Hi, welcome back. OpenAI just rolled out in-chat checkout for Etsy and soon Shopify, letting users buy without leaving a conversation and signaling a bigger fight with Google and Amazon over who controls online shopping discovery and payments. TechCrunch has more here.

In a sign of just how much times have changed, Swift, the global financial messaging network that banks use to move money across borders, is piloting a blockchain system with 30 banks, aiming to replace days-long transfers with near-instant, trackable payments. PYMNTS has more here.

The U.K. government is backstopping a £1.5 billion loan to Jaguar Land Rover after a hack shut down production for weeks, marking the first state rescue tied to a cyberattack and highlighting how vulnerable many companies still are to coordinated hacking attacks. TechCrunch has more here.

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Researchers at DeepSeek on Monday released a new experimental model called V3.2-exp, designed to have dramatically lower inference costs when used in long-context operations. DeepSeek announced the model with a post on Hugging Face, also posting a linked academic paper on GitHub.

The most important feature of the new model is called DeepSeek Sparse Attention, an intricate system described in detail in the diagram below. In essence, the system uses a module called a “lightning indexer” to prioritize specific excerpts from the context window. After that, a separate system called a “fine-grained token selection system” chooses specific tokens from within those excerpts to load into the module’s limited attention window. Taken together, they allow the Sparse Attention models to operate over long portions of context with comparatively small server loads.

For long-context operations, the benefits of the system are significant. Preliminary testing by DeepSeek found that the price of a simple API call could be reduced by as much as half in long-context situations. Further testing will be required to build a more robust assessment, but because the model is open-weight and freely available on Hugging Face, it won’t be long before third-party tests can assess the claims made in the paper.

Black Forest Labs, a one-year-old German startup that develops generative AI models for creating and editing images, is in talks to raise up to $300 million at a $4 billion valuation, with Andreessen Horowitz as a potential lead. Tech Funding News has more here.

Flying Tulip, a New York startup founded this year that runs an on-chain exchange offering stablecoin, trading, derivatives, options, and insurance in a single system, raised a $200 million private round at a $1 billion token valuation. Investors included Brevan Howard Digital, CoinFund, FalconX, Hypersphere, Lemniscap, Nascent, Republic Digital, Selini, Sigil Fund, Susquehanna Crypto, Tioga Capital, and Virtuals Protocol. NFTgators has more here.

Modal, a four-year-old New York startup that provides cloud infrastructure built for AI workloads, raised an $87 million Series B round at a $1.1 billion valuation. The deal was led by Lux Capital. The company has raised a total of $111 million. More here.

Neptune Robotics, a six-year-old Singapore startup that builds underwater robots to clean ship hulls, raised a $52 million Series B round. Granite Asia was the deal lead, with NYK Line also pitching in. More here.

Alex, an 18-month-old San Francisco startup that uses AI to conduct initial job interviews, raised a $17 million Series A round led by Peak XV Partners, with Y Combinator and Uncorrelated Ventures also joining in. TechCrunch has more here.

Alvys, a five-year-old San Diego startup that automates dispatch, load tracking, billing, and other freight operations for carriers and brokers, raised a $40 million Series B round led by RTP Global, with Alpha Square Group, Titanium Ventures, Picus Capital, and Bonfire Ventures also participating. The company has raised a total of $77 million. FreightWaves has more here.

Anything, a four-year-old San Francisco startup that lets users build fully functional mobile and web apps with natural language prompts, raised an $11 million Series A round at a $100 million valuation. The deal was led by Footwork, with additional participation from M13. The company has raised a total of $19.5 million. Tech Funding News has more here.

Gain, a Tel Aviv startup that develops AI agents to handle procurement and operational workflows end-to-end, raised a $12 million seed round led by The Garage, with investors including BlueRed Partners and Bazan Group. CTech has more here.

GoodFit, a five-year-old London startup that provides data-driven software to help companies improve go-to-market execution, raised a $13 million Series A round led by Notion Capital, with Salica Investments, Inovia Capital, Robin Capital, Common Magic, and Andrena Ventures also investing. Tech Funding News has more here.

MyEdSpace, a three-year-old London startup that provides live online classes taught by top UK teachers, raised a $15 million Series A round. White Star Capital led the transaction, with Educapital, Emerge, Active Partners, and Coalition Capital also contributing. EU-Startups has more here.

