Well, Golden State almost caught the Jazz tonight … 🏀

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund is closing in on $6 billion for its fourth growth fund — and turning investors away. The fund, called Founders Fund Growth IV, is reportedly oversubscribed, with about $1.5 billion of the capital coming from the firm's own partners. It arrives less than a year after the firm closed a $4.6 billion growth fund, its third. TechCrunch has the scoop here.

Anthropic sued the Pentagon today to overturn its decision to label the startup a “supply chain risk,” a designation that could threaten more than $200 million in contracts with the Defense Department and its contractors. TechCrunch has more here.

Nasdaq said it is partnering with crypto exchange Kraken to develop tokenized versions of publicly traded stocks and exchange traded products, with plans to enable 24-hour trading and automate corporate actions such as proxy voting and dividend payments. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The Justice Department reached a tentative settlement with Live Nation and Ticketmaster that would require a $280 million payment, divestiture of at least 13 amphitheaters, and a cap of 15% on ticketing service fees, though more than two dozen states say they will continue the antitrust trial. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Connie Loizos

While Washington’s breakup with Anthropic exposed the complete lack of any coherent rules governing artificial intelligence, a bipartisan coalition of thinkers has assembled something the government has so far declined to produce: a framework for what responsible AI development should actually look like.

The Pro-Human AI Declaration was finalized before last week’s Pentagon-Anthropic standoff, but the collision of the two events wasn’t lost on anyone involved.

“There’s something quite remarkable that has happened in America just in the last four months,” said Max Tegmark, the MIT physicist and AI researcher who helped organize the effort, in conversation with this editor. “Polling suddenly [is showing] that 95% of all Americans oppose an unregulated race to superintelligence.”

The newly published document, signed by hundreds of experts, former officials, and public figures, opens with the no-nonsense observation that humanity is at a fork in the road. One path, which the declaration calls “the race to replace,” leads to humans being supplanted first as workers, then as decision-makers, as power accrues to unaccountable institutions and their machines. The other leads to AI that massively expands human potential.

The latter scenario depends on five key pillars: keeping humans in charge, avoiding the concentration of power, protecting the human experience, preserving individual liberty, and holding AI companies legally accountable. Among its more muscular provisions is an outright prohibition on superintelligence development until there’s scientific consensus it can be done safely and with genuine democratic buy-in; mandatory off-switches on powerful systems; and a ban on architectures that are capable of self-replication, autonomous self-improvement, or resistance to shutdown.

Isembard, a two-year-old London startup that provides AI systems that manage scheduling, supply chains, manufacturing, and delivery in factories that produce high-precision components, raised a $50 million round led by Union Square Ventures, with Tamarack Global and IQ Capital as well as previous investors Notion Capital and CIV also joining in. Tech Funding News has more here.

KAST, a two-year-old Singapore startup that provides a platform for cross-border payments using stablecoins, raised an $80 million Series A round at a $600 million post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, with Peak XV Partners, HSG, and DST Global Partners also participating. CoinDesk has more here.

ModRetro, a startup founded by Palmer Luckey that makes retro gaming hardware and publishes cartridge games for its platform, is seeking funding at a $1 billion valuation, according to a report in the Financial Times. TechCrunch has more here.

Nscale, a two-year-old London startup that builds and operates data centers that provide computing infrastructure for AI systems, raised a $2 billion Series B round at a $14.6 billion post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Aker ASA and 8090 Industries, with Astra Capital Management, Citadel, Dell, Jane Street, Lenovo, Linden Advisors, Nokia, Nvidia, and Point72 also engaging. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Augur, a 12-year-old San Diego company that analyzes data from existing cameras and sensors to detect unusual behavior and create timelines of security incidents, raised a $15 million round led by Plural, with First Kind, SNR, Flix, and Tiny VC also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

Axiom Trust, a one-year-old Las Vegas startup that uses AI to process trust documents and support trust administration, monitoring, and reporting for families and beneficiaries, raised an $11.8 million pre-seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Wischoff Ventures, Runa Capital, SNR, and Primetime Partners also taking part. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Axiomatic AI, a two-year-old startup based in Cambridge, MA, whose AI platform helps engineering and science teams design, verify, and deploy complex hardware systems, raised an $18 million seed round led by Engine Ventures, with Kleiner Perkins, Big Sur Ventures, Global Vision Capital, Propagator Ventures, and Liquid 2 also piling on. The company has raised a total of $25 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Levitate, a nine-year-old startup based in Raleigh, NC, whose AI platform helps relationship-based businesses automate client outreach, marketing communications, and engagement, raised a $16 million round led by Harbert Growth Partners, with Bull City Venture Partners and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures also anteing up. The company has raised a total of $71 million. More here.

