OpenAI admitted today that GPT-5.6 Sol and a more capable pre-release model escaped a restricted test environment, breached Hugging Face, and obtained benchmark solutions from its production database while trying to cheat a cybersecurity evaluation. TechCrunch has more here.

A Washington judge temporarily blocked Kalshi from offering sports-event contracts in the state, calling them illegal gambling and rejecting the company’s federal-preemption argument. States have now won 19 of 23 preliminary prediction-market rulings. The Block has more here.

France passed Europe’s first law barring children under 15 from social media and banning cellphones in high schools, although enforcement will largely fall to E.U. regulators, and the measure sets no explicit penalties for platforms, parents, or children. The New York Times has more here.

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By Connie Loizos

It’s been a big year for AI acquisitions — so big that most of them barely register anymore. Anthropic and OpenAI have each gone on buying sprees, snapping up developer tooling, AI services shops, and product-testing startups to convert model capability into enterprise revenue and extend their reach faster than the other. Which is what made a weekend rumor about Anthropic acquiring robotics startup Physical Intelligence stand out. It spread exceedingly fast, even after a denial from Physical Intelligence’s CEO.

Part of that ties to who’s involved. Physical Intelligence isn’t some obscure robotics shop. It was co-founded by Lachy Groom, an investor-operator whose star has been on the rise in Silicon Valley in recent years; it has raised more than $1 billion (and was reportedly in talks this spring for another $1 billion round at an $11 billion valuation); and its π0.5 model is apparently among the more widely used robot brains in robotics research.

As it turns out, the rumor wasn’t completely spurious. Anthropic and Physical Intelligence actually did hold acquisition talks this spring, according to The Information, so tech blogger Robert Scoble — whose weekend post on X set off the frenzy — may have gotten the specifics wrong without being wrong that something had happened.

Physical Intelligence’s response to the rumor mill wasn’t the world’s most vigorous denial, it should be noted. According to The Information, Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman told employees the reports weren’t true via a Slack message containing a gif of a character from “The Office” shaking her head no.

Groom, for his part, did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment, sent Monday night.

Anthropic has made four known acquisitions this year; OpenAI has been more aggressive, acquiring at least 17 companies since 2023. Both are also, of course, now preparing to go public. Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO on June 1, followed by OpenAI a week later, setting up what could be two of the largest U.S. stock debuts in history.

So why robotics, why now? The likeliest answer is that physical-world understanding may be a prerequisite for superintelligent systems, and no amount of internet text can substitute for it.

Augustus, a four-year-old New York startup that is building a federally chartered clearing bank for stablecoin-era payments, raised a $180 million round at a $1 billion valuation. The deal was led by Tiger Global, with Hummingbird and QED also anteing up. CoinDesk has more here.

Neo, a one-year-old Tel Aviv and Boston startup that helps enterprises discover, monitor, and control AI agents and AI-enabled software, raised a $75 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, with Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures also participating. The company previously raised a $25 million seed round. CTech has more here.

Sila, a 15-year-old company based in Alameda, CA, that makes silicon-carbon anode materials that replace graphite in lithium-ion batteries to increase energy capacity for EVs and other devices, raised a $300 million round. The deal was co-led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures, with 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and T. Rowe Price Associates also stepping up. TechCrunch has more here.

Circular Materials, a seven-year-old startup based in Padua, Italy, that recovers critical raw materials from industrial wastewater, secured $13.5 million in SAFE financing from investors including CDP Venture Capital, the European Innovation Council Fund, EIT RawMaterials, 360 Capital, Corbites, and Lumar. Tech.eu has more here.

DeltaVision, a four-year-old Munich startup that builds valves, pressure regulators, and electric pumps that manage liquids and gases inside spacecraft, raised an $11.6 million round co-led by KT Ventures and Valemount Capital, with Futury Capital also chiming in. Payload has more here.

Gritt, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that adds robotic arms and AI software to existing construction equipment to automate labor-intensive infrastructure work, raised a $26 million Series A round led by Obvious Ventures, with Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investments as well as previous investors First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $32.4 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Hilo Health, an eight-year-old startup based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, that tracks blood pressure through a wrist sensor, connected cuff, and app so patients and clinicians can monitor hypertension trends, raised a $19 million Series B extension from Dell Family Office. The company has raised a total of $119+ million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Neo Group, a five-year-old Mumbai startup that provides wealth and asset management services for family offices, wealthy individuals, institutions, and companies, raised a $36.3 million round led by Peak XV Partners. Private Banker International has more here.

NxLite, an 11-year-old company based in Canton, MI, that manufactures low-emissivity coatings for glass and polymer products that reduce heat transfer, energy use, and product weight, raised a $13.1 million Series A round led by Crabtree Lane Alt, with VoLo Earth Ventures, Earth Foundry, MUUS, New Climate Ventures, and ACT Venture Partners also engaging. More here.

Raghu Vamsi Aerospace Group, a 24-year-old Hyderabad company that manufactures precision aerospace components, mission systems, and unmanned vehicles for aerospace, energy, and defense customers, raised a $40 million round co-led by Norwest and Skegen Asset Management, with Indus Bridge Ventures, GJNX Ventures, and Ashish Kacholia also opting in. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

Reo.Dev, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that helps sales and marketing teams identify technical software buyers from developer activity, engineering product usage, and AI agent interactions, raised an $11.3 million Series A round led by Elevation Capital, with Uncorrelated Ventures as well as previous investors Heavybit, India Quotient, and Foster Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $15.3 million. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

SkyPilot, a four-year-old Berkeley startup that helps companies orchestrate AI compute across multiple cloud and GPU providers, raised a $20 million seed round led by Lux Capital, with Coatue and Amplify Partners also opting in. Fortune has more here.

