Top News

OpenAI just inked a $300 billion cloud deal with Oracle starting in 2027, a bet so big it sent Oracle’s stock soaring 43% and boosted Larry Ellison’s net worth by $100 billion, making him the world’s richest person. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

California's State Assembly tonight passed groundbreaking legislation to regulate AI companion chatbots and protect minors and vulnerable users, with SB 243 now heading to the state Senate for a final vote Friday. If it clears the Senate and Governor Newsom signs it, California would become the first state to require safety protocols and hold AI companies legally accountable for their chatbot standards. TechCrunch has the news here.

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Thinking Machines Lab Wants to Make AI Models More Consistent

By Maxwell Zeff

There’s been great interest in what Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab is building with its $2 billion in seed funding and the all-star team of former OpenAI researchers who have joined the lab. In a blog post published on Wednesday, Murati’s research lab gave the world its first look into one of its projects: creating AI models with reproducible responses.

The research blog post, titled “Defeating Nondeterminism in LLM Inference,” tries to unpack the root cause of what introduces randomness in AI model responses. For example, ask ChatGPT the same question a few times over, and you’re likely to get a wide range of answers. This has largely been accepted in the AI community as a fact — today’s AI models are considered to be non-deterministic systems— but Thinking Machines Lab sees this as a solvable problem.

The post, authored by Thinking Machines Lab researcher Horace He, argues that the root cause of AI models’ randomness is the way GPU kernels — the small programs that run inside of Nvidia’s computer chips — are stitched together in inference processing (everything that happens after you press enter in ChatGPT). He suggests that by carefully controlling this layer of orchestration, it’s possible to make AI models more deterministic.

Massive Fundings

Aven, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that offers home equity–backed credit cards and other asset-based consumer lending products, raised a $110 million Series E round at a $2.2 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Khosla Ventures, with previous investors General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, GIC, Electric Capital, and Founders Fund also taking part. More here.

CuspAI, a one-year-old startup based in Cambridge, England, that uses AI to accelerate the discovery and development of new materials, raised a $100 million Series A round co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Temasek, with investors including NVentures, Samsung Ventures, and Hyundai Motor Group. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Cutiss, an eight-year-old Zurich startup that develops personalized bio-engineered skin grafts and other tissue therapies, raised a $67.7 million Series C round from existing and unnamed investors. The company has raised a total of $156+ million. More here.

Harbor Health, a three-year-old Austin startup that offers integrated health insurance plans and clinical care services, raised a $130 million round co-led by General Catalyst, 8VC, and Alta Partners, with DFO Management, Health 2047 Capital Partners, Lemhi Ventures, Martin Ventures, and Breyer Capital also investing. More here.

Higgsfield, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI-powered video generation tools for social media and enterprise creators, raised a $50 million Series A round led by GFT Ventures, with BroadLight Capital, NextEquity Partners, AI Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Alpha Square Group also chipping in. More here.

Perplexity, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides AI-powered conversational search, raised a $200 million round at a $20 billion valuation, according to a report in The Information. The company has raised a total of $1.5 billion. TechCrunch has more here.

ProteanTecs, an eight-year-old Israeli startup that develops deep data analytics to monitor the health and performance of advanced electronics, raised a $51 million Series D round led by IAG Capital Partners, with Arm, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and Siemens as well as previous investors Addition, Zeev Ventures, Avigdor Willenz Group, MediaTek Innovation Fund, Intel Capital, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, and Koch Disruptive Technologies also piling on. The company has raised more than $250 million to date. More here.

PsiQuantum, a nine-year-old Palo Alto startup that is developing fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers, raised a $1 billion Series E round at a $7 billion valuation. BlackRock, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford were the co-leads, with NVentures (Nvidia), Macquarie Capital, Ribbit Capital, Adage Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, Type One Ventures, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), 1789 Capital, and S Ventures (SentinelOne) as well as previous investors Blackbird, Third Point Ventures, and T. Rowe Price also joining in. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Replit, a nine-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an online coding platform, raised a $250 million round at a $3 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Prysm Capital, with Amex Ventures, Google’s AI Futures Fund as well as previous investors Y Combinator, Craft, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, and Paul Graham also writing checks. The company has raised approximately $478 million to date. TechCrunch has more here.

Strive Health, a seven-year-old Denver startup that provides a value-based kidney care platform integrating AI and analytics to support patients from chronic kidney disease through dialysis and transplants, raised a $300 million Series D round led by New Enterprise Associates and including CVS Health Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, Redpoint, Town Hall Ventures, and CapitalG. It also secured $250 million in debt. Mobi Health News has more here.

Big-But-Not-Crazy-Big Fundings

Adaptive Security, a two-year-old New York startup that helps organizations defend against AI-powered scams like deepfake impersonations, phishing, and voice-cloning attacks, raised a $12 million Series A extension. OpenAI Startup Fund provided the funding. More here.

AegisAI, a startup based in San Francisco and New York that uses autonomous AI agents to stop phishing, malware, and business email compromise before messages hit inboxes, raised a $13 million seed round co-led by Accel and Foundation Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Brain Co., a one-year-old San Francisco startup co-founded by Jared Kushner and Elad Gil that helps corporations and governments apply AI to their operations, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Affinity Partners and Gil Capital, with additional investors including Brian Armstrong, Patrick Collison, Reid Hoffman, and Nikesh Arora. Forbes has more here.

Hush Security, a one-year-old Tel Aviv startup that provides a secretless, policy-based access platform for machine-to-machine security, raised an $11 million seed round. Battery Ventures and YL Ventures co-led the financing. CTech has more here.

