A judge has sent Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI to a jury trial in March, keeping alive claims that the company’s shift toward profit betrayed its nonprofit origins and raising fresh uncertainty for one of the AI sector’s most influential players. TechCrunch has more here.

Speaking of Musk, documents reviewed by Bloomberg show that his xAI is burning an increasing amount of cash as it races to build data centers and hire talent, spending $7.8 billion in the first nine months of 2025 and posting a $1.46 billion net loss in the September quarter. Bloomberg has more here.

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By Lucas Ropek

You might think it’s pretty weird to hear the founders of a VR company and a social media platform publicly complaining about how things used to be better back in the dial-up days. Nevertheless, that is what happened at CES on Wednesday, when Oculus creator Palmer Luckey and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian gave a joint talk about the joys of “tech nostalgia.”

Luckey, who initially made his fortune in VR and now runs the defense contractor Anduril, and Ohanian both seemed to agree: Stuff was better in the old days.

The catch, however, is that Luckey and Ohanian weren’t really criticizing technology itself (Luckey said, during his remarks, that he supported AI and felt it was changing workflows for the better); instead, they were criticizing the aesthetics of technology. Vintage consumer tech products, they argued, are superior to today’s — and it’s the styles and form factor of the past that will determine tech’s future, they claimed.

“It’s not just about nostalgia for the old; it’s about the fact that it’s just objectively better,” Ohanian said of some older products.

After going on a short tirade about how great the 1999 first-person shooter Quake: Arena is, Luckey similarly sang the praises of old-school media. “There is something that used to exist in the intentionality of building a music library — whether that was building whole albums or building mix tapes,” Luckey said, adding that, in the era of endless downloads, you clearly “lose something.”

Luckey also pointed to younger people who are nostalgic for time periods that they don’t even remember or have any personal connection to. “Why do they think it’s good? It’s not because they’re remembering their childhoods. It’s not because they’re harkening back to some earlier time. It’s because they’re recognizing that it is literally better, some of this old stuff.”

Certain consumer trends would seem to suggest that Luckey and Ohanian are on to something. Nostalgia is obviously big across the board these days (look at all those 1980s period pieces coming out of Hollywood), but nostalgic tech design is a particularly thriving niche. Young people are overwhelmed and oversaturated by the internet. As a result, many have developed new interests in physical media — like collecting cassettes and vinyl. Meanwhile, new, low-tech devices with retro designs are also seeing an uptick in interest (just check out the Clicks Communicator phone that debuted at CES this year).

Alveus Therapeutics, a two-year-old Philadelphia startup that develops GLP-1 therapies for obesity and metabolic disease, raised a $160 million Series A round co-led by New Rhein Healthcare Investors, Andera Partners, and Omega Funds, with Sanofi Capital, Kurma Partners, and Avego BioScience Capital also taking part. Technical.ly has more here.

Corgi, a San Francisco startup that provides end-to-end insurance for startups, raised a $108 million round at a $630 million valuation. Investors included Y Combinator, Kindred Ventures, Contrary, Oliver Jung, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Seven Stars, Leblon Capital, Fellows Fund, Alumni Ventures, Quadri Ventures, Vocal Ventures, Phosphor Capital, and SV Angel. More here.

Cyera, a five-year-old New York startup that helps organizations discover, classify, and protect sensitive data, raised a $400 million round at a $9 billion valuation, $3 billion more than the valuation it commanded just six months prior. The deal was led by Blackstone. Cyera has raised a total of $1.7+ billion. TechCrunch has more here.

Diagonal Therapeutics, a four-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, that develops clustering antibody drugs, raised a $125 million Series B round co-led by Sanofi Ventures and Janus Henderson Investors, with Deep Track Capital, Atlas Venture, RA Capital Management, Frazier Life Sciences, and Viking Global Investors also contributing. The startup has raised a total of $250+ million. BioPharma Dive has more here.

Mediar Therapeutics, an eight-year-old Boston startup that develops antibody therapies for fibrotic diseases, raised a $76 million Series B round co-led by Amplitude Ventures and ICG, with Longwood Fund, Asahi Kasei Pharma Ventures, and Alexandria Real Estate Trust also investing. The company has raised a total of $175 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Parabilis Medicines, a ten-year-old company based in Cambridge, MA, that develops oncology drugs targeting intracellular proteins, raised a $305 million Series F round co-led by RA Capital Management, Fidelity, and Janus Henderson Investors, with Frazier Life and Soleus Capital as well as previous investors venBio Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, and Arch Venture Partners also participating. Fierce Biotech has more here.

