Paramount Skydance is making a hostile all-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery at a $108.4 billion valuation, arguing its offer delivers more value and faces fewer regulatory hurdles than Netflix’s competing deal. CNBC has more here.

President Trump said today he will issue a “ONE RULE” executive order to preempt state AI regulations, and a leaked Justice Department draft indicates it could let the U.S. sue states and cut funding to those with laws deemed too restrictive. TechCrunch has more here.

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By Connie Loizos

A year after being pushed out of Intel, Pat Gelsinger is still waking up at 4 a.m., still in the thick of the semiconductor wars — just on a different battlefield. Now a general partner at venture firm Playground Global, he’s working with 10 startups. But one portfolio company has captured an outsized share of his attention: xLight, a semiconductor startup that last Monday announced it has struck a preliminary deal for up to $150 million from the U.S. Commerce Department, with the government set to become a meaningful shareholder.

It’s a nice feather in the cap of Gelsinger, who spent 35 years across two stints at Intel before the board showed him the door late last year owing to a lack of confidence in his turnaround plans. But the xLight deal is also shining a spotlight on a trend that’s making people in Silicon Valley quietly uncomfortable: the Trump administration taking equity stakes in strategically important companies.

“What the hell happened to free enterprise?” California Governor Gavin Newsom asked at a speaking event last week, capturing the unease that’s rippling through an industry that has long prided itself on its free-market principles.

Speaking at one of TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC events at Playground Global, Gelsinger — who is xLight’s executive chairman — seemed unbothered by the philosophical debate. He’s more focused on his bet that xLight can solve what he sees as the semiconductor industry’s biggest bottleneck: lithography, the process of etching microscopic patterns onto silicon wafers. The startup is developing massive “free electron lasers” powered by particle accelerators that could revolutionize chip manufacturing. If the technology works at scale, that is.

“You know, I have this long-term mission to continue to see Moore’s Law in the semiconductor industry,” Gelsinger said, referencing the decades-old principle that computing power should double every two years. “We think this is the technology that will wake up Moore’s Law.”

The xLight deal is the first Chips and Science Act award under Trump’s second term, using funding earmarked for early-stage companies with promising technologies. Notably, the deal is currently at the letter of intent stage, meaning it’s not finalized and details could still change. When pressed on whether the funding could end up being double the announced amount — or potentially not materialize at all — Gelsinger was candid.

“We’ve agreed in principle on the terms, but like any of these contracts, there’s still work to get done,” he said.

Airwallex, a ten-year-old Singapore company that provides cross-border banking and multicurrency payment services for businesses, raised a $330 million round at an $8 billion valuation. Investors included T Rowe Price and Robinhood Ventures. The Financial Times has more here.

Excelsior Sciences, a two-year-old New York startup that uses AI and machine-executable chemistry to accelerate small-molecule discovery and manufacturing, raised a $70 million round. Deerfield Management, Khosla Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Cornucopian Capital, Eli Lilly, Illinois Ventures, and MIT invested in the round. In addition, New York's Empire State Development provided the company with a $25 million grant. Reuters has more here.

Skild AI, a two-year-old San Francisco startup that develops general-purpose AI models for robots, is reportedly in talks to raise $1+ billion at a $14 billion valuation as SoftBank and Nvidia angle to join a funding wave reshaping humanoid robotics. The company raised a $500 million Series B earlier this year at a $4.7 billion valuation. Reuters has more here.

Unconventional AI, a two-month-old startup that is developing a more energy-efficient computer for AI, raised a $475 million seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Lux Capital, DCVC, Databricks, Jeff Bezos, and founder Naveen Rao also stepping up. Bloomberg has more here.

Oxzo, a 16-year-old company based in Santiago, Chile, that develops oxygenation technologies for aquaculture, raised a $25 million round led by S2G Investments. More here.

Quanta, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that provides an accounting platform for startup finances, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Accel, with Operator Collective, Naval Ravikant, Designer Fund, and Basecase also contributing. More here.

Quilt, a three-year-old startup based in Redwood City, CA, that develops customizable heat pumps, raised a $20 million Series B round co-led by Energy Impact Partners and Galvanize, with Alumni Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Incite Ventures, and Lowercarbon Capital also taking part. TechCrunch has more here.

Scowtt, a one-year-old Seattle startup that uses first-party CRM data to improve paid advertising performance, raised a $12 million Series A round led by Inspired Capital, with LiveRamp Ventures, Angeles Investors, and Angeles Ventures also investing. GeekWire has more here.

Corma, a three-year-old Paris startup that helps IT teams monitor SaaS licenses, access, and usage across their software stack, raised a $3.8 million seed round led by XTX Ventures, with Tuesday Capital, Kima Ventures, 50 Partners, and Olympe Capital also digging in. More here.

Melt&Marble, a company based in Gothenburg, Sweden, that uses precision fermentation to produce designer fats for personal care and food applications, raised an $8.1 million Series A round led by Industrifonden, with the EIC Fund, Beiersdorf, Valio, Chalmers Ventures, and Catalyze Capital also pitching in. Vestbee has more here.

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Tiger Global, the investor that spurred the VC bull market of 2020-2021, is reportedly raising a fresh $2.2 billion fund. The firm sent a letter to potential limited partners, according to a copy obtained by CNBC, seeking to raise the cash for a vehicle called Private Investment Partners 17 (PIP 17). The letter also promises a more humble approach than during the 2021 bull-market madness. TechCrunch has more here.

Rostra, a one-year-old San Francisco advisory firm founded by well-known PR maven Lulu Cheng Meservey that focuses on strategic communications for tech founders, raised its first fund in the amount of $40 million. Axios has more here.

President Trump has pledged to “be involved” in the battle between Netflix and Paramount Skydance to buy Warner Bros. The New York TImes has more here.

Palantir is using a viral interview with CEO Alex Karp in which Karp fidgeted visibly and spoke faster than he could articulate his thoughts to launch a Neurodivergent Fellowship that casts such traits as strengths. Mashable has more here.

Stablecoins are emerging as a preferred tool for laundering money and evading sanctions, letting criminals and barred actors convert cash into digital dollars, route it through offshore intermediaries, and even generate anonymous Visa cards in ways that bypass traditional financial controls. The New York Times has more here.

Uber is launching a new data product called Uber Intelligence that lets brands blend their customer data with Uber’s behavioral signals. Business Insider has more here.

OpenAI and Instacart are deepening their partnership by launching an in-chat grocery shopping experience that taps into the rise of agentic commerce and gives OpenAI a new revenue stream through small merchant fees as AI-driven shopping accelerates. TechCrunch has more here.

A San Francisco VC firm organized an etiquette boot camp that drilled founders in everything from sharper small talk to caviar-bump protocol. The Washington Post has more here.

Fantasy football leagues are escalating last-place punishments into elaborate public shaming rituals, with losers facing everything from wearing humiliating outfits and serving drinks to displaying embarrassing portraits at home. For a full year.

Vintage trailer hotels are booming as travelers flock to upcycled Airstream stays from Oregon’s wine country to redwood-ringed sites in California. Cool Material has more here.

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