Koi, a 10-month-old startup based in Washington, DC, that provides enterprises with centralized visibility and control over self-installed software like packages, containers, extensions, and AI models, raised a $38 million Series A round. Battery Ventures and Team8 were the co-leads. The company has raised a total of $48 million to date. CTech has more here.

LeydenJar, a nine-year-old Dutch startup that develops silicon anode technology to improve lithium-ion battery performance, raised a $15.2 million round co-led by Extantia and Invest-NL. TechCrunch has more here.

Proxima Fusion, a two-year-old Munich startup that develops stellarator-based fusion power technology, raised a $17.5 million Series A extension, bringing the round’s total to $234 million. Investors included Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Venture Capital, the European Innovation Council Fund, and Brevan Howard. Tech Funding News has more here.

Red Access, a four-year-old Tel Aviv-based startup that provides an agentless platform to simplify enterprise security across browsers, SaaS, and corporate applications, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with Ten Eleven Ventures, S Ventures (SentinelOne), Elron Ventures, and Singtel Innov8 Ventures also anteing up. CTech has more here.

Ridge Biotechnologies, a Palo Alto startup founded this year that develops AI-enabled enzyme and targeted drug design technologies for precision medicines, raised a $25 million seed round led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with Overlap Holdings also participating. More here.

Runware, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that provides developers with a unified API to access and run over 400,000 AI models for tasks like image and video generation, background removal, and upscaling, raised a $13 million seed round led by Insight Partners, with Andreessen Horowitz, Begin Capital, and Zero Prime also opting in. More here.

Standard Fleet, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides a fleet management platform combining telematics, digital key access, and payments across EVs, hybrids, and internal combustion vehicles, raised a $13 million Series A round. Nova Threshold was the deal lead, with WEX Venture Capital, SNR, and Garry Tan as well as previous investors Burst Capital, Canvas Ventures, Liquid2, Night Capital, Olive Capital, and UP2398 also pushing in. More here.

Teton.ai, a five-year-old Copenhagen startup that uses AI and computer vision to provide predictive care for elderly patients in senior care communities and hospitals, raised a $20 million Series A round led by Plural, with Bertelsmann Investments, Antler Elevate, Nebular, and previous investor PSV Tech also investing. Reuters has more here.

Smaller Fundings

Aurva, a two-year-old startup based in Sunnyvale, CA, that provides a platform for access monitoring and AI observability, raised a $2.2 million seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners, with additional participation from DeVC. More here.

Candid Intelligence, a San Francisco startup founded this year that uses AI to shorten the pre-construction planning phase for large infrastructure projects, raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Quiet Capital, with E14 Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Flexcap Ventures, and Yann LeCun also contributing. More here.

Dig Energy, a five-year-old startup based in Manchester, NH, that has developed a compact water-jet drilling rig to cut the cost of shallow geothermal heating and cooling, raised a $5 million seed round co-led by Azolla Ventures and Avila VC, with Baukunst, Conifer Infrastructure Partners, Koa Labs, Mercator Partners, and Suffolk Technologies also pitching in. TechCrunch has more here.

Marloo, a one-year-old startup based in London and Auckland that builds AI-powered tools to automate note-taking, document creation, and client communication for financial advisers, raised a $2.7 million pre-seed round led by Blackbird Ventures. Tech Funding News has more here.

Mazlo, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that builds compliance-driven financial management tools for nonprofits, raised a $3.5 million seed round from investors including Westbound Equity Partners, Super{set}, and Social Good Fund. The company has raised a total of $4.6 million to date. Crunchbase News has more here.

Metal, a two-year-old New York startup that uses AI to help private equity firms analyze investment opportunities, raised a $5 million round led by Base10 Partners. The company has raised a total of $7.5 million to date. VentureBeat has more here.

Pathwork, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to streamline life and health insurance distribution, raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Costanoa, with Logos Fund, American Family Ventures, and Meridian Ventures also joining in. More here.

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New Funds

CoreWeave shares jumped 9% after the GPU cloud company launched CoreWeave Ventures, a balance-sheet–backed fund that will bankroll AI startups with both cash and scarce compute, a move that doubles as customer acquisition in a market where infrastructure is starting to look interchangeable. TechinAsia has more here.

Exits

Bending Spoons is buying Vimeo in a $1.38 billion all-cash deal that will take the struggling video platform private, paying a 91% premium and marking the Italian app maker’s biggest swing yet after a $2.6 billion valuation round last year. Bloomberg has more here.

Going Public

Klarna popped 14.6% in its NYSE debut, giving the Swedish BNPL giant a $17 billion market cap, well below its pandemic-era $45.6 billion peak but still a comeback story after its 2022 down round. TechCrunch has more here.

People

Sen. Ted Cruz rolled out a bill to give AI firms two-year “sandbox” exemptions from federal rules, a move meant to juice U.S. competitiveness with China but already drawing fire from consumer advocates who warn it could turn Americans into test subjects. Reuters has more here.

Post-Its

Essential Reads

Reddit, Yahoo, Quora, Medium, and others just signed onto a new “Really Simple Licensing” standard that slaps terms and fees onto web scraping for AI training, a collective push to make model builders pay up rather than cut one-off side deals. The Verge has more here.

The Wall Street Journal details how Meta’s splashy AI hiring binge has sparked infighting, with sky-high salaries for new recruits fueling resentment, defections, and counteroffers. More here.

San Francisco regulators have opened a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices, zeroing in on how the $14 billion Meta-backed startup classifies and treats the thousands of contractors it relies on to train AI models. Business Insider has more here.

Detours

Carmakers from Mercedes and Dodge to Ferrari and BMW are pumping artificial roars, growls, and even Hans Zimmer soundtracks into their EVs as they scramble to preserve the visceral appeal of gas-powered sports cars.

The strange world of competitive massage.

Brain Rot

foodporn

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