Top News

Just days after calling for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s resignation over alleged China ties, President Trump reversed course, praising Tan’s “amazing” rise after a White House meeting amid the administration’s increasingly transactional approach to the chip war. CNBC has more here.

According to trade experts who spoke to Bloomberg, President Trump's new deal requiring Nvidia and AMD to pay 15% of their China chip sales to the U.S. government risks ushering in a “dangerous world” that turns national security into a pay-to-play operation. More here.

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Ford Throws Out Henry Ford’s Assembly Line to Make Low-Cost EVs in America

By Kirsten Korosec

Ford said Monday it will invest $2 billion to transform its Louisville Assembly Plant into a factory capable of making a new generation of affordable EVs, starting with a mid-sized pickup truck with a base price of $30,000 that is slated to launch in 2027.

This is not a standard factory upgrade. To reduce the cost of manufacturing, Ford has upended the moving assembly line system launched by its founder Henry Ford more than 112 years ago.

The automaker’s willingness to change the century-old system that made Ford a household name reflects the high-stakes juggling act of selling a line of affordable electric vehicles that could be made in the United States faster, more efficiently, and with fewer parts, all while preserving profit margins. And as Ford’s chief EV, digital, and design officer Doug Field noted Monday, it’s not just about driving down individual costs, but a change that will allow the automaker to compete with China.

Ford CEO Jim Farley described the new production system, line of EVs, and $2 billion investment as a bet. “There are no guarantees with this project,” he said during an event livestreamed from the Kentucky plant. “We’re doing so many new things I can’t tell you with 100% uncertainty that this will all go just right, it is a bet. There is risk.”

It’s a bet Farley believes is worth making. The company’s EV division posted a loss of around $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025 and sales of its top two EVs, the F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach-E, are falling.

And it’s a bet that began several years ago with a skunkworks team of about 500 people in California — led by former Tesla executive Alan Clarke and filled with talent from companies like Tesla, Rivian, Apple, and Lucid Motors.

Massive Fundings

BinSentry, a nine-year-old Canadian startup that uses AI-powered, solar-powered sensors and software to monitor animal feed levels, raised a $50 million Series C round led by Lead Edge Capital. More here.

EliseAI, a nine-year-old New York startup that provides AI-powered, centralized workflow tools for housing and healthcare providers, raised approximately $200 million at a $2+ billion valuation, according to The Information. Andreessen Horowitz was the deal lead. The Information has more here.

Truemeds, a seven-year-old Mumbai startup that provides recommendations for lower-cost generic substitutes for branded medicines primarily to consumers in tier-2 and smaller cities, raised a $65 million round led by Accel, with Peak XV Partners and previous investors WestBridge Capital and InfoEdge Ventures also taking part. The company also sold $20 million in secondary shares. TechCrunch has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Novig, a four-year-old New York startup that operates a commission-free, peer-to-peer sports prediction market where users trade directly with each other on game outcomes, raised an $18 million Series A round led by Forerunner Ventures, with Y Combinator, NFX, Perceptive Ventures, and Gaingels also investing. Sports Business Journal has more here.

Tahoe Therapeutics, a four-year-old South San Francisco startup that develops large-scale single-cell datasets to train AI models of human cells for drug discovery, raised a $30 million round led by Amplify Partners, with Databricks Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, General Catalyst, Civilization Ventures, Conviction, Mubadala Capital Ventures, and AIX Ventures also piling on. More here.

Ultraviolette, a nine-year-old, Bengaluru-based electric motorcycle startup, has raised $21 million in funding led by the corporate venture arm of Japanese electronics giant TDK Corporation, with participation from earlier backers Zoho Corporation and Lingotto (previously Exor Capital). Altogether, the outfit has now raised roughly $75 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Chowdeck, a four-year-old Lagos startup that runs a food and grocery delivery service in Nigeria and Ghana that connects customers to local restaurants and stores to facilitate on-demand orders, raised a $9 million Series A round led by Novastar Ventures, with additional participation from Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, and HoaQ. TechCrunch has more here.

Edumentors, a four-year-old London startup that connects schoolchildren with top university student-tutors and is developing a human-like AI tutor to deliver personalized, interactive lessons, raised a $2 million seed round. Magna Investment was the deal lead. UKTN has more here.

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New Funds

Team8 Capital, a 5-year-old Tel Aviv VC firm that backs startups in cyber, data, fintech, and digital health, is reportedly close to closing its third fund in the amount of $250 million to $300 million. TechinAsia has more here.

Going Public

Bullish, a 4-year-old Gibraltar startup backed by Peter Thiel that operates a crypto exchange and owns CoinDesk, has upsized its IPO to $990 million at a potential $4.8 billion valuation, with BlackRock and Ark Invest committing $200 million. CoinDesk has more here.

StubHub, a 25-year-old San Francisco company that runs an online ticket marketplace, has revived its IPO plans after a tariff-induced pause and is aiming for a September debut following Q1 revenue of $397.6 million. It had previously targeted $16.5 billion valuation. CNBC has more here.

People

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke is stepping down at year’s end, and Microsoft is folding the dev hub deeper into its CoreAI group under Jay Parikh, scrapping the CEO role entirely and tightening its grip on the once semi-independent unit. The Verge has more here.

Ho hum. Elon Musk has threatened “immediate” legal action against Apple, accusing it of rigging App Store rankings to favor OpenAI’s ChatGPT over his Grok chatbot. CNBC has more here.

Jake Perlman-Garr, former global head of corporate development at Riot Games, has joined three-year-old bi-coastal investment firm Alignment Growth as managing director to lead its video game bets from Los Angeles. More here.

Jobs

Scribble Ventures, a San Francisco seed fund led by former operators from OpenAI, Meta, Twitter, Instagram, and Andreessen Horowitz, is hiring a senior associate to source early-stage AI startups, conduct technical diligence, and support portfolio founders. More here.

Post-Its

After Grok’s account on X was briefly suspended today, it returned with an NSFW post and a grab bag of conflicting, AI-generated explanations for the takedown. Business Insider has more here.

Essential Reads

After a botched GPT-5 rollout triggered mass cancellations and online protests, OpenAI caved to user pressure, restoring older models like 4o, boosting usage limits, and pledging more transparency to keep its most loyal subscribers from walking. Gizmodo has more here.

The AI boom has spawned 498 unicorns worth a combined $2.7 trillion (100 of them founded since 2023), minting at least 15 new billionaires from companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Anysphere. CNBC has more here.

Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 6 beta drew 104,000 player reports of suspected cheating and blocked 330,000 hack attempts in the first 48 hours after its release this weekend, underscoring both the scale of the problem and the limits of even kernel-level anti-cheat technology. TechCrunch has more here.

Detours

Street-legal golf carts are rolling into suburbia, delighting fans who love using them for joyrides and errands but sparking pushback from drivers and towns fed up with clogged roads, teen speedsters, and safety concerns.

Bubble art at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Retail Therapy

A British startup is now taking orders for a $3.3 million handbuilt hypercar that offers an aspirated V12 and a manual gearbox, aiming to entice purists fed up with overengineered supercars.

Wagyu hot dogs, voted the world’s best hot dog in Food & Wine Magazine.

Anchovy ice cream.

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