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OpenAI said today that it is teaming up with Oracle and SoftBank to build five new U.S. data centers under its Stargate project, pushing planned capacity to seven gigawatts, or enough energy to power more than five million homes. TechCrunch has more here.

Jaguar Land Rover announced today that its UK factories will remain shut until at least October 1 following a September cyberattack, extending a three-week shutdown that has suppliers warning of potential bankruptcies. TechCrunch has more here.

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Tim Chen, solo VC at his firm Essence VC, said he just closed his fourth fund, a fresh $41 million, without even trying. Limited partner investors were so eager to invest, they preempted it, he told TechCrunch. He didn’t even have time to generate a pitch deck. 

A $41 million raise might not sound like much in this age of multibillion-dollar venture firms and solo VCs like Jack Altman (who just raised his second giant fund, at $275 million). But that’s mainly because Chen didn’t want to take on more. It’s an upsize from Chen’s 2022 third fund of $27 million (which was up from his $5 million second and $1 million first fund). 

Chen hadn’t begun new fundraising activity because, until last month, he was still investing out of his third fund, which has now wrapped. But limited partner investors had begun whispering about him amongst themselves after one of his portfolio companies from his second round, Tabular, was acquired by Databricks for about $2.2 billion in 2024. 

“That basically, pretty much returned our whole fund,” Chen told TechCrunch, and put him “on the map,” as he described. Suddenly, LPs were hearing his name everywhere: on cap tables, mentioned by other VCs, founders quoting his advice. They wanted in. 

In part, that’s because Chen specializes in developer-tool and infrastructure startups at the earliest stages, a segment growing in popularity in this age of AI. 

Chen cut his teeth as a software engineer, earning street cred from his time as one of the earliest employees at Mesosphere, a one-time hot open source cloud infrastructure startup backed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Microsoft; then he co-founded an “AIOps” startup called Hyperpilot and sold it in an acqui-hire to Cloudera in 2018.  

AusperBio, a six-year-old San Francisco startup that develops therapies for chronic hepatitis B and other conditions, raised a $63 million Series B2 round led by Qiming Venture Partners, with HanKang Capital, CDH Investments, YuanBio Venture Capital, Sherpa Capital, and Genesis Capital also investing. Clinical Trials Arena has more here.

Auterion, an eight-year-old startup based in Arlington, VA, that develops AI-enabled software to coordinate autonomous drones and defense systems, raised a $130 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Lakestar, Mosaic Ventures, and Costanoa Ventures also pitching in. DroneLife has more here.

Avenzo Therapeutics, a three-year-old San Diego startup that develops oncology drug candidates, raised a $60 million Series B round co-led by OrbiMed and SR One and including Longwood Fund as well as previous investors Foresite Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, Surveyor Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Deep Track Capital, Sofinnova Investments, Sands Capital, INCE Capital, TF Capital, Delos Capital, and Quan Capital. The company has raised a total of $446 million. More here.

Empower Semiconductor, an eight-year-old startup based in San Jose, CA, that develops power management chips for servers and AI processors, raised a $140+ million Series D round. Fidelity was the lead investor, with CapitalG, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Maverick Silicon, Atreides Management, Socratic Partners, Knollwood, and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority also taking part. The company has raised a total of $200+ million. SiliconANGLE has more here.

Filevine, an 11-year-old Salt Lake City company that helps legal teams manage work and integrate AI into daily operations, raised a total of $400 million across two rounds co-led by Insight Partners, Accel, and Halo Fund, with previous investors Meritech, Stepstone, Run Ventures, and Album Ventures also participating. More here.

Fnality, a London company that develops blockchain-based settlement systems for wholesale payments, raised a $136 million Series C round co-led by Bank of America, Citi, KBC Group, Temasek, Tradeweb, and WisdomTree, with previous investors Goldman Sachs, Santander, Barclays, and UBS also contributing. Cointelegraph has more here.

Judi Health (fka Capital Rx), an eight-year-old New York startup that develops software to manage pharmacy and medical claims for employers and health plans, raised a $252 million Series F round at a $3.25 billion post-money valuation, more than double its valuation in its previous funding last year. The deal was co-led by Wellington Management and General Catalyst, with Generation Investment Management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, 9Yards Capital, B Capital, Edison Partners, Prime Health Investments, and Transformation Capital also piling on. The company has raised a total of $607 million. Forbes has more here.

Nxtfood, a six-year-old French startup that makes plant-based meat alternatives from locally grown wheat and pea proteins, raised a $57.9 million Series A round from Clay Capital and IRD Invest as well as previous investors Creadev and Roquette Ventures. The company has raised a total of $70 million. Green Queen Media has more here.

Tether Holdings, a 13-year-old El Salvador company that issues the world’s largest stablecoin, is in talks to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion in a private placement that could value it at around $500 billion. Bloomberg has the scoop here.

Until Labs, a one-year-old San Francisco startup that develops organ cryopreservation technology, raised a $58 million Series A round led by Founders Fund, with Lux Capital and Field Ventures also stepping up. More here.

Brale, a three-year-old startup based in Des Moines, IA, that develops stablecoin infrastructure, raised a $30 million Series A round led by Lightspeed, with NEA, Refract, The FinTech Fund, and Foundation Capital also engaging. More here.

Morse Micro, a nine-year-old Sydney startup that develops Wi-Fi HaLow semiconductor chips for long-range, low-power IoT connectivity, raised a $59 million Series C round led by MegaChips, with investors including National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, Blackbird, Main Sequence, Uniseed, Startmate, Hostplus, NGS, and UniSuper. The company has raised a total of $193+ million. More here.

