OpenAI is reportedly preparing to confidentially file a draft of its IPO prospectus as soon as tomorrow (Friday). CNBC has more here.

Speaking of OpenAI, the company generated roughly $5.7 billion in first-quarter revenue, about $1 billion more than Anthropic. However, Anthropic has since appeared to pull ahead, with annualized revenue nearing $45 billion versus approximately $30 billion for OpenAI. OpenAI also remains deeply unprofitable, while Anthropic could generate an operating profit in Q2. The Information has the scoop here.

The Trump administration said it will award $2 billion to nine quantum-computing companies, including IBM, D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and PsiQuantum, in deals that also give the U.S. government equity stakes as Washington races to accelerate domestic quantum-computing development. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

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By Julie Bort

While there are some shocking revelations in SpaceX’s S-1 as it gets ready to become a public company, Elon Musk’s total control of the company perhaps isn’t one of them.

I could argue that the oddball provision where Elon Musk gets up to a billion more shares to add to his already oversized, company-controlling cache once a million people are living on Mars (yes, really), is perhaps the most jaw-dropping. It is also fairly unserious. Musk controls and can vote those shares now, by the way.

But even a billion extra super-voting rights shares are immaterial in this company’s setup because Musk is, by miles, the largest shareholder in the company.

He owns just under 850 million Class A shares, entitled to 1 vote per share, and another nearly 5.6 billion Class B shares, entitled to 10 votes per share. That includes the billion shares contingent on a million people living in a SpaceX company-town colony on Mars.

Sci-fi conditions aside, there are a handful of people who stand to benefit most should the SpaceX IPO be a success and the stock continue to do well in the future: the 5% shareholders. These are the people who hold at least 5% of the company.

While the company has not yet said how many shares it will sell or at what price, the whisper number on the street is that this IPO will raise a whopping $75 billion, with a post-money valuation of $1.7 trillion. At those numbers, even a 1% stake is worth $17 billion.

Hark, a one-year-old San Jose startup that develops personalized AI systems and AI-native hardware devices, raised a $700+ million Series A round at a $6 billion post-money valuation. The deal was led by Parkway Venture Capital, with NVIDIA, Align Ventures, AMD Ventures, ARK Invest, Brookfield, Greycroft, Intel Capital, Prime Movers Lab, Qualcomm Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Tamarack Global also piling on. TechCrunch has more here.

Kalshi, an eight-year-old New York startup that operates a prediction market exchange where users trade contracts tied to the outcomes of elections, sports, and other real-world events, raised a $200 million Series F extension at a $22 billion valuation. Layer Global and G invested in the deal. Bloomberg has more here.

Modal Labs, a five-year-old San Francisco startup that develops serverless cloud infrastructure for running and scaling AI applications, raised a $355 million Series C round at a $4.65 billion post-money valuation. Redpoint Ventures and General Catalyst co-led the deal, with Accel and Menlo Ventures also taking stakes. Reuters has more here.

Moment, a four-year-old New York startup that applies AI to investment management workflows including portfolio construction, proposal generation, portfolio optimization, and unified managed account administration for wealth management firms, raised a $78 million Series C round led by Index Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz and Avra also participating. PYMNTS has more here.

Scapia, a four-year-old Bangalore startup that combines travel booking, co-branded credit cards, and UPI-based mobile payments into a consumer travel and rewards platform for Indian users, raised a $63 million round at a $500+ million post-money valuation. The deal was led by General Catalyst, with previous investors Peak XV Partners and Z47 also taking part. The company has raised a total of $126 million. TechCrunch has more here.

August Robotics, an 11-year-old Hong Kong company that develops autonomous robots for construction and industrial applications, raised a $30 million round led by Big Pi Ventures, with Blackbird, Skip Capital, Tanarra, Future Family Office, and GS Futures also opting in. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Muybridge, a six-year-old Norwegian startup that creates virtual camera perspectives for sports and live event broadcasts using arrays of 4K sensors and GPU-powered imaging systems instead of traditional camera infrastructure, raised a $16 million Series A round co-led by Investinor, Fairpoint, Idekapital, and RunwayFBU. Tech.eu has more here.

Pivot, a three-year-old Paris and New York startup that manages enterprise procurement workflows including sourcing, approvals, purchasing, invoicing, payments, budgeting, expenses, and spend reporting using AI-driven automation, raised a $40 million Series B round co-led by Notion Capital and Forestay, with Greyhound as well as existing investors Hedosophia, Visionaries Club, and Emblem also contributing. More here.

Quartermaster, a three-year-old startup based in Arlington, VA, that builds maritime sensing and analytics systems that combine onboard cameras, radios, and other ship-mounted sensors with real-time data analysis to monitor ocean activity and vessel operations, raised a $43 million Series A round co-led by First Round Capital and Quiet Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Checker, a two-year-old New York startup that enables financial institutions to access stablecoin liquidity, cross-border payments, treasury services, and digital asset infrastructure through a unified API layer, raised an $8 million seed round co-led by Galaxy Ventures, Al Mada Ventures, and Framework Ventures, with Bitso, Airtm, DFS Lab, Onigiri Capital, SNZ Capital, and Velocity also investing. More here.

