Apple raised prices on Macs and iPads by 15% to 25% due to the soaring costs of memory and storage chips, saying, “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly.” The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Sam Altman reportedly told OpenAI staff that the U.S. government asked the company to stagger the rollout of GPT-5.6 over security concerns, approving access “customer by customer” as Washington takes a more active role in the release of frontier AI models. The Information has more here.

Fidelity — Your Pitch Isn’t the Only Thing Investors Are Evaluating. 

Investors don’t just listen to what you say - they look at how your company operates. Is ownership clear? Do your numbers match your story? Can you answer follow-up questions without digging through spreadsheets? The Fundraise-Ready Startup Kit equips founders with the materials investors expect to see, before pressure is on. Because confidence in the room doesn’t come from slides. It comes from preparation.

By Rebecca Bellan

As soon as I entered General Intuition’s R&D floor at its New York office, the company’s 31-year-old co-founder and CEO Pim de Witte directed my attention to a monitor perched on a standing desk. Someone appeared to be playing something like Fortnite. It wasn’t a person. 

“Our agent has been playing for 100 hours straight,” Kent Rollins, the company’s chief product officer, said, beaming. 

Before I could get absorbed in the spectacle of an AI navigating the game’s virtual environment, I heard the electronic footsteps of a large quadrupedal robot approaching. 

“The same brain powering the agent playing the game is powering the robot,” de Witte told me.

Josh Duplantis, a data analyst carrying a laptop streaming a live feed from the robot’s single camera, piped up to explain that the bot’s default mode was “exploration.” 

Relying on that camera, its singular eye, the giant buglike bot walked up to me, circled around me, and continued into the office. It occasionally clipped the legs of chairs or bumped into an errant trash bin, much like a toddler who hasn’t yet learned how her body relates to the world around it. Duplantis said it took just eight minutes of real-world robotics data to fine-tune an AI model for the quadruped. What’s more, that data was collected on the street, not inside the office where the bot was currently navigating itself.

An agentic model that can generalize from gameplay to simulation to embodiment is General Intuition’s raison d’être. And that model’s ability to figure out its place in the world has secured the backing of some heavy hitters. 

Airwallex, an 11-year-old Singapore and San Francisco company that provides global payment infrastructure and financial tools that help businesses accept payments, manage multi-currency accounts, and automate bookkeeping, compliance, and reporting, raised a $320 million Series H round at an $11 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Addition, with Baillie Gifford, Hummingbird, QED Investors, T. Rowe Price, Hedosophia, Haun Ventures, Washington University in St. Louis, and Amex Ventures also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

Mirendil, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that builds AI tools that help scientists and AI developers create specialized models for fields such as medicine and materials research, raised a $200 million seed round at a $1 billion valuation. Investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Nvidia. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Oblenio Bio, a two-year-old Oakland startup that develops antibody-based therapies that target and deplete immune cells to treat autoimmune diseases and enable long-lasting drug-free remission, raised a $62 million Series B round led by Pfizer Ventures, with Deep Track Capital and GV as well as previous investor Aditum Bio also anteing up. More here.

Patronus AI, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that builds simulated websites and internal systems to test how AI agents perform before they are deployed, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Greenfield Partners, with Notable Capital, Lightspeed, Datadog, and Samsung also joining in. The company has raised a total of $70 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Redo, a nine-year-old startup based in Draper, UT, that helps direct-to-consumer brands manage returns, exchanges, order tracking, and customer communications across the post-purchase journey to improve retention, raised an $81 million Series B round at a $1.25 billion valuation. The deal was led by Smash Capital, with previous investors Pelion Venture Partners and Cervin Ventures also opting in. More here.

RQ Bio, a four-year-old London startup that develops long-acting antibody therapies to prevent influenza in high-risk and immunocompromised patients with season-long protection from a single dose, raised a $112.9 million Series A round led by Frazier Life Sciences, with EQT Life Sciences, Forbion, Monograph, and Wellington Management as well as previous investors LifeArc Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, and the University of Oxford also joining in. More here.