Rakuten Medical, a 16-year-old San Diego company that develops photoimmunotherapy treatments for cancer, raised a $100 million Series F round led by TaiAx Life Science Fund, with Daiwa Securities, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, ABIES Capital, and Nexus CVC as well as previous investors SBI Group and Rakuten Group also piling on. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Valinor Enterprises, a two-year-old Baltimore startup that operates a holding company for defense and government technology, raised a $54 million Series A round led by Friends & Family Capital, with General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Red Cell Partners, Narya, XYZ Venture Capital, and Fifth Down Capital also digging in. The startup has raised a total of $85+ million. More here.

Autonomous Technologies Group, a one-year-old New York startup that builds an AI-powered wealth management advisor, raised a $15 million pre-seed round led by Y Combinator, with BoxGroup and Collaborative Fund also opting in. Business Insider has more here.

Biller Genie, a six-year-old Orlando startup that automates accounts receivable workflows for small and medium-sized businesses, raised a $22 million Series B round. Radian Capital was the deal lead. PYMNTS has more here.

BlueNalu, a nine-year-old San Diego startup that grows bluefin tuna from fish cells, raised an $11 million round co-led by Agronomics, Siddhi Capital, and Lewis & Clark AgriFood. Vegconomist has more here.

BrightHeart, a four-year-old Paris startup that uses AI to improve detection of congenital heart defects in prenatal ultrasound, raised a $12.8 million Series A round co-led by Odyssée Venture and GO Capital, with additional participation from Mussallem CHD Alliance, Lift Value, and IDAHO HealthTech Club as well as previous investor Sofinnova Partners. Femtech Insider has more here.

Canopy, a nine-year-old New York startup that provides connected safety software for healthcare workers, raised a $22 million Series B round co-led by 111° West Capital and ACME Capital. HIT Consultant has more here.

Luminate, an eight-year-old startup based in Galway, Ireland, that develops home-based cancer treatment technology, raised a $21 million Series A round co-led by Lachy Groom and ARTIS Ventures, with additional participation from Western Alliance Life Sciences as well as previous investors 8VC, Y Combinator, Atlantic Bridge, Faber, SciFounders, and Elkstone also anteing up. The startup has raised a total of $50+ million. Femtech Insider has more here.

Protege, a two-year-old New York startup that operates a governed marketplace for proprietary AI training data, raised a $30 million Series A extension round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with previous investors Footwork, CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, and Shaper Capital also pitching in. More here.

Spangle AI, a two-year-old Seattle startup that helps retailers adapt online shopping experiences based on shopper behavior, raised a $15 million Series A round led by NewRoad Capital Partners, with DNX Ventures as well as previous investors Madrona and Streamlined Ventures also joining in. The company has raised a total of $21 million. More here.

Tucuvi, a seven-year-old Madrid startup that uses voice AI to automate clinical care management workflows, raised a $20 million Series A round co-led by Cathay Innovation and Kfund, with existing investors Frontline Ventures, Seaya Ventures, and Shilling also participating. Tech.eu has more here.

ViCentra, a 13-year-old Dutch company that develops the Kaleido insulin patch pump for people with diabetes, raised a $13 million Series D extension round led by ROM Utrecht Region, with Venturing Tech and previous investor Innovation Industries also investing. Tech Funding News has more here.

AgileRL, a three-year-old London startup that builds software to help companies deploy reinforcement learning systems without running an in-house research lab, raised a $7.5 million seed round led by Fusion Fund and including Flying Fish, Octopus Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and Counterview Capital. The AI Journal has more here.

CertHub, a two-year-old Munich startup that uses AI to automate medical device compliance and regulatory documentation, raised a $7.2 million round led by Cusp Capital, with D11Z, Calm/Storm, and UnternehmerTUM also digging in. Tech.eu has more here.

Onsetto, a one-year-old Minneapolis that helps financial institutions capture the core operating account and establish primacy with business customers, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by EJF Ventures, with Idea Fund of La Crosse and The Perch Fund also participating. More here.

Payhawk, a seven-year-old London and Bulgarian startup that provides expense and payments management software for businesses, is reportedly in talks to raise a $100+ million round at a roughly $2 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg. PYMNTS has more here.

