From the nothing-surprises-us-anymore files: Elon Musk is weighing early-stage merger scenarios that could combine SpaceX, xAI, and possibly Tesla ahead of a potential SpaceX IPO, a move that would consolidate rockets, satellites, AI, and social data under one corporate roof. TechCrunch has more here.

Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, a move that could make it the largest backer in a round valuing the company as high as $830 billion. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

A Waymo robotaxi struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school during drop-off hours, prompting investigations by federal safety regulators and adding scrutiny as the company faces broader probes into robotaxi behavior around school zones. TechCrunch has more here.

Music publishers led by Universal Music Group and Concord Music Group are suing Anthropic for more than $3 billion, alleging the company illegally downloaded over 20,000 copyrighted works and reviving piracy claims that survived earlier rulings allowing model training but not illicit acquisition. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Marina Temkin

Ethos Technologies, a San Francisco-based provider of software for selling life insurance, debuted on the Nasdaq on Thursday. As one of the year’s first major tech IPOs, the insurtech platform is being closely watched as a bellwether for the 2026 listing cycle.

The company and its selling shareholders raised approximately $200 million in the offering, selling 10.5 million shares at $19 each under the ticker symbol “LIFE” — one of the more on-the-nose choices in recent memory. The name fits. Ethos runs a three-sided platform where consumers buy policies online in 10 minutes without medical exams. It says over 10,000 independent agents use its software to sell those policies and that carriers like Legal & General America and John Hancock rely on it for underwriting and administrative services. Ethos itself isn’t an insurer — it’s a licensed agency earning commissions on sales.

Though the company’s stock closed its first day as a public company at $16.85, 11% below its IPO price of $19, Ethos co-founders Peter Colis and Lingke Wang still have plenty to celebrate, having grown the 10-year-old business to public-market scale.

“When we launched [the business], there were like eight or nine other life insurtech startups that looked very similar to Ethos, with similar Series A funding,” Colis told TechCrunch. “Over time, the vast majority of those startups have pivoted, been acquired at subscale, remain at subscale or gone out of business.”

For instance, Policygenius, which raised over $250 million from investors, including KKR and Norwest Venture Partners, was acquired by PE-backed Zinnia in 2023. Meanwhile, Health IQ, a startup that secured more than $200 million from prominent VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, filed for bankruptcy that same year.

Ethos, which has raised over $400 million in venture capital, could have easily succumbed to a similar fate. Instead, the company remained laser-focused on reaching profitability as the era of cheap capital and easy fundraising came to an end in 2022. “Not knowing what the ongoing funding climate would be, we got really serious about ensuring profitability,” Colis said.

Eliyan, a five-year-old startup based in Santa Clara, CA that makes interconnect technology for AI and computing chips built from multiple interconnected components, raised a $50 million round. Investors included Samsung Catalyst Fund, Intel Capital, AMD, Arm, Coherent, and Meta. More here.

Indigo, a three-year-old Miami startup that provides medical malpractice insurance for physicians using automated underwriting, raised a $50 million Series B round led by Rubicon Founders, with Town Hall Ventures and previous investor Optum Ventures also participating. More here.

RobCo, a six-year-old Munich startup that makes robots for use in manufacturing, raised a $100 million Series B round at a $500+ million post-money valuation. The deal was co-led by Lingotto Investment Management and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Sequoia Capital, Kindred Capital, and the Friedkin Group also opting in. The company has raised a total of $160 million. Bloomberg has more here.

Mesh Security, a four-year-old Palo Alto and Tel Aviv startup that unifies fragmented enterprise cybersecurity tools across cloud, SaaS, and network environments, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Lobby Capital, with S Ventures and Bright Pixel Capital also investing. CTech has more here.

Northslope, a Denver startup that develops customized AI applications for organizations running on Palantir’s software stack, raised a $22 million Series A round co-led by Friends and Family Capital and Goldcrest Capital, with Fifth Down Capital and Leblon Capital also contributing. More here.

Recare, a nine-year-old Berlin startup that uses AI to automate and coordinate hospital discharge and care workflows, raised a $44.3 million round led by DNV, with CIBC Innovation Banking also taking part. Tech Funding News has more here.

Talos, an eight-year-old New York startup that provides institutional crypto trading infrastructure, raised a $45 million Series B extension at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. Investors included Robinhood Markets, Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP, and Karatage as well as previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, BNY, and Fidelity Investments. CoinDesk has more here.

XFuel, a 16-year-old Dublin company that converts waste hydrocarbon liquids into low-carbon drop-in fuels for shipping and other transport sectors, raised a $20 million Series A round. Investors included Wagner Carbon, Audacy, Future Planet Capital, Light Ray Ventures, Overlap Holdings, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, and Stolt Ventures. Biofuels International has more here.

Bleap, a two-year-old London startup that offers a self-custodial onchain finance app for spending, saving, and moving money using stablecoins, raised a $6 million seed round led by Blossom Capital, with previous investor Ethereal Ventures also digging in. More here.