Sail Research, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides inference infrastructure and sandbox environments that let companies run long-running AI agents efficiently across large-scale computational workloads, raised an $80 million seed and Series A round at a $450 million valuation. Kleiner Perkins led the Series A, while Sequoia Capital led the seed. Other investors included Redpoint Ventures, Theory Ventures, Vine Ventures, CRV, A*, Abstract Ventures, and Lip-Bu Tan. More here.

Scaled Cognition, a three-year-old startup based in Mountain View, CA, that develops AI models and tools designed to reduce hallucinations in enterprise software, raised a $100 million Series A round at a $750 million post-money valuation. The deal was led by Khosla Ventures, with Genesys also investing. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Trase, a three-year-old startup based in McLean, VA, that deploys AI agents to automate administrative and clinical workflows in regulated industries like healthcare, raised a $107 million seed round led by Arch Venture Partners, with Red Cell Partners also opting in. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Warp, a three-year-old New York startup that automates payroll, tax filings, compliance, benefits, and employee onboarding and offboarding for small and mid-sized companies using AI agents, raised a $60 million Series B round led by Battery Ventures, with Peak XV, Sound Ventures, Y Combinator, and HOF Capital also engaging. The company has raised a total of $85 million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Almetra, a four-year-old Berlin startup that deploys camera systems on factory floors to convert video into production data that helps manufacturers identify bottlenecks and improve output, raised an $18.5 million Series A round led by Blisce, with NAP, Merantix Capital, Robin Capital, Underline, and Critical Ventures also taking part. EU-Startups has more here.

AlpSemi, a two-year-old startup based in Grenoble, France, that develops semiconductor power switches for circuit breakers that help data centers and buildings prevent power surges and reduce outages, raised a $19.3 million Series A round led by Yotta Capital, with SE Ventures, Navitas Semiconductor, and Cycle Group also contributing. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Hang Ten Systems, a Palo Alto startup founded this year that helps enterprises build, modify, and operate business software using AI-driven code generation and automation instead of traditional IT services, raised a $32 million seed round led by Mayfield, with Aramco Ventures also engaging. TechCrunch has more here.

Nebulock, a three-year-old Boston startup that correlates telemetry across endpoints, identity, cloud, and SaaS systems to help security teams detect compromised accounts and hidden malicious behavior before alerts trigger, raised a $25 million Series A round led by FirstMark, with previous investors Bain Capital Ventures, Decibel, Zetta Venture Partners, and Step Function also pitching in. More here.

Netris, an eight-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, CA, that develops network automation software to help AI cloud providers configure GPU clusters and bring them online faster, raised a $15 million Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz. TechCrunch has more here.

Upside, a six-year-old startup based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, that helps health plans and employers find and stabilize housing for people before housing instability becomes a medical crisis, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Aquiline, with Flare Capital Partners as well as previous investors 645 Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Triple Impact Capital, and Techstars also investing. Fierce Healthcare has more here.

Compri, a two-year-old Milan startup that deploys autonomous agents that connect enterprise systems to handle supplier sourcing, RFQs, order tracking, and spend analysis for industrial procurement teams, raised a $3.6 million seed round led by Picus Capital, with Shapers, Italian Founders Fund, and DFF Ventures also investing. Vestbee has more here.

EQON, an eight-year-old Norwegian startup that provides control systems that regulate power to heating cables for industrial operators, cities, and property owners to reduce energy use and costs, raised a $6 million seed round co-led by Azolla Ventures and Wilstar Innovate and including Climentum Capital and Gain Venture Capital. More here.

Jarvie AI, a San Francisco startup founded this year that provides an AI assistant that users add to group chats to coordinate plans, organize trips, summarize discussions, and manage shared tasks, raised an $8.3 million seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Base10 Partners, and Lightspeed. The SaaS News has more here.

Kalipso, a one-year-old Barcelona startup that helps financial institutions track regulatory changes, map new rules to internal policies, identify compliance gaps, and implement controls and audit processes, raised a $3.2 million round led by Varsity, with Lanai, Plug and Play, Kima Ventures, and Vento also digging in. Tech Funding News has more here.

