature oocytes mature during IVF, raised a $7 million Series A extension from investors including Pangaea Ventures, Archetype Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Mirai Door, D4V, and Shionogi. More here.

Qorelo, a one-year-old Berlin startup that automates SAP ERP upgrade and migration workstreams for enterprises and consultancies to reduce project timelines and reliance on manual delivery teams, raised a $3.5 million seed round co-led by HPI Ventures and Caesar Ventures, with 10x Founders, Antler, Adesso Ventures, and Angel Invest also engaging. EU-Startups has more here.

Sirius Game, a five-year-old Italian startup that develops game-based learning programs using interactive missions and challenges to train students and employees in skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and digital awareness, raised a $1.5 million round. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti was the deal lead, with Trentino Invest, Ultra VC, 28Digital, and Add Value also chipping in. More here.

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Salesforce is acquiring Fin, the 15-year-old AI customer service company formerly known as Intercom whose software resolves customer queries across chat, email, WhatsApp, text, phone, and Slack, for about $3.6 billion as it races to strengthen its Agentforce platform. TechCrunch has more here.

1Password is purchasing Apono, a four-year-old Israeli cybersecurity startup whose AI-powered platform manages just-in-time access permissions across cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, and corporate databases. The deal is reportedly valued at between $250 million and $300 million. CTech has more here.

SailPoint, a 21-year-old Austin identity security company that helps enterprises govern and secure access across their systems, bought Entro Security, a four-year-old Israeli cybersecurity startup that maps, manages, and protects non-human identities such as API keys, tokens, service accounts, and machine credentials. The deal is valued at approximately $200 million, according to CTech, which has more here.

Enflame Technology, an eight-year-old Shanghai AI chip startup backed by Tencent that makes cloud chips and related software for AI workloads, won approval to raise about $888 million in an IPO on Shanghai’s STAR board, making it the last of China’s “four AI chip dragons” to reach the public markets. The Next Web has more here.

SpaceX’s record IPO grew by $10.7 billion to $85.7 billion after underwriters exercised their option to buy the maximum number of additional shares, giving Elon Musk’s space-and-AI company even more capital to pay down debt tied to X and xAI, expand AI compute infrastructure, and invest in launch capacity and Starlink. TechCrunch has more here.

President Trump said he told French President Emmanuel Macron that he will impose 100% tariffs on French wine and Champagne unless France scraps its 3% digital services tax on U.S. tech giants, reviving a long-running fight over whether Paris is unfairly targeting companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple. The New York Post has more here.

Charlie Javice has been seeking a presidential pardon after being convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase in its $175 million purchase of her student-aid startup Frank, with the request coming as President Trump weighs a wave of clemency grants for white-collar criminals ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The San Francisco Standard details how California tech billionaires and venture capitalists including Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, Garry Tan, Ron Conway, Chris Larsen, and Patrick Collison organized private chats, PACs, counter-initiatives, and candidate recruitment efforts to fight a proposed 5% tax on billionaires’ net worth, only to see the measure gather enough signatures for the November ballot. More here.

Business Insider profiles Cursor CEO Michael Truell, the 25-year-old MIT-trained coder who reportedly went years without paying himself while building one of AI’s fastest-growing startups. The piece details how Cursor once accounted for 40% to 50% of Anthropic’s revenue, uses unpaid “work trials” to vet hires, and is weighing a potential $60 billion sale to SpaceX after Anthropic’s Claude Code became a serious rival. More here.

The Trump administration is planning to let a key federal data-center rule expire in September without a replacement, a move that could remove energy, water-use, security, and reporting requirements for government-run or leased data centers just as federal AI infrastructure demand is surging. Wired has more here.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says Britain will ban social media for children under 16 and impose new restrictions on gaming and livestreaming platforms as soon as next spring, claiming the “Australia-plus” approach will give children their childhood back even as critics question whether a blanket ban can be enforced. TechCrunch has more here.

A psychology professor who has been studying dad jokes dissects the groan-worthy genre.

After FIFA World Cup rules forced Levi’s to cover its name and logo at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, the denim brand leaned into the moment by covering its Instagram profile logo with a matching white tarp.

Tramp, the famously debauched London private members’ club, has opened Tramp Health, a 16,000-square-foot wellness sanctuary in Mayfair with a gym, Pilates studios, saunas, steam rooms, cold plunges, IV therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, red-light treatment, diagnostics, and an AI app that recommends personalized recovery and performance routines.

Adidas has adapted cooling technology originally developed for Mercedes-AMG’s Formula 1 team into a three-piece Climacool system for World Cup players, using a frozen-gel vest, insulating jacket, and cooling overshoes that can lower skin temperature by up to 23.4°F and core body temperature by up to 0.9°F before matches in hot-weather venues.

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