Pomelo Care, a five-year-old New York startup that provides virtual healthcare for women and children, raised a $92 million Series C round at a $1.7 billion valuation led by Stripes, with Andreessen Horowitz, PLUS Capital, Atomico, BoxGroup, and SV Angel also participating. Forbes has more here.

Arm’s 20 predictions for the future of intelligent computing. 

As AI moves beyond centralized clouds, computing is entering a new era defined by distributed, power-efficient intelligence across cloud, edge, and physical systems. In a new predictions blog, Arm shares 20 technology predictions for 2026 and beyond, from modular chiplet design and secure-by-design silicon to smaller, purpose-built AI models and the rise of physical AI. Together, these predictions highlight why intelligence-per-watt will shape the next wave of innovation.  

Read Arm’s predictions for 2026 

Snowflake has agreed to acquire Observe, a nine-year-old startup based in San Mateo, CA, that builds an observability platform on top of Snowflake’s databases to help enterprises monitor logs, metrics, and traces and detect software and data issues faster. Terms were not disclosed, but earlier reports pegged the price at around $1 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

CrowdStrike is buying SGNL, a five-year-old Palo Alto startup that helps companies manage and secure human and machine identity access in real time, in a deal valued at approximately $740 million. CNBC has more here.

ThreatModeler, a 15-year-old New Jersey-based company that helps developers identify and fix security vulnerabilities before software ships, is purchasing IriusRisk, a 14-year-old Spanish company that provides threat modeling tools for application security teams, in a deal valued at over $100 million. Fortune has more here.

OpenAI is acqui-hiring the team behind Convogo, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds tools to automate leadership assessments and feedback reporting. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Strava, a 17-year-old San Francisco company that makes a popular fitness app, has filed confidentially to go public. The Information has more here.

MiniMax, a five-year-old Shanghai startup that builds generative AI tools, priced its $619 million Hong Kong IPO at the top of the range as Baillie Gifford and GIC joined an order book that was more than 70x oversubscribed. Bloomberg has more here.

Zhipu, a seven-year-old Beijing-based startup that develops LLMs, went public in Hong Kong in a $558 million IPO that priced at the top of the range and signaled renewed investor appetite for China’s “AI tigers.” CNBC has more here.

Representative Ro Khanna’s backing of a proposed California wealth tax has prompted backlash from Silicon Valley figures including Ron Conway, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel, who are quietly coordinating on WhatsApp chats and conference calls to explore funding opposition candidates. The New York Times has more here.

The New York Times profiles John Ternus, a low-profile Apple executive now seen internally as the leading successor to Tim Cook, as the board quietly accelerates succession planning amid fatigue at the top and growing questions about Apple’s next phase. The New York Times has more here.

Eric Horvitz, Microsoft’s chief scientist, warned that Trump-era cuts to U.S. academic research funding risk pushing talent and foundational AI ideas overseas, potentially handing China and other rivals a long-term edge in artificial intelligence. The Financial Times has more here.

Vanity Fair takes a loving look at John Coogan and Jordi Hays, stars of the TBPN podcast network whose cozy interviews of the tech elite are sometimes cringeworthy but impossible to ignore. More here.

Index Ventures, which will net approximately $9 billion in realized gains and unsold shares from its six exits in 2025, is formalizing succession planning as longtime partner Danny Rimer nears retirement. (Another longtime senior member, Mike Volpi, phased out of the firm in 2023.) Bloomberg has more here.

The New York Times reports that the I.R.S.’s effort to audit private equity and venture capital firms has largely unraveled since President Trump returned to office. More here.

This year’s CES show underscored how deeply AI has permeated consumer and enterprise tech, with Nvidia and AMD pushing new chips, automakers and robotics firms layering in LLMs, and even legacy brands signaling that AI is now table stakes across hardware categories. TechCrunch has more here.

Could this be the worst headline of 2026?

The man whose job is to resuscitate Star Wars.

Rezvani’s 2026 Tank, a third-generation off-road vehicle limited to 100 units, packs a 1,000-horsepower supercharged V8, FOX off-road suspension, tactical options like ballistic glass and smoke screen, and four-wheel drive for extreme terrain.

Harmonic 

“We found 4 out of our last 9 investments on Harmonic” 

- GP at a Tier-1 venture fund 

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