Carbonaide, a four-year-old Finnish startup that uses carbon dioxide to cure concrete and permanently store CO₂ while reducing cement use, raised a $4.4 million round co-led by previous investors Vantaan Energia, Redstone, and Ihantola Invest, with Zero Carbon Future Group, Helkama Kiinteistöt, and Ikorni Invest also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $6.6 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Dealroom, a 13-year-old Amsterdam company that tracks startups, investors, and technology ecosystems, raised a $7 million round led by Indico Capital Partners, with Rabobank as well as previous investors Beringea, Shoe Investments, and Knight Capital also engaging. EU-Startups has more here.

DexMat, an 11-year-old Houston company that makes lightweight carbon-based conductive materials designed to replace copper in wires and cables, raised a $5+ million seed round led by Non Sibi Ventures, with Governance Partners, Tailwind Futures, BetterWay, and Capital Factory also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $10 million. More here.

Emobi, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that develops a cloud-based plug-and-charge system that lets electric vehicles authenticate and pay for charging without apps, cards, or added hardware, raised a $3.4 million seed round led by Florida Funders, with Collaborative Fund and Goodwater Capital as well as previous investors Aves Ventures, Gaingels, Gener8tor, Oasis Capital, OneSixOne Ventures, Ride Wave Ventures, and Y Combinator also investing. More here.

Levellr, a five-year-old London startup that uses AI to extract insights from Discord communities for game studios and brands, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Mark Pincus and Bing Gordon. GamesBeat has more here.

MITO AI, a Madrid and San Francisco startup that is building collaborative AI tools for video creation, raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Kibo, Kfund, LifeX, and Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz scouts also participating. More here.

Oro, a two-year-old Los Angeles startup that helps employers offer homeownership and housing support as an employee benefit, raised a $3 million seed round led by Slauson & Co. and including Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures and Bronze Valley also participating. More here.

Twogee Biotech, a two-year-old Munich startup that develops enzyme systems to convert residual biomass into low-carbon chemical building blocks, raised a $2.6 million seed round co-led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital, with AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance and Heinz Entsorgung also participating. Tech Funding News has more here.

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Yosemite, a three-year-old San Francisco VC firm founded by Reed Jobs that focuses on backing oncology startups, has raised $200+ million of a planned $350 million second fund. Forbes has more here.

Apple is acquiring Q.ai, a four-year-old startup based in Ramat Gan, Israel, that develops machine learning systems for whispered speech and advanced audio processing for wearables, marking Apple’s biggest AI deal since Beats. Terms were not disclosed. CTech has more here.

New York startup Sword Health, which offers digital musculoskeletal care, acquired German startup Kaia Health, which provides digital MSK and pulmonary programs, for $285 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

OpenAI is reportedly prepping for a fourth-quarter IPO as it races to beat Anthropic to the public markets. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Apple posted $143.8 billion in quarterly revenue, up 16% year over year, but when pressed by Morgan Stanley on its earnings call, CEO Tim Cook offered no clear plan for monetizing AI beyond vague promises of future value. TechCrunch has more here.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has emerged as Wall Street’s chief crypto antagonist, publicly clashing with JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and other bank leaders over stablecoin rewards and the Clarity Act as lawmakers weigh rules that could reshape deposits, payments, and crypto’s role in mainstream finance. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Dow is leaning on AI and automation to reshape its operations, cutting 4,500 jobs and absorbing $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion in one-time charges as part of a plan it says will lift productivity and add $2 billion in operating Ebitda. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy founded in 2015 by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan, is laying off about 70 employees as it narrows its focus to AI-driven biomedical research through its Biohub science institutes. The San Francisco Chronicle has more here.

Security experts are warning that the viral agentic AI assistant Moltbot (née Clawdbot) exposes users to serious credential, supply-chain, and malware risks by requiring broad system access and relying on fragile configurations few non-experts can secure properly. The Register has more here.

The Pentagon and Anthropic are reportedly at an impasse under a contract worth up to $200 million, with U.S. defense officials pushing to override the startup’s AI use restrictions for autonomous weapons and surveillance. Reuters has more here.

Amazon is spending about $35 million to market Melania after paying $40 million for the rights, an unusually aggressive push for a documentary that has prompted Hollywood insiders to question whether the company is trying to curry favor with President Trump. The New York Times has more here.

After debuting at No. 1 on the App Store, OpenAI’s Sora video app has seen downloads fall 32% month over month in December and 45% in January to 1.2 million, while consumer spending dropped 32% to $367,000 as hype faded and competition intensified. TechCrunch has more here.

After TikTok was accused of suppressing anti-ICE content, users responded by fleeing to UpScrolled. The upstart social app shot to No. 1 on the U.S. App Store, gaining over 850,000 users in days and topping 1 million total, as TikTok tumbled to No. 27. Forbes has more here.

Apple’s new call screening feature can turn even the lowliest PA into Ari Emanuel.

Is your winter scarf making you look old?

Los Angeles’s renowned Bel Air megamansion La Fin has returned to the market at $99.95 million, down from its original $139 million ask, underscoring how even trophy homes with 105,000 square feet are feeling the heat.

Joanna Stern’s review today confirms what others have been saying: the Xiaomi SU7 Max is the hottest EV under the sun.

A pickleball paddle designed by Tesla.

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