Mega, a two-year-old startup based in Brooklyn, NY, that employs AI agents to automate SEO content creation, ad creative development, and website design for SMBs, raised an $11.5 million Series A round led by Goodwater Capital, with Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides, SignalFire, and Kearny Jackson also digging in. AdExchanger has more here.

Coral, a three-year-old Brooklyn startup that provides in-home pediatric therapy services for children through a network of licensed therapists, raised a $7.5 million round led by ResilienceVC, with Twelve Below, Floating Point, Accion Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Remarkable Ventures, New Climate Ventures, and Watsco Ventures also pitching in. Modern Healthcare has more here.

Mirai Robotics, a one-year-old startup based in Bari, Italy, that aims to provide autonomous vehicles and robotics systems for surveillance, monitoring, and patrol operations in maritime environments, raised a $4.2 million pre-seed round co-led by Primo Ventures, Techshop, and 40Jemz Ventures. EU-Startups has more here.

Voomi Supply, a seven-year-old startup based in Latrobe, PA, that operates a B2B e-commerce marketplace that lets contractors and businesses purchase HVAC and industrial parts from multiple suppliers in one platform, raised a $10 million Series A round. Asymmetric Capital Partners led the investment, with additional support from Highmount Capital as well as previous investor Operator Partners. More here.

Fidelity 

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Time4, a one-year-old France-based VC alliance that backs early-stage founders from underrepresented and rural regions, has completed a €50 million first close of its debut fund, which is targeting a €100 million raise. Tech Funding News has more here.

OpenAI acquired Promptfoo, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that builds tools to test large language models for security vulnerabilities and adversarial attacks, to strengthen protections for its AI agents. Terms were not disclosed. TechCrunch has more here.

Victory Giant Technology, a 20-year-old Chinese company based in Huizhou that manufactures printed circuit boards used in electronics and AI servers, is preparing a Hong Kong listing that could raise more than $2 billion as soon as April, according to people familiar with the matter. The company already trades in Shenzhen and received approval from China’s securities regulator last week to proceed with the overseas offering, though the timing and size of the deal could still change. Bloomberg has more here.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down after leading the decentralized social network since its 2021 spinout from Twitter, with True Ventures partner and former Automattic CEO Toni Schneider stepping in as interim chief while the board searches for a permanent replacement. TechCrunch has more here.

The New York Times profiles Josh Payne, a former coal miner turned entrepreneur who founded London-based Nscale in 2024 and just raised $2 billion at a $14.6 billion valuation to build AI data centers for customers including Microsoft, OpenAI, and ByteDance. (See Massive Fundings above.) More here.

SoftBank’s $30 billion investment in OpenAI is weighing on the Japanese conglomerate as its shares have fallen nearly 50% in four months, including a 9.8% drop today. The Financial Times has more here.

A new NBC News poll finds Americans remain deeply skeptical of artificial intelligence, with just 26% viewing the technology positively and 46% negatively despite more than half saying they use AI tools. Fortune has more here.

Pet owners are spending lavishly on grooming and wellness treatments for their dogs, with some paying up to $1,000 for a single grooming session and more than $14,000 a year on trims, specialty work, and elaborate diets.

The best Oscar best-picture winners of all-time.

Automotive designer Ian Callum teamed up with coachbuilder Wood & Pickett to create a hand-built restomod of the classic Mini featuring a rebuilt 1310cc engine, upgraded suspension and brakes, custom 13-inch wheels, and a redesigned interior with houndstooth seats and metal trim.

UK Quantum – Accelerating healthcare prevention 

The UK’s National Health Service is already placing quantum at the centre of its preventative healthcare strategy. By 2030, the UK aspires to use quantum sensing to improve early diagnosis and treatment, from cancer screening to enhanced MRI scanning. Quantum sensors can detect extremely faint biological signals such as trace biomarkers or subtle neural activity that conventional devices overlook, enabling earlier and more reliable diagnoses. As the tech becomes smaller, more robust and affordable, point-of-care testing outside specialist facilities becomes realistic. 

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