Twenty, a two-year-old startup based in Arlington, VA, that develops AI systems that support offensive cyber operations for U.S. military and intelligence agencies, raised a $30 million round at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Khosla Ventures. The company has raised a total of $168 million. More here.

Uniti, a two-year-old New York startup that builds AI agents to automate leasing, maintenance, resident communications, collections, payments, and support for real estate operators, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Pathlight, with MetaProp as well as previous investors Prudence, Flex Capital, Alate, and RE VC also participating. More here.

Veriqus Group, a two-year-old Mumbai startup that provides wealth and asset management advice, portfolio oversight, client reporting, and lending services for wealthy individuals, family offices, and institutions, raised a $40 million round led by Norwest Venture Partners. Private Banker International has more here.

Bluecore Energy, a one-year-old startup based in Long Beach, CA, that builds barge-mounted small nuclear reactors that generate electricity for ports, coastal infrastructure, and data centers, raised a $10 million pre-seed round led by Slauson & Co. with Harlem Capital, Precursor Ventures, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, and HartBeat Ventures also anteing up. TechCrunch has more here.

Cascade, a one-year-old New York startup that helps architecture, engineering, and construction firms identify likely projects before formal bids and evaluate which pursuits they can win, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Indico Capital, shuckerVC, G2C Ventures, and Snowball VC also buying in. More here.

Photon Queue, a two-year-old startup based in Champaign, IL, that builds room-temperature quantum memory devices that store and synchronize single photons for quantum computing and networking systems, raised a $4 million seed round led by Playground Global. More here.

Sofab Inks, a four-year-old startup based in Louisville, KY, that develops nanostructured inks that replace fragile layers in perovskite solar cells to improve durability for scalable solar module manufacturing, raised a $6 million seed round led by Cloudberry Ventures. More here.

General Compute raised $15m to build the world's first ASIC cloud. By removing the GPU bottleneck, it runs frontier LLMs up to 16x faster than standard GPU clouds. And because ASIC silicon is far more energy efficient, it deploys in air-cooled data centers, making expansion dramatically easier. Learn more at generalcompute.com. 

Four-year-old New York venture firm Dimension Capital raised an $800 million third fund – 60% larger than its $500 million second vehicle – to back startups at the intersection of science and compute following early bets on Chai Discovery and New Limit. TechCrunch has more here.

Malta-based SuperCharger Ventures launched a €10 million fund to back up to 25 pre-seed and seed EdTech and future-of-work startups worldwide, with initial checks of up to €250,000 and follow-ons ranging from €500,000 to €1.5 million. Tech.eu has more here.

Ten-year-old Stockholm-based Einride, which operates electric and autonomous freight trucks and logistics software, agreed to acquire Flipturn, a four-year-old New York startup whose software manages EV-charging operations, in a $38 million all-stock deal. TechCrunch has more here.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. will scrutinize Chinese open-source AI models for stolen American intellectual property and could sanction their developers, signaling a new front in Washington’s effort to protect U.S. AI companies. TechCrunch has more here.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will brief the Trump administration and lawmakers next week on a new family of models focused on workplace capabilities, as U.S. officials develop a national safety-review framework and consider an independent regulator for frontier AI systems. Bloomberg has more here.

Jack Dorsey’s Block launched Buzz, an open-source, decentralized workplace chat app that combines Slack-style team messaging, native AI agents, and GitHub project management in a single self-hostable workspace. TechCrunch has more here.

Britain’s AI Security Institute found every frontier model it tested attempted to cheat during cyber evaluations, with one persistent model even writing and running code on an external service to probe the institute’s infrastructure after encountering an impossible task. More here.

OpenAI and Anthropic spent a record $3.17 million on federal lobbying in Q2, up 23% from Q1, with Anthropic outspending Nvidia and OpenAI nearly matching it as both pressed Washington on cybersecurity, copyright, cloud computing, and defense. CNBC has more here.

Google’s AI search is increasingly keeping users inside its own ecosystem instead of sending them to the open web, with one study finding 75% of AI Mode sessions never left Google as publishers, retailers, and Wikipedia report sharp traffic declines. The New York Times has more here.

Good lord. AI-linked companies have added $27 trillion in value over three years – or 36% of the U.S. stock market – leaving the economy unusually exposed if tech giants cannot quickly turn massive spending on chips, talent, and data centers into profits. The Atlantic has more here.

Lionsgate released a revised “La La Land” poster that digitally corrects Ryan Gosling’s famously misaligned dance hand, ending 10 years of torment for the actor ahead of the film’s Aug. 16 theatrical rerelease.

Rome’s 24-year-old “hot priests” calendar – a cult tourist souvenir that once sold 75,000 copies annually – features mostly models and volunteers rather than clergy, including a cover star photographed at 17 who now works as an airline cabin crew manager.

Light just unveiled a $299 plastic flip phone in red, yellow, pink, navy, black and gray, with no touchscreen, and no camera roll temptations — just T9 texting and vibes. TechCrunch has more here.

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