OXCCU, a four-year-old startup based in Oxford, England, that converts waste carbon and green hydrogen into low-cost sustainable aviation fuel, raised a $28 million Series B round from Orlen VC, Safran Corporate Ventures, IAGi Ventures, Hostplus, and TCVC as well as previous investors Clean Energy Ventures, IP Group/Kiko Ventures, Aramco Ventures, Eni Next, Braavos Capital, and the University of Oxford. ESG Today has more here.

Paid, a one-year-old startup that provides software for businesses to track the costs of AI agents and charge customers based on the results those agents deliver, raised a $21.6 million seed round at a $100+ million valuation, according to TechCrunch. The deal was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with FUSE and EQT Ventures also pitching in. The company has raised a total of $33.3 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Anode, a San Francisco startup founded this year that provides mobile battery microgrids as an alternative to diesel generators for temporary power, raised a $9 million seed round led by Eclipse. TechCrunch has more here.

Area 2 Farms, a five-year-old startup based in Arlington, VA, that builds local soil-based urban farms to shorten supply chains and provide fresh produce to nearby communities, raised a $9 million round co-led by Slow Ventures and Seven Seven Six, with ANIMO Ventures also taking part. More here.

Maximor, a three-year-old New York startup that helps mid-market and enterprise finance teams automate accounting and reporting with AI, raised a $9 million seed round led by Foundation Capital and including Gaia Ventures and Boldcap. CityBiz has more here.

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In 2017, London-based Notion Capital was one of the first in Europe to close an opportunities fund to provide its portfolio companies with follow-on capital. Now, it has closed a $130 million growth fund, nearly twice the size of its previous one, that will also invest outside of its portfolio, TechCrunch reports. More here.

Gabriel Jarrosson, a YouTuber-turned-VC, has parlayed his YC-only investment thesis into Lobster Capital, which just announced the close of its $12 million debut fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Wealthfront, a 17-year-old Palo Alto company that offers automated investment portfolios and high-yield cash accounts, has filed to go public after reporting $339 million in revenue and $123 million in profit over the past year, with $88 billion in assets under management and plans to expand into mortgages. Forbes has more here.

Charlie Javice, the 33-year-old founder of Frank, a student financial aid startup bought by JPMorgan for $175 million, was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay more than $300 million for fabricating millions of users in order to secure the deal. TechCrunch has more here.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is shutting down Sunshine after seven bumpy years and rolling its assets and staff into her new AI venture, Dazzle, which aims to build a next-generation personal assistant. Wired has more here.

California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed the nation’s first AI safety law requiring major developers to disclose protocols and report incidents, a move that could set the template for a potential federal standard. TechCrunch has more here.

Google DeepMind, Meta, and Nvidia are racing to build “world models” that learn from video and robotic data to understand the physical world, a shift that could push AI beyond the limits of language models and set the stage for breakthroughs in robotics, gaming, and eventually superintelligence. The Financial Times has more here.

OpenAI’s $300 billion Oracle deal underscores just how stretched the AI boom has become, with Oracle already carrying a 450% debt-to-equity ratio and both companies betting on debt-fueled data center buildouts that will only pay off if OpenAI somehow grows from $12 billion to more than $300 billion in annual revenue by 2030. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

AI startups are juicing “ARR” with pilots, one-off deals, and wishful math to keep up with peers flaunting $100 million runs, a throwback to bubble-era accounting tricks that could leave founders and their backers most exposed when the music stops. Fortune has more here.

The Trump administration’s Energy Department has barred staff from using terms like “climate change,” “sustainability,” and even “emissions,” underscoring a political push to sideline renewables just as global investment in clean energy hits record highs. TechCrunch has more here.

Chongqing’s cyberpunk skyline is turning the once-overlooked megacity into China’s new must-see, with overnight visitors hitting 120 million last year, up 17%. The Wall Street Journal has more here.

Instructions for your high-end Italian espresso machine.

Auto designer Henrik Fisker, whose car company imploded last year, has re-listed his Hollywood Hills mansion for $29 million, with the 11,800-square-foot Bird Streets home offering six bedrooms, seven baths, a soaring great room with a two-way fireplace, a glass-walled dining room, a wellness center with sauna and cold plunge, a media and poker lounge, a six-car garage, and an infinity pool overlooking the city and ocean.

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