Rocket, an Indian startup founded this year that is building a vibe-coding platform, raised a $15 million seed round led by Salesforce Ventures, with Accel and Together Fund also chipping in. TechCrunch has more here.

Telo, a three-year-old startup based in San Carlos, CA, that makes compact electric pickup trucks designed for cities, raised a $20 million Series A round co-led by Yves Béhar and Marc Tarpenning, with additional support from Marc Benioff, TO VC, E12 Ventures, and Neo. TechCrunch has more here.

Alchemy, a 12-year-old company based in Kitchener, Canada, that develops nanotechnology materials for defense and automotive applications, raised a $6 million round. Investors included NameSilo Technologies, Pathfinder Asset Management, and Pembroke Management. More here.

Alloy, a Sydney startup founded this year that helps robotics companies manage and analyze the massive amounts of data their machines generate, raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by Blackbird Ventures, with Airtree Ventures, Xtal Ventures, and Skip Capital also investing. TechCrunch has more here.

Argyle, a seven-year-old New York startup that provides direct-source income, employment, and asset verifications, raised a round of an undisclosed amount. The deal was led by Mastercard, with Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire also taking part. More here.

Catena, a one-year-old New York startup that provides a universal API to connect and standardize fragmented freight and telematics data, raised a $5 million seed round led by Floating Point, with Shaper Capital, Teamworthy, Plug and Play, SpringTime Ventures, Liquid 2, Blue Moon, and Blue Impact Supply Chain Ventures also opting in. The company has raised a total of $8 million. FreightWaves has more here.

Forgent AI, a Berlin startup founded this year that uses AI to help businesses bid more effectively on public sector contracts, raised a $5.1 million pre-seed round led by Cherry Ventures. Tech.eu has more here.

Predicti, a three-year-old Copenhagen startup that develops predictive analytics tools for banks and insurers, raised a $4.2 million seed round. TX Ventures and Dreamcraft Ventures co-led the deal, with Plug and Play Tech Center also participating. Vestbee has more here.

Prosper AI, a New York startup that builds voice AI agents to automate healthcare administrative tasks like scheduling, benefits verification, and claims follow-ups, raised a $5 million seed round led by Emergence Capital, with Y Combinator, CRV, and Company Ventures also chiming in. Forbes has more here.

Testkube, a two-year-old New York startup that helps developers and enterprises run continuous software tests at scale, raised an $8 million Series A round co-led by previous investors Ratmir Timashev and Insight Partners. More here.

Tilt, a one-year-old Miami startup that lets investors and advisors build custom index funds with automated tax optimization, raised a $7.1 million seed round co-led by Portage and Lerer Hippeau. Refresh Miami has more here.

Veezoo, a nine-year-old Zurich startup that helps businesses answer data questions through its agentic analytics platform, raised a $5.9 million Series A round. ACE Ventures was the deal lead. Silicon Canals has more here.

Wexler.ai, a two-year-old London startup that uses AI to analyze facts and flag inconsistencies in complex litigation, raised a $5.3 million seed round led by Pear VC, with Seedcamp and The LegalTech Fund as well as previous investor Myriad Venture Partners also anteing up. More here.

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Archetype, a four-year-old New York VC firm that backs early-stage crypto startups building decentralized infrastructure and applications, raised $100+ million for its third fund. The firm’s past investments include Privy, Monad, Hut 8, Farcaster, Ritual, and Relay. The Block has more here.

Stripe is in talks to buy back shares from investors at a $106.7 billion valuation, a move that gives VCs liquidity while signaling the Collison brothers still have no appetite for an IPO. Axios has the scoop here.

Beta Technologies, an eight-year-old Vermont startup that makes electric aircraft, will file to go public by the end of this year, according to a report in The Air Current. The company has raised almost $2 billion from investors like TPG Rise Climate, Fidelity, and Qatar Investment Authority. More here.

The New York Times goes deep into the media machinations of Larry Ellison, reporting that the 81-year-old Oracle billionaire is now angling to control a portfolio spanning social media (TikTok), broadcast television (CBS), cable television (CNN), and motion pictures (Paramount and Warner). More here.

TechCrunch profiles California state senator Scott Wiener, whose bill, SB 53, requires new levels of AI transparency and could serve as a test for how far states can go in regulating Big Tech. More here.

CNBC goes behind the scenes on the OpenAI-Nvidia deal, detailing how Sam Altman and Jensen Huang hammered out a $100 billion pact during late-night calls and Trump’s U.K. state visit, cementing Nvidia as OpenAI’s “preferred” partner while raising questions about Microsoft’s role, Oracle’s $300 billion compute contract, and whether Altman will eventually spin up a rival cloud. More here.

Stripe is in talks to buy back shares from investors at a $106.7 billion valuation, a move that gives VCs liquidity while signaling the Collison brothers still have no appetite for an IPO. Axios has the scoop here.

The Harvard Business Review reports that companies rushing to adopt generative AI are drowning in “workslop,” shiny but shallow output that merely passes the buck, leaving 95% of firms with no ROI, billions in lost productivity, and rising distrust among coworkers. More here.

Big-name concert cameos are now practically required in live music, with stars from Bruce Springsteen to Penélope Cruz popping up onstage as artists chase viral moments that turn pricey concert tickets into one-of-a-kind experiences.

French presidents get stuck in New York City traffic, too.

Fat Bear Week is back!

This $4.4 million Scottish castle only an hour from Edinburgh sits on 160 acres and comes with its very own railroad.

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