Contrario, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI-powered recruiting software that automates hiring workflows for recruiters and employers, raised a $2.3 million seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners, with Inventum Ventures and Goodwater Capital also investing. Pulse 2.0 has more here.

CVRD Health, a one-year-old startup based in McLean, VA, that manages fringe benefit compliance, reimbursement tracking, and health benefit administration for federal government contractors, raised a $5 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures and including Distribution Ventures and Waterline Ventures. More here.

Efferon, a 10-year-old Austrian company that is developing blood purification devices for treating sepsis and systemic inflammation, raised a $2.9 million seed round led by an unnamed group of European private investors. More here.

Neurosoft Bioelectronics, a seven-year-old Geneva startup that develops soft, stretchable brain-computer interfaces that record neural activity from the surface of the brain without penetrating brain tissue, raised a $7.5 million seed round led by Skybound Venture Capital, with PL Capital, IAG Capital Partners, and Connecticut Innovations also chiming in. The company has raised a total of $20+ million. Medical Device Network has more here.

Quantum Bridge Technologies, a seven-year-old Toronto startup that develops quantum-safe cryptographic infrastructure that enables organizations to generate, distribute, and manage encryption keys across existing networks and security systems, raised an $8 million Series A round. Primo Capital was the deal lead, with Wayra, Cadenza VC, HPE, and Bacchus Venture Capital also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $16 million. More here.

Shatterdome Energy, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops AI-powered energy trading software for electricity markets, raised a $3.5 million pre-seed round led by Crucible Capital, with Transpose Platform and Entrepreneurs First also participating. More here.

Sorted Wallet, a five-year-old Hong Kong startup that builds lightweight crypto wallet and payment infrastructure designed for low-cost smartphones and feature phones in emerging markets, raised a $4.4 million seed round co-led by Tether and Gnosis, with Movement and Angel Invest Group also stepping up. Crypto News has more here.

StitcherAI, a one-year-old startup based in Redmond, WA, that injects real-time cloud, AI, SaaS, and infrastructure spending data into engineering and AI development workflows to help companies manage technology costs before they escalate, raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by Founders Co-op, with Sunshine Lake VC, Ascend, and Plug & Play Ventures also anteing up. GeekWire has more here.

Violet Therapeutics, a five-year-old startup based in Somerville, MA, that develops neurodegenerative disease therapies focused on preserving and repairing synaptic function by targeting neuroinflammatory signaling pathways in the brain, raised a $4.75 million seed round led by Lifespan Vision Ventures, with Dementia Discovery Fund, University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, Ono Venture Investment, and Mass General Brigham Ventures also joining in. More here.

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Boulder Ventures, a 31-year-old VC firm based in Boulder, CO, that invests in early-stage technology, telecom, and biotech startups, raised a $55 million ninth fund. More here.

The co-founders of Manus, a one-year-old Singapore-based AI startup that develops agentic AI software, are reportedly exploring raising about $1 billion from outside investors to help unwind Meta’s controversial $2 billion acquisition of the company after Chinese regulators demanded the deal be reversed. Bloomberg has more here.

Blockchain.com, a 15-year-old New York-based crypto company that provides cryptocurrency wallets and trading services, confidentially filed for an IPO. The company claims over 43 million users. More here.

Oura, an 11-year-old San Francisco-based wearable-tech company that makes health- and sleep-tracking smart rings, confidentially filed for an IPO after saying it is on track to surpass five million paid members and nearly $2 billion in annual sales next year. CNBC has more here.

President Donald Trump postponed signing an executive order that would have expanded federal oversight of AI companies, saying he did not want to slow the U.S. in its AI race with China amid internal White House divisions over how aggressively the fast-moving industry should be regulated. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing California agencies to explore sweeping labor-policy changes aimed at addressing potential mass job displacement from AI, including expanded retraining programs, subsidies for companies that retain workers, and even concepts like universal basic capital. The New York Times has more here.

Starbucks has scrapped an AI-powered inventory-counting tool across North America less than a year after deployment, after workers complained that the system frequently miscounted products and mislabeled items like milk types. Reuters has more here.

Researchers at Arizona State University say waste heat from data centers can raise temperatures in nearby neighborhoods by as much as four degrees Fahrenheit, with the effect extending up to roughly five city blocks downwind in parts of the Phoenix metro area. Tech Xplore has more here.

Apple said it will broadcast an entire Major League Soccer match shot exclusively on 15 iPhone 17 Pro devices. Variety has more here.

Hell Grind, a 95-minute fully AI-generated film produced by a San Francisco startup in just two weeks, is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The production cost $500,000, $400,000 of which went toward AI compute costs.

A Sydney swimmer accidentally became the breakout star of Australian Fashion Week after wandering onto a beach runway during a Commas resortwear show, waving to the crowd, stretching, and diving into the ocean as models continued around him.

Hypershell has released a $1,999 AI-powered hiking exoskeleton with twin hip motors capable of delivering up to 1,000 watts of assistive power.

James Bond has a new watch.

Honey made from honeybees and coffee blossoms.

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