Tombot, an eight-year-old startup based in Santa Clarita, CA, that builds lifelike robotic companion dogs for seniors and patients with cognitive or mental health conditions who cannot safely care for real pets, raised a $7 million Series A3 round. Investors included Caduceus Capital Partners, Wavemaker 360, the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living, and Florida Community Health Network. More here.

Valence AI, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that analyzes speech from calls to classify emotional states and provide structured data that contact centers and voice AI developers use to guide interactions, raised a $5 million seed round led by Differential Ventures, with Difference Partners, Willowtree Ventures, Change Paradox Ventures, and SRI International also taking stakes. More here.

Wakeline, a one-year-old startup based in Düsseldorf, Germany, that builds AI systems that learn from live operational data after deployment to continuously update decisions without full retraining or redeployment, raised a $2.4 million pre-seed round led by TechVision Fonds, with Neoteq Ventures also participating. Vestbee has more here.

PwC. The next generation of tech companies is being built now. 

From AI-native startups to breakout growth companies, founders are scaling faster than ever in an increasingly complex market. Growth brings new expectations from investors, boards, and future stakeholders. Can your reporting, governance, and finance operations keep pace? PwC helps emerging companies build the capabilities needed to navigate growth with confidence and prepare for what comes next - from rapid expansion to public company readiness. Explore Emerging Company Solutions. 

Stratos Ventures, a newly formed Tel Aviv and Florida VC firm that backs early-stage Israeli defense, resilience, critical infrastructure, supply chain, and government cybersecurity startups, raised more than $50 million for its first fund. ynet Global has more here.

Bumble is reportedly exploring a sale after its market value fell to about $388 million, down from more than $7 billion at its 2021 IPO, as paying users decline and younger users show growing fatigue with dating apps. Reuters has more here.

OpenAI is reportedly leaning toward delaying its IPO until 2027 as advisers urge Sam Altman to move slowly after SpaceX’s volatile public-market debut. The New York Times has more here.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son told shareholders that calling AI a bubble is “blasphemy against AI,” arguing the technology is still in its earliest stages. Reuters has more here.

Parker Conrad says Rippling is moving beyond HR into the data stack with Rippling Data Cloud, a new product that combines employee, finance, sales, and AI usage data so companies can spot things like understaffed teams, wasteful software spending, and engineers burning tokens on low-quality code. TechCrunch has more here.

Om Malik, a veteran technology journalist and founder of the tech news site GigaOm as well as a partner at True Ventures, passed away today after a long battle with heart disease. Friends (including the two of us) knew Om as a sweet soul who always had a twinkle in his eye. He will be missed. More here, and here is a poignant piece he wrote 13 years ago after cheating death at an earlier age.

Meta is accelerating plans to replace human moderation with large language models, having already shifted about 50% of human review requests to AI this year and aiming to push that above 90% for some content types as it cuts costs and pours money into AI. The Financial Times has more here.

Polestar will stop selling model-year 2027 and newer EVs in the U.S. after the Commerce Department denied its request for authorization under a new rule banning connected-vehicle software from China, even though the Geely-owned automaker builds its Polestar 3 in South Carolina. TechCrunch has more here.

Scientists are using base editing – a more precise successor to CRISPR – to rewrite DNA in human embryos, advancing research into early human development and potential disease correction while reigniting concerns about “designer babies” and heritable genetic changes. The Washington Post has more here.

Americans in Europe are discovering that even a lifetime of Florida, Texas, or Las Vegas summers is poor preparation for a record-breaking heat wave in countries where air conditioning is scarce, ice is rationed, and fans mostly blow hot air.

“My new life with the Palantir chore coat.”

A newly completed Beverly Hills mansion has listed for $53 million, offering 19,100 square feet, six bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, two infinity pools, an eight-car garage, a glass wine room, a home theater, and a rooftop pickleball court.

Amble, a new EV startup with alumni from Apple, Audi, and Ford, just unveiled the One, a $25,000 street-legal electric buggy with a 40 mph top speed and a 62-mile range.

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